Chapter 42
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 42
Chapter Title: Magic Tower (2)
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Magic Tower Lord Bella,
Ever since entering the Magic Tower, she had been watching the academy's top entrant, Aden.
They were continuously engaged in some conversation with the Academy Chairman.
She tried to eavesdrop on their discussion using her magic power,
but the Chairman's magic formed a thin barrier, making it impossible.
'What are they talking about...?'
"Master...?"
Her attention drifted to that intriguing conversation she couldn't hear,
but a voice calling her from the side snapped her head around.
It was Isabel right beside her.
Her disciple, the one who would control the sage's magic power if anything happened to her.
She lightly stroked the head of the girl looking up at her,
and resumed the conversation she had paused due to her distraction with the top entrant's secretive talk with the Chairman.
Ordinary chatter.
Things that happened at the academy,
stories about her new friend, the top entrant,
what they were learning in lectures...
As they exchanged mundane talk,
the Chairman's magic had vanished at some point, signaling the end of their private discussion.
"You do seem better today when you talk. Thank you."
Along with the top entrant's voice transmitted through magic,
the Academy Chairman began approaching her and Isabel.
"Magic Tower Lord."
"What is it?"
"I have something to discuss. Got a moment?"
After calling her over like that,
when she asked the reason, the Chairman mentioned there was something to talk about.
"My schedule's fine, but..."
"Ah, I'm okay with it. I'll wait, Master."
Troubled, she glanced at Isabel,
who waved it off, saying she was fine.
At that moment, the Chairman's magic surged,
severing the space within the Magic Tower.
A space blocking all external access,
containing only her, the Chairman, and the top entrant...
"Whoa... Is this conversation that important? I'm getting excited!"
Stunned briefly by that absurd magic control,
she continued as naturally as possible, in her usual casual tone, looking at the Chairman.
"You can stop that now."
"Huh...?"
The top entrant's baffling response made her question it dubiously.
With his characteristic hollow, empty eyes fixed on her, the top entrant, Aden, spoke.
"The acting. It's been hard to listen to since earlier."
"What...?"
His words telling her to drop the act slipped out,
and a startled exclamation escaped her lips...
But she instantly grasped the meaning.
She had always played the role of a willful, innocent child,
and the top entrant before her was telling her to end that pretense.
'How did he know...?'
Though she accepted the fact separately,
the issue was how he had figured it out.
Until now, aside from the Chairman,
no one—not even the Sword Saint—had noticed her act,
so it was hard to believe this top entrant had seen through it at a glance.
'Did the Chairman...?'
She wondered if the Chairman had told him,
but the Chairman right beside her seemed equally unaware, ruling that out.
In the end, she couldn't fathom how he knew,
so she subtly raised her killing intent, pressuring the top entrant, Aden, as she spoke.
"You... how did you know?"
"Pfft...!"
She pressed with maximum chill and substantial killing intent,
but the reaction came not from the top entrant, but from the Chairman.
"Pffft... Ah... That won't work. I tried it too."
The Chairman continued, grinning as if it was hilarious, saying it was pointless.
Indeed, as the Chairman said, the top entrant seemed utterly unfazed.
"Hah..."
Amused for a moment at the sight,
she gradually amped it up, unleashing maximum killing intent at the end...
But no matter how overwhelming the pressure,
the top entrant stared back with unchanged expression, those hollow eyes serene.
"You... what are you...?"
No matter how she looked, it wasn't the demeanor of an ordinary student,
that alien poise amid killing intent, as if serene death meant nothing,
even leading her to wonder if he was some bio-weapon created by the Chairman...
That's when the Chairman spoke first.
"He's a regressor."
The top entrant is a regressor.
The top entrant is a regressor...?
At those words,
her magic-honed mind stalled briefly...
Then it spun rapidly again, trying to deem it a joke...
"No joke. Dead serious."
But before she could conclude, the Chairman's grave, heavy tone negated it.
"That's ridiculous..."
Still, an absurd claim.
