Chapter 85
Chapter 85
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 085
Chapter Title: Iris of the Lower Levels
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Kyle couldn't help but flinch upon seeing the message.
'Incorporating the Mage Tower into the regular forces...!'
It was undoubtedly a tremendous boon.
The connection between Lena Clark's secret, the city's secret about killing her, and the Marshall Family was obvious at a glance.
And in any fight against the Marshalls, the Mage Tower would make for a solid ally.
'The problem is that this fulfilled condition stems from a ridiculous misunderstanding.'
Kyle clicked his tongue briefly, feeling deeply unsettled by that fact.
A misunderstanding he couldn't even clear up anyway.
He decided to at least make one final disclaimer.
"Just to say it one more time, I still don't believe I'm a descendant of that Founder Mage."
Rebecca responded with a warm smile.
"If that's what makes you comfortable, Mr. Clark, then feel free to think that way."
"...Anyway, I clearly said I'm not a descendant."
"Even if you aren't a great descendant."
She added,
"As I mentioned earlier, the fact remains that you are this tower's savior and a great mage deserving of our utmost respect."
The mages nodded in agreement, each one affirming her words.
Though Kyle didn't know it, Sapientia was a place where magical talent was everything.
They all looked at him as if no one else but a mage of Kyle Clark's caliber could possibly be the next Mage Tower Lord.
The only drawback was that he was an outsider, but his position as the tower's savior more than compensated for that.
Kyle muttered with a subtle expression.
"Fine, just drop the 'great mage' talk already."
It was embarrassing to hear such things when he knew nothing about theory.
But the mages only gasped in admiration at his words.
"Wow..."
"With that level of skill, anyone would be prone to arrogance."
"How can he be so humble too?"
"They say the Founder Mage was humble as well. Truly fitting of his descendant."
"......"
Having opened even the Prophecy Stone Gate, every word from him sounded perfect to their rose-tinted ears.
'Whatever.'
Kyle thought, glancing at the message.
What more could he do in this situation?
'I've clearly stated I'm not the descendant.'
It wasn't some shady Baal Cult—it was the Mage Tower.
Incorporating it as a regular force would only bring benefits, no losses.
'Just accept it.'
With that, he chose incorporation, and another message appeared before him.
Kyle read it and made a dumbfounded face.
'Heh, next Mage Tower Lord.'
When the faction system unlocked, he'd thought becoming something like next Tower Lord was required to incorporate the tower.
'Looks like it's actually happening.'
He never dreamed his efforts to keep Leverk from taking the tower would lead to this.
Then the Sage coughed again and reached into the stone gate.
"Then, great descendant. Please enjoy the privileges granted to you."
"...Just speak casually like before. Please."
And go rest now.
As he stood before the stone gate's darkness, Kyle lifted his head.
It was actually a bizarre sight.
The gate was in the center of the hall, just a door with no space behind it.
Yet the one before him clearly led somewhere.
Kyle murmured inwardly.
'...A compass.'
So this door would show him the path forward.
Lena Clark's secret, the city's ugly secret that killed her...
- You're... your roots aren't in the 8th Special District. You are...!
'My roots.'
To find those clues, he'd have to trace the past, just like the 'Lost Past' route name suggested.
'How did the first Luther prophesy my existence?'
He didn't know what purpose this door served.
'If there are clues here to find the answers.'
There was no reason to hesitate.
As he stepped into the stone gate's darkness,
A warm embrace-like sensation enveloped his entire body, as if it had been waiting.
Along with it came an unfamiliar message.
"...!?"
Kyle's eyes widened.
'...Where is this?'
When he came to, he was standing in an unfamiliar alley.
At that moment, rain poured down with a whoosh.
As the damp, musty smell stung his nose, Kyle realized.
'My eye level is low.'
Feeling out of place at the much lower height than his own, he then saw her.
Not far ahead.
A little girl crouched and sobbing.
- Hic, sob. Hic.
Kyle unwittingly swallowed.
'Red hair.'
That familiar sight was one he knew all too well.
'...That girl.'
Sis?
But she looked younger than the Lena Clark he knew.
He tried to call out, but no words came.
Instead, as she drew closer, he noticed her whole body was covered in blood.
But it wasn't her blood.
Someone else's.
As he realized this and swallowed, his mouth opened on its own.
- What, are you alone?
- ...!!
Her golden eyes, startled, turned toward him.
In that instant, he understood.
'This is...'
Not an illusion or hallucination.
The unusually low eye level from earlier.
The body that wouldn't move freely.
Lena Clark's childlike form.
'I see.'
Kyle murmured.
'This is my memory.'
One of the memories he'd lost, no doubt.
'And.'
