Chapter 631: How to Live in a Right-Handed World
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 631: How to Live in a Right-Handed World
The Blue Tower Master smiled as if she’d known all along, and I sighed and shrugged.
“Lankart said you were still more skilled than him. I can see why he’d say that.”
“So you did similar things in the Military State?”
“Much less so. I was younger then, and the Military State didn’t cut me any slack. Compared to that, it’s much more comfortable here, where you’re willing to look the other way.”
Well, I’ve been caught. The Blue Tower Master must have spoken with conviction.
“I’m truly grateful to Senior Avant-garde. I’m trying my best to treat her well.”
“I didn’t say it to scold you. Thanks to you, Avant-garde’s skills have reached a new level, so it’s mutually beneficial. And thanks to you stirring things up, there’s been a lively exchange of ideas in the Crystal Tower. As your master, it makes me quite proud.”
Was she just mentioning it to satisfy her intellectual vanity? Instead of being wary or critical, the Blue Tower Master was looking at me as if she were proud. What a relief. Some people would have been offended by this.
‘His talent for handling people is rare, so it took me a while to notice. Lankart’s hint was useful, but even without it, I would have figured it out eventually. He is certainly brilliant. Heh. There’s a certain pleasure in getting to know him.’
That, too, was likely because the Blue Tower Master is an incredibly skilled and arrogant mage.
It wasn’t some grand secret, nor was it directed at the Blue Tower Master, but I had been figured out all the same. For now, I’ll call it my loss by decision.
Pretending to ease my tension, I took a small sip of tea and asked, “Are you by any chance disappointed?”
“About what?”
“That I’m using Senior Avant-garde’s goodwill.”
“Oh, my. Do you see me as that naive a person?”
“The Blue Tower Master, with her cold reason, might not be, but I can’t help but worry.”
“You’ve seen your fair share of trouble, haven’t you? It’s fine. You are clearly a talented individual, and your presence is a positive for the tower. Even if you play with the heart of one cute sorceress, so what? As long as you’re both happy, that’s all that matters.”
I was glad the Blue Tower Master had such a cool and open-minded personality. It seemed she would cheer me on rather than stand in my way.
“But that’s all only possible if I can pass the trials.”
“Even if you fail the trials because you can’t solve your mana problem, with your abilities, you’ll be able to enter any of the lower towers.”
“The Crystal Tower would be best. I’ll be sure to find a way.”
“I’ll be looking forward to it.”
Our business was concluded. I downed the rest of my tea and stood up.
Even with two workarounds—layered magic circles and Bloodstone Highcrystals—it was still far from enough. I had to think of another way.
But could I really find a method that even the master of the Magic Tower couldn't? I am the King of Humans. I'm merely good at handling the domains humans have already pioneered, not someone who forges paths into uncharted territory.
As I said my goodbyes and was about to leave, the Blue Tower Master spoke as if adding an afterthought.
“Ah, my student. I forgot to mention, there’s one more piece of good news.”
“You forgot? That’s unlikely.”
“You’re right. To be honest, it’s not the kind of news you’ll be happy to hear. It’s that Lankart has finished his investigation and returned. He should be at the Intelligence Bureau by now.”
“…Hah. That’s certainly ambiguous news.”
It wasn’t bad, but I didn’t feel like celebrating either. I suppose I should go see him.
The Floating Castle is a city where everyone lives on the inner surface of a shell, thanks to gravity magic. There is no horizon like the one seen in the Lower World. Instead, the other side of the city curves in an arch overhead. There’s no need to climb to a high place to secure a better view. If you want to see farther, you just have to tilt your head up higher.
Unlike the sun, which seems to neglect the higher latitudes despite its pretense of impartiality, the light from the Floating Castle's artificial sun illuminates the ground with perfect fairness. There are no blind spots in its gaze, which casts no shadows. Because with the artificial sun directly overhead, it is always noon in the Floating Castle.
After carefully observing my surroundings, I found the Intelligence Bureau. It was easy to pinpoint its location. All the important facilities in the Floating Castle were tall. It didn't take long to find it by counting the buildings closest to the artificial sun.
Since I couldn’t use gravity magic, I trudged over to the Intelligence Bureau. I hadn’t had any business there until now, but I figured showing the insignia the Blue Tower Master gave me would get me inside.
