Resting in Peace (7)
Thud, thud, clang!
In the depths of the magic tower, a space buried even deeper underground.
Inside it, I tensed my body while gripping nothing but a knife, facing a golem that was a good deal larger than me.
“Are you trying to silence me?”
“No, we’re here to show the results we’ve prepared so far at our magic tower. Besides, your words have gotten shorter.”
Those spell-slinging bastards.
They act like this just because I said something briefly once, without giving a thought to what I did.
It’s not that I’m scolding him for being a spellcaster, but seeing him scold someone makes him sound like one. This is ridiculous.
Still, he wasn’t planning to kill me, right? I’d be screwed if I believed that and got backstabbed later.
“I know we can’t harm students of Farnike Academy. It’s just a test, so please participate.”
It was a deal with no benefit for me. Sigh.
Anyway, a golem bigger than the one I faced at the academy test stood before me now.
‘If I follow the pattern, arm raised, elbow tucked back, fist coming forward···!!’
Clang!
I was startled. The fist came out far faster than the one in the academy test.
I twisted my body and slipped past the knife’s blade, but I nearly dropped it.
Thankfully, my lightweight frame made balance easy to lose. If I’d been bigger, I’d have been knocked flat by that punch.
“We’ve reinforced the circuits with Megirurun and infused Magi into it. There’s nothing else different, so now you should understand how useful this method is?”
“I didn’t··· I never said the method wasn’t useful···!!”
I reinforced my body with magic power, concentrated strength for a split second, and flicked the golem’s arm that was trying to crush me from the side.
Then I stamped the ground and stabbed my knife at the golem’s head, which had lost balance, and swung it down.
Of course I couldn’t shatter it. The knife was too weak to take any power anyway.
So I aimed for the magic circuits. By concentrating magic power in an instant, I short-circuited the internal circuits.
Kraang!
The golem’s head crumpled slightly. A strange sensation ran through my fingertips.
At the same moment, I saw a red glow fade with a buzzing sound.
“Oh.”
But right then the golem started moving again. Just as I was floating in the air, about to throw a punch. It suddenly stopped.
“This is a prototype, so we’re stopping here. The golem at Farnike Academy is on a different level, right?”
“I don’t think it’s not useful, though?”
Even though I was armed only with a tiny knife, facing a golem was basically like fighting bare-handed.
It was like starting a duel where I provoked the golem unnecessarily, which you could call an ambush in reality.
But it was a conscience-strangling fight, since I was facing a golem twice my size with my small frame.
Even so, it was amazing. With that much magic power injected at once, a short-circuit should have happened instantly.
Plus, the speed and strength of the punch aimed at me were beyond anything I’d felt from the golems before.
I guess they’re above average soldiers. If we mass-produced them and sent them to the battlefield, it would definitely be effective.
They could replace ordinary soldiers easily.
But.
“I still think using the power of the demon race is too dangerous.”
“Even after trying it yourself, if you still think that, it’s impossible to convince you. Well, it doesn’t matter. Everyone will judge that tomorrow anyway.”
“Tomorrow···?”
As I asked, the vice tower master started walking toward the stairs leading out, carrying his burdens.
And he shot me a look that seemed to say, “Come with me.”
“We’ve already filed a request with the Lagrangd House. Tomorrow Duke Lir Ron Lagrangd will come to have a spar with the golem.”
“Even so, isn’t it a bit too much to have a knight like you fight? Even if it’s one of those golems···.”
“We’ll push all five of them at him. With that number, we can show our achievements to everyone.”
Five. If it was five, Lir would definitely not be at a disadvantage even if he were good.
My expression was bound to wrinkle as I walked down the stairs beside him.
I didn’t want to see ‘that’ rampaging as it was, and I didn’t want to watch classmates who had grown close to me lose.
But I couldn’t stop the demonstration. I had no such social standing, and above all, the justification itself was far too legitimate.
For the research presentation, I had asked the Lagrangd House to do a preliminary test in advance. Even if I learned they had used Magi as the golem’s power source during that process.
As long as I hid the fact that I used demons in the experiment, there was evidence even if there was suspicion.
So the only thing I could do was to report that I was secretly taking demons out of this magic tower for experiments.
