Return
Return
The Master's expression softened like snow melting in spring.
"Yes. Let's go back, my child."
At the same time, her white, slender fingers lightly stirred the air.
Woooong—.
As the Master lightly raised her free hand, the five-colored stained-glass light filling the high ceiling of the great hall began to distort all at once.
As if space itself had been caught in a massive vortex, the beams of light converged into one spot, drawing geometric patterns as they tore apart.
High-level Teleportation Magic.
It was the Magic Tower Master's specialty, and an extraordinary mystery that ordinary mages could not succeed in casting even once, even if they dedicated their entire lives to it.
"You might feel a bit nauseous, so close your eyes."
As the Master began the incantation, she unraveled her own high-purity mana into thin threads to wrap around my entire body.
So that not a single speck of external shock could reach me.
While taking the entirety of the massive recoil from the tearing space onto her own back.
"Dimensional anchor, coordinates fixed. ......Open Gate."
Along with the Master's short incantation, a deep starlight magic that looked as if it had bitten off a chunk of the night sky surged from beneath our feet.
"Rion—!!"
Serin's final scream rang out as if to tear my eardrums, but the moment the magic was completed, her voice faded into the distance as if heard from underwater.
Sseuk.
Soon after, a strange silence arrived, as if all the sounds of the world had vanished at once.
The strange sensation of floating in the dimensional rift did not last very long.
The moment the ringing in my ears subsided and sensation returned to my toes.
The first thing that awakened my senses was the terribly familiar and quiet air.
The smell of old paper, the bitter lingering scent left by evaporating various magic reagents, and the density of high-purity mana filling the atmosphere.
The heart of Imperial magic. It was the Magic Tower.
"......Haa."
A long sigh escaped me without me realizing it.
"We've arrived, Rion."
The Master said, slowly letting go of the hand she had been holding.
The familiar scenery of the Magic Tower Master's private office came into view.
The massive bookshelves filling one side of the room, the magic books packed tightly within them, and the boundary between the blue sky and clouds visible outside the window.
A sanctuary permitted only for the absolute being known as Amelia Blanche.
She affectionately straightened the hem of my cloak, which had been slightly disheveled from the aftermath of the spatial teleportation, and gently cupped my cheek.
"You've been through so much. Truly... you've been through so much, my child."
I saw droplets forming in the corners of the Master's eyes.
There was a faint sense of fatigue on the Master's face, which I faced after removing the cloak.
No matter how great an Archmage she was, ignoring the Holy Order's barrier and teleporting me with High-level Teleportation Magic without any prior preparation must have been a significant strain.
Furthermore, she must have been even more exhausted since she maintained double and triple mana barriers to protect me.
"You overexerted yourself, Master."
"It is to bring you back. This much cannot even be called overexertion."
The Master tried to stroke my cheek, but then, perhaps noticing my unfocused gaze, she quietly withdrew her hand.
I could see her fingertips trembling faintly in the air.
"Thank you, Master. For coming to get me."
I tried to put emotion into it, but one cannot draw water from a dried-up spring.
At my dry reaction, the Master bit her lip as if her heart ached, but she soon hid her sadness and smiled softly.
"Your room has been preserved exactly as it was. No, rather, I had the servants clean and maintain it every single day during the time you were absent. For the time being, don't think about anything and just rest. No one in the Magic Tower will be able to set foot in your room without my permission."
"Yes, I will do so."
The Master opened the massive door of the office while holding my hand tightly.
Click—.
As the massive double doors of the office opened, the long corridor of the Magic Tower's cloister revealed itself through the gap.
The Master walked slowly without loosening her grip on my hand in the slightest.
Ttak, ttak.
In the quiet corridor, only the sound of the Master's heels and my weak footsteps intersected.
"We're here, Rion."
It was a location with not a single inch of discrepancy from the room in my memory.
It was the private room where I used to stay when I was the Master's only disciple and assistant, researching magic day and night, located less than a hundred steps from the Magic Tower Master's office.
Dalkak.
The complex magical security device was disengaged with a soft sound at the Master's single touch.
As the door opened, heavy air pushed out from inside.
The room was surprisingly well-organized.
Despite the owner being away for a long period of 10 years, not a single speck of dust sat on the furniture in the room.
The angle of the quill pen on the desk, the placement of the empty hardcover notebook covered in leather, and even the position of the crystal ball on the windowsill were exactly as they had been on the morning I left the Magic Tower 10 years ago.
It proved that the Master's words about having the servants clean and maintain it every day were not a lie.
"Let's go in."
The Master led me carefully into the room.
