Chapter 674: Central Council Senate (2)

“…A Herald from the Senate?”

The Central Council Senate of the City Government.

A branch of the city council, comprised of two chambers, and the highest authority at the apex of the mega-city Vulcan.

They are bystanders whose will influences every corner of the mega-city, yet they never rashly intervene in any matter.

Despite all the incidents, these individuals, who had never tried to directly contact Lennok, were now sending a message?

Lennok stared at the letter Armand politely offered, then chuckled.

“I expected them to try to make contact, but I didn’t expect a message like this.”

“……”

“Is this how the Central Council usually handles things?”

“Normally, they would officially send a letter to schedule an appointment, or inquire about your availability, but……”

Armand replied with a tense expression.

“I was told that this was notified at dawn today, so there was no one to hear it. Going through a broker was also not permitted.”

“So?”

“Furthermore, for high-level combatants who can shake the city’s order……”

Armand trailed off, subtly gauging Lennok’s reaction.

“It’s an unwritten rule not to adhere to formalities.”

“……”

Was he saying that they didn’t bother with official procedures when dealing with superhumans who had transcended their limits, like Lennok?

If anything, this method might have been deemed more appropriate, especially if they were trying to accommodate Lennok’s nature, which favored an utterly quiet life.

“Do you know the content of the message?”

“Only a brief overview of the purpose… I don’t know the specific details.”

Lennok nodded.

“Open it.”

“……Understood.”

Armand, who was precariously balancing, slowly opened the letter and quickly scanned its contents.

“It has the time and place, and an official seal authenticating it as a message from the Senate. By custom, it’s also possible to call for transportation to the meeting location through this letter.”

“Call for transportation?”

“If you wish, I can summon it right now. However, considering your answer, Van-nim, I did not bring any equipment or attendants, so it will take a moment……”

“Alright.”

As Lennok stood up, the chair made of tree roots disappeared into the ground.

Lennok stood before the collapsed young man, leaning on his staff, and nodded.

“I think I generally understand why you’ve called me. Summon it.”

There was no way they wouldn’t know that Lennok handled most matters through Jenny.

The reason they risked identifying his address and sending a message directly to Lennok.

Was it not related to the actions Lennok had left behind in the Machine City, Machina?

While he wasn’t entirely pleased with their handling of the matter, he felt he needed to hear what they had to say.

Armand bowed, unable to hide his relief.

“Thank you for accepting the invitation.”

“How long will it take?”

“It should arrive in about 10 minutes, departing from the Sector 17 Transfer Hub.”

Lennok called up a map of Vulcan in his mind and chuckled.

“Ten minutes, even coming from almost the other side of the city… Well, alright.”

With that, Lennok abruptly turned.

“Follow me. I intend to clean the mansion in the remaining time.”

“……May I assist you?”

Armand’s reply was quite quick-witted, but Lennok nodded as if to ask, ‘Why wouldn’t you?’

“A psychic with clone abilities. And a highly realistic replication, at that.”

“Th-thank you.”

“It looks perfectly suited for household chores, including cleaning.”

“……”

Rendered speechless, Armand quietly followed Lennok into the mansion.

A wizard’s mansion. And not just any, but a den of monsters that had annihilated all intruders in under five minutes.

Armand stepped into the hallway with a tense expression, then froze solid upon seeing the tumultuous state of the corridor.

Grrrrumble…!!!

The entire mansion was shaking as if alive, flipping and rotating the direction of the hallway and the structure of the ceiling.

It was a bizarre phenomenon, expelling and dissolving foreign substances that were not originally Lennok’s, slowly discharging the byproducts outside.

“I’ve set the target designation for you. You can move now.”

Lennok lightly patted Armand’s shoulder and walked forward.

Armand, unable to move rashly, sweated profusely and asked,

“Th-this, what in the world… Did you grant autonomy to the entire mansion?”

“To be precise, it’s closer to transplanting and applying the biological mechanisms of a specific creature.”

Lennok replied nonchalantly.

“If you had to categorize it, it’s originally closer to sorcery. It’s a method of patterning motility data from a stomach and then combining it with magic to manifest it.”

“How is that even possible……”

Armand was a psychic who used special abilities, but as an aide, he was well-versed in various spells.

Yet, even for him, magic that could turn an entire mansion into a creature’s stomach was unheard of.

Could it be true that the investigation results, which stated Lennok’s primary magic system could not be easily guessed, were not false after all?

‘The data itself wasn’t the expected outcome, but……’

Creation Magic: [Aramathos’s Guise].

This area-of-effect magic manifests by integrating the gastric ecology of a creature called Aramathos into the mansion environment.

