The Red Magic Tower (1)
When I arrived at the Red Magic Tower, I was more than a little surprised. The place Manager Raynes led me to was no ordinary office belonging to the Tower Lord.
Agresia, the Tower Lord herself, was there—along with mages from other towers, all gathered in one place. They looked for all the world like an audience waiting for me to take the stage.
"…Uh, what's all this?"
"Ah, startled you, did I? Please understand."
Raynes spoke as if asking for my patience.
"Everyone wants to see how you solve that particular problem. There's no other reason—just that—so try not to take it too hard."
"…"
Just as she said, most of the mages were watching me with eyes full of curiosity, their gazes flicking back and forth between me and the object waiting up ahead… the thing engraved with the inscription I was supposed to decipher.
One person, however, was different.
"…Is that really all?"
"Pardon? Yes. Why would there be any other reason?"
Raynes genuinely seemed not to understand the true intent behind this little stage. Mages only cared about what interested them and nothing else—apparently that reputation was well-earned.
I looked ahead with a faintly sour expression at the lofty mistress of this enormous tower. She was watching me with the clear air of someone saying, Go on, then. Show me what you've got.
"Did the Tower Lord arrange this gathering?"
"Yes, she did."
Agresia, Lord of the Red Magic Tower. She clearly wanted revenge for whatever the old me—Allen—had done. She'd probably gathered as large an audience as possible just so she could watch me fail in front of them all.
It was a childish idea, but that didn't mean it wouldn't work. Standing in front of this many mages and trying to break a magical engraving was nerve-wracking in more ways than one.
If I failed, the pressure alone might be enough to crush most people's spirits.
…I should've brought Caesius.
They'd said I only needed to go alone, and I'd figured it would be over quickly, so I'd told Clara and Caesius to wait in the reception room…
I was starting to regret that.
"Well then, shall we?"
"…Yeah."
I followed Raynes forward. Agresia greeted me with a thin, mocking smile.
"It's been a while, Allen… or should I say Albrecht now?"
"Yes… that's how it turned out."
"I don't know why you changed your name, but I suppose it's none of my concern."
Agresia snapped open an elaborately decorated folding fan—where she'd even gotten it, I had no idea—and continued.
"I hear you completely dismantled every engraving on the training dolls made by our Magic Engraving Department… Care to show us that skill of yours?"
"…I wouldn't really call it skill."
"My, you've grown quite insolent, haven't you?"
Agresia laughed low in her throat.
"Are you saying the engravings produced by our Magic Engraving Department can be dismantled without even needing skill?"
"…Excuse me?"
Why twist my words like that?
But it was already too late. At the Tower Lord's remark, several mages lit up with indignation and fixed their eyes on me.
They must all belong to the Magic Engraving Department…
"Ahaha, how amusing!"
Raynes herself, the actual manager, didn't seem particularly offended, but the atmosphere made it clear that if I failed to break this thing, I was going to be in serious trouble.
"You're always so full of confidence. Then by all means—show us that confidence properly."
The truth was, I really didn't have any "skill" to speak of. I wasn't dismantling the engravings by understanding them.
"Go ahead and begin."
Raynes gave me a little push between the shoulder blades. I trudged forward and looked at the "challenge" they had prepared.
Whoa…
They'd gone all out.
On what looked like an ordinary orb was an engraving so intricate and precise that the training wooden dolls couldn't even begin to compare. It was definitely worthy of being called a challenge by the Magic Engraving Department.
Just looking at the complex circuits that made up the engraving was enough to make my head hurt.
"Well? Do you think you can solve it?"
Raynes asked in a voice full of genuine curiosity. She didn't seem interested in playing along with Agresia's petty little game; she simply wanted to know whether I could crack this thing.
"…Just to say this one more time."
"Yes?"
"I have no intention of joining the tower."
"I don't know why you're bringing that up right now, but I'm already aware. I simply want you to complete the commission properly."
Sure you do.
Anyway, I'd driven the point home clearly enough that she probably wouldn't bring it up again. And if she did after I'd said this much…
…Then I'll just have to run for it.
With that thought, I reached out toward the orb engraved with the magical inscription.
"Hm!?"
"He's going to start right away?"
"Impossible. He already figured it out?"
Confused voices erupted from the Red Magic Tower mages all around. They probably thought I had already grasped the structure of the engraving and was beginning the deciphering process…
As if.
That was never going to happen. I hadn't even properly learned magic yet, and I'd only started using mana relatively recently. The only reason I could reach out with any confidence was the unique nature of my own mana.
"…I can just start, right?"
"Huh? Yes, of course. But Mr. Albrecht, when you say 'right away'…"
I didn't bother correcting Raynes's wild assumption. I simply decided to show them—how I'd been able to smash those training wooden dolls.
I stirred my mana lightly. The power flowing from my hand moved to envelop the orb. At that, many of the mages showed open confusion.
I could guess why. My control over mana still wasn't particularly refined. I'd gotten used to it in my own way, but to the eyes of tower mages it would still look clumsy at best.
"The way he's moving his mana…"
"At best, he's only just reached the level of a competent novice."
So of course they were puzzled. How had a guy like this dismantled the engravings on the wooden dolls made by the Magic Engraving Department?
They were about to find out.
To the mages' eyes, Albrecht's mana—clumsily controlled though it was—completely enveloped the orb. And then something astonishing unfolded before them.
"Huh?"
"Wait, that's…"
The mana wrapping the orb was systematically destroying every single one of the intricate, complex engravings carved into it. The mages—especially those belonging to the Magic Engraving Department—could not hide their shock.
