◈ Chapter 530. Proxies (2)
Crystal Hall.
“I swear before the eternal, undying truth.”
Matisse Dean Karl.
Standing at the lectern, he placed his hand on the 『Ivory Fragment of Truth』.
The gazes of those watching him were clearly divided.
“Film it, just film anything, damn it……!!”
Those who had failed to grasp even the most basic rule of silence.
“Was this really inside the Magic Tower……?”
“Ah, it’s beyond beautiful—it’s unbelievable! No, the hall is getting wider in real time! No matter how many people enter, there’s no sign of it filling up!”
“The pressure is no joke.”
“Just one thing. It’s a shame we can’t broadcast live.”
They were none other than reporters from nations around the world.
“Anyway, thanks to Lee Hoyeol, what kind of windfall is this?”
It was unprecedented for the Magic Tower to reveal any space other than its lobby.
Countless cameras captured the full view of Crystal Hall.
Naturally, displeased gazes poured down on them.
“Hm.”
But soon, those gazes were withdrawn.
Vellier Yusia, senior mage of the Healing School.
Instead of looking at the reporters, she looked toward the Tower Master seated far away.
Marcelo.
Then she opened her mouth.
“Why do you suppose that is, Senior Bangrit?”
“Pardon? What do you mean……?”
“Why did both of them agree to such an unreasonable demand?”
This verification could not proceed by Matisse’s will alone.
That was right. Because Marcelo, the Tower Master, had permitted it.
Matisse’s verification was not being held before the mages of the Magic Tower.
It was being held before the eyes of the entire world.
Vellier pressed a hand to her forehead.
“I’m not exaggerating. Not in the slightest. I truly can’t even guess.”
That they had made such an absurd request, and that the two of them had answered that absurd request. Vellier felt stifled. Chief Lee’s voice would not leave her mind.
“……
He is someone who always keeps what he has said.”
Then Chief Lee would surely keep his words that he would pay for his sins in hell. Even knowing that, the only reason Vellier could maintain even a semblance of composure was because—
“Chief Lee has once performed the miracle of resurrection.”
She had witnessed that resurrection, even if only indirectly.
But hell was a different matter.
Vellier swallowed dryly.
“……
All power comes with a price.”
Just like healing magic.
Evil Fruit (惡果).
Just as an entire, intact life had been needed to purify it, there had to be limits to Chief Lee’s ability of resurrection as well.
Vellier let out a sigh.
“……
Hoo.”
However, she did not think too deeply on it. Rather than worry without any plan, it would be far more proper to research a new healing spell that might be of help to Chief Lee.
In any case.
“Are you sure you should be here, Senior Bangrit?”
“Pardon? I’m all right!”
“Mm, that’s not how it looks to me.”
“Haha. I suppose it does look that way after all……?”
“Are you trying to deceive my eyes?”
Vellier had personally diagnosed Bangrit’s condition only yesterday.
An injury severe enough that he should not be able to leave the private ward for at least a month.
Even so, Bangrit grinned broadly.
“Hehe, can’t you let it slide just this once……? I made such a fuss yesterday that I still have enough strength left to watch the verification. Unlike Senior Bensch.”
At least half a year.
Bensch had suffered injuries that required him to refrain not only from manifesting his vision magic, but also from using the decisive battle magic tool he had been so obsessed with. The signs had been there from the moment he pretended to be fine in that state.
“No matter what, Senior Bensch.”
Vellier clicked her tongue.
“I didn’t think he would faint while chattering away.”
Even the Shadow Mercenaries weren’t that bad.
At any rate, because she understood Bangrit’s feelings well enough.
Vellier gave a slow nod.
“Then shall we watch without getting too excited?”
At last, the Ivory Fragment of Truth shone.
Five-colored light wrapped around Matisse for a brief moment.
Then Matisse continued.
“That in this place, I shall declare only the truth.”
The moment his words fell, questions poured in.
“What exactly is black magic? It is dangerous, isn’t it?”
No formality.
“Was what covered Jeju Island truly Lee Hoyeol’s black magic?”
No respect.
“Is it true that Player Lee Hoyeol’s black magic nearly placed his allies in danger? This isn’t some absurd claim. I’m asking because we received a tip!”
Questions devoid of even gratitude.
“……
Lady Vellier was right.”
