Ch.45Elysion (1)

Ortes’s task distribution was rational. His skill in selecting appropriate opponents based on the capabilities of the directors’ subordinates was extraordinary.

Of course, the workload was also extraordinary.

The difficulty of each fugitive arrest wasn’t particularly high. The number of employees needed was precisely calculated according to the fugitive’s rank, and dispatching the specified number of personnel typically resulted in success.

Under normal circumstances, the directors would have leisurely commanded their subordinates to capture criminals. Skilled mages were rare among criminals.

Crimes of necessity? Mages supported by magic towers rarely faced financial hardship unless they dabbled in gambling.

Violent crimes like murder? Talented mages could use their tower’s influence to dismiss most crimes committed within their tower’s jurisdiction.

This was why most wanted criminals were mediocre mages without tower support. For specially dangerous criminals requiring director-level intervention, Ortes personally took them down, making criminal apprehension essentially routine labor.

However, the time constraint was the issue.

Ortes demanded results within the tight deadline before the stock listing application submission. His calculated daily arrest quotas brilliantly maximized labor intensity while preserving the organization’s capabilities.

“Ha, haha…”

Arabel finally rejoiced that the long period of labor and endurance had ended.

In truth, she lacked the energy to truly celebrate and was just a little happy inside.

‘The paperwork submission is done, and now the president and Ortes are heading to Elysion for the practical examination…’

The two most work-obsessed people in the company would be gone.

It meant freedom, at least for a while.

***

At the meeting held the day after fulfilling all the documentation requirements for the magic tower listing examination, Carisia made a chilling prediction.

“The head of the Divine Investigation Department discovered one fact from the case where Dimedes died.”

Divius let out a low exclamation. This must be about the silver embedded in Sicton’s brain.

He remembered being told that this information would be shared after consulting with the president. It was the moment when a secret previously shared only between the president and Ortes would be revealed to the directors.

“For whatever reason, a secret organization controlled by the Ten Towers is engaged in civil war.”

This was unexpected news even for Arabel, who had kept Nardanit’s dying words that Ortes was a secret inspector of Blasphemia.

‘So… it wasn’t just about branch manager embezzlement?’

Something was happening. A turbulence shaking the solid hierarchy of the Ten Towers.

It had happened, albeit extremely rarely, that existing schools occupying the Ten Realms were overthrown and other schools inherited the names of the Ten Realms and Ten Towers.

But a civil war within an organization belonging to the Ten Towers? Not a succession battle for the Ten Towers between those trying to ascend and those defending their positions, but internal conflict?

It was unprecedented even in Arabel’s database.

“The rebels will actively engage in sabotage to conceal their base. A major incident during the listing examination is certain, and sporadic terrorist attacks are expected in various locations.”

Criton’s face darkened. More than half of Etna City’s new buildings had his touch.

If terrorism damaged buildings in Etna City, he would be the one tasked with rebuilding them.

The thought of potentially having to rebuild everything from scratch made Criton’s vision go white.

“While Etna City is relatively remote and less likely to be targeted by their terrorism, I ask for maximum preparedness.”

***

Carisia chartered an entire first-class car of the magical locomotive bound for Elysion.

This was partly because she disliked crowding, and partly because they needed to discuss somewhat confidential matters.

“Miss Kine.”

“Yes.”

Ortes felt a kind of regret seeing Kine sticking close to Carisia rather than himself.

‘Come to think of it, I was the one who saved her, yet she’s strangely wary of me…’

If Kine had heard this thought, she would have found it absurd.

“As I mentioned earlier, I plan to act separately from the president at the listing examination reception. You should also return to the president’s side after completing your enrollment exam registration.”

He didn’t explain why she needed to stay by Carisia’s side. He had already explained plenty before boarding the train, and despite chartering the entire car, there was still a clear risk of their conversation leaking to the Ten Towers.

“And how is your control of ‘power’ progressing?”

Kine nodded. She spread out her two hands, both left hands. The mechanical left hand attached to her right side somehow emitted a distinct grape scent.

From the opposite side, dark, faint magical power rose up. Despite the mutually exclusive nature of magical and divine power, she had succeeded in utilizing both simultaneously. It was proof of Kine’s excellent mana control.

Ortes found the current situation difficult to understand.

