The Lowest Place Beneath the Highest Tower
"This fortune teller works for free. 'The highest tower's lowest and most wretched place…… Sigh.'"
Sweat poured down in streams, and his legs trembled. Manderick, who had already run several laps around the academy, collapsed onto the nearest bench in exhaustion.
"What the hell does that even mean……"
It had been a full day since he received his fortune from Namgung Min. In just a few hours, the Fighter class's first evaluation would begin, yet Manderick still hadn't found even a single clue from the advice. He regretted not heeding the fortune teller's warning, but it was far too late to turn back now.
"Maybe I should just start training from now……"
He had visited the fortune teller as a last resort, but wasn't that how fortunes always worked? This wasn't some ancient or medieval era. In a modern age where science and magic had both advanced so far, believing in fortune-telling felt ridiculous. If it weren't for the fortune teller's—Namgung Min's—impressive display at the entrance ceremony and Aileen's recommendation, he probably wouldn't have given it a second glance. Relying on such a gamble was pointless. Wouldn't honest training be better?
Manderick let out a deep sigh.
"But even if I start training now…… it'll be the same."
If effort alone could have solved his problems, he never would have sought out a fortune teller in the first place. He had trained every day, even cutting into his sleep, yet he remained no better than his peers. He couldn't even feel himself growing. Stagnation. That thought had been slowly eating away at him.
'It's only been a week……'
At this rate, could he even graduate from Romance Academy? The days he had spent pushing himself to the limit just to get in, the way his parents had mortgaged their house to support him—those memories surfaced.
……Right. He couldn't give up.
'No matter what……!'
He would get that diploma no matter what it took and return home with pride. Manderick slapped his cheeks to shake off his momentary weakness and stood up.
"Alright. Let's think from the beginning again."
[The highest tower's lowest and most wretched place.]
That had to be the start of the advice. The highest tower. 'Easy to say, but……'
Romance Academy was a floating city larger than most islands. There were countless towers within it, and finding the single tallest one was no simple task. He had spent the entire day visiting every tower that looked tall, but without certainty that any of them was truly the highest, he had only wasted time without conducting a proper search.
"How the hell am I supposed to……"
"Hey! Manderick!"
"……Hm? Ah, Leila."
Manderick, who had been sitting with his eyes closed while desperately turning his brain, turned his head at the voice. Across the street, a blue-haired girl was waving at him.
"You look like you've got a headache."
"Of course I do. How about you?"
"Same as you, obviously."
Leila. She was in the same Fighter class as Manderick, had also been introduced to the fortune teller by Aileen, and—
"What was your advice again?"
"[Four birds from the hunters' tales. Two already soar through the sky, but two have yet to spread their wings upon the ground. Feed them poison and water to make them fly.]"
—was a fellow student who had also received advice from the 'black card'.
"……I feel like mine's worse than yours."
"Right? Maybe I asked something too abstract……"
From what he had heard, Leila had asked the fortune teller how to read the most entertaining book in the world. It was a question fitting for someone who spent all her time in the library despite being a Fighter, and the advice was just as incomprehensible as the question itself.
"Are you still going to keep searching?"
"Of course! It's supposed to be the most entertaining book in the world! Even if it takes time, I have to find it!"
"……Yeah. I'm jealous."
"……Ah."
But Leila didn't seem particularly bothered by how cryptic the words were. Unlike Manderick's advice, hers was the kind of question where she could take her time interpreting and searching without any real consequences.
Leila, sensing the slightly gloomy atmosphere around Manderick and knowing his worries, quickly covered her mouth as if she had said something wrong. She had been the first person Manderick confided in, and she hadn't been able to give him a proper answer either.
"R-Right! Can you show me your advice? I still haven't seen it!"
"Uh, yeah. Sure."
Realizing the mood had grown heavy, Leila deliberately spoke in a bright voice and clung to Manderick to make up for her mistake. He handed her the notebook where he had written down the advice, responding somewhat reluctantly.
"Let's see…… Huh?"
"What? Do you get something?"
Manderick looked at Leila with a hint of expectation as she stared intently at the notebook. As if something had clicked, Leila lifted her gaze from the page and began scanning their surroundings.
"……Ah, over there."
"There!?"
"Have you checked there too?"
"………You're not seriously pointing at that, are you?"
Leila pointed with her finger. Manderick followed her gaze with hope—
There was indeed a tall tower. The problem was that it was an abandoned transmission tower sitting atop a mountain.
"It said the highest tower, right? That transmission tower is the tallest one here."
"I mean…… When people say 'the highest tower,' don't they usually mean the height of the tower itself?"
"I tried thinking as simply as possible. And if your interpretation was right, it would've been weird that you hadn't found it yet. Haven't you already checked every single tower?"
"That's…… true, but."
Manderick had searched without even sleeping, focusing solely on finding the tallest tower. Just as Leila said, he had visited every tall tower in the academy, so he nodded with mixed feelings. He still felt uneasy since he hadn't properly searched any of them in depth.
"Then let's go! If we leave now, we'll still make it to class on time!"
"………"
"Manderick?"
Was that tower really the right one? Even so, a transmission tower? Wouldn't it make more sense to check the memorial tower in the center of the academy or the other towers instead? Time was running out. If he went all the way up to that mountaintop transmission tower, he wouldn't have time to check anywhere else.
What was the right choice—
"……Leila?"
"I'm sorry, Manderick. I shouldn't have said something weird……"
—Suddenly, a warm hand touched his. At that warmth, Manderick stopped thinking and looked down at Leila, who was holding his hand with her head bowed.
Leila. His first friend at the academy. A friend he could truly open up to.
'……Yeah. I've already checked everywhere worth checking.'
