Sage of the Stars (1)
He had barely begun to savor the comfort of his room after days away when someone knocked at his door.
He ignored it, figuring whoever it was would simply leave if he pretended not to be there—but a familiar voice called out to him instead.
That's strange. I was told you'd returned for certain.
He needed to hear no more. It was Lena White.
There was no chance she had come looking for him without a reason. In other words, this visit is about business.
Dragging his exhausted body to the door, he opened it to find her wearing the startled expression of a rabbit caught in the open.
"There you are. I knocked for ages and got no answer, so I thought you'd gone out."
"Most people knock two or three times, and if there's no reply, they leave. Don't they?"
"Isn't that a bit rude? Makes you look like you give up easily, too."
"……"
Rendered speechless, Oscar ushered her to the sofa and asked, "So, what brings you here?"
"Ah, right. We heard from the military. They want to place an order for our potions."
"The military? Don't tell me——"
Lena, catching the way his eyes narrowed, hurried to respond. "I know what you're thinking, but I haven't contacted them once since I told you not to poke at that hornet's nest and provoke the Blue Tower."
"So they approached us first, asking to buy our potions?"
"Yes."
"……That is rather unexpected."
Oscar murmured, furrowing his brow. Every key post in the military belonged to the Red Tower, so it was safe to assume their fingerprints were all over this decision as well.
Then why would they want to do business with us, even at the cost of antagonizing the Blue Tower?
Hadn't they refused the very same offer the last time it came up? He looked at Lena and asked, "Has anything happened recently that might have driven a wedge between the Red Tower and the Blue Tower?"
"Not that I know of. If anything, I heard the Blue Tower has been falling over itself to accommodate the Red Tower lately—probably because they've got us on their minds."
"……Then it makes even less sense."
"Did you happen to hear that the Red Tower secured a large-scale monster subjugation contract a while back?"
He hadn't. Lately he'd been so buried in one commission after another that he'd had no room in his head for outside news.
"No, I hadn't."
"The commander appointed to lead that subjugation force is none other than the 'Mage of the Ashes,' Lloyd Schultz."
What?
Oscar stared at her as if he'd misheard. "Did you just say Lloyd Schultz?"
"Yes. The man better known to us as the Traitor. He reached out personally."
"……"
Lloyd Schultz. His first disciple in his previous life—now a disciple of the Red Tower's master.
Lena ventured a guess. "Maybe he felt a little guilty about betraying us? Seems like he's trying to look after us in his own way, at least."
"……"
As if that were possible.
Lloyd had never been one for flimsy sentiment like that, not even as a child. Charitably, you could call it composure. Uncharitably…… no. Better not to finish that thought.
"There is one strange condition attached, though."
"What condition?"
"You."
"……"
Oscar flinched. "Does he know who I am?"
"No, no. He knows you as the one who developed the cure for the Cadena Flu and all those other potions. Said he needs someone with deep knowledge of alchemy. In exchange for regular deliveries going forward, he wants you to bring this first shipment yourself."
"Ah……"
So he'd simply been singled out for his alchemy expertise. Of course—there was no way that boy could have seen through his true identity.
"If he needs alchemy knowledge, something must have gone wrong while they were preparing the subjugation force."
"That's my read too. And it's probably a problem they don't want the Blue Tower finding out about."
It was unlikely to be anything minor, like food poisoning. If it were, they'd have solved it already with remedies anyone could buy off the shelf.
Oscar made up his mind. "This looks like a fine opportunity. We should sign a contract with the military while we're at it, and push into selling high-grade potions as well—use it as a springboard to expand the business. What does the Vice Tower Master say?"
"What do you think? He's opposed, obviously. Seems he can't stand the idea of sending you off with a subjugation force."
"Well. I suppose that's only natural."
Subjugation force was a pretty name for it—it was essentially marching off to war with monsters. It was hardly standard practice for a 3rd-level mage to be sent into terrain that hostile.
His heart must be heavy.
On its face, this was a magic tower selling a young mage off to a battlefield for its own profit.
As for the young mage in question, he felt nothing in particular. If anything, he was a little excited.
A battlefield……
If the White Tower was his first home, then the battlefield was something like his second.
And Lloyd was the one calling for him. Even if for no other reason than to see that boy, he had to go.
"Leave the Vice Tower Master to me," Oscar said. "I'll persuade him."
"Welcome back. Did everything wrap up smoothly on your end?"
Vice Tower Master Hamel welcomed him warmly and even poured the tea himself. Oscar bowed his head slightly in reply.
"Yes. Here is the report on this operation."
"Let's see……"
The Vice Tower Master's eyes, skimming quickly down the report, came to an abrupt halt midway. He didn't need to be told which word had seized his attention.
"……A lich? So this wasn't merely a case of a few undead causing trouble."
"No, but as written in the report, it was nowhere near as powerful as a true lich. Likely because we forced it awake partway through its revival. The Black Tower's sealing ritual certainly helped weaken it as well."
"That is a tremendous relief, but…… hah. A lich, of all things."
