Chapter 162
Chapter 162
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 162
Chapter Title: 14. Farther Than Love, Closer Than Friendship (10)
Magic Tower Master Gwendolyn was frowning at the stories drifting up from below.
The Magic Tower was fundamentally individualistic. The Tower Master's authority was immense, but interfering in a professor's personal research topics or methods was no easy task.
Thus, more than half the rumors she heard came from intelligence gathered via the surveillance devices in the familiars she had personally created, while the rest were voluntary reports from students in labs harboring grudges against their professors.
And what was the rumor circulating now?
A young man named Yulius was meeting with professors indiscriminately throughout the Magic Tower.
It wasn't a bad thing. He clearly harbored a strong awareness of the tumor growing within the Tower—the demon worship—and was extremely proactive in rooting it out.
She knew those meetings were all for identifying the culprit, but still, he was meeting far too many people.
"On the surface, it looks like an effort to improve relations with the Magic Tower..."
A man who enjoyed the emperor's favor and the kingdom's expectations.
The unofficial power player with hotlines to both elves and dwarves.
There was no reason for the Magic Tower to refuse him, yet the Tower Master felt uneasy because she had nothing suitable to offer in return.
"Sigh."
"Is something the matter?"
"No."
Even if she caught demon worshippers, the aftermath would be a headache. As she pondered this, Dalia—a graduate student she'd been summoning frequently lately due to her solid abilities—asked her a question.
Of course, saying something like we have nothing fitting to give your friend Yulius would be pointless, so she brushed it off vaguely.
Dalia sorted the documents by type, prioritized approvals by field, and then left.
She was capable, that was why that blockhead Elvin wouldn't let her go.
"Maybe I should prepare something."
She knew more magic spells than any living human. Teaching Ermina or Yulius spells that suited them might be one way.
It would mean gifting some of the technologies monopolized by the Magic Tower, which could provoke backlash, but so what? If any professor opposed her, she'd raid their lab on the spot and fire them for even a single speck of misconduct.
She could just hand over the confiscated assets to Yulius.
And another sigh.
"To think the leader of the place with the finest magic has nothing fitting to offer in return—what a truly vexing situation."
Gwendolyn fiddled with her blue locks as she gazed at the sky through the small window in her private chamber.
A cloudy sky heavy with the promise of snow filled her view.
* * *
These past few days, I'd been spinning around the Magic Tower like a top and had come to a realization.
Though I'd started meeting people to see things through now that I'd begun, the Magic Tower—bulked up with robust defenses against internal rebellions or attacks—wasn't going to crumble in one fell swoop.
This shifted priorities: who the culprit was mattered less than how to strike the Tower and when.
Not that I was abandoning the culprit hunt, but I needed to think about ways to neutralize the Tower's defenses.
So I decided to have a chat with Professor Selene.
"I didn't expect Yulius to want to meet first."
Her elegant tea-sipping was just as I remembered Professor Selene. I'd heard secondhand that she sometimes reminisced about her past mistakes and how she'd lived with many regrets, but she didn't strike me that way at all.
She always stayed composed and tried to steer things toward the best possible outcome—that felt like true maturity.
"It's about ways to breach the Magic Tower's defenses."
"Suddenly such a tough topic."
Professor Selene began explaining the Tower's barriers, asking me to bear with her even if it got tedious and pedantic.
One. The barriers weren't a single spell but a multi-layered magical barrier.
Two. The Tower had intentionally tangled them.
Three. Only the Tower Master, whose touch was on them, knew the full details.
Four. If works from dead or retired mages were mixed in, deciphering them was nearly impossible.
"So intrusion—physical or magical—is tough."
"Yes. The only loophole would be someone inside opening it, but even then, the barriers automatically detect demons or malicious curses and block entry."
"So smuggling something out by an insider is the most realistic?"
"Generally, yes. I've never tried breaching or tearing them, so I haven't pondered weaknesses."
I see. Only long-time residents entrenched in the Tower would even conceive of such ideas.
I swallowed a near-sigh and changed the subject.
"How's Miss Ermina doing?"
"Student Ermina isn't faring too well. It's not VIP treatment, and since it's her first time dealing with people immersed in magic research, she's struggling with interpersonal interactions."
"It'd look odd if I checked on her."
"Why? Still hung up on academy days?"
"Yeah. Honestly, the goodwill from her or Karin feels a bit..."
I knew they were good people at heart and hadn't stopped trying. But that aside, did it feel like affection from women? That was another issue.
Saying I received affection from many women felt awkward on my tongue, so I glossed over it.
"No regrets is what's most important. For both sides."
"...Even if rejecting, hear them out and judge?"
"You always get it right away—thanks. And one more thing."
"Yes."
"When deciding, lay out everything you've been holding in. You don't explain your own feelings or moods well."
I gave a wry smile at that. Spot on. I wasn't the type to volunteer my thoughts, and if anything, I was more listener than speaker in consultations.
That wrapped the serious talk.
I comfortably brewed some drip bag coffee, took a sip, and asked,
"Any major incidents in the Magic Tower?"
"Trivial ones pop up daily."
"Big enough for the Tower Master to step in."
"They happen occasionally. The Tower's sturdy, but people aren't, so fatalities occur now and then. The most absurd during my time here was when a jelly fanatic created self-replicating jelly that filled an entire floor."
With the detail that it was orange, my mind conjured the image, and I couldn't help but chuckle.
She said hallucinogenic magic reagents spreading or errand golems and homunculi gaining egos and rampaging happened periodically too.
Not easy.
But they always managed to clean up somehow—that was the Magic Tower for you.
As we chatted idly about Tower matters, Ermina appeared, her face etched with exhaustion, her movements limp.
Her posture had been straight and graceful lately from noble lessons, but now it was like a teen with a heavy bag after cram school, hunched forward.
Spotting me, she lit up head to toe, sat, and face-planted onto the table.
Then she turned her head slightly and said with a squished expression,
"They treat me like a lab rat here."
They made her spam light magic until her mana depleted, or blast max-output spells at mana-absorbing ore.
Experiments that sucked her stamina and mana dry.
Everyone knew she had battles with demons ahead, so they prepared mana replenishment methods if urgent.
"Honestly, I want to go home now."
"...The demons should hurry up and come."
"Ugh, for real."
Her golden hair, much like mine, splayed across the table—she looked utterly, sincerely drained, and for someone who didn't dislike people, truly repulsed.
I see. Even someone like Ermina could come to hate people at this point.
It was a side I hadn't gleaned from the game or her past image.
Well, if you could love and respect everyone, you'd be a god, not human.
As I smiled quietly at her, she turned her face to the other side.
The cheek that had been pressed to the table was flushed red.
"Saying you hate something feels human. I like it."
"...You like it?"
"Flawless people are scary."
She fiddled with her expression, then made a fierce face.
It didn't suit her at all, making both Professor Selene and me burst out laughing.
I see. Was this the communication she needed?
Not keeping distance or conversing politely.
A different approach might have yielded entirely different results, I thought.