Chapter 83
Chapter 83
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 83
Chapter Title: The Guardian Proposal
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"It's something I realize anew, but you have quite the knack for handling things."
Dennis remarked as he sorted through the documents related to the Grisha and Leon incident.
"These two... There were plenty of suspicious circumstances surrounding them, but they always slipped away like eels. To meet such an end... Life really is unpredictable."
"It's just desserts. The evil they sowed came full circle and choked them."
"Though Damian's prodding played a part."
"Prodding? I merely passed along the facts as they were."
After the story broke in the Magic Tower's newspaper, he had leaked each side's secrets to the other.
At first, they probably hadn't thought much of it. They might have suspected entanglements with the other party, but figured no major issues would arise from these minor revelations.
But as the process repeated, things changed.
Damian and the Hilton Merchant Guild were just temporary allies against them—both sides were always ready to bare their fangs at each other.
They had held back only because striking would harm themselves too.
Damian removed that restraint. He maneuvered them toward mutual destruction.
And he had the perfect tools for it.
-The expressions on those bereaved families' faces were priceless. At first, they were ready to die alongside them, but hand them a bit of coin, and their faces changed in an instant.
Before his regression, Grisha had boasted to Damian about his misdeeds.
He figured that once Michael became emperor, his minor sins as a key contributor wouldn't matter.
-Uwaaaah! Spare me, spare me! Grisha, you bastard! I should have killed you back then!!
Leon's crimes had come to light through memory extraction from him as a captive.
Back then, stumbling upon such ugly memories had been agonizing, but now they proved invaluable.
"What about Marriott and the Forest Merchant Guild?"
"They deny any involvement. They're even claiming they're the real victims here—utter nonsense."
"They're sharp calculators. They figured cutting off the tails was the best move."
Grisha and Leon might have thought they held pivotal roles in those guilds, but in truth, they were mere pawns.
Marriott and Forest—guilds driven purely by the logic of profit—kept their true power thoroughly hidden.
They always bowed to nobles and other powerhouses, insisting they were mere merchants.
Because that brought them gains.
But if crossed, they showed no mercy.
That was why they had stayed out of the civil war.
Money.
A force that moved the world, distinct from mana.
In that arena, Marriott and Forest stood at the pinnacle.
No need to antagonize them directly.
Weakening them like this would ensure they harbored no stray thoughts.
Once Anya and the Hilton Merchant Guild grew, they'd be too busy to meddle in imperial politics.
"...Damian."
"Why the pause? What are you trying to say?"
"Have you ever considered becoming a Guardian?"
"Is that a joke you picked up from the Tower Lord?"
Damian narrowed his eyes and shot back.
And rightly so—it was even more absurd than Ariella's plan to make Ezekiel a councilor.
The Guardians handled the Magic Tower's military might, enabling it to maintain independent power within the empire.
They also checked the Tower Lord and the Tower Council.
If anyone tarnished the Magic Tower's value, they punished without mercy.
In the Tower's history, exactly one Tower Lord had been ousted by the Guardians.
The position demanded utmost neutrality. That was why they never accepted nobles.
The Empress might become Tower Lord, but an emperor's illegitimate child could never be a Guardian.
"There's no codified rule against it. We've simply never chosen nobles in the past."
"Isn't that the same thing?"
He had assumed it was a joke, but Dennis remained dead serious.
Of course, it was impossible.
Even if the black mage Damian received the brand, it meant nothing—and he couldn't be tied to the Tower forever.
"Tell me your reasoning."
"It's because I hold your skills and talents in high regard. And also..."
"And?"
"...Because I think you're trustworthy."
Dennis averted his gaze awkwardly, as if he couldn't believe his own words.
Dennis was the descendant of traitors. Despised by all for something as trivial as his hair color.
Such people fundamentally distrusted others—even their own kin. Their relationships were inherently flawed.
Rather, Saliva and Shea getting along well with others was the exception.
"The Tower Lord—no, my master—is the most precious person to me. She's the one who made me who I am today, and she'll be the reason I live on."
He had guessed it wasn't a mere mentor-disciple bond.
Ariella had raised Dennis from childhood, making her family in all but name.
To Damian, Anna and Felix were to Dennis what Ariella was.
"Were it not for you, I never would have gotten the chance to defy her fate. I'm deeply grateful for that. And... I'll keep trusting you from here on."
Even without mana, Dennis's eyes seemed to shine. Damian felt his resolve.