"Wh-what!?"
"That's the one even the manager couldn't solve…"
"No way. He actually deciphered it?"
What they had placed before Albrecht was no exaggeration; it was, without a single lie, something called a "challenge." Even Raynes, whose engraving-deciphering skill was second only to the Tower Lord's, had failed to solve it.
"S-someone other than the Tower Lord could solve it…?"
It had been created by Agresia herself to test the abilities of her subordinate mages. From the very beginning, it had never been intended for anyone to fully decipher every engraving on it.
…How is this possible?
Even Agresia was deeply shaken.
This was not an engraving an ordinary mage could unravel. There were cases where even Tower Lords failed to decipher them.
Only Agresia herself, the Lord of the Blue Magic Tower who stood as her equal, and the Lord of the Black Tower—said to rival the Red and Blue Towers when it came to magical engravings—had ever successfully deciphered inscriptions of this level.
And yet right now, another decipherer was appearing. Or rather… it was impossible to tell whether this even counted as deciphering.
"What on earth… is he doing?"
The other mages might not have understood, but Agresia, as Tower Lord, could see it clearly. Albrecht's actions contained none of the usual process of engraving decipherment.
He wasn't understanding the inscription and carefully dismantling it by injecting mana. He was simply pouring mana into it and destroying the engravings wholesale.
Even Agresia had never seen anything like it. Normally, something like that would only be possible by crushing the target with an overwhelming quantity of mana—yet no matter how she looked at it, Albrecht's mana was nowhere near that level.
At best, it was on par with a newly competent mage. Compared to Agresia's own mana, it was a drop in the ocean. And that meager mana was systematically wrecking every circuit of the finely woven engraving.
"…Fast."
Moreover, as Raynes had observed, the speed was extraordinary. The sheer complexity of the engraving meant there were many circuits to destroy, so it took some time—but the rate at which each individual circuit was being shattered was staggering.
No one had ever imagined this challenge would be broken by anyone other than a Tower Lord. Least of all the many outstanding mages of the Red Magic Tower itself.
But this was the moment their common sense was shattered.
Barely five short minutes passed. Then Albrecht slowly withdrew the mana that had enveloped the orb and raised his head.
The man who had just overturned the common sense of every mage present wore a completely unbothered expression—as if it hadn't taken much effort at all, and as if even he hadn't expected it to be this easy.
"Well… that settles the commission, right?"
At his quiet question, Agresia swallowed dryly. At first she had been too shocked to understand, but as a mage who stood at the pinnacle of her tower, she soon grasped the process.
If one looked carefully, it was clear. The way Albrecht destroyed the engravings closely resembled how a monster known as a "Mana Eater" devoured mana.
A power that bound mana itself and rendered it completely powerless, regardless of total quantity.
Realizing this, Agresia lightly trembled the hand holding her fan. Then she slowly folded it and rose from her seat.
"…Magnificent. It wasn't the method I expected, but you dismantled the engraving perfectly."
Hearing that, Albrecht's face said I knew it.
So it really was something the Tower Lord made.
Meanwhile the mages could not hide their astonishment. Since Agresia herself had acknowledged it, this couldn't have been some cheap trick.
Still, her comment that the method had been different left them puzzled. The way one deciphered an engraving was generally the same for everyone—so what exactly had been different?
That question was soon answered by Agresia's next words.
"To think you wouldn't decipher and dismantle the engraving… but destroy it completely instead."
Her statement resolved one mystery only to create another.
"Destroy it?"
"So… you're saying he wrecked the engraving?"
"Is that even possible?"
"With overwhelming mana quantity you could crush it, but… his mana amount was nothing special…?"
The murmuring mages shifted the atmosphere into something strange. Watching the change, Albrecht sighed and spoke.
"Tower Lord."
"Yes?"
"Did I use some underhanded method to dismantle this engraving?"
At Albrecht's question, every mage's gaze locked onto Agresia. The others might not have been able to tell, but as Tower Lord she would certainly have seen the truth.
After a brief pause, Agresia opened her mouth—letting out a soft, amused snort as she did.
"How naive. That wasn't like you at all, was it?"
"…Pardon?"
What was she talking about? Albrecht looked at her blankly, refusing to give the answer she seemed to expect, as she continued with her strange remarks.
But the words that followed immediately made him understand why she had said it.
"The moment I claim you pulled some trick here, what would happen is obvious, isn't it?"
Albrecht broke out in a light cold sweat. Now that she mentioned it, she was right. If Agresia declared that he had cheated, not a single person here would take his side.
But admitting he hadn't thought of that would make him look like an idiot, so he shot back defensively.
"I assumed someone of the Tower Lord's stature wouldn't stoop to something so petty… was I wrong?"
"Pfft. Pretending innocence, are we?"
"……So please just tell me whether I did it properly or not."
Agresia, who had been laughing lightly, composed her expression into something more serious. Then she made her declaration to the confused mages of the Red Magic Tower.
"There was no underhanded method. Everything was this man's pure power. It simply happened to be a method far removed from the deciphering we had hoped for."
At Agresia's declaration, the mages' eyes went round. Of course they did. She had just told them there existed yet another force capable of destroying magical engravings—beyond deciphering and overwhelming mana quantity.
In an instant, every gaze in the room focused on Albrecht. And among the various emotions in those stares, one stood out above the rest.
Scholarly hunger. The near-obsessive academic curiosity unique to mages was burning brightly. Feeling it, Albrecht swallowed dryly.
This…
He had a strong feeling things were about to get very troublesome in all sorts of ways.