Chapter 32
#32. The Green Mage Tower Master Joins the Battle!
Just as Winterwald is a place where snow falls heavily even in spring,
warm winds blew across the Southern Continent even in autumn.
There could be no better place to take a vacation than the Southern Continent.
That was not to say everyone living on the Southern Continent was in a cheerful mood, however.
"Please…! Please!!"
'Aria of the Blue Shade’, the Empire's greatest plant-affinity mage and master of the Green Mage Tower,
was tearing at her hair in her workshop.
Crack! Fwoosh!
The fragments of a slime magic stone floating in midair were rejected and bounced away just as they were about to be absorbed into the green magic stone.
It was already her seventh failure.
"Aaaaargh! Again! I failed again!!"
Aria screamed irritably.
"Haaah, haaah…… At this rate, the green magic stone I went to such lengths to obtain is completely meaningless……!"
She glared at the center of her workbench with bloodshot eyes.
Floating there was the emerald-colored magic stone she had bought from Kylan Winterwald, the Grand Duke of the North, for the enormous sum of 16,000 gold.
It was a legendary treasure extracted from Boss Treant—something a plant-affinity mage might see once in a lifetime, if ever.
But if she wanted to create the finest magic staff, one magic stone alone was not enough.
She needed one magic stone for the primary attribute and another auxiliary-attribute magic stone to maximize its power.
After all, fusing the two to create a core was the latest trend among the Tower Masters.
In Aria's case, her primary attribute was plants, and her auxiliary attribute was water.
The problem was that she simply could not obtain a water magic stone worthy of the green magic stone's caliber.
"Ugh…… This is such a waste! How much money have I blown already?!"
Aria let out a deep sigh as she looked at the shattered slime magic stone fragments.
To obtain the purest water magic stones, she had to hunt slimes.
Slimes were at least frequently observed along the shores of the Southern Continent, but their population was so small that even a tiny fragment could fetch nearly one gold.
Knock, knock, knock.
Just when her stress had reached its peak and was about to explode,
a knock sounded against the workshop door.
"Who is it?! I told you never to come in while I'm making a staff!"
"M-Mage Tower Master! It couldn't be helped, given the circumstances! His Highness Kylan, the Grand Duke of the North, has sent a personal letter!"
At the frightened voice of her chief assistant, Aria furrowed her brow.
"……Ah, come in, then."
The chief assistant entered, accompanied by a northern knight drenched in sweat.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Mage Tower Master! I am Sez, deputy commander of the First Knight Order of the Northern Defense Force!"
Aria tilted her head as she watched Sez salute with rigid precision.
"What brings a northern knight all the way to the Green Mage Tower in the south?"
"Because of the nature of the item, His Highness the Grand Duke gave me strict orders to personally escort and deliver it."
Sez took a thick letter from inside his clothing and set a large steelwood chest on the table—one so big it required both hands to carry.
"What on earth could be inside for all this fuss…… Oh my gosh!!"
Aria flung open the chest's lid and fell backward.
Then she sprang up and rushed toward the chest as if she were about to stick her head inside.
Inside was something as large as a human head…!
A blue magic-stone fragment was exuding moisture.
A dazzling blue light bright enough to blind her.
An overwhelming density of magical power.
"W-what is this?! S-surely this isn't a water magic stone, is it? It isn't…… It can't be. There's no way…… It is!?"
Casting all dignity aside, Aria buried her nose in the magic stone and sniffed loudly.
Her heart began pounding like mad.
"This…… this smell…?! To think this is a genuine fragment from a slime's magic stone…! Aah…!?"
Had her repeated failures at crafting the staff driven her to hallucinate?
Even if it was an illusion, she wanted to keep smelling it.
"This is one of the fragments His Highness the Grand Duke obtained after personally defeating the King Slime. I have been ordered to hand over the fragment, which is the reward, as an advance payment if you accept this commission!"
