Memoirs of a Wicked Magician - Chapter 106

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 106
What happened after could be summarized briefly.
Cameron’s Attack Magic struck Stella, and Fabian, appearing just in time, subdued Cameron immediately.
“Cameron, you’ve gone too far……! I knew you were trash, but not to this extent! Even beasts don’t harm their own young, yet you’re a worm lower than any beast……!”
Cameron seemed to have attacked Stella without even realizing it, and he looked shocked beyond measure.
Stella, now drenched in blood, was surrounded by Medical Specialist Mages. But her condition was so severe that her survival could not be guaranteed.
Then, with effort, Stella opened her eyes and, seeing the bewildered Cameron, moved her lips faintly.
“Go…… away…….”
In that instant, Cameron’s movements ceased.
His trembling hands wrapped around his head.
“No…… No, it’s not! I wasn’t trying to…… No, no, no!”
No one, including Liriope, who witnessed the scene, felt any sympathy for Cameron.
Cameron suffered a blow far greater than anyone had anticipated from the Stella incident.
Fabian, expressing intense revulsion toward Cameron, permanently banned him from the Recovery Chamber.
That meant, in essence, that even if Cameron died right before his eyes, Fabian would not care. Furthermore, it also meant that any Medical Specialist Mage who helped Cameron would fall out of Fabian’s favor.
Even if Fabian made this decision out of personal emotion, there was no one to force him otherwise.
Of course, if the Magic Tower Master or a senior mage stepped in, the situation would be different, but naturally, Cameron was not so irreplaceable a talent as to warrant such intervention.
Already disabled, and now a mage who could receive no help from the Recovery Chamber for the rest of his life in the Magic Tower.
There was no need to think further about his fate.
Moreover, Cameron, suffering considerable psychological trauma from this incident, chose isolation of his own accord before anyone could say anything.
Thus, officially citing the need for Cameron’s recuperation, the position of supervisor of the lowest floor fell vacant.
“Cameron probably won’t make a comeback. The lowest floor will have a temporary supervisor assigned for a while.”
Though Liriope had some involvement in this affair, it was Cameron himself who had driven himself to ruin.
Cassel seemed unable to believe that Cameron, whom he had clashed with countless times over the past year, had disappeared so easily.
“I kept my promise. So now it’s your turn, Cassel.”
Only after hearing those words from Liriope did he seem to regain his composure.
“I don’t remember promising you anything.”
“No? Then make one now. Cameron’s gone anyway, so you have nothing to do, right? Surely you’re not fool enough to repeat the exact same routine with the next supervisor.”
A brief silence descended.
Cassel regarded Liriope with an odd gaze.
“Why are you doing this to me?”
He asked as if he couldn’t understand.
“We only traveled together briefly in the Outer Estate a year ago. We didn’t have any particularly deep interactions, and our personalities didn’t match all that well. So you could just ignore me like I don’t exist and live your life. But why did you specifically come find me and say such things?”
And at Liriope’s answer that followed, Cassel found himself momentarily at a loss.
“Why are you asking so many questions? I just thought one person is worse than two, two is worse than three, three is worse than four.”
It was a strangely familiar phrase, as if he’d said it to someone before.
Why would you want to help us when it would be most logical for just the two of you to leave in this situation?”
“Why are you asking so many questions? I just think four is better than two.”
“You said humans are creatures that can’t live alone, didn’t you?”
“Remember? Humans are creatures that cannot live alone.”
Liriope found the current situation, where she could return to Cassel the very words he had once spoken to her, somehow both amusing and bitter.
Back then, Cassel had valued subordinates he could unreservedly tell he preferred being together with, but now there was no one left by his side.
Cassel, perhaps recalling those days, looked at Liriope with wavering eyes and set his jaw.
“That doesn’t mean anyone is fine. If I could choose who stands beside me, I’d want you to be one of them. That’s why I told you.”
Of course, Liriope didn’t have some grand reason so compelling that she had to choose Cassel above all else.
Most beginnings were like that. Far more often, bonds deepened from trivially simple, humble reasons rather than from grandiose, passionate connections from the start.
So it wasn’t as if Cassel was profoundly moved by her words specifically because she was Liriope, his heart swayed by the weight of her words.
Liriope understood that he simply needed a catalyst.
And so, in the end, Cassel took her hand.
It was the moment Liriope gained a steadfast ally she could trust to watch her back.
* * *
‘Why?’
Meanwhile, someone was watching the two of them.
‘Why? Why does he treat that wretch so specially?’
