Riella, Master of the Purple Magic Tower (1)
The Purple Magic Tower's primary duty was hunting the Demon King's army.
Alongside that, it also handled live experiments and torture.
Day after day they carried out acts of the most inhuman kind, yet no one condemned them for it. In a world where anything done against the Demon King's forces—threats to peace itself—was forgiven, there was nothing to protest.
As a result, the Purple Magic Tower had come to be ranked among the ideal magical research institutions every mage dreamed of joining. Soldiers of the Demon King's army were mostly demons or intelligent monsters, creatures that possessed any number of traits ordinary races simply did not have—perfect material for magical experimentation. Demons in particular were so tenacious of life that hunts were conducted almost daily.
The relationship between humans and demons had been completely reversed.
Of course, the Demon King's army did not simply sit still and take it. Raids came with grim regularity. Time and again they had tried to bring down the Purple Magic Tower, which stood not far from the northern front. But the tower specialized in installation-type magic. Countless defensive spells blanketed the mountain, and every assault ended in a miserable rout.
The terrain itself played no small part in the defense.
Are you really going to climb it? Perhaps you ought to think this over one more time. Even for you, Lady Clitia…
"Quit fretting."
I soothed the anxious Sun-bask and drew in the mana around me.
"You get ready to use your skills too."
Yes… You're still as stubborn as ever. I thought you might have grown a little, seeing how much time has passed since then. Ah—of course, that's exactly why I like you, Lady Clitia. As you well know…
I let the chatter wash over me and wrapped Aura around both legs. From here on out, I had to climb Mount Ellepub, a peak infamous for how brutal it was.
"How many days do you figure?"
A full half-day just to reach the summit.
The Purple Magic Tower sat at the very top of the mountain—a location that would make even a professional mountaineer shake their head. True to the eccentric nature of mages, towers tended to be built in thoroughly unreasonable places.
Ah—and if you factor in all the security magic installed across the entire mountain, it might take even longer than that, don't you think?
"Probably."
I could understand why the Demon King's army kept throwing troops at the place only to fall back every time. A fortress guarded by both magic and nature. Unless the Demon King himself bothered to haul his heavy backside out here, unauthorized entry was all but impossible.
Lady Clitia, why are you smiling?
Which was exactly why it was worth it.
"Just thinking something fun might happen."
My competitive spirit was rising. The harder and more dangerous something was, the more I grinned instead of giving up—that was who I was now.
"Shall we?"
I suppose there's no helping it. I'll assist you!
"Thanks."
I sprang lightly past the entrance to Mount Ellepub.
Dense trees and clean air. Birds singing, the scent of grass on the wind. Fresh nature folded me into its arms. For the moment it still felt as leisurely as climbing a hill behind the village.
I was about to keep walking as if I were out for a stroll when instinct twisted my head to the side.
A violet arrow skimmed past my cheek.
That was all it was—and yet an extraordinary force rolled off it in waves.
It's magic that attacks body and mind at the same time!
"I don't need the explanation."
Magic of this caliber right from the start. I expanded the Aura coating my legs across my entire body and focused my senses in every direction. A single arrow wasn't going to drop me, but what came after was the real problem. They would have built everything around interaction and chaining between spells. The moment the first attack landed, magic would follow magic in an unbroken chain. One wrong move and I'd be finished before I'd even begun.
"Interesting."
If anything, I liked it. Heat surged through me until my body was practically trembling with it.
Why do you keep laughing? Are you hurt somewhere? Don't tell me it's aftereffects from the excommunication! Let me examine you! First—
"Shut it before I get mad."
Yes, ma'am.
Silence at last. My senses, no longer interrupted by the chatter, stretched outward.
There were points where mana had gathered all over the place—security magic circles installed throughout the wilderness. The ones I could feel numbered roughly a thousand. In reality there would be dozens of times that many. Far too many to destroy one by one.
Even here at the foot of the mountain, it was absurdly vicious. So this was the terror of the Purple Magic Tower. I'd known about it, but experiencing it firsthand went well beyond anything I'd imagined.
Even as I took stock, another arrow came streaking for my head.
"Not a chance."
As long as I was on guard, dealing with it was simple. I snagged it lightly and crushed it.
I blocked one too!
A dull thunk rang out near the back of my skull—Sun-bask's temporary defense skill kicking in.
"Nice work. I'll leave the rear to you."
Anytime!
All I had to do was climb this brutal mountain while blocking maybe a few tens of thousands of spells. A simpler solution than I'd expected, really. Even so, rushing would only ruin everything. Slowly, calmly, I began the ascent.
And exactly six hours later, I learned a valuable lesson: even if defeat was something I craved, grinding myself into the dirt was not fun.
The uppermost floor of the Purple Magic Tower.
A woman sat at a desk in a room strewn with books and papers of every kind. Purple hair that brushed her shoulders. A large eyepatch covering her left eye. A face so tightly furrowed it looked as though anger had taken up permanent residence there.
