The City Where All Roads Meet
One autumn evening.
"Finally..."
Elbridge and his companions arrived at Middlemarch, the largest city in the central region of the continent.
*
Unlike the Holy City of Soleneon, which barely managed the people coming and going, entering through the gates of Middlemarch took a considerable amount of time. This was because an inspection station was attached to the inside of the gates.
Several clerks handled administrative duties at the inspection station, and the way they treated the group differed slightly from what Elbridge's party had anticipated.
When Marcus first identified himself as a mercenary, the clerk glanced at his ornate sword and replied.
"You probably won't, but causing any disturbance inside the city could lead to problems. Please keep that in mind."
It was not spoken with any hint of displeasure, merely a formal reminder.
Yet when Elbridge next stated that he was a holy knight, the clerk offered a subtle smile.
"A holy knight... You said you came from Soleneon?"
"That's correct."
"Hmm. Unlike in Soleneon, holy knights are not a privileged class in Middlemarch. If you cause a disturbance, you may face punishment or expulsion, so please be cautious."
A more direct warning than the one given to Marcus.
Elbridge said nothing and simply stared at the clerk. The man slightly avoided his gaze before continuing.
"Ah... It's just that holy knights from other regions occasionally cause trouble. I only mention it in advance, just in case. Please don't take offense."
Since he had no intention of stirring up trouble the moment they entered the city, Elbridge simply nodded lightly and let the matter pass.
What truly caught Elbridge and Marcus off guard, however, was the clerk's reaction upon facing Rombel.
"Dwarf sir. Have you visited Middlemarch before?"
"Once, twenty or thirty years ago. There was a dispatch request to the Eastern Magic Tower."
"By any chance... may I ask your name?"
"It's Rombel."
"One moment, please. I'll check the records."
The clerk shot up from his seat, rapidly scanned through the documents, and compared the records with Rombel's face. His attitude grew noticeably more courteous.
"Sir Rombel. What brings you to Middlemarch?"
"I have business at the Magic Tower."
Rombel carried a massive double-edged axe on his back, as large as his own body. Yet the clerk offered him not even the smallest warning and instead practically bowed and scraped.
"Understood. We'll escort you straight to the tower, so please wait just outside. May you have a peaceful journey."
The clerk then scribbled something on a sheet of paper with a quill, produced a staff, chanted a spell, and waved it. The paper folded itself into the shape of a bird, flapped its wings, and flew out the window. Who would have thought an inspection clerk was a mage?
"..."
Elbridge and Marcus wore dubious expressions, but Rombel declared with pride.
"They'll come for us soon. Let's step outside and wait."
*
The moment they left the inspection station, Rombel spoke.
"If Soleneon's nickname is the Holy City, then Middlemarch's is 'the City Where All Roads Meet.' Welcome to the city where all roads meet, you country bumpkins."
Of course, Elbridge and Marcus's replies were less than gracious.
"It's only called that because the sole thing it can boast about is sitting in the middle of the continent."
"Mr. Rombel, you didn't even know the way here. Stop pretending you're a central region local. You already told us you've only been here once before."
"Haha! Did I say that?"
The three of them looked around, taking in their surroundings.
The City Where All Roads Meet lived up to its name from the very arrangement of its buildings.
The layout of Middlemarch resembled the mountain city of Varkuntol far more than it did the Holy City of Soleneon. Instead of small structures scattered haphazardly to form a maze, the buildings stood in neat rows at precise intervals.
And among those countless buildings, one structure asserted an overwhelmingly dominant presence: the pride of Middlemarch, the Central Magic Tower.
Marcus let out a low whistle.
"...It's insanely huge. Hard to even compare it to the Eastern Magic Tower."
In the center of eastern Soleneon rose a hill covered in temples.
But at the very heart of Middlemarch stood the Central Magic Tower. It was as if the city declared that its true masters were neither gods nor humans, but mages.
While Marcus was purely impressed, Elbridge frowned slightly.
Is my memory wrong?
"Why?"
