The Archmage's Uncharacteristic Smile
Lately, a strange rumor had been circulating through the Blue Magic Tower. The star of that rumor was none other than me, the Tower Master.
Normally I'd be locked away in my lab or wandering the halls with my usual blank expression. But recently I'd been strolling around with a bright, wide smile on my face. For the mages who'd come to treat my default poker face as the standard setting, it was nothing short of a culture shock.
Naturally, the chatter quickly twisted from "Why is the Tower Master in such a good mood?" into a flood of wild speculation.
Meanwhile, the man at the center of it all—me—was still staring at the letter, unable to wipe the grin off my face.
"Budget's quadrupled~ Praise the Emperor~ The Emperor is a god~ God-Emperor~"
There'd been a bit of trouble before, but once the budget shot up from double to quadruple, my face couldn't have been brighter. The incident at the banquet? Already wiped clean from my memory.
As I kept humming my little hymn of praise for the Emperor who'd given me this windfall, the office door burst open with a bang.
"Tower Master!"
"What's the matter, Riel? It's a good day. Smile. You gotta smile to be happy. Hahahahaha."
"T-The Tower Master has finally lost it..."
Riel knew exactly why I was acting like this, and she was happy about the budget increase too. But she'd rarely seen me this ecstatic, and it put her on guard. Humans instinctively reject the unfamiliar, right? That was the state she'd fallen into.
"So, what is it?"
Fortunately, after seeing my face she realized I wasn't actually crazy. She let out a sigh of relief and finally started explaining.
"With our increased budget we've gained some financial breathing room, and the magic-based businesses are running smoothly... but a problem has come up recently."
"A problem? What kind of problem could there possibly be?"
The entire Empire was in the middle of popularizing magic. There was only one Magic Tower in the Empire—the Blue Magic Tower that I ran—and I was the sole Archmage. We'd poured everything into it, and because of that effort there really shouldn't have been any major issues.
Why? Because there were no competitors. Even if there were, beating them would be impossible. Who in their right mind would dare challenge the Empire's only Magic Tower and its Archmage?
So even if things were tough right now, given a little time we'd be raking in money and securing a massive war chest for magic research. Hearing that a problem had appeared, I found it genuinely hard to understand.
"Which project?"
We'd expanded into quite a few magic-related businesses. Since magic had always carried that exclusive "mages only" vibe, this was the first real attempt at widespread adoption. Naturally I'd ended up overseeing a lot of projects, so even if something had gone wrong I couldn't immediately pinpoint where.
"I believe it's in Bestia City?"
"Bestia City... That's the Magic Engineering project, right?"
Magic Engineering was exactly what the name suggested—a field that fused magic with engineering. It was also called magitech, the perfect marriage of science and sorcery.
Even though my memories of the original story had mostly faded, I still kept my modern-world knowledge intact. In modern fiction, they usually handled it ridiculously simply: just slap mana into a gun and call it a day, without ever explaining efficiency or principles.
Why? Because the author probably didn't know the details either. It was all just for show, surface-level cool factor.
They didn't understand how magic actually worked or how it would interact with modern firearms, and without solid world-building it always came out sloppy.
That's why I wanted to try doing it properly. Now that I'd become an Archmage, I wanted to push this medieval world forward by combining real magical principles with engineering concepts instead of just slapping science on top.
The business and project meant to achieve that was the Magic Engineering project. Since I didn't know the exact principles behind modern technology, I planned to fill the gaps using the magical knowledge I did possess. Even if I didn't understand modern science perfectly, my mastery of magical principles and concepts was on another level.
The first thing I'd created when launching the Magic Engineering project was a medieval communication device.
Unlike the modern world, medieval times lacked convenient long-distance contact methods. The best you could do was send letters, and without magic that normally took days. To fix that, I'd succeeded in making communication orbs that let people talk to each other no matter how far apart they were.
I'd even set up a factory-style mass-production system so we could supply them to the public. Among all my current projects and businesses, this one had been running the smoothest.
'Now I was slowly starting to shift focus toward weapons...'
I'd been planning to create those mana guns that only existed in modern fiction. But now a problem had suddenly popped up?
I frowned.
"What exactly is the problem?"
"Well... they say the entire stock was stolen. All the mass-produced communication orbs and every material prepared for future work."
"Does that even make sense?"
