Ch.41Meeting Place (5)

“Why is this person showing up here of all places?”

I wore a bewildered expression as I looked at the figure standing confidently before me with arms crossed.

Even if we were to meet, I’d have preferred to seek them out myself, or at least meet naturally. I never intended to meet like this.

More importantly, why are these high-ranking Magic Tower Masters suddenly visiting the Blood Tower?

‘Coming without notice is giving me a headache…’

If they had at least told me they’d be coming at this time, I wouldn’t have complained.

The Red Tower Master was one thing, but honestly, even thinking about it now, I still don’t understand why they came so boldly…

I never expected Seria to betray my trust like this.

“Sigh…”

I let out a deep sigh from frustration.

“…”

Irina, who had been watching me from the side, suddenly made a determined expression and stepped forward, leaving me behind.

“The Blood Tower Master seems tired today, so come back tomorrow, sis!”

When Irina shouted confidently, Seria looked down at her with a distorted expression, as if doubting what she’d just heard.

“Really? I’m a bit busy, so would it be impossible?”

“Ah, it’s not possible.”

“Hmm…”

At Seria’s words, Irina made a contemplative expression.

Then, perhaps to confirm if what Irina said was true, she raised her head and met my eyes.

Of course, although becoming a True Ancestor meant I couldn’t feel physical fatigue anymore, I was genuinely mentally exhausted.

To be completely honest, I just wanted to go inside and rest without doing anything today.

“It’s true.”

At my answer, Seria pouted.

“But isn’t it a bit much to turn away a visitor who came all this way…?”

“It would have been better if you had contacted me first before visiting…”

“I already contacted you ages ago! You’re the one who hasn’t been responding to my messages for days, and you’re saying that?”

What.

‘She contacted me?’

If she had contacted me, that changes things.

While it’s proper etiquette for Tower Masters to contact each other before visiting, if she had reached out and I hadn’t responded, I couldn’t say anything.

What could I say when she claimed she was too busy to respond?

I hurriedly took out my MagicPad to check if any messages had come.

[You have 26 unread messages.]

She really did send them.

And she sent 26 of them?

‘The date is…’

Starting from about a week ago, there were multiple messages from Seria asking if she could visit the Blood Tower.

“…”

At this point, I was well past the stage of discussing etiquette…

Rather, I was the one who had acted rudely by not reading messages from a fellow Tower Master.

“B-but still…”

Irina, who seemed to want to help me somehow, tried to say something but appeared to be at a loss for words.

Well, can’t be helped…

I stepped forward, leaving Irina behind.

“First… I apologize for not responding to your messages. I’ve been so busy this past week that I didn’t have a chance to check my message inbox.”

It was true that I had been busy this past week.

Since I started working as a Tower Master, I’d been considering how to use the funds I received from Eterna, strengthening Irina with Blood Strengthening Art and personally teaching her Blood Magic, and working on improving Blood Strengthening Art to make it easier and more powerful for other Blood Mages to use.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I’ve been busier during this past week than when I was a member of the Hero’s party.

I’ve been constantly pushing forward with only the Greatest Magic Tower Tournament in mind.

However, no matter how busy I was, it wasn’t like I didn’t have time to check my MagicPad. From Seria’s perspective, my failure to check her messages might have seemed like I was disrespecting the Green Tower Master.

So an apology was appropriate.

…Even so, Razak, who was watching me from the side, looked shocked to see me speaking respectfully and apologizing.

Naturally, I completely ignored him.

Although I usually speak casually, I’m not the type to be deliberately rude to someone who shows proper manners first.

Especially not to a fellow Tower Master.

In the first place, with MagicPads being distributed to all mages and widely used as a communication tool among them in this era, it wasn’t strange for Seria to send me a message saying she wanted to meet. It was rather normal.

However…

‘It would be difficult to talk with Seria right now with the Red Tower Master here.’

If I was going to have a conversation, I wanted to have it properly.

After all, Seria and I had a lot to catch up on.

While there might be several reasons why Seria came to see me, the biggest reason was probably curiosity about my identity.

Having observed me directly, Seria would know very well that I had no descendants or successors, so she must be wondering why I was claiming to be Count Vladimir’s successor.

She probably came to confirm that fact.

‘That’s a shame.’

I clicked my tongue.

‘Wait a minute.’

Is there really any need to talk to Ignius first?

Should I just tell him to leave since a more important guest has arrived?

After all, the more important guest to me right now was obviously Seria.

Although Ignius said he would cover the restoration costs and compensate me, catching up with Seria was more valuable to me.

And since I had the upper hand with Ignius anyway, I could just send him away now and call him back later, but if I didn’t receive Seria now, she might really get upset.

‘That would be better.’

Having reached that conclusion, I was about to tell Ignius to return to the Red Tower for now, but…

“Well, look who it is? Isn’t this my personal kindling?”

“…Ignius? And I told you to stop calling me kindling!”

Kindling?

Did I hear that correctly?

“I was just getting bored with nothing to burn. Want to have a match?”

Ignius said with a grin.

“Forget it. Why are you even here?”

“Why? I came to have a match with the Blood Tower Master.”

“Ah… my head hurts…”

‘Ah.’

Now I remember.

There were two Magic Towers that had particularly bad relationships with the Red Tower.

Those towers were none other than the Blue Tower and the Green Tower.

Especially for elves who worshipped a tree called the World Tree as their god, it was natural to be wary of the Red Tower, which had the power to burn the World Tree.

“When your head hurts, a duel is the answer.”

“Can you tone it down a bit? I don’t want to waste energy coming all the way here.”

“Are you scared? The mighty Green Tower isn’t much after all.”

Why is he running his mouth like this when I just thrashed him earlier?

I looked at Ignius with an expression full of displeasure, but he just shrugged as if asking what the problem was.

There wasn’t much I could say since he wasn’t exactly picking a fight with the Blood Tower.

Still, I couldn’t help feeling annoyed.

“It’s okay. He acts like this whenever he sees me, so I’m used to it by now.”

That’s kind of sad if you’re used to it.

‘What should I do…’

My head is already starting to hurt.

For now…

“Irina, it’s fine for today, so go practice more Blood Magic. I’ll call for you later.”

“Okay, I understand…”

Irina nodded with a dejected expression.

Soon, there will come a time for Irina to play a significant role.

Until then, it was good to keep her practicing.

It’s a shame I can’t watch her practice, but she’ll do well on her own.

That’s what I believed.

* * *

In the end, I entered the office with both Seria and Ignius and sat down.

Unlike Seria, who was looking around curiously, Ignius was sitting in his seat looking strangely subdued.

Of course, on the surface he was pretending to be confident, but Seria, who had spent many years with Ignius, seemed to see through it.

“Did something happen? Why are you trembling with anxiety?”

“What are you talking about? I’m not like that at all.”

“I can tell at a glance that something happened.”

Ignius turned his head away to avoid eye contact as Seria spoke with a smirk.

“Can you tell me, Blood Tower Master?”

“Of course.”

“W-wait?!”

Ignius called out to me with a panicked expression, but I ignored him.

I was annoyed by his act of pretending nothing happened after getting thrashed for being cocky, so this worked out well.

“A-anything but that…!”

As I was about to start talking, Ignius urgently tried to stand up to stop me.

“Don’t move.”

“Ugh?!”

I used my blood to bind him to the chair.

Stuck to his chair and unable to move, Ignius struggled, but I ignored him and began to speak.

I started my story while savoring this strange reunion with Seria.