Shadows in the Sun Tower
The mage worried about the hero. Her lips were soft. They were a conduit that carried warmth well, and beyond them lay her mouth. The lips of the dragoness that had been pressed against mine parted, and I felt her tongue slip inside along with her saliva. Once the spaces within our mouths became one, we mingled our body heat thickly. A little time passed like that.
She pulled away with her tongue slightly extended past her lips. A thread of saliva stretched between the dragoness and me before it broke and fell with a soft patter. "My lord…."
Her eyes had once unmistakably belonged to a dragon, but not anymore. They now held only the gaze of a woman lost in love, fixed unwaveringly on me. And the moment I saw that face… the faces of those repulsive women flashed through my mind. Those memories became the catalyst that dredged up the nightmares I had buried deep in my heart.
The mercenary crawling across the floor on his arms after losing everything below the waist, trying to reach his mother. The girl whose birthday—the day that should have been her happiest—became the anniversary of her parents' deaths. The day the child born blind, who had always heard the world through his older brother, heard his brother's final, horrific scream. The moment I saw the child clutching the hand of a mother whose wrist was no longer there.
"…! My lord!" "Hrk…! Hah, kgh…!"
The instant I tried to settle into peace, all those memories came rushing back. I could not forget them, nor could I escape them—and so I broke out in a cold sweat. My breathing grew ragged and suffocating. The sweat was the same sweat that had dried two years ago, and the labored breaths were the ones from that time, clinging to my lungs and coming back to life.
"Leon! Get a hold of yourself!"
I could not live while looking at the present.
***
The Magic Tower. A transcendent martial organization free from the interference of all nations. Officially, they always claimed to have no interest in worldly affairs and to live only to uncover the truth… but anyone with even a passing involvement in politics or any real power knew the truth. They were worse thugs than the Empire at its peak.
Of the two towers that existed in the world of magic, the lord of the Sun Tower. Exion, the superhuman whose heart was encircled by a full eight rings of mana. Even now, he sat at the very top of the Sun Tower, drumming his fingers on the table in thought.
'Which country should I squeeze research funding from next?'
The Magic Tower existed in a special space created by layering multiple unique barriers. It was not a new dimension, but rather a specific area forcibly stretched and entered through the gaps. Because the place itself was detached from reality, the tower could freely change its location.
"Rebanheart probably won't work right now. Is Saint still rejecting mages?"
The mages of the tower used this trait to extort money from various nations under the guise of "support funds." It was not only out of fear of their power, but more so because people wanted to enjoy the conveniences provided by magic engineering. Any nation that fell out of the tower's favor would obviously fall behind the rapidly advancing level of continental magic engineering and be left behind to disappear.
They were parasites sucking the national treasury dry, yet cutting ties with them would bring enormous damage. That was the status of the Magic Tower, which wielded absolute authority.
And the one Exion, the lord of such a tower, had taken in as his adoptive daughter was Tei. A prodigious mage who had opened the spatial distortion of the tower and walked in at around ten years old. She had joined the hero's party and was expected to become the tower's great intellect in the future.
But now—
"Haa…."
Her sigh accounted for the largest share of the tower lord's worries. Knock, knock— Someone rapped on the door of his study on the top floor. Exion had not yet given permission to enter, but the person on the other side flung the door open first.
"D-Did you call for me?"
It was Tei, wrapped tightly in a large robe. The girl who used to stride confidently through the tower now looked extremely withdrawn, her face timid and small.
"…Yes, Tei. What exactly have you been doing lately?"
Tei avoided his gaze, fidgeting and dodging the question. The prodigious girl who used to answer any question without hesitation was nowhere to be found. She was a pathetic sight.
After the hero's party returned to the capital, Exion had been waiting for Tei to boast about her adventures. But the Tei who came back was clearly different from before. The moment someone was even slightly injured and bled, she would panic and lock herself in her room. There were more days when she never showed her face at all than days when she came out. Her staff had not been used in who knows how long and sat in a corner, buried in dust.
"…Tei, you can speak comfortably with your father."
Instead of pressing her, Exion tried to understand. He thought it might have been too much for a young girl to endure the harsh battlefield. He himself had been deeply shocked when he went to the front lines against the demonkin in his youth, full of vigor. He wanted to understand her moment of confusion and comfort her. That was why he had only given her money and made her life more convenient.
