Memoirs of a Wicked Magician - Chapter 98

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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 98
According to Ode, Illusion Magic was fundamentally the art of projecting images from one’s mind into external reality.
Whether what was reflected was real or unreal mattered little—in both cases, vividness and authenticity were paramount.
Liriope released the images dwelling within her as though painting them onto a canvas.
Glub-glub.
When she opened her eyes again, Liriope was drifting through an underwater realm of luminous coral reefs and tropical fish, blooming flowers in her field of vision—a scene she’d once glimpsed in a beautiful book.
Beneath the surface lay the relics of some radiant ancient civilization, seeming like treasures of a slumbering angel, accompanied by a haunting melody.
Glimmering golden sunlight rippled like ribbons, tickling the tip of her nose.
Liriope raised her hand and parted the golden curtain slightly. Through the gap in Cameron’s Isolated Space, she caught sight of an adult mage with bronze-colored hair.
Today Cameron sat motionless in his chair, having forgotten even to savor his solitary, elegant tea time.
Though cries and whimpers from the children echoed throughout the space, none of it seemed to reach his ears.
If he truly played the role of a mother bird inflicting pain on her chicks, then Cameron should have felt their suffering as his own.
Liriope resolved to lend truth to the words Cameron himself had spoken earlier.
‘Ode.’
Before acting, Liriope first addressed him.
‘There’s something I’ve been wondering about for a while. Is it alright if I ask?’
[What is it?]
Ode, who had been quiet for some time, responded slowly.
He occasionally grew taciturn for a day or two, claiming his mind felt fatigued—a pattern that notably intensified after Velkius’s visits.
Moreover, this time he’d encountered the Tower Master of Northern Magic Tower without warning and had to defend against her magic, which seemed to have strained him somewhat.
‘I mean, Spatial Design Magic.’
Since he’d just explained the mechanisms of hallucination, something occurred to her that she wanted to ask.
‘A while back, when Milena transformed into a cat inside Stella’s space—even if we call that an illusion, Milena clearly believed she was actually a cat and acted accordingly. Isn’t that different from Mental Domination?’
Liriope had experienced Stella’s Spatial Design Magic twice before.
The second time she’d entered that space, she’d been shocked to realize Stella was controlling other children with mental magic.
Of course, she’d learned later that wasn’t the case…
Yet thinking back on it afterward, hadn’t Stella manipulated Milena into believing she was a cat back then as well?
It seemed to Liriope that this ought to be classified as a form of mental magic too.
[Of course it’s different. The distinction is fundamental—as vast as the difference between a fish and a bird, or a dog and a butterfly.]
But Ode immediately dispelled her suspicion.
[Mental Domination is when a mage controls every aspect of the target’s actions and thoughts according to their will. But what Stella did was merely assign roles to those who entered her domain and employ deception to draw them into immersion.]
‘Assign roles? Employ deception to achieve immersion?’
[Precisely. A domain designed by a mage is a well-crafted stage and an illusion. Naturally, the degree to which one can become immersed depends on how realistic the stage feels. That’s where the differences in a mage’s talent become starkly apparent. As for Milena, though… hmm, whether it’s her weak sense of self or something else, she does have a tendency to be swept away rather easily.]
Ode added that while Stella’s Spatial Design Magic was certainly serviceable, her dramatic effects were amplified by Milena’s particular characteristics.
[In any case, if I had to make a comparison, it would be closer to the Auxiliary Magic Cameron uses when appealing to the children to sway them.]
Cameron and Stella bore no resemblance in appearance or personality. The magic they primarily used seemed superficially distinct in nature as well.
Yet it turned out they shared this common ground.
After hearing Ode’s explanation, Liriope shifted her gaze back across the tear in the Isolated Space.
Still blank-faced Cameron, and the pungent azure flowers emanating their potent fragrance.
Cameron possessed four pairs of wings—a fact that made even Liriope hesitant to confront him directly.
The experience etched into his body couldn’t be measured by standards like Magical Hierarchy.
That’s why she’d always intended to find an opportunity soon to gauge his true level.
‘Fortunately, conditions aren’t unfavorable for a test right now.’
