Memoirs of a Wicked Magician - Chapter 122

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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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Chapter 122
“My sister and I won’t write our names on the list. Senior Samuel, you’ll buy the Mana Enhancement Potion for us.”
“Huh? Me? I have to?”
“Yes, I’ll give you the money you need.”
“Whoa, the Mana Enhancement Potion is really expensive though? Why don’t I just write my name and get it free……”
Liriope let Samuel’s persuasion go in one ear and out the other, carefully surveying the space around them. She checked the faces of people passing by, one by one.
“What? Why aren’t you giving me the potion!”
“I have the money right here! Hand it over this instant!”
Then suddenly, shouts erupted from a few people ahead of them.
“Huh? What’s that? Why is it so loud?”
When Samuel saw people finally lose their minds and start smashing objects, his jaw dropped.
Crash! Bang!
At that moment, all the lights in the room went out. Then light concentrated on the ceiling in the center of the room.
— Ah, greetings to all you promising young gentlemen and ladies, aspiring mages.
A branch-like thing protruded through the wall, similar to what Liriope had seen at the entrance.
But nested inside the fully unfurled bud was not an eye—it was a mouth.
— I hereby formally announce to all who have attended this gathering today.
A grotesquely large mouth chewed and worked as it delivered the news that had enraged some people moments before.
— The sale of the Mana Enhancement Potion, which has been beloved by many over this short period, has ended completely as of yesterday.
“Shut up! Who do you think you are, stopping the sale of the potion!”
“No, this can’t be! I absolutely need the potion!”
Once again, shockingly violent reactions erupted from all around.
Even those intoxicated by alcohol and potions lurched upright, crying out in loud voices, tearing at their hair, or even wailing.
From their behavior alone, it was clear they had become thoroughly addicted to the potion in a short span of time.
Liriope sensed that something was deeply amiss.
— Please calm yourselves. Instead, for those who wish to lament its absence, I intend to hold a game in which this potion serves as the prize.
How much the potion addicts were tempted by these words needed no further explanation.
“A game? The potion is the prize?”
— Yes. And please note that everyone present here will be automatically enrolled in the game, and all participants who survive until the end will receive the prize. So I ask for your full participation.
The fact that there would be multiple winners, each receiving the potion, made their eyes gleam with greed.
Yet those still possessed of sound minds caught the trap lurking in those words.
“Wait, survive? What does that mean? This isn’t just a simple game, is it?”
— The game’s rules are simple.
Words written in mana appeared in empty air.
Tag Game.
— In thirty seconds, you will be transported to an Illusory Space. There you will flee for one hour from whoever is “it”.
“Tag? What is this, some childish game?”
— Now, before we begin the game in earnest, wouldn’t it be best if you first see the face of the “it” you’ll be running from? The one who is “it”… is right behind you!
A soft hiss filled the air.
In that instant, deep darkness descended upon the room. And the biting, flesh-searing cold that Liriope had felt at the entrance came flooding back in.
Those seized by an uncanny dread all turned their heads at once.
And immediately their eyes met dozens of eyes fixed upon them like a demon eyeing its prey.
How could one even describe that thing?
It had form, yet it was inexplicable—a repugnant foreign substance that exuded an endless aura of wrongness and revulsion.
All one could know was that it was a terrible creature that should never exist in this world.
By nature, that which is cursed inspires instinctive aversion and dread simply through its being.
Those who beheld its grotesque form felt a violent urge to tear out their own eyes, cut off their noses to rid themselves of its foul stench, and rip away their eardrums to silence its terrible sound.
Liriope knew what it was.
A creature born from the heart of a Desecrated Holy Site, blackening all things around it with death.
A Shadow.
Moreover, unlike the lower-class Shadows that were merely formless black masses, this one bore a human-like shape—one of the highest danger ranks.
But why on earth was such a thing here?
The appearance of a Shadow in the Magic Tower, not in a Desecrated Holy Site, was an appalling event no one could have imagined.
“Ah, ahhhhhhhhhh…!”
The moment the people in the room came face to face with the Shadow, they fell into states of abnormality.
“Ghhhhhhhack!”
The instant Samuel was swept up in the Shadow’s numbing cold, black fluid poured from every orifice of his body.
Even Liriope, prepared as she was for danger, could not help but be shaken by something so unbelievable.
The moment her gaze met one of the Shadow’s eyes, her vision spun.
Ssssh, shhhh, ssssh!
Whispers in a language not of this world echoed endlessly in her ears.
It sounded like hundreds, thousands of cicadas chorusing inside her skull.
Or like an angry blizzard descended as divine punishment, tearing the whole world to shreds.
Like sprouts piercing through her eardrums and sprouting in her ears, or falling leaves shrieking as they shattered.
The world around her orbited. The ground became sky, the sky became void, and the void became marshland that flowed black before her eyes.
— By the way, should the number of surviving participants drop to ten or fewer, the game may end early at any time. Those who wish to make a hasty exit are advised to keep this in mind!
