The Empty Casket
Unlike Mick Magic Tower, Rafunian Magic Tower stood on level ground. A wall of stacked stone ran out from it in a long line. It rose no higher than a grown man, yet it stretched far beyond the walls of any royal palace—so far that even from a distance the eye could not take it all in at once.
Chris clung to the side of the carriage and approached the gate. The guard who had inspected the carriage and waved it through thrust a staff into his face.
"Halt."
Chris was dressed like an ordinary commoner. He wore no robe, and he carried no staff.
"Identification."
Chris drew a spatial pouch from inside his clothes and produced a Mick Magic Tower transit pass from within it.
"Here."
"What's this?"
"A transit pass for Mickclonia Magic Tower."
"You thick-skulled bastard. You show up at Rafunian and shove a Mickclonia pass in my face? What do you think you're doing?"
"Tell them Gary is here."
"Who's Gary?"
"If you don't even know my name, your rank must be pitiful."
"Look at this one. Insulting me to my face."
Chris had no desire for a long exchange. He formed a large fireball and shot it into the air.
Boom.
The fireball burst in a brilliant flash, like fireworks. The guard toppled onto his rear in shock, then crawled on all fours into the fortress. A short while later, a supervisor came out.
"Mage Gary?"
Chris gave a single nod.
"That's me."
"We've been expecting you. This way, please."
The man led him to the reception hall. They passed through a quiet lobby and entered a hall dominated by its chandelier. A round table stood at the center of the great room, and seated around it were mages Chris knew by face.
Shay, Carmen, and Britney of Rafunian Magic Tower. Julien, Claudia, and Melissa of Touleno Magic Tower.
Every last one of them a Chukhwan.
Chris turned to the only person he did not recognize.
"And who might you be?"
The old mage, bald at the crown, pressed his hands together.
"I am Rab, Tower Master of Rafunian Magic Tower."
"Gary, disciple of Grain."
"A pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise. When one becomes a tower master, does one change one's name?"
"That's a rather sudden question."
"I asked because the tower masters of the three great towers all have such short names."
"Coincidence."
"I see."
Shay grumbled.
"You're a full month past the appointed time. What in the world kept you so long?"
"That's a secret."
Affecting an air of mystery, Chris took an empty seat.
"Have you looked into things in the meantime?"
Julien cut him off.
"Rafunian stole the Motaro. We have no reason to sit at this table."
Shay flared.
"Don't make me laugh. We sent the Motaro, clear as day. You swallowed it, and now you're trying to pin it on us."
For thirty minutes they hurled accusations back and forth, their voices climbing.
Chris looked at Tower Master Rab.
"Tell me what you know about it."
Set in order, what Rab explained in his calm, measured way came to this.
Mick Magic Tower had sent the three Motaro pills Grain had made to Rafunian Magic Tower by transit circle. Rafunian had forwarded the Motaro it received on to Touleno Magic Tower, again by transit circle. Touleno was to send them to Dafuno Magic Tower in the Britan Kingdom, and Dafuno would send them on to the Empire. That would complete the delivery.
But something had gone wrong at Touleno. When they checked, the Motaro was not in the wooden casket. Someone had skimmed it off between Rafunian and Touleno.
They blamed one another, then dragged a third party into it.
"Did it even arrive properly from Mick Magic Tower?"
Their eyes converged on Chris. He moistened his lips with his tongue and began.
"My great master, Supreme Mage Grain, is shut away in a dank, stinking cave, manufacturing Motaro all day long. I suggested that going so long without sunlight was bad for his health, and so, for the first time in ages, he went out. He carried the Motaro he had made with his own hands to Mick Magic Tower's transit circle and sent it to Rafunian. The chance that it vanished at Mick Magic Tower converges on zero."
Chris narrowed his eyes and glared at them.
"Now I'll ask the questions."
The look in his eyes was savage.
"I hear it was Touleno Magic Tower that discovered the Motaro was gone. How did you know? Did you open the casket?"
Claudia cleared her throat. Taking that for a yes, Chris pressed on.
"Rafunian says they never opened it. So why did Touleno open the wooden casket?"
Shay shouted.
"That's exactly what I want to know. If you weren't planning to steal it, you'd have had no reason to open it."
Claudia and Melissa shot Julien furious looks.
You again.
Chris clicked his tongue.
"Julien. You opened it."
"I did. I opened it."
"Why?"
"I ate two Motaro, and my lifespan grew by a measly thirty years. My fallen realm didn't recover either. I'm still a Four-Ring, damn it."
"And so? You thought one more would restore your realm and add a hundred years? Two hundred?"
"I admit it. I opened the casket to steal them. But it was empty! Empty, I tell you."
"Someone got there first."
"That's right."
"Did they move the moment it arrived through the circle?"
"They did."
Chris looked at the Chukhwan of Rafunian.
"Mick Magic Tower sent it properly, and Touleno opened it the instant they received it. That leaves only the people caught in the middle. It has to have been you."
Britney said flatly.
"And how are we supposed to trust Julien's word?"
Carmen took up the thread.
"That man committed the offense of binding his rings by a shortcut, and on top of that he committed the crime of leaking a magic tower's taboo to outsiders. His word cannot be trusted."
Chris rested his chin on his interlaced hands.
