Chapter 175: The Tin Knight and the Tower of Foresight (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 175: The Tin Knight and the Tower of Foresight (2)
“You want to see the Witch of the North? Do you have an appointment? No? Then state your identity. What? Travelers? Who are these riff-raff? Get lost!”
After being turned away from the Tower of Foresight, Dorothea muttered.
“Maybe I should just summon my undead legion and tear this whole place down.”
Dorothea declared, her tone and expression so grave they could only be described as strict, solemn, and serious.
The Black Witch who usually held back, saying things like, “Fighting a powerful faction is just a pain to clean up after,” and, “Is there any reason to advertise that I’m a necromancer?” was nowhere to be seen.
Adelaide glanced around.
The Tin Knight, who had been teasing Dorothea from the side, was now crumpled in a corner like a piece of scrap metal. Sophia was humming nonchalantly, remarking, “A magic tower. I bet there are all sorts of interesting things inside.” And Rapunzel was trembling, covering her eyes and ears as if to say she hadn’t seen or heard a thing.
Adelaide realized, Ah, I’m the only one who can put on the brakes right now.
A year ago, if you had mentioned the word “brake” to Adelaide, she would have asked what you meant. But after traveling with the Tin Knight, she had naturally picked up such terms.
With the same resolve she’d had when facing the Witch of the West’s army of monkeys, Adelaide cautiously raised her hand.
“Um, excuse me, Witch?”
A flicker.
Dorothea’s eyes rolled toward Adelaide.
A black aura seeped from her back, and her eyes glinted with an emotion that was either indignation or resentment. Her aura was so intense that a timid child would have burst into tears on the spot. To be honest, Adelaide was a little intimidated too.
With the caution of someone defusing a landmine that could explode at the slightest mistake, she carefully began to speak.
“Um, the Witch of the North… she’s a very important figure in the Magic State, right?”
“…She is.”
The Four Great Witches were undoubtedly famous, but their renown varied.
The Witch of the East rarely showed herself, remaining cooped up in her own domain, while the Witch of the West only indirectly influenced the wealthy powers of the Federation and held no official position. Their fame was limited to those in the know.
Unlike the first two, however, the Witch of the South and the Witch of the North were famous enough to be known even by the general public.
The Witch of the South had greatly elevated the Empire’s magical power, which had lagged far behind the Magic State’s, to the point where she established the formula of ‘mage = Wizard’ in the Empire. Furthermore, she herself was a Crown Mage, holding a high position comparable to the Imperial Chancellor.
As for the Witch of the North, not only was she one of the founders of the Tower of Foresight—the origin of all magic towers—but even after retiring from public office, the disciples she trained were famous for entering any of the four towers they wished and leading innovation and revival there. In effect, she was the link connecting all four towers.
“So, if a passing traveler went up to a royal castle gatekeeper and said, ‘Tell the king to come out. An appointment? Don’t have one,’ wouldn’t the gatekeeper naturally react the same way?”
“I suppose so.” Dorothea nodded obediently.
Adelaide was moved. The Witch is so rational after all! she thought.
It was a premature sentiment.
“But right now, I’m facing the possibility of having to live in rags for the rest of my life. Is any of that really important?”
Ah, this is hopeless.
Seeing Dorothea’s eyes still crazed, Adelaide stared off at a distant mountain. The sky was so clear. It was a fine day to become a state-sponsored terrorist.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ is delighted, saying an all-out war with the tower sounds exciting!]
My esteemed knight. Just for now, please shut up.
Just then, Sophia smiled quietly and spoke up.
“By the way, Miss Dorothea. If you cause a major physical disturbance here, wouldn’t that put Miss Rapunzel in an awkward position, since she needs to enter a magic tower later?”
“It’s not like this is the only tower.”
“Hmm, I see. Well, you would know more about mages than I do, Miss Dorothea. I suppose we don’t have to worry about Miss Rapunzel getting caught up in the mess when the other towers all go on high alert and start investigating our backgrounds.”
“……”
Dorothea’s lips twitched as if to offer a rebuttal, but she soon settled into a sullen expression.
“Fine, I get it. I get it. It’s not like I was being completely serious, okay? Do I look like the kind of reckless person who’d overthrow a tower just because I’m in a bit of a hurry?”
Yes.
The rest of the party swallowed the thought.
Sophia continued. “The point is to attract the tower’s attention, right? Enough that they can’t ignore us. And to do it in a non-hostile way.”
“What kind of scheme are you plotting now?”
“A scheme? I’m hurt you’d say that.” Sophia said with a bright smile. “I’m simply providing some useful information.”
*
The name ‘magic tower’ might conjure images of a tall, slender building, but in reality, the magic towers occupied a vast amount of land.
No joke, the space inside a tower was large enough to fit a decent-sized village, making it impossible to see its entire circumference without standing at a considerable distance.
Its height also far surpassed that of other so-called ‘towers,’ which were at most around five stories tall, while a magic tower easily exceeded a dozen. And new floors were continually being added over time.
