Chapter 911: The Hearing (7)
On the way out of the hall after the hearing ended.
The image of Antares pushing the wheelchair, and Lennok, with his help, making a lap around the hall as he exited.
The crowd that had gathered and was murmuring near the hall parted with a rush at just a single glance from Lennok.
They tried hard to pretend they hadn’t seen him, coincidentally turning their heads and moving away, all while trying to catch even a small glimpse of the wizard.
Unlike when he first entered the hearing hall, there was no one left who dared to meet Lennok’s gaze.
“…”
An awkward, unsettling silence that felt almost deafening.
A clumsy avoidance born from being completely overwhelmed by a single person.
Who could believe that all of this was achieved without any violence or coercion?
Step, step.
The procession of city council members and judges, who left the hall even later than Lennok, followed.
Though they were clearly aware of Lennok’s presence still near the hall, they made no effort to confront him.
The wizard from the Valefor Magic Tower, Avenia Stenson, who had been guiding Lennok through the crowd, came to a stop.
“Sir Van. This is as far as I go.”
“I see.”
Lennok rested his chin on his hand in the wheelchair and chuckled.
The reason Avenia, who had only recently started staying in Vulcan, had been assigned to guide Lennok…
Among those who feared unnecessary conflict during the escort, perhaps it was because only she was willing to do the job.
Even if that wasn’t the case, he wouldn’t be forgetting the name of the Valefor Magic Tower, known for being a gathering of extreme combat pragmatists.
“I’ll remember your name. You’ve worked hard.”
“…I am only grateful.”
Avenia, who had hesitated and bowed her head, spoke hesitantly.
“Would it be alright to visit the Magic Tower when you have time in the future? I will ensure I am not a bother to you, Sir Van.”
“Antares vouched for the excellence of the Valefor Magic Tower.”
Lennok nodded.
“The Magic Tower is always looking for excellent business partners. I’ll speak to the relevant parties.”
“So those mercenaries are useful sometimes.”
Avenia smiled.
“I’m glad he seems to have remembered my warning. Well then…”
Avenia bowed as crisply as when she had first come to see Lennok, then withdrew.
Watching the retreating wizard, Lennok spoke to Antares.
“I thought you would intervene at least once, but you really just watched quietly.”
“Are you talking about Stenson?”
“I’m talking about you.”
“…”
Ignoring the silent Antares, Lennok asked leisurely.
“So, what were your impressions of the hearing today?”
“Hmm, can I be honest?”
Antares smiled.
“Watching you play with the city council members at the hearing… it was so enjoyable I wondered if it was okay to feel this way. It felt like the first time in years I’d experienced something like it.”
“…”
“Anyone who knows you would understand that there wasn’t a single lie in your words. It’s beyond my comprehension how you can walk such a fine line. It was rather admirable.”
Indeed, if one were to watch the hearing from an outsider’s perspective, they would feel how ironic the situation was.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand Antares’s feelings at all. As Lennok gave a wry smile, Antares closed his eyes with a satisfied expression and muttered.
“I wasn’t wrong. For today at least, I don’t think I’ll regret following you.”
“You have a very roundabout way of saying things.”
Lennok said, leaning back comfortably in his wheelchair.
He smiled with a languid expression, watching the attendants walk out of the hearing hall one by one.
“No, is it simply that you can’t say it directly because you’ve seen the future?”
“…”
“It doesn’t matter. I understand why I’m here.”
Antares had said he came along to watch the hearing, but Lennok knew that this precog wasn’t the type to spend his time for his own amusement.
From the moment he agreed to accompany Lennok to the hearing, it was because there was something he wanted.
Crucially, the reason Lennok was lingering instead of leaving the hall was not his own will, but Antares’s.
Clank!
At that moment, the back door of the hall opened and several boys walked out from beyond it.
Young boys of a tender age, dressed in old-fashioned formal wear.
Looking no older than ten, they were the ones who had carried the stone tablet for Lennok to swear his oath on for the Judgment Edict.
“…!!”
The boys, who had been chatting quietly amongst themselves as they walked out, flinched in surprise upon seeing Lennok beyond the back door.
They too must have known what words Lennok had spoken to the people in the hall.
They tried not to show it, but unable to simply pretend not to see him, they passed by with a slight, silent nod.
Just as the boys, hunched over and tense, were awkwardly trying to slip past Lennok and leave.
Lennok opened his mouth, addressing the blond boy at the very back of the line.
“I believe I’ve been waiting for quite a while. Were you planning on leaving without so much as a greeting?”
