Memoirs of a Wicked Magician - Chapter 67

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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 67
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“Get in!”
Clang!
Moments later, Liriope found herself in a cramped underground corner room fitted with iron bars.
The mage who’d brought her here seemed eager to throw her inside, but instead settled for slamming the iron door shut with brutal force.
The cell was barely wide enough for a dozen paces—more a beast’s cage or a prisoner’s solitary than a proper room.
“Finally, we’re all here. Every last worm in this cesspool.”
And indeed, besides Liriope, the other new recruits who’d arrived at the Inner Estate that day sat locked in their own cells.
As footsteps echoed down the corridor outside, heavy and sinister, the mage seemed to be surveying each cell one by one.
“Everyone, quiet!”
When he struck the floor with the staff in his hand—tap!—his deep blue robe, embroidered with four pairs of wings, rippled slightly.
“I am Cameron, overseer of the lowest level of the Inner Estate and your warden!”
Cold, cutting words dripping with contempt and disgust struck like daggers against their ears.
“Here, my word is absolute. If you wish to live, you’ll do well to obey and humor me. Anyone who angers me will beg for death before I’m through with you. Remember that.”
When soft murmurs rose from all directions, Cameron struck the bars threateningly.
“And listen well—you came from the Outer Estate, but you’re still maggots too weak to see the light. Consider this your home for the time being. Now stay silent as the grave until morning!”
With that ominous warning, Cameron left them in darkness.
Liriope surveyed the hardly pleasant cell and settled onto a wooden bed in the corner.
Creak!
The moment her weight touched it, the ancient frame groaned so loudly it echoed beyond the iron bars.
[What kind of absurdity is this! We finally escape the Outer Estate, and now we’re locked in an even worse underground dungeon? Does this make any sense?]
Ode vented indignation at the mistreatment.
Liriope, meanwhile, pulled her cloak tighter and soothed him wordlessly.
‘It’s alright. Just a little longer. I’ll do my best to get us out of here quickly.’
Besides, if Liriope’s memory served, she wouldn’t be confined to this cell the entire time during New Recruit Training. So this was bearable enough.
‘But this cloak… it’s warmer than I expected.’
Liriope found herself reassessing the cloak’s benefits anew.
Until now, the excitement and thrill of arriving at the Inner Estate had kept her warm, but as her emotions settled, a deep chill crept in.
Yet the cloak held her warmth, with only her exposed face and hands stinging from the cold.
As Cameron had said, the cloak bore several enchantments—giving it exceptional insulation and durability.
Liriope began examining the Magic Circles inscribed on the cloak in detail.
Knock-knock!
Suddenly, a soft knocking sound came from the right wall.
“Commander Liriope!”
“…”
“Commander? You’re there, aren’t you? Aren’t you?! It’s me, Peter!”
The other children, waiting their chance, began speaking up one by one, announcing their locations.
“I’m in the next cell, Commander!”
“Nina and Hans are here too!”
“Hey, little commander! You okay? That Cameron guy, or whatever—he didn’t hit you or anything for leaving your post earlier, did he?”
The title, no matter how many times she heard it, never quite sat right with Liriope. She fell silent for a moment.
“Um, yeah… I’m fine. Sounds like everyone’s safe.”
The moment the children in the other cells—no, the other prisoners—heard her voice, they erupted in excited chaos.
“Commander! We’ve missed you!”
“Seriously, that warden grabbed us with a Magic Net like we were fish on hooks and dragged us here, you know?”
“We passed the test with confidence and arrived at the Inner Estate, and this is how we’re treated?”
Seeing them pour out grievances in rapid succession, it was clear the treatment they’d received upon entering the Inner Estate felt profoundly unjust.
Then one child suddenly remembered something they’d forgotten and asked Liriope.
“Commander, did you meet her yet?”
Liriope’s face hardened at the question.
She hesitated, unsure how to answer. But the children, misinterpreting her silence, quickly began comforting her.
“Oh, you haven’t met her yet! That’s too bad.”
The children sympathized as if it were their own loss.
“But you’ve finally escaped the Outer Estate! You’ll definitely meet Commander properly soon, so hang in there!”
“Yeah, so don’t lose heart!”
Amid the flood of encouragement and support, Liriope fell silent again before quietly saying “thank you.”
Then her expression grew complicated, and she closed her mouth again.
[Are you embarrassed because of these kids? Little commander.]
‘I told you not to call me that.’
[Hmph, did I call you that? The children did.]
At Ode’s predictable teasing, Liriope swallowed a sigh.
Over the past year, aside from a slight increase in height, Liriope’s appearance hadn’t changed noticeably—but much had happened in the Outer Estate.
One of those things was these children who’d escaped the Outer Estate with her today.
When the Outer Estate’s safe zones had begun shrinking rapidly, Liriope had encountered these children drifting on the edge of survival, meeting them one by one by chance.
At the time, Liriope was living in remarkable comfort within Velkius’s Personal Dimensional Space, recovering her Mana core.
Once her body had more or less returned to normal, she’d begun wandering through the contaminated Outer Estate alone—much to Velkius’s displeasure.
He especially disliked her encountering other children during his absences.
But Liriope had purified the children who were dying from Contamination addiction, to the extent she was able.
More than that, she’d helped ease their life in the Outer Estate and assisted them in replenishing their Mana Gauges in small ways.
This had complicated matters with Velkius, who’d once tried to eliminate all the children in the Outer Estate and trap Liriope completely within the Personal Dimensional Space—a disaster had nearly struck.
But it had all come to nothing in the end, so there was nothing worth discussing in detail now.
In any case, the children had no idea they’d nearly died because of Liriope. So they treated her as though she were their greatest benefactor.
And gradually, they’d begun calling her by that strange title.
‘Still, of all things, why “commander”?’
Didn’t it bring to mind someone with red hair?
These were street orphans raised in similar hardship, so it made sense they’d use the same titles common among children of their age in any neighborhood.
But truthfully, the title itself didn’t matter much.
Rather, Liriope had no desire to build deep friendships with the other children at the Northern Magic Tower, so the whole situation felt awkward.
That’s why, once the serious work of purifying the Outer Estate began, she’d severed contact with the children almost entirely.
Yet somehow, she hadn’t expected them to still treat her this warmly.
[Funny—now it makes me think more about those children we parted ways with at the exit last year. The red-haired one and the brown-haired one, and that girl Milena I saw earlier.]
Liriope’s expression tightened slightly at something Ode had mentioned.
[Of course… from what I saw earlier, at least one of them doesn’t seem to be doing very well.]
Ode seemed to regret bringing it up, trailing off as the earlier scene returned to memory.
The sight of her hunting fish and birds under Stella’s Magic—that couldn’t be called healthy by any measure.
[But the rest of them should be fine. Those red-haired and brown-haired kids were capable enough to fend for themselves. And besides, when you saw her earlier, your sister looked quite healthy, didn’t she?]
At that, Liriope’s heart eased a little.
[You probably just couldn’t see her face clearly because it was dark. And since today was the Inauguration Ceremony, it’s hard to imagine you’d have stepped outside on the first day anyway.]
‘Yes, that must be it. Surely you’re right.’
Liriope pushed aside the worry and anxiety clinging to her heart, agreeing with Ode’s reasoning.
Then she closed her eyes and rested.
The night passed as long and weary as the nights she’d spent in the Outer Estate.

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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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