40. The 7th Main Tower (1)
‘Princess Hong Biyeon has gone missing.’
No matter how much the faculty tried to hush it up, the rumor still spread quietly through Stella, because the missing student was far too important a figure.
The students were already gripped by fear because of the ghost stories, and now situations identical to those stories kept happening in reality.
Flame looked at Hong Biyeon’s disappearance from a slightly different angle.
In this episode, ‘disappearance’ meant being dragged into the 7th Main Tower.
And in the original romance-fantasy story, aside from the protagonist Eizel, no one else had ever been taken there.
‘You are not qualified.’
Even if the victims vanished briefly, all that happened was that they were later found collapsed somewhere in a corridor with a bright-red sentence like that left behind.
But for some reason, the protagonist Eizel had been dragged into the 7th Main Tower, and with Hae Wonryang’s help, she overcame the incident and uncovered the truth behind it…
That had been the story.
In that episode, Hong Biyeon didn’t appear at all.
At the time, her role had simply been to show up only when it was time to torment the protagonist.
So why had Hong Biyeon suddenly been dragged into the 7th Main Tower?
‘Wait. Come to think of it, what exactly is the qualification?’
It was something Flame had never once thought about before.
Back when she had read the novel, she had simply accepted it as, ‘Well, the protagonist is the protagonist,’ and assumed that the whole thing about “qualification” would eventually be explained later as a planted mystery.
But looking back on it now, the novel had ended without ever revealing what that qualification actually was.
If that ‘qualification’ was something not only Eizel possessed, but Hong Biyeon fulfilled as well?
If the story had begun flowing differently from the original, and that was the reason she had been taken?
‘This is insane… seriously.’
Originally, the real incident was supposed to erupt properly about a week from now. Flame had never imagined things would spiral into this kind of disaster already.
It felt as if the driving force behind this story had changed from Meizen Tiren to some other being, pushing the whole thing forward much earlier than it should have.
“…This won’t do.”
Flame looked at Eizel, who wore an anxious expression and could not sit still.
The two girls from Morf and Adolevit, who had once been natural enemies, had grown through everything they had gone through together, to the point where it would now be fair to call them rivals.
“Let’s go in and save her.”
And so, when Flame said that—
“Let’s.”
—Eizel could answer without a trace of hesitation.
“W-wait a second. Do you even know how to get in? Even the professors can’t get inside. How are you two planning to go?”
Anella asked with a stunned expression, but both Eizel and Flame already knew.
The only way to walk into the place on their own two feet, rather than being dragged there the way Hong Biyeon had been.
‘I was planning to be careful until that Ahjussi came back, but…’
There was no helping it.
There was no guarantee of when Baek Yuseol would return, and they couldn’t just keep waiting forever. Even without him, they needed to learn how to step forward and act with their own strength.
“Let’s go save that brat.”
“Yes.”
Flame and Eizel steeled themselves and turned away at once.
“Aaah… Yuseol told me to stay put…”
And the only one left caught in the middle of it all was Anella, now looking like she was about to cry.
Drip, drip—
“Mm…”
At the cold sensation against her cheek, Hong Biyeon slowly opened her eyes.
She tried to move her arms, but something seemed to be restraining them, and she couldn’t budge at all.
“What…!”
She hurriedly looked around, but her surroundings were dark. Illumination magic was an advanced spell even among Light-type magic, and without her wand, it was impossible to produce light anyway.
She bit her lip and tried to draw herself in, but at that moment, flames suddenly sprang into existence in midair.
Fwoosh!
“Ugh…!”
The sudden brightness was too much, and Hong Biyeon squeezed her eyes shut at once.
“Hahaha! So even if you’ve received the blessing of flame, bright light still bothers you, does it? I heard a rumor that you have complete resistance to fire…”
Even though the voice sounded disgusting, Hong Biyeon couldn’t open her eyes for a while. Only after enduring the pain did she finally manage to raise her eyelids.
And there, she saw a familiar face.
“…Professor Chekiren?”
“That’s right! What a pity, seeing our model student princess like this.”
Professor Chekiren stood there, the same man Hong Biyeon had never liked much in the first place because of his protruding belly, oily skin, and the perpetually revolting smile on his face.
“The magic of your family really is art. The purest, most exalted flame, they say. I always thought, in the end, flame is nothing more than oxygen and mana combining into combustion, so why make such a fuss over purity? But now I see! So this is what it feels like. Now I understand why they call you Adolevit.”
At first, she couldn’t understand what he was talking about.
But when Hong Biyeon saw the flame burning at his fingertips, she had no choice but to recoil in shock.
‘That’s… my flame?’
The purest and clearest flame, one that only the pure bloodline of Adolevit could ever produce.
There wasn’t much difference in raw power compared to other flames, but it was the symbolic magic of Adolevit, one of the Founding Mage’s Twelve Disciples, and so not just anyone could produce it.
And yet that flame…
was manifesting from the fingertips of a total outsider.
‘Don’t tell me he’s an Adolevit?’
Impossible.
The pure bloodline of Adolevit always possessed blazing red eyes like fire itself.
But Professor Chekiren’s eyes were a deep purple, and to begin with, his specialty was not even flame magic.
“…What exactly are you?”
“Tut tut. Cadet Hong Biyeon. Is that any way to speak to a professor?”
“Just answer me.”
“Tch. Every last one of you from the Founding Families is rude as hell…”
Even while clicking his tongue, Chekiren soon seemed to regain his mood and broke into a broad grin.
“It’s the ‘final project’ left behind by the current Black Mage King.”
