Ch.179179. Invasion: Preparations (4)

Since we had met once before and had built a relatively deep relationship previously.

“Well then, farewell!”

“Yes. I pray for Lord Dorthea’s good health as well!”

Having progressed our “conversation” much more smoothly than expected, I was about to move on to meet the final group now assigned under our command.

-Siiigh…

“What’s wrong?”

“…It’s nothing.”

Though Sophie was giving me a rather peculiar look from beside me, I ignored her gaze and started walking toward the address where the final group assigned to our guerrilla unit was located.

And what caught my eye was… as we got closer to that address, the proportion of buildings that appeared to be leased by various sub-schools of the Magic Tower increased.

In other words, this final group was likely affiliated with the Magic Tower.

The Magic Tower. Called such because mages gathered to form a community in a tower-shaped building, the most notable characteristic of the Magic Tower is that it’s the largest (magical) educational institution in the Western Continent.

Originally, mages who trained apprentices through the master-apprentice system united to educate their disciples more systematically, and thus the Magic Tower naturally evolved into a form of educational institution.

Thanks to this, although the Magic Tower is criticized today for having degenerated into an organization that protects mages’ interests, it still strongly maintains its aspect as an educational institution.

Given the Western Continent’s characteristic lack of systematic educational institutions or research facilities, with few exceptions, the Magic Tower teaches not only magic but various academic disciplines.

And the mages—the magic users that the Tower nurtures as its members—are often considered lunatics, with those of sound mind being the exception rather than the rule.

A mage’s magic is academic. It’s a power formed through a more systematized and logical structure, created by organizing abstract concepts derived from intuition and emotion into principles and concepts.

In short, they study knowledge that a sane mind could hardly contain, and in this process, as their souls touch the mysteries and their nature changes, even normal people gradually go mad as they learn magic.

These mages are divided into “schools”—equivalent to university departments in our world—according to their classification and the magic they specialize in.

The most representative is the Attack School, which focuses on learning offensive magic like fire magic, followed by the Enchantment School, which specializes in learning how to imbue objects with magic to create magical tools.

Of course, as with all things that converge at their peak, the ultimate conclusion is essentially predetermined… but how many mages can actually reach that level?

The vast majority of mages end their lives without even reaching the intermediate level, remaining at the basic level, so these schools certainly occupy a significant domain…

Nevertheless, schools are a much looser and more flexible concept than one might think.

Perhaps because magic can rarely be clearly classified as being focused in a specific direction, today’s mages often belong to multiple schools simultaneously.

For instance, a mage handling fire magic might broaden their understanding of fire itself in the Elemental School while learning how to shape magic into offensive forms in the Attack School.

‘Please, please…’

Anyway, having become convinced that Magic Tower mages were members of the guerrilla unit, I had been desperately hoping that the unit members would be relatively sane humans…

“Are you perhaps the druid appointed as the guerrilla unit’s captain?”

‘…Ah.’

This hope of mine was completely shattered the moment a mage wearing a distinctive brass-tagged magitech eye prosthetic appeared.

※ ※ ※

Generally, mages are considered to be full of lunatics and those with broken personalities.

This common belief is somewhat accurate, as mages become eccentric after spending long periods studying difficult disciplines…

But the main reason mages are known for their terrible personalities is, naturally, due to the influence of how they handle the mysteries they’ve acquired.

Since magic involves forcibly organizing mysteries that exist outside the realm of human comprehension into something understandable, even normal humans gradually transform into madmen due to the mental strain this process causes.

Additionally, the influence of the mysteries they acquire academically cannot be ignored.

Those who handle fire magic tend to develop hot-tempered personalities, while ice magic practitioners find their personalities freezing over—such changes are commonplace.

Moreover, cases of physical changes or mutations occurring through continuous contact with mysteries are “very” common.

Thus, the mysteries that mages handle exert undeniable influence on both their bodies and souls…

“Pleased to meet you, Druid Gregory Aleinos. We are the Human Transformation Research Society of the Transformation School.”

‘…Ah.’

As luck would have it, the Magic Tower school I encountered was one that exuded ominousness in abundance.

The Transformation School. A school within the Magic Tower where mages who primarily deal with the “transformation” of substances, such as alchemy, are affiliated. Perhaps because of this, most mages in the Transformation School harbor some desire or longing for change.

In fact, since there’s even a classification of magic called “transformation magic,” most of these mages are lunatics who feel ecstasy in transforming something…

‘…The Human Transformation Research Society, those madmen?’

Standing at the forefront of these lunatics, with a notoriety that stands out even among madmen, are the mages of the Human Transformation Research Society now before me.

As their name suggests, they are insane beings who derive pleasure and joy from magic that permanently transforms the human body. In particular, this Research Society focuses on transforming human bodies into inorganic materials like metal.

Something like magical-cyborgs, perhaps. Of course, they must strictly adhere to certain boundaries, which is how they’ve survived the notorious Inquisitors of the Pantheon until now…

But the reverse implication is that as long as they don’t cross that “line,” these mad mages can run wild as they please.

Just looking at the mages before me, more than half had replaced at least one of their limbs with mechanical prosthetics made of brass or copper, and behind them stood soldiers exuding a very “mechanical” atmosphere.

“Those people in the back…”

“They are soldiers affiliated with our Research Society.”

“I, I see…”

Just as various groups in this world have the right to arm themselves for protection, the Magic Tower also maintains soldiers or knights under each school.

Of course, these soldiers are often treated like ignorant watchdogs by the arrogant mages they serve, though this varies by school…

But where there is loss, there is also gain. These Magic Tower soldiers receive various magical equipment and magical services, making it a profession with steady demand, if not explosive…

‘…Ugh.’

Honestly, looking at their condition where machinery had replaced more flesh than not, I didn’t even want to understand the demand for such a position.

But then, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

‘…It’s actually pretty cool?’

Cyborgs and prosthetics are the kind of thing that can seem childish if done poorly, but exude incredible style if done well—I even have a bit of a middle-school syndrome fascination with them.

Especially since these soldiers had exposed the internal machinery and piping through armor plates, that distinctive mechanical atmosphere was all the more pronounced.

“Impressive pros…thetics. Are they the work of your Research Society?”

So when I opened my mouth with words that were half sincere compliment and half courtesy.

“Y-yes… In that case, might you be interested in prosthetics like these?”

‘…Bingo.’

As the mage began to exude an atmosphere like an otaku whose favorite topic had come up in conversation, I recognized I’d hit the jackpot and continued.

“…Oh! This one has a dignified feel to it!”

“Yes, indeed. Dignity is also a virtue of machinery!”

And so this debate on “which machine looks cooler,” which began half-sincerely and half-pretentiously, ultimately resulted in cultivating goodwill toward me among these mages…

‘These people really aren’t in their right minds…’

At the same time, I couldn’t help but be shocked as I recognized a kind of transhumanism deeply rooted in their hearts.

Lunatics driven by the desire to replace healthy bodies with magical-machinery—no matter how I looked at it, I couldn’t consider them to be of sound mind.