Memoirs of a Wicked Magician - Chapter 35

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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 35
Truly, no one who hadn’t seen those violet eyes in person could possibly imagine just how much vibrant life they held, how they sparkled like the morning star.
And what of that unpredictable audacity—the way she’d caught Belkiers off guard, slipping past his defenses when he least expected it?
“So, from the way you carelessly spit out such impertinent remarks to someone you barely know, it seems you never received proper upbringing from your mother, did you?”
“Your mother must be an irresponsible permissive type who didn’t mind her child becoming a rude and tactless adult.”
“Hah.”
Then, suddenly recalling something Liriope had said earlier, Belkiers couldn’t help but let a laugh escape through his lips.
He understood she’d retaliated out of anger at him insulting her sister, but even so, it was hardly warranted.
Did she even realize whom she’d dared to curse?
There was no one within the Northern Mage Tower who could address him as an ignorant, unculured wretch lacking proper upbringing, so for Belkiers, this too was an extraordinarily novel experience.
In truth, the Liriope before him now was merely a fragile existence he could crumble with a single finger twitch whenever he wished.
No matter that she was another Mage Tower Master candidate chosen by the Tower itself, the gap between Liriope, who had only just begun, and Belkiers, whose very nature set him apart from birth, was already vast.
Perhaps that was why.
Why he held no desire to kill Liriope, whose very existence amounted to an affront to his authority.
Yet he couldn’t explain what this inexplicable emotion stirring within him truly was—it felt like far more than that alone.
Knock, knock.
—Lord Belkiers, a message from the Mage Tower Master.
At that moment, a knock came from outside the window, followed by a rough voice drifting inward.
A chill flashed across Belkiers’s eyes, still fixed upon the portrait.
“What is it?”
He asked without so much as opening the window or drawing back the curtains.
A raven woven from mana pecked lightly at the glass several more times, as if pleading to be let in, but the locked window showed no sign of budging.
Eventually, the voice came through from outside regardless.
—He says that since your return is delayed, you must fulfill your duties as Successor and capably fill the Mage Tower Master’s void in his absence. And furthermore…
After a brief hesitation, the message continued.
—Since all of this exists for you, my beloved alter ego, Belkiers, cease this futile resistance and now submit obediently…
In that instant, the raven outside was swallowed whole by Belkiers’s mana.
Caw! Caw…!
The black bird’s body was wrung like a rag by the violent surge of mana.
But rather than bursting apart in brutal fashion, the mana-wrought raven dissolved into black smoke and vanished.
Belkiers remained utterly motionless in the now-silent room, his gaze fixed upon the portrait hanging on the wall.
The beautiful boy seated at the desk appeared as serene as always, yet unbeknownst to anyone, within him burned a silent, scorching flame that none dared imagine.
Belkiers had indeed taken interest in the girl in that portrait precisely because she was different from him.
But simultaneously, a contradictory emotion had arisen within him—one he couldn’t quite articulate.
Perhaps it was the vague presentiment that this girl might possess something he had secretly yearned to find in another person throughout his entire life.
And the foolish hope that perhaps she alone might understand him, even if only in some small measure…
It was ridiculous.
Soon a thin smile—like the jagged edge of broken glass—spread across Belkiers’s lips.
Belkiers Belegort had always been honest with his desires.
He possessed the habit of absolutely having whatever he wanted, and never once in all his years had he failed to obtain it.
So too would the girl soon become his—of that he was certain.
Now that Belkiers had begun to want her.
At last, having made his choice, Belkiers rose slowly like a stretching beast.
As he left shortly after, his departing figure bore not his usual indifferent detachment, but rather an unshakeable conviction.
* * *
The journey toward the exit of the Outer Estate was treacherous.
“You fools, get your heads in the game! Don’t scatter—drive them all toward the center!”
Clang, clang…!
“Zed, that’s the last one!”
“Then everyone get clear!”
At the edge of the Blue Forest, where overhead hung drooping leaves and sharp branches all tinged with grey.
Whoosh!
A fierce blaze erupted in a small clearing.
“Got ’em! We’ve taken them all down!”
“God, I thought we were dead for sure!”
Creatures that resembled wolves save for their twin heads and grey-mottled hides shrieked as they were consumed in the flames.
A few who had run at full speed to lure the beasts collapsed exhausted onto the ground, while the rest of the children who’d fallen behind busied themselves tending to the wounded.
Zed, breathing heavily, surveyed the area around him.
“Huff… huff… Anyone dead? Is there anyone dead?”
“No, everyone’s safe!”
Once Zed had confirmed the children were unharmed, he wiped away the sweat dripping down to his jaw with the back of his hand.
It had been a week since they’d left Uum’s Domain.
They’d already encountered dangerous creatures multiple times: the twin-headed wolves they’d just faced, explosive fire-rats with detonating tails, giant spider swarms with legs sharp as spears.
Beyond that, they’d had to cross toxic mushroom fields that caused inflammation merely by grazing the skin, and marshes thick with anesthetic vapor, inevitably taking some damage.
Yet for Liriope, who remembered this point in time before the Time Regression, the mere fact that they’d had zero casualties felt miraculous.
“Damn it, we’re still too few in number… I need to bring all these kids out with us…”
Remarkably, the chief architect of the children’s protection was none other than Zed himself.
But the way he gazed over the group with half-focused, listless eyes while muttering anxiously to himself was somehow deeply unsettling.
Over the past four days, Zed had been uncharacteristically non-violent toward the other children, and even now he seemed concerned for their welfare—and yet it remained disturbing nonetheless.
Whatever had gotten into him, throughout the relentless forced march without rest, Zed hadn’t deliberately sacrificed a single slave.
Unlike before, when he’d carefully husbanded his mana and used magic only when strictly necessary, he now boldly blasted through every obstacle with his own magic alone.
In fact, they were currently traveling a safer route than they had in the time before the regression, moving toward their destination without incident.
They’d bypassed the marshlands that ordinarily required a sacrificial scout to test the bridge first, and unlike their previous push straight through the twin-headed wolf den where he’d planned to let two or three die, this time they’d skirted around it.
Yet thanks to Zed’s remarkable performance, they’d actually cut their travel time to reach this Blue Forest far shorter than before.
‘Why? It’s so different from before the regression.’
Of course, unlike the previous iteration at this point, the number of newly recruited slaves this time was absurdly small.
Moreover, he’d already lost a considerable number of his original companions due to Liriope.
Perhaps he was being cautious not to waste available slaves on the more dangerous stretches, knowing he’d need them later…
‘Still, something about this feels unnatural.’

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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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