Ch.235Tale of the Past: Olivia Eleonora – 1

“Do you think it’ll work this time? What do you think?”

“Absolutely not. Didn’t you see I bet on him not dying?”

“You developed that spell yourself and bet against it working? Do you have any conscience?”

“As someone once said, I’m a bit of a subpar magician. I tried my best, but it just didn’t work out.”

“Look at that attitude. Gives me chills.”

Inside a magic tower, more than ten magicians gathered around a table in front of an iron door, tilting their glasses and conversing with each other.

Empty bottles were scattered around them. Some were so drunk they could barely keep their balance, swaying unsteadily.

Light continuously leaked through the cracks of the iron door. Had it not been for the protective magic barrier firmly guarding that room, the entire tower would surely have collapsed—such was the intensity of the light.

After some time passed, the light seeping through the door gradually subsided. As the moment to reveal the results approached, the magicians’ faces lit up with excitement.

“Ah, it’s opening!”

A finger pointed forward. Everyone’s attention focused on it. With a creaking sound, the iron door slowly opened. This meant the magic had completely terminated.

A human silhouette appeared beyond it.

The magicians gathered at the door displayed various expressions. Some faces turned grim—those who had bet on the spell’s success.

Conversely, those who bet on failure cheered loudly, including the very person who developed the spell. The fact that they won money was more important than the spell’s failure.

“Happy stealing other people’s money?”

“Fucking thrilled? Your money just became mine.”

The woman cackled, mocking the man. He could only grumble in response.

“Why did you have to bet against the odds? If you’d just quietly bet on him not dying, you’d have at least broken even. Just had to gamble—”

“Hmmmrgh…”

The man ground his teeth and mumbled. While the woman laughed at him, a young man emerged from the room beyond the iron door, pushing through smoke and mana residue.

He was an exceptionally handsome young man with black hair and black eyes.

The boy came out and casually dusted off his clothes. The magicians cheered—except those who had lost money. Everyone else was busy teasing them.

The woman who created the spell approached the boy. She had a rather cute appearance with golden hair gathered into a round bun.

“So you survived?”

“Yeah. Couldn’t die this time either.”

“How was this spell? Any points for improvement or comments on its power?”

“It hurt. Seems useful for torture. Though it kills too quickly for that purpose.”

“And?”

“That’s it.”

When the boy truly closed his mouth, the woman looked blank for a moment. Then she asked in an incredulous voice.

“…That’s all you have to say?”

“Ah, there’s one more thing.”

“That’s more like it. What is it?”

“You need more practice with your magic.”

“What?”

The woman began bickering with the boy. The other magicians shook their heads saying “here they go again,” but made no attempt to stop the argument.

It wasn’t a serious fight anyway. This was closer to their own form of affection, and also a way to show off their intimacy by demonstrating how casually they could behave with each other.

“Why don’t you losers who bet on him dying quietly go in and clean up? Why are you still lingering outside?”

“We need you to move away from the door to get in.”

True enough, the boy and woman were still standing in front of the door. Their tone had softened somewhat, making it closer to a discussion than an argument.

“I think you could have killed a bit less cruelly. Was it necessary to pull out the intestines? The victim would have died long before that point.”

“You’ve seen plenty of intestines before, haven’t you? Just let it go. Why are you being so nitpicky?”

The content of their conversation was just a bit strange.

Watching the two seriously discussing when exactly intestines should be pulled out, one magician stood up abruptly and called out in an exaggerated voice.

“Hey, you lovebirds in front! Could you please move aside so these idiots who bet on a miracle upset can get in and clean up?”

“Lovebirds? What are you talking about? Where did that word suddenly come from?”

“Everyone knows except you. If you don’t want to hear it, just hurry up and move aside.”

All her previous confidence gone, the woman awkwardly glanced at the boy and stepped back a few paces. The boy followed suit.

“So that’s how it is, Helena?”

When the boy playfully nudged the blonde woman called Helena with a mischievous face, she slightly averted her eyes.

The magicians wouldn’t miss such a reaction. Even those who had bet and lost all their money and were now stuck with cleaning duty teased Helena more enthusiastically.

Of course, if either of them had shown genuine displeasure, everyone would have stopped immediately. But neither the boy nor Helena seemed truly upset.

Helena clearly appeared to have feelings for the boy.

