Chapter 127
『Translator: RainTL』
༺ Mages of the Tower (5) ༻
“Zollin that stupid fool…!”
The leader of the Red Cult, Elder Admelech, released his blazing mana in an attempt to quench his burning fury.
He used to call the mages of the Black Cult fools and mocked them when they had gone missing, but he didn’t have the room for that anymore.
He might have ignored it if it was a mage from a lower floor, but the problem was that Professor Zollin, the hostage, was a direct disciple of Elder Admelech.
Zollin was in the 7th floor, which was right beneath Elder Admelech’s 8th floor, and that in turn meant that he was the future elder of the Red Cult. Although most of the mages in the Tower treated their disciples like trash, head disciples of elders were a different story. They were extremely valuable successors.
He was the disciple hand-picked by Elder Admelech out of dozens of prodigies with enormous mana capacities, raised and nurtured carefully for dozens of years. Elder Admelech could not afford to lose him just like this.
“I do admit that Zollin’s a fool, but we must still save him!”
Admelech genuinely admitted Zollin’s mistake and requested the help of the Black Cult, which was not received very well by the black mages.
The head disciple of Elder Morushtan, Arkai of the Black Cult, opened his mouth.
“This is something that concerns the Red Cult. There is no responsibility for us Black Cult to…”
“Shut up, brat. I am not talking to you.”
Admelech turned his gaze to the leader of the Black Cult, Elder Morushtan. The ones in charge of making decisions were the elders of each cult, and Elder Admelech did not see the need to listen to the peasants below him.
“...We will help.”
“M, master?”
“This is not… an issue concerning one specific cult. He… has figured out our goal.”
“It is as you say. Who in the world is he?”
There were too many unanswered questions.
Who was the clown inside the footage, and did he tell others about it? That was when one of the medium-level mages of the Red Cult carefully raised his opinion to Admelech.
“Master… Since he’s requesting gold coins, how about we try putting together funds…”
“Nonsense! The Tower will not negotiate with such scoundrels!”
His pride as one of the elders of the Tower of Mages did not allow him to obediently give him money. Even though saving his head disciple was very important, Admelech did not want to bend his pride for it either.
“If he leaks the information… That will ruin our great plan…”
“I know that already!”
Although Admelech didn’t mention it because of his pride, gathering enough money wasn’t that easy either. They had traveled a long distance from the Tower of Mages to get to the Academy. Where would they find and prepare that much money?
“We still have time… We must look for him.”
“We will need people to look into this guy’s whereabouts. Fortunately, the 2nd Princess has entered the Academy, so… I suppose we should request the princess for some aid.”
“I agree.”
There was still some time left in their hands.
The mages of the Tower decided to find the clown before anything.
****
Now, they must be feeling rushed and hasty.
There were mainly 3 things that the Tower could do at this stage in time.
Ignore the video and move in groups and discard the hostages.
Prepare enough money as requested.
Find the clown and settle the score.
As for Number 1, it was impossible. At least not for Elder Admelech of the Red Cult.
Zollin, who was currently in my hands, was still the one and only successor of the Red Cult despite appearing rather stupid.
After entering the tower, the mages would discard their surnames and display themselves by their names and their cults. For Admelech, the Red Cult was his family, and his asset as one who had dedicated his life to the path of magic.
There was no way that he would abandon his successor that easily.
Number 2 wasn’t a realistic option either.
The mages of the Tower were elitists and personified versions of ego and pride. For them, this kidnapping incident would be one that brought about fury and thoughts of revenge, and would not see the clown as someone to negotiate with.
‘And that’s why I gave them a week.’
Inevitably, the only option they would choose was Option Number 3. Looking for the clown and making the clown pay for their actions would probably be the only option in their minds.
And that raised a question - how would they try looking for me?
They might request the Intelligence Guild or look for clues themselves, but… the easiest method was going straight to Princess Miruam.
“Can you please do that for me, junior?”
“...”
The boy in front of me, the descendant of Hasassin, replied after a short silence.
“Asking me to monitor a princess of the royal family all of a sudden… Is this not a serious offense that might drop my head?”
“That is why I am asking you specifically, junior. If it’s you, you’ll never be caught and you will be alright.”
“...I swear I remember you telling me to walk the path of a knight just recently, though.”