“The final project…?”
“That’s right. Why is it that only your Twelve Families can wield the magic left behind by the Founding Mage? The great Black Mage King was the first to question that.”
He walked away with a strangely jaunty step, and as Hong Biyeon watched him go, her gaze naturally followed.
“…A mirror?”
There, a large full-length mirror reflected Hong Biyeon.
But something about it felt wrong.
The colors in the world inside the mirror were completely reversed.
The Hong Biyeon in the mirror had black hair and blue eyes, and for some reason even her expression was entirely gloomy. She resembled Hong Biyeon only in appearance. She didn’t feel like herself at all.
“You and your Twelve Families were chosen by ‘Constellatio.’ Do you know what that means?”
“…How should I know?”
“Puhaha! How laughable, how truly laughable. To stand even closer to the ‘perfect world’ than we Black Mages do, and yet not feel it at all. If you had ever once tasted that infinite world… you’d never escape it either.”
“Black Mage… you said…?”
“That’s right! Ah, was I not supposed to reveal my identity? Well… hm. No, it’s fine. Right? It is, isn’t it. Well, the Cult Leader would probably allow it too, so it should be fine.”
“Wait. What are you even talking about?”
“That’s right, that’s right. It’s fine. After all, the only reason I infiltrated this school was because of this very project left behind by the Black Mage King! Hoo, when it almost got snatched away by that rude bastard, the cold sweat I broke out in was unbelievable!”
Chekiren’s words had already begun spilling out in a stream of incoherent rambling, so much so that Hong Biyeon could barely understand him at all.
‘He’s insane…’
Completely insane.
But the thought that her life was in the hands of a madman like this let fear seep slowly into her chest.
‘…Pull yourself together.’
She slowly looked around.
Now that she saw it properly, this place was profoundly strange.
Outside the windows of the vast open hall, the sky was red, as though all the colors had been inverted.
And the suspicious scent of mana that filled the area could belong only to the Hidden World.
In other words, this was a Persona Gate.
And yet something was off.
A Persona Gate was a constructed world, and unlike reality, it always had a structural flaw in that it felt unnatural.
But this place was perfect.
Even just from the impression of the enormous hall alone, she could tell immediately from the scent of mana flowing through it.
Unlike other Persona Gates, there wasn’t even a mystery embedded in it.
“You’re lucky. Very lucky.”
Chekiren snickered as he looked at Hong Biyeon.
That gaze was so revolting and horrible that she wanted to rush over and jam her wand straight into his ear, but the fact that she was tied up made it all the more unbearable.
“Half a century ago, thanks to the fact that he failed to complete this thing, I got to inherit it. Heh-heh… And on top of that, two descendants of the Twelve Disciples enrolled….”
He muttered and babbled to himself.
Speaking into empty air, laughing by himself, getting angry by himself.
Then suddenly, he cut off all speech and jerked his face around to look at Hong Biyeon.
The way he stared at her with his head bent at that grotesque angle made it seem as though there was no self left inside him at all, and even Hong Biyeon—who did not normally fear ghosts—felt her heart lurch.
“Hmm? Hmhm~ Hmm!”
But in the first place, Chekiren wasn’t actually interested in Hong Biyeon right now.
Because he was hearing the voice of someone else.
-…Chekiren.
A cold, rough voice thundered out, a voice that seemed ready to scrape and tear apart the brain itself.
But Hong Biyeon could not hear it.
Only Black Mages who had devoted their souls to the Hidden World could hear that voice.
“Yes~ It’s me! Just as you asked, I’ve offered up a child blessed by the stars.”
Offer up a descendant of the Twelve Disciples as a sacrifice, and gain power.
That was the condition of the contract between Chekiren and the ‘someone’ sleeping within the 7th Main Tower.
But that contract was not yet over.
-…Are you satisfied… with no more than this?
“…What?”
What kind of thing was that supposed to mean?
Chekiren wore a baffled expression, and the voice continued.
-Another errand boy of mine… is leading the true Child of the Stars… here.
“The true… Child of the Stars?”
-You will offer that child to me… as a sacrifice.
That was the first he had heard of it.
And another errand boy?
Hadn’t he been, gloriously, the only one?
‘…Don’t tell me that bastard Raidin?’
He should have known. There was no way Raidin wasn’t hiding a selfish streak beneath that shameless face, probably doing everything he could to stick a spoon into this too.
But whatever.
It didn’t matter.
He didn’t know who this true Child of the Stars was, but if offering them up as a sacrifice meant he could gain power again, then wasn’t that all that mattered?
‘Heh-heh. This is getting exciting.’
For the first time in his life, Chekiren felt truly grateful toward the Black Mage King, a man he had never even met properly.
To think he had practically completed such a magnificent project, only to leave Stella without ever carrying it out himself.
That meant Chekiren alone would reap the benefits, so what was there not to like?
‘Who’ll be next, I wonder~’
With eager, excited steps, he left the place, and Hong Biyeon, left there alone, pressed her lips together and leaned her body back against the wall.
“Haa…”
Mana slowly drained from the Circle in her heart, and her mental power was gradually being consumed.
As though her soul itself were slipping out of her body.
She had to endure.
She had to endure, but she couldn’t.
So she closed her eyes.
‘I’m… sleepy…’
Let me just sleep for a little while.
I’ve been running nonstop all this time, so surely…
it would be alright to grant me at least a brief moment of rest.
Thinking that, she sank into a deep sleep.
As though she would never wake again.
— Read only on MugenCodex —
