Memoirs of a Wicked Magician - Chapter 128

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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 128
Just then, the sound of a deep breath released slowly drifted through the cold air from deeper within the room.
“Liriope.”
And the Boy’s voice, lower than usual, tickled her ear.
“I heard there’s a banquet tonight. What’s going on?”
Liriope found herself relaxing slightly. Belkiers’s voice didn’t sound unnatural or discordant as she’d feared.
It was a touch muddled and heavy, but the kind of difference she could attribute to drowsiness upon waking.
Yet the eerie presence that lingered about the room remained, and the tension that gripped the back of her neck refused to fade.
Still, Liriope chose to ignore it for now.
“The banquet just ended.”
“That so?”
“Yes. So I went back to my room, but then I thought of you and decided to stop by. There’s something that happened at the banquet I wanted to ask you about.”
Perhaps it was her imagination, but the heavy silence in the room seemed to deepen at that moment.
Liriope concentrated all her senses toward the direction of Belkiers’s voice, choosing her words with care.
“But… were you asleep?”
“No.”
Yet despite that, Belkiers remained strangely obscured from view within the bedroom. At any other time, he would have come out to meet her at once.
“I was just about to turn in, though.”
As if to pierce through her unspoken doubts, an explanation quickly followed that lent credence to his behavior.
“But what did you want to ask me?”
In truth, even Liriope wasn’t certain what she’d come here to verify.
The memory she’d recovered from Evangellin just moments ago was fragmented and hazy at best.
Given more time, she could employ a more refined spell, but unfortunately her limits remained stark.
While Od had relayed to her what her memory couldn’t recover, there was undoubtedly a difference between what she’d witnessed herself and what she’d learned secondhand.
So whatever suspicion had driven her here, it was quite possible she was simply grasping at straws.
Especially that vague, inglorious suspicion about encountering Belkiers in that Illusory Space—it wasn’t easy to voice such uncertainty directly to him.
“Before that, can I turn on the light? The room’s so dark.”
“No.”
“Then can I come closer to where you are?”
“No.”
“Then come toward me.”
“I can’t.”
Belkiers refused each of Liriope’s suggestions in turn.
His tone wasn’t cold or harsh, yet she could feel the resolute firmness with which he forbade her approach.
“Why is everything a no?”
This time, no answer came at once. Instead, she felt a gaze in the darkness that seemed to pierce right through her.
Crash!
Suddenly, the sound of something breaking rang out from deeper within the room.
Liriope found herself stepping forward instinctively.
“Don’t come.”
But the moment the Boy’s sharp voice struck her like a blade, she froze in place.
“I just knocked something off the desk by accident. So don’t come any closer.”
Yet Liriope sensed this was far more than a simple mishap.
Even now, she felt the mana roiling wildly where Belkiers stood, surging like waves.
But as Belkiers seemed to regain control, the eerie presence that had been pressing toward her faded somewhat.
“Liriope, you can’t be here right now.”
“…”
“Leave. Once you go, I’ll seal the eightieth floor for a while. I should have blocked access before you arrived, but I stupidly forgot. I’m already regretting the incredibly careless mistake I made…”
Liriope took another step forward before Belkiers even finished speaking. His voice cut off abruptly.
“Belkiers, you might not know, but rumors about a Strength Enhancement Potion have been circulating in the Magic Tower lately.”
As she continued forward at an unhurried pace, she sensed conflicting mana patterns—as if he wavered between pushing her away or allowing her through.
“Most claim it’s a fake, of course. But since it’s a subject I’ve been curious about too, I wondered if any of them might actually be effective.”
Yet Belkiers’s mana never quite reached her fingertips.
“So I received one of the potions today—from Zakael, someone I know from before.”
As she reached the bedroom door, the pressure that had been weighing on her intensified. The dangerous presence lurking within the room became sharper, more defined.
“But strangely, Zakael felt like a stranger—as if I was seeing him for the first time.”
“…”
“And there’s something else odd. After the banquet ended today, Evangellin came looking for me—you know? He said I’d dropped something and gave me a button, though I have no memory of ever losing it.”
Liriope stared straight into the thick darkness before her as she spoke.
“Don’t you have anything to say about this?”
Belkiers said nothing.
Liriope almost wished he truly knew nothing about any of it.
Neither about the Shadow Entity that had been in the Magic Tower, nor about how Evangellin had manipulated her memories along with others to cover it up.
“Nothing?”
But that vague hope dissipated like foam. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t convince herself that Belkiers had no connection to this affair whatsoever.
Liriope stepped into the bedroom.
“Stop.”
Bang!
In an instant, uncontrolled mana swept narrowly past Liriope.
A sharp wind that seemed to come from nowhere sliced through the sealed room, sending her hair and clothes flying. Objects in the room were caught up in its wake, crashing to the floor with sounds of shattering.
“Liriope, go back. Now.”
Belkiers warned her in a low, strained voice.
“If you see me like this… I’ll have to erase it myself this time.”
“Try it.”
But Liriope did not retreat.
She fixed her unwavering gaze directly on him.
“Whether it’s Memory Manipulation or Mind Control, go ahead and do whatever you want.”
A pitch-black silhouette, as if merged with the darkness itself, emerged into her vision. The brilliant golden eyes embedded within it gleamed like stars in the night sky.
Oh. Was she perhaps losing her mind?
Why did it keep seeming like one of the Shadow Entities she’d seen in the Illusory Space was this very boy standing before her?
So she had to confirm it with her own eyes right then and there. She had to gain certainty that her mind was simply playing an insane trick on her.
Liriope reached forward without fear, ignoring the mana clawing viciously at her in threat.
Belkiers seemed not to have anticipated her advancing so unrelentingly. That moment of shock allowed her touch to reach him.
The instant her hand made contact with Belkiers, mana erupted convulsively, sweeping them both away.
When it dissipated, Liriope found herself already back in her own room.
She stared at the hand that had touched Belkiers just moments before, and laughed softly.
What she had glimpsed in that final instant before he could hide it—his true form—still wavered in her vision like a mirage.
She tried to return to the eightieth floor, gritting her teeth, but the entrance was already sealed.
What had transpired during the banquet was buried in darkness, leaving no trace behind.
Even Samuel and the other attendees of the secret gathering vanished as though they had never been in the Magic Tower to begin with. But due to the subtle Memory Manipulation, no one searched for them.
Liriope combed through the Magic Tower meticulously, searching for any remnant of that night, yet found nothing.
Yet unexpectedly, she would discover crucial evidence from someone she never could have anticipated.

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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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