Rashid seemed dumbfounded by my request, but it was understandable, considering how I suddenly came to him and was asking him to monitor Princess Miruam and tell me what conversation she would have with mages from the Tower. It was a rather illegal request.
“My dear junior!”
I shouted while grabbing tightly onto the shoulders of Rashid Ad Din Mustali.
“What exactly is a knight? What is the heart of chivalry?!”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“Saving the weak, doing what is just, and keeping justice is what chivalry is all about. Doth thou disagree?”
“What is wrong with you…”
“Doth thou disagree?”
“...No. You’re right.”
“In other words, it’s okay for the procedure to be slightly cowardly.”
“Like, umm… isn’t that pure sophistry? Isn’t being righteous and fair also a part of chivalry?”
“Righteousness to righteousness. But evil to evil. That’s how it is.”
“But still, surveilling a royal princess is…”
“No, no, no. That’s not it. Your job is not about surveilling a princess. It’s about monitoring the mages from the Tower.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“Everything depends on how you phrase it.”
Taking out a pouch of gold coins from my pocket, I placed it in his hands.
“That’s the advance payment. I will give you the same amount if you bring me the requested information.”
“...Thank you very much for your patronage.”
In the end, Rashid accepted my request. Since he just left the nest of assassins, he was pretty much broke and the money I offered as payment was probably too much for him to ignore.
Now, all I had to do was wait for the Tower to get in contact with Princess Miruam.
Looking at the purple suit and the makeup of a clown, Miruam would be able to immediately notice the identity of the culprit in an instant.
The fact that the culprit was me, Korin Lork, who had been using the same disguise in the Hunting Grounds, would be as clear as day for her.
At that point, there would be no reason for Miruam to not tell the Tower about my identity. Because the Tower was one of her greatest sponsors, the decline of their power also equated to the decline of her status and position.
Everything I had done until now was to induce them into attacking me for a one big sweep. My goal was to wipe them all out at once, but…
『Oh dear. I wonder who this is. What a terrifying-looking clown.』
Unlike my expectations, Miruam did not say a single thing about my identity.
………What was going on?
****
“The Tower has been quite rowdy recently.”
In the chairman’s office, Master Erin opened her mouth while lifting the cup of tea to her mouth.
“As you expected, the Tower seems to have noticed that we were related to the kidnapping incident of the mages.”
“But the problem is that they didn’t fall for the bait.”
Miruam did not give any clues to the mages from the Tower who came visiting her to show the footage. She simply did not tell them that I was the culprit.
“Why do you think she did that?”
“...Maybe she saw through it?”
“But she still should have said it in that case, don’t you think?”
She might have noticed Rashid but was that even possible? Even I, who was aware of his ability to conceal his presence, had to engrave several Runes of Perception around me to notice him.
There shouldn’t be any methods for Princess Miruam to see through Rashid’s stealth so… why did she do that?
Was it to side with me?
That made even less sense.
Miru was a cold-hearted and calculative person. She wasn’t the type to discard something that was already on her side, just because of something that could eventually take her side.
“Anyway, it looks like your Plan A has failed, Student Korin. At this rate…”
“They’ll probably do something in the mid-sems.”
That was what I had been hoping to avoid at all costs.
According to the original storyline, the mages of the Tower would create a commotion in the middle of the mid-sem exams, which would result in a horrible disaster.
Since they had already familiarized themselves with the structure of the Academy and the locations of several facilities including the laboratory, the black mages would drop tons of chimeras and undeads at once, while the red mages would set every building on fire to add to the chaos.
Meanwhile, Elder Morushtan and Elder Admelech would kidnap Marie, who was locked up in the basement of the Academy and… Lord Adelene would assassinate the chairman.
That was the original storyline of the game. On top of that, the damage done to the students would be even more amplified by Adelene’s magic.
My goal was to prevent this from happening altogether.
Wearing the outfit of a clown, I would create a fuss in the Hunting Grounds to etch my appearance into Princess Miruam’s mind, and send a video of a similar clown to the mages.
I was going to go out on an external mission and use that to lure in all the mages after they started monitoring me, but…
The prerequisites of Plan A ended up crumbling to pieces by Princess Miruam not telling them about my identity.
“Let me do it.”
“But…”
“Since Plan A has failed, isn’t it time to change to Plan B? I will draw the eyes of the mages.”
