◈ Episode 218. Class (3)
The vanished Tower Master was running rampant.
Hoyeol and Marcelo.
The two chiefs realized that fact and moved.
Even so, the reason why all the Magic Tower’s seniors, including Elder Yugweed, left the tower was simple. The Tower Master was the being closest to the pinnacle of magic.
It had been relatively recent that Hoyeol formed a Circle.
In contrast, the Tower Master had formed his Circle in the distant past.
That was why Yugweed had judged as he had.
Even if Hoyeol had become a being of Oddity.
He would not be able to overcome the difference in experience.
Of course, it was a tremendous miscalculation.
Bangrit stammered.
“I-It’s far too one-sided!”
Hoyeol was one-sidedly driving the Tower Master back.
As though their “class” itself was different.
No matter what super-high-level magic the Tower Master manifested.
Not a hint of panic could be felt from Hoyeol.
Yugweed ended up laughing without realizing it.
“I do not know how many times I have been surprised today.”
At this rate, had it not truly become needless concern?
A duel between mages was different from a battle between warriors fighting with sword and shield. There was no such thing as evenly matched.
Magic originated from mana. That meant the match was decided as stronger magic swallowed weaker magic.
“As expected of the Tower Master. Fire magic of that level…!”
The senior of fire magic, Bensch William.
One of the magics that revealed such a nature of magic better than anything was fire magic.
The reason Bensch had been reluctant to face the fire dragon, Karimzeva, was precisely because fire had the nature of riding upon greater fire. ‘But if it is Chief Lee.’ If it was Hoyeol, who had subdued Karimzeva.
He had expected that he would manifest fire magic against fire magic.
And yet.
“Freezing magic?!”
The question did not last long.
“This makes no sense. To suppress t-the Tower Master with a reverse compatibility?”
It was not just once.
Whenever the Tower Master manifested a particular magic.
Hoyeol instead manifested magic that was reverse-compatible with that magic and countered it.
That sight was almost as if……
The senior of spirit studies, Feiyan, carefully opened her mouth.
“……
Does it not seem as though he is kindly teaching us?”
“Teaching us? What, Senior Feiyan?”
“As if to say that the common sense we know is not everything.”
“……!!!”
That was right.
Hoyeol, as he manifested magic, truly seemed to be speaking.
With his back held straight, looking down upon everything.
He seemed to be teaching them so.
That what they knew was not everything.
That alone was enough to be shocking.
Matisse knew.
The fact that Hoyeol’s talent was not limited to simple magic.
An unfathomably suitable mana.
Hoyeol’s talent regarding black magic was clearly magical talent.
And something beyond that.
That was why he could say with confidence.
“I can guarantee it.”
“What do you mean, Senior Matisse?”
“That even at this moment, Chief Lee is not using his full power.”
“……
Are you serious?”
“Have you ever seen me make a joke?”
*
There is a saying in reality, isn’t there?
That sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic.
I suppose that saying could be applied here as well.
Sufficiently advanced magic.
At least in terms of destructive power, it is no different from Oddity!
It really was an absurd level of magical manifestation power.
Even if we had the same Circle, the amount of time spent embodying that Circle was different. If my magical manifestation power had risen by 1,000 percent thanks to the Circle’s effect, the Tower Master felt as though he were pouring out magic with at least 2,000 percent output.
In that sense, well done, Hoyeol. ‘It’s a relief I matched his level in magic.’ Starting with the cultivation method for elixir herbs, then growing an elixir, then forcibly forming a Circle. If I hadn’t gone through all that damn suffering, even with Oddity, I wouldn’t have been able to counter that ridiculous super-high-level magic.
But anyway……
“The fixed path is not always the answer.”
Could you please not speak like you’re really giving a lesson, Grandfell?
Even as I neutralized every super-high-level magic poured out by the rampaging Tower Master’s body, my mouth kept prattling on. To begin with, the Tower Master wasn’t even conscious, so why was I talking to him?
“Magic is no exception.”
No, I’m telling you, even if you say that, he can’t hear you?
“Magical compatibility? Do not confine yourself within limits.”
There is no such thing as impossible in my dictionary.
