Chapter 52
Chapter 52
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: Magic Tower Lord
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Magic Tower Lord
Black Knight.
I have no idea what image it used to evoke in the past, but in modern fantasy stories, it's usually just a knight in black armor, an evil knight serving a corrupt king, or a fallen knight.
But the Black Knight in this world that I possessed into wasn't your average fallen knight.
He was fallen, sure, but his strength was on another level entirely.
Even the Holy Knights of the Seven Virtues in the Holy Kingdom couldn't guarantee victory against him.
Of course, since this was the first time a Black Knight had appeared in this world, no one knew that yet.
They probably just called him the Black Knight because of his black armor, and no one realized his true danger.
It was only after he killed the Red Tower Lord, Yellow Tower Lord, and Purple Tower Lord that they finally came up with a perfect countermeasure.
What the protagonist had to do here was either take down the Black Knight himself or lure him into the trap set by the local lord and the remaining Magic Tower Lords.
That was why I'd dragged Ruin along one way or another.
'Anyone but you, and they're all dead.'
No joke—this place called Ilunait was doomed without its protagonist.
"Black Knight?"
"Black Knight...? Never heard of it."
Right on cue, the two beside me voiced their confusion at the term.
Illusion gave them a straightforward summary.
"It's a knight in black armor wandering the back alleys. There've been sightings all over, so we tried to capture him somehow... but he slaughtered every mage sent to catch him and escaped. We even sent the Magic Tower Lords, but... it was a failure. No one could lay a hand on him, not even them."
It was bound to happen.
To reiterate, this Black Knight was the guy who killed three Magic Tower Lords.
"Still, now that the Hero and Saintess are here, we'll see that criminal's face soon enough. We appreciate your help. We'll provide all the investigation materials we have."
"Ah, sure thing! Leave it to us!"
"Any bastard who swings a sword, I beat. Don't worry about it. And you... just sit tight. I'll show you what a Hero really is."
Ruin, who for once sounded reliable... had to tack on that extra line, making the corner of my mouth twitch downward.
'I still believe in him.'
Unlike when we first met, his thuggish tendencies seemed to have toned down a bit now.
Maybe it was just because I saw him more often, but hey, good is good, right?
With those thoughts, we received the investigation materials from Illusion.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "First off... we need to collect materials from each Magic Tower too, so we might as well deliver Is's letters while we're at it!"
"Sounds good."
We needed to visit each Magic Tower for their materials and have a chat anyway, so handing over the letters now made sense.
'Purple Magic Tower, right?'
Since conversations might drag on after delivering the letters, we planned the order: Red Magic Tower, Blue, Yellow, Brown, Gold, White, then Purple.
The first stop: Red Magic Tower.
Lord Illusion had already contacted all the Magic Tower Lords, so we met the Red Tower Lord without issue.
-Knock knock knock.
"Tower Lord, the Saintess is here."
-Yeah, come in.
-Creeeak...
The door opened, revealing the master of the Red Magic Tower, the Red Tower Lord.
"Hey—come on in."
The Red Tower Lord was a woman with gray long hair, her left eye covered by a striking red eyepatch.
She sat on the sofa with her legs crossed.
"Heard the Hero came too... guess he didn't join you?"
Seeing only Ariana and me enter, she asked about Ruin's whereabouts.
"The Hero went out on patrol."
A lie.
In truth, he'd whined about thinking being a hassle and used patrol as an excuse to wander the streets.
Of course, I didn't stop him.
He was the protagonist, after all—things would happen just from him walking around.
I smiled secretly inside my helmet.
Then the Red Tower Lord gestured for Ariana and me to sit.
Ariana and I took the sofa opposite her.
'Don't retainers usually stand behind the throne?'
For some reason, whenever people saw me with Ariana, they kept inviting me to sit too.
Even when I tried to refuse, Ariana would stare at me with a smile, foiling my attempts.
She stared intently at the two of us sitting across from her, then suddenly scowled and pulled a cigarette from her pocket, lighting up.
