Shadows of Betrayal in the Tower
I told her that while investigating the Orichalcum business, I'd learned she was frequenting the information guild. Annie promptly bowed her head low.
After a long silence, she finally spoke softly.
“To be honest, I don't really want to see my parents.”
Annie shuddered as if utterly fed up.
“...But I do want to see my siblings. I wonder if they're doing okay.”
That was why she'd gone to the information guild, she said with a sigh. But it seemed they had settled somewhere outside the city, making them hard to track down.
Annie's eyes brimmed with tears. I patted her shoulder.
“Don't worry. I'll look into it too.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Won't it be faster if the lady of the house is searching?”
Annie looked up at me in surprise. Her eyes were already wet with tears. I could tell just how much anguish she'd been through worrying about her siblings.
“Thank you, miss...”
“Don't cry. It feels like I'm the one who made you.”
I said it half-jokingly, and Annie laughed through her tears. Embracing her shoulders—broader than mine—was no easy task. Yet for some reason, my heart felt warm inside.
* * *
The Magic Tower was shrouded in an icier atmosphere than ever before. Its master, Benjamin Wall, gazed down coldly at the mages he had trusted.
They were the ones closest to him in the tower, serving as his eyes and ears. The only ones granted access to the underground rune prison.
That was why Benjamin had vetted them rigorously before keeping them at his side.
And yet—betrayal.
Whoever it was, one among them had betrayed the Magic Tower's master, Benjamin. He barely contained the rage burning through his skull.
“Master, it wasn't me. I have no reason to!”
“Silence.”
Benjamin ground his teeth at the plea from one senior mage. His grim tone made the kneeling mages flinch. But none spoke the truth.
Benjamin felt suffocated. They all denied it, refusing to confess. The traitor was surely here among them. It seemed he'd have to resort to torture to pry it out.
“If that's how you want it, no choice. I have no taste for torture myself, so I'll call in a technician.”
“M-Master!”
The mages, who had never scarred their bodies with metal in their lives, paled and trembled. Confined to the tower for research, they were especially vulnerable to physical punishment.
Even so, it was uncertain if they'd crack. The Marquis Ater had held out until death, after all. Or perhaps someone had ensnared him with brainwashing magic before killing him.
As the thought struck Benjamin, Ren Magicus, who had been standing quietly beside him, spoke up.
“Master, what if I cast mind domination on them?”
“What?”
Benjamin looked down at his young disciple in astonishment. But Ren's pale, white face was remarkably calm and composed. He stared at the mages with icy eyes, devoid of any emotion.
“Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
Ren nodded without hesitation. Mind domination magic stripped the target's will entirely, turning them into a puppet. But as it tampered with the mind, the side effects were severe.
The senior mages' faces drained of color.
“P-Please, anything but that!”
“We're begging you! Don't do it!”
To them, mind domination was as good as a death sentence. To rummage through a mage's mind, one had to dismantle the fortress of knowledge within. The higher the mage's level, the stronger their mental fortitude—and to extract the desired information, it had to be reduced to idiocy.
That ended not just their career as mages, but any life as ordinary people. A punishment equivalent to death.
“Ren, do we really need to go that far?”
Benjamin frowned at the thought of reducing his key mages to vegetables, no matter how vital rooting out the traitor was.
Ren met his gaze with an expressionless face.
“Master, these people might be accomplices who threatened the lady's life. It could be just one, or several. We need thorough verification.”
“Even so...!”
“Do you intend to forgive them?”
In that instant, Ren's brown hair shifted to silver. Though only the tips changed, Benjamin's eyes widened in shock.
“Ren, calm down!”
“I can never forgive them.”
Ren's eyes, once thought to hold the fresh green of the forest, had dulled to a murky hue. He had hated the Marquis Ater so fiercely upon learning he'd tried to kill the lady that he could hardly bear it. But he'd held back, knowing eliminating him might endanger her.
Yet someone else had dared kill Ater first. He couldn't tolerate the lady's enemies brazenly breathing and living within the tower.
First, mind domination to extract information that would please the lady—then a cruel death. Ren's vision flushed red.
“Ren Magicus!”
“...!”
