Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 821

Binding (9)

Lenok’s question about the origins of Naimel, the ancient spirit who awakened in the underground levels of Yorta, hung in the air.

However, Naimel did not immediately answer. Instead, she turned her cold gaze from Lenok to Oris.

“Oris Eisen, would you mind stepping aside for a moment?”

“What?”

“I have no intention of harming this person, but it seems there are some things I need to discuss with him privately.”

“……”

Naimel spoke, her face expressionless as she stared at Lenok’s obsidian mask.

“It’s a personal matter. It doesn’t seem to have much to do with the affairs of Yorta.”

“…How annoying. Does it have something to do with the name you abandoned?”

Even while grumbling, Oris obediently rose from his seat, following Naimel’s words.

Oris glanced back at Lenok and spoke as if giving a warning.

“I’ve already told the other spirits, but he’s a descendant of Onion. You should refrain from laying a hand on him carelessly.”

“Didn’t we already decide on this person’s fate during the festival?”

Naimel replied, her gaze fixed on Lenok.

“Don’t worry. What you fear will not happen.”

“Damn it, those guys who were locked up deep in the tower’s basement are never trustworthy…”

Silence fell as Oris grumbled and left the room.

Naimel, who had been silently watching Lenok, who was bound by the chains of mist and unable to move, spoke.

“His role was significant in postponing your judgment at the festival. It seems you’ve earned his favor.”

“He pretends not to, but he thinks he owes me a debt.”

Lenok replied nonchalantly.

“He’s too honest to stand above anyone. If you plan to give him power in Yorta, you’ll have to help him well.”

“There’s no reason for you to worry about that-”

“Or should we talk about your origins properly now?”

Lenok cut off Naimel’s words immediately and turned his gaze.

“Now that we know you’re from the Order, there’s no need to confirm it again.”

“……”

Lenok asked.

“Were you one of the souls who held the position of a priestess in the Order?”

The sense of incongruity that Lenok had felt since Naimel first appeared in this place was now coming into focus.

The intense sense of familiarity he felt from her presence and atmosphere was clearly similar to that of Priestess Seyna Naidri.

It wasn’t just a simple hunch or a baseless assumption based on vague suspicion.

The Order’s stigma [a mark symbolizing the authority of a high priest], which he had received from Seyna, was reacting to Naimel.

That was clear evidence that Naimel was connected to a high-ranking member of the Order, specifically a priestess.

However, conversely, Naimel had not noticed that Lenok possessed the stigma.

That was why Lenok suspected that Naimel was not someone who had relinquished the position of priestess.

Knowing that the position of priestess was passed down, it was natural for Lenok to think that Naimel had inherited that lineage.

Furthermore, if such a soul had taken root in Yorta, it wouldn’t be strange for her to become a high-ranking military commander like a spirit.

“The head of the Order I know isn’t the kind of person who would let his followers go without any compensation.”

Naimel’s shoulders flinched at Lenok’s casual mention of the head of the Order.

Lenok carefully observed Naimel’s expression and asked.

“If you were truly a priestess of the Order, how did you abandon the teachings and become a spirit in Yorta?”

“……”

“No, why did you abandon the Order and side with Yorta?”

The followers of the Order were all blindly devoted to the head of the Order, believing and following him without question.

Even Seyna, who had maintained a neutral stance on the teachings, had never wavered in her faith for a single moment.

However, Naimel, who stood before Lenok now, was a being who had left the Order and become a spirit in Yorta.

What had made her do that, and how was it even possible?

As soon as he saw her, Lenok knew what he had to ask.

“…You seem to know a great deal about the Order.”

Naimel closed her eyes, her voice trembling.

Was it a delusion that even that small gesture felt similar to Seyna’s, as Lenok remembered her?

Naimel, who quickly calmed her agitation, opened her mouth towards Lenok.

“There are few outsiders who know so accurately about the sacredness and authority given to priestesses, and the rules of the Order…”

“……”

“However, there is one thing you are mistaken about.”

Naimel spoke slowly, opening her eyes.

“I am not a priestess of the Order. To be precise, I am one of the substitutes who were prepared to become a priestess.”

“A substitute?”

“During the height of the Night Parade of a Myriad Ghosts [a ritual in Yorta], the Order and Yorta made a deal regarding the body of the Ascended.”

Naimel briefly explained the past secret.

“It was decided that the Order would assist in the Night Parade ritual in exchange for keeping a sacred artifact in the Abyss.”

