Chapter 546: A Tangled Family Tree
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 546: A Tangled Family Tree
Just as a flying beast is at its strongest in the sky and a marine beast in the sea, a mage is stronger than usual within their own workshop.
And the Danilova family mansion was no different from a Tower Lord’s workshop.
The very idea of being able to escape such a place while deceiving the eyes of the Tower Lord was absurd.
Even more so when accompanied by Anastasia, who was protected by a formidable barrier.
“Still, this is a bit unexpected. Honestly, I thought you’d tell me to stop as soon as we were a little ways from the mansion.”
“Because I trust you.”
“...Huh?”
“I trusted that you would never harm Ana, who is as pretty as me... no, prettier than me.”
“...”
Her words left me with a strange feeling.
I wasn’t sure if I should be happy that I’d earned her trust, or bitter about being branded a womanizer.
“First, I must thank you. Thanks to you, my daughter was able to see the outside world for the first time in twelve years.”
The Tower Lord bowed her head deeply.
“Thank you. It seems my debt to you just keeps growing. I’m at a loss for words.”
“Come on, there’s no need to talk about debts between a married couple.”
“...We are not married.”
“Then in exchange for clearing your debt, will you marry me?”
“...”
The Tower Lord glared at me, her face turning reddish.
“That’s a tasteless joke.”
“What if I’m serious?”
“D-don’t come any closer.”
When I took a step forward, the Tower Lord reflexively took a step back.
But she didn’t seem to dislike it.
Rather, she seemed to be blushing like a shy girl.
“You overheard my entire conversation with Lady Ana just now, didn’t you? Should I start calling you Mother-in-law, then? Or should I call you Jena, like yesterday?”
“...”
At my question, the Tower Lord bit her lip and averted her gaze.
It felt like if I pushed just a little more, something interesting would happen, but that seemed to be in poor taste, so I decided to hold my tongue.
“Hehe, I was just kidding, so you don’t have to take it so seriously.”
“You...”
“Anyway, shall we return to the mansion? My yang energy is running out, so I need to get Lady Ana to her bedroom.”
I deftly dodged the Tower Lord’s murderous glare with a shrug, presenting Anastasia to her.
As expected of the Tower Lord, who worried more about Anastasia’s well-being than her own feelings, she nodded without another word.
“Come closer. I’m going to use a long-distance teleportation spell.”
“Oh. So you do know how to use it.”
“...Don’t state the obvious.”
“I can’t even use Fly magic properly yet.”
Fly was a 6th Circle spell.
Of course, I could use it, but it would inevitably strain my mana circles, and its speed and duration would be cut in half.
It was far more efficient to just use my movement techniques.
I held Anastasia with one arm and wrapped the other around the Tower Lord’s waist.
“...There’s no need to be that close.”
“It’s because I’m easily frightened.”
The Tower Lord looked at me with an expression of disbelief.
Her eyes seemed to say, At least try to make your lies believable.
“...Hah, do as you please.”
Thak-
At that moment, a staff appeared out of thin air.
The harmony of its pure white body and the blue-tinged jewels made it a magnificent work of art in itself.
Glacier.
The Tower Lord’s personal staff.
Wooooong-
“...O, principle of the source that governs space.”
The Tower Lord closed her eyes and began her incantation.
Well, even for a Tower Lord, it must be difficult to cast a long-distance teleportation spell without an incantation.
Fundamentally, the difficulty of teleportation magic increased exponentially with the distance one wished to travel.
That was why not a single mage since the First Tower Lord had ever used intercontinental teleportation magic.
“Erase the coordinates beneath my feet, and inscribe the coordinates of my destination, to move my body and soul thither... Open now the path that connects this place to the world beyond.”
[Teleportation]
Fwaaa-!!!
In that instant, a tremendous flash of light erupted from the magic circle that formed beneath our feet, swallowing us whole.
And when I opened my eyes again, we were standing in the central hall of the Danilova family mansion.
I couldn’t help but stare in astonishment at the Tower Lord, who hadn’t shed a single drop of sweat.
To be perfectly fine after using a spell of that magnitude...
Normally, one’s magic circuits would overheat to the point they couldn’t even stand.
But the Tower Lord’s breathing was calm, as if nothing had happened.
As they say, when you’re utterly dumbfounded, you can’t help but laugh. I swallowed a dry laugh, a cold sweat breaking out on my brow.
Heaven beyond heaven.
There’s always someone stronger, they say.
I felt as if I had just witnessed a glimpse of that truth.
I remained silent as I followed the Tower Lord to the bedroom. After carefully laying Anastasia on the bed, I left the room.
I was about to part ways to check on the state of the spirit water when it happened.
Tug-
The Tower Lord grabbed my collar.
“I have something to ask you.”
“Yes?”
“Follow me.”
“W-wait...”
The Tower Lord half-dragged me along, then kicked off from a window and used Fly magic to head out of the mansion.
The scenery blurred past in the blink of an eye. She only stopped when we arrived in a desolate plain with no sign of human life.
Thump-
I collapsed onto the damp grass, straightening my clothes and catching my breath.
“...I don’t think high-speed flight while dragging someone by the arm is a good idea.”
“I know you’re exaggerating.”
At the Tower Lord’s cold tone, I scratched the back of my head and got to my feet.
“So, why did you suddenly bring me here? It doesn’t look like there’s anything special.”
“I came here precisely because there is nothing here.”
“Huh?”
“I heard you once gifted Ana a sculpture made of ice.”
“Well... I did, yes?”
“Make one now.”
