Presentation (5)
Presentation (5)
"Presumably no one spirited it away, so are you saying a book that was sitting still vanished on its own?"
When I reacted as if to ask what he meant, the Magic Tower Master paused briefly before speaking.
"Calm yourself and listen. You do know that spatial magic is considerably difficult and abstruse."
"Of course."
"Do you know the reason?"
I shrugged to indicate I didn't really know.
"It may be hard to believe, but it is because the magic was compiled by a dragon. Even if you wish to analyze and employ it, the ability it demands is too high."
"That would explain why it was a little difficult."
At those words, the Magic Tower Master's expression turned incredulous.
"The owner who authored it took the grimoire not long ago. To get it back, roughly… expect to wait about ten years."
Ten years—not a matter of months—was a figure I absolutely could not wait.
At this point, I decided it would be better to go retrieve it myself.
"I'd rather go meet them in person. Where should I go?"
"The highest peak on the Northern Region of the Continent. The summit of the White Night Mountain Range. Coincidentally, the Artifact's creator is also that same person."
The White Night Mountain Range.
A Northern Region of the Continent name had surfaced for the first time in a long while.
This place was famous as a Mana-scarce region, and though its peak was close to the sky, it was also a tremendously dangerous zone.
You only earned the qualification to set foot there at minimum Level 7, and even then survival was not guaranteed.
Perhaps because of that, even the Demons hesitated to venture there.
To me, it presented an opportunity.
'Isn't this a chance to resolve both the grimoire and the Artifact?'
As it happened, I had once climbed about halfway up out of sheer boredom in the past.
The route had been so tedious and Flora so worried that I had descended midway.
I intended to use this occasion to attempt the ascent at Level 6.
In theory, it demanded Level 7, but with the Mana manipulation ability I possessed, even Level 6 met the minimum threshold.
To manage it smoothly, I needed my Artifact adjusted.
That would inevitably provoke an uproar from the desk-bound higher-ups.
"To go to the Northern Region of the Continent…"
"Naturally, obtaining official entry approval would save trouble later."
"It's become bothersome."
"Highly bothersome, I imagine."
My concern was the Artifact.
The Magic Tower Master’s was access to the Northern Region of the Continent.
Though we were speaking of different things, we were both experienced enough with the Imperial Court to sympathize.
'I'll have to prepare as thoroughly as possible.'
I even wondered whether I ought to meet the Emperor someday and negotiate a deal.
If I cleaned up the spies within the Empire, would he grant approval cleanly?
While I was contemplating a justification to coax the Imperial Court without expending much effort.
"…The hotline at this hour?"
The Crystal Orb flared at tremendous speed, and the Magic Tower Master's expression grew grave.
—Master of the Magic Tower, an emergency! A Demon incursion alert has been issued at the academy.
"What?"
In that instant, he and I locked eyes.
We each must have had an important figure flash through our minds.
The Crystal Orb continued broadcasting its message without pause.
—Two first-year students are currently isolated. It has been confirmed that the Magic Tower Master's apprentice is among them.
"I will be there within one minute."
—Understood.
The Crystal Orb deactivated. The Magic Tower Master hurriedly gathered his discarded robe and made to leave, but I seized him.
"I'll go."
The Magic Tower Master halted his steps, then stared at me intently with a look of suspicion.
"Is this merely because of our transaction terms?"
"Well, that too… I intend to build a slightly better relationship through this opportunity."
As he said, my immediate objective of hunting Demons would be achieved.
But considering my future status as a free individual, I needed to steadily improve relations with core figures like the Chancellor and the Magic Tower Master.
"We are hardly in a relationship that will end after a day or two now, are we."
"Hmm, wait a moment."
As befits an emergency, the Magic Tower Master reached a swift decision.
"In this domain, you are the expert, so I shall assist you, specially and just this once. What do you require?"
"Then adjust my Artifact."
"How do you know about that?"
"A person in your position would quite plausibly possess such authority. Wouldn't you?"
A position as high as the Magic Tower Master's was certainly worthy of receiving such authority from the Imperial Court.
I probed him lightly, and as expected, it worked.
"The condition is that you devote your efforts solely to resolving the incident. How about it?"
"Agreed."
"Then I shall limit it to Level 6, for one minute."
"Just in case, let's agree on Level 8."
Partly to test my long-missed original strength, I requested Level 8 from him.
The Magic Tower Master reacted as if anyone could see he thought I was insane, then flatly refused.
"Even this much will send the people protecting their rice bowls into a frenzy and summon me to the Imperial Court. Be grateful."
