Chapter 15 - The Blue Magic Tower (1)

The Kingdom of Asteria had three great houses that pulled strings from the shadows.

One was House Altia in the north. Another was House Xenonia in the west. And the third was House Pallatio in the east.

In the original story, these three powerful houses divided Asteria’s underworld among themselves. By the time the story began, they would have grown influential enough to quietly steer the kingdom from behind the scenes.

House Pallatio, however, had long since lost its place among them. With Leo’s assassination, its Organization had disintegrated as well.

That left House Altia and House Xenonia as Asteria’s remaining powers in the shadows.

... Viewed in isolation, an alliance between those two did not actually seem like such a big deal.

“Is that really true?”

“Have you ever known me to lie, my lord?”

“... Fair point.”

“Of course, since the agreement was made in the underworld, there may not be much visible connection between them. Still, it seems certain that they’ve formed an alliance.”

“...”

The reason Alon was making such a fuss nonetheless was that he had a rough idea of the situation surrounding those powers at the start of the original story.

When the protagonist arrived in Asteria, the three houses had tremendous power at their disposal. The only reason they could not make full use of it was that the other houses kept them in check.

But now that House Pallatio had withdrawn from that contest, an alliance between House Xenonia and House Altia would leave virtually no one in Asteria capable of stopping them.

In other words, given time, those two powers would be able to knead the kingdom like dough.

‘Hmm.’

Having reached that conclusion, Alon wondered how things had come to this. Then he suddenly recalled what he had told Lady Xenonia several months ago.

‘Could it be...?’

He wondered whether his words had caused the flower of an alliance between those shadowy powers to bloom—a flower that should never have blossomed in Asteria. But a moment later, he shook his head.

He might not understand Loria—the Duchess of Altia—but he knew the personality of Kalia, House Xenonia’s young lady, all too well.

She could not bear to stand on equal footing with anyone, much less beneath them, and would do whatever it took to avoid it. She would not hesitate to commit any cruelty to rise above others. She was the very picture of a villain.

“Hmm...”

That thought set Alon’s mind at ease. Considering Kalia Xenonia’s personality, he realized that the alliance could only be temporary.

“Evan.”

“Yes?”

“Bring me some writing paper in a bit.”

“Writing paper?”

“Yes.”

Still, knowing that nothing in life was ever a hundred percent certain, he had decided to take at least a few precautions when Evan spoke.

“That reminds me, my lord. You asked last time whether there were any rumors about Seollang, so I looked into it separately. It seems some rumors have indeed been spreading lately.”

“Really?”

Alon turned toward him.

“What sort of rumors?”

“I hear she’s been doing remarkably well in Coloni lately. She’s already earned the epithet Golden Flash.”

“Golden Flash...”

That sounded awfully familiar. With that brief reflection, Alon let out a sigh of relief.

Of course, he had believed Seollang could not possibly have died out there. Even so, he had been worried enough to include a separate inquiry about her in the letter he was sending Yutia this time.

“I’m glad she’s doing well.”

“Indeed. Once you make a name for yourself as a gladiator there, you can be treated even better than a noble.”

“It’s the sort of place where being strong enough lets you live on equal footing with the king.”

After that brief remark, Alon accepted the writing paper Evan handed him and continued.

“Oh, and I’m planning to visit a magic tower in about a week.”

“A magic tower?”

“Yes. It’ll probably take a while.”

“Two weeks at most, surely?”

Alon shook his head at Evan’s puzzled question.

“Probably about a month.”

“A whole month? As far as I know, the Green Magic Tower is only about a week from our estate.”

“I’m going to the Blue Magic Tower, not the Green Magic Tower.”

“... I suppose that would take some time to get to and back. But is there any particular reason you have to go to the Blue Magic Tower? Isn’t it between Callivan and the labyrinth city?”

As Evan said, unlike the Green Magic Tower, the Blue Magic Tower required more than three weeks of travel from here.