Riella—the current Master of the Purple Magic Tower, appointed at a young age.
"……."
Without ever smoothing that scowl, Riella scrawled furiously with her pen. There were far too many documents to process. The vast majority of them boiled down to the same whining refrain—please increase my research funding—and it made her blood boil.
They weren't mages; they were gold-devouring monsters. If their results had been good enough to justify it, that would be one thing—but every last one of them just kept researching and never produced anything. Were they spending their entire grants on meals and snacks? She had allocated the funds generously, so why were they always short? It was a mystery.
She wanted to crack down and restore some discipline, but every one of them was considerably older than she was. Once again, Riella felt the full-body toll of stress.
"Done."
At last she had cleared the mountain of paperwork. All that remained was to stretch out her legs and rest.
"Tower Master, we have a problem."
But crisis was a spiteful creature that always arrived the moment you let your guard down.
"What kind of problem?"
The middle-aged man—the Deputy Tower Master—was pale and sweating profusely. Something about him looked seriously off, so Riella immediately abandoned any thought of rest.
"An intruder is climbing Mount Ellepub alone."
"Then just leave them to die."
"No, it's just…"
The Deputy Tower Master kept hesitating, as if gripped by some kind of fear. Meaning this was no ordinary intruder.
"Who is it? Spit it out so I can deal with them."
"It's the Banished Saintess."
Only then did Riella realize he hadn't been hesitating out of fear.
"I see…"
The Banished Saintess, Clitia Eluke. A friend her own age whom she had grown close to almost the moment they met. And the comrade her late younger sister—who had served as the previous Sage—had followed more devotedly than anyone.
You idiot.
A saintess who had gone mad from the shock of losing her companions and developed a taste for slaughter. It wasn't that Riella didn't understand how she felt. She had wanted to pull those exhausted shoulders close and tell her—that she, too, had spent night after night sleepless with tears and longing. She had wanted to share the pain and exchange comfort. Maybe then the little sister who still appeared in her dreams, still suffering, might find a little peace.
"What will you do? She's already reached the midpoint."
"Then she should be worn out by now. Just in case, I'll go handle it myself."
But there could never be any compromise with evil.
"Don't worry. Just trust me."
Riella touched the eyepatch over her face and steeled her resolve. With her own hands, she would put an end to her friend's wandering.
Are you all right?
"Only the body is still in one piece."
I leaned against the trunk of a massive tree and caught my breath. This place was insane. It had been a long time since I'd suffered this hard.
Regretting it now, aren't you?
"A little. I didn't think it'd be this—"
Mid-sentence, arrows came screaming in. I ducked—but too late. One grazed my shoulder. Something that never would have happened if I'd been at full strength. Right now, stacked debuffs made dodging a real chore.
The price of failing to evade was a deluge of magic pouring down on me—an assault like an artillery barrage. I blocked with Aura and asked Sun-bask to check my condition.
Reduced reaction speed, partial vision obstruction, weakened strength, and so on—seventeen curse magics in total.
"Great. More of them."
My body was specialized for physical impact alone, which left me vulnerable to certain kinds of magic you couldn't see. Curse magic in particular seeped in without form, making it hard to react to. If Sun-bask hadn't blocked so much of it, it would have been far worse. How was this even called magic? This was black magic, plain and simple.
On top of that, the endless climb left no room for proper rest, so fatigue kept piling up until I was exhausted to the bone. If I'd been able to use holy power, the situation would have been completely different—but that was a pointless what-if.
Why not just give up and head back down while you still can? Before it's too late.
For a second I was tempted, but I shook my head.
"Turn back now? No way."
If I tucked tail and ran at this point, I'd become a laughingstock. The Purple Magic Tower, watching my every move, would broadcast their achievement far and wide. That couldn't happen. If I wanted to properly educate the Hero's companions, I had to maintain the heavy image of the Banished Saintess.
You're going to wreck your body for real at this rate.
"Me? You know how good my recovery is."
That's because of the holy power left in your body. What are you going to do when it runs out completely?
She had a point, so I countered with pure, logic-free stubbornness.
"I'll tough it out with Aura and grit."
Aura, maybe—but you're a little short on grit.
"You want to keep that up?"
Caught up talking with Sun-bask, I let my attention slip from the surroundings for a moment.
"Clitia."
At the sudden sound of my name I looked up—and there was a familiar face, a mage floating in midair.
Riella. One of my few friends, and the older sister of Erin, who had been our Sage. The reunion I'd been waiting for.
I was about to wave in delight when Riella flicked her fingers. In an instant the sky filled with magic circles.
"I'm sorry. You have to die."
A sudden magical airstrike poured down and bombarded the entire area.
"You've got to be kidding me…"
For the first time in a long while, it was the start of a fight I genuinely did not want.