How to Set the Magic Tower Right (3)
Some time later, the day of the Tower Masters' Council arrived, and the masters summoned to attend appeared at the venue without delay. In principle, the council was meant to be held at the Magic Tower's headquarters in the United Kingdom — but circumstances no longer allowed it, so the meeting was hastily relocated to the British Hunter Bureau in London. The attending nations were the same as before: the United States, India, China, Russia, and Japan. And Korea.
"I never dreamed, not even in my wildest imaginings, that a Tower Masters' Council would be convened for a reason like this." Reina, occupying one seat at the long table, spoke in a low voice. Unlike the raucous press conference crowded with reporters, only Tower Masters and those directly affiliated with the Tower were permitted to participate in the council — even listening in was forbidden. A high-grade soundproofing spell blanketed the conference room.
"Quite right. To think the Tower's headquarters would actually collapse... when I first heard the news, it felt as though the very sky was falling."
"Heh. Admit it — weren't you secretly cheering on the inside?"
Zhang Fei, the Chinese Tower Master, looked toward Shetty and let a nasal lilt creep into her voice. "If India takes over the headquarters, your country could stand tall as one of the new Big Three, couldn't it? If it were me, I'd have thrown both hands up in celebration~"
"I-I never harbored any such thought...!"
"Enough childish nonsense, Zhang Fei. Does this whole affair look like child's play to you?" Mikhail, the Russian Tower Master, who had been sitting with his arms crossed this whole time, scowled deeply. "The roots of the Magic Tower itself were attacked. Show some gravity."
"Hm? Weren't the Russians rather desperate about it too? Well, I suppose that makes sense — if India stole the headquarters out from under you, you'd be stuck hearing about how you're a perpetual second-rate power forever. Or what, did your precious 'Monkey' threaten to kill you if you didn't bring the headquarters home~?"
"...I will warn you only once."
Crackle! Mikhail ground his teeth, a faint aura of mana rising off him. The sheer pressure exuded by an S-rank mage seemed to flash-freeze the air itself — but Zhang Fei only smirked.
"That's all you've got?" Everyone gathered in this room was a powerhouse of comparable caliber. Zhang Fei in particular stood at the very summit among the Tower Masters, her raw combat prowess arguably tied with Ji Yeon-ha for first. "Boring."
Swish! She flicked Mikhail's mana aside with a light brush of her hand and spoke. "Everyone, drop the pretenses. Hand on heart — there's not a soul here who isn't eyeing the headquarters seat for themselves."
Silence. No one could open their mouth. They could all talk lofty rhetoric about the greater good, about the future of the Magic Tower — but the truth was that every single one of them was spinning a hollow pretext to plant the headquarters in their own nation.
"...You're right." The first to cast off the mask amid the silence was Reina. The American Magic Tower — one of the 'Big Three,' widely regarded as a tower so well-rounded and unobjectionable that it had no sharp edges in any field. Or, to put it another way: a tower with nothing distinctive about it at all. "I intend to use this opportunity to make the American Magic Tower the new headquarters. And to build the foundation that will carry the hunter industry to even greater prosperity."
Then as now, America was strong — and it would remain strong into the future. A nation destined to lead the world and carry hunters forward on its back. To complete that future, the 'Magic Tower headquarters' was an absolute necessity. A colorless, flavorless, blandly neutral tower like the one it had now could only go so far.
"Hard to put on airs in an atmosphere like this. Yes — I want the headquarters seat just as badly." "The one most fit to succeed Diana as Supreme Tower Master... is me." Shetty, then Mikhail — one after another, they laid bare the desires they'd kept hidden. "U-um... I... I think... it would be... nice... if Japan... had the headquarters...," even Mahuyu, the Japanese Tower Master, offered in her awkward, stumbling way.
With that, it was beyond question: every master present hungered for the headquarters.