Benjamin's shout snapped Ren back to himself, realizing the dark thoughts he'd just harbored. As Ren paled and Benjamin glared at him, one mage cried out, trembling violently.
“I-It was me! I'll tell you everything!”
“...Christopher.”
Christopher Fell. The senior mage Benjamin had trusted most as his right hand. Benjamin forgot even his shock at Ren, reeling from the revelation that it was none other than Christopher.
“Who. Whose orders?”
“Th-They...”
Christopher's terrified eyes darted frantically around the warded room, as if expecting someone despite the barriers.
“They're everywhere. Th-They're watching me even now.”
“Who are they!”
As Benjamin bellowed, Christopher's pupils quivered. It wasn't fear of Benjamin's anger. His eyes widened as if beholding a ghost, prompting Benjamin to glance around instinctively.
“D-Demonic... Ack!”
“Christopher!”
Christopher spewed dark red blood, choking and losing consciousness. Benjamin, Ren, and the stunned senior mages cast spells, but he didn't revive. He died in an instant, eyes bulging wide.
“Wh-Why would this...!”
“It's not poison or a curse! Something I've never seen killed Christopher!”
Soon, Christopher's face turned pitch black. Even his veins blackened, as if cursed by a demon.
“...Keep this entire matter silent.”
Benjamin had no choice but to cover up Christopher's death. His final words churned in Benjamin's mind.
“Why would he utter the name of an ancient demon on his lips?”
After securing Christopher's corpse and returning to his room with Ren, Benjamin scowled.
Demonic. The name of an ancient demon. The great devil, said to have been banished from the earth by Lumine, the primordial god of crimson light and chief deity. Legends recorded it as the lord of hell, incarnation of the underworld.
But mere legend. An old tale shoehorned into the empire's founding myth—nothing more.
“Clearly, the group calling themselves Demonic killed Christopher.”
A faction wielding a demon's name. They cursed the northern duke, tried to kill the lady, blackmailed and murdered a senior tower mage and hostages.
In the Magic Tower, no less—where the greatest mages gathered!
Benjamin's gut boiled. No force should wield such power. Not even the emperor.
Which meant actors even Benjamin, the Magic Tower's master, didn't know were at play.
Since when? Who were they?
For the first time, Benjamin felt primal fear toward this unfathomable force.
“Master, won't they target the lady again?”
Ren's question snapped Benjamin from his reverie. He looked at his young disciple, wearing an equally grave expression.
But their worries differed in focus.
“Hah, your head's filled with nothing but that lady.”
“I just...”
Ren bowed his head, face flushing. The lady he'd met so recently had stolen his soul away. Benjamin, who had sent Ren to the ducal house with naive expectations, gave a wry smile.
He'd always seen Ren as his sole successor. Others said he was too young to need one yet, but Benjamin disagreed.
The future was hurtling toward catastrophe far faster than he'd anticipated. The emergence of this unknown force was one sign.
At this rate, he couldn't avert the world's ruin.
Benjamin's purple eyes darkened.
“I need to contact him.”
“Him...?”
Ren looked at Benjamin quizzically. Benjamin's fingers tapped the desk edge.
He'd thought there'd be no more need. Benjamin furrowed his brow.
“The deputy high priest, you mean?”
“Yes.”
Benjamin's voice carried deep displeasure. The Lumine Church, devoted to the god of light and chief deity, Lumine. And within it, the deputy high priest wielding more power than even the pope—Vincent Wall, Benjamin's brother.
“But...”
Ren started to speak, then closed his mouth. He couldn't outright ask, 'But you hate him, don't you?'
Benjamin didn't mind.
“It's fine. Whether he'll even respond is another question.”
He chuckled self-deprecatingly. They hadn't been on bad terms as boys. Both blessed with exceptional mana talent, Benjamin had always felt inferior to his superior brother.
Truth be told, Vincent should have become Magic Tower master. But he'd abruptly joined the temple and left.
To Benjamin, his brother was an eternal enigma, like an unsolvable equation. He made everything look easy, treating life like a game.
The tower master and deputy high priest rarely interacted, but kept lines open for emergencies.
Perhaps the temple knew something of this Demonic group. Benjamin pinned his hopes there.