"Ha, it can't be helped."
I clicked my tongue in regret.
Behind me, the Magic Tower Master adjusted the Artifact, reactivating my forcibly closed Mana Circuits.
I hurriedly began optimizing my Mana Circuits.
Using them recklessly could cause a backflow and inflict permanent damage on the circuits.
While I was meticulously filling the empty circuits with the randomly surging Mana, I discovered something odd.
'What's this? The total Mana capacity has changed?'
Compared to my previous time at Level 6, my total Mana capacity had clearly increased.
It appeared that a change had occurred as time was reversed.
Perhaps I could now cast spells that would have been impossible before.
If this capacity also increased at Level 7 and again at Level 8, I might be able to compensate for an innate weakness.
'Whatever happens, I must reach the summit of the White Night Mountain Range.'
A smile involuntarily crept onto my face.
After a long period of stagnation, I finally thought I might enjoy growing stronger again.
At that moment, the hotline activated once more.
—M-Master of the Magic Tower? The Apostate intrusion barrier has activated. We will deploy troops immediately!
"Ah, do not do that."
—Pardon?
Beyond the flashing Crystal Orb, even as thick bewilderment emanated from the other side, the Magic Tower Master moved as though nothing was amiss.
"Since it has not activated for a long time, I deliberately conducted a test. My apologies for not contacting you beforehand."
—On the contrary, the unexpected nature of it allows for more certain preparedness. I shall log the inspection results as no anomalies.
"Do so."
While the Magic Tower Master concealed me, I completed preparations for a Spatial Transfer spell, one of the magics I had seen in the grimoire.
It would have been impossible before, but the increase in my total Mana capacity made it feasible now.
"What in the…"
Watching this, the Magic Tower Master pointed at the Subspace with an air of disbelief.
"Not only have you grown stronger since I last saw you, but you glanced at the grimoire for a moment and can already employ it to this degree?"
"It is nothing special."
I took a practiced step forward with my right foot.
Before vanishing into the Subspace, I conveyed, as an academy instructor to a parent, the words I wished to say.
"Ah, yes. Student Ayla was the first person at the academy to solve the Spring Day problem. Do offer her a word of praise once this is over."
"Praise? She merely did what is expected of her."
The Magic Tower Master averted his gaze outright as he headed outside, but the faint smile etched fleetingly across his face revealed the fondness he held for Ayla.
'How brusque…'
The remaining time was one minute.
Time to return to the academy.
* * *
While Karon and the Chancellor, the academy's core power, were absent, Flora and Ayla had gone to the mountain behind the academy to prepare for an assignment and encountered Monsters.
Kyaaek—!
Shrieking with all manner of cries, the Monsters charged.
The two students held their ground, employing what they had learned from Karon.
"Ayla, are you alright?"
"Yeah. I can hold on. You?"
"I'm holding up too."
The Monsters sought any opening in their conversation, but Flora's lean and crisp arc of attack was drawn without a single wasted movement.
Sreung.
Scarlet blood scattered across the ground as another corpse piled up.
Flora slowly steadied her breathing and surveyed her surroundings.
'It was a good thing I brought my sword because Alcyone said the atmosphere around the academy was ominous.'
Flora and Ayla were guarding each other's backs by utilizing every method Karon had taught them to the fullest.
Seizing the opening as the Monsters faltered against the fierce resistance, Ayla attempted to find a weakness in the Demonic Energy.
"Flora, will we be able to break through the Demonic Energy?"
"No. We have to hold out until support arrives."
The intrusion alarm had sounded, but entry was difficult because of the Demonic Energy that Chimera had laid down in advance.
The academy had urgently summoned the Calde Order for purification, but time was dragging on.
And so they had hoped the instigator who scattered the Demonic Energy would not appear.
"I'm working hard to earn my master's favor, so why are you getting in my way?"
Chimera, brimming with venomous spite, revealed itself.
It tilted its head eerily as it gazed upon the mountain of Monster corpses.
"Haah, you've interfered with my plans, so I think I'll only feel better if I do the same. I'm at my limit with patience now."
Chimera snapped its fingers, and a colossal serpent burst from the undergrowth.
Shweeek!
It was one of its alchemical masterpieces. The serpent locked onto its prey and lunged with ferocious speed.
"Impudent!"
Flora blocked the attack and attempted a counter, but it was difficult to pry open a gap.
The serpent was also Level 6, matching Chimera's own level, so they were met with heavy difficulty.
'Is a level difference truly insurmountable?'