He narrowed his eyes at her golden gaze fixed on him.
'This was our first meeting.'
The real first meeting between him and Lena Clark.
With that, the scene before him suddenly crumbled.
"?!"
A intense floating sensation wrapped around him like falling into darkness.
As he instinctively drew up his magic,
"...!!"
He found himself standing in a vast flower field.
"What is this..."
His eye level back to normal.
His limbs moving as he willed.
As he raised his head, Kyle froze.
For purple irises bloomed endlessly along the verdant iris hill, fluttering in the wind, and an old man sat there.
"Oh~."
The gaunt man, draped in ragged robes, spoke.
"So it's you."
"Who are..."
"Soul devourer, crosser of the immortal river, proclaimer of beginning and end, eternal wanderer. Yes, yes indeed..."
The old man put a worn pipe to his lips and inhaled smoke.
"Can't remember the last guest."
Kyle asked without thinking.
"Who are you?"
"Me?"
He pointed his pipe at himself and chuckled.
"Does it matter who I am? The important thing is you. Or rather, why you've come all this way."
"I..."
"Yes. I know. You somehow stopped the demon's descent, eh?"
"...!"
Kyle swallowed at the all-seeing tone.
As he habitually tried to use [Clairvoyance],
"No use. Stop."
"!!"
"Seeking souls from those beyond life's verse? Fearing the unknown is human nature, but sometimes you must simply accept."
The old man bit his pipe again.
Kyle asked him.
"Then, what can you tell me?"
"Depends on what you seek."
He pointed his pipe at Kyle.
"Here for your roots? Or..."
At that moment, an image of brutally murdered Lena Clark flashed before Kyle.
"Here for answers about that death?"
"...That's."
"Don't misunderstand. I'm no encyclopedia, nor an omniscient oracle."
The old man bared yellowed teeth.
"I'm just a compass. Pointing your path. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Did the first Luther know I'd come here?"
"Half right, half wrong."
"What does that mean?"
Kyle pressed, and he chuckled.
"He knew someone like you would come. But not that it would be you."
"...?"
Kyle narrowed his eyes at the cryptic words.
As if expecting it, the old man smirked.
"You'll understand someday. But isn't there something more pressing now?"
"I..."
Kyle hesitated briefly.
The man from the basement came to mind.
He had said Kyle's existence witnessed the city's ugly secret, and that secret led to Lena Clark's murder.
'If that's true...'
Resolved, Kyle asked.
"...Someone told me before. My roots aren't in the 8th Special District. So go to the Mage Tower."
"Ho ho."
"That's why I came. I want answers."
What were those roots, that secret, to start all this?
The old man silently tapped ash from his pipe.
"I see. You chose roots over death."
He looked up.
"Simple enough."
His eyes pierced Kyle like a blade.
"You are the slayer of immortality, bringer of order from chaos. Simply put, a 'leader'."
"...Leader?"
"Yes, leader. Know who else shares such a fate?"
"Who?"
The old man grinned mischievously.
"The first Luther."
"...!!"
"Not blood. Your soul inherits the leader's lineage, whether you like it or not."
Then what did a leader lead?
"The first Luther led order from chaos. That order took form as this city—Dun City's origin."
"?!"
Kyle's eyes widened.
The old man was suddenly peering right into his face.
"But remember: this city tolerates only one order. Order is singular by nature. Two or three orders become chaos, disorder."
"That means..."
"Yes. Understand? One order. Yet for ages, something malevolent has forged its own."
The old man's black eyes gleamed.
"How do you think that 'evil' sees you, another order? True order incarnate?"
The answer was obvious.
"But don't forget: only one order can exist here—from your perspective too."
"...So I have to kill that evil forging another order?"
"If you don't plan to leave this city."
The old man chuckled and turned.
"But can you leave? You still have..."
Another flash of Lena Clark's death.
"...that woman. You could go far away, live ordinarily as she wished."
-I... want you to live more normally.
"But can you?"
His eyes narrowed.
"With your only family dead. The truth unknown, that evil and secret lurking deep in the city."
He turned back to Kyle.
"Can you really leave?"
"......"
The answer was just as clear.
Reading it in Kyle's face, the old man smirked.
"Yes, you can't. So finally, my offer."
A breeze scattered the irises wildly.
"Roots, then death."
Amid them, the old man spoke.
"Her death is deeply tied to the city's secret. To uncover it, delve into that evil. But that alone won't show the path."
He bent and plucked a purple iris.
"So remember this. The iris."
"...That flower?"
"Yes. The iris hidden deep in the lower levels."
The old man said.
"Follow it, leader."
"What do you—!"
Suddenly, light flooded his vision.
But in that instant, Kyle heard his final words.