"Smoking in front of the Saintess—"
Just as I tried to stop the indoor smoker, Ariana raised a hand to halt me.
"It's a recovery cigarette."
"Oh? First time someone's clocked it right away."
The Red Tower Lord looked mildly surprised at Ariana's words.
Her eye gleamed with interest as she regarded Ariana.
"How'd you know? Most people just bitch about no smoking."
"I'm the Saintess. I always keep tabs on recovery-related things."
Oh, so it was a recovery cigarette?
In the game, she just smoked it and no one complained, so I figured Tower Lords got a pass.
Ariana really was something else. I'd never seen inside her room, but it was surely packed with recovery tomes and holy scriptures.
"...My apologies."
That said, I'd still mistaken it, so I bowed my head.
"No biggie. I should've warned you ahead of time, but I keep forgetting."
The Red Tower Lord brushed it off casually.
She took a deep drag from the recovery cigarette, exhaled, and rested her arms on her knee.
"Alright, you're here about that damn Black Knight bastard, right? Materials are prepped, no worries. Hey, Bella!"
-Bang!
"It's Bella!"
A red-haired mage burst through the door at her shout.
She clutched a hefty stack of documents.
"Here, my girl's got everything neatly sorted. Take your time looking through."
With that, she leaned back on the sofa and crossed her legs again.
Smoking her recovery cigarette in the picture of comfort.
In her stead, Bella organized the materials in front of us.
"Sorry about that. Our Tower Lord's a bit... rude. The materials are sorted like this..."
"Rude?!"
Ignoring the Red Tower Lord's outburst, we listened carefully to Bella's explanations.
"Hmm... countermeasures against fire magic..."
"He's no easy opponent, that's for sure. At this rate, sword fighting might actually work better."
We gathered some useful info.
After leaving the Red Magic Tower, we visited the others.
"That bastard cut off his own frozen leg without hesitation."
The Blue Magic Tower, led by a Tower Lord with a chilling aura.
"He took my ultimate technique—37 million volts—and kept moving like nothing happened!"
The Yellow Magic Tower, led by a somewhat unhinged Tower Lord.
"He was smoother than soil, harder than rock."
The Brown Magic Tower, led by a heavy, solemn Tower Lord.
"Haa... the money he's cost me breaking stuff...! My money's like my blood!"
The Gold Magic Tower, led by a straight-up money grubber.
"He seemed to have some way to nullify magic."
And the White Magic Tower, led by a gentle, soft-spoken Tower Lord.
We'd visited six of the seven Magic Towers, with only the Purple one left.
By the time we'd finished, the sun had set, painting the sky in sunset hues.
"Phew! Now just the Purple Magic Tower left!"
"Yeah, let's wrap it up quick and do our patrol—"
That moment.
-Kyaaak!
"...Is?"
"I heard it too."
A faint scream reached my ears.
With my heightened senses, I turned toward the sound—coming from the back alleys.
"Is, no way..."
"Yeah. Looks like..."
The Black Knight had shown up.
Ariana and I sprinted full speed toward the alley.
"P-please, forgive me! I didn't know you were a Tower Lord! Mercy...!"
But we found not the Black Knight, but a Black Mage.
A man collapsed on the ground, begging for mercy, and in front of him stood a figure in a raven-like plague doctor mask from the Middle Ages.
He leaned on his staff, then flipped it upside down and traced a circle in the air.
"Kyaaaak!"
Purple mist enveloped the man's head on the ground.
Soon, tears streamed from his eyes, snot from his nose, and he passed out.
Only then did the plague doctor mask tap the ground with his staff again.
Staff tapping, he approached us.
A voice emerged from behind the mask.
"Oh my, guests from the Holy Kingdom. An honor to meet you."
He extended his free hand toward me.
"I'm Blind Vision, overqualified master of the Purple Magic Tower."
His identity: the Purple Magic Tower Lord.
For the record, the guy on the ground was the Black Mage.