Memoirs of a Wicked Magician - Chapter 63

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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 63
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Liriope quickened her pace, ignoring the urgent footsteps and calls echoing behind her.
Most of the mages in the Inner Estate had their minds elsewhere, and besides, Liriope already knew the structure of the Northern Magic Tower well.
So, cloaked in Concealment Magic, she slipped into the garden that wound around the tower like a maze and effortlessly lost her pursuers.
[Do you even know where your sister is? Why don’t you just ask those fools to summon her?]
‘If I get caught now, it’ll only take longer to see her.’
[True enough—they did seem like the type to pester me with endless questions.]
Ode clicked his tongue, chiding Liriope.
[Why did you have to uproot an entire tree and make such a mess of things? Well, I suppose it was satisfying. They looked so stupid just standing there—if they knew what chaos you left in the basement, they’d be foaming at the mouth.]
But soon a cruel, cackling laugh replaced his reproach.
Liriope ignored Ode’s evident satisfaction and looked up at the tower.
Belegot had always subjected even newly arrived children in the Inner Estate to Practical Training right away.
So she couldn’t be certain whether Caliona was actually inside the Magic Tower at this moment, but she’d decided to search for her sister herself starting from the lower floors first.
As Ode had pointed out, even if she asked those mages from earlier to summon Caliona, they’d have no reason to comply given Liriope’s situation.
Fortunately, floors one through twenty of the Magic Tower were reserved for Recruit Training, so movement was unrestricted.
Of course, which floor each person occupied did vary based on individual performance, but unlike floors twenty-one and above, entry itself wasn’t completely forbidden.
Normally, to ascend to the higher levels of the Magic Tower, one had to pass an examination or prove one’s abilities through other means.
Still, even the fastest learners typically spent their first two or three years confined to the lower twenty floors, so Caliona was almost certainly somewhere in between.
“Sigh.”
Liriope took a shallow breath and adjusted her clothes.
It had been so long since parting with her sister at the exit of the Outer Estate a year ago, and her nerves were far from settled at the prospect of seeing her again.
She had always regretted not bidding her sister a proper farewell that day, and she’d been anxious about whether Caliona was adapting well to life in the Magic Tower and staying healthy.
Of course, judging from what she occasionally heard through Velkius, there seemed to be no need to worry about Caliona.
But as Ode had cautioned, Velkius might have lied to Liriope.
Yet honestly, apart from her trust in Velkius, Liriope desperately wanted to believe that Caliona was truly doing well.
‘All right, I can just confirm it with my own eyes now anyway.’
Liriope cut off the distracting thoughts cluttering her mind and, without hesitation, pushed off the ground in a leap.
Her Black Cloak billowed once in the light and wind of the small Magic Circle that appeared briefly, leaving a faint afterimage as she vanished through the window.
Whoosh!
“…!”
But the moment Liriope landed on the floor of the tenth level, a clear sense of wrongness enveloped her.
“No, you chubby thing! To the left, the left!”
“Aha! Look at those short little limbs flailing about so desperately. How adorable, really.”
This should have been an empty room where no one had set foot in ages, yet the space was filled with sweet fragrance and bright, ringing laughter.
And what of the dazzling golden roses blooming profusely throughout the room, or the cat lazily chasing birds at play?
More than that, five beautiful young people sat around a tea table in relaxed conversation, enjoying refreshments—a scene that felt utterly unreal.
“Stella, this tea has such a lovely fragrance. It’s like an elegant lily scent made just for you.”
“Hide gave me this as a gift. It’s a black tea that even the most distinguished guests in the Inner Estate enjoy.”
“Oh my! As expected! Hide certainly does treat you well, Stella. Imagine—making someone bearing the name Belegat court you so earnestly. And you continue to hold Cameron’s favor entirely to yourself as well. Truly remarkable.”
Liriope surveyed the artificially bright space—as if she had stepped into a carefully tended greenhouse garden—with half-narrowed eyes.
‘Domain Design Magic, perhaps? I’ve wandered into the wrong Barrier.’
[Yes, that girl in the White Dress seems to be the owner. But something about this scene feels rather odd…]
“You flatter me. But everyone, just a moment.”
Before Ode could finish speaking, a gentle, dulcet voice—like dew falling from a leaf—rolled into Liriope’s ears.
“It seems we have an unexpected visitor.”
Among the young people present, the girl in the White Dress was the first to notice Liriope’s existence, and she turned a curious gaze upon her.
“Oh? She’s real!”
“What? Where did she come from all of a sudden?”
The other young people were startled and began demanding to know who Liriope was.
“Who are you? I don’t recall inviting any strangers.”
But only the girl in the White Dress remained unconcerned, showing no sign of confusion or discomfort as she observed the uninvited Liriope with clinical curiosity.
She was a girl so beautiful that even the single finger stroking the Black Cat on her lap seemed crafted as if from pearl.
Her gently smiling lips, moist and full, held a rosy hue that would set any young man’s heart aflutter, and her long hair cascading chastely below her breast, paired with eyes like dreams—the color of amber—gleamed with a radiant golden sheen.
“Screech!”
“Chirp-chirp-chirp…!”
And because this girl was as beautiful as a figure from a masterpiece painting, the havoc surrounding her seemed all the more pronounced by contrast.
Liriope wrinkled her brow, catching the faint smell of blood wafting through the sweet fragrance.
Between the feathers fluttering before her eyes, she glimpsed a grimy floor utterly at odds with the greenhouse’s cheerful scene.
Thirteen or so larks lay dead on the ground, stained with blood, each in a pathetic state.
Puddles from overturned aquariums held the decomposed bodies of goldfish, scattered about in a sickening mess.
Judging by their torn and mangled appearance, they seemed to be the handiwork of the cat presently chasing birds.
Unlike the Black Cat resting comfortably on the White Dress girl’s lap, the orange-furred cat had been ferociously pursuing the bird since earlier.
Every time its sharp claws raked menacingly through the air, the wretched lark would emit a tearing cry, fleeing ever more desperately through the greenhouse.
“Chirp-chirp!”
Then suddenly, the fleeing lark flew toward Liriope.
The cat chasing it rushed at Liriope with equal ferocity, all sense and direction forgotten.
Hiss!
But the fluffy cat was quickly seized by the scruff of its neck and left dangling in midair from Liriope’s hand.
With saliva and blood coating not just its mouth but its entire body, the cat bared its fangs at Liriope, hissing and spitting aggressive threats: “Screech, screech!”
But why—
The cat’s pale green eyes, glinting with intense emotion—whether excitement or rage—seemed oddly, disturbingly familiar.
Liriope’s expression slowly clouded over.
‘Wait… Could this cat be…?’

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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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