“No. We can’t have the king stepping in already.”
80 years ago, Tates Valtazar had sealed Erin in the Shadow Palace, and the only reason she was able to attend the matters of the material world was thanks to the puppet, Eriu Casarr.
If the puppet were to be broken, Master wouldn’t be able to safely intervene in the matters of this world and in the end…
“It is alright. Even if this body is to be broken, I can break out of the seal. The seal has weakened considerably in the span of 80 years.”
“...”
And that was what I hated. In the last iteration, and even back in the game, that was what made Erin lose her life.
My goal in this iteration was to have her remain inside the shell of Eriu Casarr without giving her even the slight chance to personally leave the palace. Before Tates Valtazar could be crowned to being the new king, he had to kill Erin Danua, the current Queen of Paradise.
In order to prevent that from happening altogether, my plan was to have her exiled in the Shadow Palace until I managed to kill Valtazar.
“I believe it is right for me to bear the burden with this spare body, instead of putting Student Marie at risk.”
“...”
There were no justifications for me to turn her down. After all that was the Plan B we had decided with, and using Plan B was unavoidable now that Plan A had failed.
“Before that… let me do something first.”
“What is it?”
The sudden appearance of Princess Miruam and her inexplicable actions had acted as a variable, but in this iteration and in this current time frame, there was another variable that could work in our favor.
“Let’s flip the whole stage over, and force them into doing something.”
****
“Elder Morushtan of the Tower of Mages. You are under arrest for illegal human experiments, and charged for murder, abduction, and confinement.”
On the way to the Academy, it was when the mages from the Tower were walking to the Academy as always when they suddenly appeared out of nowhere. As a result, the front gates of the Academy became a ground of confrontation of roughly 40 mages and people wearing sacred garments and armors.
“Paladins of the New Faith…! What do you think you are doing!?”
They were the armed forces of the New Faith, that rivaled the Templar Knights of the Old Faith. They were the symbol of ‘strength’ in the New Faith, and it was outside of everyone’s expectations for them to suddenly appear before the mages of the Tower.
“...”
Elder Morushtan, the leader of the Black Cult, gazed at the paladins before him.
As the leader of the Black Cult, he had always been the one in the lead when it came to human experiments with a bunch of such experiences in his hands. However, mages of the Tower had always been the target of suspicion and the key was in evidence. And Elder Morushtan was confident that he had already cleaned up and concealed everything that he had done.
“Do not resist and receive the verdict, Elder Morushtan. You are under a significant allegation of being a heretic.”
“Nonsense! The Tower of Mages does not belong to any nation! No one can arrest us; not even Holy Knights!”
The mages of the Tower retaliated against the paladins in one voice, as both sides turned more and more aggressive. The Holy Knights were here to arrest the leader of one of their symbolic cults, which was naturally met with significant resistance.
Both sides were incredibly powerful. A conflict of the two forces would be devastating and could even escalate to a war of religion.
“Everyone. Please stop.”
It was then. A girl appeared and started walking up from behind the paladins.
She was the harmony of pure white and gold - the one and only of the New Faith.
“Saintess Estelle…”
Estelle Hadassa El Rath. She was here to intervene in the volatile situation.
“What is this about, Your Highness Estelle? Is Your Highness planning on harassing us, the Tower of Mages?”
Professor Arkai, the head disciple of Morushtan, raised his voice.
The Tower of Mages was by no means weaker than the New Faith in both strength and authority. It was impossible for them to arrest a leader of a cult based on allegations alone.
“Of course, I, as the Saintess, fully acknowledge the prestige and rights of the Tower. However, there has been a heavy allegation against Elder Morushtan. Since there has been a report, there is a need to look into the matter.”
“You cannot do this without even having proof…”
“Of course, we do have proof.”
With a wide smile on her face, Estelle took out documents and a recording stone. They were the evidence and a recording of the place that Korin Lork had told them about.
“This…”
Even Morushtan was dumbfounded looking at the obvious pieces of evidence sitting right before his eyes. This was the footage of his secret laboratory that no one should know about. He only visited the laboratory with the help of his familiar and made sure nobody knew about his presence or the location of the lab, so how did the New Faith know about it?
“Y, you’re framing…”
“Be quiet. Our order carries out rightful inquisitions in accordance with the rules forged by the lord and the royalty.”