Having imagined what carnage might have unfolded had the lich completed its awakening, the Vice Tower Master let out a long breath and pressed a hand to his chest.
"I really should deliver a word of thanks to the Black Tower myself for this."
"I think that's a fine idea."
Without them, capturing the lich at all would have been impossible.
Before long, having read the full report, the Vice Tower Master settled a faint smile onto his lips. "Fascinating reading, all told. Above all, I can feel how your view of the Black Tower has changed, Oscar."
"Ahem. They turned out to be better people than I expected."
"How I wish they'd say the same of us."
Report in hand, the Vice Tower Master gave a nod. "You must be exhausted. Don't push yourself for a while—rest properly. Until the Night of the Magicians arrives, it would be best to devote yourself to your training."
"……Senior Lena stopped by my room earlier."
The Vice Tower Master, who had been sliding the report into a drawer, froze, then let out a soft sigh. "……If you're raising the subject in front of me at all, I take it that means you want to go."
"Yes. There's no surer advertisement than delivering potions to the military itself. The moment our potions bear the military's certification mark—whose standards for quality are the strictest in the empire—our potion business will grow several times over."
"That much is certainly true."
But the Vice Tower Master's face, once furrowed, refused to smooth out no matter how much time passed.
Oscar asked carefully, "Is there some particular reason you dislike the idea of me going to a battlefield?"
"You ask the obvious. The monster called 'war' is best kept at as great a distance as possible."
He wasn't wrong. Of all the things in life one should never entangle oneself with, war ranked first.
For a while the Vice Tower Master only fiddled with his teacup. Then he spoke. "Oscar, when you said you wanted to revive the potion business—do you remember that I gave you the money?"
"Yes. The tower's finances were short, so you invested your own personal funds. I'm still grateful for it."
"I didn't bring it up to be thanked. That money…… was sent by my son."
Oscar's face showed genuine surprise. This was the first he'd heard of the man having a son.
So I really was sprinting with my eyes fixed only forward, blind to everyone around me.
Offering a small, silent apology to himself, he asked, "I didn't know you had a son. What kind of man is he?"
"……An ordinary fellow, talent-wise—whether or not he takes after me, I couldn't say. He knew it too, so he decided to become a soldier instead. Said he'd build up the White Tower's influence within the military."
"Oh—then he must hold a fairly respectable position by now?"
It was a simple deduction. No common soldier's salary could have afforded to send his father the princely sum of thirty thousand bells.
But the Vice Tower Master slowly shook his head. "Sadly, no. On some gray, drizzling day, what came home was a snapped dog tag and an envelope containing his death benefit. Not his body—not so much as a scrap of the clothes he'd been wearing."
"……"
"They say he ran into demons while patrolling the Red Mountains. In a region where no demon had been sighted in over a decade, of all places. Dreadfully unlucky, wasn't he."
Oscar found himself unable to say a word.
He had never met a parent who could recount their own child's death in such a level voice.
Without his noticing, the air in the room had grown heavy.
"That is why I hate sending the White Tower's mages—you included, Oscar—to the battlefield. It is a place where you can lose your life for no better reason than bad luck."
"……"
The Vice Tower Master regarded him with quiet, steady eyes.
"The White Tower is doing well enough as it is. There's no need to go to such a dangerous place."
"……"
Nothing the man said was incorrect. Battlefields were thick with every danger imaginable, and the White Tower was, even now, doing well enough.
But…… the White Tower I lived through, the one I remember, was always the best of them all.
Because he knew how brilliant those days had been—and because the decisions, the moments, that had brought it all crumbling down were still so vivid to him.
If only to atone for his own mistakes, he had no intention of settling for this, of resting content here.
And above all—Lloyd was calling. His first disciple was calling for him.
"I won't be conscripted as a soldier. It shouldn't be all that dangerous."
"……Whew."
The Vice Tower Master let out a long, deep sigh. "You really are stubborn, Oscar. Far more than you used to be, these days."
"I'm sorry."
"There's nothing to apologize for. This situation exists because we've all been lacking."
He fiddled with his teacup a moment longer, then offered a compromise. "Then let us do this. If you truly must go, I'll attach one condition."
"What condition?"
"The subjugation force departs in one month. If you become an intermediate mage within that time, I will drop my opposition."
4th level in one month.
It was a condition in name only—a polite way of saying he simply wasn't going to let him go. A mage freshly arrived at the 3rd level needed, on average, three to four years to reach the 4th.
Yet Oscar nodded, utterly unbothered. "Understood."
He had already been keenly feeling the limits of his output, after all. At present he was only holding his ground by leaning on his one advantage—his vast reserves of mana.
But with the Night of the Magicians coming, I can't afford to stay where I am.
Watching Kiri Gloria and the other Black Tower mages had made it unmistakably clear. The mages of the other Great Towers would only be stronger still.
Then the fastest way for me to grow stronger right now is——
He didn't even need to think it through. There was exactly one answer.
It was time to pay a visit to the Sage of the Stars.