Memoirs of a Wicked Magician - Chapter 46

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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 46
Of course, Milena knew that couldn’t really be true, yet her body trembled at the sensation of being a carcass hanging in a Butcher Shop.
Perhaps mercifully, that chilling gaze swept past Milena and began scanning each of her companions one by one with equal intent.
Every child who met Zed’s stare felt the same creeping dread, their bodies going rigid just as Milena’s had moments before.
Then at last, Zed opened his bloodless lips to address the frozen children.
“Now, hah, hah-huh. We move immediately.”
…….
“All of you, hah, follow.”
Was his voice warped like that because he’d inhaled the fumes?
A sound like something had been scraped raw mixed with his words, and that metallic quality drew out an unease far deeper than mere discomfort, cutting straight into her eardrums.
All of the children, Milena among them, felt an indescribable terror.
Yet there was nothing to do but follow him.
They weren’t permitted to do otherwise, and fear had numbed their minds to the point where escape never even occurred to them.
It felt as though if they so much as glanced away for an instant, something unimaginably terrible would tear through the back of the boy walking ahead and burst forth.
So despite the gnawing dread and revulsion, they couldn’t tear their eyes from that silhouette.
Thus they set out on their final journey toward their destination, moving like ants in single file, carrying prey through an air wrapped entirely in some unknowable and unclean presence.
They had no inkling that a swamp far worse than the Flower Trap they’d barely escaped was waiting for them there.
7. Escape from the Outer Residence
Mm…….
Liriope’s eyes opened as she felt a burning pain across her back and shoulders.
“You’re finally awake.”
A whisper reached her ears like a distant lullaby.
The damp stone beneath her cheek was cold.
Liriope was lying face-down in an unknown place, and from the threadbare cloth laid beneath her, it seemed someone had been tending to her.
“Sister……?”
At first, Liriope thought it was Caliona beside her.
The hand that gently combed through her tangled hair felt just as tender as her sister’s would.
But that hand stilled at the sound of her voice, and then a soft, wry chuckle spilled from a boy’s mouth into the quiet air.
“Even after opening your eyes, you search for your sister first.”
As her vision cleared, a silver-haired boy came into focus, watching her silently from between the dim flickers of firelight.
His beauty was utterly incongruous with this place—so graceful and elegant that the dark Cave seemed to transform into a sunlit Flower Garden, creating an almost optical illusion.
For a moment, Liriope thought an angel had descended before her.
A divine messenger of beauty and nobility, sent to guide virtuous souls to paradise.
‘Wait…? Hold on. If I can see an angel, does that mean I’m dead? That can’t be right.’
Liriope recoiled reflexively, creating distance between herself and the figure beside her.
It was an almost instinctive reaction, but Belkeyus withdrew his hand regardless.
The purifying magic that had been cleansing Liriope of the Contaminated Air faded naturally as well.
But since he’d just finished the purification anyway, Liriope was unaware of what Belkeyus had been doing.
Instead, she recognized that the face before her now was not an angel, but a familiar boy.
Besides, it would have been presumptuous of her—hardly a virtuous soul—to think an angel had come to claim her.
As Liriope’s wandering gaze shifted sideways, she could make out her sister sleeping deeply and two boys nearby.
“I, I’m sorry……. I brought you, you here……. Sniff, sorry, I’m sorry, Fin…….”
They were Kassel and Dino, who had been following in Liriope’s wake.
Kassel’s soft apologies to the dead, mumbled like sleep-talk, echoed dimly through the still air.
At the sight, Liriope’s rigid expression softened slightly.
She didn’t know by what path Kassel and Dino had joined them, but at least they seemed safe.
Could it be that these two, who had been following behind, had brought her and Caliona here despite the danger?
Belkeyus stood plainly in her field of vision, but she didn’t imagine he’d helped—only that he’d come to get a look at her.
Liriope turned her gaze again and examined Caliona more carefully before allowing herself to relax completely.
Unaware that Belkeyus was watching her with a cold stare.
Liriope parted her lips slightly and exhaled a dry breath, then carefully tried to sit up.
But a stifled groan escaped her, and the attempt failed.
“Does it hurt?”
Belkeyus had purified all the contaminated matter from Liriope’s body, but he couldn’t heal the wound on her shoulder.
The magic of the Northern Magic Tower—and particularly the magic Belkeyus had learned—focused on destruction and attack.
Besides, he’d never felt the need for healing magic in his life. Not until this very moment.
Yet what was this irritating feeling that he’d apparently been learning magic carelessly all this time…….
Moreover, watching Liriope worry only about her sister even as she suffered like this stirred an inexplicable spite in him.
Still, he offered her his help generously.
“Want my aid? If you admit your sister is a Bug, I can get you out of the Outer Residence and have you treated.”
“……?”
Liriope found the suggestion so absurd she wondered if she was hallucinating.
Belkeyus, no matter how she looked at him, seemed to emit a radiance that marked him as something other than human.
Yet his beauty appeared closer to that of a demon, one that tempts humans to their ruin.
For a moment, Liriope fell into confusion—wondering if all of this was a dream, and whether she was being tested by the divine.
And so she voiced a choice that would never waver.
“Go, away……. My sister isn’t, a Bug…….”
Then a shallow laugh, as if shards of glass were scattered in it, dispersed through the air.
“Rejecting my help again. I suspected as much, though.”
After that sound had fully faded, a smile mingled with sighs and resignation bloomed across Belkeyus’s lips.
“In any case, since you don’t wish it now, that’s unfortunate.”
And he vanished, leaving whispered darkness behind.
“But I promise you—soon you’ll need me first.”
As if the thing Liriope had seen had never truly existed, nothing but a phantom in a dream.
“Huh……? What’s this, did I just fall asleep?”
The moment Belkeyus left, those who had been sleeping opened their eyes.
“How is this—we all fell asleep at once?”
Caliona, her face ashen, looked around in alarm, while Kassel started and hastily wiped at his wet cheeks.
“Captain, could it be that flower monster is chasing us? There’s no way we’d all fall into such a deep sleep at once like this otherwise, like we’d all been stung at the same time!”
“And yet you slept soundly through it all…….”
Liriope forced her parched throat open to speak to the confused group.
“Sister…….”
It was a voice barely above a whisper, yet small as it was, it filled the tiny Cave.
The heads of all three snapped toward Liriope in unison.
Caliona’s reaction was the quickest among them.
She saw Liriope’s eyes open and drew in a sharp breath, then crawled urgently to her sister’s side.
“Liri, Liri……. Are you all right?”
That was precisely what Liriope wanted to ask Caliona.
She’d glimpsed her sister opening her eyes in the cluster of blue flowers, but she’d lost consciousness immediately after and hadn’t been able to check on her further.
Then something strange occurred in the next moment.
The instant her trembling sister’s hand touched her body, something peculiar wrenched out of her.

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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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