“Would you please be quiet, Abel?”

The boy called Abel simply smiled and let the teasing slide.

No one here had ever seen Abel genuinely angry, and no one was foolish enough to do something that would provoke such a reaction.

Why would anyone antagonize someone who was practically a walking symbol, having lived in this magic tower for several hundred years?

Abel was quite famous among magicians.

The fact that he could withstand any damage—physical or magical—and survive through supernatural regenerative abilities without ever dying aroused endless interest among magicians.

Many magicians came to try killing Abel with all sorts of spells. But all attempts failed miserably. Abel never died and could not be killed.

There were rumors that he used to be a well-known adventurer, but since everyone who knew about Abel’s adventuring days had grown old and died, these remained mere rumors.

That was the real reason why Abel, who had wandered aimlessly from place to place, settled down in this particular magic tower.

When settling in the tower, Abel set forth just one crucial and simple condition:

To find something that could kill him.

For that single purpose, Abel volunteered as a test subject for countless biological experiments, unproven potions, and all manner of destructive magic.

It was beneficial for both parties. Magicians could conduct experiments without hesitation, no matter how cruel, and Abel could hold onto the possibility of hope.

He accepted even the most horrific biological experiments or magic without hesitation. Some of the potions he consumed could rightfully be called poison.

But no matter how many experiments were repeated, Abel did not die. His super-regenerative ability always activated, returning him to his original state.

Hundreds of years passed this way. Abel remained in the tower, treated as an elder.

It made sense. Everyone who had been there when Abel first entered the tower was long buried. Meanwhile, he had guarded the tower for hundreds of years without aging or dying.

When someone had been active since your distant ancestors’ time, respectful treatment was inevitable.

Although he couldn’t use any magic and thus couldn’t become the tower master, he held a position practically equivalent to one. Even the actual tower master didn’t treat Abel carelessly.

Sometimes, sons or grandsons would enter the tower following in their fathers’ or grandfathers’ footsteps. Magicians who had such strange experiences naturally became even more respectful.

The gambling on Abel’s life began around that time—betting on whether he would die or survive the newly developed magic.

Of course, since they gambled with money Abel himself distributed rather than their personal assets, anyone in the tower could participate without burden. Even if they lost, there was no real loss.

The strategy worked quite well, and Abel’s suicide attempts eventually became one of the regularly occurring interesting topics of conversation.

Until the Gargantua dynasty was properly established on the continent, it had been close to lawless where power always prevailed, so the concept of respecting life was somewhat vague.

In fact, in other magic towers without an excellent test subject like Abel, it was common to purchase slaves and conduct biological experiments on them.

Abel and Olivia’s meeting took place in such an environment.

“What are you all gathered here for?”

“Perfect timing, Abel. Take a look at this.”

Seeing magicians buzzing on the first floor of the tower, Abel approached. Helena, who spotted Abel, handed him what she was holding—a neatly folded letter.

“A letter? Where’s it from?”

“The Red One Tower.”

“Red One? Why would they send us a letter?”

“You’ll understand when you read it.”

Naturally, relations between magic towers weren’t good. They were competitors and potential threats to each other.

Generally, they maintained indifferent relationships. But occasionally, they genuinely despised each other—as was the case between Abel’s tower and the Red One Tower.

It began with minor squabbles between the founders of the two towers, but without time to resolve them, resentments piled up until they truly became hostile toward each other.

Now only Abel knew the truth, which is why he could only be puzzled after reading the letter.

“They’re sending a gift? Did the sun rise in the west today?”

“It rose perfectly fine in the east, so you don’t need to check, Abel. Should we just ignore it? What should we do? Their gifts can’t be normal. We’d be lucky if it’s not an explosive magic circle disguised as a gift.”

Helena shook her head. An explosive magic circle disguised as a gift was something the Red One Tower had actually used before.

Fortunately, Abel had been the one to open it, so he recovered from his shattered body just fine. Had an ordinary magician opened it, there would have been serious trouble.

“Do we know when it’s coming?”

“No. It wasn’t written.”

“Alright. Let me know when it arrives. I’ll receive it.”

A week after the letter arrived, the “gift” from the Red One Tower showed up. It was a black-haired girl with half her body covered in terrible burn scars, keloids, pus, and discharge.