He poured out words that sounded like famous sayings.
They really did sound plausible. ‘The people of Arcana might be fooled by words I made up.’ Because I was adding credibility to my words by countering the Tower Master’s magic in all kinds of ways. Perhaps that was why the exclamation marks did not disappear from Jesse’s pupils either.
“Do not confine yourself within limits! I will keep that in mind!” ……
Please.
Even if the world doesn’t know.
I, the one spouting this nonsense, know.
Just how simple the Oddity I’m manifesting is!
I’m telling you, I just added basic science-level knowledge to magic.
Just a few scientific concepts that you can search up on the internet and understand simply.
That’s all I added.
Of course, I know it isn’t easy. ‘Because they’re far too different.’ Well, if it weren’t for Grandfell’s settings, forget the structure of magic.
I wouldn’t even have realized that magic was different from skills.
But no matter how shameless one is, there should be a limit.
I don’t want to get cocky over something like this.
But there was no way my scream would be expressed.
Even more composed words popped out of my mouth.
“Do you still not understand?”
Naturally, there was no answer.
“I will take your silence as affirmation.”
Truly, with every word I spouted, I suffered from shame. But this shamelessness had never once taken my shame into consideration.
I continued, my jacket fluttering.
“Let us resume the lesson.”
…
Marcelo looked at Hoyeol.
Indeed, sir, you improve day by day.
Especially when it comes to Oddity.
“I am ashamed to say that I walk the same path.”
Marcelo had studied this world’s science as much as magic.
However, adding a new concept to the interference process.
Was not easy, to the point it made his head throb.
All the more in a situation where his thoughts were as complicated as now.
His gaze moved from Hoyeol to the Tower Master.
Overwhelming.
The Tower Master had no chance of victory.
The Tower Master himself must know that fact as well. ‘The amount of bleeding is no ordinary matter.’ The Tower Master was manifesting super-high-level magic recklessly.
To a level his body could not endure.
Marcelo clenched his teeth. ‘I am prepared, sir.’ Why the Tower Master was acting like that.
He did not know the reason.
Because even when asked, he had not answered.
However, it was clearly dangerous.
Even just now, if Hoyeol had not stepped in.
It would not have been strange if the world of adventurers had been half-destroyed by the Meteor Strike the Tower Master manifested.
Moreover, considering how much the Magic Tower owed Hoyeol until now…… Even if Hoyeol had not moved, the Magic Tower—he himself—would have stepped forward to stop the Tower Master.
The one who knew the outcome of this match as well as the Tower Master.
Would be the other party involved, Hoyeol.
And yet, for some reason.
Hoyeol had not decided the match since a while ago.
Even though there was no sign that the Tower Master’s heart would turn back.
Hoyeol was wholly keeping the words he had spoken.
“Let us resume the lesson.”
A lesson.
Literally.
As if he were trying to give the Tower Master an enlightenment.
He merely countered the Tower Master’s magic.
“Why would you go that far……”
That was an act even he, who had waited more desperately than anyone for the Tower Master to open his eyes, could not dare attempt.
Marcelo looked at the Tower Master.
His appearance was unchanged, as though time had stopped.
Only one thing had changed: his pupils.
The gaze that had always held drowsiness was emptier than anything.
As if his soul had left him.
“Why are you in such a state……”
His mind, which had never lost its cool, was in disarray.
Amid that, a voice reached him.
It was the apprentice mage Jesse Heinness.
“I realized it late. That person is the Tower Master, isn’t he?”
“That is correct.”
“Then there is something I must tell Chief Marcelo.”
Jesse knew why the Tower Master gave no answer.
Why he was indiscriminately pouring out magic.
She knew the reason.
As the Archmage, she knew that the consciousness of the Tower Master, the previous Archmage, resided in the cone hat. That was why she could not simply pass by Marcelo as he agonized.
“……
So what you are saying is.”
Marcelo’s voice trembled roughly.
“The Tower Master was the previous Archmage?”
Jesse nodded.
Only then did Marcelo notice.
The reason Jesse, an apprentice mage, was in such a place.
And he recalled it.
