Ch.124Red Meteor (1)

# The Magic Tower. The only higher education institution of this era, an international educational organization, and furthermore, the largest organization of magic users in the Western Continent—their origins…

In truth, each Magic Tower school has its own distinct history.

After all, the Magic Tower organization itself was originally a decentralized network established on the remnants of the ancient empire after its collapse.

Though details vary, most were founded by magic users who were closer to scholars, researching magic for academic purposes—wizards, as they’re called. The Magic Tower organization was born when these various research groups joined forces to survive and grow stronger during chaotic times.

Because of this, while the different schools all belong to the same “Magic Tower” organization in name, each school actually maintains broad autonomy, independent action rights, and strong individual identities.

Many Magic Tower branches are little more than outposts of specific schools bearing the branch name. The organizational structure is so convoluted that even senior members sometimes don’t know its exact size or structure.

While they all technically share the same organizational label and the headquarters is located within Gold Dragon Lord Rothschild’s territory, the Magic Tower is essentially the epitome of a fragmented collective where everyone does their own thing.

Though this organization may appear highly inefficient at first glance, there are actually legitimate reasons for this structure if one digs a little deeper.

This is because the identities of each school are vastly different from one another.

For example, the “War School,” which is rumored to have close ties with the Holy Empire’s military, operates with the purpose of “military application of magic”… While called a school, it’s essentially an institution that trains magic officer cadets and military mages for the Holy Empire’s army.

The Holy Empire’s military has a unique structure that incorporates various military mages, most of whom are graduates of this War School.

Besides such politically or militarily oriented organizations, there are also schools formed and maintained for the straightforward purpose of academic pursuit.

Take the “Elemental School,” for instance. These scholars study the four classical elements or the five phases in the mystical sense—not the elements from Earth’s periodic table. They’re known for having the strongest educational institution characteristics.

…Though considering that the Magic Tower was originally a research institution, this assessment isn’t particularly flattering.

Among these schools, there’s also the Alchemy School, which strives to recreate the ultimate alchemical achievement known as the “Philosopher’s Stone,” and the Life School, which has taken countless lives by their own hands in pursuit of understanding the mysteries and origins of life.

If one were to name the most famous among the various Magic Tower branches (school bases), it would almost certainly be the Metal School, where Lord Falten hails from.

Originally a splinter group from the Alchemy School centered around the “Human Modification Research Society,” they are mechanophiliacs gone mad who research golems and automata while dreaming of the fusion between engineering and magic.

They sound unhinged just from the description, and their actions indeed make them seem no different from lunatics.

Explosions occur so frequently within their facilities that limb loss is common among Metal School mages, and it’s not unusual to see peculiar cases where everything except the brain and some organs has been replaced with machinery.

But among their most deranged practices is the fact that they perform human modification experiments on their own bodies.

…The fact that they don’t use kidnapped people as test subjects for money puts them in the top 1% of the Magic Tower in terms of dazzling moral character, but still.

Anyway, among these schools, the one whose branch we’re planning to visit is… the Soul School, where Charlotte spent her study abroad period.

While their name might make their purpose seem ambiguous, they primarily work with magical contracts. However, the soul magic they practice is comparable to… philosophy and humanities, if we were to compare it to academic disciplines.

Perhaps because it’s magic based on abstract notions like exploring and analyzing the essence of humanity, Soul School magic generally produces abstract and vague effects…

Naturally, this is a factor that keeps the Soul School on the fringes.

It’s neither excellent at inflicting damage nor particularly useful for creating value. Additionally, it’s difficult to learn due to its high complexity among magical disciplines, and it’s challenging to achieve any impressive feats with it.

In modern terms, it’s comparable to being marginalized like literature, history, or philosophy departments.

Even though they possess the overwhelming advantage of unbreakable soul contracts, the reason the Soul School cannot flourish significantly is quite simple.

In this barbaric age, simple violence—just bashing someone’s head in—is preferred over contracts, as absurd as that may sound.

Violence is simple, convenient, and far too easily employed, while contracts, which harm even the breaker if violated, are understandably less preferred.

And this is what happened while we were heading toward the base of this unpopular magical school, the Soul School.

※ ※ ※

Morning, exactly one day after departing for the nearest Magic Tower branch where the Soul School’s base and a Metal School branch were located.

“…Shall we depart?”

“Let’s do that.”

Having finished our breakfast with smoked freshwater fish I had packed and carefully prepared white wheat bread, we were now busy getting ready to continue our journey toward the Soul School’s base.

Of course, you might wonder why we’re heading to the Soul School’s base when we’re looking for Metal School-related parts, but as mentioned earlier, there’s a Metal School branch located at this Soul School base.

Although the various magic schools operate independently, they’re still under the same organization, and some schools with good versatility frequently interact with other schools.

The Metal School is a relatively popular school that engages in trade with others by selling and repairing golems or automata for physically weak mages, as well as repairing metal products and creating metal experimental equipment.

The sale of golems and automata to do the heavy lifting for physically weak mages is truly innovative, and beyond this, the Metal School shows natural talent in handling metal-related products.

That’s why many Magic Tower schools form alliances and cooperate with the Metal School, meaning that visiting the Soul School’s base shouldn’t pose any major problems.

Anyway, for these reasons, we were heading there… each riding different mounts.

I rode Gus, my warhorse; Pierre rode a fast and enduring riding horse; Charlotte rode a stable and sturdy pack horse.

And the esteemed Lord Malakai Falten rode his steam horse made of brass, bronze… and lead, which he always used.

This automaton in the form of a horse, powered by something like a magic-operated steam engine inside, could be described as a horse-shaped automaton.

Except for consuming a tiny amount of the rider’s magical power as an energy source, it could run endlessly. According to what he casually mentioned, it apparently incorporated ancient imperial magitech.

And so, as the four of us were heading toward the Magic Tower branch on our various horse-shaped mounts—at that moment.

-Ding-a-ling.

‘…Hmm?’

Suddenly, my intuition, made extremely sensitive by the Factor, began to alert me that hostile life forms were approaching from somewhere distant.

Since the warning from my intuition wasn’t extremely intense, it didn’t seem to be a critically serious situation, but nevertheless, an intuition warning meant that an enemy I needed to take seriously was approaching.

“…”

As I stopped Gus, wondering what could be triggering my intuition to ring like this.

“…My lord?”

“Shhhhh…”

Perhaps noticing from my behavior that something was amiss, they lowered their voices at my instruction. Gradually, the sound of approaching footsteps became audible to our ears…

“…Orc! Orc cavalry!”

My judgment proved correct as an orc in distinctive red-dyed armor approached, riding a massive wolf from beyond the horizon.

‘A red one… isn’t he fast?’

Especially as the owner of that crimson armor approached at tremendous speed—about three times faster than a horse—while emanating a fierce aura, my judgment seemed all the more correct.

‘A red one that’s three times faster… Ugh, my head…!!’

The sense of déjà vu is just my imagination. Anyway, it must be my imagination.