But contrary to Exion's belief that she would improve, Tei was becoming increasingly strange.
"Ah, no. I'm fine, F-Father."
The moment she spoke, her face flushed and she swayed as if uncomfortable. An unpleasant, damp air lingered where she had passed, making him frown. This was already a rumor and fact that had spread throughout the entire tower. Tei was someone who drew attention in the magical world.
"…Understood. Go rest, Tei. But… if you ever have something to say, tell me anytime, comfortably."
"Y-Yes."
Press— Press— Exion pressed his temples and lowered his head. The Moon Tower lord constantly checking his influence was already a headache, and now problems seemed to be erupting all at once.
"I only hope nothing major happens…."
***
It was irritating. That unnecessarily pretty face smirking. Always getting dragged off by the Sword Master and trained to the point of abuse, yet burning with such a sense of duty and trying even harder. 'How stupid.'
That guy, Leon, was supposedly a genius too. Why was he suffering so pointlessly while putting in all that effort?
- Tei, you're truly amazing!
- You'll be the one to reach the 9th circle someday.
- I'm jealous of your talent.
Weren't geniuses supposed to succeed without effort? Just by breathing, they would naturally reach heights others could not even look up to.
Ah, so Leon wasn't a genius. He was just one of the mediocre people struggling.
'How pathetic.'
That was what I thought—until he turned seventeen and asked me about magic.
"So magic is about amplifying the vibration of mana with a firm will to change reality, right?"
"Huh? Uh… yeah."
What? Wasn't he just an ordinary idiot?
Leon succeeded in manifesting magic after hearing only a few words of my rough explanation. He even seemed to have better mana affinity than me, who had elven blood mixed in. I had known he was talented with holy power and the sword, but how could one person be a genius in three different fields?
'…Is he really the hero, then?'
Still, I did not care much. I was already exceptional—what did it matter if I paid attention to someone else? I had lived my whole life receiving envy and jealousy. Even if someone with a more brilliant talent was born, I had no intention of feeling jealous.
No matter how great Leon was, he would never reach the 9th circle while handling so many different powers. I would naturally take that position just by breathing. That was why what took root in my heart after that day was not jealousy, but curiosity.
The man named Leon, whom I had never even considered looking at, had lodged himself in my mind. Unpleasantly, there was something about him that kept drawing my eyes, so I occasionally used stealth magic to watch him.
Just like the evaluation that I would naturally reach a high circle, I found myself falling for him as naturally as water flowing. 'I-If the hero is weak, then I'll have to defeat more demonkin myself!'
I tried to hide the feelings blooming in my heart and approached him while grumbling. Even while giving him sweets, I grumbled. Even while teaching him magic, I grumbled. Honestly, I thought no one would like this side of me. That was why I had been ostracized even in the tower.
But Leon only smiled broadly, as if he liked it.
"Thanks, Tei."
The more he did that, the more I wanted to act spoiled. There were days when I called for Leon, threw tantrums, and threw myself into his arms. He was a special existence to me, and I believed without doubt that I was special to him as well.
So. That was why I did it.
"Tei? Are you ready with the 5th circle magic? Tei—"
"Be… quiet!"
Three years after we set out on our adventure, when we joined the front lines. The value of the effort I had come to love a little while watching Leon plummeted back to the ground.
Originally, I had thought that someone who put in effort was beautiful. That effort could change many things. But all of that only had meaning because he was a genius.
"Hero…! Please help us!"
"H-Hero! Over here! Aaaah—!!"
"Demonkin!! It's demonkin—!"
Worthless humans. Commoners who would spend their lives farming and die in vain even if they tried their whole lives. Why should special people like us sacrifice ourselves for such vermin? Especially when these bugs who would never succeed even if they tried did not put in even a fraction of the effort Leon did?
"I already said I don't feel well!"
Idiot. Fool. Of course, I still loved him even in that state. That was exactly why the sight of those existences prolonging their lives with Leon's blood and sweat bothered me even more.
They should have lived crushed in the position of the weak, as fate intended. It was disgusting how they kept coveting what belonged to those born with it. At the same time, it was repulsive.
