The Time Mage
“But first! There’s something we absolutely must prepare before we head to the Magic Tower!”
“Indeed. It’s a long journey, so we should stock up on camping supplies. Shall we restock in Ordella first?”
Roan nodded in agreement with Belgard’s suggestion.
“But! I think we need to prepare something else besides that!”
“Something else? Like what?”
“A banner.”
Water, food, tools, camping gear...
A banner was hardly an essential item for a journey.
“That’s not exactly standard travel gear, is it? What on earth do you plan to use it for...?”
At those words, Roan’s expression turned dead serious.
It was the exact same look he wore when facing a Seed of Destruction.
Seeing that expression out of nowhere made the party members’ spines instantly stiffen.
“...This must be incredibly important.”
“Exactly. It’s of the utmost importance.”
Having said that, Roan turned his gaze toward Jane.
“We’re going to Jane’s hometown, essentially. Someone who left that place is returning after growing this much.”
They had to prepare it. A banner to announce to the world: 'Our Jane is just this amazing.'
“We have to write down everything Jane went through, what artifacts she received, and what spells she can cast! We need to make sure everyone in the Magic Tower knows!”
Roan had completely locked in, his mind consumed by the doting pride of a foolish parent.
“An excellent idea. I shall display the full extent of my aesthetic sensibilities.”
To make matters worse, the eccentric Zaraxia immediately threw her support behind him.
At this rate, they were inevitably going to end up unfurling an incredibly bizarre banner.
Yet, amid all this, the one person who should have been utterly horrified remained perfectly calm.
“Um... Lady Jane? Are you alright with this?”
“With what?”
“They’re talking about hanging up a rather... overwhelming banner...”
“Let them.”
An unexpected approval.
Knowing Roan’s personality, he would have stopped immediately if she had said no, which made her choice all the more baffling.
“Pardon? But why...?”
“The more prestige, the better.”
“Still, won't it draw too much attention? I thought you disliked standing out, Lady Jane...”
“I used to. But now, not really...”
She didn’t care.
This, too, was likely the result of traveling with Roan and the others.
Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing remained to be seen.
The moment Jane gave her tacit approval, the preparations for their departure proceeded at breakneck speed.
Flutter!
A banner fluttered grandly in the wind.
Next to an illustration of Jane giving a thumbs-up, a massive wall of text detailed every single exploit she had achieved since joining Roan’s party.
“...This is kind of tacky.”
Seeing it in person, Jane shook her head, realizing it looked incredibly cheap.
Naturally, the members of the Magic Tower began whispering among themselves at the sight of such an unauthorized installation.
Charbun, who had been listening closely to their chatter, approached Roan as if he had overheard something.
“U-Um... Lord Roan.”
“Hmm? What is it? Is the placement bad?”
“N-No, it's not that... I just overheard some people talking, and it seems a high-ranking official from the Kingdom has arrived at the Magic Tower...?”
“And?”
“W-Won't it be dangerous if they see this...? This area is under the Kingdom's jurisdiction, after all.”
He was right.
But this was Del Roan.
He couldn’t care less about any warnings from the Kingdom.
“Showing off how amazing Jane is is way more important than any of that!”
“Now that I'm looking at it, it's embarrassing. Just take it down.”
“Okay.”
He was a man whom even an entire nation could not stop, yet he listened to his comrades’ opinions above all else.
As Roan rolled up the banner, Jane let out a sigh of relief, finally feeling like she could breathe again.
At the same time, everyone’s gaze turned back to the scenery of the Magic Tower.
Three massive towers soared high, piercing through the clouds.
“Hmm... It feels a bit different from when I was here last time.”
“Does it?”
This was an area that even Belgard, one of the earliest members to join, knew nothing about.
At Roan’s query, Jane nodded.
“Yeah. It's different. The Red Tower has become the shortest one now.”
Now that she mentioned it, it really did seem that way.
Although all of them rose high enough to pierce the clouds, looking at their peaks, one of them seemed slightly tilted.
“Now that I'm gone, their true colors are showing. Idiots.”
As if they weren’t even worth her concern, Jane stepped inside the Magic Tower.
“But where do we go? We don't know where that old time-guy is.”
Of course they didn’t!
But that didn’t mean they were completely clueless.
“I have a feeling he's at the very top of the Magic Tower.”
“...The top? Even the administrators of the Magic Tower don't know what's up there.”
It seemed Jane didn’t know much about it either.
In truth, considering the history of the Magic Tower, it was only natural.
The building itself was a magical artifact.
It was structured so that as the history of magic accumulated, the tower’s height would rise accordingly.
Because of this, neither the students nor the administrators paid any mind to what lay at the very peak.
Or perhaps, the existence of those who did care had been erased from the world.
At any rate, the summit seemed to be uncharted territory for both Jane and the administrators.
“That is a bit unfortunate. For now, we should gather information separately...”
Belgard trailed off.
It was because Roan was already fully prepared to move.
The way he stood, ready to plunge into the building.
It was a posture that screamed he was about to cause trouble.
“Um... Lord Roan?”
“Hmm? What is it?”
“What are you planning to do?”
“We're going up. Since it's a tower, there are stairs. It doesn't seem like anyone goes to the roof, but I plan to take the stairs as far up as they'll go.”