It was an obvious question. The mass-produced communication orbs and the work materials weren't the kind of things you could just steal because you felt like it. Even if someone tried, the most they could do was secretly divert a few. But to say the entire stock was gone?
"Sigh... Who's managing Bestia City?"
"The Reborn family—Count Reborn."
"It wasn't those guys who diverted it, right?"
"Not as far as we know. Nothing's confirmed, but the odds are extremely low. Diverting it would require insane courage, and to mess with a project supervised by the Magic Tower..."
"Is basically a suicide attempt."
Unless Count Reborn's family were complete idiots, they'd know that if something like this happened, they'd be the first suspects. If they still went through with it anyway? That would actually deserve applause for sheer boldness. Openly sabotaging a Magic Tower-run business was essentially a direct challenge to the Archmage himself.
A frontal provocation against an Archmage. In its own way, that was almost funny.
Of course, I saw the possibility as low as Riel did. There'd be no reason to do something so insane unless the other party had truly gone mad.
But these things did happen sometimes. Cases where it wasn't the count but his subordinates who poked their noses in. We didn't have confirmation yet, but whatever the case, this wasn't something that could be done on a normal scale.
"Should we dispatch someone? Lark or Iris would probably be enough."
"No. I'm going myself."
"You personally, Tower Master?"
"Obviously."
I stood up from my chair and reached for the robe hanging on the left wall.
"Someone had the nerve to touch what's mine. How could I leave it to the kids?"
I usually avoided external affairs, but this was different.
"Watch the tower while I'm gone. I'll go crush them properly. And while you're at it, send the others to check on all our current projects."
"Yes, sir."
Wearing the robe that symbolized the Blue Magic Tower, I left the room. I was going to thoroughly destroy the insolent bastard who'd dared to touch what was mine.
The title of Archmage was engraved into the hearts of nobles as an object of pure terror. Unless they were some backwater noble or someone who paid no attention to worldly affairs, they couldn't help but know exactly what kind of person the Archmage was.
Noble society ran on personal connections, so even the smallest incident spread like wildfire. All the more so when it involved the Archmage—it was bound to flow from mouth to mouth until everyone knew.
Among the nobles, the Archmage was known as one who enjoyed the Emperor's utmost favor. No—an absolute being who simply could not be touched.
That was why Count Reborn couldn't help but panic.
It was because of the reality unfolding right before his eyes.
"What did you say!? Is that truly accurate!"
A disaster had struck the city he managed—Bestia City. The business overseen by the Magic Tower had run into trouble. Some insane person had raided the entire factory, stealing every last pre-produced communication orb along with all the materials meant for future production.
Naturally, the "materials" in question included the Archmage's magic scrolls—items that couldn't be bought with any amount of money.
Whoever had the insane guts to do this was unknown, but that wasn't what mattered right now.
'I-I have to clean this up immediately!'
Knowing full well what kind of existence the Archmage was, Count Reborn—his face completely drained of color—called for his servant.
"H-has the culprit been identified!"
"T-That is... we have not found them yet..."
The servant rolled his eyes nervously, watching his master's mood, but none of it registered in the count's vision.
'S-Should I run away right now...?'
Essentially, all the materials for the Archmage's business had been stolen. The responsibility for dealing with the aftermath would fall entirely on him. He was the lord of this land and the one in charge of this project, after all.
When he'd first heard that the Magic Tower would be running a business in Bestia City, the count had been so overjoyed he felt like he could fly. A business managed by the Magic Tower—and it was starting in the city under his jurisdiction!
Naturally, since it was sure to bring benefits, but also because any problem would bring catastrophic damage, Count Reborn had devoted himself completely. He'd assigned manpower and taken every precaution to ensure nothing would go wrong.
Yet someone had broken through all those defenses and stolen everything.
If this fact reached the Archmage?
'I-I'm as good as dead...'
Knowing that a noble title held zero value before the Archmage, Count Reborn collapsed to his knees like a man whose soul had already left his body.
It was when the servant, seeing his master suddenly kneel, was carefully reading the room.
"C-Count!"
The office door flew open and another servant rushed in. It was something that would never happen under normal circumstances, but the servant's face looked more desperate than ever.
"T-The Tower Master of the Magic Tower has arrived!"
At the words that sounded like a death sentence, Count Reborn squeezed his eyes shut tight. He was now a dead man.