“Ye-Yes?”
The boy with the youthful face stopped in his tracks, turning back to Lennok with a flustered expression.
His shoulders trembled with fear, unable to even think of hiding the goosebumps on the nape of his neck.
The age difference between the boy and Lennok was more than a decade, just by appearance.
Considering their respective positions, even having a conversation would seem strange.
But Lennok, knowing this, lightly beckoned to the boy who had frozen in place.
“Avenia Stenson warned Antares not to use his precognition recklessly.”
“I, I… I don’t quite understand what you mean…!!”
Fwoosh!!
With a single gesture, Lennok brought the young boy before him and whispered.
“Antares, who was watching the entire hearing hall from start to finish, didn’t spare you a single glance.”
“…”
The warning Konrad Haven had delivered was no empty threat.
The mega-city of Vulcan. The city-state that currently boasted the largest scale and capital on the continent.
The authority holder standing at the apex of this super-metropolitan area spanning dozens of districts had been hiding in the hearing, watching Lennok in a form no one else would have ever expected.
“A position where you could intervene by carrying the Judgment Edict yourself. A young age that wouldn’t draw others’ attention. An existence with such strong causality that Antares had to willingly avoid using his precognition.”
Lennok asked mockingly.
“Mr. Mayor of Vulcan. For someone charged with the duty of leading a mega-city, aren’t you disguised as someone a little too young?”
“…Hahat.”
At that moment, the boy’s terrified expression completely changed.
As if a completely different emotion were sprouting from deep within. As if another personality were breaking out of its shell.
The expression, which had been shrunken with fear and anxiety, relaxed, and an inexplicable ecstasy seeped out from within.
“Ah… so that’s it.”
The boy muttered lowly.
Staring blankly at Lennok, the boy raised a pale smile.
Right after that strange, awkward smile, which didn’t seem human, was directed at Lennok, the boy slowly nodded his head.
“So you were the person Kaiser mentioned.”
“…Kaiser, you say.”
The boy mentioned the name so casually it made his previous pretense seem pointless.
An inorganic way of speaking that didn’t feel human, and conversely, a very clear fragment of emotion.
As expected, the leader of this mega-city was not an existence bound by ordinary causality or fate.
Realizing this, Lennok looked into the boy’s eyes and asked.
“The person you’re talking about, which timeline’s Kaiser are you referring to?”
“Oh my, you know that much already?”
The boy laughed.
A complex reaction unbefitting his tender age, a mix of self-deprecation and cynicism.
Is this what it would be like if an old monster wearing a boy’s mask were to show its emotions without a filter?
“I’m afraid I cannot answer that question. The project’s prohibition is a fair restraint on everyone. It is an oath that has reached the subtlety of Causal Reversal (因果逆轉).”
“…”
“If you’ll excuse me, could you let this child go now? It’s time to sing hymns at the cathedral. If he’s late, he’ll get a scolding from Sister Mary.”
“Hymns, you say…”
Lennok chuckled at the boy’s nonchalant reply.
Because those words seemed to show exactly what the boy thought of the current situation.
But the reason Lennok had forced a confrontation with the mayor at this point wasn’t to hear such an answer.
“I’m not asking because I’m curious why the Mayor of Vulcan is still hiding instead of showing himself.”
“…”
“It must be because your answer is somehow tied to the fundamental reason you attended this hearing. So, speak.”
Lennok’s eyes gleamed coldly.
“What did you hear from Kaiser?”
“Mmm, this is why I didn’t want to meet you right now…”
The boy shook his head with a troubled expression.
“Very well. One shouldn’t play games with a monster who toys with the Judgment Edict. Instead, what I can tell you is only about the method to obtain that knowledge.”
“I already know about ways to circumvent the prohibition.”
“The answer lies in District 19, where Vice-Mayor Weinstein went.”
The boy said slowly.
“If your connections can reach beyond it, you will be able to understand the truth.”
Does he mean that the secret about Kaiser is hidden beyond the [Gate] in District 19?
As Lennok mulled over this fact, the boy brushed off his collar and stood up nonchalantly.
“To be honest, I didn’t originally intend to encounter you like this… but precogs are indeed troublesome beings. The bloodline of Balitz is one such case. There’s a reason why such abilities have been ostracized throughout a long history.”
“…”
“I’d like to get rid of him right now if I could, but I see no need to bestow mercy on a precog whose end is already determined.”
The boy turned away with a grin.
“Let’s see each other again if the opportunity arises. Grand Wizard. And you too, Antares.”
With that, the boy walked away without using any special abilities.
