At Sopeu’s claim that he was tired, the mage wagged a finger.
Gently, gently.
Each time his finger moved, a cool breeze brushed across my face.
It was a wondrous sight.
It was as if the wind were dancing along with his finger.
“Feeling a little more awake?”
“I’ve been awake for ages.”
Unlike me, who was marveling at it, Sopeu answered in an indifferent voice.
He shook his head as he watched the wind move in time with the mage’s finger.
“You still haven’t broken that habit.”
At Sopeu’s words, the mage swept both hands wide.
The gentle breeze began to swirl broadly around him.
“Isn’t it magnificent? I am the conductor who commands the wind, the master of the wind.”
Watching his friend put on airs, Sopeu let out a sigh.
“You’re not a child anymore… If you don’t get rid of that habit, one day you’re going to get in serious trouble.”
“You’re the only one who knows about my habit. It’s not as if I’ll be fighting you, so it doesn’t matter.”
Since it wasn’t exactly wrong, Sopeu shook his head and rose from his seat.
Sopeu’s eyes swept around the room.
A study piled high with books came into view.
Standing up, Sopeu asked his friend,
“What brings you here?”
“What do you mean, what brings me here? It’s not as if I can’t visit a friend’s laboratory.”
The mage dusted off his hands and withdrew his magic.
The fluttering wind disappeared.
“Says the man who came to see me when he’s busy as can be.”
“I am busy. The kingdom has been smashed to pieces, the imperial capital is half destroyed, the nobles are whining, and the imperial family is in an uproar. On top of that, elders are dropping dead, so the workload is a mountain.”
Listening to his close friend grumble, Sopeu walked over to the window.
He threw it wide open.
Damp wind rushed in.
It was natural wind, not magic, but the feeling of it against the skin was not particularly pleasant.
Sopeu looked out the window.
Borrowing Sopeu’s eyes, I too came to see outside.
Just as his mage friend had said, a ruined cityscape was visible beyond the window.
More than half of the enormous city had been destroyed.
As if massive stone mountains had plowed through it, over half the city had been turned into a wasteland.
The only places that remained relatively intact were the noble district near the palace, and this building.
Looking at the intact noble district, Sopeu snorted.
“Commoners died without even being able to utter a word, and they have the nerve to whine.”
“Don’t be too harsh. There were nobles who fought hard, too.”
“The ones who fought hard are all dead, just like the elders.”
Perhaps having nothing to say to that, the mage Jafmel merely shrugged.
Sopeu asked again.
“More importantly, you still haven’t told me why you came.”
Instead of answering, Jafmel asked something else.
“You’re leaving tomorrow?”
At his close friend’s question, Sopeu nodded.
“That’s right.”
“Are the preparations for departure going well?”
At the next question, Sopeu shook his head and closed the window.
“What preparations are there to make? Everything I need is in my spatial box, and the ones who would get in my way are actually urging me to leave quickly. I just have to go.”
“The ones who would get in your way? How can you refer to the nobles and the surviving elders like that? You need to rein in that temper of yours.”
“The only time I rein in my temper is when I’m dealing with a woman.”
“What woman? You’re only like that in front of Shamara.”
“She’s special.”
“I’m sure she is.”
“Now, what is it you wanted to say?”
Even when Sopeu asked again, Jafmel only said what he wanted to say, counting on his fingers.
“Hmm, the ones going with you are Shamara, Gibor, Esh, and you. No matter how capable you are, isn’t that too few?”
Sopeu stopped asking and stared intently at his friend.
Jafmel pointed at himself and said,
“I’m saying I’ll go with you.”
Sopeu let out a sigh.
“You said you were busy.”
“When I say I’m busy, it means I hate my work that much.”
“Is that something the next Tower Master should say?”
“It is something a pitiful mage saddled with the position the Archmage kicked away would say.”
Sopeu looked at his friend.
Jafmel was a man with a strong sense of responsibility. As he said, he would not be coming along simply because he did not want to work.
Then that meant he was coming to help him, to save the world.
If that was the reason, Sopeu could not stop him.