It would be better to follow his friend's advice. Even if it turned out to be meaningless…… having Leila by his side, comforting him with all sorts of words and cheering him up, made it feel worthwhile.
"Alright, let's go!"
"Manderick?"
"Your idea isn't wrong, and following a friend's advice is the right call! Let's check it out!"
"……Yeah!"
Thud. Once he made up his mind, he had no intention of wasting time. Manderick and Leila ran straight toward the mountaintop transmission tower. They passed through the shopping district, the outer areas, and entered the mountain. Using the superhuman physical abilities unique to class holders, they leaped over streams and ran without rest, heading only for the transmission tower.
And finally—
"Huff…… Huff…… We're here."
"Whew, yeah."
Even as Fighters, they were both breathing heavily by the time they reached the transmission tower.
'It's huge.'
From afar, it had looked like nothing more than a skeletal frame of steel, but up close, it was quite imposing. Even tilting his head all the way back, he couldn't see the top. There were no connected wires or other transmission towers nearby—just this one standing alone. He had heard it had been operational until twenty years ago before being abandoned.
'Looking at it now…… it really is the highest tower.'
From the mountaintop, all of Romance Academy spread out before them, and even the other towers that had seemed so tall now looked small. When he first heard Leila's suggestion, he had only thought 'Is that it?' But now it was different.
This…… really seemed right……!
"Manderick, what was the next part of the advice?"
"[The lowest and most wretched place in the highest tower.]"
"Then it's obvious! That basement!"
"Yeah."
The massive transmission tower wasn't built directly on the ground but on a concrete platform. And right in the center of that concrete base was a small door. Anyone could tell it led to a basement, and it perfectly matched the advice about [the lowest and most wretched place].
'……Should we really go in?'
It was a transmission tower abandoned twenty years ago. The inside wouldn't be clean or necessarily safe. It was probably locked too—would it even open?
Creak.
"Let's go in!"
"Uh, yeah."
It opened. Leila, who seemed more excited about the situation than Manderick himself, opened the basement door and jumped in first. Manderick followed her inside. Now that they had come this far, choosing not to enter would be stupid.
After his eyes adjusted to the darkness for a moment, he looked around using the sunlight coming through the basement door.
"……It's cleaner than I expected."
"Yeah."
The basement of the transmission tower, which he had assumed would be full of dust and bugs, was surprisingly clean. There was some dust and cobwebs here and there, but it was clean enough to move around and search without any issues.
Manderick found the only door in the space beneath the basement entrance and wiped the dust off the nameplate hanging on it.
"Night duty room?"
"When they were still using this transmission tower, they must have eaten and slept here to manage it."
"Right."
Wait—the next part of the advice was [But a place that must not be absent and holds warmth], wasn't it? Would there be warmth in a night duty room?
Still puzzled by the cryptic advice, Manderick grabbed the handle of the night duty room door and turned it.
Click.
'Of course this is open too.'
Normally, places like this that were closed off would be locked, right? Well, better that it wasn't. Maybe this was also part of the fortune. If the academy had locked this space, they wouldn't have been able to come here, so the advice wouldn't have mentioned it.
"Anyone home~"
"There's no way anyone would be here."
"I'm just getting into the mood."
Creak.
The door opened with an unpleasant sound. The inside wasn't spacious. There was an old-looking sofa and table, a bed that was the only clean thing in the room, a dusty bookshelf, and an outdated TV. It was exactly the kind of scene one would expect from a night duty room.
"What are we looking for?"
"Something that holds warmth…… or a child shedding hot tears?"
"……A crying kid?"
"Yeah, that's what the advice said."
Even so, warmth or a child in this cramped night duty room? If there really was a kid hiding here, wouldn't that be more like a horror story?
Manderick, who had been searching the area with Leila using only the faint sunlight, let out a sigh.
"There's nothing here. Leila, how about your side?"
"Same. Just old stuff."
"I see…… So it wasn't this after all."
He had thought the advice matched perfectly, but maybe it had just been forced. Now that he was stuck at the final part, disappointment washed over him as much as his earlier expectations.
"Let's head back. We need to leave soon if we don't want to be late for—"
"Uh, Manderick? This place…… feels warm?"
"—Huh?"
The place Leila had touched was a closet with a wooden door. Hearing her words, Manderick also placed his hand on it.
"It's warm."
"Right? What's behind this?"
"……Probably a boiler room."
Manderick muttered as he looked at the faintly carved letters on the wooden door. Since there was a night duty room, it made sense that a boiler room would be installed. But a boiler in a night duty room abandoned twenty years ago was still warm?
'Wait, now that I think about it, the bed was the only clean thing here.'
The fact that the basement was somewhat organized, the fact that only the bed was clean, and now the boiler still running……
'Don't tell me……?'
"Let's open it! There must be something inside!"
"W-Wait a second. Leila, we should leave this place—"
Creak.
Click.
"—Huh?"
"………Huh?"
"Huh."
*
"……And that's how it happened. It's all thanks to you, sir."
"Um, Manderick? You don't have to call me 'sir' since we're classmates……"
"No, sir! I was foolish to doubt your fortune even for a moment!"
"So you really don't need to use formal speech……"
"I'll make sure to spread the word about this fortune telling shop to everyone around me!"
"Call me whatever you want."
The day after receiving his advice(?) from Namgung Min, Manderick stood before him wearing black half-gloves with tear patterns on both hands, bowing repeatedly with an expression of amazement and gratitude.
Namgung Min responded with a troubled look at the excessive treatment.
'Just as planned.'
He glanced at the black half-gloves Manderick was wearing and smiled inwardly with a rotten grin.
The real fortune telling shop was only just beginning.