The Patient Wizard Chapter 21

Chapter 21 – Calculation (11) 

They quietly waited for the Lion Hall’s shinsas. Eventually, the shinsas entered, led by Alex.

Alex walked with his characteristic strutting gait but then hunched his shoulders in surprise when he saw the high-ranking wizards gathered.

At that moment, Catherine saw something else. She screamed in shock upon seeing Mark’s eyes, which had black holes where the eyeballs had been removed.

“Be quiet.”

At Randall’s command, Catherine covered her mouth with both hands.

David spoke in the most gentle voice possible.

“Come here and stand.”

As they approached, David, Peter, and Carl each took one person and intensively questioned them about what they had done between 12 and 2 o’clock.

Chris listened with ears wide open, praying that they would have no alibis as he heard their conversations.

An irrelevant comment was interjected.

“We could just extract their memories.”

Harvey was genuinely disappointed.

Why is that guy like that?

Chris was cursing internally when he realized why Harvey behaved that way. If you want to practice fire magic, you can shoot fireballs into the air. If you want to manipulate water, you can go to a stream to practice. You could even fill a bathtub and practice.

The same goes for other elements. Earth, wood, and metal are all around us. Wind blows every day. If you want to practice magic, you can just do it.

But Harvey’s magic isn’t like that. When he extracted scenes from Mark’s eyeballs, the pupils burned up. That magic inevitably damages the corpse. No bereaved family would give a corpse to Harvey for magic practice. Memory extraction is even worse. What crazy person would risk becoming an idiot by offering themselves up for practice?

Naturally, the practice of Harvey’s magic is limited. To practice, he needs to buy corpses or slaves. It cost a lot. That’s why such a free opportunity for practice is precious and joyful.

Chris cursed Harvey again before feeling self-loathing. His use of profanity had increased since entering the Magic Tower. But he had never spoken those curses aloud. They were all internal.

A Wizard…

He truly wanted to become a wizard. So, he wanted to curse freely in front of a punk like Harvey. He wanted to curse in front of Randall and William too…

How refreshing that would be?

It was so sad. Because it was a dream that could never come true.

The alibi investigation ended. Catherine and Frank had alibis. They said they were having meals with colleagues at that time. Only Alex lacked an alibi.

Chris rejoiced inwardly.

That’s good.

Chris didn’t hate his colleagues who had succeeded in sensing magic. The gyesin stage was simply the tower’s way of protecting them from atrocities like memory extraction by giving them some semblance of human treatment.

Of course, Alex was an exception. Chris disliked and hated Alex. He would clap and rejoice if Alex suffered.

The best outcome has occurred.

Chris felt joy that Alex alone had no alibi.

David instructed:

“You go that way, and you two go over there.”

Alex went to Tony’s side with a disgruntled, swollen face. Tony avoided him and stuck close to Smith.

When they first entered Lion Hall, the nobles grouped together, ignoring and scolding the slaves. Now, after 11 months, Tony chose to be with Smith rather than Alex.

Harvey rubbed his palms together.

“The culprit is among those four. How do you plan to identify the culprit?”

William said,

“Well…”

“Let’s extract their memories. That’s the best option.”

“That might be the best option for you.”

If his disciple Peter had been learning such magic, William would gladly have offered them as sacrifices for practice.

But Harvey was the apprentice of Seike, whom William greatly disliked. Moreover, Harvey’s behavior resembled his master’s, which irritated William every time he saw him. He didn’t want to do anything that would please Harvey.

David said,

“What about reading memories from the dagger?”

Randall said,

“We’d have to ask a higher ranking wizard than ourselves, but I wonder if they would bother to investigate the murder of an apprentice.”

Harvey said,

“Those people would scoff at the death of apprentices like us. They might even punish us for bothering them with trivial matters when they’re busy.”

He continued, rubbing his hands,

“At the very least, only those above the rank of Sikbaesa should step forward after someone has died.”

Chris thought,

The stage after gyesin is Jenyeom, and after Jenyeom comes Sikbae.

There might be another stage between Jenyeom and Sikbae. However, considering the nuance of the words, that possibility seemed unlikely.

David stepped forward.

“I’ll try contacting them.”

Randall warned,

“You might be disciplined.”

David gritted his teeth.

“I’ll accept the consequences.”

Seeing David’s grave expression, even just making contact seemed risky.

Chris thought.

How eccentric must they be that even contacting them is frightening?

The wizards he had encountered were terrible people.

Does learning magic make one’s personality so bad, or were they originally like that? If it’s the former, would my personality become bad if I learned magic?

Chris wanted to become a wizard even if his personality changed.

David created a sound transmission spell and sent it. Then he took deep breaths to calm himself.

Alex said,

“I am truly being treated unfairly.”

Tony asked,

“What?”

Though Tony asked the question, Alex looked at the wizards and said,

“I am not someone who should be with these insects. I am a wizard like you.”

Harvey snorted.

“Shinsas are not wizards.”

“Haven’t we started on the same path?”

“No. Shinsas can give up becoming wizards and become knights instead.”

Chris’s eyes sparkled at this new information.

So if you sense magic, you can become a knight too?

