Memoirs of a Wicked Magician - Chapter 32

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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 32
“If you looked, you’d see—I’m gathering, aren’t I?”
“Gathering? That grass? Why?”
“To eat it.”
“You’re going to eat that?”
“Yeah…”
“Why? Does it taste good?”
“It’s edible enough, so I eat it. Why are you asking such things—”
Liriope was answering thoughtlessly when the sharp edge in Ode’s voice suddenly cut through her mind, making her flinch and drop her hands.
[This is… do you even know who you’re talking to right now?]
Now that she thought about it, something was wrong.
In the group, only Milena, Kam, and Jed usually spoke to Liriope. But the voice she heard just now belonged to none of them.
Yet it wasn’t entirely unfamiliar either—it had that strange quality of sounding as though she’d heard it somewhere recently.
As her drifting eyes slowly turned sideways to pinpoint this nagging wrongness, the silver-haired boy she’d met yesterday came into view.
“No matter how I look at it, eating grass is quite an unusual palate you have there.”
Unable to believe it, she closed her eyes and opened them again, but the figure before her didn’t vanish.
The silver-haired, red-eyed boy who had appeared without warning yesterday and tried to kill her—the one presumed to be her sister’s ex-lover.
He sat there with the same cool expression as yesterday, having somehow knelt down beside Liriope.
The moment she realized his presence, her heart plummeted.
But there are times when shock is so overwhelming that one can’t muster any reaction at all, and that was Liriope’s state now.
Like a goat with a wolf’s jaws inches from its snout, she went rigid, her spine locked, her breath caught.
Whether the boy noticed Liriope’s state or not, he regarded her with an utterly unreadable expression and even reached out his hand toward her.
But in the next moment, the boy’s smooth hand—as though carved from ice—didn’t attack her. Instead, it plucked away one of the grass blades she’d been holding.
“Twenty-eight! We’re leaving now, so get up already! And the one next to you too… Huh? Somehow you look unfamiliar to me today for the first time. Is it just my imagination? Anyway, hurry up!”
Wait, did that guy’s eyes go wrong?
Liriope tilted her head and turned to look at Kam with an expression of exasperation.
The boy beside Liriope was, by any measure, not a fellow member of Jed’s Group.
For one thing, unlike the children who were all somewhat unkempt, he looked remarkably clean and carried an air of aristocratic refinement.
And beyond that, he wore the Teal Cloak—the very symbol of the Northern Magic Tower.
Moreover, one emblazoned with four pairs of Wings.
Recalling that most Mages reached the limits of their lifetime achievement at around two pairs of Wings, one could easily grasp just how extraordinary an accomplishment this boy had attained at such a young age.
Yet how could she fail to recognize, even with her eyes wide open, that he was a person who didn’t belong in this place at all?
It made no sense.
“Liriope! Oh, you’re still here! Must be tough with nothing to eat, right? Here, I’ll share some of my water with you.”
Liriope jumped up and hurried toward Milena as she approached.
Then she grasped her arm and dropped her voice as low as she could, speaking in hushed tones.
“Milena, do you recognize that man-child standing behind me?”
Milena’s confused gaze drifted past Liriope’s shoulder. Liriope followed her eyes back as well.
In the meantime, the boy had straightened and risen, now staring intently down at the grass he’d taken from Liriope.
After tilting his head slightly for a moment, he moved his hand.
Liriope watched as the pale green leaf of the plant touched his lips—the only vivid crimson on his otherwise pale face—and felt as though she’d witnessed something she shouldn’t have, making her whip her head away.
“Huh? Liriope, what are you talking about? Well, uh, he looks unfamiliar now that you mention it, but he’s still one of our comrades, isn’t he?”
Faced with Milena’s reply, Liriope had no idea what reaction to give.
Could she really be unaware of how contradictory those words were?
[Perception-Distortion Magic. And quite advanced at that. I’m not sure if the boy meant to do it, but in any case, it seems the magic doesn’t affect you.]
At Ode’s words, Liriope’s thoughts grew clouded.
‘What do I do? For now, should I also pretend not to recognize his face?’
[Calm yourself for now. There’s no killing intent coming from him at the moment.]
Before she could decide on her approach, the boy suddenly contorted his face and spat out the grass he’d been chewing onto the ground.
Then he approached her and spoke with evident displeasure.
“This tastes awful.”
“…”
“Why would you eat something like this? You really think it’s delicious?”
When Liriope neither affirmed nor denied, the boy regarded her with a subtly dissatisfied gaze for a moment, then nodded as if understanding.
“I see. You have an unusual taste, then.”
And with that, he gently placed the grass—minus one leaf he’d eaten—back into Liriope’s hands.
“Finish eating the rest since I’ve already taken some.”
“…”
Liriope had absolutely no idea how to process this situation…
[This bastard… He appears out of nowhere and speaks so casually as if nothing’s wrong? Does he really not know the Perception-Distortion Magic doesn’t work on you?]
Ode, seeming to voice Liriope’s own bewilderment, muttered in exasperation.
But what was happening now?
“Speaking of which.”
The boy’s crimson eyes began to slowly scan Liriope from head to toe.
Her body tensed with wariness.
But what emerged from his perfectly sculpted lips was entirely different from what she’d expected.
“Why is that? You look dirty every time I see you.”
“What?”
“You seem to smell a bit, too.”
The boy’s voice, flowing from those refined lips, was brutally cold and dry in character, yet somehow felt like a perfect melodic line in itself, lending it an elegant quality.
Because of this, Liriope couldn’t immediately grasp what he’d just said.
She stood momentarily dazed, turning over his rude words in her mind. Then she felt the back of her head sting with rising shock, shame, and anger.
Though perhaps it was fortunate that—
Her initial fear and confusion had already faded somewhat without her noticing.
Liriope took a couple of deep breaths to steady herself, then opened her mouth, trying to suppress the turbulent emotions.
“We’re moving without proper rest. Everyone gets dirty—it’s only natural, isn’t it?”
“Is that so?”
“It is.”
Liriope’s tone, still uncertain how to handle the boy, came out somewhat awkward and stiff.
Whether he felt it or not, the boy’s mouth curved just slightly.
It could have been a faint smile, or perhaps a subtly twisted expression of displeasure.
At the same time, it was an ambiguous response—impossible to tell whether he found her changed attitude amusing or distasteful.
Before she could even respond to it, he slowly countered her words.
“Don’t you have Cleanliness Magic Stones in the supply box? And contrary to what you say, those kids over there look clean.”
“My circumstances are a bit different from theirs.”
“So those insects are better off than you?”
Is treating people as insects the typical manner of speech for those Mages from the inner tower?
Brief though the exchange was, the more Liriope spoke with him face to face, the clearer it became that this boy’s identity was different from her initial assumption.
‘This one… isn’t Evangeline.’
In fact, she couldn’t even understand how she’d made such a mistake in the first place.
“If you need something, why not just take it?”
The boy continued to press Liriope.
“You could even kill them all. That wouldn’t be so bad.”
His prodding words sounded both like provocation and enticement.
“Then everything would be yours.”

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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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