Chapter 3 - Even I Can't Move During Time Stop

There was a name that those who walked the path of magic couldn't help but know.

The Tower of the Wise.

More commonly known as the Magic Tower.

Their symbol, an inverted triangular emblem, was considered almost equal to the imperial emblem within the empire.

It was a gathering of human weapons who could single-handedly destroy an entire city, and at the same time, a cradle of knowledge and technology that had accelerated the empire's progress with numerous magical engineering advancements.

On the eve of the annual academic conference, numerous mages and witches were actively exchanging opinions at the top of the Magic Tower in Mars City.

"We should submit the Three Primary Colors Theory as our Mars branch's representative paper."

"I think the Shadow Magic Research is more appropriate. It's a paper that has achieved groundbreaking progress in a magical research field that hasn't received much attention until now."

"That's true, but the Three Primary Colors Theory is more comprehensive. Considering its impact on the entire field of magic, I believe the paper on the Three Primary Colors Theory has higher academic value than the Shadow Magic Research."

The mages and witches gathered around the round table were exchanging opinions intensely with serious faces.

However, despite their serious faces, the atmosphere was very good.

This was because competition among geniuses should be encouraged, and it was never a bad thing.

The conversation went back and forth, but no conclusion was reached.

The mages and witches looked at the Tower Master sitting quietly on one side of the round table.

"Master Yorgen. You'll have to decide, Master Yorgen. At this rate, we won't reach a conclusion."

At the mage's words, Tower Master Yorgen gently stroked his snow-white, glossy beard that had grown on his chin and looked with playful eyes at the two witches who had been silent until now, not saying a single word.

"Tudel. Erpha. You two are giving me quite a headache."

"You flatter us, Master Yorgen."

The witch called Tudel said this while bowing her head slightly, and Erpha just smiled faintly.

"Both of your papers were excellent. That's why deciding whose paper to submit between you two was truly difficult for me as well."

Yorgen tapped the table with a clacking sound.

Tudel kept swallowing dry saliva while staring intently at Yorgen's hand.

After a while.

The conclusion came from Yorgen's mouth.

"The representative paper from the Mars branch Magic Tower for this academic conference will be the Three Primary Colors Research."

Exclamations and disappointment burst out simultaneously.

Tudel clenched her fist and squeezed her eyes shut, while Erpha just silently bowed her head.

"Tudel. Your paper was excellent too. It's just that this time, Erpha's paper was slightly better. If you work harder, there will be better results."

"Thank... you."

After a long while, a response that seemed squeezed out flowed out.

Yorgen smiled and stood up from his seat.

"You've all worked hard discussing for a long time. Now go back and rest."

The mages stood up one by one from the round table.

It was a shame the Shadow Magic Research didn't make it.

The Three Primary Colors Research was a study that would go down in history.

Exchanging various conversations like this, all the mages disappeared, and soon only two witches remained at the round table.

"Congratulations, Erpha. You're really on a roll, aren't you?"

A voice so cold and sharp that it was scary burst out from a smiling face.

"You're really amazing. The next Tower Master is as good as confirmed, isn't it? A witch who's only 25 years old becoming the next Tower Master. It's too amazing."

"Thank you, Tudel."

Erpha carefully stood up from her seat.

A silver mask covered the left side of Erpha's face. Below the covered half of her face, four arms were revealed, modestly folded.

"Next time, there will be good results for you too."

The uncovered right side of her face smiled politely.

Tudel found that smile unbearably disgusting.

Tudel disliked everything about Erpha.

She disliked that she was a talent brought and raised by Tower Master Yorgen himself at the age of 15, and she disliked that the exposed half of her face was more beautiful than her own.

She hated that perfect skin like a porcelain doll without a single blemish, unlike herself who was full of freckles, and those eyes bigger than hers, and that perfect figure.

The fact that the mage she had a crush on rejected her confession and declared he would love Erpha because of Erpha's large hips and breasts.

And the fact that Erpha rejected that mage's confession.

The fact that she finally failed in this representative paper review.

The fact that someone much more of a genius and younger than her existed in the same Magic Tower.

Just everything was disgusting.

"Good luck, Spider."

A word full of vicious resentment was shot.

Tudel often called Erpha a spider when they were alone.

It meant she was creepy because she had four arms.

Erpha didn't give any answer to that vicious word.

She just looked at Tudel for a moment as if pitying her, then silently withdrew.

That single wordless gaze dug into her heart more cruelly than any insulting curse.

"Aaargh!!"

Inside the round table where no one else was.

Tudel let out a demonic scream.

***

Returning to her private research room, Erpha carefully took out her wand from her waist and waved it.

The witch's hat and hood on her head flew up like living creatures and settled on a nearby coat rack.

After waving the wand once more to lock the door securely, Erpha carefully approached the mirror.

The upper left hand slowly removed the silver mask covering half of her face with trembling fingers.

And beneath it.

A sight that was eerie and creepy even to Erpha herself was revealed.