Gossipmongers claimed the mages of the magic towers built such large, sprawling structures to show off their power, but the reality was far more practical.
-Ugh, it’s such a pain to stop my research and go out every time I need to eat. There’s a limit to how many simple meals I can stomach. Ah, it would be so much easier if we just built a restaurant inside the tower!
-My friends, people are starting to talk about how shabby we all look these days. To maintain the dignity of the magic tower, shouldn’t we put a clothing store inside? It would be better to make our own formal wear than to commission it from outside, too.
-In that case, we should build a bathhouse as well. We could just use cleansing magic, but isn’t it the mark of a true mage to save that mana and use it to take even one more step toward the truth of magic?
-The spirits need a place to rest, too, so why don’t we create a garden, a lake, and maybe a small volcano? If we connect the volcano to the heating system, it won’t be a waste, which would be great.
Because they implemented all sorts of things inside the tower for the simple reason that going outside was a hassle, it was only natural that they would need the space for it.
In other words, if one was determined to be a shut-in, there was no better place to do it than a magic tower.
Licht Glaubig, a mage belonging to the Tower of Foresight, was one such shut-in.
Licht hadn’t set foot outside the tower in four years, but he was proud of it.
The essence of a mage is research and insight. Unlike the mages of other towers who waste their abilities on pointless matters by wandering around outside, I strive to use every moment to pursue the truth.
His colleagues agreed with him. But as the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together; he had only ever sought the opinions of like-minded people, so it was an inevitable outcome.
One day, however, a strange rumor reached Licht’s ears.
“Astrology?”
“That’s right. A new shop opened up near the tower, and they say the owner’s skill is truly astounding. And isn’t your field of research related to information magic?”
Although the magic tower was a facility where most needs could be met self-sufficiently, not all mages were shut-ins like Licht. Some would wander around the tower’s vicinity for a change of pace.
The acquaintance before him had apparently heard the news from one of them.
Licht scoffed.
“You know me well. So let me give you the answer. It’s a scam.”
“What? You’re calling it a scam without even hearing the details?”
“There’s no need to hear them. There have been many so-called esoteric arts of ancient magic that claimed to read the future, but every single one of them produced results that were open to any interpretation. It was concluded long ago that not a single one was a proper form of magic.”
“It’s not the future.”
“Hm?”
“The fortune-teller reads the past, not the future. They say she miraculously divines a customer’s past, even things they’ve forgotten themselves. Is that also impossible?”
“Hmm.”
Licht fell into thought for a moment.
“Something similar might be possible with magic that reads the other person’s memories.”
“Then that’s it, isn’t it?”
“That magic itself hardly exists anymore. Even the version preserved in our tower is only about thirty percent complete. Though that thirty percent was enough to conclude that ‘if the full version existed, it could indeed read memories.’”
“Whether it’s astrology that truly reads the past or magic that reads memories, it’s priceless either way.”
The conversation ended there, but rumors of the ‘fortune-teller who reads the past’ continued to circulate.
Licht’s curiosity grew and grew, and the fact that the fortune-teller’s shop was located on a street right next to the magic tower helped solidify his decision.
“Ugh.”
Squinting in the direct sunlight he hadn’t faced in four years, Licht looked around.
Fortunately, the shop wasn’t hard to find. It was located brazenly near the main gate of the magic tower.
...But aren’t fortune-tellers’ shops usually in some kind of tent? This is an entire building.
As far as Licht knew, the land and building prices around the magic tower were quite high.
Just as the most prosperous area in a kingdom is usually around the royal capital, the busiest and most crowded place in the Magic State was inevitably the area surrounding the magic towers.
And I heard the fee isn’t even that expensive.
Setting up shop in a prime location like this and telling fortunes for a price that was next to nothing? At this point, it felt like they were openly advertising how suspicious they were, begging to be doubted.
There was a long line in front of the shop, but when people saw the formal robes of the Tower of Foresight that Licht was wearing and the insignia marking him as a 3rd rank mage—the third of the tower’s five ranks—they voluntarily made way for him.
Licht was about to say there was no need, but figuring that people would just keep staring at him if he stood in line, he simply accepted their deference and walked to the front.
“Welcome.”
As he entered the shop, two girls in neat attire greeted him.
One had long, flowing golden hair that reached her hips, while the other had dark brown hair that fell just past her shoulders.
Guided into a room deeper inside, Licht’s eyes and nose were stimulated by the soft lighting and a mysterious fragrance.
A suit of heavy, metallic knight’s armor was displayed against the wall like a decoration, and next to it stood a green-haired woman who looked like a servant, her eyes closed.
In the center, a black-haired beauty sat in a chair with her legs crossed arrogantly. Dressed in revealing clothes with a veil covering her mouth and hair, she looked breathtakingly and mysteriously beautiful.
Licht swallowed hard without realizing it.
The woman in black opened her mouth.
“—So, what are you curious about?”