However, Aramathos was not a creature that originally existed in this world, but one of the pieces of knowledge from the Old World that Lennok had extracted beyond the Ascension Gate.

It was the research data on the stomach ecology of a swamp-dwelling beast capable of digesting even steel, integrated and actualized through Creation Magic.

When he first researched it, he thought it was useless knowledge, but when combined with Creation Magic, it surprisingly opened up many avenues for application, differing from conventional magic.

Armand, who had been hesitating, slowly split his body into multiple clones and began to clean the mansion.

More than five clones busily moved around, cleaning every corner of the mansion and removing bodies.

Just then, the corpse of the first non-human killed was being dragged out by the fourth Armand.

“Who is this non-human?”

Lennok asked.

“Strangely, there’s almost no presence, and conversely, their organization is quite sophisticated. As if they’re naturally skilled in covert operations.”

“……”

“It seems related to you beheading them all at once.”

“……To be precise, they are not non-humans.”

Armand 4 sighed softly as he replied.

“They are a minority tribe that lives hidden near the Outer Tribulation City, and they are said to grow by sharing consciousness among their tribe. They don’t use language at all unless they are communicating with outsiders.”

“A minority tribe, you say.”

“Because they share consciousness, they speak little, and having been born in underground bedrock, they are accustomed to shadows and skilled in stealth. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is constantly troubled because they are mobilized for organized theft crimes across the continent.”

“I see……”

“To completely incapacitate them, you eventually have to sever their heads, and since that affects nearby tribes, they need to be dealt with simultaneously.”

Armand 2, who was wiping the floor with a mop in place of Armand 4 who had dragged the corpse into the garden, spoke.

“However, for the past few years, they’ve shown a strong tendency to operate under employers, so in the case of this incident, our side intends to investigate separately.”

Only then did Lennok understand the situation and nod.

A minority tribe that shared consciousness at the tribal level.

Could that be why they spoke so little, even as they died, because they were people who made a living by organized theft?

However, if they had to share consciousness even when they didn’t want to, then conversely, they would be vulnerable to mental attacks.

He had suspected as much when the Psycho Shocker, a creation magic he’d thrown on a whim, worked, but Armand’s words confirmed it.

“An innate unique ability passed down by the tribe… Is it a different kind from bloodline abilities?”

For Lennok, it was his first time seeing such an organized innate unique ability, and he regretted how the situation had unfolded.

If the circumstances hadn’t overlapped, he could have investigated how their consciousness-sharing worked.

After meeting Aoshu Spero, the 8-level mental psychic, Lennok had felt the need to research mental systems in detail.

Whoosh!

Meanwhile, the sky above the mansion suddenly darkened.

As Lennok inadvertently looked up, Armand 1 confirmed the presence and nodded.

“It seems the transport has arrived. I will stay and finish cleaning up the mansion with the attendants. Would you like to board first?”

Whoosh!

A jet-black airship from which not a single ray of light escaped.

Inside the airship, Lennok reclined in a chair with his eyes closed, while Vulcan Defense Force soldiers watched him with tense expressions.

“Thank you for waiting.”

Meanwhile, Armand, having finished cleaning up, quickly boarded the airship.

“We’ve recovered all the corpses scattered throughout the mansion and neatly tidied up the traces. However……”

“However?”

“Entry to the underground laboratory and the second-floor living space was difficult, so we didn’t touch them separately.”

“……”

The very reason these intruders entered Lennok’s mansion was due to the side effects of his mass manipulation magic research in the lab.

If it hadn’t been for the shock caused by the Ascendant’s will-thought repelling and erupting, they wouldn’t have been allowed to cross the barrier and enter the mansion in the first place.

It was only natural that it was impossible to enter other parts of the mansion for cleaning now that the research was complete.

Should he, instead, trust Armand’s attitude for frankly admitting and reporting that fact?

Armand, whose face was noticeably cleaner as if he had washed up while cleaning and tidying the mansion, said,

“We’ve explained it to the nearby residents as a joint training exercise by the Defense Force, so please consider that if there’s any mention of the incident later.”

“Understood.”

“Then we’ll depart immediately. The Central Council Senate will be waiting for Van-nim.”

The sleek, streamlined fuselage rose in place without causing any wind or shock.

The airship then soared into the mega-city sky, gliding effortlessly past the tops of buildings.

It was a sight rarely seen in Vulcan until now.

But what caught Lennok’s eye first was the fact that similar airships to the one he was on were floating all over the sky.

Aerial transportation had found its place in the mega-city, where flying was difficult due to magnetic storms that occasionally blew in from undeveloped zones.

And Lennok knew where the cause lay.

“It seems the anti-gravity engine has been fully commercialized.”