‘Strange. She should have lost all her divine power from resenting Bacchus.’

Unless the past had been exceptionally twisted, like how Carisia hadn’t become Baekmuming.

The timing of Ortes defeating Sicton was too late.

It was after all the people of the Bacchus Order had already fallen into brain death. Kine’s resentment toward Bacchus shouldn’t be different between the original work and now.

After brief contemplation, Ortes’s conclusion was simple. It was a positive change, so there was no need to worry. Not resenting Bacchus meant Kine’s despair was less severe compared to the original situation.

‘It must be the benefit of having adults around. Even if she can’t rely on them completely, it’s better than being alone.’

Ortes didn’t know that Kine prayed daily for the peace of her family captured by Bacchus.

Specifically, she was praying for the eternal rest of her family whom Ortes was holding hostage.

***

Elysion. The paradise of mages.

Its panorama was visible through the magical locomotive’s window. The massive spire in the center was the very tower that the Mado King had supposedly used when attempting ascension.

The dome-shaped veil covering the city from the spire was a magical scattering phenomenon created as residual magic power from the Ten Realms gathered in Elysion.

Ten streams of magic with different attributes collided, canceling each other out and reverting to pure mana.

It was a symbolic existence dividing the inside and outside of Elysion, a magical membrane containing all attributes evenly.

As the magical locomotive approached Elysion, Kine felt a suffocating sensation.

It was due to the mana filling the space. An area with a much higher mana concentration than even most extra-dimensional erosion zones. The mana was so dense it created a sensation similar to being underwater.

Carisia controlled the mana around Kine to lower its concentration locally. She pointed far outside the window to help Kine calm her labored breathing.

“Look over there. While taking slow, deep breaths.”

Carisia’s finger wasn’t pointing at the interior of Elysion blocked by the thick barrier. She was pointing to the fields of Elysion stretching far away.

There was fresh greenery there.

Not bizarre plains distorted by extra-dimensional forces. Not cursed fields permeated with writhing extra-dimensional bubbles.

Just as they were, lands where lush green vegetation flourished.

The plants bathed in sunlight sparkled in different shades of green. The shadows cast by sun-kissed leaves overlapped and intertwined, changing their color with each moment.

Kine realized for the first time how diverse the colors lumped together as “green” could be.

Further away, golden wheat fields swayed in the wind, performing a group dance. It was a scene Kine had never witnessed in her lifetime spent fleeing from the Ten Towers and wandering through remote regions.

Such scenery extended to the horizon. Kine thought it looked like emerald inlaid with gold.

It was the fresh natural beauty she had only heard of in old tales.

“This is a view you can only see in Elysion. While crop cultivation is possible anywhere within a magic tower’s sphere of influence, only Elysion’s fields allow cultivation on this scale.”

All that scenery belonged to the Ten Towers.

Kine recalled the nomadic life of the Bacchus Order. Though they didn’t die thanks to their divine power, the lives of those fundamentally unable to settle in cities was harsh.

Clunk! The magical locomotive stopped.

Ortes rose from his seat and opened the door. Carisia walked toward the open door. Kine, momentarily lost in memories, shook her head once and hurried after them.

***

There were no issues on the way to the magic tower listing examination venue. The place being what it was, there was too much to see even with eyes closed, which gave me a bit of a headache, but that was manageable.

“Well then, I’ll go look for my friend.”

“Come to think of it, I haven’t heard about this friend of yours. What kind of person are they? A man or a woman?”

“A man. Quite a uniquely-looking dark elf. An elf who cut off his ears and implanted pointed antenna-like equipment there—”

“…That person over there?”

Where Carisia pointed stood a dark elf with a horizontal scar across the bridge of his nose. His tan skin and silver hair gave him the stereotypical dark elf appearance, but instead of the characteristically elongated ears of elves, he had blade antennas.

He seemed to have just resolved some urgent matter and was letting out a sigh of relief.

“Oh.”

I quietly exclaimed.

Found him right away.

***

Lampades thought to himself.

‘Not here. Not here. Not here. Thank goodness…’

As expected, those words that day were just a whim. There was no way that person would come all the way to Elysion to meet him.

He probably wouldn’t even be checking monthly which magic towers had registered for the listing examination.

He would never meet that fellow again in his life.