Memoirs of a Wicked Magician - Chapter 27

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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 27
The brown-haired boy who’d been interjecting remarks at intervals throughout the exchange was so tense he couldn’t even part his lips.
But it was the red-haired boy who unexpectedly broke his composure first and stepped back.
“Damn it. Pint-sized brat won’t say a damn word.”
A moment later, when he lowered his sword from Liriope, the suffocating tension in the air eased somewhat.
“Well, I suppose the accounts need to be squared away properly.”
The red-haired boy watched Liriope with lingering displeasure etched across his face.
“At any rate, it helped that you left food for Dino. I’ll give you thanks for that much, at least.”
He gestured with a tilt of his head toward the corner of the cave, indicating an empty water bucket and crumbs of stale bread scattered about.
“My subordinate’s a bit of a coward, you see—couldn’t bring himself to leave this place, so he just waited for me the whole time. If there’d been no water to drink and he’d had to stumble around half-dead, he might’ve run into those strange creatures or that massive insect and gotten himself killed. And in the insect’s belly back there…”
A sharp “Tch” of annoyance escaped his lips.
“I don’t know how much of it was intentional on your part, but the fact remains that you came, and because you did, I could crawl out of that insect’s belly. Plus, you managed to pull me out of the Cocoon with all this.”
Just before the creature regurgitated them, Liriope had retrieved Zed’s sword, cut the Rope binding her wrist, and torn open the membrane of the Cocoon that held the red-haired boy, from the outside.
He hadn’t forgotten, and he spoke of it now.
“It’s like giving me poison and then medicine, but anyway—since both Dino and I lived through it—I won’t hold any more grudges. That settle it?”
The red-haired boy cleared away all debts between them with an attitude far more straightforward than Liriope had anticipated.
“So where is this place where your sister’s being held?”
What followed was even more unexpected.
“I’ll help. Come on, let’s go together.”
“What?”
“I said I’d help you get your sister back. But is your sister awake right now?”
“The last time I checked, she still wasn’t…”
Liriope answered absently, then fell silent mid-thought.
But the red-haired boy had asked without any hidden agenda, so he simply grumbled as if merely irritated.
“Huh, then I’ll have to carry her and run. I’m starving to death—this’ll take some strength.”
While Liriope struggled to grasp his intentions, he began gathering his subordinate and preparing to leave the Cave.
“Why?”
Liriope couldn’t help but ask—she simply couldn’t understand.
“We don’t owe each other anything, and honestly, it’d be most practical for the two of you to just leave now. So why would you help?”
“Why all the questions? I just think four of us might be better than two, that’s all.”
The red-haired boy glanced at Liriope with evident annoyance, his reply somewhat dismissive.
“You, especially. I thought you were just some empty-headed little thing, but it turns out you’ve got a decent head on your shoulders. I figured you’d grown up soft behind your sister’s back, but seems like you’ve actually lived pretty rough, haven’t you?”
Liriope’s expression grew ambiguous at words that could have been either insult or compliment.
“Anyway, as we travel together from now on, we’ll probably find ways to help each other. I’ll lead by example this time, so next time—when the situation calls for it—you do something good for us. Like how you left that bread and water in the Cave earlier with good intentions.”