“Ah, Van-nim hasn’t heard the news yet.”

Armand explained, wiping blood from his neck with a handkerchief.

“Regulations and institutionalization regarding airships equipped with anti-gravity engines were fully completed a week ago. Companies that have received business permits are releasing prototypes, so you’ll be seeing many more airships like this soon.”

“……”

So, another mode of transportation was being added to the bustling mega-city.

Of course, since Lennok himself had spearheaded its successful development, he had expected it to happen eventually.

But seeing the airships hovering throughout the city still gave him a fresh impression.

Noticing Lennok’s interest in the anti-gravity engine, Armand subtly cleared his throat and added to his explanation.

“Evan Vylun, the designer of the anti-gravity engine, is truly an incredible genius. I imagine Van-nim might have heard his name before.”

His attitude was remarkably different from his somewhat stiff demeanor earlier. Had he become more talkative now that he was away from the tense combat zone?

Perhaps this was Armand’s true personality.

“He’s only appeared in public once, but his presentation video at the expo is still widely discussed due to his unique aura. Not only his ‘Vylun’s Proof Method’ from his first paper, but even his presentation style is imitated by countless researchers at investment briefings.”

“……”

Regardless of Lennok’s reaction, Armand prattled on, seemingly not bothered by his lack of response.

In fact, the soldiers, frozen stiff on either side of Lennok, fidgeted uncomfortably at Armand’s words.

“However, Professor Vylun himself rarely engages in external activities, and the Dean of Rebatenon University completely shelters him, so it’s a shame that we can barely reach him. Companies and institutions would line up to invest if only he would contact them.”

Judging by his words, he seemed to have a deep personal interest in this field.

“As a public official, I sometimes have the opportunity to attend similar business investment briefings, and there are so many researchers trying to imitate Professor Vylun that it’s almost getting annoying now, should I say……”

“Ah, Assistant Armand.”

“Hmm? What is it?”

The soldier, who had urgently stopped Armand, spoke with a trembling voice.

“Uhm, wouldn’t it be better to be a little quiet… That’s Adamant Thunder.”

They were afraid of how Lennok might react if he felt displeased by Armand’s chattering.

Perhaps they, too, had roughly heard about what Lennok had done in Machina under the name of Van.

But Armand, instead, clicked his tongue, disappointed by the soldier’s interruption.

“Hmm… But now is where the real interesting story begins.”

“……”

No, on second thought, he might just be a guy who loves to talk.

Lennok snickered and nodded.

“Go on.”

At his reaction, the soldier who had been stopping Armand quietly shut his mouth, and Armand began chattering with even more excitement.

“Well, there’s a rumor that Professor Vylun isn’t a single person but a think tank made up of several teams.”

“……What?”

“They all just use the name Evan Vylun, but in fact, the research isn’t the product of one person, but of collective intelligence.”

Armand excitedly spoke without waiting for Lennok’s reaction.

“Although Professor Vylun was noticed by Aris Richellen, the endowed professor, and works in the Elementology Department, he surprisingly didn’t show much research activity while serving as an assistant professor. Instead, he was more often teaching lectures or getting caught up in strange incidents.”

“……”

Had he really gotten involved in that many strange incidents at the university?

Considering he even experienced the terror attack against the Elementology Department, those certainly weren’t ordinary incidents.

“Furthermore, there’s a rumor that Professor Vylun’s identity itself was quite vague before he received Professor Richellen’s guarantee… And he hasn’t even earned his doctorate yet, even though he could get it anytime he wanted. He’s a figure full of mysteries, despite his brilliant intellect.”

“……”

Lennok, who had been silent, casually averted his gaze and mumbled,

“It seems you’ve done a lot of investigation.”

“In fact, Professor Vylun is one of the strongest candidates for the Central Council Technology Advisory Committee.”

Armand lowered his voice to a whisper.

“Since council aides like myself have all gone through the task of recruiting Professor Vylun at some point, I’ve heard a lot of information.”

“Is that so?”

“Have you, by any chance, met Professor Vylun, Van-nim……”

Lennok shook his head at Armand’s words.

“If what you say is true, he’s not someone who ventures out much in the first place. Leaving aside the matter of interest, I think he might be a very cautious and thoughtful person.”

“Hmm, so Van-nim also holds Professor Vylun in high regard.”

[….]

He felt the subtle gaze of the spirit in his arms, but Lennok feigned ignorance.

Meanwhile, Armand cleared his throat and channeled his magic, quietly blocking out the surrounding noise.

“This is something I’m telling only you, secretly, Van-nim……”

Armand glanced quietly at the soldiers and murmured,

“Actually, the Central Council has already secured a member of the Evan Vylun think tank.”