Chapter 57: The Case of Mirabelle (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 57: The Case of Mirabelle (1)
At the very edge of the continent.
In that place, facing the end of the world, stood a lone, ancient tower that seemed to pierce the sky.
A tower so large it was both wondrous and bizarre. No matter how high one looked, its top could not be seen. Its peak, disappearing into the hazy clouds, seemed to reach the realm of the gods.
The World's Lighthouse.
The Peak of Knowledge.
The Tower of Truth.
Adorned with countless other titles, people called this place the ‘Magic Tower’.
The tower of mages, the Magic Tower.
This was no mere place of learning. It was a sanctuary for those who gathered to uncover the world's secrets and transcend the boundaries of reality.
For those who honed the craft of magic, it was a hallowed temple where dreams and ideals could be realized.
That was the publicly known image of the Magic Tower. The reality was a little different. Those who knew even a little about it would say in unison:
A cruel laboratory for madmen seeking to break down the boundary between gods and humans, and a storehouse of infinite desire.
The line where madness and genius intersect, a tomb for mages who covet truth.
In the face of the great cause of pursuing truth, the morality defined by humankind was no breakwater for them.
The mages of the Magic Tower were the kind who would not hesitate to perform human experiments to realize their ideals.
The Magic Tower was a place built upon the endless greed of those who sought power beyond the world's principles.
Edmund was one of them.
Edmund Alexius Wilmore.
An elder of the Magic Tower.
From a now-exterminated marquisate.
He was the traitor who had been caught researching forbidden magic, getting his entire family wiped out in the process.
But Edmund felt no guilt. To him, even his family was nothing more than kindling for his great cause. Though, of course, he had managed to escape and survive.
With a bounty on his head and nowhere else to go, Edmund found his way to the Magic Tower.
After all, the Magic Tower accepted anyone, be they a serial killer who had slaughtered dozens or a great traitor who had sold out their country, as long as they were a brilliant mage.
Edmund had become a court mage as soon as he came of age. Upon entering the Magic Tower, he was immediately given a private laboratory and generous support, allowing him to make progressive advancements.
Thanks to this, he rose to the rank of Archmage and even exacted revenge on those who had insulted him as a heretic.
It had taken him forty years to get that far.
Edmund had planned to spend the rest of his life leisurely honing his magic as a mage, not a demon of vengeance, but a new concern had recently arisen.
Edmund was researching Transformation magic. Specifically, the most forbidden of forbidden magic: turning humans into dolls.
The dollification of a living human.
Not just the body, but the mind and personality could be modified to one's liking. The stronger the base subject, the better the performance of the resulting doll.
In other words, he wanted to take a child who had not yet matured, one with potential, and turn them into a doll modified to his exact tastes.
‘And she has to be pretty.’
An ugly one wouldn't do.
It was a rule that dolls must be beautiful.
‘But where can I easily capture such a child?’
All the promising rising stars were children of noble families. Finding one by wandering the slums would be harder than plucking a star from the sky.
Ah, if only some Archmage-in-the-making would just wander around, radiating potential.
Musing on this ridiculous hope, Edmund walked the streets, chuckling like a madman.
“Hm?”
As he walked, a maid girl sitting alone on a bench at dawn came into his view.
Indigo hair and a round, cute face.
A maid outfit that suited her petite frame.
The short skirt only reached her thighs, fully revealing the girl's soft, bare legs.
‘A slave.’
The maid wasn't a hired servant, but a slave. She had a black shackle around her neck.
But what captivated Edmund's gaze was the staff she was clutching so preciously.
‘Th-that is?!’
A silvery shaft of brilliant light.
A blue crystal glowing atop it.
Edmund recognized it at once.
It looked identical to the Heavenly Covenant used by the Great Sage Arselia, as described in the Compendium of Legendary Weapons Favored by Heroes of Old.
But as is the nature of legends, no one believed it to be literally true. It was, quite literally, the stuff of legends.
Then was that a replica?
Even so, he could feel an extraordinary aura from it.
Mages were a breed who had to see their curiosity through to the end, so Edmund approached the maid girl.
The girl's eyes held a brilliant color. And for a brief moment, Edmund clearly saw a flash of indigo mana in them.
This girl was a child born with a mystic blessing.
“My child.”
“…?”
“A suspicious old man suddenly speaking to you must have startled you. I apologize. As one gets older, it becomes impossible to suppress one's curiosity.”
Edmund spoke to the girl, feigning the kindest voice he could manage.
“Where did you get that staff? It looks very similar to one I know.”
“It was a gift from someone precious to me.”
“I see. This old man is quite interested, you see. Would you mind if I took a look at it?”
“No. Why should I?”
“Huh?”
At the bold refusal from a girl who looked like she hadn't even left her mother's side, Edmund blinked in a daze.
The girl's expression was sullen. Looking closer, he saw the dark circles under her eyes, as if she suffered from insomnia. It made her cute face look venomous.
“If you have no other business with me, I'll be going.”
“W-wait a moment, child!”
Edmund called out urgently. It was because he thought this girl might be the very child he had been searching for.
“You're… a slave, aren't you?”
“Do I look like a slave to you?”
“Huh? Ah, no, that's not what I meant…”
“That's a relief…”
“Hm?”
