Chapter 104 – The Emerald Tower
“Would you have been happy to have been kicking me out last night?”
These were the words Dorothea gave as a greeting, as soon as they met in the morning.
Perhaps because the walls of the room were thin, the sound was transmitted directly to Dorothea in the next room.
It seemed that it would be useless even when I caught it, so I decided to admit it.
“Oh, it was sick.”
Then, it was Vanessa, not me, who was rather taken aback.
“Huh? Huh? Can I just say that?”
“This guy doesn’t care about that. Rather, I wonder if we can wear it together.”
Unlike her rough mouth, Dorothea was surprisingly submissive to men.
He said he wouldn’t care if I messed with anyone as long as I didn’t abandon him.
Well, if mutual interests are right, isn’t this kind of relationship established?
Dorothea, who spread butter on the hotcake and took a big bite, asked while spinning her fork.
“Vanessa, are you serious?”
“No, it’s not like that…”
“Okay then. Tell me later if you’re sincere.”
When the person in question cut off his words coolly, Vanessa’s expression became even more incomprehensible.
In any case, the awkward atmosphere around the table all disappeared after they told each other about their circumstances.
The hot cake Dorothea was eating looked delicious, so I ordered the same, and Vanessa simply ordered black tea and toast.
The morning at the inn was noisy because the trip started again from today.
***
Five days have passed since then.
There were big and small incidents on the way up, but we were able to handle them without difficulty because there were other adventurers as well as us.
Above all, since it was moving from the border area to the capital area, security was bound to improve as the days passed.
Rather, what was really difficult was dealing with two lionesses who didn’t sleep every night and attacked.
Vanessa’s stamina was no joke.
Thanks to moving non-stop for a total of 8 days, we were finally able to arrive at Oz, the capital.
“Is this the heart of Oz?”
Vanessa took off her helmet for a moment and looked curiously up at the walls surrounding the city.
The Constantinian Wall is a symbol of Oz.
After the fall of the empire, refugees gathered around this wall, which was reputed to be the strongest in the empire, and the fortified city was Oz.
At first, it was launched in the form of a city-state, but as time passed, its sphere of influence gradually expanded, and when it recovered to some extent, although not as much as the old empire, Oz, which was the name of the city, became the name of the kingdom itself.
As many people entered Oz, there was a long line in front of the gate.
We were halfway through the procession, and we had waited almost an hour for this too.
As it is the capital of a country, the inspection into Oz is quite thorough.
I bought insurance in advance, but honestly, I couldn’t help but feel a little scared.
While Vanessa and Dorothea, who are visiting Ozu for the first time, looked around and looked around, the long procession steadily decreased, and finally it was the turn of the troupe to which we belonged.
“Now! Show your pass in turn and go in!”
The soldiers guarding the gate were working through a thorough division of labor.
We immediately found ourselves in the back row of top employees.
“Next!”
It took about 3 seconds to check the pass.
Anyone who presents a counterfeit pass is denied permission to enter the city and is expelled.
In my case, I didn’t have to worry about that.
This is because Oz is the city where the Emerald Tower exerts the greatest power.
Wizards with strong power were treated as favorably as nobles and priests, and among them, the gold medal I had was almost at the level of a free pass.
“Next!”
After about 10 minutes, it was finally my turn.
The guard, who has a characteristic snub nose, held out his right hand to me.
“Passage.”
I immediately took the medal from my bosom.
The guard was startled as soon as he saw the medallion, but immediately shouted as if nothing had happened.
“Next!”
It was Dorothea who presented the pass immediately afterward.
This one, like me, is a gold medal.
Although the Ruby Tower does not have much influence here, ordinary people were afraid of wizards from here because it was the home of witches.
“Next!”
Dorothea passes through the gates without difficulty, and now Vanessa is the only one left.
Unlike us, who are wizards, Vanessa, whose old identity was extinguished because she was a durahan, was holding a forged pass.
The soldier looked back and forth at the pass Vanessa had handed him, then suddenly shook it up and down.
“It’s slightly lighter in weight…”
“For a moment.”
I hastily cut off his words.
“Isn’t the weight of the pass worn out and changed over time?”
As he said that, he tapped his shoulder, and the guard’s expression instantly changed to blankness.
“Yes… That’s right…”
“Then let me pass.”
After I said that and fell again, the guard returned to his original expression and shouted “Next!”
Thanks to that, Vanessa, who passed through the castle gate safely, asked curiously.