He adjusted his bag strap and waved innocently at his group waiting in the distance.
But neither Lennok nor Antares made any move to stop or catch the boy.
“Antares.”
Watching the boy’s retreating back, Lennok said softly.
“I’m telling you now, because I might not get another chance.”
“…”
“I heard from Felix. If you meet the Lighthouse Keeper and observe the future, you can change your ending-”
“Van. Don’t worry about that.”
Antares replied with a smile.
“The power of Chogyeon can only see a future that has not yet come. It doesn’t have the ability to alter a future whose end has already been observed and confirmed.”
“…Have you already checked?”
“From Heavenly Sight herself, when she was alive.”
Antares replied softly.
“She didn’t like precogs, but she wanted to know if a human’s determined end could be changed.”
“…”
“It was a good experiment. Regardless of the outcome.”
Antares’s reply was gentle, but its content was not so positive.
“But if Felix wishes it, I’m thinking of visiting Lapis Falcia.”
“Even though you know it’s useless?”
“Still, if it can ease Felix’s lingering regrets even a little.”
Antares smiled.
“He’s still keeping the promise we made on the pilgrimage path.”
“…”
“In that case, I must also do my best.”
The Grand Wizard’s hearing that had shaken all of Vulcan.
Two days had passed since the end of the hearing, which the wizard with the most terrifying reputation in the city had personally announced he would attend.
[Here is a wizard who claims he kills people with great difficulty.]
[Does this man truly believe he has been committing careful acts of destruction?]
But all of Vulcan’s media outlets were busy rehashing, highlighting, and chattering about Lennok’s words for days on end.
[The words left by the Grand Wizard who rules District 49, Adamant Thunder Van, at the hearing have become a huge topic…]
[The phrase has been dominating the top of the charts on the network and SNS trend rankings for days…]
[Criticism from all walks of life over the absurd remarks spat out by the wizard who killed hundreds of superhumans-]
[Despite the full transcript of the hearing not being released, viewership ratings for the broadcast have broken records-]
“…This is truly dumbfounding.”
Adamant Thunder’s Magic Tower.
Felix, who was leaning against a corridor wall inside the tower reading a newspaper, sighed with an exasperated look.
Glancing at Lennok, who was squatting in front of a corridor wall on an upper floor, Felix said.
“To be able to cover all of Vulcan’s media with just a few words… a Grand Wizard is really something else.”
“…”
Without any answer, Lennok remained focused on fixing the magic circuit installed in the corridor.
Tapping the newspaper with his arms crossed, Felix asked.
“I’m just asking, but you didn’t do that on purpose, did you?”
“…Of course not.”
Lennok dusted off his hands and stood up.
A new, pure white mana, different from before, was now mixed in and flowing through the corridor’s magic circuit, which glowed with blue light.
Straightening up and frowning, Lennok said.
“If I had to say, it was my mistake.”
“A mistake? I didn’t know you were capable of making mistakes.”
“…I don’t know what you think I am.”
Lennok said with a wry smile.
“I just resonated with something someone once told me and thought it was a fitting answer.”
“You thought that was a fitting answer?”
“Yes, I thought so at the time….”
Stroking his chin in thought, Lennok slowly nodded.
“Thinking back, I guess I was thinking just like everyone else at that moment. I didn’t take that into account.”
“…”
Staring down at Lennok with an indescribable emotion, Felix let out a sigh so deep his bird-head seemed to deflate.
“I heard from Jenny earlier. Apparently, you’re being called all sorts of ridiculous nicknames on the deep web.”
“…”
“The Pacifist Grand Wizard, the Life-Disdaining Tower Lord, Human-Lover Dog, and all sorts of other strange names….”
“Do you really need to explain all that to my face?”
Not knowing if Felix wanted to scold him or just tease him with his new nicknames, Lennok turned his back sharply.
“Anyway, it’s almost finished, so just wait a bit. I just need to imbue the mass spellcraft into the magic circuits.”
It wasn’t that he had called Felix over for no reason and made him wait.
It was just that their schedules hadn’t aligned because he had been focusing on remodeling the Magic Tower’s facilities and imbuing them with new abilities whenever he had time.
Among those tasks, what Lennok was doing now was imbuing the tower with mass spellcraft, a job he had put off for quite a while.
The Ascendant of the Old World, the War Proxy, Hermes Orokhnier.
His power, which allowed him to wage war single-handedly using mass spellcraft, was a high-dimensional authority that even Lennok couldn’t handle easily.
