Chapter 55: A Master in Chains

The corridor of the Magic Tower, submerged in the darkness of deep night.

Logan moved slowly, like a shadow, with great stealth.

In his mind, the earnest voice of Hans, the young mage cast out from the Magic Tower, echoed.

• “Please, I beg you, check if the Master… no, if my teacher is safe..! It’s been so long since I’ve even seen his face…”

Hans’s voice was tinged with deep respect for his master, along with a sense of despair about the current situation of the Magic Tower.

• “To say he collapsed from aftereffects while trying to surpass his limits, how can anyone believe that? He is absolutely not that kind of person. My master was always cautious and someone who clearly knew his own limits.”

Hans said he never believed Teron’s initial announcement that Master Iren had suddenly collapsed.

• “Not just me, but many mages haven’t seen the Master in a long time. At first, there were a few who thought it was a truly unfortunate accident, but as time went on, there were more than one or two strange things.”

• “Siding with hypocritical and pretentious people like the Church, and even supporting that reckless prince…! Does this make any sense? So, more people started trying to see the Master to question this.”

• “But… even when they tried to meet him, the mages following Teron… that man, blocked them thoroughly, so they couldn’t go. As if… they were trying to hide something. So when I tried to protest, what I got in return was… I think you can easily understand if you saw what happened to me today…”

• “My master’s room is on the top floor. There are guards at the door, so he must be there. There will be no proper security anywhere else. And I will be with the other mages who were kicked out like me, so if you ever need help, please let me know…”

Logan infiltrated the Magic Tower based on the information he obtained from Hans.

As he had said, besides the main gate, there were few patrols to be seen.

Above all, the security was remarkably lax.

Well, considering their attention was focused on the children at the main gate, it was hard to say the security was tight.

It was likely due to the arrogance that no one would dare sneak into the Magic Tower.

They probably also felt secure knowing that without the Magic Tower mage token Hans had given him, various alarm spells would have been triggered.

‘Still, it’s too lax…’

Perhaps it was because most of those loyal to the Master had been driven out, and corrupt individuals had taken their places.

‘…How pathetic.’

Logan clicked his tongue inwardly.

To think that this was the reality of the Magic Tower, where the intellect and magic of the empire were said to gather.

‘But isn’t the number of people too small for this…?’

With that thought, Logan cautiously ascended the tower.

Just in case there were traps or barriers that he hadn’t heard about from Hans.

But contrary to his worries, he was able to ascend to the middle floors smoothly without any crisis.

And before long, he found out why there were even fewer people than Hans had mentioned.

The front gate security was left to the low-level mages, while the rest of the mid-level mages were gathered in one room, having a drinking party.

“Wahaha!!!”

“Let’s drink! When else would we drink like this if not on a day like today!?”

The boisterous laughter and the smell of alcohol flowed out into the corridor.

Through their conversation, he could find out why the upper and high-level mages were absent.

“Ah, I wanted to go to the Church too! I heard there’s a huge banquet there today?”

“Tell me about it. They call it a meeting, my ass. All they talked about was booze.”

“Kuhuhu… I heard the Saintess is that pretty? And she’s attending?”

“Is that for real? Then if you get her drunk enough… the Saintess’s purity, kuhu…!”

“Pfft! Purity, my ass. She may look like that on the outside, but wouldn’t there be many guys who’ve already had her? No, she might be getting f*cked somewhere right now! Kuhahaha!!”

Through this vulgar conversation.

It was easy to guess that not only the high-ranking members of the Magic Tower.

But also the noble faction were all gathered at the Church.

‘They’re underestimating us quite a bit…’

To think they were already raising their glasses in celebration.

Like the mages here.

The thought of their faces, enjoying themselves at a drinking party, brought a wave of disgust.

However, he decided to think positively.

Because a golden opportunity like today had presented itself.

Logan quietly passed the mages who were loudly chattering and drinking.

No one felt even a hint of Logan’s presence.

It was only natural.

Not only were their senses completely focused on drinking and talking, but even if they were sober, they wouldn’t have easily noticed him.

During his adventurer days.

The skill he had prioritized, diligently learned, and trained in was stealth.

In his childhood.

Unable to wield any mana and with a weak body, the first talent he discovered was shooting.

To maximize that advantage, he had desperately honed and improved his stealth skills above all else.

In the war against the Demon Lord’s army, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he had reached a higher level, almost the pinnacle.

