The reason to believe in God is not to rely on His omnipotence, but so that He always watches over me and I live a life without shame. Recalling that philosopher's words, I raised my body from the sofa I was lying on.
"Yaaawn. Senior. Water."
"Uh, yeah!"
Avangarde brought the water crystal with both hands, and I crunched on the crystal straight away without even using a cup. It had an icy texture with a hint of sweetness.
"This water crystal is sweet. Almost as much as a nap. What's in it?"
"Yeah! I sprinkled sugar on it in case your mouth got bored!"
"Your goodwill is in it, Senior. No wonder."
"Hehe."
As the Blue Tower Lord who managed and supervised me disappeared, I in turn became neglectful of my studies. Instead of studying hard with my head wrapped tight, I read Senior's thoughts and investigated the Floating City.
A life of sleeping long naps and crunching on water crystals prepared by someone else. It's nice, so nice. It would be truly wonderful if I could keep living like this.
The relaxation was only brief. Senior Avangarde grunted as she set down a mountain of grimoire crystals in front of me.
...Ah.
"Anyway. What kind of grimoire do you want to read today? Five Elements Primer? Or Magic Circle Geometry?"
"...Um, there's not much time left until the Descent. Wouldn't starting a new book be a bit difficult? Let's take it easy."
"No! If there's not much time left until the Descent, you have to cram and study even harder!"
Senior Avangarde said firmly.
"You have to climb the Gate of Ascension and earn the right to stay in the Floating City so you can be with me! ...Hah! No, not like that! I meant you could become a junior of the Crystal Tower!"
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"Everyone is busy talking about the King of Humans right now. Are you not interested in the King of Humans, Senior Avangarde?"
"To me, you... your Gate of Ascension is more important!"
Tsk. She's stubborn. I've roughly thought of a method anyway, and there's nothing more to study at the Crystal Tower. How should I slip out of this?
Ah, right. How about I do this?
"I've studied enough about magic power amplification and magic circle improvement. There's not much time left either, so it'd be better to study something a little different now."
"Do you have something in mind?"
"Not magic, but about the Floating City and the Magic Federation. What kind of history the Magic Federation has, how the Floating City was created. What the Descent is."
I just wanted to hear a fun story because I didn't want to study. It was a request typical of a lazy student, but Avangarde took it at face value.
"Aah! That would be good too. Even if the Gate of Ascension is an event that reveals your magic skills, it'll be easier if you know its purpose and format! Wait just a moment. The history of magic..."
"Rather than history books, I'd like to hear the story directly from you, Senior."
"Um... There's a lot I've forgotten about history too."
"But you know all the major events, right? I wouldn't be able to remember detailed history even if you explained it anyway. In that case, it's better to hear it directly in your voice, Senior."
"Yeah! I'll try! Let's see... What story should I start with?"
Alright. Having switched my senior into explanation mode, I leaned back on the sofa and finished preparing to listen. She took out a map crystal, projected it onto the screen, and spoke.
"The Magic Federation is made up of an alliance of numerous Prestigious Magic Families. Other than this Floating City, the other areas of the Lower Realm are ruled by Prestigious Magic Families."
"Prestigious Magic Families? Are they similar to Magic Towers?"
"A little different. The Magic Towers grant entry to any of the chosen people who seek to attain the knowledge accumulated by the tower, but Prestigious Magic Families are made up of direct or collateral bloodlines. They devote themselves not to white magic, but to the Unique Magic Paths passed down through their bloodlines."
"Unique Magic Paths passed down through bloodlines? Do Unique Magic Paths manifest across generations?"
"Yeah. It's already a proven fact that when direct descendants grow up in similar environments, there's a high probability they'll awaken a similar kind of Unique Magic Path. The Unique Magic Paths awakened by the heirs of Prestigious Magic Families are the proof of that."
I've heard this somewhere before. When was it. The Military Empire? I think the Signal Soldier's Unique Magic Path awakened in a similar way.
"They say the Blue Tower Lord's Unique Magic Path is so similar that it's called the reincarnation of the first Celsius. Because she trapped boiling steam inside water droplets."
"Celsius is one of the great mages who developed white magic that crosses between crystals and steam, right? To be compared to someone like that, the Blue Tower Lord must be an amazing person too."
"Right... On top of that, she's powerful, smart, and even cool... Unlike me..."
Avangarde suddenly became depressed. Ah, why. I was listening well. To get her to finish the story, I subtly changed the subject.
"I don't know much about the Magic Federation, but just hearing about it makes me feel a wall. Like a flower on a cliff, it seems impossible to even dare to covet it."
Avangarde, who heard my muttering, recovered her spirits.
"...Yeah! That's right! Because she's so amazing! That's actually a bit of a difficult point!"
"Are the other Tower Lords also from Prestigious Magic Families?"
"Not all. One. The White Tower Lord came through the Gate of Ascension."
"So you can become a Tower Lord even if you climb up through the Gate of Ascension?"
