The Dignity of the Chief Mage (1)
“I shall suspend the regular conference for the time being.”
─The Weight of the Chief Mage (Repeat)▲
● Conduct verification in Topaz Hall.(Success)
● Successfully conduct the regular conference.(In Progress)
The quest objective was to successfully conduct the regular conference. Skipping the final presenter, Banggrit Tom, and calling it a day? That could hardly be deemed a triumphant conclusion.
My pride was affirming as much.
“Banggrit Tom. The moment he ascends the podium, the conference resumes.”
I was resolved to drag Banggrit Tom onto the Crystal Hall stage if it was the last thing I did!
But could I really steer the conference at my own discretion?
The worry flickered briefly, but I dismissed it with a single thought.
If you didn't like it, you shouldn't have tasked me with it in the first place.
In that vein, Banggrit Tom. No clue where he'd vanished to, but one thing was crystal clear.
“Of course, prior to that, we shall hold him accountable for this incident.”
Without a valid excuse. Without a reason my pride deemed acceptable.
You'll suffer dearly, Senior Mage Banggrit Tom.
*
Silence─ No one else might have grasped it, but Hoyeol had claimed the podium. Hoyeol, who held etiquette and decorum in the highest regard. And he'd even invoked the word procedure.
Who would dare chatter or fail to listen raptly?
Murmurs─ The moment Hoyeol exited the Crystal Hall, the players finally parted their lips cautiously.
“...Dude, this has gotta be a quest, right?”
“Total quest energy, yeah?”
“Finding Banggrit Tom kicks off the quest chain?!”
It reeked. The stench of a major quest.
A Mage Tower mage—no, a senior mage—gone missing, after all.
The players began eyeing one another warily.
Receiving an invitation to the regular conference? It meant they had the sharp instincts honed by hard-earned experience.
“Let's hang back for now. Might fizzle out boringly?”
A boring fizzle. They meant if Banggrit Tom was still somewhere inside the tower.
For instance.
“Like, maybe he's dozing off somewhere now that the tension's eased.”
Something along those lines.
But even so, it strained credulity.
“A senior mage pulling that? Really?”
As fellow mage-class players, they knew the Mage Tower's grandeur all too well.
A senior mage committing such a blunder? Unthinkable.
Thus, the wait proved short.
Starting with Hoyeol, the instant every senior mage vacated the Crystal Hall.
The players shot to their feet and mobilized.
“Confirmed! Banggrit Tom's outside the Mage Tower!”
“Heard that? 'Must find Banggrit Tom'—no doubt!”
“...Uh, what does he even look like? Hold up, I've never gotten a good look?!”
Crystal Hall. Only one remained.
Jessie Haynes.
Jessie opened her mouth.
“What do you think?”
The pointed hat replied without stirring.
-Indeed, an unprecedented affair.
Even if his renown had dimmed of late.
This was the Mage Tower's regular conference, no less.
A mage vanishing right before his presentation?
Even sifting through her Grand Archmage memories, nothing like it.
Moreover, Banggrit Tom was a senior mage.
“I heard he poured everything into this research...”
Jessie, who frequented the tower and chatted often with apprentices and skilled mages.
Thus knew Banggrit's circumstances intimately.
Jessie murmured.
“...Something definitely happened to him.”
-By the mood, quite so.
However, my disciple.
“Yes?”
-Stay out of this one.
“...?”
Not mere masterly concern.
A little reflection made it obvious.
Grasping the subtext, Jessie recoiled.
“...Could something really happen to Senior Banggrit?”
Precisely.
Banggrit Tom. Setting aside his tower standing, he was a senior mage.
Less man than superhuman.
Having observed up close, Jessie knew full well.
The caliber of the Mage Tower's senior mages.
An incident threatening his safety?
At once, Jessie bolted up.
“...This isn't the time for everyone to chase quests!”
This was no trifling affair.
Perilous even tangential involvement, as her master warned.
*
Mage Tower. Senior Mage Banggrit Tom's disappearance.
The news reached AAU.
“Senior! Where'd you snag this bait?!”
“Oh, you're here? Some netuber was streaming. Covered the conference from kickoff. Ballsy, huh? How'd they plan to handle getting busted.”
“Replay still up? Mind if I rewind a bit?”
“Go for it.”
Yoon Sugyeom hit rewind.
The chat window reversed accordingly.
Gazing at it, Seong Hyunjun flinched.
But why's the chat flooded with the same crap...?
“No helping it. Was no joke. Earlier.”
“Spamming for hours? And instead of bans, mods joining in? What the hell went down?”
Long tale.
Slurp─ Yoon Sugyeom sucked his Americano and extolled today's miracle.
No hyperbole.
Hoyeol's feats bordered on the miraculous.
Silent till then, Seong Hyunjun gasped in replay.
“S-skilled mages... taught by him?!”
“Yup. Presented full research trajectories too.”
“Possible? Mind... blown?”
A mere player, Hoyeol.
How teach Mage Tower mages?
Seong Hyunjun unconvinced still.
Regrettably.
“But that's beside the point.”
“...Yeah. Bigger shocker awaits.”
“Banggrit Tom.”
Said senior mage missing.
That triggered AAU's alert.
Seong Hyunjun clawed his hair.
“Bounced where outta nowhere?”
“That's what we probe now.”
“No, seriously. Another NPC, Arcana native vanishes? Tragic, move on. But...!”
As stated.
Mage Tower mages' stature?
Banggrit Tom: senior thereof.
Insight scales with knowledge.
AAU grasped the gravity.
“Not scripted for Arcana continent action originally. Mages? If they mobilize for real. Empire schmempire—who checks Mage Tower...?”
