The Imperial Palace library. I am organizing the records on the old mansion.
─[Cursed Old Mansion]─
◆ A cradle of souls, possessing intelligence on par with a human. It appears to accept souls heavy with lingering attachments and provide them a place of rest. Its purpose remains unknown, and as it has research value and may prove useful, it is worth observing for the time being…….
────
The descriptive text was only those two lines. Everything beneath it was an account composed entirely of magic circles and formulas. It was also an analysis and deconstruction, in magical terms, of the mana density and phenomena within the old mansion.
Any magician worth their salt should understand it well enough.
“Librarian. Store this as well.”
“Yes, sir.”
The librarian, Reksil, placed my records on a shelf in the library. He spoke with a low laugh.
“……I am glad the commotion was resolved well.”
“You mean the old mansion.”
“Yes.”
The old mansion is still in the rear garden of the Imperial Palace. The souls of Igiris and Dikailen, too, still exist there.
“Whether that is fortunate remains to be seen. A cradle of souls is dangerous. Dead souls must not remain in the world of the living.”
“As a fool, I cannot claim to understand.”
“Think of it as me talking to myself.”
For reference, the remnants of the Altar, including Sirio and Jeilleon, were imprisoned in the underground prison of the Imperial Palace. It was indeed the dignity of the archmage Adrienne, and they did not put up much resistance either.
However, since the old mansion itself was not a quest, there was no particular reward.
Of course, the results themselves were certain. I had obtained Dikailen’s 「Artistic Magic Studies」.
───「Artistic Magic Studies」───
◆ Information
：The essence of Artistic Magic Studies authored by Dikailen of Yukline.
◆ Category
：Unique Secret Grimoire
────────
A hardcover volume woven from mana. Dikailen was a magician who had reached the pinnacle of the ‘Refinement’ series. His artifacts went beyond art, to the point that they were treated as treasures desired by the nobles of the entire continent.
For that reason, no matter how much I 「Comprehended」 it, acquiring it with my current self would be difficult. After all, Deculein’s series talent was only in ‘Manipulation’…….
That, however, is now an old story.
I tore the 「Additional Series Selection Ticket」. I immediately chose the ‘Refinement’ series.
“…….”
Nothing happened.
Was it because Refinement and Manipulation were similar series? There was no burning pain, nor any current of realization, only a single system message.
[‘Refinement’ will be added to your series talent.]
At that moment, someone strode over and sat in front of me.
“But, Professor.”
It was Epherene.
She cast 「Silence」 around us as she spoke.
“So, you know. Does that mean His Majesty’s august body was personally sculpted by that ‘self-proclaimed god’ bastard? Something like that?”
Having heard the whole story from Dikailen in the old mansion, she is full of curiosity.
I do not know why Dikailen even bothered telling this girl such things.
“Do you think that has something to do with why His Majesty hates the Jeokgwe so insanely much?”
“It is instinctive revulsion.”
“Huh?”
“Even if His Majesty’s flesh was made by that ‘god,’ His Majesty is not him. He is a separate soul.”
It would be fair to view the current situation as one of the countless ‘branches’ of the main quest. Among them, a very special branch.
In most main quests, the god made his own body and descended by using it as a vessel, but since the branch has already diverged, I will have to adapt.
“In other words, for His Majesty to live, he must shatter him. The expedition to Myeolji and the oppression of the Jeokgwe are also part of that, and an expression of his survival instinct.”
“Hmm…… I understand Myeolji, but why the Jeokgwe? It’s not like their entire clan is completely evil. There are tons of criminals among Imperial citizens too.”
“It is because of the Jeokgwe religion. They, like the Altar, believe in the god of the old Divine Era. They even believe in the same prophecy, that one day the god will descend.”
“……Aha.”
Epherene nodded. She grinned, then rummaged inside her coat.
“Right. Professor, you know. Look at this.”
She proudly showed me some sort of application form.
“I got the qualifications for His Imperial Majesty’s Imperial Guard. Sir Delric said if I just fill this out and submit it, I can join. Apparently, His Majesty wants me to join too.”
Hehe!
She looked at me triumphantly, as if she had won the lottery.
“…….”
Without a word, I took the application form in my hand.
And then.
“……Ah?!”
Riiip—! I tore it.
The flustered Epherene hurriedly reached out, but fwoosh—! I burned it with fire.
“Nooo! Why, why are you doing this again?!”
“It is not an organization for the likes of you to join.”
“……What did you say?”
To the girl whose face twisted into an ugly scowl, I said,
“War will break out. The Imperial Guard will kill children, women, and the elderly alike.”
“…….”
“Epherene, can you do that?”
At that, her lips rolled inward into her mouth. It was quite a ridiculous face.
“Of course, I would gladly do so. I have already killed far too many people, and I have gone too far to turn back. To prattle about morals now and kill one or two fewer people would itself be deceit. However.”
I looked at the woodsteel floating around Epherene’s shoulder. That woodsteel I had given her had, at some point, become completely dyed in Epherene’s ash-gray color.
