Chapter 218: Mobius (2)

It wasn’t that I wasn’t paying attention to Sylvia.

Sylvia had been receiving letters periodically, and I can swear I was diligently replying to her. I can also firmly state that the spinster I had assigned to teach her wasn’t being negligent in her reports.

Sylvia’s last letter is still in my desk.

[Evan-nim. I’ve now entered the advanced intermediate magic course. I wanted to learn more deeply about magic tool crafting, but they say it’s difficult to procure materials in this field, so I’ll have to learn it later. I wanted to give Evan-nim a gift, but it’s a shame.

Still, I’m doing well here. They say I’ll have taught everything I can soon. I think I’ll be able to return soon.

Evan-nim. I miss you. You know what happens when we meet, right? Don’t forget our all-day date?]

She didn’t know she was going to be kidnapped then. The mage I had placed with her didn’t seem to sense any signs of Sylvia being kidnapped either.

“Has our plan been exposed?”

“Evan. If our plan had been exposed, I think it would have been more efficient for them to attack us directly.”

Milia shook her head and said so. And she was right. If the plan to defeat the hero and Mobius one by one had been exposed, it would have been more efficient for two people to team up and attack here than to do something like this.

Such a clumsy hostage situation only provided room for counterattack and was merely an act of dividing their own forces. I said.

“Then Mobius’s kidnapping stunt this time must be a personal matter, right? Mobius blocking Sylvia’s path before was also for personal reasons, wasn’t it?”

“I suppose you could see it that way.”

I said, touching the map.

“How long will it take for this map to be completed?”

“At the latest, two months. If things go really well, one month.”

The map completion speed, which had felt fast, now felt rushed. What on earth was Mobius planning to do in the magic tower? Whatever he was planning, suddenly kidnapping his target for revenge meant he had reached the final point of his objective.

It would be too late if we rushed in after any situation occurred. I shook my head and said.

“It’s too late. Who knows what could happen in the meantime? We can’t gamble with Sylvia’s life. Whatever he’s planning, it’s unlikely to be anything good.”

“That’s true.”

I turned my head. Far away, on the sofa in our house’s lobby, Petunia Titi sat trimming an arrow. When Mobius’s name came up, she kept glancing at me, her lips twitching. I spoke to her.

“Don’t you know anything? One of our people got kidnapped, and we still haven’t made the map of the magic tower.”

Petunia Titi looked at me with a complicated gaze. As if I had made a strange proposal, she furrowed her brow, rolled her eyes, and sighed deeply, saying.

“…I recently visited Mobius’s magic tower. I even went to that secret basement.”

The person who knew the entire layout of the magic tower was right beside me? Petunia, living and eating at my mansion, didn’t even provide that information? I asked incredulously.

“No, then you should have told us! We’re working so hard on this map. Huh? It would have been much easier if you had helped.”

Petunia shook her head and shouted as I pressed her.

“I was treated like a VIP back then and went up via the direct elevator! There’s no way you guys could go up the direct elevator! I wasn’t exactly snooping around the magic tower when I went to see Mobius’s face, so it wouldn’t have been much help in making the map… I was planning to tell you once I had mapped up to near the top floor?”

Her words were also true. Large magic towers like Mobius’s had strict elevator security; there were even rumors that if suspicious individuals entered, the elevator would be sealed and detonated underground. For us to use the elevator, we would have to subdue the security room first, but we didn’t even know its location.

“Do you happen to know the location of the security room?”

“No. It would be faster to ask the people there.”

I looked back at Milia. From the moment Mobius kidnapped Sylvia, we were essentially trapped in an endless countdown. There was no more time to leisurely create the map; we had to resolve everything as quickly as possible.

Milia also sighed. She seemed quite displeased with the situation not going according to plan.

“We have no choice. For now, let’s change our focus to finding the security room, and we should move closer to the magic tower so we can get contact within a few days.”

I looked at Petunia, and Petunia nodded, saying.

“…I know. I’m going too.”

If too many people gathered, it would attract attention. It was decided that only a small elite team consisting of Petunia Titi, myself, Milia, and Taffy would head to the magic tower this time.

Fortunately, there were accommodations and a large village near the magic tower where people could stay, so it seemed we could quietly spend time at an inn here and wait for the right moment.

