Chapter 16 - The Blue Magic Tower (2)

The standing of mages on this continent followed a rather peculiar structure. As in other fantasy worlds, mages generally enjoyed high status, but those belonging to a tower acquired standing on par with nobles once they passed a certain tier.

Part of this was due to the difference in skill between mages who belonged to magic towers and those who did not, but the fundamental reason lay in the towers themselves.

The six magic towers in this world held a monopoly on the production of various goods needed by the allied kingdoms, including their high-ranking nobles. In short, their exclusive production of essential goods, combined with their mages’ combat strength, elevated the towers’ power to the level of noble authority.

Alon knew that the authority of a deputy tower master—the tower’s second-in-command—was practically sky-high.

... And yet, even knowing that...

'Isn’t this taking things a little too far?'

He stared at the deputy tower master in disbelief, though his face remained utterly expressionless.

She wore a blue cloak, the very symbol of the Blue Magic Tower, and her matching blue hair reached her waist. Propping her chin on one hand and holding a pen in the other, she looked as though everything in the world was a nuisance. Her name was Penia Kraisinne.

In Psychedelia, she appeared once or twice in the main story: a genius with absurd talent who reached the seventh tier at the tender age of twenty-two, and a powerful mage who possessed an Origin.

... Of course, at this point, before the original story began, she had not yet become tower master and seemed to be at the sixth tier rather than the seventh.

“... As I explained before our meeting, I came to discuss the Time Gate.”

“Discuss what?”

Watching Penia wrestle with a pile of paperwork without so much as looking his way, Alon continued.

“I can eliminate it.”

At his words, Penia’s gaze swung toward him, her irritable eyes fixing on his face. A trace of curiosity showed in her expression.

But a moment later, blatant disappointment crossed her face, and she clicked her tongue. With an unmistakably dismissive air, she lowered her head again and spoke.

“If you’re done talking, leave.”

“... You haven’t answered me.”

“Answered what?”

“I believe I said I could eliminate the Time Gate.”

“Ha.”

Penia looked at Alon with an incredulous laugh.

“Excuse me. Who did you say you were?”

“Alon, Count Pallatio.”

“So our dear Count Pallatio can eliminate the Time Gate?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, I see! Our dear count can eliminate the Time Gate, can he?”

“... Why are you acting like this?” Alon asked at her blatant mockery.

“Look, do you think you’re the first person like this? Do you think you’re the only one who’s heard about the treasure you can get by eliminating a Time Gate and come here wanting it? Well?”

As Penia shook her head in utter disgust, Alon spoke.

“I’m not lying. Take me to the Time Gate, and I’ll show you at once.”

“How many people do you think have said that to my face?”

“I can eliminate it. That is certain.”

At his words, Penia dropped the pen she had been holding onto with a sharp tap. Her face twisted into an open scowl, and she suddenly scattered her mana.

CRACKLE!

She had not cast a spell. This was merely a pulse of mana, a wave flung carelessly outward in an unrestrained expression of her mood.

Even so, it immediately began causing strange phenomena in the office. The entire room shook as though an earthquake had struck, and scrolls and parchment tumbled from the shelves.

Amid all this, she spoke.

“Look.”

“People are starting to find out that you only got lucky and became count because those pieces of trash died at just the right time. I understand you need something big to turn things around. But you’re not going to pull that shit here, are you?”

Hearing Penia drop her polite speech, her eyes brimming with irritation, Alon realized two things afresh.

First, despite apparently living buried in work, she was surprisingly well informed about the outside world. As she said, those rumors had begun circulating about him, since he had lived quietly without interfering in the underworld after becoming count.

The other was that the anger which had surged up at her treatment of him just moments ago—anger he had thought he could never contain—had subsided as though cured.

'She’s terrifying.'

Though she had not reached the seventh tier, she could cause all this simply by scattering her mana. Alon was reminded that she was a superhuman who had effortlessly surpassed the bounds of humanity.

'I’d better not get cocky. She’ll fold me in half.'

He might only be a second-tier mage, but he was still a mage. He understood perfectly well that his life would be in danger if Penia merely shaped that mana into a spell.

“If you don’t believe me, I’ll stake my entire fortune.”

“... What?”

Of course, despite his fear, Alon’s expression remained completely unchanged.

“Exactly what I said. If I fail to eliminate the Time Gate, I will donate my entire fortune to the Blue Magic Tower. No, since this is a transaction between individuals, I’ll hand it all over to you directly.”

“... What nonsense are you—”

“Of course, you need not stake anything. Only I will. I’ll even swear an oath if necessary.”

“...”

Penia frowned at his words, but Alon continued with the same impassive face.

“That seems a fairly good offer in exchange for a little of your time. What do you say?”

After a moment of silence, Penia answered.

“Draw up a contract.”

####

Penia Kraisinne.

A once-in-a-generation genius who had reached the sixth tier at only twenty-one, she served as deputy tower master under her teacher, the master of the Blue Magic Tower. Having descended underground, she stood before the door leading to the Time Gate and looked at Alon.

“Here. Open this door and go inside, and you’ll find the Time Gate.”

Without hesitation, Alon moved to grasp the doorknob.

“Remember, now that we’ve signed a contract, I’m not going to let you off. If you fail, your house’s entire fortune is mine. Understood?”

At Penia’s warning, Alon turned his head to look at her. His emotionless eyes, revealing nothing at all, swept over her as he spoke.

“That won’t happen.”

CREAK.

Watching the man open the door and enter without hesitation after those words, Penia recalled what people said about Alon.

Once, he had been called the mastermind of the count’s house, who had killed all its heirs and become count himself. But his reputation had changed enormously over the past three years. Now he was a lucky bastard who had simply benefited from the heirs’ deaths, with everything having been coincidence.