It no longer obeys my commands.
“You are not like that, Epherene.”
Epherene’s eyes trembled slightly.
“You are not a magician who kills people.”
“…….”
Without a word, she lowered her head.
She scratched the crown of her thick hair, then cleared her throat with an ahem.
“That’s, well……. Oh, right!”
Then, as if she had thought of something else, she handed me a crystal orb.
“Take this. I figured out how to use this pocket watch, you see?”
A wooden pocket watch. She spoke while holding it in her hand.
“That crystal orb and my crystal orb are connected, okay? So please keep that crystal orb for at least three years. No matter what, for three years.”
“Why three years?”
“That’s the lifespan of the crystal orb.”
“You bought a cheap one.”
“I don’t have money, anyway!”
Epherene placed her crystal orb on top of the pocket watch.
“Huuuuuu…….”
As I watched, she took a deep breath and infused mana into the pocket watch. Ash-gray mana seeped into it.
Before long.
“……Can you hear me?”
Epherene’s words transmitted through the crystal orb.
However, her voice did not return through my crystal orb. Rather—
─I can hear you.
A voice that was mine, yet not the current me, answered her words.
“Gugh—!”
Epherene screamed. Her body convulsed as she frothed at the mouth.
I nodded.
“I understand it well enough. However, the side effects are too severe.”
“……It’s especially severe only with you, Professor. If it’s an ordinary person, they can talk while consuming a moderate amount of mana.”
“Then you should have become rich. With stocks.”
“…….”
At that, Epherene’s eyes slowly grew wide. Her mouth fell open in a daze. Her nostrils flared like trumpets.
It was the face of someone who had gained all the realizations in the world at this very moment.
I asked, dumbfounded.
“……Did that thought not occur to you even once?”
“No…… Uh…… I’ll be going!”
Clatter-clatter— She sprang to her feet and dashed off somewhere in a hurry. Heheheheh— Laughing like a madwoman, even hopping as she went.
At the sight of her back, I shook my head.
And once again, I opened 「Artistic Magic Studies」.
Dikailen’s table of contents was devilish from the very first page.
[1. A Living, Moving Organic Circuit Explored from the Origin of Demons.]
* * *
……Before the shock of the great incident that occurred a week ago, ‘the Empire was attacked,’ had even faded.
Emperor Sophien officially acknowledged the existence of the ‘Altar.’ At the same time, she declared them enemies of the Empire.
The Altar, which had been regarded as a shadowy cult, had risen to the surface.
In the aftermath, the gas chambers in Jeokgwe camps across the Empire were hastily completed, and hostility toward the Jeokgwe and the Altar boiled over fiercely, regardless of noble or commoner.
─[Worst Religious Terrorists Attack Imperial Palace.]─
Hundreds of eunuchs and attendants dead or injured. Part of the Imperial Palace completely destroyed. (Photo)
Emperor Sophien declared martial law throughout the Empire while warning of large-scale retaliation…….
────
“Whoa. This is serious. Looks like a war might break out?”
At Gerek’s words, Al Los, who had been reading the article, let out a haaaam— yawn and put down the newspaper.
“Seems that way.”
“More importantly, what happened to that thing you delivered?”
“The doll?”
“Yeah. You said a god was going to enter it.”
“Who knows. For now, I did make it. I delivered it too.”
Al Los had crafted the god’s body with the utmost sincerity. As a master of puppetry, he had completed a masterpiece far too perfect and handed it over to the Altar.
“Maybe they didn’t like it. Or maybe they still haven’t obtained the ‘lubricant.’ I still don’t know. At any rate, I’m trying to set that right.”
If the god tried to dominate the continent with that body, Al Los would bear no small fault. That was why he had deliberately formed an adventuring party.
“……But. What are you planning to do, holed up in this underground city?”
Gerek chuckled.
Just as he said, Al Los had placed the adventuring party’s base here in the ‘underground city’ of the Kingdom of Yuren.
“This place is better than the Floating Island.”
Yuren is quite fascinating in that the world below the ground and the world above it are different. Above ground, it is like another world, with a spectacular skyline full of high-rise buildings, while underground, it is mechanical and mysterious, as though designed by dwarves.
After all, an ‘artificial sun’ rises here every day from noon to three in the afternoon.
“Everything’s cheap, and unauthorized copying is legal.”
Al Los chuckled and pointed to the books on the desk.
[Deculein: The Magic of Probability (Pirated Edition)]
[Deculein: Collision Value Analysis (Pirated Edition)]
[Deculein: Circuit Calculation and the Proper Understanding of Spells (Pirated Edition)]
Pirated editions that completely ignored intellectual property rights, books that should have cost hundreds of thousands of elne per volume. It was a place that would make the Floating Island faint if it knew, but there was nothing to be done.
Because this place was none other than the famous ‘Ashes.’