“...Is that your preference, perhaps? If you’d told me, I would have made one for you long ago-”
“Less talk, more doing. Quickly.”
The Tower Lord’s gaze was more serious than ever before.
Right, with her personality, she wouldn't have come all the way out here just to play a prank.
For a moment, I considered making a simple ice sculpture like last time, but this was a demonstration for none other than the Tower Lord herself.
A desire to show her something more proper welled up inside me.
Besides, if I make a good impression, I might be able to get some advice.
Advice given because she herself felt interest and potential in me would be several times more valuable than advice given as payment for something.
I took the Corrupted Starlight Staff from my inventory.
“That is...”
“I picked it up in a Gate.”
At my hastily fabricated explanation, the Tower Lord gave me a somewhat suspicious look.
It seemed that, as an archmage, she could sense the Archlich’s lingering resentment on the staff.
Once the staff I commissioned from Baronet Sheffield is complete, I should probably purify this one and sell it.
Swoosh-
Closing my eyes, I focused my consciousness on the elements surrounding me.
The essence of ice magic was to crystallize the moisture in the atmosphere.
However, that method had clear limitations.
It couldn't exert its full power in an overly dry environment, and it couldn't overcome its incompatibility with fire magic.
Of course, no mage would deny that ice magic was powerful regardless.
As an elemental magic, its power was guaranteed, and in certain situations, its weaknesses were nonexistent.
But what I wanted wasn’t such ordinary ice magic.
It was the flawless ice magic that the Tower Lord wielded.
Not just borrowing the power of the elements to crystallize atmospheric moisture, but materializing the power of the element itself.
Although it took a great deal of trial and error to master that sensation, once I got the hang of it, the process afterward was surprisingly smooth.
...The important things are affinity with the element, the vast amount of magic power needed to materialize it, and a perfect image that goes beyond conviction, bordering on madness.
If all these conditions were met, the result would naturally follow.
[Frost Field]
Crack-crack-crack-!!!!
In that instant, the land in a radius of several hundred meters was covered in ice.
But the magic didn’t stop there.
Rumble-!!
What soon shot up from the frozen earth were statues of various forms.
A knight, an archer, a mage, a priest, a warrior.
I had created them on the spot, using a sculpture I had once seen on the internet as a reference.
“Hoo...”
I let out the breath I’d been holding and slowly opened my eyes.
I had an abundance of magic power and my recovery was fast, so the consumption itself was minimal. However, this method of elemental application couldn't help but strain the brain responsible for the calculations.
Moreover, my magic circuits had slightly overheated, making me feel hot.
It was the same last time, but my Immunity to Cold and Heat was useless in situations like this, making me think what a dilemma of a realm it was.
I took a towel from my inventory and wiped away the sweat.
Still, this should be enough to leave a strong impression.
In terms of performance, there was nothing better.
“Lady Valentina, what did you think?”
I looked at the Tower Lord with a confident voice.
But the expression on her face was not the reaction I had expected.
“...That method of elemental application. Where did you learn it?”
“Huh?”
The Tower Lord’s completely stiff expression said it all.
That an archmage who had reached the pinnacle of magic was astonished by my spell.
“I didn’t learn it from anyone. I just watched you use your magic and picked it up.”
“I knew it...”
The Tower Lord looked me up and down, then gave a small nod as if she had made up her mind.
And what came out of her mouth next far surpassed my expectations.
“Have you any thought of becoming my disciple?”
“...?”
The Tower Lord’s completely unexpected proposal left me momentarily stunned.
In the meantime, she continued to speak.
“What you just used is ‘Magia Lida,’ an elemental application method I developed myself. It is something I have never once presented at an academic conference.”
“...Why not? If it could be applied to other elements, it could have presented a new paradigm for elementalists.”
The reason I was focusing on this method was because I saw it as an opportunity to raise my magical capabilities by one step... no, even two.
If it were known to the academic world, almost every elementalist would surely go crazy for it.
But the Tower Lord slowly shook her head.
“You must have some inkling yourself, no? The vast majority of mages would not even begin to understand the theory; they would only end up frustrated before a new wall.”
“...That’s true.”
The method the Tower Lord had devised had a major flaw.
No matter how high a mage’s realm, if their elemental affinity was low, they wouldn’t even be able to grasp the concept.
I remembered something my master, Vajra Divine Monk, had once told me.
-What do you think would happen if a martial artist with little talent obtained a supreme martial art?
-...I think they’d sell it on the black market.
-Foolish. The answer is, ‘They would fall into Qi Deviation.’
-What?
-Human greed is endless. But they lack the courage to admit their own lack of talent. Humans are truly pitiful creatures...
And the same applied to mages.
Mages with insufficient talent, rather than giving up on the new method the Tower Lord had devised, would instead become obsessed with it, turning a blind eye to other possibilities until they broke themselves.
No, it was almost a certainty that they would.
“Originally, I planned to pass it on only to Ana. Of course, the curse forced me to stop her magic education altogether.”
“So that’s why Lady Ana is only at the 1st Circle?”
“Yes. Of course, considering she achieved that after only a year of learning magic, it’s truly remarkable.”
“...”
A surprise boast about her daughter. What a doting mother.
“So, what do you think of my offer? If you become my disciple, you won’t have to rely solely on intuition to use ice magic as you do now. There will be no need to repeat unnecessary mana consumption and calculations.”
“You ask the obvious.”
I bowed respectfully to the Tower Lord.
“I’ll be in your care, Master.”
And so, the Tower Lord became my master, my mother-in-law, and my wife.
Things were starting to get a little interesting.