The girl's fierce expression instantly softened. She smiled shyly, just like a girl her age.
Are slaves popular among kids her age these days?
He wasn't sure, but whatever worked, worked. He decided to press on with the good mood.
“Why are you out here at this hour?”
“I'm looking for my Master. He's very far away.”
“Hmm, your master is far away, yet you're searching for him instead of running away. He must be a good person.”
“That's right. My Master is a good person.”
He got the gist of it.
This child was proud of being a slave. It seemed her master doted on her quite a bit.
The 'precious person' who gave her the Heavenly Covenant must be her master. To give the Heavenly Covenant to a slave…
“Child, is your master a noble, by any chance?”
“He's even greater than a noble.”
The tangled threads in Edmund's mind straightened out.
Greater than a noble. That meant royalty, at the very least. In other words, this child was a case of having caught the eye of some country's royalty and becoming their slave.
She was a wandering mage, sent to travel the world to improve her skills and spread her master's influence. And now she was on her way back after completing her mission.
‘I can't let her go like this.’
This child could become the greatest masterpiece of all time.
If I lose her now, I'll regret it for the rest of my life.
“It's late. Instead of staying out here, why don't you come to this old man's home? My laboratory is in that tall tower.”
“Isn't that the Magic Tower?”
“This old man happens to be a great mage. Why, are you interested in magic? If you want, I could teach you a thing or two.”
“Magic…?”
This time, the girl didn't refuse outright and seemed to be considering it. Life returned to her hollow eyes.
As I thought, this child is the same kind as me.
The type who can't hide their desire for new knowledge, even with an important mission at hand. A magic fanatic.
In that case, there was only one possible answer.
“Then, just for a little while…”
*
“This is my laboratory.”
As if luring her with promises of candy, Edmund brought the girl to his private laboratory.
He would have brought her by force if she hadn't followed, but he was grateful she came willingly.
Edmund's laboratory was on the 49th floor, just below the top. The only ways to reach it were by using the magic stone elevator installed in the tower or by flying up through the massive hole that pierced its center.
Flight magic, considered one of the most difficult schools of magic. Literally, the magic to fly through the sky like a bird.
However, even among Archmages, very few could fly freely through the sky. Most could only manage to levitate for a short time by casting psychokinesis on themselves.
Most of it was levitation magic, not true flight.
But even that was only possible for those who had reached a certain mastery, so Edmund, an elder of the Magic Tower, was naturally capable of it.
Today, however, he used the elevator out of consideration for the girl. She possessed the qualities of a natural-born mage, but she was a flower that had yet to bloom.
‘And I will make those petals bloom.’
The preparations for dollification were perfectly complete in this laboratory.
When the device was activated, it would absorb the target's mana. It would drain their mana, invade their weakened mind, and eliminate their personality.
After that, all that was left was to modify the empty shell of a body as he pleased.
Getting her here was the hard part; once she stepped into the laboratory, it was already over.
“Are there many books like this in the tower?”
“Indeed. Centuries of accumulated research data and knowledge from mages are piled up like mountains. This place is a paradise for mages.”
“Hmm.”
The girl stared intently at the spellbooks, seemingly interested. It didn't matter that she couldn't understand them. He just had to turn her into a doll and inject the knowledge into her.
While she was distracted, he locked onto his target.
Edmund activated the device.
Magic circles appeared above and below the girl.
Crackle!
A barrier of white lightning surrounded her. At the same time, the device began to absorb the girl's mana.
The girl's indigo mana was extracted explosively. The girl, sensing something was wrong, looked at Edmund, but it was far too late.
Not even the Great Sage Arselia, the owner of the Heavenly Covenant, could break through this device.
“I'm truly sorry for deceiving you. It's all for your future. This old man will remodel you from a mere slave into the world's strongest combat weapon.”
“……”
Her mana continued to drain.
On and on.
And on.
And on…?
Why… why was her mana draining endlessly? By now, even an Archmage should have been an empty shell.
It was around then that he began to suspect something was wrong.
Edmund flinched at the flow of mana. The girl was glaring fiercely at him.
“I am my Master's slave. Even in death, I will be his slave for eternity.”
“What?”
“I won't let anyone who interferes with our relationship get away with it.”
Tap.
The girl tapped the Heavenly Covenant on the floor. With just that simple motion, the barrier scattered. The magical device Edmund had poured his entire life into designing shattered into nothing.
Edmund quickly stretched out his arm to cast a spell, but he couldn't control his mana as he wished. His mana was being suppressed by something.
Rumble…
The space trembled.
The tower vibrated.
It was the aftershock of the mana being emitted by a single girl. An amount of mana that far surpassed common sense.
“This absurd amount of mana…!”
Pushed back by the aftershock, Edmund fell on his rear with a thud. His whole body trembled, and his eyes, fixed on the girl, held a mixture of emotions.
Fear.
Terror.
And one more: awe.
Ironically, what filled Edmund's face as he witnessed the girl's power was ecstasy. It was the thought that the child before him might be the one the Magic Tower had long awaited.
This child was not a being who should be reduced to a mere doll. She was the noble personage who would fulfill the mages' long-held wish.
Unconsciously, the elderly man stood up, then knelt before the much younger girl.
And he spoke.
“Child, have you any interest in becoming the Master of the Magic Tower?”