She tried denying it, as it twisted common sense itself,
but the Chairman exuded an atmosphere impossible to sense as a lie.
"You saw it too, right? Near-perfect mana manipulation and that anomalous power defying reason and causality."
Her brain overloaded briefly, failing to process the Chairman's following words.
But the more she thought,
if the top entrant truly was a regressor as the Chairman claimed,
all the suspicious, alien aspects about him made sense.
Overwhelming mana manipulation,
precise, flawless movements and senses,
those hollow eyes like he'd experienced death countless times,
power defying the world,
and piercing her act that no one but the Chairman had noticed.
The more she considered,
common sense,
all her accumulated knowledge and concepts were refuted,
her brain compelled to accept it as truth.
"Magic Tower Lord, I even know what's inside you."
And the decisive blow.
A truth unknown to the Chairman,
or anyone else.
When it spilled from the top entrant's lips,
her brain finally accepted that reality transcending common sense.
After the Chairman separated the space and brought the Magic Tower Lord and me here,
she had been explaining to the Tower Lord that I was a regressor for a while,
so I opened my mouth to help.
"Magic Tower Lord, I even know what's inside you."
A secret known to no one but Bella at this point,
the Magic Tower's turning point.
Mentioning it,
it seemed to be the final blow, as Bella finally accepted the absurd claim that I was a regressor.
'Quick on the uptake.'
Watching her swiftly judge and compose herself, befitting her position,
Bella soon spoke curiously, having sorted all confusion.
"Alright... So if you're really a regressor, what happens to my future self? How did you learn that?"
Accepting I was a regressor,
her first question came in an anxious tone.
From the Magic Tower Lord's perspective, that would naturally be the biggest concern.
'She's already working to prevent it now...'
The Magic Tower's turning point—the Magic Tower Lord's death.
The cause:
the archdemon Archisia slumbering within Magic Tower Lord Bella.
To keep that secret,
she had played the willful self her whole life,
wandering the world to find a way to stop it.
"You already have a rough idea by now."
But by now, she must know roughly.
That there's only one way to stop the archdemon's revival,
she must have guessed it vaguely.
That's why she took Isabel as her disciple and successor...
' 'Master... was the most precious person to me.' '
'Tch...'
Indeed,
choosing Isabel as successor and disciple was something I, knowing the outcome, couldn't view positively.
As bad memories surfaced briefly and she clicked her tongue inwardly,
Bella's voice came, hollow yet resigned to an inevitable end.
"I see... So there's no way to stop it after all..."
"Yes, the path you always chose was self-destruction."
Self-destruction,
at the unavoidable turning point's end,
the only method she ever selected.
To halt the revival by destroying herself along with the archdemon awakening from within...
The sole solution she had sought her entire life.
As we discussed the turning point with Bella—
"Wait, hold on. What have you been talking about? Self-destruction? What's inside you...?"
Eris, unable to follow from the side, finally spoke up.
That an archdemon slumbered within Magic Tower Lord Bella to revive was a secret only she knew now,
so it was natural Eris couldn't keep up...
"Chairman, an archdemon slumbers within me."
Realizing it was too late to hide, Bella began explaining.
That an archdemon slumbered inside her,
soon to revive,
and the only way to stop it was her self-destruction...
Hearing the full truth, Eris struggled briefly to accept it,
then looked at Bella with pity and sympathy before turning to me.
"Aden, there's another way, right...?"
"There is."
"What...?"
Of course, it wasn't hopeless,
so I lightly answered Eris's question laced with earnest hope.
The solution was simple.
Archdemon—Archisia,
just kill that bastard, and everything's resolved...
'Of course, alongside Bahamut, impossible with specs back then...'
{Life and Death Resolve}
Temporarily become the Hero of the Destroyed World.
Duration determined by stats.
Extreme pain accompanies end of duration.
*Current Duration: 195 seconds
I had a cheat-like skill summoning a character who monopolized the world's growth alone...
'Though the duration's a bit iffy right now...'
Before the Magic Tower's turning point arrives, I could definitely resolve it.