A ‘nation’ coiled within a dormant volcano in the mountains of Yuren, scorned and insulted by the Magic Tower as a damned volcano, yet living with its own chaotic order and rules.
Copyright could be observed, or it could not be. That was all.
“By the way, Al Los, did you know? Deculein is coming to Yuren this time. If we’re lucky, we might see him.”
“Deculein is coming to Yuren?”
Al Los frowned.
“You know that thing you’re participating in. The Magic Expo. Apparently, he’s coming to watch.”
The Magic Expo. Literally, an expo.
The magical technology of the Floating Island descends to the continent, and the various nations and Magic Towers of the continent also boast and compare their achievements. Even nameless magicians who are not from a Magic Tower can exhibit their own techniques and receive sponsorship at any time. It is a kind of ladder that allows dragons to rise from muddy streams.
This year, Yuren was chosen as the venue for the Magic Expo, and Al Los had entered in hopes of sponsorship.
“……Hmm. Then I’ll have to make some preparations.”
“What preparations?”
“That fellow does not move without reason. He must have heard some piece of information or the like.”
Jingle—
At that moment, the door to the adventuring party opened. Gerek and Al Los turned that way.
“Are you customers?”
A group of three. At a glance, they did not seem to be from the Ashes. They strode forward and, bang—! placed down a poster.
“It’s a wanted notice. If he’s caught before the Expo, the reward is ten million elne.”
It seemed they intended to tighten public security before the Expo, but…….
Al Los glanced at the portrait on the poster, then nodded with a smile.
“Do you know who it is?”
“I do.”
“……You know?”
“Yes.”
Al Los knew. The face on this poster, and its ‘assembly method.’
“This is a doll I made, you see. Looks like those Altar bastards have already been using it.”
* * *
No matter how grave an affair befalls the continent, the Floating Island does not shake. It does not even stir. It does not even blink.
The Magic Expo is the representative example. No matter what happens to the Empire, no matter what it does, an Expo once decided will proceed without fail, and the Magic Tower is the same.
Even now, the countless magical experiments taking place on the field of this university will all be things intended for exhibition at the Expo.
“What do you think of what we prepared?!”
As such, it is a rather large event recognized by Magic Towers across the entire continent, and Epherene of the Imperial University Magic Tower is also participating as part of a team.
“It’s a powered aircraft!”
She shouted that while holding stock certificates in one hand. It seemed she had put my advice into practice.
“You ride this and fly through the sky. If it’s commercialized, it’ll be a jackpot. It doesn’t even need a runway?!”
Epherene’s team had made a powered aircraft. A powered aircraft that moved using mana stones. If a person climbed on top of it, it flew—an airplane.
They were presenting it and asking me to grade it.
“Um…… what do you think? Is this all right?”
Rellin asked cautiously. I shook my head.
“It’s terrible.”
“What?! What part of it?!”
Epherene’s eyes flew wide open. Julie and Maho, who were on the same team as Epherene, reacted the same way.
“First, there are no safety devices. And……”
I kicked the engine containing the mana stone.
Bang—!
It shattered pathetically.
“A passing bird could hit it and it would fall apart.”
I snorted as if it were ridiculous and walked past, but the other professors watched me for my reaction. I said to them,
“No need to mind me. They may be nominally under me for now, but if they fail to meet expectations, I’ll cut them loose immediately.”
Only then did all the faculty members add a word or two.
What was wrong, and what had been done well. Epherene tried to talk back, only to be scolded by Rellin.
“If you know so much, then you be the professor! Huh?! Who does a mere assistant professor think she is!”
It was as it should be.
Rather than being hidden beneath Deculein’s radiance—or shadow—and receiving fear or flattery, she would grow as a mage in a place where she could be properly scolded and advised.
“……?”
Just then, someone called me from within the shadow of the Magic Tower.
The voice was faint, but clear at my ear.
—Deculein. Meow.
A red-furred munchkin. In other words, the cat Sophien.
“What is it?”
—Because of the attack on the Empire, I cannot go out. Meow. It is harder to leave from the inside to the outside than it is to enter from the outside in. Damn it all. Meow.
The red-furred munchkin said that as she nestled into my arms, tickling the tip of my nose with her tail.
—So, keep this cat for a while and take it to the fair.
“The fair, Your Majesty?”
—Yes. You were planning to attend anyway, were you not?
“Is there another reason?”
—Creto is submitting an invention there.
Nyaaaaooow.
Shivering in the cold, the red-furred munchkin muttered like a sigh.
—I promised I would go, so I must. He is my one and only younger brother. And the Altar may attack.
“……Yes. I will do so.”
The moment I answered like that—
Kwaaaaang───!
Something exploded with a tremendous sound.
Sophien and I turned in that direction at the same time.
“Aaaagh! Aaaagh!”
Epherene’s power unit had exploded.
—……Still, your disciple truly is far too terrible at times.
“No, why is this suddenly doing this? It flew fine during the test flight, u-uhhh──! Save me!”
At the Emperor’s words, I had no choice but to nod.