He could be said to be even more skilled than the master of that assassin’s guild.

Anyway, thanks to his excellent stealth skills and the lax security, he was able to easily reach the vicinity of the top floor.

However, the top floor did not seem as lax, so he had to stop for a moment.

Unlike the ones having a drinking party on the lower floors, there were mages properly standing guard.

Two of them.

Although they yawned as if bored, they did not forget to occasionally survey their surroundings.

‘I want to avoid bloodshed if possible…’

Logan pondered.

The number was awkward to silently knock them out simultaneously.

While he was knocking out one, the other was highly likely to shout or sound an alarm.

To reduce the risk of being discovered, it seemed he had no choice but to slit both their throats at once.

‘No, I mustn’t kill them.’

If he assassinated them, it would be absolutely impossible to persuade the Magic Tower’s Master, even if he met him.

Even if they were mages from the hostile faction that had confined him, they were still members of the Magic Tower.

Would Iren accept this?

Given his temperament as Anastasia and Lionel had described, and as he himself knew, the answer would be an absolute no.

He was a man who could not tolerate injustice and did not condone indiscriminate killing.

So, as Logan was contemplating what to do.

The two mages guarding the door began to converse in low voices.

“Senior, is this really right? Are we… are we really going to be okay like this?”

“…What do you mean, Rina?”

“You know what I mean. We didn’t join the Magic Tower for this, did we? We wanted to help people with magic, to make the world a better place…”

“…Then what do you suggest? Are you saying we should rebel against Master Teron?”

Eavesdropping on their conversation, it seemed they were not followers of Teron.

Since most of those loyal to the Master had been driven out… perhaps they were of the neutral faction.

It seemed they were kept because the Magic Tower wouldn’t function properly if everyone except Teron’s followers was kicked out.

And just by sizing them up, they seemed far more skilled than the ones drinking and playing downstairs.

If the intruder had been anyone other than Logan, they would have already been discovered.

Because even though it was the top floor, they did not forget to be vigilant of their surroundings even while talking.

Therefore, he decided to eavesdrop on their conversation a little longer.

“Let’s get the Master out. I heard Hans was kicked out too. If we join forces with him, we can restore the Magic Tower to its original state…”

“Hmph… Do you think that will go as planned? Are you planning to make enemies of Master Teron, the Church, and the noble faction?”

“Senior…! But at this rate…”

“Haa… You know we can’t do it even if we want to, as you say. We don’t have the key. And the door is sealed with a magical barrier that we can’t break even if we wanted to…”

The male mage called senior, Kairen, also seemed to agree with the words of the junior female mage, Rina.

But he seemed to be contemplating because it was realistically impossible.

Therefore, Logan decided to throw a gamble.

“If it’s that key you’re talking about, I have it.”

“Who’s there!?”

Kairen raised his staff towards Logan, who had suddenly appeared.

At this, Rina hastily stopped him.

“Wait, Senior! I, I know who that is!”

At her words, Kairen stopped the spell he was casting.

“What…? Ah, come to think of it… I think I’ve seen him vaguely before…?”

“Yes, that’s right, Senior. This person is Irene’s childhood friend!”

“Aha…! That pushover…! No, ahem…! That Hero’s party… No, but why is he here?”

“….”

For a moment, the word ‘pushover’ felt like a dagger to Logan’s heart, but he quickly composed his expression and calmly made a request to the two.

“…Yes, my name is Logan. I would like to ask a favor of you two. I unintentionally overheard your conversation…”

---

Kiiiik…

With the sound of a heavy iron door opening.

The sound of a massive magic stone door opening cut through the silence.

What came into Logan’s view was.

A dark room, thick with dust and faintly smelling of medicinal herbs, and a single bed placed in its center.

On the bed, an old man lay without the slightest movement, even though someone had entered.

At that sight, the expressions of Kairen and Rina, who had entered the room with him, automatically hardened.

“What is this…! I couldn’t believe it, but…!”

“They said he collapsed while trying to surpass his limits… It was absurd nonsense after all…”

The two couldn’t help but be enraged along with their great shock.

Because Iren’s empty eyes were staring into space, and apart from a faint breath, there was no other sign that he was alive.

The same was true for Logan.

‘…How could this happen?’

He had thought that at worst, he would be under house arrest…

This… was completely…

It was almost no different from the vegetative state he had seen in his past life.

It was hard to believe this was the state of one of the greatest mages of the empire…

It was a truly wretched and miserable sight.