The Unwinnable
The Iron Magic Tower had mostly its mages out here, gathering like soldiers lined up on the parade ground, each one quietly checking their uniforms.
“Who’s on fire duty today?”
“They’re saying there’s still a watch roster.”
“I figured you’d be the one on it.”
When people gather, murmuring is only natural.
The mages in their crisp Iron Magic Tower robes still couldn’t keep quiet.
At the front, Beldora Millennium made another announcement through sound magic.
“Everyone, do a self-check again. Not just yourself—check the person next to you too. If your hair looks off, or your robe’s dirty, or anything else seems wrong.”
“They say mages who hide themselves away in the tower every day don’t give off the right vibe. You saw the Fire Tower lot? They’re constantly fussing over their appearance.”
Bad luck.
The gossip stayed small, but the sound magic carried it anyway.
It didn’t matter anyway.
Everyone here was an Iron Magic mage.
“We’ve got so many men. We need to give off that solid Iron Magic mage feel. Stand tall! Shoulders back! Look strong!”
Beldora was so picky about appearances because of the Exchange Day.
The envoys from each nation had been visiting the towers for a month collecting information.
Today was the day the real negotiations began.
Not just the initial envoys, but outsiders had already entered the tower in numbers.
Today, mages from every tower would gather to hear the Archmage’s speech and mark the official start of the Exchange Day.
“Hah… why does this feel so off, kids?”
“Tower Master, it’s coming through.”
“…Sorry.”
Theodore whispered beside her, and Beldora waved her hand, giving an awkward apology.
*Tower Masters have been acting weird lately.*
*Must be hanging around her.*
*Yeah, don’t push it.*
Among the burly men handling Iron Magic, the woman with sky-blue hair kept a respectful distance from the mages.
If someone saw her, they might think she was being protected like a guardian.
She was just trying not to walk up and cause any trouble, so she stayed in her spot within the line.
“Ah, damn… I’m dead tired.”
Dark circles under Lee Dam’s eyes.
After escorting the initial envoys from the three kingdoms, she had nothing to do and was basically a freeloader.
Otaku guys are busiest when they’re unemployed, after all.
“Uh… Lee Dam? You look tired.”
One of the mages sidled up to her and gave an awkward smile.
*What a hero.*
*You wanna talk?*
*You gonna get your tongue ripped out?*
There were rumors going around that she was insane, that she tried to chase someone and ended up castrated.
Whether you believed it or not, no one took it seriously, but since she was tied to it, maybe there was some truth to it.
“Ah, I couldn’t sleep last night because I was working on some x.”
“…”
The mage shut his mouth tight.
He was the one who actually built the latest weapon from the Iron Magic Tower, the Knight Armor.
How was he supposed to say he’d been working on orc dick the whole time?
*How detailed does it have to be?*
*Every night with that thing—*
*If her personality was a little nicer, I could’ve tried flirting with her.*
“Yeah… I guess so.”
Giving an awkward reply, the mage tried to slip away, but Lee Dam grabbed his wrist and asked with a laugh.
“You wanna see? You wanna see? How amazing and great my x is.”
“Ah, no, that’s—”
“There’ll be a special exhibition later too. It’s gonna be insane.”
“You’re… going to exhibit it?”
“Of course. I’ll demonstrate it in action myself. It needs to be spread far and wide.”
*Is she crazy?*
*What the hell is she demonstrating?*
The mage whose wrist Lee Dam was holding was panicking but couldn’t escape.
He was just a channel for her to unload her favorite story.
“This is what it is. If you make it white, it gets a little dirty, but on the other hand—”
*She’s lost it.*
*No, you’re demonstrating that?*
*Lee Dam demonstrating orc dick…*
The mages listening quietly in the background of the Iron Magic Tower let their imaginations run wild.
Her ruthless side was clearly tied to that voluptuous body and beautiful face.
Anyway, if you just kept your mouth shut, she was undeniably beautiful.
“…”
“…”
“…”
“Hey! What are you doing?! Stand up straight! Why are you all bowing suddenly?!”
Beldora saw the mages subtly bending their waists and yelled.
“What are you doing?! Stand up straight! How embarrassing is this?!”
But even after Beldora shouted, it took time for their backs to straighten.
“Why would I kill the build I worked so hard for?!”
That is to say.
Until the stiff lower body lost its strength.
* * *
In the Knight Kingdom of the Gérard Kingdom.
The man sitting in a chair at the back of the stage was Legion Gérard.
The first prince of the Gérard Kingdom and a man who was almost certain to succeed to the throne.
