Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 898

Cheongyeon’s offer to take over the lighthouse keeper’s mission was not a simple matter of her taking the mission back from Lapis.

What remained at the boundary was not the real Cheongyeon, but a consciousness left behind by Cheongyeon in her prime. It was the memory of Cheongyeon in her younger days, Madrea Falshier.

Therefore, Lapis understood what Cheongyeon was trying to say.

“This is the boundary that separates the world and the sea. It’s a space where cause and effect are ambiguously mixed and redefined,” Cheongyeon said as she slowly walked past Lapis.

“What happens here ignores the laws of the material and spiritual realms, and conversely, it doesn’t follow the exceptions of the sea.”

“……”

“A gray area where all concepts and common sense that existed in human history are reversed and modified.”

*Whoosh!*

With a light wave of her hand, Cheongyeon caused a pillar of pure white light to surge up, which soon transformed into a magnificent chair.

Cheongyeon, sitting on the massive platinum throne, crossed her legs and looked at Lapis expectantly.

“So, here, there would be no problem even if the two of us switched roles and remained.”

“……”

Lapis Falshier, conducting a ritual in front of the gate to the outer sea in the sanctuary of the Six-Pointed Fortress, and the consciousness of Madrea Falshier, who was acting as a lighthouse at the boundary of the world.

Cheongyeon was saying that here, the roles of these two could be interchanged.

It was a taboo that was hardly tolerated even by all the magic and systems of the continent. A contradiction and betrayal of switching the places of the living and the dead.

However, even after hearing Cheongyeon’s proposal, Lapis remained silent with a sad expression, as if she had known about this method that Cheongyeon was explaining for a long time.

“If you give up one, you get one. One stays at the boundary, and the other returns to reality,” Cheongyeon said, tapping the armrest.

“It doesn’t matter who goes back. After all, we were all beings burdened with the mission of the lighthouse keeper.”

In the gray area where cause and effect are ambiguously mixed, the distinction between Lapis and Cheongyeon was not very meaningful. So, after this ritual, who returns to reality was also not a predetermined matter.

“So, I’ll ask you here,” Cheongyeon said with a blank face.

“Do you want me to take your place and continue the mission of the lighthouse keeper?”

“……”

“It’s not impossible. I’ve already done it once. Maybe I’ll do better than before.”

“……”

“I might be able to move on to the next step before your training. I’ve been in that role longer than you’ve been alive.”

That was true. Lapis didn’t deny those words either.

Cheongyeon in her younger days. Even if she was just a part of her consciousness, she was undoubtedly the memory of Madrea Falshier, who had completed her ascension [a process of spiritual enlightenment and power].

Time lived, accumulated hierarchy, experience, age, connections. In no way could Lapis match Cheongyeon.

Above all, Lapis-

“You wanted someone who could protect the mission better than yourself.”

“……”

“Isn’t that why you came to meet me by performing this ritual?”

The reason why Lapis recognized Cheongyeon’s consciousness left at the boundary of the world and tried to meet her. The reason why she tried to perform the ritual beyond the [Gate] under the pretext of recovering the lighthouse keeper’s function.

Cheongyeon already knew that all of this was not to protect the mission, but to give it up. That Lapis had questioned the mission of the lighthouse keeper, suffered from a sense of doubt, and finally began to mock herself. That she had secretly wished for someone who could carry out the mission better than herself.

Cheongyeon already knew everything.

“It’s difficult to maintain a physical form here for a long time. If you take over the role of the lighthouse, there’s no reason to be in human form,” Cheongyeon said, waving her hand while leaning back on the throne.

“But I think I know what your wish is, so I was waiting for you. Only when I ask this question, you will be able to decide.”

“……”

“It’s up to you to decide. The right to choose always belongs to the living.”

Cheongyeon smiled and leaned comfortably back in her chair. When she stretched out her hand opposite her, another magnificent platinum throne rose up as if facing her.

“Tell me whenever you’re ready. I can wait while you’re here.”

“……”

Instead of answering, Lapis kept her mouth shut and stared at the empty throne. The magnificent platinum throne placed opposite Cheongyeon. The moment she sat in that chair, it would probably be irreversible.

That was the meaning of her explanation a little while ago. She knew. What Cheongyeon had said just now was just an explanation of the facts that Lapis had been curious about. She had answered what would happen to this world after she made her decision.

Even if Lapis accepted the proposal, nothing would happen to the world. It’s just that Lapis would stay here, and another lighthouse keeper would replace her in the world. It wasn’t just because she wanted to be comfortable. It was because she thought that someone else might be the answer, rather than her, who was suffering without certainty-

“……That’s right,” Lapis murmured quietly.

“I always…… wanted to give up. It was always hard, and I resented it.”

“……”

“Every day, I lied to the people who followed me. I talked about hope that I didn’t believe in myself, and I made plans saying that everything would be fine.”

“……”

“Every time, someone else dies, and everyone says the same thing. That I, who protects the mission, must live, that the lighthouse keeper who observes the destruction must remain.”

“……”

“But…… now I don’t remember all the people who died for me. I used to remember their faces and voices without leaving anything out.”

Lapis’s voice became so faint that it seemed like it would disappear at any moment. Even in the quiet silence, she squeezed out words as if she was out of breath.

