Memoirs of a Wicked Magician - Chapter 61

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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 61
Flutter.
A black butterfly that had come to rest on Liriope’s hair seemed to confirm that her suspicion was correct.
‘He said he had other matters to attend to and wouldn’t be able to come today.’
Still, he had made time to stop by the Outer Estate, and it seemed he’d simply draped his cloak over her as she slept before leaving.
Given the comfortable Isolated Space he had created, she could easily imagine the displeased expression he must have worn upon seeing Liriope dozing in the branches of the tree. She didn’t need to witness it herself.
Ode habitually grumbled about the cloak’s owner.
[Hmph. At least that wretch still has a shred of conscience left, or I’d have become a vengeful spirit and cursed him into oblivion myself, had he tried to keep you here any longer without restraint.]
Within Ode’s muttering, the image of Velkius grew unusually vivid.
A strange boy, impossible to fathom even after seeing his face so many times.
During the time Liriope spent in the Outer Estate, many things had occurred between her and him.
Particularly, when Velkius had visited Liriope days ago and gazed at her face for a long moment before speaking, something inexplicable stirred within her chest—a faint, incomprehensible breeze.
But as had happened countless times over the past days, this subtle tremor was thoroughly suppressed and vanished without a trace under her strict control.
Liriope looked silently at the black cloak for a moment, then removed her old, worn garment and draped the new one around herself instead.
Today was a special day, and Velkius’s cloak looked far cleaner and finer than the one she had been wearing.
Until now, she had paid little attention to her appearance, but today was different.
Whoosh!
It was at that very moment that the flow of air surrounding her changed.
The hour of the promise she had so desperately awaited had finally arrived.
A powerful surge of mana burst forth almost at her feet, drawing Liriope’s attention.
A vast Magic Circle rose from the ground, its brilliance spreading in all directions and drowning her vision in white light.
[This, this is it! At last…! At last the time has come!]
Ode’s voice rang through her mind with such heated excitement that it set even the listener’s emotions ablaze.
Yet the face Liriope showed to the world remained as serene and composed as a still lake, undisturbed by even a ripple.
[Now I shall finally feel the sunshine from beyond! Ah, what a tedious stretch of days it has been!]
Leaving Ode’s voice—swollen with far greater emotion than her own—behind, Liriope rose completely from where she sat straddling the branch.
In the underground tunnel, it had been difficult to count the exact date, so she could only guess at when the next Sacrament Ceremony would fall.
Had Velkius not told her beforehand, Liriope would have faced this moment entirely unprepared.
And now, the vast Magic Circle blazing around the entirety of the great tree announced the complete end of these arduous days.
Without hesitation, Liriope leaped downward into the echoing din and blazing light surrounding her.
The height from which she fell would have meant crushed bones in any ordinary circumstance—she had climbed into branches that nearly scraped the ceiling.
Yet Liriope descended lightly as a fallen leaf riding the current of air, her feet touching ground with perfect grace.
However, her footsteps did not lead toward the exit that had just opened, but rather toward the Black Lake that encircled the tree.
Seeing the dark form that had just clawed its way up through the water’s surface, Ode clicked her tongue.
[Tsk, to think I must lay eyes on that cockroach-thing one last time. I’ll grant it this much—its obsession is almost admirable.]
A year was time enough for even a corpse to become bleached bone, time enough for grave dirt to settle smooth and fine.
Yet the creature that emerged from the murky, swampy waters, though its body bore patches of decay, still retained a semblance of human form.
Of course, no matter how one looked at it, calling that thing human would have been a stretch.
“Why, we both assumed it would try its chance at escape when the gate opened, didn’t we?”
[Vile thing or not, I’m sick of its face! I’ve seen that wretched visage enough these past twelve months. Let’s be done with it and get out of here already, my student.]
Liriope agreed with that sentiment.
The creature before her, reeking of unbearable rot as it crawled onto dry ground, produced an endless stream of incomprehensible sounds—oo, oooo—as it shambled toward her.
Though its appearance was nightmarish enough to haunt dreams and its aura ominously sinister, Liriope advanced without hesitation.
“One hundred eighty-six times over the nearly six months since I returned to this forest.”
A final, cold farewell to the thing that had long since lost its name and become nothing but a monster flowed from her barely-moving lips.
“And yet even now, you remain unchanged.”
Whiiir!
The force of blue-green leaves tinged with grey began to steadily intensify. Soon they swirled fiercely in wind that fell like a squall, obscuring the view.
Golden hair brighter than the scattered light on all sides and her black cloak danced unmoored through the air, following the waves of wind.
Beneath her billowing sleeve, the Black Diamond Pattern, now nearly fully revealed, glowed.
The moment amethyst eyes glimmered with keen brilliance, a magnificent Magic Circle bloomed above Liriope’s head in blinding splendor, reaching toward the fallen corpse.
“Then this time, let’s end it for real, Zed.”
Boom!
In an instant, Liriope’s mana greedily consumed everything in the blue forest whole.
* * *
At that same moment, on the surface grounds of the Outer Estate of the Northern Magic Tower.
The junior mages who had transferred the children who received the Magical Succession Transmission and entered the Initial Transformed State into the underground space finally heaved a sigh of relief.
“Phew, thank goodness this year’s Sacrament Ceremony is finally over.”
“So, how many do you think will pass this time?”
“I’m just hoping we get at least five this year. If the passage rate bombs again, it’ll be three years running, and the higher-ups won’t look kindly on it.”
“It’s not our fault the kids are deficient, is it?”
“Bah, as if those bigwigs in the Inner Estate would care about our circumstances?”
They quickly left the large chamber on the surface where the Sacrament Ceremony had been conducted and headed straight out of the building.
They were going back to their quarters in the Inner Estate to rest and recover.
But the junior mages could not help but stop in alarm the moment they stepped through the main gates.
“What, what is that?!”
“Spatial Transfer Magic? The signal’s green? Isn’t that exclusively for Outer Estate passers?”
A massive pillar of light had shot up directly before them.
The mages confirmed the Spatial Transfer Magic Circle floating in the sky beyond the high walls of the Inner Estate and exchanged bewildered glances.
“Wait, there’s already a passer?”
“But was it always like this? Why does it look so brilliantly radiant today?”
“Anyway, let’s hurry and check it out!”
The mage skilled in Spatial Transfer Magic immediately moved her mana, while the others hastily rushed toward the Inner Estate.
Meanwhile, the mages of the Inner Estate were equally astonished.
“How is this possible? A passer has appeared already, right after the trials began?”
Of course, it was possible that one of the children from previous years, having calculated the exact date, had positioned themselves near the exit and emerged through the opening gate at precisely the right moment.
Even if that weren’t the case, the Spatial Transfer Magic would activate automatically once the mana gauge was completely filled. Either way, there was nothing inherently strange about a passer emerging at this very moment.
But the true reason for their alarm lay elsewhere. It was——
“Moreover, look at how many are transferring in all at once!”
One, two, three, four, five…….
Roughly ten pillars of light, densely clustered together, shot skyward like a single towering column, commanding every eye.

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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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