"W-what commission!? As long as it's not illegal, I'll do anything! No…… even if it is illegal, who cares!"
It was a dangerous joke for the master of the Green Mage Tower to make, but her eyes had gone completely unhinged with desire.
A fragment this large should resonate perfectly with Boss Treant's magic stone and give birth to a legendary staff!
With trembling hands, Aria tore open Kylan's letter and quickly read through it.
But the expression on her face as she read the parchment changed from joy to shock, then quickly turned deathly pale.
Cold sweat began dripping onto the floor.
"Is he…… joking? Capture five thousand elite orcs alive? Aliveeee!?"
Even a thousand elite orcs marching toward them would be a national-disaster-level crisis capable of making an entire city stagger.
'F-five thousand of them…. And on top of that…'
He wanted her to capture those monsters alive without killing them, after binding them tightly?
If that were possible, Aria would never have had to worry about budget problems in the first place.
She would have become the queen of the Southern Continent and declared independence from the emperor.
'This is absurd. No matter how powerful the Sword Master holding the line is, capturing five thousand elite orcs is impossible……!'
Aria shook her head in refusal, but then…
her gaze met the King Slime's magic stone fragment.
Gulp.
'I’ll never see a fragment this size again before I die. If I miss this chance, I’ll have to spend my whole life carrying around an unfinished staff……’
Aria bit down hard on her dry lips.
Reason and desire were locked in a fierce struggle.
And that contest… had already been decided!
’All right, to hell with it…… Even if it means sharing Winterwald's fate……!'
Aria lifted her eyes and shouted toward Sez.
"Tell His Highness the Grand Duke immediately! Aria of the Blue Shade, master of the Green Mage Tower, says she will rush to the North as soon as tomorrow, the moment she finishes the staff!!"
Even she, hailed as the sage of the Southern Continent, was powerless before greed.
***
A few days later. Late at night.
Winterwald's new city.
The Green Mage Tower Master, Aria of the Blue Shade, stepped down from the carriage, raised the staff in her hand high, and shouted.
"Haha! Aria of the Blue Shade, the greatest mage on the continent, has come to save the North!!"
The legendary staff Heart of Verdure, created by fusing Boss Treant's magic stone with the King Slime's magic stone.
The moment Aria first held the staff in her hands, she realized it.
She had already transcended her limits.
She could no longer even remember why she had ever been afraid of orcs.
Her plant magic now boasted power on an entirely different level.
'With this much magical power, I can show His Highness the Grand Duke an impressive performance! He won't be able to complain that the magic stones were wasted, right!?'
Confidence: fully charged!
Aria squared her shoulders and strode proudly into Winterwald's territory.
But that arrogant confidence shattered the moment she set foot inside the territory.
"……W-what is that?"
Aria swallowed hard and froze in place.
What entered her field of vision was an unreal sight she had never seen in any city in the South.
The sun was floating in the night sky.
Of course, she had heard the rumors.
That Grand Duchess Eleanor had invented such magic.
But she had thought it was merely a variation of a lighting spell.
But that… that was simply the sun.
'W-what terrifying magical power. I heard Her Highness the Grand Duchess isn't even in her mid-twenties yet—how has she already reached such a realm…!?'
Though night had deepened, the territory was as bright as day.
It did more than simply illuminate the night; it warmed the frigid North until it felt like spring in the South.
When she looked away from the sun, another astonishing sight awaited Aria.
Buildings stretched endlessly along both sides of the street, radiating a blue glow.
Beautiful structures that looked as though they had been carved from jewels glittered in the sunlight.
It was a magic city straight out of a fairy tale.
'This was definitely a backwater village on the verge of collapse!? How had it become such a beautiful city in only a few months!?'
The transformation of Winterwald, seen with her own two eyes, was astonishing.
As a Tower Master, she had traveled throughout the Empire in search of rare magical materials.
She had passed through the capital's splendid imperial city and the bustling port cities of the South countless times.
Yet the Winterwald spread out before her now looked more beautiful than any city she had ever seen.