“What did you just do?”
I shrugged and showed the magic circle drawn on the palm of my hand.
“It’s a simple hint. It’s quite useful when doing something illegal.”
“If you have resistance to mana, it will easily bounce off.”
When he spoke from the side, Dorothea put one hand on his waist and said.
“Rather than that, the human kingdom has also developed quite a bit. In the past, it was only a kingdom in name, and it was said that it was almost like a village.”
“The old days are you talking about when?”
“I don’t know exactly either. It’s because the great senior told me.”
If Dorothea, who has a strong sense of self-respect, is said to be a big senior, he must be a tycoon with a fairly high position in the Ruby Tower.
Since witches and wizards are a tribe whose lifespan increases like a rubber band depending on their level, there were many cases in which they expressed things from the past as if they had experienced them recently.
Anyway, since he passed through the gate safely, all he had to do was to part with the guild he had been indebted to for about a week.
We went to the top executive to receive the request fee, and the executive recognized our faces and welcomed us.
“This is the request fee. Compared to the others on this trip, you put a lot of effort into it.”
“Thank you.”
After receiving the pouch containing the silver coins and putting them in the bag, the upper management officer carefully asked.
“By any chance, if you have time, you can have a meal with us…”
“It’s okay.”
“Yes? Don’t do that, just a little…”
“It’s okay. I’m going to the Magic Tower right away.”
I sternly brushed off his words and came out of the building.
Originally, it is a good law to make and break a business relationship accurately.
Dorothea, who was waiting outside for me to come out, asked.
“Money?”
“Here it is.”
Then Dorothea smiled and said,
“You’ve worked hard on the street, so let’s spend a little extravagantly with it for today.”
“You just want a drink.”
Dorothea smiled round and round without denying it.
I looked at her pathetically, then let out her small sigh and nodded her head.
“I’m not earning money alone anyway, so I’ll do that, well. I’ll take you to my favorite place.”
“Oops! It’s alcohol!”
Dorothea shouts of joy.
In this way, there were no severe alcoholics.
Vanessa, who was watching from the side, asked in a worried tone.
“Can I have a drink as soon as I come to the capital?”
“I’m not going to drink right away. I have to stop by the Mage Tower first.”
While saying that, I grabbed Dorothea by the back and lifted her up.
“Come on, cute girl. It’s good for us to drink, but let’s drink first.”
“…What’s going on?”
“You won’t have to find a local collaborator first.”
It is to assassinate the head of a country.
Of course, it was better to make a back stomach that could handle it.
And I knew very well who could play the role.
“Let’s go see our master.”
***
The Emerald Tower boasted an unrivaled height even among stone buildings whose height was at most five stories high.
If elemental magic had not been actively used during the construction process, it would have been impossible to create with current building technology.
I entered the Emerald Tower through the back door, which was only accessible to officials.
“Wow.”
Exclamation from Vanessa and Dorothea coming from behind.
It’s been about a year and a half since I returned, but the shape inside the Emerald Tower was absolutely beautiful whenever I saw it.
Did you say fractal design?
The interior of the tower, which is perfectly symmetrical, makes the viewer feel at ease.
Sunlight passed through the green stained glass that decorated the outer wall of the tower, and was diffusely reflected back and forth through the crystal ball, illuminating the inside of the tower as if it were broad daylight.
I got on the floating stone to go to the top floor, avoiding the crowd of mages passing by.
When the mana of the wind is blown into it, the float stone begins to rise into the sky on its own.
The floating stone, which went up without a sound, stopped at the top floor.
As I grabbed the railing and got off the floating seat, a secretary I had never seen before, who was guarding Master’s door, approached me.
“What did you come for?”
“I’m here to see Grandma.”
“Yes?”
I threw the gold medal I took out of my bosom to the secretary with a dumbfounded expression.
After checking the name written there, the secretary’s eyes widened.
That’s right, the disciple of the tower owner, whom I had lost contact with after entering Doom Land with the hero’s party, returned alive.
“Hey, hold on!”
The secretary hurriedly tried to grab me, but I pushed into Master’s office without hesitation.
“Hag! I’m here!”
When I went inside, ignoring the secretary’s words, what greeted me at the desk was-
“You’re a granny to your teacher, you still haven’t been rude to others.”
It wasn’t a gray-haired old woman holding a baekwooseon (白羽扇), but a black-haired girl she had never seen before.