“Without being seen or remembered, no one recognizes me, and I’m being forgotten in the oblivion. It’s so painful to just keep remembering that fact alone……” Lapis, clutching her chest, murmured quietly.

“……I thought about letting go like this someday.”

Having said that, Lapis staggered forward. Lapis, standing opposite Cheongyeon, who was listening without a word, quietly leaned back in the throne.

On the platinum thrones facing each other, Cheongyeon and Lapis met eyes.

“Have you made your answer?”

“Yes,” Lapis gave a sad smile.

“So…… I’ll take this pain to the very end.”

“……”

“I won’t pass this responsibility on to anyone else. The sadness and pain are all mine. I must be the last one to protect the mission in this world.”

For Lapis to entrust the mission to Cheongyeon’s consciousness was not a nice story of giving a new life to the dead. It was just an unreasonable act of forcing Cheongyeon to go through the painful journey she had to endure while she was alive, once again. Moreover, no one could be sure how long Cheongyeon, who was only a fragment of consciousness and not a true ascendant, could endure.

Cheongyeon would have been willing to accept it if Lapis wanted it, even knowing that. But knowing how hard and painful it was, she couldn’t pass this responsibility on to someone else. She would keep this duty that Cheongyeon had passed on to her until the moment the end of the world came.

After a long deliberation and promise, after facing a nostalgic memory beyond the boundary of the world, Lapis was finally able to make a decision.

“Because there are people who want me to come back. There are people who tell me that they need me, not another lighthouse keeper.”

“I see,” Cheongyeon smiled amidst the scattering platinum light.

“I’m really glad that those words can be your answer.”

*Fwoooooosh!!!*

At that moment, Cheongyeon and Lapis’s bodies began to shine brightly. The thrones glowed brightly, gently enveloping Cheongyeon and Lapis’s bodies. Beyond the pure white light, Lapis’s eyes shone clearly.

“You said that the opportunity to choose belongs to the living. I believe those words.”

“……”

“I will remain as the lighthouse keeper until the end and watch over the fate of this world. Even if our end is just a bubble in the sea……”

*Fwoooosh!*

Cheongyeon’s body began to fade away little by little, and began to seep into Lapis little by little. The consciousness that the ascendant had left at the boundary of the world in place of the lighthouse. The remaining function of the lighthouse keeper began to be directly absorbed into Lapis.

“Finding the end is the task of the living. It’s about finding a fate that hasn’t been decided yet,” Cheongyeon smiled, not even thinking about holding onto her slowly disappearing form.

“Is that the conclusion you came to after seeing the wizard fighting for you down there?”

“……!!”

When Lapis looked at Cheongyeon with a surprised face, she gestured lightly. The lower part of the throne opened, revealing the scenery of the city where the battle was taking place.

*Kwaaaaaaah!!!*

Amidst the massive body of the black serpent, flames swirled, and lightning and fire flashed from all directions. Which of the wizards on the battlefield was Cheongyeon referring to? Perhaps, she already knew that it was meaningless.

Cheongyeon said, looking down at the ground with a gentle gaze, “He’s a strange person. He was born with the most perfect fate, yet he’s rejecting it himself.”

“Yes……?”

“The third one at the end is a symbol of perfection. Do you know what this means?”

A perfect fate. The moment Lapis paused, not understanding those words, Cheongyeon looked at her and said slowly, “He knows. He probably realized a long time ago what kind of fate he was born with.”

“……”

“Even so, he’s holding onto himself, looking for a meaning beyond that,” Cheongyeon whispered, unable to hide her admiration, as if lowering her voice so that no one could hear her. As if someone might overhear these words from outside the sea.

“Even if they stand in the same place, they are not the same, and even if they stand in different places, they are not different.”

“……”

“I think the diversity that that man is trying so hard to protect is the answer for that man.”

Did Cheongyeon just guess what Evan was dreaming of while drawing the end of this world? The secret of Evan that Lapis had been thinking about until just before the ritual. Perhaps, she had heard the one answer that pierced through the truth, and at that moment, she was about to open her mouth hastily.

“Look, Lapis,” Cheongyeon murmured, narrowing her eyes slightly as if they were dazzling.

“The most powerful fate that that man has obtained.”

“Fate……”

“Fate is not something to be obeyed and followed, but the proof of cause and effect created by oneself, and it’s right there.”

At that moment, a streak of lightning erupted from the center of the red-glowing flame.

*Crack, crack……!!!!!*

A streak of lightning that soared into the empty sky, rotated above the cracked sky, and reconnected the heavens and the earth. It became a vast and transcendent image that filled the entire sky and shook Lapis’s mind and body.

*Kwaaaaaaaaah!!!!!*

A thunderous roar that shook the heavens and the earth. The vast sea of lightning drawn in the scenery of the mind. Because the time it took for it to descend into reality was an instant that could not even reach a moment, even Lapis, who was looking down at the ground with a cognitive ability comparable to an ascendant, could not see it properly.

What echoed in her ears was the thunderous roar that flashed from beyond an unknown creation. The end of the sky where eight streaks of thunder met and unfolded. The moment the tail of a pure white whale flickered and disappeared beyond the clouds like a distant afterimage.

[Kahaaaaak……!!!!]

The black serpent’s thought form began to melt and disappear as its entire body burned.