Memoirs of a Wicked Magician - Chapter 92

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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 92
Though Belkieros’s face was one Liriope had grown familiar with over the years, the mere change in coloring painted across it made him seem utterly strange and alien to her eyes.
Liriope forgot even to blink as she barely managed to lower her head, yet soon enough, without her own awareness, she found her gaze drawn back to the boy.
“Fortunately, thanks to Belegort’s renowned resilience, physical restoration should be possible—I need only steel my mind and endure.”
Belkieros repelled his sworn brothers’ counterattacks and ground those who resisted to dust beneath surging waves of mana.
Yet even as he did, his piercing eyes remained fixed upon the woman seated at the highest place, as though ready to tear her apart.
“Perhaps it would be worthwhile to see which of us proves most ruthless and unyielding.”
He dared to speak in defiance of the woman who had given him blood, flesh, and soul.
“I swear this: however many times I die—hundreds, thousands of times—I will never yield. So long as breath remains in me, I will pursue to the very end of the world and sever the bloodline of any who oppose my will, shattering their very soul.”
Every person possessed something that should never be touched.
For Belkieros, it appeared, that something was the pale-faced girl kneeling below.
Even he had not anticipated that such a fierce fury would well up within him.
And yet in this moment, Belkieros truly wished to slaughter every last one of the Belegort members present.
A raven steals what glitters and hides it in its nest. What Belkieros had done to Liriope was no different.
That which he had secretly hoarded, guarding jealously against the possibility of anyone else claiming it, should never be carelessly cast down and trampled upon by anyone—least of all by that woman before him, she who called herself his mother.
Yet that was precisely what had occurred.
The killing intent now radiating from Belkieros naturally included himself as well.
He had thought himself thorough in concealing all traces, yet in the end he had foolishly exposed himself and brought about this situation—a fact that kindled an unbearable rage within him.
After a time, the sworn brothers who had been under Belkieros’s assault ceased their counterattack entirely.
Some, recognizing at last that they could not overcome him no matter their efforts, submitted in defeat; others, perceiving this as a family matter between the Tower Master and Belkieros, withdrew rather than interfere.
They made clear their unwillingness to continue the conflict by deliberately halting their repeated bodily restorations.
When the brilliant magics that had flashed back and forth fell silent, all that remained in the chamber was a heavy, frigid silence—profound enough that one could hear a pin drop.
Seraphina, the Tower Master, sat with her chin resting in her hand, gazing down at her son with his usual defiance as she had so many times before.
At last, a soft sound—half sigh, half laughter—broke through the razor-sharp stillness that had lurked so dangerously.
“How unfortunate… my son objects so fiercely that I have no choice but to yield for now.”
To everyone’s surprise, it was Seraphina who first stepped back.
“There is no rush today. Very well—you may take that child with you.”
It was a strangely prompt concession from one who had so carelessly summoned Liriope to provoke Belkieros.
Yet in the eyes of the Tower Master as she gazed down at him lay the arrogant magnanimity of a victor who had already secured her victory.
“But tell me, Belkieros—how much longer do you think you can resist the desires within yourself?”
Belkieros did not wait to hear the Tower Master’s words in full. He approached Liriope at once and, without hesitation, seized her arm and enfolded her in his mana.
As his vision darkened, the Tower Master’s smile—disturbingly thick and ominous—smeared across it like a stain.
“I look forward to that day, not far hence, when you crumble under the weight of your own conflict. Until then, Liriope, I shall call upon you again soon.”
With the woman’s voice still reverberating through his soul like thunder, the pressure that had borne so heavily upon Liriope dissolved into wisps of smoke.
* * *
Belkieros deployed Spatial Transposition in rapid succession.
Each time the magic ignited, the landscape visible in his field of vision flickered and shifted.
At first, Liriope surrendered entirely to Belkieros’s hold, unable to move so much as a finger—as though she had forgotten how to speak, think, or move.
The turmoil in her mind did not immediately clear, and she needed time to make sense of what had just happened.
“I should never have taken interest in you in the first place.”
But then Liriope felt the mana mingled with the familiar scent of the boy surge turbulently, and she suddenly lifted her head.