With that malicious final caution, a massive Magic Circle enveloped them.
And as the location changed, the game began in earnest.
* * *
“So this is where you were hiding, Dante Chato?”
At that very moment, beneath a sheer cliff some distance from the Northern Magic Tower.
Veiled in mist that hid it from the mortal world below, it resembled nothing so much as the legendary, serene paradise of Peach Blossom Spring.
Purple grape clusters reflected in moonlight sparkled like jewels, and from the ripened fruit wafted a sweetness so thick it made one dizzy.
“I never imagined you’d built such a space inside the ruins and were hiding here. That’s why it took me so long to find you.”
Belkiers, standing in the very center, looked like the god of death himself.
With the moonlight at his back, everything about him was pitch black, save for those golden eyes that shone keenly with traces of mana.
Originally, a young man who looked somewhat desolate stood alone in this paradise of a vineyard, drinking by moonlight.
The man Belkiers called Dante Chato.
When he first saw this stranger intruding upon his vineyard, the bottle at his lips tipped carelessly and spilled down his chin.
“Uh— uuuaaahhhhh! S-someone help meeeee!”
Crash!
Then he hurled the bottle away and began bolting for cover, howling at the top of his lungs.
It wasn’t mere surprise at a stranger’s intrusion—it was panic born of recognizing exactly who Belkiers was.
Belkiers watched the fleeing man with a sidelong gaze, as if he were a startled deer.
“When you show me your back like that, I feel like hunting.”
“Ahhh! Aaahhh! Gaaahhhhh! P-please, spare me…! I’ve managed to stay hidden for three whole years without being discovered, so why did someone like the Magic Tower Master’s own son have to come all the way out here to kill a wretch like me?! Uaaaahhhhh!”
“First of all, you’re being loud. Shut your mouth.”
“Gulp!”
But it was resistance without meaning. Dante was seized in a heartbeat, his neck grasped firmly in Belkiers’ iron grip.
He looked like a wretched beast with its throat bitten by a viper, awaiting death.
Dante Chato.
A fugitive mage who had fled the Northern Magic Tower three years ago without authorization.
Belkiers had been forced to search everywhere to find him.
“I won’t waste any more time on this. Dante Chato, I’ve come to make you an offer.”
“An… offer?”
“Yes. I’ll give you whatever you want. Sell me your talents.”
But at these unexpected words that pierced his ears, Dante could only stare up at Belkiers with a bewildered gaze.
“Three years ago, you conducted secret experiments on Mana Circuit Bodily Implantation in the Magic Tower. Repeated failures resulted in six deaths.”
“Th-that was only because they all consented to it…! Besides, it was just bad luck; the theory was absolutely perfect, I’m telling you!”
“Then implant that Mana Circuit in my body.”
“Huh?!”
Dante let out a startled shriek. But Belkiers remained unmoved, his calm golden eyes fixed on Dante as he spoke.
“As long as you remain useful, I have no intention of taking your miserable life. I advise you to do your best.”
“What kind of insane—gaaahhhhh!”
Needless to say, Dante had no choice in the matter.
Belkiers kidnapped the fugitive mage just like that.
A desperate, pitiful cry like that of a dying deer echoed through the vineyard, but that frantic call for help reached no one.
It was a deep night when the moon hung bright overhead.
* * *
“Insane, insane, completely insane……”
Caliona’s murmured refrain echoed between the surreal strains of an old music box melody.
The Illusory Space that had swallowed the Secret Gathering’s members was a bizarre place.
An interior resembling the Banquet Hall of reality where mages of the 40th level were gathered at this same moment.
At first glance, it seemed to have been decorated for someone’s party, full of colorful decorations and sweet foods.
Yet here, instead of real people, humanoid figures with animal heads and human bodies poured out unnaturally grotesque laughter, and rotting, worm-eaten flowers exuding decay adorned every surface.
Liriope and Caliona dragged the unconscious Samuel out of the Banquet Hall and hid themselves in an air vent in the corner of the Rest Chamber.
“How could they summon a Shadow into the Magic Tower…? This isn’t right. I knew it was a den of madness from the start, but this crosses every line……”
Liriope wiped away the black fluid still spilling from Caliona’s eyes and cast Purification Magic.
Though it looked like tears at first glance, Caliona’s eyes had actually reddened as heat rushed to her head.
Suddenly Caliona gripped Liriope’s hand tightly and spoke.
“Liriope, that Shadow… I think it’s the one I saw before. No, I’m certain. It’s definitely the same one.”
“What? What are you suddenly saying?”
“The Shadow that killed our parents. It’s definitely that one.”
Liriope was startled by Caliona’s abrupt words, then slowly calmed her mind.
“It even spoke to me just now.”
“Sister.”
“It saw me and split its mouth into a grin, saying, ‘Oh, here we are again, let’s have fun together today’… That damned thing had the gall to say such things.”

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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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