“Huey.”
Before I could find him, Lankart found me. Oh. That saves me the trouble of looking.
“You’re back? Took you long enou—”
“You, are you the King of Humans?”
Huh? You know too? Ah, right, you said you were gathering information at the Tree of Genesis.
Seriously. Soon there’ll be more people who know than who don’t. I admitted it readily.
“That’s right.”
“Why?”
Why? Because I am the King of Humans.
But that didn’t seem to be what Lankart was asking. He looked disappointed in me, clutching his forehead and shaking his head.
“Impossible. You, the King of Humans.”
“Why? What’s wrong with being the King of Humans?”
The one who represents humans, the dominant species of the land, among the one-of-a-kind Beast Kings. It sounds pretty amazing, doesn’t it? Isn’t it a title that should alleviate some of that inferiority complex of yours? What’s the problem?
“That you… the one who defeated me, could be such a cliché Right-hander. It can’t be.”
“What?”
“A mere Beast King. Nothing more than a conceptual being that has already been defined. The most worthless Right-hander among all Right-handers…”
“What’s with the sudden fit? You looking for a fight?”
I said it as a joke, but Lankart acted on my words. He gave a casual wave of his hand. It was a motion that held not a speck of power, but I was swept up in a massive vortex that appeared in an instant and sent tumbling about ten meters.
“Ha.”
This guy Lankart has been in a bad state lately. Why is he acting like this all of a sudden? As if his entire world had been negated.
Because I’m the King of Humans? Seriously. If I were the real King of Humans, I wouldn’t feel so wronged. There’s a clearly superior version of me called ‘Nuna’, and I’ve lost all my power, haven’t I?
…Or did I lose it? It was originally ‘Nuna’s’ to begin with. Technically, I’m just borrowing it.
“Lankart. How much did you investigate? Who else knows about this besides you?”
“Damn it. To think I’ve been competing with a conceptual being all this time…”
“Did you meet ‘Nuna’?”
“Huey, I have no business with you.”
So he did meet her. Did they talk? Let’s see, his memories.
Lankart and the other mages from the Intelligence Bureau had investigated the area around the Tree of Genesis. Their methods were limitless. They were all mages, and Lankart was a master sorcerer. They analyzed the Tree of Genesis with magic, recreated the phenomena that occurred there, and took testimony from the people who lived there.
The great shaking of the Tree of Genesis had caused countless people to fall to the ground. Afterward, a great fire had burned the tree. Critically wounded, the Tree of Genesis fell silent and stopped moving.
The people who lived in the shade of the World Tree were plunged into chaos and fear. With hundreds falling to their deaths and their homes burned to the ground, their futures became uncertain. The village in the shade of the World Tree, once the most fertile and blessed place in Manguo, should have been left to groan in agony and spew its rage…
But that didn’t happen.
Although they had suffered a great sacrifice and harbored a deep grudge, they were filled with a new hope.
The King of Humans.
Beautiful, kind, resolute, and powerful.
The true King of Humans, born in Manguo, would lead them.
Once the mages had a grasp of the situation, they approached the survivors for their testimony—
“Do you know my little brother? Would you tell me about him for a moment?”
Lankart had received a visit from ‘Nuna’.
They hadn’t spoken for long, but she must have gleaned a great deal of information. And Lankart, too, knew the moment he saw her that the person before him was the King of Humans.
And he realized. His opponent was a being closer to a phenomenon. Comparing victory and defeat was meaningless.
He’s right, to an extent. He thought it was a fair game, but it wasn’t. But still. Did I deceive you?
“How arrogant. And you only realized because someone else told you.”
“What?”
“I don’t care if you get your hopes up and get disappointed on your own. That’s your prerogative. But what kind of attitude is it to come crying to me that I didn’t tell you first, after you’ve already seen the answer sheet?”
I look at the answer sheet too, but I don’t come whining to you about it. If I misread it, I just grumble to myself and move on.
“You tested me enough. If you still couldn’t figure it out, then that was your limit. And now, you’ve even lost the chance to find the answer for yourself.”
“Huey…! You deceiver!”
Lankart’s domain began to expand. A vortex began to consume the Floating Castle.
