Chapter 175: Mage (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 175: Mage (5)
My eyes flutter open.
Turning my head, I see the same dungeon interior I had looked at just before falling asleep.
"He certainly does his job well."
As expected of a male lead candidate in the original work and the heir to Ilias—one of the continent’s three great merchant guilds and currently the person furthest removed from Daisy—he had excellent taste.
"To think I’d find this level of fluffiness even in a dungeon."
In my past life, a famous advertisement claimed that a bed is science.
This bed, however, was packed with magical functions—the "science" of this world. It was, quite literally, a product of true science.
"So this... is magic."
To think a merchant guild, even one of the best on the continent, could achieve something the Magic Tower couldn't even if they tried.
With a mix of half-admiration and half-regret, I tidied up the bed.
It made no sense that it could shrink with the press of a single button, but then again, the very existence of subspace pouches made no sense to begin with.
I tucked away the miniaturized bed and packed the magic tool that had been standing guard.
"……?"
I needed to get back the sleeping bag I’d lent out, but my junior wasn't waking up.
"Why aren't you getting up?"
"……"
"I know you woke up a while ago."
"……!"
Pretending to sleep didn't work in front of a Leon swordsman.
I could tell by her breathing alone that she had woken up around the same time I did.
"We don't know where the end is, so shouldn't we move as fast as possible?"
I said this while tearing open a meal package from Ilias.
To think a meal could be prepared and heated just by opening the packaging.
It reminded me of the MREs from my previous life, but since this was a package designed for nobles, the taste was supposedly on a whole different level.
...If it tastes good, I should buy more Ilias stocks.
"Just five more minutes..."
"I'm busy, though..."
"...Five minutes is fine, isn't it?"
Well, we did need to eat. Waiting five minutes wouldn't hurt.
After waiting a bit, I was about to start my meal when...
"...What is that?"
My junior, who had finally gotten up, squinted at my meal package.
"A meal package for Academy students, produced by Ilias."
"...Is Ilias preparing for a war or something?"
"They're preparing for Academy life."
"I mean, why would they even make stuff like—"
"The next guild master supposedly made these based on his own direct experiences at the Academy."
And that guy, Hedrick, was the weakest of the male lead candidates.
Even though he tended to miss major events for various reasons, his guild was already preparing to sell things like this.
"...So, where's mine?"
"...Did you leave one with me, Junior?"
"Your tone only changes at times like this, doesn't it? No, before that. I heard you don't act like this with people you've just met..."
It seemed someone was selling my personal information again. High probability it was Boradori.
"...Maybe it's because I feel comfortable around you?"
Since that was surprisingly true, I answered after a moment of thought.
How should I put it? I felt a familiar energy from this junior I’d just met.
"I wonder why. The only people I'm 'familiar' with are royalty or dark mages."
"...Just what kind of life have you lived for your standards of familiarity to be royalty and dark mages?"
"I know, right? What a dog-shite life."
She was clutching the sleeping bag tightly with an incredulous expression, so I reached out to take it back.
"……?"
My hand swiped through empty air, so I reached out again.
"You're already up."
"I think this sleeping bag is just old."
"I packed that brand new before coming to the Academy."
"...Well, there's a hole in the bottom now. I'll take responsibility and buy it!"
To the junior who was claiming it was a defective product while pulling money out of her subspace pouch, I said:
"That'll be five gold coins for the meal, customer."
"...That's a total rip-off!"
"Even for the same bottle of water, the price is always higher at the top of a mountain. Take it or leave it."
"Please give me a one-coin discount..."
I played the role of the kind senior who even sells food.
After a few minor incidents, we finished our meal and immediately challenged the next floor.
"……"
"……"
And surprisingly, absolutely nothing happened.
Truly, nothing.
"This..."
"I think we should brace ourselves."
Even on the relatively easy floors, at least bronze golems had appeared.
On the third floor, which had been the most difficult so far, the golem parts were thick, and the bronze was incomparably harder than that of the first floor.
According to my junior, it was likely an alloy of bronze and rare metals.
Because of that, I had imagined the fourth floor would have a massive golem made entirely of that rare ore.
But for it to be this quiet...
"There might be something that all those resources were poured into."
"Either that, or this is a legendary sealing site."
Now that she mentioned it, those did exist.
But...
"I haven't heard anything about what's sealed here. What exactly is it?"
"Ah. They say it's an ancient demon that the Black Dragon was keeping sealed. Scholars suspect it's an ancient member of the Demon Tribe."
"……?"
Wait, if the Black Dragon was the one keeping an ancient demon sealed...
Doesn't that make the Emperor the villain?
Why would you kill a dragon that was quietly keeping a demon sealed and then take over its territory?
"So there was a reason the Imperial Academy was always plagued by misfortune..."
"What is that supposed to mean?!"
Is this what they call narrative consistency?
The reason the Imperial Academy was breached so often... perhaps it was the grudge of the kind Black Dragon, the homeowner who was ungratefully evicted and killed after sealing away an ancient demon.
"The Empire was in the wrong."
"Wh-where are you going with this? The Black Dragon that occupied a vital point of the Empire—"
My junior tried to defend the Empire with a distressed face, but...
"They built a country where the Black Dragon lived and told it to get out."
As I always say, in most of history, the ones at fault are usually the damn humans.
They come up with plausible justifications, but in 99 out of 100 cases, it's the humans who messed up.
"I'm telling you, there was the ferocious Black Dragon, powerful monsters that worshiped it, abundant mana, and even extreme-difficulty dungeons created by mana corrupted by the dragon!"
"Dungeons tend to form naturally wherever powerful mana gathers. That's why high-risk dungeons often appear near powerful nations or Magic Towers."