Even though the magic tower was under the Lagrangd House, the tower was still the tower’s private property.
The underground room would be thoroughly sealed, and if it took time, they’d pull it somewhere and destroy the evidence···.
“You seem deep in thought. Oh, by the way, you came to get ingredients, right? Were you here to get Megirurun?”
I nodded without saying a word.
Then the vice tower master nodded and looked at me.
“When you go to the Lagrangd House tomorrow, I’ll prepare the Megirurun. How about it?”
“······.”
That meant the Lagrangd House, in other words, Lir, was giving me what I wanted by staying silent here and leaving together.
In short, it was silence.
I couldn’t flatly refuse or accept it.
If I refused, I wouldn’t get the most important ingredient for me. If I accepted, it meant I was overlooking such a situation as a knight.
I couldn’t choose any of them, so I had no choice but to leave the underground room in silence.
***
“Lir-nim! Where did you go? I looked everywhere outside but couldn’t find you!!”
“I got lost. The magic tower is more complicated than I thought.”
“Really, how worried I was.”
When I returned to the room, Yuria, who had been rubbing her hands anxiously, scolded me.
I lowered my head and apologized to Yuria, who was sending me a worried look.
Putting aside the thoughts swirling in my head, I flopped onto the blanket Yuria had laid out earlier.
Even after a long time, I couldn’t fall asleep. I changed my posture and tossed around.
“Lir-nim, are you not sleepy?”
“Ah, sorry. I have something I need to think about.”
“What? I can’t sleep either, but if we talk, won’t I fall asleep?”
I paused for a moment.
I couldn’t say it, so I decided to dodge the question a little.
“Suppose there’s a taboo. If you break that taboo, you can use magic with efficiency far beyond the previous level. Instead, since it’s a taboo you’ve had for a long time, I don’t know what side effects will happen···. What would you choose, Yuria?”
Yuria answered “Wait a moment” after listening to my words and then fell quiet as if thinking.
After about a minute, Yuria spoke.
“Of course I want to break the taboo. If I can use magic that’s incomparable to what I’ve used so far, that’s the dream of a mage, right?”
I didn’t know much about mages’ psychology, but if I thought like knights, I would accept it.
As a way to look higher than before with just a little effort.
“But isn’t there a reason past mages kept the taboo? Because they saw blood with it, so they made it a taboo? I won’t break the taboo.”
At that, I felt a little relieved.
Because I confirmed that at least my thoughts weren’t completely wrong.
And because I felt that among mages, there were people who shared the risk with me, like me.
“I agree. It’s inevitable that the era develops, but there are bound to be trial and errors. That’s why the taboo was made, so that we’d experience it in the past and be cautious.”
“That’s right? I think the same way.”
My heart was much lighter. Even if my words had no real effect, I felt light because there was someone who agreed with my opinion.
Because of that, I unknowingly fell asleep.
***
“It’s flashy.”
Looking at the Lagrangd House’s carriage, I said with a wry smile.
The Lagrangd House, officially invited to Ebonic Tower, responded to the invitation with a lavish yet grand scale around the time the sun was high in the sky.
Six carriages of the level I rode lined up in a row, and two or three supply wagons followed, clearly showing off their noble demeanor.
From the small windows of the magic tower, I watched Lir and the people who looked like his parents among the many crowds.
Lir was wearing a restrained, dignified uniform rather than the academy uniform I always saw.
At the front of the group were the head of the Lagrangd House and his wife, with Lir beside them.
On the magic tower side, the vice tower master and numerous tower mages welcomed the honored guests.
When I asked Yuria why the tower master wasn’t there, I heard he had gone to the capital on business.
‘The best scenario would be Lir defeating the golem easily.’
That wasn’t going to happen. I knew Lir’s skill well since I’d watched it every day.
If five golems charged at once, even if Lir wasn’t in a bad situation, he would definitely fall behind.
The demonstration of the golems prepared by Ebonic Tower would end successfully. But I couldn’t accept sending those bomb piles to the battlefield.
‘The underground room door is also sealed with magic, so I can’t find any evidence.’
Was there no other way? A way to at least make people realize this method was dangerous.
Looking at Lir approaching this magic tower from afar, I put my head in my hands and thought.