“……”

“I was one of the souls chosen to assist in the ritual and offered to the Night Parade.”

Not someone who had officially received the position of priestess, but a candidate who had been prepared to replace her.

But instead of becoming a priestess, she was a being offered to Yorta to assist in the Night Parade ritual.

It was ironic.

Seyna Naidri, who had officially inherited the position of priestess, had sacrificed herself and been annihilated.

While Naimel, who had been offered to the Night Parade ritual, still maintained her existence as a spirit.

Should he be surprised that even a candidate who had not ascended to the position of priestess had become such a powerful spirit?

Or should he be satisfied with realizing that there were more candidates to become the new priestess in place of Seyna?

“Then, are you still a follower of the Order’s teachings?”

“…I don’t know.”

Naimel turned her gaze away with a complex expression.

“I have no regrets about being offered to Yorta and participating in the Night Parade. Even after distancing myself from the teachings, I did my best to fulfill my mission.”

“……”

“But the moment the Night Parade failed and I was forced to make a choice… I felt the faith within me wavering.”

Naimel, avoiding Lenok’s gaze, murmured as if confessing.

“I couldn’t understand what was valuable at the point when I couldn’t fully follow him or achieve the Night Parade.”

Although it hadn’t started with her own will, she had ended up existing as an independent entity as her faith in the Order wavered.

While Lenok was thinking about that fact, Naimel asked back.

“It seems you have already met a priestess of the Order. Did you overlap me with her and guess my origins?”

“The priestess knew that the Soul Calming Hall was trying to use the remains of the Ascended for their own purposes and tried to stop them.”

Lenok replied.

“She said she couldn’t forgive them for trying to obtain the body of the Ascended and increase Yorta’s power.”

“I see… I heard about what the Soul Calming Hall was plotting from the Grand Inquisitor.”

Naimel hesitated and asked.

“Where is she now? If she is still near Yorta, even now-”

“The priestess is dead.”

“……”

Lenok spoke quietly to the silent Naimel.

“She sacrificed herself in the collapsing sanctuary of the Abyss and was completely annihilated.”

“Annihilation…”

Naimel was speechless and raised her gaze.

“She has already achieved the ending I had long desired and left this world.”

“……”

“Perhaps that is the difference between me, who was just a mere substitute.”

What meaning did Seyna Naidri’s choice at the last moment hold?

What was clear was that she had made the decision herself and had tied up the loose ends without any regrets.

Was Naimel, who had heard of Seyna’s end, also honoring her while thinking similar thoughts as Lenok?

However, instead of falling into sentimentality, Lenok immediately raised himself halfway and spoke again.

“There is one thing I want to ask about the Order.”

He had brought up Naimel’s origins and explained the priestess’s end not to indulge in sentimentality.

“If you were offered to the Night Parade as a member of the Order, you would know in what direction the head of the Order’s power worked during that process.”

“……”

“Before the body of the Harbinger was placed in the sanctuary of the Abyss, I want to know where the head of the Order left his power in this city.”

There was a secret he didn’t know even after facing the Harbinger’s body in the sanctuary of the Abyss and looking into his memories.

“You are making a request that I cannot fulfill.”

Naimel shook her head with a hazy expression.

“I am not a worthless soul who has abandoned the Order and the Night Parade, nor am I someone who doesn’t know what is right. How can you ask me-”

The moment Naimel’s gaze reached the stigma shining on Lenok’s wrist, she stopped speaking, looking troubled.

Lenok snapped his fingers, looking at Naimel’s expressionless face.

Clang!!

As if by a lie, Lenok’s two hands were released from the chains and became free.

“I’ll ask again.”

Lenok, who had risen from the bed, walked towards Naimel and asked.

“Do you have any idea where it might be?”

“…This is impossible.”

Naimel, looking at Lenok’s stigma with a pale face, spoke with difficulty.

“The authority of a priestess cannot be passed down in this way, how…!!”

“Do you have any idea where it might be?”

“……”

Lenok’s question was a blatant declaration that he would escape from this place and search Yorta further.

However, instead of dissuading or stopping Lenok, Naimel nodded with a complex expression.

“There is a ritual site that the Order’s members used. The only ruins that the Order’s hand reached at the time-”

“The location?”

“…The 19th underground level of Yorta.”

Naimel answered with a small sigh.

“It is a crematorium where the meritorious and the traitors of Yorta were gathered and burned alive.”

* * *

Krrrrrr!