'Heh heh! Perfect.' Watching them all, Zhang Fei laughed inwardly. When rivals shared their desires so openly, they'd hurl themselves that much harder at a common enemy. This was more than enough to crush Diana's decision without breaking a sweat. 'And then China swallows the headquarters seat for itself!' The audacity — setting the Magic Tower's headquarters in some pipsqueak nation. From Zhang Fei's standpoint, the mere thought was infuriating beyond measure. Unacceptable. Unforgivable. 'The next Supreme Tower Master will be me. Zhang Fei.' She swallowed a grin.
And then, a short while later—
Clack! The door swung open, and the final attendee of the day walked in. Silver hair, exquisitely sculpted features — an appearance that suited the epithet 'Moonlight Witch' to perfection. 'About time.' Zhang Fei smiled thinly to herself. But the problem arrived one beat later.
"Welcome, everyone." It was only natural that Ji Yeon-ha would file in behind Diana. The problem was the man walking in behind her — a man who had no business appearing in this room. "I see you've all already arrived."
Black hair, sharp features. Despite his roguish look, he wore a tailored suit that fit him with uncanny precision. "Well then, now that everyone's here, let's begin. The Tower Masters' Council."
Lee Tae-hyun called the meeting to order.
"What... exactly is going on here?" Reina's expression was an even split of bewilderment and fury. "Why are you at this meeting...?"
"I permitted it." Diana regarded them all with eyes as cold as ever. "As of now, he is no outsider to the Tower. He is a Vice Tower Master of the Tower's headquarters."
"Vice Tower Master?" She went on to explain the structural framework of the new headquarters she had announced earlier: one Supreme Tower Master, two Vice Tower Masters. Having been appointed one of those two Vice Tower Masters, Lee Tae-hyun had every right to attend this council. 'Because this meeting isn't one to decide the new headquarters at all.' It existed solely to whitewash the legitimacy of Diana's decision to designate the Korean Magic Tower as the new home of the Tower's headquarters. And so, for now, Tae-hyun's position could legitimately be called 'Vice Tower Master of the headquarters.' At least, until this meeting concluded.
"Well, there you have it." Tae-hyun shrugged. "If we all understand each other, let's get to the matter at hand, shall we?" Reina and the other masters were still grimacing, but he had no obligation to indulge them. Humoring their sulking would only hand them a foothold for griping.
"As I understand it, this council was called because you all cannot bring yourselves to accept Diana's decision. You're dissatisfied with Korea's appointment as the new headquarters of the Magic Tower?"
"...That's part of it, but there's the question of sufficient justification and legitimacy—"
"Which amounts to the same thing. Let's not drag this out needlessly." Snap! A vein bulged on Reina's forehead. The audacity — cutting off her words mid-sentence. "I understand your perspective perfectly. A Magic Tower with which you've had virtually no contact suddenly vaulting to headquarters? Of course it looks suspicious."
"I appreciate your understanding." "Hmm." "Hmph. Naturally."
One by one, the masters signaled their agreement. And in that very moment—
"That said." The corner of Tae-hyun's mouth twisted into something between amusement and contempt. "Doesn't that apply to every other tower here just as much?"
"...Pardon?"
"You've all maintained relations with the Supreme Tower on roughly the same level as the Korean Tower — no, wait. On a level inferior to the Korean Tower." His eyes narrowed to slits. "So I'm at a loss to understand the logic by which Korea is somehow unfit for the headquarters, while your own nations are eminently qualified."
When the Tower's headquarters came under attack, how many of them had genuinely worried about it? By Tae-hyun's reckoning, almost none. 'I remember it all too well.' When the Iron Blood Legion began its advance and the war against humanity erupted, Diana died defending the Tower. And then, scrabbling for the vacant seat of power, the masters had escalated their bickering into open feuding — in the middle of a war. 'As if they'd been lying in wait for precisely this moment.' They spared Diana's death not a flicker of grief, brandishing magic at one another for the sake of the headquarters seat alone — all to decide who would become the new 'pillar of unity' once the war ended. 'And in the end, the war concluded in humanity's defeat.' The headquarters they had fought so bitterly to hold dissolved into nothing. The last Supreme Tower Master was said to have left behind these final words:
"Ha... hahaha! But I still won... I told you I won..."