The scene of slaughter and the miserable girl standing there—me.
"Tei, it would be better to protect this village with a barrier first—"
"You can do it, Leon! I told you my head hurts so much today!"
"…Got it. Rest."
So I had to tell him too. That there was no need to struggle for worthless existences. That the hero was only meant to go on dreamlike adventures and defeat the Demon King.
…But Leon devoted himself more and more pathologically to saving people.
"…You don't understand my feelings at all!"
Everything was irritating. Airen and Serin, who kept trying to include Leon as well, had become tiresome too.
- You must live according to your fate.
Then, a certain group caught my eye. They said that a born genius had no need to sacrifice herself for the mediocre. That one should live dominating and ruling exactly as they were born. Their slogan was as if it had written down my own ideology.
A man with black hair and black eyes whispered to me. As if entranced, I followed him. And by the time I came to my senses, my memories were a mess. I had taken drugs, mingled my body with others, and screamed from the pleasure that paralyzed my mind.
But I did not hate it. If one was born with it, it was only natural to enjoy such pleasures. Because it was my right. Because it was something I deserved.
So Leon would understand too. No. I had to let Leon know this truth, this feeling as well.
"Ehehe, hehe…."
On the streets of the red-light district, I walked while trembling from the sensation that had not yet been washed from my body. I sought out their drugs again and entered the tower craving the 'born' nature of men. I did not care about the rumors. They were all just the gazes of bugs coveting what I had.
***
"It's a demon."
"What?!"
Lucy Heart was startled by Leon's calm statement. The existence of demons was surprising enough, but the fact that she had been dragged here again was too depressing.
"B-But this is the world of magic. It's a space that even skilled mages can't enter unless they're capable."
"It's more lax than you think. They loosened the barrier slightly for people with high mana affinity, hoping talented individuals might accidentally wander in."
"Is that so…? But anyway, that wasn't done for the sake of demons, was it?"
"…No."
She was in the middle of a busy time. She was organizing the now-empty noble district. That was why she had left the outer district she was originally in charge of to Mirna. Surprisingly, Ashen Scales had not objected at all to the purge of the noble district. It had been related to demonkin, and Carbandia had stepped in. They had simply shown the wisdom of naturally entrusting the noble district to Lucy, who had been by their side.
'But… this time again!'
She rubbed her furrowed brow and glared at the hero with snake-like eyes. If he had business, he could have just come, but once again he had smashed through the door to enter. On top of that, he had not even properly explained what was going on and had simply kidnapped her, saying he had somewhere to go. The fact that he had brought people to handle the noble district in her stead irritated her even more.
"How unnecessarily thorough."
"What?"
"Ah, nothing…."
"Did you hear the explanation?"
"…."
Thwack— Leon lightly struck the top of her head, just as Kellyban had done to him.
"Ow."
"Listen properly. The fact that there's a demon means it can't be detected normally. They're different from demonkin."
Demonkin were a race born in the demon realm. Demons were spirit-like beings born from the aggregation of human malice and specific concepts. Both were harmful to people, but strictly speaking, they were not the same existence.
"So this time, we're really going to infiltrate."
"Oh, really?"
"You are."
"Me?"
With the hero's disposition, he could vaguely sense the presence of a demon, but pinpointing it exactly was impossible. The holy bonfire had not been able to burn the demon. Even if it had developed into a more advanced form later, it was difficult now.
That was why Leon had first gathered rumors and slowly formed a plan.
"I heard that among the research mages of the Sun Tower, the number of people saying strange things is increasing."
"So…?"
"I've already spoken with the tower lord, Exion. I'm going to draw attention openly with the status of honorary chief mage, and you…."
Gulp. Lucy grew tense.
"You're going to infiltrate as a novice mage and operate from within."
Lucy Heart, suddenly becoming a mage at her age out of nowhere.
"But I can't even use magic?"
Leon seemed too tired to answer that and simply ignored her. He only gazed toward the direction where the Sun Tower stood tall and fell into thought.
Rumors. Rumors that mages who had recently been evaluated as having good talent were becoming strange somewhere. And… the rumor that the starting point of it all was Tei.
'I told you to wait, Tei.'
The time had come. The moment to declare ruin to her and everything surrounding her.