Deep within the Headrain River.

A massive ghost ship was sinking, twisting and turning, beneath the dark riverbed where the water pressure was crushing down.

Unlike when Lenok first obtained it, the ship’s form was quite worn, damaged, and broken.

Lenok shook his head, looking at the mast that was broken in half and dangling.

“…I’ll have to try to repair it separately when I get back.”

Onion’s ship was useful in many ways, but since it was an item he had obtained under Victor’s identity, he had to be careful when using it.

It would be relatively safer for Lenok to handle the repair of the damaged ship himself rather than entrusting it to someone else.

As soon as Lenok finished speaking, Davi peeked out as if he had been waiting.

[Shall I download the ship parts procurement catalog?]

“No. The specifications are too old, so it won’t be compatible with modern manuals.”

Lenok said, glancing around the ship.

Even after all sorts of parts were damaged and deteriorated, the ship’s functions themselves were largely intact.

The fact that it could still sail perfectly even after the mast was broken in half was probably due to the power built into the ship.

The part that Lenok had to look at and fix was that very part.

“It would be easier if I could properly master the spirit command technique, but there’s no progress at all…”

The sight of the spirit soldiers hanging from the bow of the ship, pulling it deep into the water.

However, unlike the ghost sharks that Oris had controlled, the spirit soldiers that Lenok was manipulating were struggling and unable to use their power.

[Ughhhhh…]

Because the spirit command technique that Lenok was using was at a crude level, the spirit soldiers who followed his will were also weak spirits.

The problem was that the reason he had to master the spirit command technique was not just to transport the ship.

Immediately after the battle with the Harbinger, Lenok’s avatar, which had been placed in a pure white coffin, had fallen asleep.

That was because the avatar had stopped moving and had fallen into a state of suspended animation.

‘I thought there would be a backlash from turning the Apostle Selection Ritual to the avatar…’

With the Self-Generating Domain, the Gwangramu Palace, deployed, the only way to extract the avatar that was dwelling in the Harbinger’s body and obtain the power of the Kwon-sa was that method.

However, it was unexpected that Lenok’s avatar, who had become an apostle through the selection ritual, was trapped in a pure white coffin that it had created itself and was not moving.

The remaining methods were to directly manipulate it with a manipulation technique or to forcibly awaken the avatar through spirit command.

To find a solution, he had to first awaken the avatar and synchronize it with himself again.

The avatar was derived from Lenok’s own existence, not anyone else’s. Even if it had been altered by being selected as an apostle, its essence would never change.

Above all, Lenok had no intention of letting anyone else take the avatar he had finally obtained.

‘Having the avatar will finally free me from the problem of coexisting identities.’

Unlike Onion’s ghost ship, the avatar could be used in various ways regardless of identity, so he couldn’t give it up even more.

Lenok thought so and tried to manipulate the spirit soldiers hanging from the bow of the ship to pull the ship deeper into the water.

[Uuuuuu…]

The spirit soldiers only twisted their bodies, letting out weak groans, and did not properly follow Lenok’s orders.

“…It feels very different from when I learned the knack before.”

Lenok scratched his cheek, looking embarrassed.

“It was very easy to copy the knack of the spirit command and apply it to other techniques, but the technique itself is not being learned well.”

After gaining the conviction that mastering the spirit command technique would organically connect the gains Lenok had made.

Lenok had received guidance on the knack of the spirit command technique several times with Oris’s help, but he couldn’t use the spirit command technique at all.

He had quickly understood the principles and knack of the technique itself, but the spirit soldiers were not following Lenok’s will.

“Look. Like this right now…”

The moment Lenok said that and reached out his hand towards the white ghosts swimming below the Headrain River.

The white ghosts, who had been floating below the river with scythes, were terrified and began to flee in a hurry.

[H, Haaaaaak!! Leave me alone!!]

[If I have done anything wrong, I apologize, please…!!]

“……”

The spirit soldiers were extremely afraid of being placed under Lenok’s control, refusing and running away.

They only ran away or panicked, trying to escape from Lenok’s technique at any moment.

[Hmm, even though Master is a scary person, he’s not that bad…]

Davi also tilted his head, looking surprised, with his chin resting on his hand.

[If it wasn’t like this before, wouldn’t it be because there was a change that made them afraid of Master?]

“…That’s true.”

Lenok replied with a sullen expression.

“The problem is that there are too many things I can guess, so it’s difficult to pinpoint the cause.”