“If I’d known you could draw another’s eye so easily, it would have been better to keep you outside Belegort from the start.”
Belkieros’s words seemed less directed at Liriope than at himself—a harsh rebuke and condemnation.
Liriope noticed that Belkieros showed no sign of stopping his Spatial Transposition, even as it repeated multiple times, and she opened her mouth.
“Where are we going?”
“The Eastern Magic Tower.”
“What? Why there all of a sudden?”
“It’s closer, at least. The Southern Magic Tower is farther.”
At this contextless response, Liriope’s brow furrowed.
“You can’t stay at Belegort. Anywhere but the Northern Magic Tower will do—just go somewhere else.”
Belkieros, unlike his usual self, seemed far from rational; he appeared desperately hurried. His complexion had turned pallid and ashen.
Whether it was Armund, the Eastern Magic Tower, or Silvinet, the Southern Magic Tower, neither mattered.
He had to get Liriope somewhere the Tower Master’s eyes could not reach.
For now, Seraphina still did not know that Liriope was the Tower’s chosen candidate for Tower Master.
Should she learn that truth, she would either enslave Liriope all the more thoroughly or kill her without mercy or hesitation.
Only after watching Liriope dragged before the Tower Master today had Belkieros come to bitterly regret his own arrogance and foolishness.
If there were truly something he did not wish to lose, he should have steeled himself from the beginning as though he had never harbored the fear of loss, and severed the bond with ruthless determination.
So now, while there was still time, he would send Liriope outside the Northern Magic Tower and ensure they never met again.
Just then, a quiet voice reached Belkieros’s barely present ears.
“I’ve already received Mana Transmission—there’s no way another Magic Tower would accept me.”
“Then you don’t need a Magic Tower. You can go anywhere. There are places for you to live. I’ll find somewhere good for you, and you’ll stay there.”
“It’s a similar argument, but I’ve already undergone the Ceremony of Blessing at Belegort. If I wanted to, wouldn’t the Magic Tower be able to track me using Mana Trace?”
The mana of the three Magic Towers that existed in the present era differed vastly in nature and character.
Because magic itself varied in compatibility with each tower’s mana, the spells primarily taught and studied differed as well, and the Mana Trace left behind after magic was cast bore the distinct signature of each tower.
This was why mages who had received Mana Transmission could not simply abandon their Magic Tower or vanish with ease.
There was but one way to completely escape a Magic Tower…
“Then stop using magic. I’ll destroy your Mana Core for you, cleanly.”
As Liriope listened quietly, Belkieros finally spoke those words aloud.
At the recklessness of Belkieros’s words, Liriope’s expression contorted.
“Stop saying such nonsense.”
She tightened her grip on their joined hands, forcing Belkieros to halt his next Spatial Transposition.
“And my sister is at Belegort—where would I go? I won’t leave.”
At this invocation of his sister amid everything, Belkieros’s face crumpled like a piece of wrinkled paper.
Having lived his entire life in the Northern Magic Tower, Belkieros had witnessed everyone offering blind reverence and obedience to the Tower Master.
Thus, the sight of Liriope lavishing endless affection and devotion on something other than the Tower Master was, on one hand, a relief—yet on the other, it infuriated him beyond measure.
“Don’t you understand the situation? Do you not grasp what nearly befell you just now…?”
“I do. The Tower Master took notice of me. What’s the problem with that?”
“What?”
“I didn’t understand everything that was said in that chamber, but in any case—great strength and vitality. That’s something I could obtain, isn’t it? It doesn’t sound like a bad offer to me.”
At the moment her calm words reached him, Belkieros’s jaw clenched tightly.
As though hearing something unbelievable, he fixed Liriope with piercing eyes and spoke through gritted teeth.
“Do you have any idea what kind of power that is, speaking so carelessly? Did you not see what became of those men?”
“I didn’t see them. I heard the sounds of fighting, but I could only lift my head for a moment in the middle. So I could barely make out your face.”
At Liriope’s matter-of-fact response, Belkieros felt a surge welling up from deep within and forcibly suppressed it once more.
“You should have seen those men’s condition, not my face.”
“I don’t know. Your face is all I could see.”
……
Caught off guard by her unexpected words, Belkieros found his voice unexpectedly cut short.

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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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