They say a legless rumor travels a thousand miles. Even the Snowcloud Wall of the Ice Castle could not stop the rumors from spreading.
The news that a certain incident had broken out in the Celsius family spread far and wide. In particular, those who had been captured in the Ice Castle and barely managed to survive boasted of their miraculous return as they chattered away.
If they hadn't raised their fists at all, that would be one thing, but raising them and then quietly lowering them only makes them look more pathetic. The saying "If you draw a sword, you must cut something" wasn't born for nothing. No one fears a sword that cuts nothing and quietly returns.
The prestige of the Celsius family was on the verge of hitting rock bottom.
Therefore, the Celsius family decided to wield power with the sword they had drawn.
The Exchange Conference, where the Floating Castle in the high heavens interacted with the magical noble families on the ground. It should have taken place earlier, but the event, which had been temporarily delayed due to the battle between the two Tower Masters that occurred inside the Floating Castle, began much more splendidly, as if to fill that blank period.
Firecrackers made of ice burst in the sky.
The belief that fireworks must have sparks was merely a prejudice. The scattering pieces of ice fell more calmly than sparks, but sparkled for much longer.
Unlike fireworks that must only burst at night to avoid competing with the sun, the ice that reflected sunlight sparkled beautifully even in broad daylight. It wasn't dangerous, either. The shining powder, giving off a sweet fragrance, gently settled beside the people.
"It looks like fireworks. What did they use?"
"It's not hot. It's neither gunpowder nor spark magic."
"What kind of trick did they use? How could lower-realm mages pull off something like this?"
Mages from the Floating Castle also participated in the Exchange Conference. Mages busy with their own work pass on this, but the majority of mages come down to gain new experiences and inspiration.
Even so, the magic of the lower realm was of such poor quality that it didn't even serve as a brief amusement, but this time was a bit different.
"There's no way Yuri, an elite of the Floating Castle, wouldn't notice."
"Block the magic power of the firecrackers and bring them here using a state preservation spell! If you can't analyze this, you're not coming back!"
For a mage, failing to grasp a spell was akin to defeat. The mages who couldn't unravel the lower realm's magic threw themselves into analysis without even thinking of returning.
In the meantime, another event was taking place on the main stage.
A mage of the Celsius family brought something thin that sparkled like silk. It was a cloth woven by pulling coldly made wheat starch into threads. If classified by category, it was merely wheat dough, but thanks to Celsius's secret technique, the dough was so thin and delicate that light could pass through it.
They layered the dough, drawn with magic circles made of sugar, hundreds of times. The mages of Celsius gathered in front of the dough piled up to calf-height.
"Freezing Point Control."
As Elsia, who held the key to the family's treasure vault, chanted the spell, the dough swelled up and transformed into a massive castle of sweets.
The magic circles drawn with sugar and chocolate glowed. The magic circles were blueprints. The magical power crystallized in the sugar changed the form of the sweets.
The walls puffed up like bread, and melted chocolate covered it. Sugar sparkling like stars became chandeliers. Whipped cream, full of air, became the roof and was lightly placed on top.
The spectators unknowingly swallowed their saliva at the fantastical and ecstatic sight.
Magic circles made from raw dough as paper and sugar as crystals.
Rather than being great, it was a fantastic magic that stimulated childish innocence.
To put it badly, it was like child's play, but the Demon King enjoyed it like a child.
"Cold-baked bread! What a novel idea!"
The Demon King, who casually descended to the ground, was still dressed informally. With his shirt lightly unbuttoned like a sailor, he walked barefoot on the ice without a care.
"Cooking is essential for humans to live. It may seem trivial, but it's an act deeply embedded in daily life. The disciples of the Floating Castle, who find even eating bothersome, probably couldn't conceive of such magic! Hmm. But I wonder if the Floating Castle's disciples will even eat this. They're the bunch who are too lazy to even eat Spirit Crystals."
The Demon King's attitude was like that of an elder commonly encountered in the neighborhood. In fact, his mindset was probably just like that. Even on the day of the Exchange Conference, he flew down without any prior notice and roamed the conference alone without any attendants.
If the discovery of the Demon King had been even a little later, it would have been a major problem. Elsia, who realized the fact late, inwardly cursed her blood relative.
'Even after becoming the Blue Tower Master, she couldn't even inform us when the Demon King would arrive. So you intend to contribute nothing to the family, Elisha?'
However, Elsia was an outstanding mage and at the same time, the scion of a noble family. Without revealing her inner thoughts at all, Elsia placed her hand on her chest and bowed.
"You speak too highly of me. Rather, I am only ashamed that I can show nothing more than such petty tricks."
"Petty tricks? I doubt that. Handling Ice Crystals was your fear and your long-cherished wish, wasn't it? Embedding Ice Crystals in both the firecrackers and the sweets. Are you telling me you didn't show this to boast to me?"