"Don't worry. No one wishes more for Master's safety and the Tower's peace than I."
That would create deterrence against the civil war. That would ensure Damian's revenge succeeded.
"I'm thankful for the offer, but I must decline. I can't stay cooped up in the Tower forever."
"Not one to linger in one place—you take after Ezekiel."
"...Please spare me that comparison."
A strange mood settled over him. He even thought back to the cruel words he'd flung at Ariella in his past life.
"It's a jok— Hold on."
Dennis pressed his index and middle fingers to his ear, listening to an incoming transmission.
"...They're dead. Murdered."
"Who?"
Dennis's face filled with dismay. His lips trembled.
"Grisha and Leon."
* * *
The Magic Tower's sole morgue. Damian followed Dennis there.
Two mages had been murdered in the Tower.
This was leagues apart from Cadrel's death and the disappearances of mages linked to him.
Cadrel had died from a magic-sealing device implanted in his body, and the others were still missing, not confirmed dead.
"This way."
Dennis's expression was one of profound distress. The Guardians were responsible for the Tower's security, after all.
Even criminals deserved punishment under Tower law.
No exceptions.
"But why me?"
Agnes Schubert, asked after being requested to join the investigation at Dennis's behest.
"Leon was killed by the sword. In that regard, you're the only ones left in the Tower I can turn to for advice: you, Damian, and Miss Agnes."
Until a few days ago, Ciel had been here, but she'd returned to the capital. Agnes was now the Tower's only renowned knight.
Conversely, that could have painted Agnes as a suspect, but thankfully, no such accusations arose.
Partly because her alibi was ironclad, but more so because she'd been staying with Damian at Ezekiel's estate.
"This way."
A small, chill room. In the center lay two corpses covered in white cloth.
"Grisha first."
Dennis pulled back the cloth, revealing what looked like a lump of charred human remains.
Without the name Grisha, no one could have identified him.
"Witnesses say electricity sparked from his body, followed by a brain flash, and he died."
"That level of power..."
"Yes. Rubia de Clarent is the prime suspect, but no unique color was visible."
Unique color—the hallmark of talented mages.
It didn't confer special power itself, but mages with it had historically excelled.
Unique colors couldn't be controlled. Thus, mages possessing them faced restrictions in action.
'No, it was Rubia.'
And Rubia had surpassed that limitation.
She had successfully hidden her unique color to deceive foes.
Damian had seen this remote magic before his regression too.
It stored massive currents in the earth, then dispersed them via a targeted magic tool.
'She's already reached this level.'
Before regression, Rubia at this point hadn't.
Whatever the cause, her growth had diverged from the past timeline.
'But why kill Grisha?'
Grisha and Marriott had sided with the reformists.
They hadn't committed fully yet, but they were surely working behind the scenes.
They judged Michael's ascension brought them greater profit.
'Could it tie to that ambush?'
With current info, he couldn't tell. Dead men couldn't be read with Absorption.
"Any insights, Damian?"
"It's tricky."
Rubia was surely the culprit, but convincing others was impossible.
And exposing it now wouldn't help.
"Let's check the other one."
Leon's corpse was more intact than Grisha's, but equally gruesome.
Dozens of wounds had mangled him, terror etched on his dead face.
-You can tell the foe from the sword marks?
-Yes. A master knight's blade is history incarnate. It reveals convictions, goals, heart—all manner of things.
One of Derek's teachings. In that light, the sword marks Damian saw for the first time chilled him to the bone.
'Was that even a human's sword?'
Chaotic, brutal, needlessly savage. Beyond mere killing—it brimmed with intent to maximize suffering.
"No witnesses?"
"Unfortunately not. Killed in his solitary cell. Surveillance footage wiped clean."
In other words, amid urgency, the killer had savored the slaughter. That savage, that skilled.
'Who?'
No one Damian knew wielded such a blade.
No, no expert swung a sword with such purpose. They were all madmen.
"Agnes, could it be..."
Damian trailed off.
The room was cold from preservation magic, but a deeper chill emanated from Agnes.
Ha. Ha. Ha.
No—she was barely suppressing it with composure, but her emotions raged wildly.
It showed in the intermittent smirks tugging her lips.
That expression. Damian knew it.
The moment she could have ended Rubia, that was what he'd seen in Agnes's eyes.
Then the killer was one.
Agnes's half-brother. The parricide who slew their father.
He was in the Tower now.