“I have business at the Blue Magic Tower.”

Unconcerned, Alon left it at that simple answer and began writing his letter.

Apparently realizing he would get no further answer, Evan smacked his lips and said,

“I’ll make the preparations in advance, then.”

“Please do.”

Evan gave a slight bow and left.

Alon spent some time in silence writing his letter to Lady Xenonia. Once he had sealed it, he let out a small sigh.

‘Getting to the Blue Magic Tower means living in a carriage for three weeks. That’s going to be rough.’

Though he openly grumbled to himself about how exhausting it would be, he was making the trip to the Blue Magic Tower because there was something he needed to acquire there.

‘For the sake of my mana, I don’t have a choice.’

It held an item that could compensate for his half-baked talent, which allowed him to conduct proper magical research only once a day.

At that thought, Alon suddenly recalled the labyrinth city beside the Blue Magic Tower.

‘The labyrinth city...’

Lartania, the labyrinth city.

True to its name, an endless labyrinth stretched underground from the city’s center. It was almost the only place in Psychedelia where players could grind for experience and items without advancing the story.

As befitted a labyrinth, the farther down you ventured as you leveled up, the more experience and treasure you could obtain.

But no one who played Psychedelia had ever reached the labyrinth’s end.

While it allowed players to level up without advancing the story, the game required them to return outside after descending every five floors. Each such trip used up a day.

Even if the story did not advance, time still passed.

As a result, if a player ignored the story and focused on exploring the labyrinth, they would emerge one day to discover that the world had gone to shit.

To avoid that, they had to progress through the story while exploring. But doing so naturally meant that the game usually ended around the time they reached the seventieth floor.

That was why no one had reached the end of Psychedelia’s labyrinth.

‘... Someone said they’d used cheats to get down to the hundred and fiftieth floor, but I think they said there were still more floors after that...’

After recalling that post—he could barely even remember the name of the online community now—Alon shifted his thoughts to Rine.

‘She’s doing well, right?’

He had not sent Rine to Lartania to make her a labyrinth explorer. He had sent her to become a magical appraiser.

With countless relics and artifacts being discovered in the labyrinth practically every day, appraisers were in great demand there. It was a specialized, officially recognized profession whose practitioners could identify even the detailed abilities of the items they appraised.

Moreover, becoming a magical appraiser—a profession requiring certification from Lartania—would effectively allow her to live comfortably without worrying about money. That was why Alon had sent her there.

Like the other Sins, she possessed a talent of her own, the “Library of All Ages,” and it was suited to that sort of work.

‘Well, the gift should make appraising things a little easier...’

An odd expression crossed Alon’s face as he continued thinking.

‘Come to think of it, maybe Rine’s gift was too modest compared to everyone else’s.’

Unlike what he had given the other Five Great Sins, his gift to Rine was merely an item specialized for appraising equipment. Belatedly, he felt a little sheepish.

‘If it seems like she needs more later, I’ll give her some extra support.’

There was no changing what was already done. With that thought, Alon shrugged.

It was a leisurely day.

####

Lartania, the labyrinth city.

Independent of any nation’s rule, the city had an overwhelmingly larger population of explorers and mercenaries than other countries. In its southern district stood an appraisal shop called Merd.

Run by a magical appraiser who concealed her identity, the shop was not, in fact, in a particularly favorable location.

Appraisers might be in great demand in the labyrinth city, but countless appraisal shops already crowded the central district, where the labyrinth stood.

In other words, people had no reason to go out of their way to visit Merd in the southern district.

Nevertheless, customers came in droves, day after day. And those customers were unusual as well.

Most were explorers of rank A or higher who ventured into the labyrinth’s depths. Among Merd’s clients were even nobles from foreign lands—and—

“The appraisal is complete, my lord.”

“Oh! What is this relic, then?”

“It’s a device that produces a continuous flame when supplied with mana.”

—the lord of Lartania himself.

