Ch.113Tower of Magic – 2

“Serena, is this your first time visiting the Magic Tower?”

“Yes, my lord. I had no reason to go there before.”

“Have you heard about what the Magic Tower is?”

“I know it’s a place where humans who just use magic hole themselves up.”

Humans who just use magic hole themselves up. Serena’s use of such an expression was likely influenced by her terrible relationship with Charlotte, who was a mage.

Well, it wasn’t completely wrong.

The general perception people had of Magic Towers was that they were places where mages shut themselves in all day, researching new formulas while using magic to play all sorts of pranks.

It was only natural, since no matter how excited mages got about developing new magic, most people couldn’t even feel the difference.

Moreover, regardless of what research the mages conducted in the towers, Charlotte would produce better results more quickly and easily.

Among those fellows, it was considered normal to seek Charlotte’s advice after a long waiting period when they got stuck in their magical research.

Looking at it this way, one might wonder why Magic Towers and mages existed at all, but those people weren’t completely useless.

They handled fields that were too trivial for Charlotte to bother with, like producing low-grade mana stones needed for operating transfer gates.

And getting into a Magic Tower was equivalent to career advancement for mages.

No matter how the pay varied according to position, it was a workplace where research funds were provided regularly and at least room and board were taken care of. It was natural to want to get in.

It was far better than setting up a private workshop and waiting for commissions that might never come, or jumping into the dangerous life of an adventurer, living hand to mouth.

Moreover, a Magic Tower Master was on par with a lower-ranking noble in terms of status.

Although the highest position a mage could attain was in the Royal Mage Corps, being a mage affiliated with a Magic Tower was still an extremely attractive option.

If one could become one, that is.

“Then I guess you don’t know how many Magic Towers there are in the kingdom’s capital?”

“…I’ve overheard in passing that there are 8 Royal Mage Corps.”

Serena hesitated briefly before answering my question with some uncertainty. She didn’t seem very confident.

I had just asked casually to keep the conversation going, but she seemed to think I would be disappointed if she couldn’t answer.

I patted her head a couple of times to let her know not to worry unnecessarily, and her expression brightened noticeably.

So she really had been thinking that.

“That’s right, there are 8. One in each of the four cardinal directions, and one in each direction between them. You know well.”

“I see.”

Though her voice didn’t change much from usual, her expression showed satisfaction at my praise. If she had a tail, it would have been wagging vigorously from side to side.

“Do you know why there are 8? Just asking, so don’t be disappointed or apologize if you don’t know.”

“No. I don’t know that much.”

“This place is the center of the kingdom. Not in a figurative sense, but literally the center. Maybe saying it’s in the middle would be easier to understand without misinterpretation?”

People often say the capital is the center of the kingdom, and that has two meanings.

First, it means it’s the most developed area in the kingdom because all the people with money or skills gather there to sell all kinds of goods and technologies.

Second, it literally means the capital is physically located in the middle of the kingdom’s territory.

“As for why this place is in the middle of the kingdom… I’ll skip that since you probably wouldn’t like it.”

The reason the capital was located exactly in the middle of the kingdom was, of course, because of Charlotte.

She insisted that the royal palace where she would reside must be at the center of everything.

Once Charlotte made up her mind, nothing could stop her, and as soon as she decided, she began the work of completely remodeling the area that would become the capital.

It was a massive project where she created new magic to permanently change the local climate, fixing it to a single season, leveling mountains, and even creating new water sources.

After a week of remodeling, the kingdom’s capital ended up with perfect conditions: mild weather year-round, completely flat terrain, and even incredibly clean rivers and lakes.

Actually, the more shocking fact was that this insane endeavor of completely overhauling the terrain and climate only took a week.

Serena wouldn’t be happy to hear this story.

“There are 8 transfer gates in the capital. You’ve probably used them. The Magic Towers are the main suppliers of the low-grade mana stones needed for those gates.”

Eight directions: north, south, east, west, northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest. According to Charlotte, aligning transfer gates with these directions consumed less mana stones.

This wouldn’t matter to Charlotte, who could easily open transfer gates connecting the ends of the continent, but it did matter to other mages.

“That’s why there are 8 Magic Towers. One for each direction of transfer gates, 8 directions in total.”

“In that case, are we visiting the northern or northwestern Magic Tower?”