Moreover, while mental magic was still difficult for her, if she employed the method Ode had just explained…
Threads of Mana spilled unhesitatingly from Liriope’s fingertips.
They swiftly traced beautiful Magic Circles in the transparent water, gleaming like a luminous river of stars.
* * *
Cameron had locked the children inside the Black Cube and now sat vacant-eyed, staring at the classroom door.
The image of Stella’s face—mingled fury and disappointment—as she rushed out still burned vividly in his mind.
‘How can her angry expression be so identical to Sophia’s?’
When he’d first met Stella three years ago, Cameron had received a tremendous shock upon seeing her face, which bore an astonishing resemblance to his former lover.
After seeing the Ring Stella brought to the Northern Magic Tower—a keepsake of her mother, she’d said—he could confirm with certainty that she was his daughter.
Stella was an unusual girl who, after hearing from her deceased mother that her biological father resided in the Northern Magic Tower, had climbed the tower with her own two feet.
‘Working so relentlessly to find her father all this time, never realizing I was right before her eyes…’
Cameron found Stella admirable, yet he had never revealed his identity to her.
More precisely, he had been unable to.
In the golden prime of his life, Cameron had loved Sophia with a burning passion.
Then, he was at the height of his power as a mage, and Sophia was a spirited and beautiful mage herself.
Though Sophia had already had a lover, she ultimately chose Cameron in the face of his ardent courtship.
But that dream-like era, in which they seemed to possess the world, did not last long.
During what was called one of the harshest winters in sixteen years.
A terrible accident occurred in the Corrupted Sanctuary—one that claimed his leg and Sophia’s life.
Cameron had believed that Sophia died carrying his unborn child in her womb.
‘Sophia… How did you survive alone and bear Stella? And if you didn’t die then, why have you never sought me out all these years?’
After learning of Stella’s existence, Cameron’s deep anguish had begun.
And it had only intensified with each passing day, showing no sign of resolution.
A soft sigh escaped his lips.
Today too, lost in dark musings, Cameron’s nose caught a sweet fragrance drifting past.
When he suddenly raised his gaze, for reasons he couldn’t explain, he found himself standing not in the classroom but in another place entirely.
‘Where… is this?’
A crimson chamber suffused with ominous energy.
In its center stood an enormous Scale.
On one side, viscous blood dripped and ran; on the other, a white Magic Circle gleamed brilliantly.
“Cameron, w-what should I do? Are you really sure it’s okay to leave this to me?”
The voice of a woman he’d never forgotten, even in dreams, pierced through his hazy consciousness.
He lifted his head and saw a familiar face regarding him with apprehension.
The moment his eyes met her tear-stained amber gaze, a thunderbolt of recognition struck him.
Ah… ahhhhh!
Yes, this was the Shattered Ruins where that terrible accident had unfolded sixteen years ago.
But that revelation immediately vanished from Cameron’s mind without a trace.
The Cameron who stood here was not the lowest-ranking supervisor of Belegot, the lonely forty-four-year-old bachelor.
The man in the Shattered Ruins was currently twenty-eight years old.
An unlucky young man who, after containing the shadow flood in the Corrupted Sanctuary, had accidentally stepped with his beloved into the Shattered Ruins.
“No matter what result comes, you must never resent me. Promise me, Cameron.”
“I promise… I promise, Sophia.”
Cameron’s lips moved as though possessed by some force.
Then Sophia squeezed her eyes shut and rolled the Dice with her Mana.
Roll-roll-roll!
A white Dice, inscribed with numbers from zero to five, tumbled across the blood-soaked floor.
Moments later, the number that came into view was…

“Two… Two? Really two? What does that mean, then… We both have to stand on the Scale? So we really have to die together here?”
Sophia let out a hollow laugh, then collapsed into despair and began to weep.
Yet Cameron felt relief. So long as the number wasn’t three or higher, he could escape from this place alive.
“Sophia… I love you. I love you, Sophia.”
Wracked with searing anguish, Cameron wept uncontrollably as he drew the beloved woman tightly into his embrace.
And then… Cameron offered Sophia and the child she carried in her womb as a sacrifice upon the Scale, and he alone emerged from the crimson chamber.

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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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