When Estelle said that out loud with a cross in her hands, blinding light surged out of her body and threatened to blind their eyes despite the sun being high up in the sky.
It was a radiant yet warm ray of light - a cleansing miracle cleaning everything evil in existence. The light emanating out of Estelle was the very proof that she was being loved by the gods.
Saintess Estelle.
Just from a single prayer, the necromancers walking down the evil and wicked path were made to swallow their pain.
“Uhuk…!”
Staring at them, the saintess of the New Faith, Estelle, said with a sadistic smile on her face.
“Are you coming? Or do you need to be bashed up first?”
Her last words were truly unbefitting of a saintess, but were enough to make the mages of the Tower surrender.
****
“Those damned bastards of the New Faith!!”
The mages of the Tower were very down.
The leader of the Black Cult, Morushtan, had been seized by the New Faith for allegations of human experiments, which was on a whole different scale to third-rate mages and the head disciple being kidnapped.
“How bad is our luck?!”
“We need to stop our plan!”
“How dare these scoundrels interrupt the great path of magic?”
The hot-tempered mages of the Red Cult were infuriated whereas those of the Black Cult appeared extremely gloomy. Losing their leader Morushtan was a big blow to their confidence.
More importantly, the problem bigger than the blow to their confidence was their lack of power.
Their targets, Marie Dunareff and Chairman Eriu Casarr were both powerhouses at the Unique Grade. Having several mages at the level of an elder was a must when capturing such individuals and besides, it was originally supposed to be Elder Morushtan’s job to capture Marie Dunareff and hence they were lost as to what to do.
“Professor Arkai… What do we do now?”
“...”
Morushtan’s head disciple, Professor Arkai was agonized. He could only think of one plan that could save them out of this trouble.
“We must… continue the plan with haste. Before master gets taken to the sacred lands of the New Faith… we need to burn the Academy and save him in the midst of that chaos.”
“Shut your nonsense! Professor Arkai! We already had our hands full with that stupid clown; what plan is there to continue with at this point?! We must quickly return to the Tower!”
“The foremost reason why our plan was revealed was because one of your professors revealed everything to that clown! You have your side of the responsibility to this matter, Red Cult!”
“What was that? You filthy necrophiles!”
“Is that all you have to say, you damn arsonists?!”
The quarrel between the two cults escalated as they started raising their voices. No longer able to leave them be, Elder Admelech created soaring flames that settled both parties down.
“Kuuk?!”
“E, Elder Admelech?!”
His flames emerged without him even chanting a spell and yet they were powerful enough to almost break through their defensive robes.
It was an overwhelming display of firepower, capable of suppressing dozens of mages at once. What was even more surprising was that the flames were focused only on the mages without affecting anything else in the room.
“This is not a marketplace, you fools.”
“S, sorry sir!”
“Please… have mercy!”
All the mages yielded at the face of Admelech’s flames. It might have been possible for them to withstand the spells of a professor-level mage, but someone at the level of an elder had the power to wipe most of them out as if they were ants.
After settling the mages down, Admelech quietly looked into the eyes of each and every one of them before shouting with a sonorous voice.
“Lord Adelene!”
There was a reason why the higher ranked mages, who considered the low-grade mages as insects, had been letting everyone participate in the conference. It was because the Great Golden Mage was in disguise as one of the lower-grade mages.
Admelech shouted, with not a single doubt that Lord Adelene was among them.
“Now that Elder Morushtan has been arrested, it is impossible for this old man to do this alone. I will have to ask for your direct assistance!”
“...”
“...”
The room turned silent. No one stepped up calling themselves Adelene, but that was natural because Adelene wouldn’t have even bothered to go under disguise if he or she was going to reveal themselves this easily.
- Creak!
- Tadak…!
It was then. Every metal in the room starting from pens, badges to staves and everything with even the slightest hint of metal started to move by themselves.
“W, what is going on?”
“Who’s using magic…?”
They turned to one another, but none of them were able to even guess who the one using magic was - not even Elder Admelech.
- Click!
Soon, the metals stopped moving in the air. They formed a sentence giving a direction to the mages of the Tower.
『Seal the Witch.』
The plan was revealed and key personnel were captured but the central figure of this great plan - the Great Golden Mage gave a simple command.
Carry on with the plan.