“I’m delighted to have your help, as always.”

Accepting the relic from the masked woman, the lord glanced down at its underside. Seeing the black-eye imprint stamped there, he broke into a broad smile.

“Oh, was this a relic that could take an imprint?”

“Yes.”

“What does the imprint do?”

“It’s made it vastly more efficient. Even a handful of mana should keep the flame burning for an hour.”

“Truly remarkable. I’m always in your debt.”

“Not at all.”

After the masked woman’s brief reply to the masked man, the lord departed, looking thoroughly delighted.

Once he had gone, leaving the office quiet, she removed her mask, which bore the image of a crescent moon.

“Phew...”

The woman—Rine—sighed softly after taking off her mask and looked through the window at the imprint on the relic in the lord’s hand.

That imprint was precisely why Merd earned more money than any other appraiser despite being in the southern district.

Rine could do more than appraise relics from the deeper floors. She could stamp certain relics with imprints that enhanced their abilities even further.

However, that was not Rine’s own ability.

Her ability merely allowed her to use the “Library” to identify relics more accurately, appraise them so they could be used, and determine which particular relics could receive an “imprint.”

The ability to actually apply those imprints came from the Great Moon’s gift.

“...”

Rine turned her gaze aside, opened the door next to her office, and stepped inside. In the small room, a golden eyeball was active, encircled by a blue halo.

[248/500]

Looking at the window floating above its halo, she suddenly recalled when she had first discovered it as the Great Moon’s gift.

Like the other heroes, Rine had not initially understood why the Great Moon had sent her to the labyrinth city to become an appraiser.

Knowing that he was a figure from the forgotten age of the Outer Gods, she had guessed it must be something to do with dealing with the “black things.” Even so, she could not understand it.

With her “Library,” she knew at least how tremendously powerful those “black things” were, and she could see no connection whatsoever between killing them and becoming an appraiser.

But the moment she discovered the Great Moon’s gift, she had no choice but to change her mind.

His gift was the “Eye of the Stalker,” an item capable of appraising relics whose mana content fell below a certain threshold.

Yet with her Library, she recognized at once that this Eye of the Stalker was anything but ordinary.

She removed the layers of seals placed upon the item, which did not exist even in her “Library.” Only then did the Eye of the Stalker, previously nothing more than a round orb, reveal its true form and unlock an ability.

That ability was “Imprinting.”

It enhanced the attributes of certain special relics from the deeper floors by stamping them with an imprint.

But strangely enough, the first imprint unlocked by the Eye of the Stalker was not an “ability.”

Rather than an ability, it was closer to...

‘... Another 252 offerings to go...’

...a means of making “offerings.”

An imprint certainly improved a relic’s attributes, but Rine knew that in exchange for applying it, the golden eye absorbed something from the relic—something even she could not identify.

And each time it did, the “Eye” changed on a fundamental level.

‘My task is to make this bloom.’

When she first reached that conclusion, Rine had come to two realizations.

The first was that she alone could make the Eye bloom. It reacted only to relics from the deeper floors that possessed a particular pattern. Presenting it with any other relic instead drained the power it had accumulated.

The second was that this Eye would grant her enough power to stand against the “black things.”

And so, following the Great Moon’s will, Rine gazed at the Eye as it slowly blossomed with each relic it absorbed.

‘All of this is to kill the “Black Wolf.”’

Murmuring that, she lovingly caressed the golden eye floating in the air.

‘And to fulfill his will.’

A faint, inscrutable gleam of fanaticism entered Rine’s eyes.

####

About three weeks later.

Having traveled by carriage to the Blue Magic Tower as he had told Evan he would, Alon had intended to meet the tower master as planned. Unfortunately, the tower master was absent, so he met the deputy tower master instead.

... Yes, that much had worked out, but...

“All right, hurry up, tell me what you want, and leave. I’m busy.”

“...”

Faced with that disastrous reception, Alon looked positively dazed.