The Demon King calmly chewed on the ice sweet and hit the nail on the head.
Both the firecrackers and the sweets were deceptions.
The core was the Ice Crystals contained within.
Ice Crystals are maintained only for a very short time, and soon return to a gaseous state. They used the explosion generated at that moment to create pseudo-fireworks.
The same goes for the dough puffing up. Although it is extremely tricky to handle, if used well, bread can be puffed up without going through fermentation.
Because it disappears into gas, it leaves no evidence. The Floating Castle mages gathering in groups and racking their brains now probably wouldn't reach the truth even if it took years.
They merely created Ice Crystals with magic; the Ice Crystals themselves are not magic. Because of this, distracted by the flashy sparks and the fantastical castle of sweets, they fail to realize the core.
However, the Demon King saw through the core all too easily.
Elsia momentarily felt a sense of profound awe. The Demon King. The king of all mages. The master who learns and handles all knowledge, and bestows and teaches it.
To him, there is no sense of distance. Even while staying in the Floating Castle soaring in the distant sky, he visits the territory at some point and then disappears again.
Spatial Magic.
A magic that freely leaps over and manipulates space, an absolute barrier, truly close to omnipotence.
Therefore, Elsia was suddenly seized with fear. Indeed, even if they weren't outright rebelling. Wasn't the Demon God Shrine, which sought to challenge the Demon King, committing a reckless act?
While Elsia's worries deepened, the Demon King spoke nonchalantly.
"I applaud the fact that you had the courage to handle Ice Crystals. Stepping forward into the unknown is the attitude an inquirer must have."
"...Thank you."
"However, if you put up the name of the Exchange Conference, you should explain it to those who visit. Isn't that the right thing to do?"
The Exchange Conference was practically an event to present magic to the Demon King. That was how it had to prove its reason for existence. Naturally, Elsia should have done so too, but this time, it was a bit troublesome.
'Ugh...! He developed that magic...!'
The Celsius family was busy repairing the Floating Castle's facilities and resolving the ritual magic incident that occurred in the territory. They had preparations, but the finishing touches were lacking, and they had to apply it to the newly changed rules.
They handed the work over to the Demon God Shrine with the intention of slightly frustrating them. But what they expected from them was just a little advice and variation...
'He developed magic that handles Ice Crystals with ease. I know the Demon God Shrine is a notoriously infamous group in the Floating Castle, but. Is this the extent of it? Is the gap with the Celsius family this big?'
Engraving a crystal structure into ice and filling it with Ice Crystals to create a non-hot, exploding firework.
Sprinkling finely diced Ice Crystals into the wheat dough to make it puff up without yeast.
Using the coldness of Ice Crystals to freeze and shape all sorts of things besides snow and ice.
Since they decided to handle Ice Crystals, the main focus of the Exchange Conference had to be magic that highlighted Ice Crystals. And since the degree of completion was also outstanding, it took center stage at the conference.
'Even if Ice Crystals are an unfamiliar concept, Yuri has been in contact with Ice Crystals for over a hundred years and accumulated knowledge. But why does he handle the rules of Celsius and Ice Crystals better than Yuri? Exactly what kind of fight has Yuri gotten herself into?'
"The sound of your brain working can be heard all the way here. Tsk. Do you think keeping your mouth shut will hide your stupidity?"
Lankart scolded her, looking at Elsia from afar as if glancing dismissively at her.
"So what? It's the rule that being a bit stupid makes you cute."
"Is that why you only seek out stupid women? No. There are no smart women to begin with, so all women in the world must look cute to you. That's why you go around meeting all sorts of women."
...I won't say much, but this is Lankart's personal opinion. I declare that I do not agree with Lankart's words.
I decided to give him a chance to correct his statement and survive.
"Why? The five Tower Masters are all women."
"They're stupid, so they're just figureheads like Tower Masters. Look at the Green Tower Master and the Black Tower Master. They're just bitches begging for his attention despite being the Demon King's disciples. What contribution do they make other than ignorantly swinging their unique magic paths with no potential?"
Look at the way he speaks. If I lived like him, I would've been stabbed to death within a few days.
"Besides those two, there's the Red Tower Master too."
"I consider the Red Tower Master a man. Such an outstanding and magnanimous mage can't be a woman."
Isn't this the realm of denying reality? Well then, let's see.
"What about the Blue Tower Master and the White Tower Master?"
"Those two..."
Lankart frowned for a moment. A slight conflict arose in his mind. Belief and knowledge clashed. I'm not sure if misogyny is great enough to be called a belief, though.
Lankart spat out with dissatisfaction.
"They are bad cases born with the wrong gender. I acknowledge the Captain's abilities. But ultimately, the Captain is just a bitch too. Cowardly and fickle."