It seems that at the gyesin stage, the path divides into either wizard or knight.

Alex’s eyes became dreamy.

“I will soar high into the sky.”

“Isn’t it too early for such talk? Even those at my memory level aren’t considered wizards by the higher-ups. First, earn the qualification to stand beside me, then speak such words.”

Peter criticized Alex:

“If you become a shinsa, you should be thinking about studying hard. Why did you bully the Lion Hall apprentices? That’s why you’re being treated this way, and it’s troublesome for us too.”

From his words, Chris confirmed that his thoughts were correct. If Alex hadn’t been included in the suspect group, the wizards would have thrown Tony, Smith, and Faye into memory extraction.

Harvey snapped his fingers.

“That’s what I’m saying. What a pathetic guy. Why did you do it? Did you want to taste the lowly feeling of victory by bullying losers?”

Alex immediately denied it.

“No.”

Chris couldn’t hold back and spoke.

“Alex isn’t good at studying, is he?”

He looked at Catherine and Frank.

“Right?”

Catherine hesitated without answering.

“Your reaction confirms it.”

Harvey asked.

“What does that mean?”

“He sensed magic, but the stages after that aren’t easy. He’s probably the worst underperformer among his peers. He must have been called a genius as the first magic sensor, but his grades dropped, and he was overtaken by latecomers… The greater the glory, the greater the frustration. When peers mock him, he comes down to Lion Hall to vent. He relieves stress by bullying Prince Mark.”

Harvey found it amusing. He asked Catherine.

“Is that so?”

She couldn’t answer his question. The answer came from Frank’s mouth.

“He’s last in the class.”

Chris looked at Frank.

So you dislike Alex too.

In the early days at Lion Hall, Alex didn’t just bully slaves. He also ignored and bullied commoners.

Chris muttered loudly.

“He acted so superior, but he was last! The old saying is true – empty wagons make the most noise.”

The wizards looked at Alex with unfriendly eyes. At that moment, Chris realized his mistake. If Alex’s evaluation hits rock bottom, his treatment becomes no different from Tony’s. If the expectation that he will someday become a wizard and stand beside them disappears, there’s nothing to lose by extracting his memories. The reason for making Alex a suspect disappears.

That can’t happen.

Chris recognized his mistake and tried to recover,

“Lord Alex, don’t be discouraged. There’s a saying about late bloomers. Just as a great vessel takes time to form, becoming a great wizard requires time. The trials of being last will make you stronger. They will make you fly higher.”

Not understanding Chris’s intentions, Alex became angry.

“How dare you mock me.”

“I’m not mocking you. I’m sincere.”

“Shut up!”

“Lord Alex…”

“Where does an insect dare to interject?”

Alice stopped Chris.

“Stop it. This is not your place to intervene.”

Chris accepted the advice and closed his mouth. Alice whispered,

“Late bloomer, where did you hear such words?”

“The prince would sometimes mutter it.”

“How?”

“I am a late bloomer. A late bloomer…”

Alice was choked with emotion.

“I see. He was suffering enough to say such things.”

Harvey said with a sneering expression.

“Listening to him talk, Alex seems like bad news. Since he’s not going to amount to much, let’s extract his memories. It won’t be a loss if he becomes an idiot.”

“No!”

Alex cried out.

Just then, a small sparrow-like bird flew into the reception room. Strangely, the sparrow rolled its eyes. It seemed to be reproaching the people.

—Why bother me over the death of a mere prince?

The three high wizards kept their mouths shut like clams. They only gave David looks that said this was his doing, so he should handle it.

David stepped forward to the bird and spoke,

“Mark was a son cherished by the king.”

Chris nodded.

So Mark was loved.

He wasn’t abandoned at the Magic Tower because he was useless. That fact somehow made Chris happy and glad.

—Do I need to please the king!

Chris looked at the sparrow with fresh eyes. He had thought that larger sound transmission spells were superior, but seeing this sparrow spell, he realized that wasn’t necessarily the case. Other wizards’ sound transmission spells communicated in one direction (if they had more to say, they had to create and send another one), but this spell allowed for dialogue.

“The king has been generous in supporting our tower.”

—That’s only what he should do.

“Support has increased by 10 percent since the previous king.”

—Is that so? That’s admirable.

“I judged that we should at least show the sincerity of identifying the culprit.”

—You judged wrong.

“If you could read the memories from the dagger that killed Mark…”

The sparrow interrupted angrily,

—Don’t bother me.

The sparrow turned its head toward Randall.

—What were you all doing that this matter came to me?

Randall sweated.

“I apologize. Still, we’ve narrowed the suspects to four.”

—What kind of people are the suspects?

“Three apprentices and one shinsa.”

—Are you certain the culprit is among them?

“Yes.”

The sparrow sighed.

—Pathetic fools. At your level, you should handle matters efficiently.

“How?”

—Kill them all.

David said.

“Pardon?”

—You said the culprit is among the four, right? If you kill them all, the culprit will die too. Kill them all and send the culprits’ corpses to the king.

The sparrow gradually faded.

—I’ll let it pass this time, but if you contact me again about such trivial matters, I won’t be so lenient.