Blackened, distorted skin.

Several eyes packed tightly on it, enough to induce trypophobia.

Erpha's other left hand carefully caressed the left side of her face.

"It's creepy," she muttered quietly.

"It's horrible."

Monstrosity.

It was the most accurate assessment of her left face, even to herself.

Although she was a genius witch who had conducted countless magic researches including the Three Primary Colors Research, no matter what she did, she just couldn't fix it.

She couldn't fix the terribly twisted half of her face.

She hadn't revealed this fact to anyone.

Not even to Tower Master Yorgen who had introduced her to the path of magic.

Now that she had gained tremendous skills, she could roughly guess.

Erpha was a person born with an excessive magical talent.

She was a once-in-a-century monster who had enormous mana dwelling in her body from birth, started speaking just 3 months after birth, and could already see souls and all kinds of magical phenomena with her eyes at the age of 3.

And as a price for having such talent in her body, her body had overgrown excessively.

When she was 5 years old, two additional arms started growing from her side, and during puberty, instead of acne, eyeballs started growing on the left side of her face.

The parents who gave birth to her abandoned her, considering her a monster, and wherever she went, she was often ostracized for being a monster.

So she immersed herself in magic.

Except for eating and sleeping, she devoted herself solely to magic research.

To return this abnormal body of hers to normal.

As a result, Erpha came to be recognized as a world-class authority on body modification magic, but even she failed to fix the twisted half of her face.

Erpha was afraid.

Jealousy followed outstanding talent.

It wasn't just Tudel.

There would be many people secretly gossiping about her behind her back, envying her.

If she was abandoned again.

If she was ostracized by everyone again.

Could she endure it?

How would those who had seen her hideous half face react?

"Please. There must be a way to fix it," she muttered in a desperate voice.

She had finally found a place where she could bloom her talent.

She had finally been recognized.

She didn't want to be driven out again and wander as a vagrant.

She put on the silver mask again.

Swearing that she would definitely fix half of her face, she prepared to continue her research once again, sitting at her desk.

The morning newspaper?

While skillfully and quickly organizing the scattered research materials and papers with her four arms, she discovered the newspaper that had been delivered this morning.

Without much thought, Erpha picked up the newspaper and stopped in her tracks when she saw the headline splashed across the front page.

[Saint of Healing Discovered?]

Saint of Healing.

It was a title that piqued her interest.

She stopped organizing and slowly began to read the contents inside, unfolding the newspaper.

And as she read more and more of the content, her eyes grew wider and wider.

"He cured all kinds of rare diseases and genetic disorders on the spot? Is this even magically possible?"

Miracles bestowed by God and magic created by human effort were clearly different fields.

But whether it was a miracle or magic, it was performed by humans.

To treat the half of her face, Erpha had studied numerous fields, and among them were miracles as well.

Even for Erpha, it was the first time she had heard of such large-scale miracles being performed continuously.

She felt tempted, but Erpha soon shook her head.

The only conclusion she had drawn from studying miracles was that humans were evil.

Those who claimed to wield great miracles were actually mostly either using simple magic to inflate themselves or outright scammers determined to eat and run.

Saint of Healing?

Unless he maintained that fame even after a year or so, she couldn't afford to waste time on a person who had apparently just appeared.

Moreover, half of her face was so bizarre that anyone who saw it would want to vomit.

There was no guarantee that this so-called saint would react positively upon seeing her face.

I can't believe it.

Erpha put down the morning newspaper.

Rather than relying on miracles she couldn't be sure of, she was more likely to overcome her struggle with magic.

She sat at her desk and once again began to immerse herself in research.

***

"Saint!! Please heal my son!"

"Please help my daughter! Saint!! Saint!"

People crowded the slums to the point where there was no room to step.

There were even people getting more injured from being trampled while shouting to get treated first.

The scene of numerous children, sick people, and their families screaming and waving their hands at me was now close to a horror scene.

Jesus.

What should I do at times like this? Please give me an answer.

Of course, Jesus didn't answer.

My eyes were heavy from lack of sleep.

Moreover, I couldn't just do the character customization roughly, could I?

As I focused on doing it meticulously, my mental strength had reached its limit.

No matter how much I did, there was no end.

There's no end.

Forget about the witch, at this rate, I'll die first.

"I need to rest for a moment," I said that and tried to carefully withdraw my body, but the people had no intention of letting me go.

"Saint! Have mercy!! Saint!"

"Saint! Have mercy!"

This is driving me crazy.

No matter how I thought about it, this didn't seem right.

Let me just rest for a bit. I'll go eat something, sleep a bit, and then come back.

Naturally.

I needed a way to escape without hurting people...

There was one.

"Saint! Please!!"

Leaving behind the shouting people, I activated another adult game skill.

[Using the Time Stop skill!]

With this, I should be able to escape safely.

First, let's escape, get some sleep, and eat something.

...Damn it.

I can't move either.