I looked at the map and asked. Between the magic tower and the village lay a wide plain, with small forested areas dotted here and there. Wouldn’t it be possible to lure Mobius into one of these forests and assassinate him? I pointed at the forest and said.

“Why don’t we just lure Mobius outside? If you say you called him, he might come out.”

“What if he doesn’t?”

I imagined the scenario where Mobius rejected Petunia Titi’s proposal. Coming all the way to the magic tower, calling him out for business, and then just leaving because he refused to come out.

“That’s too suspicious. The risk is too high. Let’s drop that idea. Just forget it.”

“He won’t come out now because it’s the final stage of his experiment. We met in the reception room last time. That girl Sylvia, she’s the granddaughter of the mage Mobius chased away, right? I think I heard that.”

“That’s right.”

I recalled Sylvia’s face. Her ample breasts and the tight sensation of her anus, shaped like my penis, flooded my mind. Unable to bear the thought of losing her, my lower body tensed up.

Petunia Titi met my gaze and frowned. Thinking she might have read my mind, I turned my head, and she shook hers, saying.

“That… is too unreasonable a revenge. The revenge is already over. I saw Mobius torturing an old man he had locked up in his secret laboratory. He was draining his magic through magical chains and giving him electric shocks.”

“…Is that person Sylvia’s grandfather?”

There were rumors that he had died after Mobius returned, but Mobius seemed to have kept him alive until the end without killing him. What exactly did Mobius want to achieve? Was torturing a colleague who had insulted him not enough? Why take his granddaughter as well?

“Taking his granddaughter… I believe Mobius has the right to seek revenge. However, blocking the paths of mages who have done no harm and arbitrarily expanding his revenge drama… I think that’s too unreasonable.”

“But what kind of experiment is he conducting? You saw the experiment Mobius was doing there, didn’t you? Do you know what it is?”

Petunia Titi shook her head. Although she had witnessed the laboratory, she had no expertise in magic.

“I don’t know. It was a magic circle I had never seen before, and it was filled with complex devices I had never encountered in my life.”

Milia moved closer to me and handed Petunia Titi a piece of paper.

“Could you draw it in more detail here?”

Her proactive attitude was indeed characteristic of the mage in our party. We hadn’t had sex yet, but we had established a solid alliance. Petunia Titi roughly sketched the shapes she had seen onto the paper. Mechanical devices and test tubes. An old man confined to a corner and a floor densely covered in drawings. And a blackboard full of scribbles and piled-up magic stones.

I couldn’t figure it out, and Taffy just tilted his head. Milia also tilted her head and said.

“It looks vaguely familiar… but I’m not sure. Where could such magic possibly come from? It feels different from existing magical formulas…”

“Is it that complicated?”

“Yeah, complicated… and novel.”

Milia nodded as she said that. I stroked Taffy’s chin and summarized the conversation.

“Then, first, we’ll seize the security room and use the elevator to get to the top floor. Taffy, who can move freely between floors, will be in charge of checking the security room.”

Flying in from outside the tower carried a high risk of being shot down, and Taffy alone couldn’t carry all of us to the top floor. If we were to travel on foot without using the elevator, it would mean fighting the entire magic tower’s mages. In the first place, just knowing the location of the security room and trying to breach the tower was a gamble. The magic tower was filled with security devices wary of intruders. We were simply making a reckless plan because we were out of time.

I pointed to the top floor of the tower and said.

“We’ll defeat Mobius here, then go to that secret laboratory, rescue Sylvia, and get out.”

We couldn’t just break through the wall directly into the secret laboratory. If we entered the secret laboratory first and Mobius wasn’t there, we would have to fight Mobius casting magic spells from above us. We knew nothing about the security systems on the upper floors of the magic tower. As soon as we got off the elevator, the best approach would be to destroy everything around us in the most destructive way possible while taking down Mobius.

Petunia Titi said cautiously.

“When we go up this last time, could you give me one chance? I want to try persuading him one last time.”

I looked at Milia and Taffy. Taffy shook his head, and Milia said.

“Do we look that strong?”

Petunia Titi simply closed her mouth and lowered her head.

I patted her shoulder and said.

“Please understand, Petunia. Still, this is the best we can do.”

“…Alright.”