Right up until the bitter end, they had remained drunk on a meaningless game of power. 'I have no intention of letting this life repeat that farce.' No — this time, Korea would. He would take the headquarters and wrap the leash around their necks himself. So that it would never again vanish as hollowly as it had before his regression.
"Then by all means — enlighten me. Give me your reasons why Korea is unfit to host the headquarters."
"...Very well." Reina gathered her breath and began. "First, Korea is a small nation. The number of Gates it possesses is comparatively limited — a disadvantageous environment for investigating monsters and the myriad magical phenomena of different environments."
"To my knowledge, Gate research accounts for less than ten percent of magical study. Furthermore, the lower-rank Gates have already been investigated to exhaustion; unless a Gate is S-rank or above, there's nothing meaningful left to learn from them. Which means the absolute number of Gates cannot determine whether a nation is fit to serve as headquarters."
"Urkh?!" Reina faltered. She had assumed he would simply lean on Diana's authority and bulldoze his opinion through. 'He's arguing with actual logic?!' She swallowed a dry breath and scrambled to reorganize her thoughts. "Hah... Korea has failed to produce any notable magic-type hunters. Which suggests the nation simply lacks the capacity to harbor the Tower, the wellspring of all magic..."
"That's sophistry. It's true that Korea hasn't produced many famous magic-type hunters — but conversely, Korea has submitted the greatest volume of research results to the Tower of any nation. The Tower exists to cultivate mages, not hunters. If anything, that's another reason Korea should be the headquarters."
In sheer volume, China's output was overwhelming, true — but filtered down to results that were actually meaningful, Korea came out ahead. And ever since Ji Yeon-ha had joined the Tower, no nation outside the United Kingdom had come close to Korea in magical research. Because none of it involved smashing monsters or flashy combat spells, it rarely made headlines — but in a situation like this, it was a fact tailor-made for deployment. "In my view, Korea is the place where the Tower can exist as something other than an instrument of political games — the place where it can be most truly a Tower."
"P-political games, you say...?!"
After that, Tae-hyun dismantled every one of Reina's rebuttals point by point. Watching him work, cold sweat soaked the backs of the other masters' clothes. 'Wh-what IS this man...?''Did he spend the last few years preparing for this exact meeting?! How is he this thorough?!''Damn it all. He leaves no room for a counterargument.''So... so impressive...'
Reina, who had found herself thrust into the vanguard against Tae-hyun through no fault of her own, was nearing tears as the exchange wore on. 'I'm completely outclassed!' She had been dragged into his tempo from the very first word. 'Not "why Korea should host the headquarters," but "why Korea shouldn't."' The framing itself had cost her the argument before it began. The requirements for the 'Tower headquarters' had never been clearly codified — beyond the presence of 'the Ark,' nothing was set in stone. This was the first time in history the headquarters had ever changed hands. Which meant that unless the Korean Tower had a glaring defect— 'There's no way to overturn Diana's decision!'
It wasn't a race to see who could seize the headquarters first. It was already clenched tight in that man's fist. She was the one who had to pry it away. But Lee Tae-hyun was not a man who let his possessions be stolen so easily. Grrrk! Every fiber of his grip was already straining to its limit — he would never let go. "Do you have anything further to add?"
"Ugh...!" Reina wrung her brain to its very last drop. Even a flimsy excuse would do — she just needed to find something, some crack she could exploit. '...Nothing.' There was nothing to find. Korea had no dazzling strengths, but no glaring weaknesses either. There was no pretext she could seize upon to forcibly strip Diana of her decision.
"Then let it be recorded that this council has concluded—"
Tae-hyun let out a small sigh and moved to close the meeting. 'Is it really ending like this...? This chance will never come again—!' The instant Reina screwed her eyes shut—
"Um, I've got something to say."
A hand shot into the air. Zhang Fei, the Chinese Tower Master, tossed her black-and-crimson ponytail and flashed a grin. "Tower Masters are supposed to be role models for everyone, no? It's a position that teaches and represents the Tower's mages."
"That is correct."