Flora gritted her teeth and focused on defense.
If only she had a little more time, she would have faced it at Level 6.
In the moment her troubled mind caused her movements to hesitate.
Shweeek!
Another one, which had been lying in ambush in the undergrowth, shot out and lunged toward Ayla.
'I have to deal with this one!'
She had to block it immediately, but the serpent Flora was facing had coiled its body around her blade, twisting it so that even with her strength behind it, she could not cut through.
"Ayla!"
At that simple shout, Ayla instantly cast Defensive Magic.
She displayed what she had learned by following Karon; it was a level of response difficult to believe of an academy student.
But Flora knew.
She knew it could not be perfectly blocked, and that minimizing the damage was the best they could do.
'At this rate, Ayla will get hurt.'
The enormous serpent lunged at Ayla.
Ayla looked as though she was prepared for any injury.
With each slow breath she took, the past obstructed her.
In a situation where she absolutely had to reach Level 6, Flora found herself confronting the past she had feared all along.
Where should I even begin?
Food was always scarce in the slums, and it was never strange when someone went missing.
In a place where survival was the sole objective, Flora had been exceptionally strong from a young age.
Then a chance incident changed everything.
Flora used her strength to procure food, and people came to like her for it.
In a hell devoid of meaning or purpose, Flora felt for the first time the emotion of 'being a necessary existence.'
That feeling was too precious.
As time passed afterward, Flora grew stronger and stronger.
The day she reached Level 5, people's reactions began to change little by little.
One by one, they started whispering behind her back.
—Suppose she decides to kill us too, if she doesn't like us?
Flora felt the gazes secretly piercing her.
Even when she helped them, no one smiled at her as they used to.
Fear came before gratitude.
Flora pretended not to notice, believing it would get better with time.
Not long after that.
A decisive incident struck the precarious slums.
A member of the organization that controlled the area had been found dead under suspicious circumstances.
It was the groundwork of another organization, seeking to expel Flora before attacking and thus eliminate a variable.
Enraged members of the organization swarmed in and threatened the people.
Terrified, the people pointed to Flora as the culprit.
No matter how much Flora insisted she was not the culprit, no one believed her.
Fine. Up to that point, it was bearable.
Until the only child who had shielded her died a gruesome death.
In the end, Flora quietly left the slums.
The child who had believed in her vanished without a trace.
The young girl, denied the emotions she had felt in the slums, bore a wound in her heart.
Did she wander aimlessly after that?
That day in particular, it rained.
The sky wept sorrowfully, as though expressing her dejected heart.
All she had wanted was to be someone necessary, but the stronger she became, the more people feared her and left her side.
'When I had lost my reason for living and laid everything down, I met Boss.'
And so she came to meet Karon.
Her instincts, ingrained through experience, surfaced naturally and made her wary of him.
But the sight of him reaching out his hand to her in the rain was somehow strange.
He was not afraid, even after seeing her. Rather, he embraced her.
For Flora, that was the first time she had ever experienced such a thing.
She followed the tiny light that bloomed in her coldly frozen heart and moved her feet.
After that, Flora spent a long time together with Karon.
With the passage of time, the pain she had felt as a child was gradually washed away, but scars are wont to remain.
The day she first resolved to challenge Level 6, Karon's imprisonment caused those memories of the past to resurface, and her trauma grew stronger.
After that, she was unconsciously terrified that she would lose Karon if she reached Level 6.
Because he was the one being who had ever embraced her, she could not reveal it outwardly.
So she put on a mask and acted as if she was fine.
In the end, Madam's advice had become reality.
It had turned into a shackle that tripped her up at the crucial moment.
She was deeply ashamed of herself, having sworn loyalty to Karon.
'From now on, I will walk side by side with Boss.'
With the sole desire not to lose the person who remained by her side, the fragile girl shattered the colossal boulder that had been crushing her.
Flora, having returned from the swamp of memory, readjusted her grip on her sword.
Thump!
A fierce gaze, changed from before.
In a single stroke, she carved apart the serpent that had been impeding her attack. She then leaped at tremendous speed and cleared out the surroundings.
"Hoo."
With every exhalation, a chill radiated into the air around her.
With every step Flora took, the cold aura shrouding her blade froze the vicinity.
Chimera, who had witnessed a human on the verge of death awaken, was thrown into consternation.
"You reached Level 6? How could a mere human like you?"
"Because I want to repay the person who held me warmly in his embrace."
The cold tip of Flora's blade was aimed at Chimera.
"You'd better prepare yourself."