Entranced, Aria was swept up in the people's vitality and headed toward the construction site where the ramparts were being built.
"I brought the stones!!"
"Thanks, Grunak! We couldn't get anything done without you! Hey! Bring the slime!"
"……Eek!?"
Aria nearly collapsed as the strength drained from her legs.
At the rampart construction site, hundreds of elite orcs were carrying stones and steelwood, all dressed in matching blue work clothes bearing Winterwald's crest.
The sight of workers and orcs passing by with their arms around one another was so unreal that it felt like a dream.
There were an absurd number of adventurers, too.
A bluish glimmer shone from around the necks of some of them.
'My goodness, those are platinum identification tags…?'
Even platinum-rank adventurers, who received treatment on par with guild masters in other regions, were sweating alongside everyone else like ordinary local laborers.
"Oh. You've worked hard to come all this way, Tower Master."
Just then, a familiar voice reached the ears of the dazed Aria.
The Sword Master. The ruler of the North.
Kylan Winterwald, the Grand Duke of the North, was approaching her.
"I-I am honored to meet you, Your Highness the Grand Duke……!"
Aria hurriedly dropped to one knee and bowed her head in respect.
She couldn't remember exactly how many months it had been since she had last seen him.
What she knew for certain was that it had been less than a year.
In that short time, the poor northern backwater that had been a symbol of poverty and hunger had become the most beautiful city on the continent.
A land of opportunity where merchants and adventurers flocked.
As Aria shuddered inwardly, Kylan looked down at her and flashed a pleased grin.
"You seem to have grown more powerful since I last saw you. It was a good thing I sent a commission to my Green Mage Tower Master."
"O-oh, not at all! I, too…… I will learn a thing or two from Your Highness during this subjugation campaign."
Aria spoke with humility.
When she had stepped down from the carriage, she had seemed ready to cover the entire world in grass.
That was when it happened.
"Oh my! I truly appreciate you protecting His Highness, but you shouldn't stand quite so close to him, you know?"
Light, dainty footsteps.
A dazzling platinum-blonde woman approached Aria with footsteps as light as if she were walking on clouds.
The miracle worker who had raised the sun over Winterwald and the woman who had changed the monstrous Grand Duke's nickname to that of a hopeless romantic.
It was Grand Duchess Eleanor von Winterwald.
She slipped her arm through Kylan's and smiled with an air of noble dignity.
……If only she hadn't been so adorably hasty, as though afraid someone might steal her husband.
"I-I am honored to meet you, Your Highness the Grand Duchess."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lady Aria. I once admired a Tower Master myself. May I also learn a thing or two by your side during this subjugation campaign?"
"Y-yes…… Whaaat?!"
Aria asked incredulously, her eyes wide open.
The Grand Duchess, a member of the imperial bloodline, was personally joining a bloody monster-subjugation campaign?
What on earth was this……?
"I'll be fighting alongside you, too! Together with our Grand Duke!"
Eleanor declared brightly as she clung tightly to Kylan's arm.
Faced with such a wildly unreasonable turn of events, Aria could only gape.
No matter how exceptional a mage she was, how could they place an imperial princess on the front lines against five thousand advancing orcs?!
Seeing Aria's confusion, Kylan smiled and gently stroked his wife's hair.
"Don't be so surprised. My wife will make as great a contribution on the battlefield as I do."
"More than a Sword Master……?"
"Yes. In a different role, but she'll make an even greater contribution than a Sword Master."
At Kylan's firm affirmation, Aria slowly turned her head and looked around once more.
A double rampart like an impregnable fortress, built from steelwood and slime.
Hundreds of elite orcs.
Platinum-rank adventurers renowned across the continent.
And Kylan Winterwald, the Empire's strongest Sword Master, along with Eleanor von Winterwald, an extraordinary mage who could raise the sun.
'……Maybe. This crazy scheme to capture five thousand orcs really is possible.'