Chapter 39 – Interlude, the Things Left Behind

Interlude, the Things Left Behind

The place where the man and the dragon had departed was filled with a tranquil silence. A dry wind entered through the broken walls. This place, which wouldn’t be surprising if it collapsed at any moment, was the most recently constructed Tower of Magic, a building the Sorcerer King had agonized over before erecting. To call it a masterpiece would be an understatement.

The corridor, which had expressed the utmost simplicity by thoroughly excluding any decoration, had its walls completely torn away.
An understatement. It was a building made only of materials and colors that were friendly to nature.

Scratched, corroded, and destroyed, in the end, nothing was left but ruins.
In that desolate place, only the Sorcerer King and his lieutenant remained.

“This is why I was trying to ban those damn pendants…”

The Sorcerer King let out a deep sigh.
Crimes within the Country of Magic could always be prevented. After all, people only lived in cities near the Tower of Magic. There was no place for criminals to run. If they fled, they could only go to uninhabitable wastelands or deep inside the Tower of Magic. Escape for criminals was impossible.
However, such rules did not apply to outsiders. All because of those damned pendants.

“To smash even the floor tiles, those damn Empire bastards.”

“I apologize.”

It was his lieutenant who had destroyed the floor. It was a minor accident that occurred while trying to attack Valkvogel.
But to the Sorcerer King, such trivialities were unimportant.

“Lepard, what do you think? Does that cursed wounded man seem like an agent of the Empire?”

His voice sank heavily.
The Sorcerer King was touching the spot where the suspicious man had stood.

“The attire, speech, gestures. All reek of the Empire’s style. There’s a possibility of him being a mage or a demon due to the foreign energy, but… considering the emblem on the dagger, it’s highly likely he’s affiliated with the Empire.”

“Well, then let’s just go with him being an Empire bastard.”

He had roughly remembered the face anyway. A man with many scars and a masculine appearance. One could say he resembled him in his younger days, a face that looked like it had made many women cry.

“So, where is Aeon now?”

The details of the incident would become clear upon hearing it from her.

At his words, Lepard knelt down and spread his palms towards the floor.
It was a detection spell.

Starting from his hands, blue magical power spread out. The magic flowed along the walls, climbed the shattered rebar, and spread throughout the entire Tower of Magic.
And a few minutes later, Lepard’s expression hardened.

“…I have not detected Aeon’s magical presence. I’m beginning to think—could she have been kidnapped?”

It was a thought worth considering.
If the battle had been this fierce, there must have been a corresponding purpose. It couldn’t have been just a simple act of terror.

However, the Sorcerer King cut off Lepard’s words with a hearty laugh.

“Ha ha ha! Unless she’s dead, I doubt there’s an idiot who would dare to kidnap the master of the Tower of Magic!”

To kidnap the strategic asset of the Country of Magic, the master of the Tower of Magic? Everyone knows the kind of retaliation we’re capable of.
Unless someone is a masochist who wishes for a meteor to strike them, they wouldn’t kidnap the master of the Tower of Magic. If she were killed, it would mean all-out war.
Even the demon army wouldn’t dare to do such a crazy thing directly.

“I’ll investigate this personally. You, contact the immigration office and have them detain anyone headed for the Tower of Magic in the New Moon. Though by now, they’ve probably fled.”

He reached out his hand to the floor. It was the start of a high-level detection spell.
Surely, it wouldn’t be long before he could determine Aeon’s location. The details could be obtained later.
Lepard, unable to perform this simple task, must have been too excited by the sight of the dragon.
The Sorcerer King thought this as he released his magical power.

But what he didn’t know was that Aeon had been kidnapped in a manner of speaking.
It was only a few hours later that he would learn of her disappearance.

And the story that follows, of the first meeting between the leaders of the Country of Magic and the Empire in over a hundred years, is for another time.

* * *

The atmosphere in the imperial palace was somber. One reason was the blood that had been spilled in the royal family, but that wasn’t the main cause.

The Emperor’s expression was very stern. Not just stern, but ‘very’ stern.

It was unprecedented. The Emperor, who usually dealt with everything with a smile, even when fighting dragons or tearing apart assassins with his bare hands, had never shown such a gloomy and crumpled expression.
Of course, it wasn’t that he only laughed. In private, he showed a variety of expressions.
Most of which were side effects of alcohol.

After hearing the full story from Nicola, the Emperor was unable to do anything. This too was unusual.

Under normal circumstances, the Emperor would have surely ignored such matters.
However, he couldn’t do that because his daughter was involved in the incident.

At first, he denied it.

No, Flan is a person of his word. He wouldn’t break a promise made right in front of him and head straight to Aliana. He must have been trying to go somewhere else and things didn’t work out. That’s what must have happened.

