Chapter 105 - But It Works? (2)

Selaim Micardo, master of the Blue Magic Tower and an eighth-tier mage capable of using Origin, could not comprehend what was happening.

'He opened it? How in the world?'

He closed his eyes, then opened them again. Nothing had changed. Marquis Pallatio had opened the door Selaim had struggled for two whole years to unlock—in less than thirty seconds—and was now walking through it.

Selaim belatedly recovered from his stupor and tried to call out to the marquis, but he had already passed through the first barrier and disappeared from sight. Hurrying over, Selaim examined the first barrier left behind and was astonished all over again.

To anyone else, it would have looked like an ordinary wall. But Selaim, who had already reached such heights, knew just how complicated the process of opening this wall-like barrier was. Only a mage of his caliber—an eighth-tier mage—could open it, and even then, only after investing considerable time.

And on top of that...

'... He even opened it in exactly the same way I did.'

The method was identical to the one Selaim had spent a year working his ass off to discover.

'... What is going on?'

All it did was leave him with even more questions.

He looked once more into the passage the marquis had entered. He had been interested in Marquis Pallatio, certainly. Pallatio was the man his arrogant pupil Penia adored, and Selaim had learned that he used primitive magic no mage employed these days.

Even so, he had to admit that meeting the marquis in person had dampened that interest somewhat. There was no smoke without fire, of course: the rumors surrounding him and Penia's behavior clearly suggested there was something special about him. Yet the Marquis Pallatio he had actually met was less accomplished in magic than he had expected.

'Little mana, magical attainment barely at the beginning of the fourth tier even by a generous estimate, and he hasn't awakened his Eye. Even giving him credit for using primitive magic, he's below average.'

The numerous shortcomings Selaim could see were enough to make Alon seem like a junior far beneath him. In all honesty, he had even wondered what on earth Penia had seen in this man to make her fear him.

But those thoughts did not last long. Selaim followed Alon toward the second barrier, and before he had gone far, he found the marquis standing before the door even he had yet to open successfully. Alon stood there deep in thought. Selaim considered speaking to him, then decided to remain silent and watch what he would do first.

"..."

Selaim himself had never opened the second barrier. In fact, he honestly wondered whether it could be opened at all. Like the first, the door looked unremarkable from the outside, but his awakened Eye revealed thousands of magic circles layered together in a dizzying arrangement. Those thousands of circles, each so varied it was difficult to decipher individually, were tangled together in a structure so complex that even Selaim had yet to grasp it in its entirety.

Still, his brilliant mind had already deduced the fundamental method for opening it.

'... Find the magic circle that serves as the key among those thousands.'

The reason he had yet to pass through was that he could not find that key circle. To compare it to an actual door, the second barrier blocking him and the marquis was like a locked door with tens of thousands of keyholes.

Even testing the circles by activating them one at a time would require him to decipher and unravel thousands of differently twisted circles individually. It was practically impossible. No—even if it was possible, it would take decades.

As that fact struck Selaim anew and briefly cast a gloom over his face, Marquis Pallatio—no, Alon—was watching for his reaction from in front of him.

'... Isn't he taking a little too much interest?'

Of course, Alon had no reason to worry about Selaim's reactions. Building a friendship with the master of the Blue Magic Tower would not hurt, but that was all—it would not be a tremendous help in his life. What made him hesitate now was the strange anticipation in Selaim Micardo's eyes.

When Alon had opened the first barrier without a second thought, Selaim had stared in disbelief, his mouth hanging wide open. Now he had come right up close and was watching to see how Alon would open this door, his eyes those of an expectant child.

'... Did he say opening the first door alone took him a year?'

Alon did not think Selaim Micardo was stupid. Quite the opposite: he thought the man was a monster. As far as Alon knew, the lore stated that twelve ordinary seventh-tier mages had put their heads together for half a year and still failed to unravel the secret of the two doors guarding the Hermit's Hideout. Even for an eighth-tier mage, opening the first barrier entirely on his own was enough to show what an absurd monster Selaim Micardo was.

And precisely because he knew that, Alon found Selaim's expectant gaze burdensome. The reason Alon could open the barriers of the Hermit's Hideout was... simply that he knew the answers.

'The key to the first barrier is mana interference. Twist the mana maintained in a straight line into a half-ring, and it opens... For the second barrier, the key is the fifth magic circle diagonally upward from the rightmost vertex.'

He only needed to feed mana into it to open the door, but the blatant anticipation he could feel behind him kept him from acting freely. If Alon opened it with nothing more than a simple flow of mana, Selaim would realize something: the sad truth that all the research he had done for over a year had been a complete waste of effort.

"Hmm."

Of course, Alon had no obligation to concern himself with Selaim Micardo's feelings. But as someone who studied magic himself, he knew that hollow sense of disappointment all too well.

'... Should I cast a spell, at least?'

As he considered telling Selaim a well-intentioned lie...

'Is the second barrier a little too difficult after all?'

Seeing Marquis Pallatio glance back at him, Selaim tried to erase the anticipation that had crept into his eyes without his realizing it.

And at that moment...

"Whew."

The marquis, who had remained silent until now, gave a quiet sigh and formed a hand seal.

Selaim watched him curiously. He knew the marquis used primitive magic, but this was his first time seeing it manifested in practice. And so, as he watched Alon cast with interest...