"Two hundred years ago, the Central Magic Tower wasn't in the center of Middlemarch but on the outskirts."
Rombel answered matter-of-factly.
"They rebuilt it."
"Rebuilt what?"
"The Magic Tower."
The Central Magic Tower was a colossal structure with at least several dozen floors, possibly exceeding a hundred. Elbridge knew little about architecture, but he understood that erecting such a building could not be easy. The materials and manpower required would be beyond imagination, and every kind of magic would need to be employed to keep it from collapsing. The time and cost involved would be astronomical.
"They rebuilt a building that large?"
"It was already built once. No reason they couldn't do it again, right?"
"Then what happened to the temples that used to stand in the city center?"
"They moved them. Look, they're right over there."
Rombel pointed with one short, thick finger toward a building on their right.
It was a wide three-story structure. On its front facade, three symbols representing gods were displayed like signboards. Beside the entrance hung three placards.
[3rd Floor — Order of the Wisdom Archive]
[2nd Floor — Order of Soot and Wine]
[1st Floor — Order of the Left Hand's Lantern]
"..."
The placards announced that three temples were stacked one atop another inside the building. To Elbridge and Marcus, this was an unimaginable and horrifying form of blasphemy, yet the people of Middlemarch showed no sign of caring.
Elbridge struggled to calm his agitation.
"...Is this considered normal in this city? If I were a priest staying on the first floor, I don't think I could bear knowing there were two more temples directly above my head."
Rombel gave a loud snort and mocked him.
"How old-fashioned. This is the latest fashion."
"What is the world coming to...? It's the end times. The end times."
Yet even as he spoke, an immense curiosity too large to contain bloomed inside Elbridge's chest.
In the past, Middlemarch had not been so very different from other cities in the region. What could have happened over the last two hundred years to transform the city so strangely?
While Elbridge was lost in thought, the clatter of wheels reached his ears. A horse was pulling a carriage past them.
Marcus broke into a mischievous grin.
"Hmm. Mr. Rombel, on the way here you told us that in the central region carriages run without horses and balloons carrying people fly through the sky, didn't you?"
"I did."
"Then what is that creature with the flowing mane pulling the carriage ahead of us?"
Rombel glanced at it and frowned.
"I said there are carriages without horses. I never said every carriage lacks one, Marcus."
"Oh... right."
Yet the next carriages that appeared, along with the cargo wagons, were all pulled by horses. Marcus sneered.
"Well, well... At least this time it's a mule. Since a mule is half horse, I suppose half of what Mr. Rombel said was correct."
Elbridge quietly nodded along with Marcus's teasing, joining in the fun at Rombel's expense.
Normally Rombel would have raised a fist in warning, but today he maintained his composure remarkably well.
Some time passed. Once again came the sound of rolling wheels.
"All right, this time for sure... Huh?"
Marcus's words cut off.
The carriage that appeared now was the most expensive and ornate they had seen while waiting. And, just as Rombel had claimed, no horse pulled it.
Marcus and Elbridge stared at it in blank amazement.
What surprised them even more was that the carriage quietly came to a stop right in front of them.
The door opened and a young mage asked,
"Are you Sir Rombel?"
"I am."
Rombel nodded arrogantly. The mage bowed politely.
"You mentioned you had business at the Central Magic Tower. Please board. We will ensure your comfort."
The rear door opened by itself, revealing a luxurious interior. Neither Marcus nor even Elbridge had ever seen such an opulent carriage.
"..."
Enjoying their reaction, Rombel asked the driver in a slightly haughty tone.
"Would it be all right to bring my two subordinates along?"
*
The carriage headed toward the Central Magic Tower.
Both Elbridge and Rombel's business lay there—more precisely, with the Tower Master of the Central Magic Tower.
Rombel sought information on ascension so he could become a god himself. Elbridge hoped to learn news of Sir Leonhardt, the former senior holy knight of the Rusty Shield Order, through the Tower Master.