“The world’s harsh, sure. But that’s precisely why—when we have the means—we have to help each other a little. Understand? People are beings who can’t live alone.”
Speaking as if he were some sage elder, the boy lectured her, having completely forgotten how he’d shoved her aside and taken over the Cave when they first met outside.
His manner was almost laughable, and yet…
“So what’s your name anyway? I’m Cassel.”
“I’m Dino! The leader’s first and finest subordinate, that’s me!”
Like a single drop of dew hanging from a leaf, falling to sketch a shallow ripple on the Lake, Liriope felt something stir faintly in her chest.
It had been so long since she’d felt any emotional disturbance that she couldn’t begin to understand its source.
“I’m… Liriope.”
“Tch, what a pointlessly long name.”
Muttering to himself, the red-haired boy emerged from the Cave first, scanning their surroundings, while Liriope crawled out behind him, carrying that strange feeling in her chest.
She hesitated for a moment as she looked at the boy asking for directions again, then opened her mouth.
“…Before we go, I just want to ask one thing. You don’t have any taste for, say, eating your own kind when you’re hungry, do you?”
“What? Out of nowhere with that? Eating my own kind? If you mean my own kind, then… wait. Hold on. Did you just ask if I’m a cannibal? Seriously? You’re worried I’m dragging you sisters around like lunch boxes? Is that seriously what you’re asking? Are you for real? Have you lost your mind?”
“Never mind. Let’s go.”
“Never mind what! Hey, you apologize to me right now—!”
Though the boy protested, Liriope ignored him and walked ahead.
They’d gained two unexpected companions, and noisy ones at that. Yet somehow…
For reasons she couldn’t fathom, her mood wasn’t bad at all.
And so, bickering as they went, the three of them headed toward the remnants of Zed’s Gang to retrieve Caliona.
* * *
“Shit. What? You’re alive?”
And there, Liriope came face to face with the man she had killed with her own hands.
“You vanished without a trace when we were looking for you, and now you’re just crawling back? Ugh! My head. My head’s gonna split open, damn it.”
Dark gray eyes, holding the chill of shade, fixed upon her with savage intensity.
The moment their gazes met with Zed, his head wrapped tightly in Bandages, Liriope froze as though she’d seen a ghost.
How was this possible?
The sensation of bringing a stone down on his head again and again still lived vividly in her fingertips—how could he be alive?
[Contractor! Snap to it and warn that one coming up behind!]
At those words, Liriope’s senses snapped back into focus, and she quickly assessed the situation.
While Zed held his head and groaned, she kicked at a stone with her heel, swiftly blocking the Cave’s small entrance with it.
“But where the hell are those bastards who went outside? I put out the fire, but can’t catch a single loach. Ptui!”
As Zed had just said, it was Dino—faster than Cassel—who set fire to the pile of grass beside the large entrance of the Cave to lure the children in.
In that window, Liriope, familiar with the hideout, was supposed to slip in through the small entrance first and get her bearings.
Then the red-haired boy, Cassel, would follow closely behind to deal with any stragglers from Zed’s Gang that might remain, and they would extract Caliona and carry her outside…
But she’d never imagined Zed would be here.
“Shit, but something’s off. Why’d you come through the rat hole instead of using the main entrance? And the timing’s suspicious too. Did you set that fire?”
Then a chilling gaze thick with killing intent slid across Liriope.
She still didn’t know how Zed was alive, but if it came to it, she could simply kill him again.
But objectively speaking, the situation now wasn’t in her favor.
In Hand-to-Hand Combat alone, she might have managed to call Cassel and fight. But if matters stood as they were now, Zed’s Magical Power, depleted as it was, would have recovered somewhat.
In a confined space like this, if a fireball caught them, there’d be nowhere to dodge—they’d all pay a price.
Moreover, Liriope’s heart still ached with every breath, so she couldn’t even manage the modest Magic she’d used on the silver-haired boy.
So while the situation was deeply disadvantageous for her, thinking it through, it wasn’t quite the worst-case scenario either.
Most importantly, looking at Zed’s demeanor toward her now, perhaps…
Liriope studied the face before her and chose her words with care.
“I didn’t set the fire. But… I have been hiding nearby since before. When I saw the commotion suddenly erupt, I thought if I timed it right, I could slip in without being noticed, so I moved quietly.”
“So why sneak in like a rat in the first place? Huh?”
“Because I was afraid of being spotted by that thing that attacked you and me outside earlier…”
The moment anxiety seeped into Liriope’s voice, the air around them shifted sharply.
Eyes overflowing with murderous intent, as if ready to tear apart anything in their path, pierced straight through her.
“You saw who hit me in the head?”
Just as she’d thought.
Zed didn’t know that it was Liriope who had attacked him.

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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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