The letter the Tower Master had left on the parchment.
“……
Was everything planned from that time?”
That face that had always seemed drowsy.
So there was a purpose hidden beneath that complexion.
But you are foolish, Tower Master.
“A purpose you must pursue even by throwing away your life.”
There is no such thing in this world.
“Is that not something that cannot be called truth?”
As he watched Hoyeol.
Marcelo came to realize.
That was why he could shout toward the Tower Master.
“Was this truly the ending you wanted!”
The Tower Master did not turn his head.
He merely exchanged magic with Hoyeol.
Even so, Marcelo shouted, the veins standing out in his neck.
“Did you truly not regret it for even a single moment? I regretted it every moment. Why did I not realize my own insufficiency while you were awake? I thought that only now could I prove myself before you……!”
The Tower Master still did not answer.
“Did you have to deceive me in this way!”
Marcelo’s cry reached everyone.
Jesse bit her lip.
It was a story she had only learned today.
But it felt as though everything had happened because of her, the Archmage.
Her heart was not at ease.
“…….”
The Magic Tower simply kept silent.
Among them, Bellier quietly clenched her fist.
She could not even imagine the sense of loss Marcelo must be feeling.
The only one who remained unchanged was Hoyeol.
He paid no mind to Marcelo’s scream.
He exchanged magic with the Tower Master without rest.
The Tower Master’s body, which could not understand a single thing.
As if he were truly trying to teach it.
Yes, to someone, it might seem foolish.
To another, cold-hearted.
To someone else, it might appear as unbreakable pride.
However, in the system’s eyes, it was the same as always.
“Do you still not understand?”
Even if he had to walk the roughest path.
The [Nobility] that could set everything right.
Such nobility was bound to bring about change.
[The effect of Nobility causes a small change.]
Then the Tower Master’s lips twitched.
“……
I did not wish for an ending like this.”
And.
“You are late.”
Hoyeol heard that voice.
“However, if you have realized it even now, that is enough.”
…
Yes.
I had been waiting for those words.
To begin with, it had been wrong from the start, hadn’t it?
To compare it to magic, the search process itself had been wrong.
Why was a life necessary to approach Oddity in the first place?
Above all, do you think Grandfell would stand by and watch those who entered the realm of Oddity with their lives as collateral? Yes, I’m talking to you, Archmages.
I looked at the blinking quest objective.
●Eliminate the rampaging body of the Tower Master. (In progress)
Tower Master.
If you thought I would obediently follow your plan, you were gravely mistaken.
Because I had just learned of another path.
Not the path presented by the quest objective.
Countless mana particles scattering.
“……
Huh?”
Those particles of mana became threads and wrapped around Jesse’s cone hat.
Yes, that path was another path. The conclusion presented by [Aesthetic], which had reached the Upper.
Originally, if you want to remember what you’ve learned, you have to use it at the right time.
So I did not delay.
I reached my hand toward Jesse’s cone hat.
Tap—
I searched the cone hat with more focus than ever before.
They had said it was magic that forcibly separated the body and consciousness.
Naturally, I traced the Tower Master’s mana traces that must have seeped into the cone hat.
From the mana traces, I grasped the structure of the magic.
And I opened my mouth.
“Jesse Heinness.”
“……
Yes! I cannot raise my head, but I am listening!” ……
Did I press down on the cone hat too hard? I felt bad, but there was no time to apologize. It was already tight just to ask the opinion of the party involved according to procedure.
“May I receive your teacher back from you?”
“By teacher, do you mean the Tower Master’s consciousness?”
“That is correct.”
An answer came immediately.
“Of course! I think that is the proper procedure!”
As expected, whoever taught her, she at least had excellent manners.
Since I had swiftly reached agreement with the two parties involved.
I immediately drew up my mana.
I manifested reversal magic.
At the same time, the space before my eyes blinked.
●Eliminate the rampaging body of the Tower Master. (Failed)
The meaning of the message was simple.
“You have grown a great deal, little Chief Marcelo.”
“……!”
“And I owe you a great debt, Chief Lee Hoyeol.”
The Tower Master’s consciousness had returned to his body.