Of course, some apparently still claimed he had his reasons for remaining inactive. But having met him in person, Penia thought the latter account was closer to the truth than the former.

'His presence might be first-rate, but showing up like that and claiming he’ll close the Time Gate says it all.'

Penia knew there was something unusual about the air Alon exuded. Those lifeless eyes. That face, so thoroughly devoid of emotion that he scarcely seemed an ordinary human.

It had silenced even her for a moment, but that was merely his presence. Having examined his talent, she could only scoff.

'He has some talent. But it only amounts to a slightly better sense for energy than most people. His mana reservoir is far too small, and at best he’s at the upper end of the second tier. He doesn’t even possess the Eye required to reach the sixth tier.'

Count Pallatio was astonishingly devoid of talent. He lacked both the Eye essential to becoming a high-ranking mage and vast reserves of mana. His magic had only reached the second tier, and though his sensitivity to energy was fairly good, that was all.

Sensitivity to energy did not rank particularly high among the many talents a mage needed.

Ultimately, to Penia, the mere fact that he had come so confidently claiming he would eliminate the Time Gate with such meager talent proved that the latter rumors were closer to the truth. Wearing a look of contempt, she turned her attention to the rift glowing violet in the middle of the room.

The rift—known among mages as a Time Gate—was connected to a subspace of unknown origin, and it was an extraordinarily troublesome phenomenon.

Time Gates formed where mages tended to gather—or, more precisely, where magic was used frequently—and generally caused considerable damage to their surroundings. For instance, beings from other worlds might cross through the rift, or it might suddenly suck up all the surrounding mana indiscriminately, leaving the entire area in a mana vacuum.

'I heard they tried all sorts of things to eliminate them in the early days because of that.'

As far as Penia knew, not a single mage had ever succeeded.

'If research into Time Gates had continued for a while, there would have been a good chance of finding a way eventually.'

At least for now, however, no such method existed.

After all, even when a Time Gate appeared unexpectedly, it would naturally spit out a relic and vanish after one to three months. No one had yet established how that worked, but it meant mages had not bothered spending vast amounts of time and money researching a method they did not even know how to approach.

... The problem for the Blue Magic Tower, however, was that the Time Gate they had expected to disappear within a few months had remained in the tower’s basement for over two years, causing trouble all the while.

Thinking this, Penia stared at Alon, who had already approached the Time Gate but was doing nothing at all. Time passed, and still he did nothing.

Just as Penia clicked her tongue and was about to speak—

TAP.

Alon formed a hand seal.

“?”

Penia watched with a mildly intrigued expression as he suddenly raised his hands and formed the Fist of Wisdom seal.

Using his own hands as a medium rather than a staff—a method regarded in academia as—

No, a method not even considered in academia, described as “primitive” in ancient grimoires. She had only ever seen mages who used it in books.

“Just come out.”

But curiosity was all she felt. Penia had no intention of giving Alon any more time. It never even occurred to her that someone who had not properly learned magic and used primitive methods from some strange book could close a Time Gate.

But—

“———”

The moment he murmured something softly...

“Oh, just come o—”

Penia’s irritated mouth stopped moving.

No, not merely her mouth.

Everything stopped.

Her mouth, which had been opening a moment before. Her eyes, narrowed in irritation. Her body.

Even her breathing.

Everything stopped.

And then she saw it.

The thing forming before the count.

RIP.

Directly in Penia’s line of sight, what had been nothing but blackness opened its eye with an unpleasant sound.

As she realized what she was seeing, it was an eye. An eye bearing two red rings.

That was simply how it appeared.

Had it ended there, she would have been fine.

But—

“—”

Penia’s Eye, her gift and a talent absolutely necessary to advance to the sixth tier and beyond, was instinctively discerning its essence.

She did not know what it was.

Yet she perceived it.

Through that perception, Penia grasped one piece of information. That thing embodied a word so very simple.

It was——

“Ghk—!”

Just as she was about to understand, Penia slammed on the brakes. Though even her breathing had stopped, her mana moved instinctively and severed her thoughts.

Because she knew.

That thing—the thing standing before the count—was something she must never comprehend. It was no different from a poisoned chalice, with ruin guaranteed the moment she understood.

And so, the moment she, who had even forgotten to breathe, barely managed to stop her thoughts...

The eye that had been staring at her grinned.

Then, with a black hand that had formed before she knew it, the thing quietly raised its index and middle fingers and held them before Penia’s mouth.

Absolute silence.

Understanding that this was Alon’s demand, Penia blinked, her eyes now full of terror. With the eye’s disappearance, the magic ended.

####

Standing where the violet rift had disappeared, Alon let out a small sigh.

'It’s done.'

Having closed Time Gates countless times in the game and knowing how it was done, Alon did not actually find the task particularly difficult. After all, Time Gates were not closed with magic. All one needed was a special item and the proper method.

But since there were several more items he could obtain through Time Gates in the future, he had deliberately used one of the more convincing spells in his repertoire to deceive Penia.

“...?”

As he picked up the relic and turned his gaze, a puzzled look crossed his face. Penia looked a little strange.

As though she had seen something she absolutely should not have.

Bewildered, Alon wondered whether she had discovered how he closed the Time Gate. Looking sheepish at the possibility that his bluff had failed, he was about to speak, but—

“I-I won’t tell a-anyone. Ever.”

“...? I’d appreciate that, but there’s no need—”

“N-no, I’ll never, ever tell. Whatever you might think, I’m very good at keeping secrets.”

She was suddenly breathing hard and looking close to tears, nodding frantically—and even speaking respectfully now.

“...?”

'What’s gotten into her all of a sudden...?'

Alon could only tilt his head in puzzlement.