- There, surely, lie the answers you seek.
End.
When he came to, Kyle was back in the hall.
"......"
Cold air from the Hall of Wisdom brushed his face.
Lost for words, he stood silent a moment.
Then another message appeared.
'......!'
Fitting for an exclusive reward.
Kyle swallowed briefly at the overwhelming effect of killing the soul itself.
Soon, he recalled what he'd seen in the gate.
'First Luther, leader, one order...'
Even that info was confusing enough.
'...To learn the truth of sis's death, follow the iris hidden deep in the lower levels.'
Lower levels—did that mean the 8th Special District's underbelly?
'What the hell?'
Was there an iris-choked flower field down there?
Then Rebecca's voice came from behind.
"Mr. Clark?"
"...!"
Turning at her notice, Kyle saw the empty hall except for her.
"Where are the others...?"
"The Sage suddenly lost consciousness from the medicine's limits and was rushed to the infirmary."
Rebecca glanced around the quiet hall.
"The others weren't well either, so I sent them home despite their insistence."
"...How long was I in the gate?"
"About an hour."
"An hour."
Kyle rubbed his brow lightly.
'Felt like only 10 minutes to me.'
Rebecca cautiously asked.
"...Mr. Clark. If it's not rude, what did you see inside?"
"Well..."
He faltered, unsure how to explain.
He let out a small groan.
"Honestly, I don't even know what I saw."
Not entirely a lie.
He truly didn't grasp "follow the flower."
"...I'll tell you once I sort it out."
"I see..."
Unsure how to take it, Rebecca didn't press.
"Oh, and a visitor came."
"Visitor?"
"Yes."
Rebecca tilted her head.
"Jim Gordon from Intelligence. A friend of yours?"
Only then did Kyle remember he'd forgotten to follow up.
"Ah."
*
"What?"
Rockton Councilor, arriving near the Mage Tower in his luxury personal helicopter, frowned.
Cash spoke again.
[You know that liaison from before, Boris Havensky.]
The muscle-enhanced guy colluding with the Intelligence forensics team.
[This morning, Inspector Roden spotted something odd under his tongue while distributing meals and forced it open...]
Rockton spotted Kyle and Gordon approaching to see him off.
[It was hidden under his tongue.]
"A mark?"
[Yes. But the shape is the issue.]
Rockton viewed the photo from Cash.
A small, distinct tattoo under the tongue.
"This is..."
A flower shape he'd seen before.
"An iris?"
[...Yes.]
"What does it mean?"
[Well...]
Cash hesitated before continuing.
[Among anti-Luther groups, there's one terrorist org considered the oldest.]
"Terrorist org?"
[Yes, and their symbol is...]
She said.
[...that iris.]
Rockton's face hardened.
"...So, iris symbolizes one of the anti-Luther ideologue terrorist groups?"
[Yes. So Boris Havensky, sharing their ideology, might've been involved, or still is... but...]
"...Cash, hold on."
His phone buzzed; Rockton checked the caller.
'Chief of Staff?'
"Yeah, what's up?"
Rockton flinched.
"Inspector Lyn Yenitz came by?"
He remembered too late: he'd planned to discuss the Grade 1 database incident with the inspector scheduled for field work today.
Forgotten amid the chaos.
[Yes, she dropped off the data you requested. Upload to the encrypted cloud server?]
"Please."
[Got it.]
Thinking to call her later, Rockton accessed the cloud via neural chip.
'This file.'
He downloaded and opened the encrypted file, eyeing approaching Kyle.
The file from Inspector Lyn Yenitz displayed.
Rockton narrowed his brow.
Name could differ.
'But Tennessee Federation?'
Not California New Alliance?
Sensing trouble, his face stiffened at the next data.
'What the...'
Rockton swallowed his shock at the unexpected data.
'Lena Clark was an anti-Luther ideologue?'
But she was the woman who took in Kyle Clark, hidden by Mayor Luther.
'This doesn't add up at all.'
Luther murder suspect and Grade 1 terrorist, no less.
As he swallowed,
A sudden thought struck; Rockton switched calls quickly.
"Cash, still there?"
[Yes, Councilor.]
"What did you just say?"
[Pardon?]
"That... anti-Luther terrorist org."
[Oh, iris?]
'Iris...'
Rockton furrowed his brows.
'No way.'
A new line completed before his eyes.
"...!"
Gordon hurried up and called urgently.
"Councilor."
Gordon asked.
"Heard from Cash?"
"...Just now."
"Good. Straight to it then..."
He glanced at Kyle.
"That iris..."
Gordon's eyes narrowed.
"Something's up."
Hearing that, Rockton Councilor hardened his face and asked.
"...What do you mean?"