Genius Wizard Takes Medicine Chapter 30

It was an unmistakable violation of the laws of physics.

And yet, Lenoch’s sharpened senses could not detect even the slightest trace of magic.

He caught the business card between two fingers.

The man folded his hands together and introduced himself.

“Sebastian. I work in roughly the same line of business as Jenny.”

If his work was similar to Jenny’s, then he was probably another broker who connected clients with freelancers and collected a commission.

In other words, he was both a colleague and a competitor.

But Lenoch was far more interested in what had just happened.

There were not many abilities that could function without magic.

And among those, only a handful could produce an effect like Sebastian’s.

The result had been immediate and obvious.

There had been no visible sign of activation.

And judging from Sebastian’s condition, there did not seem to be any special physical cost either.

That left only one likely answer.

“…Psychic ability.”

More specifically, telekinesis.

Sebastian burst into laughter.

“Hahaha! I floated the card right in front of you. Was there really anything else it could be?”

“……”

Sebastian looked Lenoch over with amused eyes.

“So the rumor was true. You really did wander into the city after training somewhere in the middle of nowhere.”

He took another sip from his glass.

“Most people don’t react that strongly to seeing a psychic. If we’re talking rarity, a young mage like you is far harder to come across than an old man like me.”

Back in WORLD, psychic powers had always stood out for how direct and intuitive they were.

But compared to magic, they lacked versatility and depth.

Because of that, very few players chose psychic abilities as their primary path.

Of course, that logic did not necessarily apply here.

In this world, psychic abilities were something people were born with.

Game balance had nothing to do with it.

“Sebastian, are you trying to steal one of my clients again?”

Jenny had finished her call and was already striding toward them, her voice sharp.

Her sharp glare was practically cutting into him, but Sebastian merely leaned back and waved a hand without a care.

“Relax. We were only talking.”

“You disappear for ages, then come back and immediately start sniffing around my clients. Keep doing that and I’m going to stop finding you amusing.”

“Well, I did give our mage friend my card.”

Sebastian casually opened his briefcase.

“But I didn’t come empty-handed for our feisty young lady either.”

Ignoring Jenny’s hostility, he pulled out a file and handed it across the bar.

Jenny immediately opened it and began reading.

That was just like her.

It did not take long before confusion appeared on her face.

“A summons? Why are they sending this out already?”

“Because the city government is getting impatient. Haven’t you been following the news?”

Jenny frowned at him.

“The Filenom Autonomous Region delegation isn’t arriving for another two months. They haven’t even finished putting together the official response team yet. Why would they already start calling in private contractors?”

“It is unusually early.”

Sebastian leaned closer to the counter and lowered his voice.

“I’ve heard one of the city council members is pushing the matter extremely hard.”

“…What, are they suddenly running short on money to keep that side happy?”

“I doubt it. Those people are too closely tied together for that. They’ve got enough dirt on each other to keep everyone in line.”

Sebastian paused briefly before continuing.

“The rumor is that whoever’s pushing this wants something else out of the visit.”

Lenoch quietly listened while sipping his drink.

Neither of them seemed particularly concerned about discussing the matter in front of him.

From what he could gather, the city government had begun separately summoning private contractors in preparation for the delegation from the Filenom Autonomous Region.

It was the same visit Lenoch had seen mentioned in the news the night before.

Considering Sebastian worked in the same line of business as Jenny, the fact that he had brought this information himself suggested that intermediaries on their side had been summoned directly.

And judging from both of their expressions, this was not something trivial.

Still, the serious discussion ended quickly.

There was little point in going back and forth about it here when neither of them had enough information to reach a conclusion.

Sebastian finished the rest of his drink and stood up.

Then he held out a hand toward Lenoch.

“Well, I should get going.”

Lenoch looked at him.

“If you ever get tired of the kind of work Jenny finds for you, give me a call. I handle things a little differently, and the rewards I offer aren’t always just money.”

With that, Sebastian lifted his briefcase through telekinesis and casually walked out of the bar.

Jenny watched him leave with her arms crossed.

“What a suspicious old man.”

“You’ve known him for a long time?”

“Sebastian? He was already established in this business before I was.”

Jenny clicked her tongue.

“He acts like some respectable businessman running a company out of District 45, but most of the people working under him and most of his clients are all the same kind of shady people. I don’t like dealing with him.”

From the way she spoke, they clearly had more history than simple professional acquaintance.

Even so, Jenny kept complaining about him as if she genuinely found him unpleasant.

Lenoch pretended to focus on his drink while only half-listening.

Jenny had become increasingly talkative around him lately.

More and more unnecessary comments slipped out whenever they spoke.

“Still, he’s good at dealing with rich people and private clients,” Jenny added. “If you ever want work directly from individuals, trying him once probably wouldn’t hurt.”

That surprised Lenoch slightly.

Sebastian was essentially her competitor.

It would have been perfectly natural for Jenny to discourage him from working with the man.

Yet she did not seem particularly bothered by the possibility.

When Lenoch pointed that out, Jenny simply shrugged.

“If a customer wants to shop somewhere else, is telling them not to leave really going to stop them? I just make sure what I offer is good enough to bring them back.”

“I see…”

If Jenny herself was saying that, then accepting a job from Sebastian at some point might not be a bad idea.

The requests Jenny brought him from corporations and organizations were usually reliable.

But when it came to private clients, the quality tended to drop considerably.

If Sebastian could offer something interesting enough, Lenoch saw no reason to reject another source of work outright.

