The Magic Tower and Nain Gard
The Magic Tower and Nain Gard
The young mage Chelsea was the one who'd been glaring at me earlier, practically burning a hole through my forehead trying to get me kicked out.
But the moment he heard I was a Rune Mage, his whole demeanor flipped to pure, unadulterated politeness.
Before I could even get a question out, Chelsea was already trying to confirm my affiliation.
"E-Excuse me, but are you affiliated with Nain Gard? I've heard that all Rune Mages belong to Nain Gard."
"Not the case. I underwent the awakening trial at the temple, but I never joined the order. I'm just a wandering mage whose class happens to be Rune Mage."
A wandering mage whose class just happened to be Rune Mage.
I laid my affiliation out honestly while gauging the reactions of Chelsea and the other mages around us.
Maybe the reason they'd been handling me with kid gloves was because they assumed I had Nain Gard backing me up.
Faking an affiliation while traveling around would get me exposed in mage society in no time. Better to come clean here and now.
"Haaah. I see. Still, Rune Mages are talents our Magic Tower holds in the highest regard. I've heard that every time one of you dies, it's a catastrophic loss. After all, only Rune Mages can excavate the very origins of magic."
"So my affiliation doesn't really matter?"
"The fact that you're a Rune Mage is what matters. Allow me to apologize for my earlier rudeness. You've got to stay on the professor's good side to get decent grades, you see."
"Hold on — your grades depend on how much the professor likes you? That's how the Magic Tower operates?"
"Hey, it's not exactly like that. More like, if you've built good rapport, you might get slapped with a C+ instead of an outright F. Beyond that, kissing up doesn't do jack."
Chelsea laughed awkwardly and extended his hand toward me.
Spoken like a true Magic Tower mage — little more than a slave to his grades.
'Poor bastard.'
Judging by how insanely strict his supervising professor looked, life at the Magic Tower seemed pretty damn rough.
Maybe not quite as brutal as Nain Gard — where they practice the old Mon-Tue-Wed-Thu-Fri-Fri-Fri schedule — but it looked like people got chewed up and spit out here too.
"You've got a tough gig."
"Not at all. You Rune Mages are the ones walking a path of suffering. I studied runology for ages and never saw a glimmer of understanding. The fate of having to major in that? I'd have killed myself."
"You talk too much. How about just answering the questions you're asked."
"Ah, yes."
The guy was an unnecessary chatterbox, but a single jab shut him right up.
I glanced to my side and saw Bella listening in on our conversation. I immediately moved on to what I needed confirmed.
"The fishmen — did your people wipe them all out?"
"Yes. We arrived last night and hunted fishmen until dawn. We even deployed tracking magic to root out the ones that were hiding. The area is secure now, so you can rest easy."
"Something doesn't add up. How the hell did you arrive right on cue when the fishmen attacked? Even by carriage, it normally takes about a week to get here from Yoen-su."
To my question — how they'd arrived without being late — Chelsea gave a simple answer.
"Ah, that. The truth is, the Magic Tower already knew the fishmen were massing toward the port city. Our intelligence gathering is faster than even the Royal Army's. The supervising professor and our team had been pre-deployed in case of an incident. The Magic Tower is, after all, an organization that strives to contribute to world peace."
The Magic Tower was nothing at all like the reclusive Nain Gard.
They mediated racial conflicts across the continent, actively developed everyday magic tools, and sold them to the people of the continent.
The kingdom itself recognized the Magic Tower's activities, so it wasn't strange at all for them to have sent support to the port city.
"You already knew the fishmen were going to attack? Then why didn't you send an evacuation signal in advance? If you'd at least contacted the local lord, the casualties would've been lower."
"To annihilate the fishmen bastards in one fell swoop! If the Great Chief Neptune had realized we'd intervened, he'd have simply fled. By acting unilaterally and informing no one, we were able to capture the subversive elements."
"And what about the citizens who were attacked by the fishmen?"
"A sacrifice for the greater good. We mages shall remember their noble sacrifice."
Watching Chelsea say this as if it were the most obvious thing in the world made my skin crawl. He was saying they'd accepted civilian casualties as a price to definitively execute the ringleaders of the uprising.
When we'd exchanged greetings earlier, I'd pegged him as just a chatty young man. But now the true face of a Magic Tower mage was showing.
'Magic Tower people are all like this, really. Most of their members are descendants of prestigious magical lineages. They don't place much value on lives outside their own circle of mages.'
To be treated like a human being in the Magic Tower, you had to be at least a wandering mage.
The fact that an organization like this was "contributing to world peace" just proved what a complete shitshow this otherworld truly was.
Well, at least I was being treated like a person, so there was that.
I had no desire to lecture Chelsea about the sanctity of life.
It wouldn't do a damn bit of good anyway. For my final question, I asked Chelsea whether the Great Chief was definitely dead.
"Where's the Great Chief's corpse? I'd like to confirm with my own eyes that he's really dead. Someone in my party received a death threat from the fishmen's Great Chief. I want to verify the body to put that anxiety to rest."
"The Great Chief's corpse...? Ah, that one was torn to shreds and dismantled by Professor Sera. If you look over there, there's a pile of remains. It's rather large."
I looked where Chelsea was pointing and spotted a heap of flesh in one corner of the plaza.
The body was in pieces, but someone had pieced it together like a puzzle, making it easy enough to discern the form.
"Looks like a whale. That Neptune bastard."
"Right? It looked bizarre, and its body was disgustingly massive, like a Jotun. I'd never seen a fishman standing four meters tall before."
A giant monster with an upper body resembling a whale and the limbs and lower body of a fishman. That was the corpse of Neptune — the mastermind behind the terror attack on the port city.
