Memoirs of a Wicked Magician - Chapter 44

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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 44
But the incomprehensible and devastating hunger — that boundless, destructive greed — was suddenly forced to halt.
It was because of the grip that seized Caliona’s arm with crushing strength.
“Stop.”
She felt as though pure white snow was pouring down before her eyes.
“That’s enough.”
The blurred figure of the boy in her dazed vision resembled a winter guardian from a fairy tale, or perhaps a spirit born of white snowstorms.
His low whisper — like a bitter mountain wind driven by the harshest cold — seemed to burrow into her ears as though it were a phantom sound, distant and haunting.
“I understand you desire this so desperately you’ve lost yourself in greed, but even so, you should know when to stop. Unless you want to kill your own sister.”
Slow realization began to bloom in Caliona’s dazed eyes, even as she walked through a dream.
But her hazily whitened mind was suddenly washed clean, as if drenched in ice water.
Thud.
The strength suddenly drained from her younger sister’s arms wrapped around her, and a small body slumped heavily onto hers.
“Liriope…?”
At the same moment, the boy’s grip on Caliona’s arm tightened with a force that bordered on painful.
But before she could cry out in pain, something hard caught against her other hand as she reflexively raised it.
“Wh—what?”
At first, she didn’t immediately understand what it was.
Understandably so.
Because this—this was something that should never, ever be embedded in her sister’s body.
The spear that had pierced through Liriope’s right shoulder blade, pushed by Caliona’s unknowing touch, spilled fresh blood in a violent rush.
Now she saw it: the blood that had been wetting her cheek all this time was blood that had flowed from Liriope’s shoulder and dripped down.
This… this… what is this?
Why? Why is this happening?
A cry-like gasp of breath escaped between Caliona’s slowly parting lips.
Looking at her now, Liriope was draped across Caliona, cradling her body protectively.
Could it be that while Caliona had lost her grip on reason, her sister had thrown herself into harm’s way trying to shield her?
‘It can’t be. How could this be?’
She could not comprehend what was happening.
How could she, who was supposed to protect her sister, be the one receiving help instead? And worse still, how could she inflict such terrible harm upon her in the process?
This shouldn’t be happening.
This really shouldn’t be happening.
‘I’m the older sister.’
So I should have kept my wits about me from the start.
I was supposed to protect her this time, no matter what—!
“Ah, ah… Liriope….”
Caliona embraced her sister’s motionless body with trembling hands.
“Liriope, Liriope… Liriope?”
Then hot blood spilled over her body once more.
No, she can’t lose this much blood. If this continues, she might die.
No—she will die.
Just as their parents had.
Caliona felt her vision turn white, then blazing red, and finally black as ash left behind by fire.
Her dull mind could not properly process what was happening before her eyes.
When her dimmed consciousness brightened a little, she had somehow emerged from beneath her sister’s body. And when she opened her eyes again, she saw an unknown boy reaching his hand toward her sister, who lay prone on the ground.
Without even touching it directly, the spear shaft was simply drawn out and clattered to the ground.
And the surging blood was sealed off by Dark Magic.
“Gack, cough, cough…! Wh—what! Ah, I can’t see!”
In the midst of this, an irritating sound pierced Caliona’s eardrums once more.
“I, I have to kill! Before I die, I have to kill quickly…! Don’t, don’t try to stop me!”
Her blurred violet eyes turned toward the source of that unbearable sound.
Kam, struck directly by the dispersed Blue Pollen, thrashed about like a paper doll, flailing his arms helplessly as the foreign substance burned his eyes.
Fortunately, the magic Liriope had activated in desperation managed to form a shield around both of them, allowing the sisters to avoid directly inhaling the pollen that scattered like a blizzard.
Belkiers looked down at Liriope, who had clung desperately until the very end and now bore a grave wound, with cold eyes.
He had chosen not to act first, and yet, seeing Liriope in this state, something began to simmer inside him in a way he couldn’t quite understand.
Belkiers lifted the limp Liriope into his arms.
“Big… sister….”
Then, from her lips twisted in pain and cold sweat, an unwelcome name escaped.
Even in this moment, Liriope sought only one person, and it made Belkiers smile bitterly.
He could not understand why Liriope clung so stubbornly to a sister who might as well not exist.
If she were alone right now, she could escape this forest without difficulty.
In fact, Belkiers had come to regard the girl in his arms as one of the very few he considered an equal as a person.
The Magic Tower’s chosen rival.
Yet in observing Liriope these past days, she had displayed only a way of thinking and behavior he could never fathom.
Belkiers had liked how unpredictable Liriope could be, but now—
He was deeply irritated.
He felt the impulse to erase the owner of that name from before his eyes without a trace, just as much as he despised the one who had inflicted this wound on Liriope.
Yet he did not touch Caliona, who sat with a blank expression on her dazed face.
With such patience, without so much as lifting a finger, he watched with cold eyes as Caliona unsteadily rose and moved toward something.
Judging from the direction her wavering gaze and steps were leading, it was not difficult to guess what she intended to do.
So Belkiers withdrew the malicious Magical Force that had quietly surrounded him, and did not direct it toward Caliona.
“P-please save me.”
Meanwhile, Caliona stared blankly at Kam before rising unsteadily and approaching him.
Kam, unable to see, fumbled about his surroundings as if searching for someone.
Could it be that my sister was injured because of this wretch?
“Please… save me….”
From somewhere, she seemed to hear a young girl’s voice crying and pleading.
It sounded like her own voice from the nightmare she had been trapped in moments before, and yet also like the whimper of an injured Liriope in her absence.
It occurred to her that perhaps her sister too had pleaded in fear like this, much as Caliona herself had done long ago. The thought made her mind boil as if molten metal had been poured into it.
“P-please… save me….”
Her vision tilted strangely, as if mirage heat were rising from the ground.
Like a candle flickering uncertainly before the wind, growing dim as if about to extinguish and then flaring back to life, Caliona’s eyes flickered with dull light.
“Hng… uh, uh… ah, it… hurts….”
Then at some point, Caliona realized that the grating voice was right before her, within arm’s reach.
When she refocused her blurred eyes straight ahead—
“P-please… save me….”
Kam’s form, pierced through the abdomen by the spear, gasping and choking, was imprinted on her dark retinas.
“…Huh?”
This spear—until just moments ago, it had been lodged near Liriope’s shoulder.
Then why was she holding it now?
“Guh… cough.”
And why was it now buried in this creature’s belly?
Over the past year, Caliona had tumbled through back alleys, had beaten people, had deceived them. But this was the first time she had ever driven a blade through someone’s body.
Strength drained from Caliona’s hands as understanding failed to come.

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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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