"Of course, even that is only possible if you have incredible talent. The Unique Magic Path that White Tower Lord Luel possesses... isn't an expression a mage would use, but it's truly a divine authority. So it was enough for her to become the Tower Lord of the Ivory Tower."
I thought the Blue Tower Lord's Unique Magic Path was impressive, but from what Avangarde said, Luel's Unique Magic Path far surpassed it.
"I'm curious. I'd like to meet her once."
"You'll be able to see her if you climb the Gate of Ascension! The five Tower Lords also come out to evaluate at the Gate of Ascension!"
The Tower Lords I haven't seen yet are the Red Tower Lord and the White Tower Lord. I haven't had a chance to see them so far, but if I climb the Gate of Ascension, I'll be able to see all five Tower Lords including the Demon Lord.
"There are many Prestigious Magic Families in the Federation, but the families that produce Tower Lords are especially wealthy and powerful. Their territories are also more prosperous than other territories. As it happens, the scheduled location for this Descent is the territory of the Celsius family, so you'll be able to feel the difference."
"The story about the Magic Federation you're telling me is interesting too. I regret not hearing it until now."
"Hehe. No matter how outstanding you are, you can't ignore a senior's experience!"
'I've already lost to Hughes in magic knowledge... But I can teach you this much anytime!'
Avangarde is proud, and I'm entertained. It's a win-win.
"Ah! The Descent should be in progress by now. Do you want to go see the Lower Realm for a bit?"
"You can see the Lower Realm from here?"
"Yeah. The tower is a passageway that goes in and out of the Floating City. If it's now, you should be able to see the Lower Realm."
A walk for a change of pace isn't bad. I eagerly followed Avangarde out.
I had only ever gone up the tower so I didn't know, but there were stairs going further down from the first floor of the Crystal Tower as well. Avangarde and I stepped towards those stairs.
The Floating City has an underground too. Unlike the surface bathed in the light of the artificial sun, the underground is a residential area for the chosen people living in the Floating City. The surface was made into facilities and the underground into lodgings, making use of the insufficient space.
And going further down below that residential area, there is a management area. It's a place that detects and repairs damage or abnormalities in the Floating City, and observes the Lower Realm.
And, one floor below even that.
The paths that extend outside the Floating City only exist in the Magic Towers.
The stairs heading underground looked as if someone had played with them like an accordion. The stairs, which should have been neatly and regularly arranged, were twisted as if someone had rolled them into a circle, and the floor became a wall and then connected to the ceiling. I turned my gaze away from the surreal sight and focused on the stairs right in front of me.
One step, one step. As I walked, focusing on placing my foot on the next stair, my body was suddenly in the middle of that surreal staircase.
Passing through a long passageway where up and down were indistinguishable, Avangarde and I arrived at a room with windows on all sides.
"Look down there. It's the view of the Magic Federation. It's gotten much closer than before, right?"
Avangarde pointed to a transparent window above her head. I had the rare experience of looking down at the ground above my head.
In the land of extreme cold, water takes many forms. It freezes on its own, melts, evaporates upward, and falls again to cover the land. This land is also swept up by the ever-changing forms of water.
Pouring avalanches form the heights and depths, shattering falling glaciers form the coastlines, and melting seeping ice blurs the earth. From up here, the boundaries between snow, ice, and water became ambiguous, giving a feeling as if time and space had become hazy.
The marvelous sight of nature briefly stole my gaze, but upon looking in another direction, I lost my words at the bizarre sight.
"Senior."
"Yeah?"
"Um. What are those grid patterns visible on the land down there?"
On a land that should clearly be blurred by snow and ice, grid patterns that looked artificial to anyone were etched into the earth.
Are they crop fields? But the size of a field is at most a few hundred square meters. From a lofty sky like the Floating City, it shouldn't be easy to see them normally.
But this was as if a god had placed a ruler on the ground and drawn lines.
The color tone changes across the neat lines as boundaries. If it was drawing borders on a map and coloring them to make it easier to identify, that would be a somewhat acceptable explanation... The problem was, the sight I was seeing was the actual earth.
Avangarde's voice reached my ears as I fell into doubt.
"The Floating City is in the lofty sky, right? His Majesty the Demon Lord measured it out, saying it's easier to see from the Floating City if it's divided like that."
"Measured it out?"
"Yeah. That way it's also convenient when going down for the Descent. Besides, if the borders of the territories are clearly set like that, useless conflicts decrease. The Prestigious Magic Families each have their own rules, so it becomes troublesome if their areas overlap."
"I understand that. But how do you measure out a territory?"
Drawing the borderlines of a territory straight itself might be easy. It would be possible if one held powerful authority. It's also a policy worth trying.
But what I asked was because of the unnaturalness felt from that land down there.
A bizarre feeling as if someone pulled it, ignoring the mountain ranges and terrain. A sense of incongruity, as if they didn't draw borders on the land, but distorted the land to fit the borders, was felt down there.
Avangarde resolved my doubt in a single blow.
"They said He pulled it with His Unique Magic Path!"