“Ah... Thank goodness. I thought you were going to scale the outer walls.”
“I shall wait nearby for now. I wish to look into what resources might be acquired from the Magic Tower.”
Perhaps terrified of heights, Charbun let out a deep sigh of relief.
...He shouldn’t have.
When Zaraxia opted out, he should have followed her.
'If it's just a continuous flight of stairs, I'll be fine. I have plenty of stamina.'
With that naive thought, Charbun was currently...
“S-S-Save meeee...!!”
...clinging to the crevices between the bricks, scaling a wall that touched the very clouds.
Clack, clatter, tap, clack...
A loose piece of masonry broke off, bouncing against the cracks of the tower as it plummeted.
Charbun reflexively looked down, watching it vanish through the clouds in an instant.
His complexion turned deathly pale.
“H-Hyaaaah... Ahhh...”
“Ugh...! Hey! Stop whining and keep climbing! Even I'm doing this, and I'm way smaller than you!”
Jane’s irritated voice drifted up from below.
“Still, it is surprisingly easy to breathe up here, despite the altitude.”
And to make matters worse, Belgard’s voice sounded perfectly calm, which only added to the terror.
While those below were struggling to catch up, Roan was scaling the wall effortlessly at the very top.
The sorrow of the man caught in the middle.
“There's no reason to be scared in the first place! We're all tied together with a rope! And there's no way in hell Roan is going to fall!”
“Exactly! If it were truly dangerous, I wouldn't have asked you to join us in the first place!”
A lifeline anchored entirely to the absolute trust in a single man, Del Roan.
Ironically, that very lifeline felt like a hand pushing Charbun’s back, forcing him upward.
“Ah... Ahhh...”
Charbun lay completely sprawled out, while Jane and Belgard panted heavily.
Only Roan stood perfectly fine, having reached the summit of the Magic Tower without breaking a sweat.
Catching her breath, Jane’s eyes widened in surprise.
“What... It wasn't actually clouds.”
She had always assumed the peak was shrouded in clouds, but that wasn’t the case.
It was just cloud-shaped...
“Wait... No, it is clouds. What on earth is this?”
“Lady Jane... These clouds seem very similar to what Lord Roan described to us.”
Looking at them again after Belgard’s remark, it did indeed feel that way.
Jane swept her hand through the billowing mist.
It felt like cold clumps of ice clinging to her palm.
Combined with a magic-sealing barrier, it made it impossible to cast spells even if one tried.
“Shall we look around first? From what I saw in my dream, it's not that spacious.”
Having said that, Roan surveyed his surroundings.
The scenery was identical to his dream.
Because he had already seen it once, he was accustomed to it, but the others were utterly spellbound.
“Wow... The petals look frozen. But when I touch them, they're still alive...”
“Come to think of it, there's no wind despite the high altitude... and the temperature is warmer than I expected.”
“Whoa, what is this? The water droplets are frozen solid in midair?”
They marveled at the sky garden, completely ignoring the fact that the platform was slightly tilted due to the Magic Tower’s current state.
They spent some time taking in the sights.
Amidst the gray, frozen time where wind and clouds stood still, the sound of leisurely footsteps made their ears perk up.
“It seems they have arrived.”
A gentle, benevolent tone.
The exact same voice he had heard in his dreams, in his past life.
The Time Mage who had granted him a second chance.
“Welcome, bearer of the singularity, and your companions.”
The old man snapped his fingers. As if on cue, the water droplets suspended above the flowers splashed down, soaking the petals.
A magic of an entirely different caliber—one that manipulated time itself.
While everyone else froze in tension, the conversation between Roan and the old man began.
“I have already spoken of this before, but I shall tell you once more.”
"Because you interfered with the flow, an anomaly has occurred in time."
“The order of events that are meant to unfold is becoming jumbled. Some are being delayed, while others are being brought forward.”
The case of Serenar was one that had been brought forward, while the other calamities he had experienced in his past life were likely being delayed.
Yet, even this man did not seem to know the exact details.
It was only natural.
For he had not regressed.
In Roan’s past life, the old man had squeezed out the very last of his strength to cast the regression magic on him.
“Wait a moment.”
Unable to contain her curiosity at a conversation only the two of them seemed to understand, Jane spoke up.
“Who are you to know all of this?”
“...A man who failed before you did, and has been searching for a countermeasure ever since.”
Once. With just a single failure, he had lost all will to fight.
He had spent his days living as a mere bystander, wishing only to dump the burden onto someone else.
But seeing this newly regressed individual stand before him, it seemed his future self had indeed found a successor.
'Though he is incredibly reckless...'
Still, perhaps such recklessness was precisely what was needed to change the future.
If so, why not make this man his successor as well?
A regression spell that could only be cast once in a lifetime.
If he kept casting this magic on someone reckless enough to shake the very axis of time...
'Perhaps, in the end, the destruction of the continent can be averted.'
In a way, it was merely passing the buck.
But it was only wise to hand the burden to the one who held even a slightly higher chance of success.
“Then, let me ask you.”
Having finished his thoughts, the Time Mage looked at Roan.
His eyes were clear and transparent.
A man so honest he would never speak a lie, transparent enough to openly reveal his status as a regressor right away.
“...If I were to offer you another chance to return should you fail, would you accept?”
And so, he made his offer. An offer of infinite chances.