[……]

Just organizing the new techniques and authorities he had obtained since coming to Yorta was not a simple task.

The acquisition of the avatar. The authority of the high priest transferred from the priestess. The awakening of the ancient archangel Kashuin of the old world.

Not to mention the martial arts of the Ninefold Harbinger that he had learned from the Harbinger, and even the spirit command technique he was learning from Oris.

There were too many elements that were constantly changing Lenok himself, making it difficult to narrow down the cause to one thing.

Since he was not in a situation to research this problem right now, he was just vaguely repeating trial and error.

Davi also gave up on his worries at Lenok’s words and lay down in his robe.

[Well, there’s nothing we can do~ How would I know what Master doesn’t know?]

“Yeah. I didn’t expect anything from the beginning…”

Thud!!

At that moment, the spirit soldiers who had been biting the chains and diving at the bow of the ship could not hold on and disappeared.

They had become so weak that they could no longer maintain their own forms in the intensifying water pressure.

The ghost ship stopped in its place, immediately losing its pulling force.

Lenok, who was looking for a spirit soldier to pull the ship instead, activated his magic sense once and shook his head.

“That’s troublesome. It seems that there are no signs of anything around because I’ve gone too deep.”

The ship was a legacy of Madrich Onion, a spirit command user, and it was hardly compatible with any other techniques other than spirit command.

Lenok might be able to manipulate it by force with his magic, but it would be inefficient and unsuitable for long-distance sailing.

On the deck of the ship, which had stopped under the dark waterway, Lenok’s gaze reached the spirit that was rolling around in his arms as he pondered.

[……]

“……”

[Master. I don’t even have fins.]

Davi replied as if he was dumbfounded, but Lenok lifted Davi up with both hands.

The limp fox spirit looked back at Lenok with a dumbfounded expression, his front paws dangling.

“The 19th underground level that Naimel mentioned is right in front of us. Let’s try it once, and if it doesn’t work, we’ll stop right away.”

[……]

“You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. Since it’s the same as using magic anyway, I can do it.”

[No. It’s not a difficult task, so I’ll try it once.]

Whoosh!!

The electronic spirit, which had instantly grown to the size of Lenok’s body, jumped out in front of the ship’s deck, bit the chain, and folded its front paws.

[My dream is to ride on a palanquin and be praised, but instead, it’s the opposite…]

While grumbling, Davi pulled up his magic power and slowly walked through the river, swelling his whole body greatly.

The five tails stood up stiffly and began to rotate like propellers.

Whoosh!!

The ship’s form began to move slowly forward as Davi swam.

The existence of a spirit was clearly different from that of a spirit soldier, but since they were bound by the same concept of a spirit, they could be compatible with the ghost ship.

Woo woo woo…!!!

At the same time as Davi pulled up his magic power, the speed of the ship increased, and the spirit and the ship shone simultaneously.

Lenok, who was standing on the deck and watching the scene, frowned at the strange sense of unity he felt for a moment.

“Wait, this is…”

The spirit’s magic power was strongly resonating with the ghost ship, and the very thoughts themselves were merging and mixing together.

The moment Lenok was about to call Davi immediately to stop him due to the unusual resonance of thoughts.

Woo woo woo woo!!!!

The light that had risen from the center of the ship’s chain began to be absorbed into Davi.

Following the will of the spirit leading the ship at the bow, the entire ship seemed to pulsate and move in response.

The entire ship of Onion rotated as if being sucked into Davi and disappeared.

Davi’s thoughts, carrying Lenok on his back, instantly sped through the 19th underground level.

He broke through the barriers that were colliding from all sides in an instant and fell onto a barren field in the middle of the water.

Kwaaaang!!

[Master!!]

Davi, who had grown in size, caught Lenok, who was falling as the ship’s form was absorbed into him, with his front paws.

Davi, who was flustered, swung his tail, hugged Lenok, and rolled, then stood up and picked up Lenok.

[A, are you okay?!]

“Yeah. I can handle a few bruises.”

Lenok coughed lightly and got down from Davi’s arms.

The sight of Lenok landing on the desolate field and the shape of the ashes piled up all around.

And the sight of Davi, shaking his six tails in front of him, waiting for Lenok with a worried expression.

Lenok thought so and was about to pass Davi and look for the ruins and the disappeared ship when.

“…Wait. The sixth one?”

Lenok grabbed the sixth tail, which was floating like a ghost at the end of the five tails.