"I trust him."
"Why trust a criminal?"
"When his lifespan is on the line, Julien is a rotten bastard who won't quibble over means. He's exactly the sort of man who would steal. This time he was simply late, because someone else moved first."
Shay was dumbfounded.
"You believe him because he's a thief and a criminal? Does that even make sense?"
"No need for a long speech. Bring me everyone involved in receiving the Motaro and sending it on."
Britney shot him a sidelong glare.
"You mean to interrogate them yourself and catch the culprit?"
"Yes."
The blunt answer drew Rab's interest.
"Do you happen to possess a magic that reveals the truth?"
"I do."
"Did you learn it from Supreme Mage Grain?"
"Not from him. I learned it at Mick Magic Tower. A fantastic magic handed down through the generations. You'll be astonished when you see it."
Rab left his seat to gather the people involved.
Shay's eyes went hard as axe blades.
"I will not permit you to rummage through their minds with dangerous magic just to catch a culprit."
Britney warned him as well.
"There must not be even the slightest side effect."
Carmen stepped in too.
"If anyone is left an idiot, we will not sit still."
Julien cut in.
"If someone ends up an idiot, take Motaro as compensation."
Shay snarled.
"You shut your mouth!"
Julien shrugged.
"Harsh way to treat your senior."
He sent his colleagues a look that begged them to take his side. Claudia and Melissa turned away from him. Julien was still being ostracized at the tower. He had broken the rules time and again and made himself thoroughly hated, and trying to steal Motaro on top of that seemed to have put him completely beyond forgiveness.
From Chris's point of view, it was Julien's attempt at theft that had revealed the Motaro had vanished in transit, and that had narrowed the suspects.
"Elder Julien, you want to live a long time badly enough to steal for it?"
Julien let out a scoff.
"You've got plenty of life left. You don't understand how I feel. And your master will make you Motaro besides..."
Every mage of the Chukhwan realm in that room bore a grudge against Chris. Because of it, they disliked him and kept their distance.
Even so, they hid that feeling and showed him respect. Behind him stood the mage who made Motaro. They wanted to stay in Grain's disciple's good graces and receive even one more pill.
"Living a long time doesn't seem to have you enjoying any particular pleasure."
"Live long enough and you graduate from the pleasures of the flesh. In their place, you learn the fun of twisting the world to suit your own taste."
"Are you twisting the world?"
Julien held out a hand.
"In a narrow world, well enough."
A considerable time later, Tower Master Rab returned with eight Sikbae mages.
"These are everyone involved in moving the wooden casket."
In appearance they ranged from the early forties to the mid-seventies, but every one of them would be past two hundred in truth. A mage's age is difficult to read from the face.
Chris circled the Sikbae, who stood stiffly, watching his mood. They were so tense they could barely swallow.
"So you manage the transit circles."
A man with a blunt nose spoke.
"I am Te—"
Chris cut him off.
"I don't want your names."
At those words, Rab frowned. Refusing to hear a name was a declaration that he would form not even the smallest human bond.
So he means to handle this coldly, without cutting anyone any slack.
Rab cautioned him with careful courtesy.
"No dangerous magic."
"Is that so?"
"Too many Sikbae have died of late. We're desperately short of hands. Please take that into account."
"Fine. I'll refrain from magic."
Chris lined the Sikbae up in a single rank.
"I hear two magic circles were involved in moving the Motaro. The circle that received it from Mick Magic Tower, and the circle that sent it on to Touleno. Correct?"
The mage with the large nose answered.
"Yes."
"Those involved with the receiving circle, to the left. Those involved with the sending circle, to the right."
The eight of them split and regrouped.
"I'll question the ones from the receiving circle first."
Julien cut in.
"Wouldn't it be better to interrogate them separately?"
"Why?"
"They might match their stories by reading one another."
Julien had already branded them the culprits. As if the man's conduct disgusted him, a wet, phlegmy rasp rose in Shay's throat.
Chris had no intention of questioning them apart.
"It's fine."
He numbered the suspects from one to eight.
"Number One. I'll ask you. What is it you do?"
Number One's eyelashes trembled.
"I am in charge of maintaining, repairing, and managing the magic circle."
Number Two opened his mouth without being asked.
"I do the same work as Tay— no, as Number One. I don't lay hands directly on sending or receiving goods or people."
"You didn't touch it?"
"No."
"But you were there at the time, weren't you?"
"At the edge of the magic circle..."
Number One began, and Number Two finished.
"We only watched, from quite a distance."
"You did see the wooden casket arrive?"
"Yes."
"Who touched it?"
"Numbers Three and Four handle the transfer of goods."
Chris's gaze moved naturally to Number Three.
"Did you take the casket out of the magic circle?"
"Yes, I took it out. But I handed it straight to Number Four."
Number Four objected at once.
"Not straight. You were fiddling with it."
Number Three flared.
"You were all watching. It was only a moment."
Number Four objected again.
"You had your back to us. We couldn't see properly."
Chris called on Number One.
"And you?"
"It's true that Number Three had his back to us."
"Number Two?"
"From where I stood he wasn't completely turned away, but his robe hid the casket from view for about three seconds."
"Three seconds is no short time for a Sikbae mage."
Long enough to pull the Motaro out of the casket.