"Fickle? You mean her leaving the Demon God Shrine? It's weird to call that fickle. Thoughts can change as you live."
"No, it's fickleness. Her belief didn't change; she got scared and ran away. If she had just held her position for a few more days, the Demon God Shrine would have been hers."
I guess there's something I need to learn about this part too. Let's remember it for now.
"Ah, right. I haven't met her yet, but there's the White Tower Master too, right? What about her?"
"...The White Tower Master? Ah. Right, something like that existed too."
Something like that? Isn't the White Tower Master also one of the five Tower Masters?
"I heard she came up through the Gate of Ascension? Isn't that a similar path to yours?"
"That's somewhat strange. I haven't fully grasped it either. She doesn't reveal herself much in public."
"A Tower Master? The position of Tower Master was created to attend such events, wasn't it?"
"She does come out. If you think she's passive about events, she's not. She acts quite actively in many ways. But even so, nothing is known about her. Even her unique magic path."
Another peculiar person. All the Tower Masters have their own personalities, but she might be a variable, so I should meet her at least once.
"You two. You dumped the work on me and you're slacking off?"
Shey popped out from behind.
Shey was wearing a white apron and a bandana. To a stranger, it would look like she had just finished cooking and run over, and there really wasn't much difference. The only correction would be that the 'cooking' Shey did was a dangerous act that could cause a massive explosion if anything went wrong.
"Someone is about to lose their mind slicing and inserting Ice Crystals! And you're sitting here comfortably eating sweets?!"
Tch. As if I'm resting because I want to. I shoved the rest of the ice sweet into my mouth and said.
"Mm-hmm. It can't be helped. Only you, Shey, can handle the Cheon-aeng and Pocket. You're the only one who can process and transport Ice Crystals."
"Besides, Hughes used his brain to design the magic. So physical labor is your share. Be thankful you can at least do that. If you couldn't even do that, you'd have no reason to exist."
"You're noisy when you haven't done anything!"
Shey threw off her apron and shouted.
"The amount of work is too much! You're telling me to finely chop and separate each and every Ice Crystal and put it into the firecrackers. What kind of magic is that? It's manual labor!"
"Highly concentrated manual labor is originally indistinguishable from magic. Ruins and temples built in the distant past look like magic, right? In fact, they were all stacked by human hands one by one, but the sheer amount of labor makes them look mystical."
"The problem is that I'm doing it all!"
The Celsius family still hadn't found a way to handle Ice Crystals. The only way to split or separate Ice Crystals for use was spatial magic.
Therefore, all the magic to be shown at the Exchange Conference had to go through Shey's hands. Without the Cheon-aeng and Pocket, they couldn't even process or transport them.
"Just wait a little. They've seen Shey's performance too, so they must now feel the necessity of spatial magic even more desperately."
"You think? They shuddered every time they saw an Ice Crystal fragment."
"If they mishandle it, it can stick to their skin and freeze their flesh, and large lumps explode if they escape the Rule's area of influence. But it depends on how you handle it, right?"
"Even if it depends on how you handle it, there's a limit. It's too dangerous."
"Is there anything in the world that isn't dangerous? You rejected ritual magic saying it was dangerous too."
The attitude of the Celsius territory towards ritual magic had hardened into 'indifference'. The limits of ritual magic were clear anyway, so they wouldn't bother to step forward and intervene.
It would only spread among the commoners in the outskirts who couldn't learn magic properly, and while it would be at least a little helpful for their lives, it wouldn't be enough to overturn the world. It would simply remain a useful tool.
It would end so trivially.
It was such an empty conclusion that one would wonder why they even bothered to lock up and kill dozens of people.
Shey even took off her bandana and muttered.
"Even if they changed their attitude, will the Celsius family help the Demon God Shrine?"
The Celsius family is quite conservative. That is like the temperament of the Celsius family, so it won't change easily.
Perhaps they might reverse their declaration to help Yuri. Shey asked that, but...
I answered with my own conviction.
"Elsia will eventually help Yuri."
"How can you be so sure? She might suddenly get scared."
"She will get scared. That's why she'll follow our proposal."
Belief is inertia.
Those who bear a lot have even heavy thoughts. Because countless relationships and causes and effects are tangled in a single decision, they generally stick to it and push forward. Even if they don't know where it's heading. Or even if it leads to ruin.
However.
I don't call that the courage to keep a belief.
Rather, that is closer to fear.
"Because only then can she shift the responsibility to Yuri."
It is not choosing Yuri to overcome it.
It is choosing Yuri to run away and become free.
Just as I said, Elsia knelt before the Demon King. Her voice, carried by a low-volume decibel magic, was transmitted far and wide.
"O Master of Mages who possesses all wisdom and bestows teachings. The descendant of Celsius begs the Master. Please bestow the teachings of Rene upon the Celsius family."