Elbridge and Marcus pretended to be unmoved, gazing out the window with indifferent expressions. Whenever their eyes met those of Middlemarch's residents, the people would stare at the horseless carriage with faint longing and envy. That alone told them the vehicle was reserved for the privileged class.
Despite having teased Rombel earlier, Marcus now asked with open excitement.
"By the way, how exactly does this carriage move?"
Rombel answered smugly.
"It runs on mana. There's a box beneath the carriage that stores it. When mana flows from the box, the machinery moves according to the engineers' designs."
"What are engineers?"
To Marcus's question, Rombel replied coolly.
"People whose job is to take complex blueprints to skilled artisans and demand they make this or that."
"Ah, so they're like outstanding blacksmiths."
"No. They're fellows who've never hammered iron in their lives. Yet after the artisans painstakingly create the parts, these people assemble them and earn far more money than the artisans themselves."
"Middlemarch really does have all kinds of people. The world truly is vast..."
This time Elbridge asked,
"That's all well and good, but why is the Central Magic Tower sending a horseless carriage just to escort you?"
"To turn the engineers' imaginations into reality, they need skilled artisans. And there aren't many as outstanding as I am."
While the three chatted, the carriage came to a stop. They had reached the Central Magic Tower.
It had looked enormous from a distance, but up close it was far larger and taller than expected. If someone had shown it to Elbridge before Rombel's explanation and called it a pillar holding up the sky, he might have believed them.
"This way."
The mage who had driven the carriage guided them inside the tower.
They expected to be taken straight to the Tower Master, but instead they were led to a luxurious room rather than an office. With its bed, sofa, and table, it was clearly meant for receiving guests.
The moment Marcus saw the bed, he realized it alone was worth more than the combined price of every bed he had ever slept on.
Rombel looked at the mage with an arrogant expression.
"Hey. Mage."
"Yes?"
"I came to see the Tower Master."
"The Tower Master is currently away on important business. Please stay in this room for the time being."
"How long until he returns?"
"That I cannot say precisely."
When Rombel frowned, the mage bowed obsequiously.
"I will inform you the moment the Tower Master returns. We will serve you with the utmost care while you wait, so please call upon us for anything you need."
"Understood."
The mage bowed respectfully, closed the door, and departed.
In that instant, Elbridge, Rombel, and Marcus all did the same thing. They unpacked their belongings and, without a word about who would go first, threw themselves onto the bed.
Bounce—
And at the same time, they exclaimed.
"Unbelievably soft."
"It's fundamentally different from beds stuffed with straw or feathers. This firm yet gentle sensation is..."
Elbridge savored the texture for a moment before sitting up on the edge of the bed.
"Rombel. I don't recall you ever mentioning that you were acquainted with the Central Magic Tower Master."
"There was no need to mention it."
"...Are you close?"
"Not particularly. We've only crossed paths because of work."
"Then let me ask one thing. What sort of person is the Central Magic Tower Master?"
Rombel thought for a moment before answering.
"A man who, long ago, was recognized for his achievements as a mage and ascended to heaven."
"And?"
"A man who became a god, then returned to being a mortal."
That was the question that had troubled Elbridge most.
Everyone knew ascension existed, yet many did not know it was possible to return to mortality afterward. For a god to descend back to the mortal world was an exceedingly rare event.
Logically, after all the hardship of becoming a god, what reason could there be to return to the ground?
"Why did the Central Magic Tower Master come back to the earthly realm?"
"I only heard rumors about that."
"What rumors?"
With a serious expression, Rombel said,
"After the Central Magic Tower Master ascended, for seven hundred years not a single believer worshipped him."
"...Then what happens?"
"Nothing at all."
Marcus cut in.
"What does that even mean?"
Rombel answered quietly.
"Without believers, you cannot look down upon the earth. The Tower Master spent seven hundred years with absolutely nothing to do."
Elbridge could well imagine the man's suffering.
Loneliness and boredom. Could any greater torment exist?
In a trembling voice he asked,
"Then why did he descend to the earth?"
"I heard his dream is to create a great many believers who will worship him, then ascend once more."