Chapter – 34
Master of the Magic Tower, God of the Tower, Genius of the Century, the Worst Lunatic on Earth, Collector of Strange Things.
All of these were epithets for Sila Bernstein.
Step, step.
Dressed in a white robe, he was walking somewhere that was neither the Magic Tower nor the imperial capital. It was a passage with no end in sight, engulfed in pitch-black darkness, with no walls or ceilings visible.
The place where Sila was located was an underground region at the border where the Kazas Empire, the Kingdom of Ritten, and the Holy Kingdom met.
Even though it was underground, it didn’t have any visible entrances; it was a very special space that only those who knew its “location” could reach.
As he stopped walking, a voice came from the darkness, as if it had been waiting.
“Back again?”
“And the old man is still alive, I see?”
“Hoho, I never said I was ready to die yet.”
The voice of the old man in the large black cloak was hoarse, making it hard to tell their gender. In fact, you couldn’t even see their face, so age was unknowable, but Sila didn’t care.
The first time they met, he had been told, “Respect the old man,” and so Sila had started calling him that.
“The old man is always staring at that.”
Unlike the passage Sila had walked through until now, the wider space ahead was filled with faintly flickering lights.
The old man’s gaze was fixed on countless gears filling an enormous space whose boundaries could not be discerned.
Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands… the number was impossible to count. The gears meshed together as if forming one massive unit.
“Is everything unchanged today?”
Instead of answering, the old man slowly raised a hand and pointed to a spot.
A single screw had popped out from between two large gears.
The surrounding gears were oddly misaligned, as if they might fall out once the screw was removed.
“Some of them are already quite skewed.”
Elsewhere, the old man pointed to other gears that were already significantly out of alignment with the rest.
“Indeed. They’re much more skewed than the last time I came. Soon, it might completely collapse.”
“That could happen… or it might not.”
Sila glanced at the old man, who answered so calmly.
“Is that… okay?”
“Okay with what?”
“Even if the center of the world collapses.”
Instead of replying, the old man started chuckling, and Sila turned his attention to the twisted gears and the protruding screw.
After a long while, the old man finally spoke.
“That screw has failed countless times to leave its place. That’s because every component here is set to always return to its original position.”
Sila had learned about the “center of the world” not long after becoming Master of the Magic Tower.
Having claimed the position of Master of the Tower, and growing bored, he had begun experimenting with all kinds of forbidden magic—one of which brought him here.
“Each component is a person, then?”
“Heh heh, yes. You remember well. Every gear, every chain, even that tiny screw—all of them represent ‘someone assigned a role.’”
When Sila first visited, he had been told that the fate of every person was predetermined. At first, he had refused to believe it. He had tried using all the magic he knew to destroy this place, but nothing changed.
According to the old man, everyone on the surface—their birth, their end, their appearance, their personality—was bound by rules, forced to act as dictated. Sila had been so incredulous.
So, was it predetermined by someone that he became Master of the Tower and mastered magic?
Every year, whenever he achieved some magical milestone, he tried to break the center of the world—but failed every time.
Sila had long since understood:
This place was protected by immense power, and the old man’s calm words were true.
It was akin to how Sila himself had naturally awakened his magic, unlike others—so there was no denying it.
“But that screw never gave up trying to leave its place, and look—it’s come this far in the end.”
When Sila first came to this place, only a single screw had slightly shifted from its position.
“You should thank that screw no bigger than your finger. If not for that screw, you wouldn’t have even come here, nor realized you were walking your predetermined path.”
Who exactly was that screw?
Ever since Sila had acknowledged the existence of this place, he had begun searching for unusual individuals. He believed that anyone capable of defying fate could never be an ordinary person.
“Soon, everything will collapse. The ripple caused by one of the least significant screws will change everything.”
“Can you tell me that?”
“There’s no rule against telling, hoho.”
“Do you know who that screw is?”
“Hmm, even I don’t know that.”
Sila, silently observing the screw, turned and walked back through the passage he had come from.
Only upon reaching the entrance did he use teleportation magic, heading toward the northeastern region of the Empire.
Wearing a hood and mask to fully conceal his face, he approached what appeared to be an ordinary five-story building.
The building had been magically fortified using ancient artifacts to prevent teleportation—so he had to enter on foot.
He went to his room on the inner side of the third floor, followed by an assistant from his organization.
The room was more than three times larger than it appeared from the outside, spotless without a speck of dust. The most notable feature was the desk piled high with paperwork.
“Why is there so much work?”
Sitting at the desk, Sila clicked his tongue and began sorting through the documents.
“More importantly, Boss, Tole has gone missing…”
Tole was a magician of the Magic Tower.
Sila treated the Magic Tower and Blue Bird as separate organizations, so almost none of the Tower’s magicians had joined Blue Bird.
The members of Blue Bird didn’t even know Sila was the Master of the Tower, and it was the same on the Tower’s side.
Only a few magicians, like Tole, who obsessively followed Sila, knew he was the leader of Blue Bird and joined voluntarily.
“That guy isn’t in his right mind. He’s probably doing something strange somewhere.”
It was questionable who exactly was “not in their right mind,” but the assistant continued the report calmly.
“The problem is, Tole’s last trace was found in the Imperial Domain.”
“Where in the Imperial Domain?”
“In the forest near the capital—where the recent hunting competition took place.”
Sila’s gaze fell on the assistant, and the yellow eyes visible through the mask radiated such intensity that the assistant shivered.
“He attacked a noble and killed them.”
The Master of the Tower idly rotated his index finger, and tiny droplets rising from it formed a small whirlpool.
“The Emperor won’t blink just because a few nobles die.”
If anything, he would probably have been pleased.
The current Emperor was cunning and specialized in maintaining his position.
“Unfortunately, the Emperor publicly declared he would investigate the mastermind behind the assassination attempt on the noble.”
“Publicly? Really?”
“Tole attacked a fairly prominent noble.”
When Sila heard the name that followed, his finger froze.
“Rosia Levian and Calvin Levian—the children of Marquis Levian.”
“…What?”
“Moreover, the Duke of Lysiancius was also present, so they couldn’t avoid an investigation.”
Sila realized he had placed a teleportation ban on the area to prevent intruders.
Leaping to his feet, he quickly left the building.
“B-Boss!”
The assistant remaining behind called out in shock.
Sila had initially intended to go to the Levian Marquis’ residence but instead headed to the imperial hunting grounds.
“Rosia Levian, huh? Damn that Tole kid.”
She was the most interesting person he had recently discovered—he couldn’t let her die.
The foolish Tole had surely used magic, and tracking magical traces was easy for the Master of the Tower.
‘I’ve planted “eyes” within him, so he should be able to see the situation.’
He had embedded a bit of his magic into the Tower-trained magicians within Blue Bird. Through his magic, he could locate them and even read their memories.
“Found you.”
Sila slowly touched the place where Tole’s traces remained, closed his eyes, and confirmed the events of that day.
Soon, he let out a dry chuckle.
“Hah.”
—Why… are you laughing?
In Tole’s vision, Rosia’s eyes curved beautifully as she smiled, looking as if she had conquered the entire world.