Telling him that there were others who would help, or that it would be a difficult task, would mean nothing.
Sopeu sighed and waved a hand.
Jafmel grinned and said,
“You’ll absolutely need me to seal the Demon King. This is a prediction the next Tower Master made after reading the stars.”
The moment his words ended, the world turned white.
Flaaaash!
‘Is this as far as this memory goes?’
Perhaps because the situation was different, the point in time was different from before.
This memory was from before Sopeu set out to capture the Demon King.
‘I don’t know why it’s this moment, but it was helpful in at least one way.’
Flaaaash.
The light that had covered the world disappeared.
But something was strange.
Jafmel was still before my eyes.
Not the corpse he had become, but the living Jafmel.
Only, he had changed from just moments ago.
His face had turned black, he was vomiting blood from his mouth, and a dreadful energy flowed through his entire body.
He lay on the floor, dying.
I—no, Sopeu—was sitting beside him, watching his close friend die.
Sopeu’s emotions flowed into me.
Dark sorrow and regret. Emptiness, and even resolve.
Those swirling emotions battered against my heart.
Just as the emotions felt, Sopeu’s expression must not have been good either.
Jafmel looked at Sopeu and gave a faint laugh.
“Cough. Didn’t I tell you before? That you would need me. A Tower Master’s divinations tend to be quite accurate.”
Seeing the mage’s smile, Sopeu also raised the corners of his mouth.
He must have been trying to smile, but judging from Jafmel’s expression, it seemed it had turned into a strange one.
His mouth opened, and Sopeu’s voice was heard.
“You were right. If not for you, we wouldn’t have been able to seal the Demon King. But I didn’t think that had to be a reason for you to die…”
At Sopeu’s lament, Jafmel gave another faint laugh.
Black blood spattered from his mouth.
“Who among us thought we would make it back alive? If two of us are returning alive, that’s a great success.”
At his friend’s words, Sopeu forced himself to nod.
“…Yes, you’re right.”
“You understand, don’t you? You must live. Don’t forget who kept you alive.”
At those words, nearly a will, Sopeu nodded without speaking.
Seeing Sopeu nod, Jafmel continued.
“When I die, even if only because of this dreadful energy, you’ll have to seal me deep underground. If you’re going to do that, seal me in the tomb of the First Emperor. The emperor’s coffin is empty anyway, so no one will have anything to say.”
“You’re saying absurd things to the very end.”
“I’m dying without even getting to become Tower Master. I should at least have the satisfaction of being buried in the First Emperor’s coffin.”
At his close friend’s final request, Sopeu nodded.
His request was nothing more than an excuse for Sopeu’s sake.
An excuse to use later, when the nobles protested.
Sopeu knew that too, and so he could not refuse his request.
“I’ll do that.”
“Then that’s enough. More importantly, it’s a shame. I thought everything would be over once we sealed the Demon King, but there’s more after that. Looks like you’ll have to suffer even more.”
“Don’t worry.”
Sopeu’s heart as he answered was terribly dark.
He knew very well that he was lying.
“I’m not worried. I’ve done my part. I’ll go ahead and wait for you. Come up very late.”
Whether Jafmel knew that as well, I could not tell.
He simply raised his hand with a peaceful expression.
He waved his hand from side to side.
A chill-laden wind flowed from his fingers.
Looking at the wind with a bitter expression, he murmured softly,
“May the blessing of magic be upon this star…”
The moment the mage’s farewell ended, the wind stopped.
The mage’s hand fell downward.
The surroundings grew quiet.
Jafmel’s heartbeat could no longer be heard.
Sopeu stared blankly at his friend, then moved his hand.
He closed his friend’s eyes.
“May the blessing of magic be upon it…”
Along with Sopeu’s words, the world brightened again.
Flaaaash!
When the light disappeared, the stone chamber came back into view.
I had returned from the memory.
Pain coursed through my entire body.
My face and the front of my body felt pain mixed with heat, while my back ached down to the bones, as if it had taken a tremendous impact.
Sopeu’s voice came to me.
[You are still in the middle of battle. Get out quickly.]
Only after hearing his words did I realize what situation I was in.