A Magic Tower professor-level powerhouse had arrived as support and just barely managed to take the monster down.
'Thank fuck he died here. If that thing had been chasing us, we'd all have been slaughtered.'
At the level of a newly awakened Second-Class Mage, he was an enemy I couldn't possibly handle. If he'd escaped and kept making assassination attempts, Bella would have been finished.
The Magic Tower's unilateral action had cost civilian lives, but Bella's life was now truly secure.
I spoke to Bella, who was staring at the corpse.
Perhaps remembering the attack by Gallod, her breathing had grown ragged.
"Bella, noona. You can see the body clearly, right? That's the fishman who tried to assassinate you. The perpetrator's dead, so you should be able to sleep easy from now on."
"Yes... I suppose I should thank the people from the Magic Tower."
Gallod was dead, and the Great Chief Neptune had been captured and executed.
With the fishmen wiped out, all we had to do now was return to Yoen-su with peace of mind.
The time had come to close out Bella's escort quest.
I told Chelsea I had no further questions and sent him back to his fellow mages.
"You're free to go back."
"If we meet again, do you mind if I ask you a few things about runology? I'll pay you, of course. Hehe."
"If you pay, I'll do anything. I'm an adventurer, after all."
"What an unusual fellow. I'd heard Rune Mages rarely involve themselves in worldly affairs, but you're different. Anyway, have a pleasant day."
After parting from Chelsea, we walked straight through the city and out beyond the walls.
The journey had been rich in gains, but the exhaustion was heavy. I just wanted to get back to Yoen-su and rest.
"Hannah. From here on out, let's move by carriage. The ground's all dried up."
"Understood. I'll restore the carriage to its original size, so please, everyone stand back."
Once we'd walked out past the collapsed city gate, Hannah restored the miniature carriage to its full size right there on the road.
She tethered the horses we'd brought from the villa to the carriage and climbed up onto the driver's seat.
"You may board now. I'll see you comfortably back to Yoen-su."
The words "you may board" were the most beautiful thing I'd heard in ages.
Our days-long life as footsloggers was over. I climbed into the spacious cabin with my lovers and slumped over, utterly spent.
"Bella, noona. Are your anxiety symptoms okay? The Great Chief is dead — you've got no reason to feel anxious anymore."
"......You think so?"
"Then why are you sitting right next to me?"
"Ah, ahaha. It seems my heart still pounds when you're not beside me, Luke. I'll stay close until we return to Yoen-su. It's an escort quest, after all. Your quest isn't over yet."
"Hmm."
Even after the carriage began moving, I remained at Bella's side. Rebecca and Kate, seated in the back, stared at Bella with deeply suspicious expressions.
They'd held their tongues up until now out of respect for the whole "she has a fiancé" thing, but apparently, they'd been harboring their doubts too.
"No matter how I look at it, she's totally making moves...."
"Rebecca, unnie, she said she's engaged. Would someone of Vice Guild Master status really bullshit adventurers like us?"
"If it was bullshit, she's a real fox bitch. Still, something's shady about this."
The two of them murmured among themselves until Rebecca, unable to hold back her curiosity, finally spoke to Bella.
At the words "fox bitch," Bella's hands began trembling.
"Hey there, Vice Guild Master."
"Yes? Wh-What is it? I am a virtuous Vice Guild Master who has never once told a lie to an adventurer."
"Yeah, I know. But is it really okay for an engaged woman to be clinging to Luke like that? What if rumors end up reaching your fiancé? Uh, what was his name again...?"
Rebecca racked her brain for a moment, then recalled the name of Bella's fiancé.
Actually, she couldn't remember the first name, so she just grabbed the surname.
"Right! It was Von! If Mr. Von catches a scene like this, it'll be dangerous, won't it!"
"Th-The exact full name is Alois von Weber. Anyway, I'll separate from Luke once we're near Yoen-su. This is an escort quest — I'm merely making a legitimate request. Is even that not allowed?"
Bella laughed awkwardly and turned her head to face Rebecca.
Rebecca propped her chin on the backrest of the seat and stared meaningfully at Bella.
"Of course you can make a request. But Vice Guild Master, your request seems to be loaded with ulterior motives. Why does the carriage smell like a cat?"
"A c-cat smell?"
"The smell of a stray cat!"
Bella's true identity was a stray cat?
I nearly jumped out of my seat when I heard that.
Because in the span of an instant, the previously quiet tension between my lovers and Bella had crackled to life. Rebecca wasn't the least bit intimidated, even in front of a Vice Guild Master, and she growled openly.
"Be honest with me. Mr. Von doesn't exist in this world, does he?"
Cornered, Bella instead opened her mouth with an expression that was utterly composed.
"Do you have proof that he doesn't? He is, of course, a real person. To be honest, I'm a bit angry at this sudden suspicion. Since things have come this far, shall I just ask Luke for a massage?"
"I'll give you the massage. Vice Guild Master."
Smiling, Rebecca reached over the backrest and kneaded Bella's shoulders.
It was a massage laced with a subtle amount of force, and a moan leaked from Bella's voice.
"Ugh! Ha-ugh! Haaah...!"
"Too hard? Should I go softer?"
"No! Ha-ugh! You can go harder, as hard as you likeeee—!!"
Until we returned to Yoen-su, the atmosphere inside the carriage remained thrillingly tense.
But it still wasn't time for Bella and my lovers to part ways.
After the escort quest concluded, Bella had promised to treat us to a meal.
A dinner with Bella.
I was seriously looking forward to it.
It was bound to be a luxurious meal, the likes of which I'd never tasted before.