"Hmm... Now, Ji Yeon-ha and Lady Diana, fine, whatever. But you? Not so much, huh?"
"...What exactly do you mean by that?"
"I distinctly heard it — you're one of the new headquarters' Vice Tower Masters. A position practically equivalent to a Tower Master, isn't it? And yet that someone turns out to be a warrior-type hunter instead of a magic-type? That's just weird!" Heh heh heh. A sneer curled across her lips. "Lee Tae-hyun, was it? In my opinion, you don't have the qualifications to be a Vice Tower Master at all. Which means this council is... void! You should be removed, a different Vice Tower Master appointed, and the council reconvened from scratch."
"Ah...!" A lightbulb went off in Reina's head. If no path to victory existed, tear the whole meeting down instead — and use Tae-hyun's qualifications as the wedge. 'It's true — Hunter Lee Tae-hyun is a warrior-type, not a mage!' A spearman, no less. A discipline about as far from magic as it was possible to get. Someone like that serving as Vice Tower Master of the Magic Tower? Absurd on its face. "Or better yet, we could table the whole thing and reopen the council just to deliberate your credentials. How does that sound?"
Manufacture an interval in the proceedings, buy time to prepare, and take Tae-hyun apart for certain. 'Even if that guy is clever, can he really handle all of us at once?' Zhang Fei had already forged a silent alliance with the other Tower Masters. To realize their desires, Korea had to be pushed aside first. 'I thought all we needed was to break Diana.' She'd been wrong. The true power behind everything was that scheming man — Lee Tae-hyun. 'If we can just excise him from this affair...' Then, and only then, would the spirit of the continent rise to swallow the world. Riding the surging tide of victory, Zhang Fei couldn't stop a smile from blooming across her face.
"...I see. My qualifications as Vice Tower Master, then." Tae-hyun bowed his head in silence for a long moment. Seeing that, Zhang Fei sealed the victory in her mind. And then — at an angle none of them could see, right beside him—
"Khhh-heheheHEHE!"
'Hiiiik......' That spine-chilling laugh drained the strength right out of her. Diana, meanwhile — or rather, Wiz — barely managed to stifle the stream of adoration leaking out of her. 'Tae-hyun, my master...! How can anyone be so brilliant, so meticulous, so utterly perfect?!'
The Tower Masters' reactions were playing out chillingly exactly as Tae-hyun had predicted in advance — as if he'd strolled through the future and taken notes on every last one of them. And Tae-hyun, hiding his face as best he could, loaded his prepared line into the chamber. 'Of course you'd say it right there. I knew you would.' It was so predictable it wasn't even surprising anymore. Only after wresting his twitching grin back under control did he speak.
"I don't believe my qualifications as Vice Tower Master are yours to judge on a whim."
"Huh? What's that supposed to..."
"Honestly? I consider myself more versed in magic than any of you. Qualified to hold the seat of Tower Master outright."
The instant those words left his mouth, rage detonated inside Zhang Fei. "...Ha?" Who was claiming to surpass whom, exactly? He was saying that she — the Tower Master of the continent itself — wielded magic worse than a mere warrior-type?
"You... Can you take responsibility for what you just said?" To spout such a thing here, in the sacred 'Tower Masters' Council' where the most eminent mages alive were gathered — that was no slip of the tongue. It was a blatant provocation. A formal challenge to a duel.
"Yes. I can. But more importantly, I have a question of my own." Tae-hyun looked down at Zhang Fei. "Can you take responsibility, Tower Master, for questioning my qualifications?"
"Y-you insolent bastard!"
FWOOOOSH! Mana roiled violently outward. Dark crimson power radiated menacingly from where Zhang Fei stood, throwing the entire chamber into disarray. "Then prove it! Right now! Against every last one of us!"
"...Gladly." Tae-hyun smiled with his eyes, as though he'd been waiting for exactly this. "Everyone — to the training grounds, if you please."
The colossal trap Lee Tae-hyun had laid out. The moment the fish had swum into it and taken the bait. 'What a catch.' The hour had come to legally flatten every last one of those upturned noses.