Serena seemed to have already grasped the core of what I was saying, noticing the direction we were heading and asking if we were going north.

“No. What would I do in such places? I can’t use magic, and you’re also far removed from magic.”

“But didn’t you say we were going to a Magic Tower, my lord?”

“That’s right. We’re going to a Magic Tower now.”

“And we’re heading north.”

“That’s also correct.”

“…?”

Serena tilted her head with an expression that showed she couldn’t understand what was going on.

“I told you earlier that there are 8 Magic Towers, right?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Actually, those Royal Mage Corps guys are mistaken. There aren’t 8 Magic Towers.”

“…”

For a moment, Serena’s eyes flashed with killing intent. I flicked her forehead to tell her to calm down, and the killing intent immediately dissipated.

She seemed embarrassed about having passed on false information to me, but since she had just overheard a conversation in passing, she wasn’t in a position to be blamed.

“There are 9 Magic Towers in total. One in each direction, as I said before. And including the one I’m heading to now, that makes 9.”

Serena’s expression showed she couldn’t understand at all. That was understandable. After explaining that there were 8 towers, now I was saying there were 9.

Even I would think, what nonsense is this?

“Don’t you understand?”

“No… I do understand, my lord.”

“You don’t need to hide it. It’s natural that you don’t know since I never told you.”

Serena had tried to say “Yes” but quickly changed her words, creating an awkward pause between them. I smiled lightly at her.

“Most people in this kingdom probably don’t even know about the existence of this tower. At most, only you, me, and Charlotte know.”

As I finished speaking, I stopped walking, and Serena naturally stopped behind me. In front of us was a mansion with a spacious garden.

The main gate was firmly locked with a thick metal door, and beside it stood a pointed metal fence that blocked the way. The fence was easily twice my height.

Serena still had an expression that showed she couldn’t understand my actions. I had clearly said we were going to a Magic Tower, so why had we come to a place like this?

“This is it.”

“Are you saying this is the ninth Magic Tower you mentioned, my lord?”

“And it’s also a Magic Tower that belongs to me.”

Leaving Serena blinking in confusion behind me, I approached the mansion’s main gate and grabbed the door handle. Then I applied force and turned it sideways while pulling.

At that moment, all kinds of spikes shot out from the gate, piercing my entire body. With the sound of tearing flesh, my whole body was slashed by the spikes that impaled me.

Blood leaked from the punctured holes and flowed down my legs. My hand, which couldn’t let go of the handle, was also pierced by dozens of tiny spikes.

“My lord!”

Serena, who had frozen momentarily at the unexpected situation, cried out in shock and tried to rush toward me, but I gestured for her to stay calm. Seeing my gesture, she hesitated.

As I accelerated my regeneration, the spikes that had pierced my body were pushed back out. The spikes that left my body disappeared as if scattering into the air.

Unconcerned, I kept holding the door handle and pulling with force. Serena hurriedly ran to my side.

“My lord, are you alright?”

“I’m always fine. Were you surprised?”

“…If you hadn’t stopped me, I would have cut this door to pieces.”

“Good thing I stopped you. If you had, this whole area would have been blown away.”

What had just pierced my body was a kind of defensive magic set by Charlotte. It was meant to verify if the person approaching was really me.

Charlotte could easily dismantle such defensive magic, so it didn’t matter to her, and for me, I just had to endure it and recover as I just did.

It’s practically impossible to be aware of this magic and avoid it. Only someone of Serena’s caliber could barely react to it.

Since ordinary people wouldn’t even attempt to open the door of an empty mansion in such a secluded place, it was fine to just kill anyone who tried to open the door.

“Ah, Serena, just a moment.”

“Yes, my lord. Please speak.”

“There are four more defensive spells left, so—”

Before I could finish saying “step back,” the main gate twisted once more.

The door handle sucked my hand in and fixed it firmly. My hand was buried deep inside the door. The sound of my hand being crushed inside could be heard.

The ground beneath my feet glowed blue. And spikes shot out again to pierce me, but they were all cut down by Serena, who had drawn World Eater in an instant.

Serena stood beside me with World Eater half-drawn from its sheath. The severed spikes transformed into blue particles and disappeared.

Serena spoke calmly.

“Three more to go, my lord?”