It was none other than Belkiers.
His golden eyes, carrying an icy chill, sank deeper into thought.
Belkiers had not heard what was said between Liriope and Cassel. Liriope had cast a barrier to prevent others from eavesdropping on their conversation.
Of course, if he wished, he could easily break the barrier……. But Belkiers did not.
Did that mean reason was still prevailing over impulse, and he should accept it positively?
But the more he thought, the fouler his mood became, and he wondered if surrendering to emotion might have been better after all.
Like a sliver under a fingernail, Cassel, who had been clinging to Liriope all this time, irritated him.
Not just Cassel alone, but Stella, Cameron, Fabian…… All the things Liriope cared for too deeply.
‘If I wanted to, I could torture Stella and Cameron to death as easily as snapping my fingers. But instead, I broached the subject only to be rejected.’
Whether positive or negative emotion, he wanted to erase everything that drew Liriope’s gaze away from him.
“Ah, the mood is really heavy. Belkiers, those guys are probably reflecting too, so couldn’t you let up on them a bit?”
Then, someone beside him, unable to bear the oppressive air any longer, spoke up.
Belkiers’ gaze slid to the sworn sibling who had just spoken. The one who had just opened his mouth flinched.
“I mean, it’s not like we’re trying to do anything…… It’s just natural to have some curiosity, right?”
“Why should you be curious?”
“Ah, well. Just wondering.”
“So?”
Belkiers’ final words carried no particular emotion.
But the person meeting his gaze head-on couldn’t help but feel cold sweat trickling down his back.
“I clearly warned you not to look. Yet you knew what would happen and deliberately shoved your face in anyway.”
“…….”
“So isn’t it only right that you die?”
Every instinct screamed that this was absolutely not the case, but all living creatures possessed a survival instinct.
So everyone simply held their tongues in the face of Belkiers’ absurd statement.
In the room where they now gathered were sworn siblings bearing the name of Belegot, but two of them were no longer in human form.
Belkiers had turned their bodies to pulp and bound them completely in Mana chains to prevent bodily regeneration.
In fact, they had ended up this way after ignoring Belkiers’ warning and secretly spying on Liriope.
In a sense, they were foolish creatures whose curiosity exceeded even survival instinct. So everyone secretly thought that receiving such treatment was inevitable.
“Speaking of which, Evangellin still has that rotting look on his face. Is your girlfriend upset because she failed the examination?”
“How many times do I have to tell you not to bring up that idiot?! At this point, just rip out those useless ears and replace them, why don’t you?”
Not an idle threat—Evangellin genuinely sliced off the other’s ear with a sharp attack.
“Dammit! Why are you taking it out on me?!”
Several spells flew about the room in brief chaos.
Just as an irritated Belkiers was about to sweep them all away, a sharp wave suddenly crashed over his back like a tsunami.
-……! ……!!
A bizarre shriek, not quite human, pierced through the heavy door sealed shut behind them.
The waiting room fell silent instantly.
This place was a special Magic Strengthening Chamber available only to the Children of the Magic Tower Master.
And today was the scheduled day for the twenty-sixth Magic Strengthening session.
“What’s that…… The voices of the kids who went in first seem unusually loud today, don’t they?”
Ska, who had seemed anxious from earlier, stared at the door and nervously gnawed at his fingernails.
“They said they’d increase the intensity of the Magic Strengthening from this session on. Did something go wrong?”
“Don’t jinx it!”
Evangellin shot him a sharp look.
“If you’re so scared, stop whining and just leave. Don’t ruin everyone else’s mood.”
“But, but Hyde was supposed to be fine, and he suddenly broke down. So what if we……”
“Ah, that one was a Defective Product that only shows up once a century, if that. Unlike us, the Magic Tower Master said there was something fundamentally wrong with him from the start, didn’t she? Are you doubting the Magic Tower Master?”
“What? Of course not!”
“Then why are you so terrified? You’re stupid.”
Though Evangellin’s sarcasm was cutting, it inadvertently had a positive effect. The tension-stiffened faces of the children relaxed somewhat, buoyed by faith in the Magic Tower Master.
“It’s true Hyde probably isn’t the first or last.”
But someone mercilessly poured cold water on that sentiment.
“Bad luck means a year, or maybe a month later, or perhaps tomorrow itself.”
Belkiers, who had been leaning in his chair, rose to his feet, his black cloak’s hem trailing down the armrest.
“In any case, every single one of you here could die without warning any day.”