While walking toward the massive bed placed in the center of the room, my gaze naturally turned to the magic study bookshelf in the corner of the room.
There, the drafts of the Early Mana Circuit Control Theory that I had established with the Master were tucked away, wrapped in faded leather covers.
There was a time when my fingers would blister while transcribing those books.
Just to hear a single word of praise from the Master.
A time when I would calculate mana formulas for three days and nights without sleeping, only to collapse and fall asleep on the floor, not even on the bed.
Basurak.
The Master pulled back the white sheet of the bed and slowly sat me down.
The bed, made of the highest quality materials, sank softly without end as soon as I laid my body down.
"Lie down, Rion. I will help you change your clothes."
"No, Master. I can at least change my clothes myself..."
"Stay still."
The Master's voice contained a gentle compulsion that did not allow for refusal.
She carefully removed the massive Magic Tower Master's cloak that had been draped over my shoulders and hung it on the chair next to the bed.
Then, she began to unbutton my old shirt, which was stained with the filth and rough dirt of the Holy Order's dungeon, one by one from the top.
As the cool air of the Magic Tower touched my exposed skin, I shivered slightly without realizing it.
The moment the Master's gaze touched my upper body, I felt her breath hitch roughly.
Amelia's fingertips traced the rough marks carved into my chest. Her fingers were trembling violently.
"......Those bitches did this to you."
The Master's voice was terribly low with rage.
"It's alright, Master. These are wounds that healed long ago."
The Master bit her lip hard as if to hold back the sobbing that was about to burst out, and dressed me in the soft silk loungewear she had prepared.
Once I was dressed and lying back fully against the bed, the Master pulled a chair close to my bedside and sat down.
Then, she began to slowly stroke back my messy hair with her white, slender fingers.
Sseuk. Sseuk.
Her touch, stroking my hair at regular intervals, was quite cozy.
"Do you remember, Rion."
The Master opened her mouth in a very low and affectionate voice, without stopping the stroking motion.
"The day you first entered this room. You were only ten years old. A small child who asked to be taken in, standing in front of the Magic Tower's main gate on a rainy day."
"......I remember."
I replied, blinking my blurry eyes.
"You were a truly tenacious child back then. With the single-minded determination to become a mage, you memorized all those massive magic books I gave you without a word of complaint. It was a volume that ordinary children wouldn't have been able to endure for even a day before crying and running away."
A faint arc of longing was drawn on the Master's lips.
"Once, you secretly stole and drank the highest-grade mana acceleration reagent in my office, saying you wanted to increase your mana affinity. Do you remember?"
"......I did."
A fragment of my memory floated to the surface.
"That reagent was a potent substance that even adult mages had to dilute before consuming, so there was no way a mere twelve-year-old kid's body could handle it after gulping it down whole. Even while lying in bed groaning with a fever raging through your whole body, you bit your lip tight and didn't make a single sound of pain, afraid that if I found out, you'd be kicked out of the Magic Tower."
The Master burst into a low laugh, perhaps as the memories of that day came back to her vividly.
That laughter was slowly melting the air in the dark room softly.
"When I opened your door and entered, you were already losing consciousness, yet you were clutching a magic book tightly in your hand. Do you know how anxious I was when I saw that? I spent the whole night pushing my mana into your body to bring down your fever, and I even canceled the Imperial Magic Society meeting scheduled for that month entirely."
The Master's touch traveled softly down my cheek and touched behind my ear.
"In the year you turned fifteen, you set out to research a new concept of magic to maximize the efficiency of golem power sources with me. You immersed yourself in research for three whole days without eating, and when you finally found the error in the formula, didn't you run to me and shout it proudly?"
The Master's touch moved carefully from behind my ear back to my hair.
"The bright smile you showed me then... was the most dazzling starlight in my long life. Rion. More than the complex formulas of the Magic Tower, more than any ancient magic in the world, that moment when you smiled happily by my side was the most precious thing to me."
Her voice was tinged with deep regret.
"I shouldn't have... I shouldn't have sent you out. I shouldn't have granted your request to go out and gain worldly experience with your childhood friend as a mere adventurer..."
The Master gently pressed her lips to the back of my hand within my vision, which was blurring into sleep.
"But it's okay now. Since you've returned. I will place you in the highest place where those whore-like bitches won't even dare to look at you. I will make everyone in the Magic Tower respect you, and if you wish, I will even hand over this position of Magic Tower Master to you. So, Rion......."
The Master's quiet voice slowly sank into the other side of my fading consciousness.
"Now, try to forget all those dirty memories. Here, there is only this Magic Tower that exists solely for you, and this mother who looks only at you."