Bangrit looked back and forth between Tower Master Marcelo and Senior Matisse.
Even he could have guessed that questions like these would pour in.
“Is this thanks to the Inquiry into the Strange as well?”
He had at least a rough grasp of how this world worked.
In that sense.
He could not guess why they had pushed for this verification.
Bangrit rubbed his throbbing side.
“Chief Lee has already acknowledged his own mistake.”
In such a situation, what could Senior Matisse do?
Most likely.
Nothing but explain Chief Lee’s error in even greater detail.
“And now that he has even sworn upon the Ivory Fragment of Truth…….”
Senior Matisse could only speak the truth.
He was already worried.
It was not easy to imagine the aftermath that would unfold once the verification ended.
It was then.
“I shall answer every question.”
Matisse opened his mouth....
“Jeju Island, that island, was covered in compatible mana.”
The moment Paimon’s domain appeared.
Matisse had been guarding the Magic Tower. From the moment he had obtained the freedom to leave the tower, he no longer needed any special permission to do so, and that decision had been entirely Matisse’s own will.
Matisse stated the reason without hiding anything.
“It was dense and threatening compatible mana, to the extent that even I, Matisse Dean Karl, the founder of black magic studies, could not escape its influence.”
『Ivory Fragment of Truth』
If one who had sworn upon it uttered a lie.
The one who spoke falsehood would pay the price.
At the end of the enormous ivory fragment.
Bloodstains hinted at that price.
The cameras turned all at once toward the Ivory Fragment of Truth.
……
Goooo.
There was no movement from the ivory fragment.
Thus, it was the truth.
Once again.
Questions without a shred of formality poured out.
“Then does Senior Matisse also agree? With the claims of various experts that Player Lee Hoyeol may become a threat to humanity!”
A threat to humanity.
“That may be so.”
Swoosh.
Matisse looked at his own ring. The gems adorning it had all been destroyed from contact with compatible mana exceeding their limits. Considering the distance between the Magic Tower and Jeju Island……
Matisse could say with certainty.
“If I had gone to Jeju Island, then by now, I…….”
Unable to withstand Chief Lee’s compatible mana, unable to escape from Chief Lee’s endlessly deep darkness, he would have become a ruined man. For example, he would have ended up in the same state as the demon worshipers imprisoned in Mugan.
This time as well, Matisse spoke only the truth.
“I agree with that opinion.”
“……!!!”
At that declaration, flashes even burst out from all over the hall.
Matisse looked around Crystal Hall.
Everyone in the Magic Tower was looking at him as though they could not understand him.
All except Tower Master Marcelo.
Matisse gave Marcelo a faint smile.
From the moment you permitted this verification, I had already guessed.
“As expected, you are of the same mind as I am.”
Murmur, murmur.
From the reporters’ side came even more blatant questions.
“Then may we ask what stance the Magic Tower intends to take? If he is a threat to humanity, does that not mean he is also a threat to the Magic Tower?”
“Will the Magic Tower take the lead in forming a new alliance…….”
“Are you perhaps considering withdrawing from the Holy War Alliance Army?”
However.
These people were still under some great misunderstanding.
The languages of reality and Arcana were not so very different.
Both had to be heard to the end.
Matisse opened his mouth.
“It seems there is a misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding? You clearly said you agreed……”
“I said he ‘may become’ a threat.”
Matisse’s pupils shone coldly.
Yes.
Even more so than when he had scolded Bensch William.
Goooo.
Matisse lightly stirred his mana.
These were people who did not even know the Magic Tower’s basic rule of silence.
There was no way they could know the rule prohibiting acts of force within Crystal Hall.
……
Flinch.
“W-Why are you suddenly doing this……?!”
To the trembling reporters, Matisse said,
“It was a simple manifestation to aid your understanding. Just as the type of magic manifested changes with the slightest difference during the process of interference, human words are the same as magic.”
“……?”
“I am telling you not to twist my words as you please.”
“……!!!”
They had not even expected it.
After entering Crystal Hall.
The scene they wanted, the answers, the reactions.
The reporters had captured everything on camera.
But as though cold water—
No, ice water had been poured over them.
Those who had been so triumphant shrank back completely.
Step.
“Hiiik.”
At last, when Matisse took one step closer, the reporters looked as if they were about to cry. Only then did a silence that complied with the rules flow through the hall. Had they belatedly learned formality?