The Mana restraining the regeneration of those bound to the floor finally dissipated. But before they could rejoice in their freedom, Belkiers’ emotionless gaze, fixed upon their wretched forms, subtly provoked an inner shame.
“You all know what you look like now, so abandon any hope of living as humans for the rest of your lives.”
Just then, a bestial shriek echoed from beyond the door once more.
The children in the waiting room flinched, but Belkiers, as if he heard nothing, removed his cloak with an unmoved face. He also detached the Piercing from his ear, hidden until now beneath his hair.
Seeing this, Evangellin’s eyebrows rose.
“What? Are you participating in the Magic Strengthening today too?”
Until now, Belkiers had been uncooperative in such matters.
The discord between the Magic Tower Master and Belkiers hadn’t erupted into the open, but those close to them had sensed it well enough.
Especially this time—wasn’t there a blatant atmosphere of antagonism between the two because of the girl from the Outer Estate? Yet at such a moment, Belkiers was participating in Magic Strengthening without resistance?
“Ha, how unexpected. I thought you showed up to crush those idiots.”
The Magic Control Mana Stones encircling Belkiers’ wrists and ankles released themselves and fell to the floor.
With that, an invisible pressure gradually expanded, filling the waiting room like a balloon on the verge of bursting.
Every time this happened, one couldn’t help but viscerally understand just how stark the difference was, even among Children of the Magic Tower Master.
“It’s absurd. You received all the best from the Magic Tower Master, yet you act so pure and unblemished.”
Evangellin, unable to contain his jealousy, clenched his teeth. Belkiers then fixed him with a gaze as if looking upon some insignificant vermin.
“Evangellin, I sometimes wonder just how long you’ll remain this stupid.”
“What?”
“In fact, I’ve long suspected you’re the dimmest among my sworn siblings.”
“What?!”
Facing such brazen contempt for the first time, Evangellin stammered incoherently.
“Besides, none of you here had a choice in the matter. It’s not entirely your fault you turned out this way.”
“What nonsense? What do you—I—what’s wrong with me?!”
“Still, you’re not entirely wrong either.”
Evangellin, about to spiral further, hesitated at those words.
“I never wanted this, but I’ve nonetheless received it unintentionally, so I suppose I must bear some responsibility accordingly.”
He should have felt satisfied at being acknowledged by Belkiers, yet something about the atmosphere felt off.
“And that’s also why I don’t immediately finish all of you with my own hands, even though my blood boils every time I see you.”
Belkiers, now free of all restraints, unleashed his Mana in all directions, and it seemed that with a single breath he could crush them all to death.
So his cold gaze instilled both instinctive dread and tension…….
“Perhaps I find you slightly pitiful.”
But Belkiers’ next words were so unexpected that Evangellin didn’t know how to respond.
“So become a bit smarter, Evangellin.”
That was why, hearing words that touched upon his inferiority, he felt not anger but something far more complex.
“So I don’t end up destroying you with these hands later.”
Creak.
Just then, the door to the Magic Strengthening Chamber opened.
Evangellin watched the back of Belkiers as he entered first, his lips parting slightly.
But soon, as if shaking off an ineffable emotion, he ground his teeth and shouted at Belkiers.
“Tch…… Don’t call me Evangellin! We’re not even close!”
“Your full name is unnecessarily long.”
“Long? That’s not even—wait, you didn’t use a nickname because you wanted to get closer to me?!”
While Evangellin was still complaining, the children who had completed the Magic Strengthening first were carried out in a pitiable state.
Half a day later, the next batch of children who had completed the Magic Strengthening looked much the same.
Only Belkiers emerged from the Magic Strengthening Chamber on his own two feet.
-Really, annoying, unfair…….
Evangellin sent some complaint behind him, but the voice kept cutting out, so Belkiers couldn’t make out the full content.
The moment he stepped outside, Belkiers sought out the Magic Control Mana Stones he’d removed earlier.
His Mana was raging so ferociously it threatened to pierce through bone and flesh, and the stones, while insufficient, were still better than nothing.
Belkiers realized the connection with the Butterfly he’d placed on Liriope had severed, and he shifted his focus elsewhere.
Thud!
And in the next moment, the chair he’d been sitting in suddenly toppled over with a loud crash.
At that sound, others stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to him.
Belkiers’ face had gone rigid as stone, as if he’d seen something he absolutely should not have, and he shot to his feet.
His reaction was justified. For some reason, Liriope was sending a Magic Signal to the very top of the Magic Tower, to Seraphina, the Magic Tower Master.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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