He set the thought aside.

“Anyway, what happened with Amnac?”

Jenny should have already contacted the pharmaceutical company.

Yet there had been no response.

The request expired today.

Had they already found someone else?

Lenoch could simply choose another job if the deal fell through.

But for Jenny, who had gone through the trouble of sorting through all those requests for him, it would probably be irritating.

Instead of looking annoyed, however, Jenny merely frowned.

“They’ll be here any minute.”

Lenoch looked at her.

“What do you mean?”

“When I called, they said they wanted to come here personally. So I told them to come over.”

Almost as soon as she finished speaking, the bar door opened.

A man stepped inside.

He wore a shabby suit and carried a worn briefcase, his exhausted face looking strangely out of place beneath the bar’s dim lights.

Surrounded by cigarette smoke and the rough atmosphere of the place, he seemed visibly uncomfortable.

Lenoch imagined he probably had not looked much different the first time he came here.

Back on Earth, bars and pubs had never really been his thing either.

But people adapted.

After repeatedly coming here for work and money, even a place like this had become familiar.

The man hesitantly approached Jenny at the counter.

“Excuse me… I was told to meet someone here.”

Jenny glanced at him.

“Amnac?”

“Ah, yes. That’s me.”

“I’m Jenny. And this is Van.”

Only then did the man seem to notice Lenoch sitting nearby.

He quickly bowed his head.

“Pleasure to meet you. My name is Luan Sage. I’m the sales manager at Amnac Pharmaceuticals.”

“Van.”

After the brief introduction, Sage immediately began fumbling through his bag as though he intended to start the discussion while still standing.

Jenny watched him for a moment before shaking her head.

“Not here. I’ll get us a room upstairs.”

This clearly was not the best environment for meeting a corporate client.

Jenny led the two of them through the back of the bar and up the stairs to the second floor.

The moment Lenoch entered, he looked around.

The room was unexpectedly refined, with the clean, restrained atmosphere of a hotel lounge.

“…You could’ve mentioned you had a place like this.”

Jenny snorted.

“You always grab a job and disappear immediately. When exactly was I supposed to show you?”

“……”

She had a point.

Whenever Lenoch received a job, he usually went straight back to his room to rest or study magic.

He had never given her much reason to bring him upstairs.

Lenoch wisely kept his mouth shut.

Sage, meanwhile, visibly relaxed once he settled into the more familiar surroundings.

His expression looked noticeably better.

“We’re pressed for time, so would you mind if I get straight to the matter?”

He did not really wait for permission.

Instead, he immediately pulled a document from his bag and handed it to Lenoch.

“Since you accepted our request, I assume you’ve already read the basic outline.”

“I know the general situation.”

Lenoch recalled the information contained in Amnac’s request.

Amnac Pharmaceuticals was currently developing a tranquilizer funded through small-scale crowdfunding.

Despite the company’s modest size, development had produced unusually promising results.

If the drug succeeded commercially, its profits were expected to far exceed the company’s current net income.

That was where the trouble began.

A district councilor with considerable influence over the area around Amnac’s headquarters had begun pressuring the company to hand over the drug’s patent rights.

The councilor was closely connected to one of the local underworld gangs and acted as one of the district’s power brokers.

He was now using those connections to pressure Amnac from several directions.

The company had been trying various methods to resist him.

Hiring someone like Lenoch was apparently one of them.

Lenoch looked at Sage.

“So what exactly are you hiring me to do?”

Sage’s expression settled, and his voice became noticeably calmer.

“The public information is false. Development of the drug has already been completed.”

Lenoch narrowed his eyes slightly.

“We originally intended to submit the finished samples to the patent office in secret, while the councilor still believed development was ongoing. Unfortunately, information leaked from inside the company.”

“So someone inside Amnac is feeding him information.”

Corporate espionage itself was hardly unfamiliar to Lenoch.

Even on Earth, companies planted insiders, bought information, and stole research from competitors.

Larger corporations usually had systems in place to limit such leaks.

But a small pharmaceutical company like Amnac had far fewer ways to stop them.

Sage nodded and pulled a photograph from his bag.

He handed it across the table.

The picture showed a warehouse tucked away in a deserted alley.

The surrounding buildings were relatively low, suggesting that it was nowhere near one of the city’s busier districts.

“Once the CEO realized we had an informant inside the company, he moved the finished samples here. He was worried the councilor might stop applying indirect pressure and simply seize them by force.”

Sage paused.

“But we’re almost certain that location has leaked too.”

Lenoch quietly listened.

At this point, Amnac’s internal security sounded practically nonexistent.

Still, he could understand how it had happened.

A small company could only enforce confidentiality so far.

Offer an employee enough money and convince them there would be no consequences, and plenty of people would start talking.

“If they already know every time you move it, there’s no point hiding it somewhere else again.”

Lenoch turned the photograph over.

District 54.

Address 8.

The warehouse location had been written neatly on the back.

“We contacted the patent office and secured permission to submit the samples the day after tomorrow.”

Sage watched Lenoch carefully.

“What we want is for you to retrieve the samples from this warehouse and deliver them safely to the patent office.”

Lenoch continued staring at the photograph for a moment.

Then he raised his eyes.

“You said your name was Sage, right?”

“…Yes.”

Silence settled over the room.

Lenoch studied the man’s face for a few seconds before letting out a quiet laugh.

“If you want me to take the job, you should start by telling me the truth.”

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