Legion, who arrived later than the other candidates after succeeding the Marquis of Lisander, looked at the mages lined up before the stage and smiled wickedly.
“Looking at them, it’s interesting, isn’t it?”
Facing the Marquis of Lisander beside him, the smiling prince.
“They have no idea how their research will be used. They’re working so hard while knowing it will cause countless casualties.”
The Marquis listened silently to his words. The prince’s personality was prickly, so he didn’t want to chime in.
“Towers, you know, pretend to be neutral while secretly wishing for war the most. Do you know why?”
“…Because the support will run out, right?”
War could be seen as a kind of supply and demand.
Through war, better weapons, tactics, and advanced technology were needed.
Faster than the opponent, just that was enough.
So they had to invest in the towers that were ahead in technology.
Naturally, the towers received support from them and developed even higher levels of technology.
“There’s one more thing.”
Half a wrong answer.
The prince added another line with a laugh.
“When the war ends, the towers will become targets.”
“…”
“Right now, since they’re cooperating, you can ignore it. But can you just leave these institutions alone?”
“…”
“Due to the long war, everyone’s gotten stiff. The towers themselves are abnormal from the start.”
“Prince, you believe in the ‘Tower Knowledge Ladder Theory’?”
The Tower Knowledge Ladder Theory.
It was the idea that towers deliberately hid their advanced technology and only gave out lower levels.
On the surface, it was an absolute denial of the conspiracy that towers should never hide anything.
“Absolutely. They’re hiding at least a certain level of magic from us.”
To prepare for the day when the swords and spears would turn on them in the future.
“So, it’s also hard to end the war. There are complex reasons layered on top.”
“…”
The prince shrugged his shoulders as the Marquis of Lisander’s expression grew serious and changed the subject.
“Well, that wasn’t something to say here.”
At that moment, a banner with the symbol of the Iron Magic Tower fluttered in the distance.
The people in gray robes.
Most were men, and because they handled iron, they looked a bit more rugged and bulky compared to mages from other towers.
The woman standing at the very front was surprisingly small for a Tower Master.
“The hero shows up late.”
Legion smiled as he rested his chin on his hand.
Probably the senior officials from other countries were thinking the same thing.
“This Exchange Day, we have to secure a contract with the Iron Magic Tower no matter what?”
The Marquis nodded vigorously to the prince’s question.
“Definitely. The shock I saw that day still remains deeply in my mind.”
“…”
A month had passed since visiting the Iron Magic Tower.
Despite touring all the other towers, the only thing left in the Marquis’s head was the Iron Magic Tower.
That was what the intensity and impact meant.
“Her name’s Dam, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct. A genius among geniuses. She’s already being mentioned as a candidate for the next Tower Master of the Iron Magic Tower.”
“It’s only been a short time since the Tower Master of the Iron Magic Tower changed?”
“That makes her even more remarkable.”
To the Marquis of Lisander’s words, the prince’s eyes searched for Lee Dam.
Sky-blue hair, skin as white as snow, sensual figure, eyes filled with madness—the crazed glint.
It wasn’t hard to find.
In the gray-robed mages, she stood out like a flower blooming on a cliff.
Her solo-colored appearance was probably because the surrounding mages were too rugged.
“Oh? So the rumor about her being beautiful isn’t just gossip.”
“You have to be careful. I’ve met many mages, but she’s… insanely outstanding.”
“Mages going crazy? It happens, but it’s better to be that crazy to get called a genius.”
The prince grinned.
He had decent rhetorical skills and, as a guy who’d hugged several women, saw her as a delicious piece of prey.
“Any special traits?”
The more information there was, the lower the failure rate.
This was a truth that applied in war, in negotiations, and even in seducing women.
The Marquis of Lisander hesitated for a moment before sharing what he’d learned during his month at the tower.
“…She says she can’t be satisfied with an ordinary man.”
“Huh?”
Not a common revelation.
The prince was handsome, skilled at night, and most women were attracted to him.
“This seems easier than I thought—”
“But she doesn’t sleep with men.”
“…”
“What does that mean?”
“So…”
The Marquis wiped sweat, barely opening his heavy lips.
“An ordinary man isn’t enough. She says it has to be at least orc level… so she doesn’t sleep with men…”
“Orc?”
The prince had seen an orc’s thing before.
When they were suppressing it, he couldn’t help but look.
“Hmm.”
Slyly, the prince’s gaze shifted to his own lower body.
The moment he compared an orc’s thing with his own.
“…No other special traits?”
The prince decided to give up on seducing Lee Dam.
There were things in the world that couldn’t be won.
---
[Text content]