The Magic Tower's Round Table

The Round Table Chamber sat at the very peak of the Magic Tower.

“Then let us begin the Round Table. As always, the first item on the agenda is the Abyss of Magic.”

With the Tower Master at the head, the faction leaders of every school gathered to debate matters of consequence. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠And the first of those matters was, inevitably, the Abyss of Magic.

Ten Great Rifts had torn open across the world. Each one had shattered humanity’s hard-won strength and technology with contemptuous ease, settling into place as disasters no one could truly resist. One of those ten calamities—the Abyss of Magic—had opened a mere fifteen kilometers from the Magic Tower itself. It was only natural, therefore, that every session of the Round Table opened with talk of it.

“What is the situation at the Abyss of Magic? Anything out of the ordinary?”

The question came from the Tower Master himself: Jerseong, an elderly mage whose long white beard hung nearly to his chest.

The answer came from Axle, head of the Vision Magic Faction.

“Nothing. The number and quality of the Magic Spirit hosts that poured out were identical to every previous wave.”

“Hmm. And their disposal?”

“As before—annihilated by Magic Bombardment. No casualties on our side.”

“Well done.”

Magic Spirits shattered and vanished the moment more mana than their vessels could hold was forced into them. Vision Magic, which dealt in pure force, was ideally suited to the task. That fact alone had elevated Axle’s standing within the Tower. Yet even with the Abyss of Magic serving as his personal stage, he had never managed to become the Tower’s second-in-command.

“But that isn’t the whole of it, is it? I distinctly heard there was good news before we came up here.”

“……Yes. We succeeded in capturing three Magic Spirits that had been outside the bombardment zone, using Magic Engineering capture devices.”

“Oh-ho. That truly is good news. Until now we had no means of dealing with Magic Spirits except drowning them in spells until they dissolved—and now we have captured them. Rin, you’ve done it again.”

The reason the Tower’s current second seat remained unchallenged was simple: she was the greatest genius in the Magic Tower’s history.

Jerseong turned his gaze to the blue-haired mage seated directly across from him. Rin. The Tower Master’s personal disciple, the mage of the Hero’s party, and the undisputed second-in-command of the Magic Tower—hailed as the greatest prodigy the institution had ever produced.

Rin drew a mana quill and wrote in the empty air.

[Of course.]

A haughty reply perfectly matched to her natural talent.

“……Tsk.”

“Hohoho.”

Axle clicked his tongue in irritation at the four-character answer; Jerseong laughed with genuine pleasure. Their reactions differed, yet the thought behind them was identical.

When she lost her vocal cords and could no longer chant, I thought it was over for her. Yet she immediately rose to prominence in Magic Engineering. A genius really is a genius.

Of course the nuance differed—Axle trembled with inferiority while Jerseong marveled at his disciple’s brilliance—but both men were forced to acknowledge her talent.

Rin set the mana quill racing through the air once more.

[I’ll handle the dissection of the Magic Spirits. No objections, I trust?]

The words were not a request for permission. They were a declaration. For a twenty-one-year-old mage to speak so boldly before faction leaders who had devoted their entire lives to the Tower and made names for themselves in their respective fields was the height of arrogance. Yet no one at the Round Table voiced open discontent or raised an objection. Her skill and genius were simply too overwhelming for mere arrogance to matter.

“Mm. Since no one is speaking against it, I suppose it’s fine. The dissection of the Magic Spirits is yours.”

Jerseong smiled gently at his disciple’s confidence and nodded.

“Very well. That concludes the agenda concerning the Abyss of Magic. Next, let us discuss the export of Magic Engineering weapons to the nations bordering the Great Rifts.”

Every scrap of profit that could be wrung from the Abyss of Magic agenda had already gone to Rin. The Round Table moved on. Axle, however, could not focus on the next item.

Damn it… That girl can’t even cast high-tier magic anymore, yet she struts around like she owns the place just because the Tower Master protects her…!

It galled him that Rin had monopolized every achievement. He was the one who had ordered the Magic Bombardment that held back the Magic Spirits spilling from the Abyss. He was the one who had captured the three Spirits with the capture devices. Yet the right to dissect them had been handed to her.

A half-baked mage whose vocal cords were torn out, who can’t even chant—yet she still thinks she’s the one who will write the Tower’s new history. That bitch.

Axle ground his teeth and glared at the blue-haired genius with naked inferiority and hostility.

Slice. Slice. Slice.

The day ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠after the Round Table granted her dissection rights, Rin began without delay.

The Magic Spirits that poured from the Abyss of Magic once every three days were, true to their name, mana weapons whose bodies were composed entirely of mana. Because mana possessed the fluid properties of liquid or gas, physical attacks were useless against them. The only known method of destruction had been to force pure mana into them beyond their capacity until they shattered. That was the sole means of subjugation humanity had discovered.

Today, however, the Magic Tower had captured Magic Spirits for the first time, and Rin was dissecting them to uncover their true nature.

Magic Spirits… Compared to the disasters that spill from the other Great Rifts they are pitifully weak, yet without special means they are monsters you cannot even fight. Today I’ll drag every last secret out of them.

Watching Axle sweep the Spirits away with Magic Bombardment had always struck Rin as grossly inefficient. Pouring more mana than the enemy could hold into an enemy that required exactly that was not the way of a mage. A mage was someone who constantly sought the greatest result with the least expenditure of resources. Extreme efficiency-seekers—that was the essence of the profession. The current method of destroying Magic Spirits was the polar opposite of efficiency. It was like smashing a reservoir dam just to snuff out a single candle, then swaggering around saying, “Well, the candle’s out, isn’t it? Job done.” The sheer waste of it had always irritated her.

That was why, even after her vocal cords had been torn out and she had become a half-baked mage, she had raised her hand and volunteered to find a better way. The situation was so frustrating that she simply had to do it herself.

Just as I thought—these things have a weakness too. Of course they do. Nothing is without a weakness.

True to her reputation as the greatest genius in Tower history, Rin uncovered the Magic Spirits’ nature on only the second specimen.

Like most fluid-type magical beasts, they possess a core. It’s fluid and transparent just like the rest of the body, so it’s hard to find—but that isn’t a problem. I’ll simply invent a method to locate it.

Until now Magic Spirits had been known as pure mana constructs with no core whatsoever. Their bodies were so transparent that light passed straight through, and even detection magic revealed no anomalies. Yet Rin knew that something composed solely of mana could never move like a living creature. There had to be a specific organ that allowed the mana body to act as though it were alive. Focusing on that premise, she had hunted for the core—and found it.

First I’ll devise the most efficient way to destroy the core and annihilate them. After that I’ll create a method to detect the core itself.

Every time her mind and hands moved, the dissection advanced at a visible pace. Three hours later Rin dotted a period on her notepad with the mana quill.

Done. Complete.

Thus was finished the Method for Countering Magic Spirits—a treatise containing both the most efficient means of shattering their cores and a magic formula capable of locating those cores.

With this, we can hunt Magic Spirits far more efficiently. It should remain effective even against true disasters far stronger than mere Spirits.

Even after her vocal cords had been ripped away and she could no longer chant, Rin was still an exceptional mage.

As expected—I am still me. I may be a half-baked mage now, but I remain the irreplaceable greatest genius.

For the first time since she had crawled out of the Abyss of Despair with her throat torn open, Rin allowed herself a faint smile.