"Why are you suddenly being so smart?! You're supposed to be the type who doesn't know things like that!"
"Ah, well. It's obviously to soothe the grudge of the Black Dragon who was unjustly murdered."
"I-I said they overcame it, I never said they killed it!"
"Oh, it didn't die?"
So it wasn't a spirit wandering the underworld spewing resentment; maybe it just left a curse behind.
"So, stop badmouthing the Empire for no reason!"
"Look at you, being a loyal subject."
As we reached the end of the floor, we finally saw it.
"Hm? Do we have guests?"
It wasn't the lingering resentment of a dragon.
Nor was it the ancient demon supposedly sealed by the dragon.
"Welcome. To my... Gwah!"
It was a Lich—nothing but bones, yet possessing a vast mana that could be felt the moment you laid eyes on him.
My magical mentor, the Leon Tower Master, once said:
"People say the fighting styles of a swordsman and a mage are completely different. But in reality, they are the same."
As someone who possessed knowledge of both sword and sorcery, he spoke with absolute conviction.
"In both cases, the first strike wins."
A slang term that shouldn't exist in a fantasy world popped out, but the explanation that followed was surprisingly plausible, in a Leon Tower Master sort of way.
"A mage must be meticulous. A mage must be cold-headed. Every mage hears these words often, and they are known as essential virtues, especially for battle mages."
The Tower Master didn't deny this. In fact, he agreed so strongly that...
"That is why the first strike is important. Once you get hit, your composure and calmness vanish instantly."
It wasn't that there were no beings who could maintain their cool even in such a state.
"But those guys are usually what we call 'the strong.' You're going to have a hard time winning anyway. So, if you meet someone like that as an enemy... as quickly as possible..."
Land the first blow.
Following my master's teachings, the mage Adam Smith threw a full-power first strike.
"...Tsk. It was like this in my time too, but it seems the younger generation gets more impolite as the eras pass."
And I was defeated with pathetic ease.
"No, why am I..."
"It's called collective responsibility."
My junior, who was hanging in the air beside me, looked utterly wronged, but the Lich was cold.
Well, he was nothing but bones, so I suppose he had to be cold.
"Seeing as we've been captured like this, are we destined to be locked up for human experimentation...?"
"...Don't say such ominous things!"
"Hmm. Was that an option?"
"Please spare me!"
"Ahem." As the Lich nodded, my junior pleaded in terror.
"Hehehehe."
"Eek!"
"Hehehehehe."
"Hieeeek!"
As if enjoying her reaction, he rattled his bones.
"I'm joking. I'm not Derman; there's no way I'd do something like that."
Seeing as he was badmouthing the ancestor of Dale, he seemed to be a "good" Lich.
"Has that much time passed already...?"
After clearing up the misunderstanding, the Lich—or rather, Altear—asked while rattling his bones.
"By the way... I've never seen your kind of magic before. Is it the magic of the current era?"
"That's right."
"Don't lie to Lord Altear! That's not magic!"
"It's a new kind of magic."
"Mages, as a lot, are surprisingly reluctant to accept new things. You must be having a hard time."
"I appreciate your understanding."
"Lord Altear?!"
Altear Sirine.
He was one of the closest aides to the 5th Emperor, Luke—the man who settled the chaos of the early Empire, expanded its power, established various policies, and founded the Imperial Academy to lay the Empire's foundation. He had also served as the Imperial Tower Master.
In other words...
"Accept it, Junior. My magic is recognized even by a legendary mage."
"Please, just keep it a secret from the Magic Department..."
It meant my magic was recognized not only by the Leon Tower Master, the Dragonkin, and the High Elves, but even by a legend of the Empire.
"But, why is Lord Altear here...?"
"Hmm... about that."
At the question from my junior, who was already very interested in Imperial history, Altear stroked his chin with one hand and, after some thought, revealed the secret of why he was here.
"Because I had to clean up my own mess."
"……?"
My junior froze at the statement that came out of his mouth, but Altear continued his story nonchalantly.
"The original Imperial capital was the capital of another kingdom. Rebel groups calling themselves 'liberators' kept popping up to take it back, so we couldn't sleep peacefully at night. So we worked hard to find a new capital... and oops! A Black Dragon was in the perfect spot!"
The story began—a version of the one my junior had told, but as if someone had tried to add a spoonful of "cheapness" and accidentally dumped the whole bottle in.
"So we asked the dragon to move out, but it said no. So, after a meeting, we decided to kick it out. We succeeded in kicking it out, but... oops! An ancient demon was underground? And the seal on an ancient Great Demon, one of those Seven Demon Kings or whatever, was about to break. We thought, 'Ah, we're screwed,' but..."
Somehow they managed to reseal it, shoved it back underground, and managed it.
"But when I hit fifty, I started worrying. Won't this break once we're dead? Shouldn't we start telling the kids under us? But that bastard Luke..."
Emperor Luke, who had finished his achievements and become a wise ruler, didn't want his youthful mistakes to be discovered.
—Hey, you guys don't want to be badmouthed in your old age either, right?
—True.
—Then, let's do this.
—...Are you an idiot? Let's do it immediately.
"So we just played Rock-Paper-Scissors, and the loser had to take responsibility until the end."
And so, the hero of the Empire who lost at Rock-Paper-Scissors turned himself into a Lich to guard the seal.
"……"
Having heard the whole story, I quietly looked at my junior, who was from the Empire.
Toward her, whose face was turning red as if she wanted to crawl into a hole right then and there...
"Ah, but why did a descendant of Luke come here—"
"Lord Altear!"
The cold-blooded Lich had just outed her.