It was the spellcraft of an outstanding Transcendent who had not only earned the right to ascend but had also sent his own answer to the next world.
The reason he was only now able to assimilate the equally abstruse, complex, and inefficient mass spellcraft into the tower’s system…
…was because Lennok’s maximum mana capacity had increased, making it possible for him to handle the extremely poor efficiency of the mass spellcraft.
Absorbing the mana of the Outer Sea to increase his mana capacity was an accident that happened while helping Lapis, but…
…in the end, the significant increase in his mana capacity itself turned out to be a huge benefit for Lennok.
Without it, he wouldn’t have even been able to imagine remodeling all the tower’s systems like he was doing now.
Wiping the soot from his face with his shirt sleeve, Lennok shook the mana-adjustment device in his hand and said.
“All that’s left is to reconnect all the tower’s magic circuits to the engine section. The assimilation process itself won’t even take five minutes, so follow me.”
“…I always think this, but you’re truly a person I can’t figure out.”
Felix shook his head with a dumbfounded expression but quietly followed Lennok.
“The Grand Wizard who has turned Vulcan upside down several times is engrossed in repairing his tower for days on end like this. Other people wouldn’t believe it even if they saw it.”
“Is that so? I personally find this kind of work rather fun.”
Lennok chuckled.
“It’s rare to find work where there’s a clear point of improvement, and where the peak result changes based on my judgment. It might look boring, but there’s a part of it that stimulates a sense of accomplishment.”
“That’s an interesting answer. Does a wizard like you still have feelings like a desire for accomplishment?”
“I do.”
Lennok said as he headed towards the underground cavern where the tower’s engine was located.
“A long time ago, I couldn’t even grasp what kind of effort I needed to make to become stronger.”
“…”
“Looking back now, I sometimes miss that time when I hadn’t chosen anything, but… it’s done.”
Click!!
He reconnected the magic circuit to the Magic Tower’s engine, which directly receives mana from the Phoenix Hall, and initiated a reignition.
Amidst the intense mana glowing with red and blue light, a pure white will-thought mixed in and began to shine slowly.
This was the first time the engine section had started operating again since the construction of the Lightning Connector system, which allowed free movement within the tower’s domain.
As the lights gradually came on, the tower’s outer and inner walls began to vibrate and shake simultaneously.
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!!!
From the other side of the tower’s underground cavern, which shook violently before instantly stabilizing, a white-bodied baby dragon came running out.
[Awooo…!!]
Perhaps frightened by the shaking tower, the giant baby dragon spread its limbs and leaped into Lennok’s arms.
“It’s a process of granting virtual mass around the tower’s domain, adjusting it to exist independently without being bound to the ground.”
Lennok said as he used magic to lighten the Guardian Spirit Beast’s chubby body and catch it.
“The goal is to eventually make the entire Magic Tower unbound by the physical laws of the ground.”
“The physical laws of the ground…?”
“I think you’ve already guessed.”
Lennok smiled.
“I aim to turn this Magic Tower into a flying fortress that floats in the sky, not on the ground.”
“…”
An utterly absurd idea.
But since the one saying it was the wizard who had built the tower himself, Felix couldn’t add any comments.
“The reason I called you today isn’t for anything else, but because there’s one thing I want to ask.”
Wiping the sweat dripping from his forehead, Lennok sat perched between the massive engine supports and raised his hand.
“If I don’t confirm this before handling the deep web matter, I might not have time for a while.”
“…The deep web matter?”
Ignoring Felix’s question, Lennok took out a cigarette and asked.
“Antares’s matter. You know about it, right?”
“…”
“He said he wouldn’t be able to change his end even by borrowing Lapis’s power.”
Lennok said with a blank expression.
“However, he told me he would visit Lapis someday to keep a promise from the pilgrimage path.”
“…”
“What is this pilgrimage path? Why do you call your journey across the continent by that name?”
Seeing Felix close his eyes without a word, Lennok asked.
“If Croken Asylus was with you on that journey, and you and Antares are still on that path, it seems I should hear what it is at least once.”
“That is….”
Felix hesitated, then said.
“That was our dream.”
“A dream?”
“There’s a secret story passed down among countless mercenaries and warriors.”
Felix gave a wry smile.
“That a warrior who travels the continent and completes their own pilgrimage can obtain a fate befitting their end….”
“…”
“It doesn’t have any special rules or form. I’ve only heard that it refers to the journey itself. But-”
Felix, who was looking up at the sky without a word, said.
“It’s clear that it’s what they call the forgotten ancient ascension ritual for a warrior to challenge Ascension.”