The World of the Right-Handed. A Unique Magic that deletes all leftward rotation within a specific space. A Unique Magic is not bound by the type or intensity of a power. In just a few seconds, all movement is aligned to the right. The airflow, the mana, and even the rotation of the Floating Castle itself.
Screech. Lankart’s world and the current world collided, their surfaces grinding away. Everything ‘left’ that was not the ‘right’ defined by Lankart collided with the ‘right’ and was annihilated.
“What? What’s happening?”
“My defensive magic isn’t working!”
“A spatial anomaly? The only one who can do this is—!”
Mages who sensed the anomaly tried to respond with magic, but they failed time and again within the Right-Handed World. The magic circles and mana they wielded were also under the influence of the Right-Handed World, causing their mana flows to become tangled.
“It can only be Lankart!”
“Investigator Lankart! Stop! Please!”
As if this had happened before, mages from the Intelligence Bureau came rushing out, shouting Lankart’s name. But their steps soon began to curve slowly in Lankart’s rightward direction.
“Investigator Lankart! Withdraw your power!”
“A World-Arcane mage shouldn’t deploy their power in the Floating Castle!”
Of course, Lankart paid them no mind. He simply extended a hand toward me as he deployed his power. It was a small movement, but Lankart was the center of the Right-Handed World. His gesture was amplified through the swirling vortex, pressing down on me with immense pressure.
“The reason I respected you was because you were a Left-hander. A being who defied the laws. A being who showed a different perspective. A being who found a way.”
“Is that so? I guess I failed to meet your expectations?”
“If you too are a conceptual being bound by the laws, then even you are nothing more than an object for me to analyze.”
Lankart’s power only grew stronger. Swept up in his expanding Unique Magic, I staggered back.
Unique Magic are divided into different types. A Unique Magic like Maximilien’s Gears, which focuses on the laws related to a specific object, is Object-oriented. Its range is narrow, but within that domain, it exercises the most dominant authority.
The Unique Magic of the Black and Green Tower Masters are similar but slightly different. Theirs are Concept-oriented, embodying a single concept like ‘one-way street’ or ‘vanishing point’ as a Unique Magic. A conceptual body is powerful, but the areas outside it still follow the world’s rules.
In contrast, the Blue Tower Master’s Determinism and Lankart’s World of the Right-Handed are World-oriented, targeting an entire space. They are exceedingly powerful and wide-ranging Unique Magic that impose their own established rules upon their domain.
Among them, the Concept-oriented Unique Magic are considered the most useful. They aren’t restricted by place or object, are incredibly powerful, and are easy to apply.
However, if you were to ask which is the most powerful…
Most would reluctantly choose the World-oriented Unique Magic.
I disagree, though.
“Analyze? You couldn’t, could you.”
Within the Right-Handed World, I managed to take a difficult step forward.
All things in this world spun in a rightward vortex. Cutting straight through the center of the swirling maelstrom was extremely difficult. The rightward rotational force itself formed a wall, blocking my path.
However, I have the power to remove that wall.
“Still half-believing, still trying to test me. Disappointment, this and that. This is just another excuse, isn’t it?”
Unique Magic. The World of the Right-Handed.
It was far smaller and weaker than Lankart’s, but a similar current formed around me. I was unfolding the enlightenment I had read from him.
Within the raging vortex, there were two cores. Lankart’s massive current, and the small current centered on me. Both were the same Unique Magic; only the difference in power was clear.
However, what is a rightward rotation to me…
…can be a leftward rotation to Lankart.
“I’ll give you plenty of hints. Go on, analyze it.”
Between Lankart and me, the rotation that was left for him and right for me canceled each other out. The vortex wall was mutually annihilated, scattering into pure energy.
In contrast, outside of us, the rotation that was right for both of us was reinforced. A current far more intense than what should have been there pushed against my back.
The magnitude of the power doesn’t matter. According to Lankart’s rules, as long as I maintain a rightward rotation centered on myself, I can approach him.
Because that is the rule of the Right-Handed World.
“You…!”
Spinspinspinspin.
Caught between the two axes of rotation, I spun like a ball bearing. But it was fine. As long as the Observer is with me, I don’t get dizzy.
And when the rotation reached its peak…
Ace of Diamonds. Transforming the card folded between my two fingers into a skewer, I lightly poked Lankart. As naturally as if I were playing a prank.