Before seeing Sopeu’s memory, I had been fighting the corpse.
While spatially shifting behind the corpse, I had been flung away by an energy collision.
As a result, I was now embedded in the stone wall.
I could understand why it hurt so much.
I had been thrown back so violently that my body was half-buried in the stone wall.
If I had been an ordinary person—even one who possessed energy—it was certain my entire body would have been shattered instead of breaking through the stone wall.
[It was thanks to the shield magic I cast in haste.]
As I wondered how I had survived, Sopeu told me the reason.
Fortunately, hardly any time seemed to have passed.
Dust rising from the wall filled the air, and the corpse was only now turning toward me.
The corpse raised its staff.
“Damn it.”
Seeing that, I pulled my body out of the wall.
The pain grew worse, but fortunately, I could still move.
Shraaak!
The moment I moved, a black line shot out from the staff.
At the same time, I moved my body.
Lowering myself and taking one step, the wind blade that flew diagonally brushed past my side.
The place where I had been was deeply sliced open and quickly melted away.
Its power was no different from before, but it was not as frightening as before.
I advanced again.
Sopeu spoke again.
[…A little more of my memory has returned.]
“I saw it too.”
I had seen that memory as well.
I had felt Sopeu’s emotions with it.
The pain and despair of losing a friend, and even the regret hidden beneath the grumbling words.
Within it, I had also seen Mage Jafmel’s weakness.
Ever since he had been alive, he had possessed one habit.
A habit he repeated whenever he used magic, a habit only Sopeu knew.
Having shared Sopeu’s senses, I knew that habit precisely.
“That mage has a habit of moving his fingers slightly in the direction he sends his magic whenever he casts.”
His wish to become a conductor who commanded the wind must have created that habit.
That habit continued even after his death.
Even as a corpse, even while holding a staff, his fingers moved toward where the magic would go.
‘Left.’
The moment his finger moved ever so slightly to the left, I stepped to the right.
Shraaak!
The wind blade split the left wall.
‘This time, below.’
It was the same when his finger moved downward.
It was a tremor so slight it was difficult to confirm with the eye, but it could not escape my heightened senses.
I lifted my body upward, and the wind blade swept past beneath my feet.
Dodging the magic, I continued forward.
The closer I got to the corpse, the denser the wind blades became, but now that I knew the direction from which they would fly, avoiding them was not difficult.
After taking several steps like that—
I saw the corpse before me, wrapped in a barrier of wind.
Unfortunately, I still had no way to pierce the wind barrier.
‘I’ll just have to blow the whole thing away.’
I did not know if it would work for certain, but I could not let an opportunity like this slip by.
I decided to use the black stone as I was.
I spoke to Sopeu.
“Sopeu, magic!”
But Sopeu did not cast a spell.
Instead, he brought up something else.
[That is not the only memory that has returned. Jafmel was my friend, and the mage closest to me. I know his magic better than anyone.]
The spear began to take my energy.
A magic circle was drawn at the tip of the spear.
Sopeu said,
[Thrust the spear into the barrier.]
It differed from what I had thought, but if there was a better method, there was no reason not to follow it.
As Sopeu told me, I thrust the spear into the wind barrier.
Grrrrrk.
With the sound of metal grinding, the spear began to pierce into the wind barrier.
The vortex tried to push the spear away, but the magic circle at the spearhead unraveled the vortex that pressed in.
The spear went deeper and deeper inside.
Perhaps sensing danger after doing nothing but hurl wind blades, the corpse moved its hand and tried to cast another spell.
But it was too late.
The spearhead had already entered the barrier, and the black stone was scattering dark blue light.
Energy flowed out and began to fill the spear.
I aimed the spearhead at the corpse’s face.
The face that had nothing but skin left was caught on the spear tip.
For a moment, I thought I could glimpse the way he had looked in life upon that face.
A new magic circle unfolded before the spear.
Sopeu offered his final farewell.
[Rest well. May the blessing of magic be upon you…]
The spear scattered a brilliant light.
Kwaaaaang!
The light fired from the spear pierced through the dead mage.
Magic Tower (1)