Memoirs of a Wicked Magician - Chapter 7

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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 7
“I’m not interested.”
“Come on, don’t be like that.”
“Trivial bets are for you lot. The prize has no value anyway.”
The boys wanted to draw Belkiers into the wager, but his answer left no room for negotiation.
“Besides, I’ve never needed to regenerate my body during mock combat before.”
……
……
That much was true.
With Belkiers’s skill, he could defeat every child here with ease, having no need to worry about injury.
Even now, despite wearing an expression of utter boredom as though everything bored him, he was deploying magic that was almost overwhelmingly powerful.
The twelve magic circles beginning to form around Belkiers’s Magic Stone were completing their shapes with breathtaking speed and precision.
On the surface, Magic Circle Dissolution appeared to be a very peaceful and simple test.
But the absurdly short time limit and the unnecessarily complex ancient magic circles were the problem.
Each circle, designed like a labyrinth, would surely bring catastrophic consequences if one made even a single slip in deciphering it.
Yet barely two minutes passed.
That was all the time it took for a pure, intact Magic Stone to fall into Belkiers’s hands.
Despite having played indifferent throughout, Belkiers passed the test first, overtaking the children who had been straining themselves and focusing intently since earlier.
At that very moment, the expressions of Evangeline and Leo, who had been debating their wager, crumpled.
The magic circles they had been maintaining steadily even while conversing rippled weakly, following the disturbance in their hearts.
It was Leo, skilled at concealing his true feelings, who recovered first.
“Well then, let’s just do it among ourselves, excluding Belkiers.”
He returned to his characteristic grin, as though his face had never darkened, and promptly slung an arm around the large blond boy beside him.
“Hey, Scar. You’re the Selector assigned to the External Residence this year, right? Between me and Evangeline, who do you plan to help win?”
“What, Scar is the one managing this year’s new recruits?”
Evangeline also showed interest in the blond boy.
The Magic Tower’s unofficial “Selector” system.
Also known as the New Recruit Selection.
Upon entering the External Residence as a Selector, one could discretely assist or hinder the new recruits’ tests.
This was a role assigned yearly to the adoptive children of the Tower Master, and one of the few pleasures in the harsh life of the Magic Tower. That’s why everyone eagerly counted down the days until their turn came.
“Scar, think carefully. If you so much as hint at helping Leo, I’ll make you regret it for life.”
“Whoa, are you threatening our sweet little Scar right now? How crude, Evangeline.”
Since this was naturally a crucial variable that could decide the outcome of the wager, both of them pressured the boy chosen as this year’s Selector.
So it was inevitable that Scar, the blond boy who had been concentrating intently on the test with no room for composure, finally exploded.
“Ugh, shut up……! There’s less than ten minutes left before the test ends, and I can’t concentrate because of you two. Get out!”
“Oh, Evangeline. You made Scar angry.”
Clang!
At that very moment, Scar’s Magic Stone detonated with a loud crash.
“Ahhhhh……! M-my eyes!”
Whoosh!
And suddenly, enormous crimson wings sprouted from Scar’s eyes, which were embedded with shards of the shattered Magic Stone. It was a backlash from the magic.
In the midst of his anguished cries, Leo casually clicked his tongue.
“Ouch, Scar. You should have been more careful.”
“Y-you bastard! You deliberately broke my Magic Stone just now, didn’t you?! That’s cheating! I’m going to report you to the proctor!”
“Nah. It was an accident, pure accident. I was in a hurry because there wasn’t much time left, and my magic just went astray by mistake, you know?”
“How is that even an—”
“And how exactly do you plan to prove my intent? Hmm?”
His infuriatingly smug grin was utterly brazen.
That’s why he kept Protection Magic active at all times to guard against interference from rivals, but it proved useless in the face of an overwhelmingly superior talent gap.
“Y-you despicable bastard! I was never your match to begin with, so why are you sabotaging my test!”
To his indignant cry, Leo graciously explained.
“Well, you see, our dear Scar flunked today’s test in such unfortunate fashion, right? Then he’ll be busy serving punishment for a while, won’t he? This year’s Selector will unfortunately have to be postponed to the next in line. My, what a coincidence—that happens to be me.”
Leo gave an exaggerated expression of surprise in theatrical fashion, then laughed with bitter relish.
Only then did Evangeline, catching on to the situation, let out an astonished, hollow breath from beside him.
“So that’s why you caused this mess? Just to win some pathetic little wager like this?”
His crimson eyes glinted with naked contempt and revulsion.
“You really do spout every kind of nonsense, Leo. Filthy and utterly beneath contempt.”
“Ha! Then why not admit you’ve lost and call off the wager with someone beneath you?”
“Me, lose? Says who? Before this test ends, you might end up just like Scar.”
“Oh, what? You’re saying you want to fight me right now?”
“There’s nothing stopping me, is there?”
Malevolent black magic swirled around them.
The air hung taut, as though it might explode at any second.
That was the exact moment.
[Beep—.]
Piercing!
A spine-chilling, sharp sound suddenly pierced through the room.
Simultaneously, an ominous Black Magic Circle materialized beneath the feet of the children who had not yet finished their tests.
“Huh?!”
“Wh-what? There’s still five minutes left!”
The boys and girls who had been concentrating on the test lifted their heads in shock.
“What is this? Why is the test ending signal going off now?”
Leo muttered in disbelief, then suddenly turned his wide eyes sideways in alarm.
The other children did the same.
All eyes fixed on the enormous Hourglass hovering in the center of the room.
As if mocking them, the golden sand that had only a single grain’s worth remaining vanished like smoke.
“Illusion Magic? Impossible. No one noticed anything until now—when did it even——”
“All of you, quiet!”
Then two mages entered the room through the door.
The robed mages, inscribed with six pairs of wings each, swept their pitiless, cold gaze across the children before them.
“Test concluded. Your performances were all mediocre.”
The boys, sensing their futures, swallowed heavily or bit their lips.
“Only two have passed. Belkiers and Evangeline. You may leave.”
The moment those words left their mouths, Red Chains crawled up from the magic circles on the floor, coiling tightly around the bodies of the boys who had failed the test.
Huff……. Gasp, whimper…….
At that moment, Evangeline’s body, with her head bowed, began to tremble.
“Pfft……! Kahahahahaha! Kyahahahahaha——!”
Soon a laugh piercing enough to tear eardrums tore through the air.
No one could stop him as he laughed, doubling over with his hands on his belly.
“Look at you acting all superior and spouting garbage—serves you right……! If I were you, I’d be so humiliated I’d bury my face in a dog’s bowl and die! The shame of Belgrot! Vermin!”
Leo had no choice but to contort his face in agony at the relentless barrage of crude insults.
“Shut up, Evangeline.”
“Ahaha! Oh, sorry, Belkiers. That fool’s pathetic face was just so entertaining I couldn’t help myself. Not worth dealing with anyway—shall we go, you and I? Pfft!”
Belkiers, standing apart from all this chaos with an unmoved expression, left the room first, with Evangeline following behind.
Leo glared daggers at Evangeline’s retreating form, who had mocked him until the end.
But soon the black magic beneath his feet pulled him down like a swamp, and his furious cry was swallowed by darkness.
* * *
“Belkiers, what exactly are you thinking?”
In the corridor, Evangeline, who had been chuckling softly, caught up to Belkiers who was walking ahead.
Her eyes, searching his face intently as if to divine his thoughts, held a rather meaningful gleam.
“The Hourglass—you did that, didn’t you?”

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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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