"—"

Alon murmured something very softly, and Selaim saw a tiny sphere take shape in his hand, his thumb and forefinger joined together.

At the same time, he felt it.

"?"

At the threat he sensed instinctively, Selaim Micardo immediately frowned, drew up his mana, and began manifesting a spell. His response was so swift it was almost pure instinct.

But then—

"!"

Just as he was about to unleash his completed spell, he saw them: two eyes behind Alon's back.

Selaim's thoughts stopped. No—to be precise, he stopped them himself. The instant he perceived that thing—no, the instant he saw it with his own eyes—he understood the future that lay immediately ahead if he came to comprehend it.

Death.

But there was one thing he failed to control: his own Eye. Having surpassed the seventh tier and reached the eighth, his Eye could now see through almost anything with a glance. Unlike his mind, it instinctively began to perceive that thing.

At that moment, Selaim felt the ground around him darken.

And when understanding dawned, what appeared before his eyes was a circle. A circle like an abyss, as though it would suck him in. Next came a white pupil visible in the darkness.

And the last thing he saw...

"—Ghk."

Was an enormous eye. An eye so enormous that he could be no more than an insignificant creature before it.

It was looking at Selaim.

'I'm going to die.'

The instant that thought drifted through his stunned mind as he recognized the truth...

GRRRR RUMBLE!!!!

A tremendous sound rang in his ears.

"!"

Suddenly coming to his senses, he looked ahead.

The second barrier, which he had failed to open by any means for an entire year, was opening with a ponderous roar. Beyond the opening door, Marquis Pallatio was looking at him with a dispassionate face devoid of all emotion.

"... Ha."

The moment he saw that, Selaim Micardo let out an incredulous laugh despite himself.

'He was hiding his true power. So that's what it was...!'

Merely seeing that thing for less than a second had thrown his mana into turmoil, and the hand with which he had manifested his spell was trembling. Yet he could not stop laughing. Even though death had drawn right up before him for a moment, he could not stop.

His thirst for discovery was stirring him. The curiosity that had raised him to master of the Blue Magic Tower and to the eighth tier was now drawn to the magical knowledge Marquis Pallatio must possess—the marquis who probably concealed power greater even than his own.

And so Selaim laughed.

Watching him, Alon thought,

'... Wait, he's that pleased?'

While casting, he had wondered, 'He's still an eighth-tier mage. Surely Selaim Micardo won't be fooled by magic that's just for show?' But contrary to his expectations, Selaim was smiling so radiantly that Alon could only stare blankly.

####

After passing through the second barrier, Alon finally entered the Hermit's Hideout and took in the interior. There was not much to see. If he had to describe it, it resembled the interior of an ordinary fantasy-style home set inside a dark cave.

But he had not come merely for the scenery. Without hesitation, he approached a desk on one side of the hideout and found what he wanted.

'Found it.'

Unlike the ink-black bracelet he had obtained last time, this one was painted white. Alon smiled as he tucked the White Hand of the Wanderer into his coat, but only for a moment.

"?"

Belatedly noticing a sheet of parchment on the desk inscribed in the ancient language, he lowered his gaze to read it.

'I leave my possessions to the half-Magus who never compromised to the very end, who did not forget the phrases...?'

Alon paused at the words on the parchment. He had seen a similar sentence when he obtained the Shadow Dragon's egg.

'Hmm...'

After studying the wording for a while, he shrugged and put the parchment down. When he turned around, Selaim Micardo was still standing there with a radiant smile. Finding that smile... a little uncomfortable, Alon spoke.

"I've taken everything I came for. If there's anything you want, Tower Master, please take it."

He would have taken any books on magic had there been any, but he could not see even one, so there was nothing else for him to collect.

"Is that so? Then I'll gratefully help myself."

"Of course."

As Alon finished speaking and looked around for anything else he might take, Selaim walked over to the desk where Alon had been standing.

"... Hmm."

He picked up the parchment Alon had clearly seemed to read.

'The ancient language.'

Realizing it was written in an ancient language he could not read, he quietly stowed it away.

Normally, he would have asked about it. But after what the marquis had shown him, Selaim had little difficulty discerning his intentions.

'He probably means for me to keep silent.'

Believing that asking Marquis Pallatio would yield no answer, Selaim decided to take the parchment to the master of the Red Magic Tower. He knew the man was skilled at interpreting ancient languages like this one.

"Whew."

Regardless of the parchment's contents, however, Selaim wanted to discuss magic with Marquis Pallatio. His curiosity was not something he could suppress simply because someone told him to.

So...

'... I'll need to get at least a little closer to him.'

As he considered how to do that, he soon thought of Penia.

'Of course. There's Penia.'

Finally understanding why that arrogant girl had lost her heart to Marquis Pallatio, Selaim began devising a plan.

'Wouldn't it be easier to become friends if he were my pupil's husband rather than a complete stranger?'

With motives that made it impossible to tell whether Penia or his own curiosity came first, he gazed at Marquis Pallatio, burning with determination.

'I'll make sure to give you my full support.'

In response...

'... Something about this makes me nervous.'

Watching Selaim, whose smile seemed to have turned strangely unsettling, Alon felt an unease he could not explain.

... It felt as though something odd was about to happen.