Reflecting on this, he conducted a careful investigation and found out that Flan had headed straight to Aliana immediately after leaving the imperial palace.

He was enraged.

Not only had he broken his promise, but he also went straight to Aliana and then caused such a mess? Just wait until I see that bastard, I’ll…

As time passed, he decided to postpone deciding on his punishment.

…Yeah, Flan has done so much for us. It would be too much to kill him. Since I pretty much know everything, I’ll let him off with a warning if he comes back quickly. Just leak a few words to the press, and he’ll probably come back… somewhat appropriately.

After coming to this conclusion, the amount of alcohol he drank began to increase.

For a week, there were no sightings of him. Flan had disappeared.

The amount of alcohol kept increasing until he was emptying five or six orc-sized barrels a day.
Whenever the servants tried to intervene, the number of bottles only grew.

He was depressed.

Why did this have to happen during his reign? That damn Demon King made him lose all his proud golden hair. What more does he want to take from him?
The more he thought about it, the angrier he got, and he considered just delegating everything to the prime minister and drowning his sorrows in alcohol.

And then, after some time, he came to an understanding.

Yeah, the closest person to him was Aliana. A guy who finds everything bothersome wouldn’t keep such a bothersome promise. He’s always been like that, so let’s just chalk it up to that.

The real target of his anger was elsewhere.

The Emperor, who had been drinking frankly, drew his sword. The servants and vassals finally thought the country would be set right, that the man who had been of ill-repute would finally leave this world!

But it didn’t take long for them to tremble in fear.

The drawn blade was not directed at Flan, but at a maid who had mocked the imperial blood and a few others who had conspired with her.
After that day, no trace of the maid who had lied to Aliana and those few others could be found. Only a few skeletons were impaled on the castle walls.

So, after sheathing his blood-stained blade, he waited tediously for a few more days.
Flan still did not return.
And time brings us to the present.

In the meantime, many things had happened. The letters from the Fist King, which had been exchanged occasionally, had stopped.
The leader of the White Knights, who had been holding back the Blood Tribe in the north, had asked for retirement. The deputy had lost an arm and was no longer able to fight.
Aliana had returned to the capital and was focusing on her recovery.

In fact, those things weren’t very important. After all, he could somehow squeeze his two loyal subordinates, or if that didn’t work, he could send the prime minister, Louis. If that still didn’t solve the problem, he could step in himself.
Aliana… seemed to need a bit more time, but anyway.

The Emperor thought to himself that it was about time for Flan to come crawling back on his own. What could have happened that he still hadn’t returned?

He felt uneasy, unable to relax even as he drank his usually refreshing alcohol.

Then, one afternoon, as he was soothing his insides with liquor, the Sorcerer King of Magic visited the imperial palace. It was a shocking event. Aside from the time when the Demon King was alive, such a figure had never been seen before. The Empire’s Prime Minister, Louis, attempted to receive the Sorcerer King of Magic, but he was refused. The Sorcerer King insisted on speaking directly with the Emperor, claiming there were serious matters to discuss regarding the Tower of Magic.

Thus, the Emperor of the Empire and the Sorcerer King of Magic from the Country of Magic met for the first time in a hundred years.

The conversation was mostly a monologue from the Sorcerer King.

To summarize his words in three sentences:

Someone shattered the Tower of Magic and kidnapped the master of the Tower claiming to be an emissary of the Empire.
If you don’t respond properly, take it as a declaration of war.
Either hand over the bastard responsible or return the master of the Tower as soon as possible. Note that the costs for rebuilding the Tower of Magic will be billed separately.

Note do it, baldy.

The Emperor, of course, had his own retort.

Shouldn’t an old coot obsessed with magic pick his battles wisely? Has he finally gone senile?
That bastard first betrayed us. Can’t you see we’re already hunting him down?
Ah, anyway, it’s none of our business, so handle it yourself.

After several more exchanges in this unofficial meeting between two dignified men, the day ended as the sun set.

After the Sorcerer King left, the Emperor, who had initially not wanted to deal with the incident, found himself having to follow the Sorcerer King’s words. If war broke out, the Empire would win. But it would be a victory stained with a considerable amount of blood.
If it were a battle between individuals, sending Nicola alone would suffice to behead any formidable opponent. However, war is a bloody conflict between nations. On the battlefield, the strategic value of a mage is dozens of times that of a warrior. Moreover, the Empire was short on mages, and with the reconstruction already straining the finances, a war with massive losses was to be avoided at all costs.

Above all, it was hard to ignore the fact that the suspected perpetrator had many scars on his face.
The alias he used was also Nicola.

If only he had just run away properly. If he had returned to the imperial family, none of this would have happened. It was utterly infuriating.
In fact, that was the most significant point.

In the end, the Emperor drew his great sword.
Muttering quietly that if the man was caught before the message was fully delivered, he would die.