Only now did it seem possible to get to the main point.
“I have understood all of your questions. I thought you would be a little wiser, but to think you still cannot see the essence. If Chief Lee were here, he would have said this to you.”
“……?”
“Have you still not grasped your place?”
“!”
Build a new alliance?
Respond to Chief Lee?
The Magic Tower would cooperate with that rising force?
It was an idea that did not even draw a hollow laugh.
“Whether he is a threat is not for you to judge.”
Had they seen and still failed to realize it?
“Whether he becomes a threat to humanity, or the opposite, is a matter that depends solely on the will of the person concerned, Chief Lee himself. Have you still not understood that?”
At Matisse’s words, there were those who belatedly realized.
“……
Th-That’s right.”
In this incident, the one who stopped Lee Hoyeol was not Skal, who had awakened as a Dragon Knight, nor the Great Alliance, nor High Demon King Paimon, nor the mysterious hand that pierced even Paimon in a single blow.
“I-It was Lee Hoyeol……!!”
In the end, it had been Hoyeol himself.
Matisse looked at the Ivory Fragment of Truth.
“Therefore, what I wish to say through this verification is simple. Not for myself, nor for the Magic Tower, but solely for your sake, I am sharing my knowledge even while going through this cumbersome verification.”
The fragment still held its place firmly.
That was proof that Matisse.
That he had still not spoken a single lie.
“So I hope you will choose wisely.”
He uttered his final words.
“For even beasts do not defy the one who holds both the whip and the carrot.”
*
“You worked hard, Senior Matisse.”
Marcelo smiled brightly.
“It seemed you had a difficult time restraining yourself.”
Marcelo recalled the past.
That is to say……
Matisse’s appearance before Hoyeol entered the Magic Tower.
Matisse had walked the lonely path called black magic studies.
In those days, there had not been a single person who could understand him. If one were to compare him to something, he had been like a hedgehog. If Matisse from that time had conducted the verification—
“By now, among the reporters, several of them would have…….”
Soon, Matisse shook his head.
“When you put it that way, I am ashamed.”
“That wasn’t the reaction I was hoping for.”
“I apologize for that as well, Tower Master.”
“……
As expected, I cannot defeat Senior Matisse with words.”
If Marcelo had not been chosen as the youngest chief mage, it would have been Matisse who rose to the position of chief mage. If one had to distinguish generations, Matisse was closer to the generation of elder mages than to the seniors.
Marcelo’s fuss was no exaggeration.
“In that sense, the verification process this time was also surprising.”
Matisse asked in return.
“Did you not already expect it, Tower Master?”
Marcelo answered with only a smile.
To such a Marcelo.
Matisse honestly confessed his feelings.
“I do not know how Chief Lee will think of my verification.”
Matisse was not thoroughly familiar with the world of adventurers, but he did know it to a certain extent.
Meaning, he knew at least that it was a world where new information spread faster and wider than telepathy.
But unlike the worried Matisse, Marcelo was relaxed.
“Well. You may have to tell Chief Lee yourself, Senior Matisse.”
“……
Pardon? What do you mean by that?”
Swoosh.
Instead of answering, Marcelo glanced toward the object placed on the table.
A magic tool of adventurers for the Inquiry into the Strange.
A smartphone.
It remained still.
There had not been even the slightest vibration from it since earlier.
What that meant was simple.
Marcelo shrugged.
“It must all be thanks to the excellence of Senior Matisse’s verification, no?”
*
TQBC.
The Close-Coverage Live Arcana Team.
After looking at the footage, the producer trembled.
“This is insane……!!”
For the sake of ratings, to crush VBC Today Arcana, to laugh at that rude bastard Hyeon Yongseok, he had sworn that he would even sell his soul to a demon.
……
But some things simply could not be done.
“……
Discard all the footage shot in the Magic Tower.”
“Pardon? What on earth was filmed that makes you say that? Isn’t it a waste?!”
“A waste? You’re saying it’s a waste right now?!”
The producer spoke, his face deathly pale.
“This is a threat, isn’t it? The Magic Tower swore upon truth and is threatening us! They’re warning us that if we get on Lee Hoyeol’s nerves, the ones who’ll be screwed won’t be Lee Hoyeol, but you humans. They’re warning us without a single lie……!!”