Yoon Sugyeom clucked.
“Ease up. Who said tower-wide? Solo vanishing act by Banggrit Tom.”
“Still huge, senior! Hypothetical. Pure hypothetical. Players right, Banggrit quest triggers. Say players oppose him.”
“Nah. Shudder to think.”
Assertable from partial knowledge.
Were Banggrit Tom player foe.
Might eclipse demon kings, Decarabia included.
“What snarl led here?”
Ughhh─ Groans and hair-rending yielded zilch.
Thus Seong Hyunjun baffled.
Grasps severity better than I.
Yet Yoon Sugyeom worry-free.
“...Senior chill?”
“Hm? On what?”
“Nah, you'd flip harder than me back then...”
“Ah, faith now.”
“Faith? Senior join cult?”
“Cult?”
Yoon Sugyeom snickered.
“Kinda, yeah?”
Hit play.
Video rolled.
Speaker blared Hoyeol.
“!”
Right—Hoyeol existed.
Missing Banggrit Tom.
Outranked that vaunted senior mage.
Hoyeol: co-chief待遇.
“Recall tower lore. Lucky co-chief researcher? Unproven, position yanked swift. Such is chief seat.”
Yoon pressed.
“Inevitable trust.”
Plus fired up doomsday device Quirnburk Mechanical Tower.
Hoyeol heralded counteroffensive.
Seong Hyunjun spoke.
“Ho-men, Ho-men. Spam halt makes sense now.”
Sure, blind faith in Hoyeol?
Dereliction.
Two synced sans words.
‘Hoyeol-useful intel.’
Fleeting glance.
Clatter─! Seong Hyunjun, Yoon Sugyeom hammered keys.
“Not game anymore. No bug.”
“Hiding purposeful then?”
“Yep. Purpose pins location. How divine purpose... Tower lore first?”
*
Indeed. Actions purpose-driven.
Banggrit's outburst too.
Thus, Banggrit's aim?
Were I asked.
“Urgent privy—even then, seek leave, forgivable.”
...Hold—etiquette paramount, sure.
Utter lavatory in Crystal Hall?!
Shame exists, Grandfell.
No meaty answer, plainly.
Unlike my brazen drivel.
One divined it.
“Indeed, I surmise.”
Marcelo.
Marcelo bulged sunken eyes.
“Uncertain your view, yet I claim grasp of Banggrit. Talent peerless, yet confidence deficit stymies ascent.”
Ah, explains bribe-as-sincerity to me.
Confidence void, resorted thereto.
Nod─ I bobbed head; Marcelo proceeded.
“Trifling, though. Some posit status erosion stressed him to vanish pre-conference... I dissent.”
Voice conviction-brimmed.
“For he is senior pure mana mage.”
Marcelo's gist: simplistic.
No paltry pressure erases senior mage.
Tower seniors no pushovers.
Resoundingly concur.
“Thus I declare.”
Endless nods, irrefutable.
Marcelo portentous.
“Round Table conference matter.”
...Pause purposeful!
Round Table: leadership conclave.
What discourse therein?
Inward curiosity confirmed.
Visage impassive.
Poker face blessed. Truly.
“Scheduled Round Table... postponed.”
...Pardon?
Postponed?!
Then my ordeal... for naught?!
Instant, gut roil injustice.
‘Poker face gratitude? Bullshit!’
Revoke thanks.
Wrath illness imminent.
Yet tone unflinching query.
“Round Table postponement decreed when?”
“As surmised. Mid-conference.”
“!”
“Aye. Timing aligns with Banggrit's Crystal Hall exit.”
Implication stark.
Banggrit vanishing implicates leadership.
Tower Master? Elders?
‘...No false assumption?’
Marcelo intends thus.
No tinfoil.
High echelons abrupt, startle inevitable.
Impassive still.
To dry mien, Marcelo soft chuckle.
“As expected, anticipated.”
“?”
“Precisely.”
Anticipate what?
More shocks loom.
Mind steeled—vain.
“Tower's unspeakable circumstance.”
Instant, quest pulsed.
[Quest: The Truth of the Mage Tower]
Contradictions plague the Mage Tower.
Unveil them.
Rectify the tower and truth.
─Secure Banggrit Tom, entangled with tower leadership. (In Progress)
...Linked thus?
Top-down tangle?
Sensed from Marcelo's reticence.
Reality amplifies shock.
‘Not mere mage—leadership.’
Yet contra inward.
Retorted.
Utter brazen timbre.
“Thy plight comprehended. Chief Mage Marcelo.”
*
“Morons? Brains exist?”
Tower lobby.
Sundry players loitered.
“Blind dash achieves what? He materializes, greets?”
Hunting Banggrit too.
Clue prerequisite.
Thus collective futility.
“Right! Clue-less? Insight then. Like us.”
Awaited Hoyeol.
Hoyeol bound to pursue Banggrit.
Hoyeol whom?
Co-chief researcher.
Tower lore richest.
“Tail Lee Hoyeol, yields something.”
Tail, preempt Banggrit find?
Quest, rewards ours.
Loiterers' aim.
Clack─ Vigil ends.
Heel clops.
“Lee Hoyeol...”
Yet foul intent.
“...Daaamn?!”
Shattered wretchedly.
Footfalls plural.
Hoyeol unalone.
“Skeleton rear? Actual skellie?”
No skeleton.
Dessicated man, skeletal.
Identity dawned swift.
Mage players aghast, recognition.
“Ch-Chief Mage Marcelo... here?!”
“Portal-bound! Those two!!”
“Tower mobilizing? Over Lee Hoyeol?!”