Chapter 4: Mage Tower
Debbie Jane.
A mage who wielded flame.
As is always the case with that sort, she was ferocious beyond measure.
Because mages were ones who were fully shaped by the influence of their burning mana.
Fittingly, she and Roan had clashed often, fought often, and made up often.
And he had loved that.
‘She's the one who brings the life to everything.’
Clashing with raised voices—that's when he felt truly alive.
The past, when death had been everywhere.
It was because in the middle of all that, he had loved tasting the reactions of someone still living.
‘She didn't seem to be hurting anywhere, at least.’
The newspaper he was still continuously checking even now.
The front page always had something written about Debbie Jane.
Under headlines like [Debbie Jane Invents New Magic!?]
‘She really churns them out at a frightening rate. I have no interest in magic myself, so I don't know how impressive it actually is.’
"Alright, passenger! We've arrived! The Mage Tower!"
The coachman's arrival signal broke Roan out of his reverie.
Roan quickly stepped down from the carriage.
At the same moment, an immensely tall shadow swallowed his body whole.
Roan, recalling the Mage Tower that had collapsed in his memories, slowly tilted his head back.
The towers came into view.
There was more than one.
Four enormous towers, each built to a different number of floors, stretched upward with no regard for the sky.
‘The Red Mage Tower is the tallest.’
It seemed the number of floors varied depending on the abilities of the mages affiliated with each one.
Roan's footsteps toward it faltered for just a moment.
Because the memories of his past life had grabbed him by the ankle.
Right here.
Right here was where Debbie Jane's expedition had begun, and right here was where Debbie Jane's expedition had ended.
A heretic's summoning ritual.
Taking advantage of a brief window when Jane—already famous—had returned, the heretics who had grown in power used her as a sacrifice.
Her flesh was consumed by flames and became a conduit.
The moment a being from another world descended upon the continent through her body as a medium.
‘It's your fault. You're the one who got me killed. The continent fell to ruin because of you. The people around you—you're the one who killed them.’
Words she had never actually said—the her from just before being offered as a sacrifice began to whisper from somewhere at his feet.
Roan muttered inwardly, as if to reassure her.
‘It's alright. I came back. This time will be different.’
He shook his ankle.
The ghost of the past fell away from his step.
Now, it was time to enter the Mage Tower.
***
Inside the tower it was bustling.
Mages in robes could be seen diligently doing something, each of them occupied.
The air was thick with mana, and flames flickered in every direction around him.
Though the colors of the mages' robes varied—being the lobby, it seemed visitors from other towers had come as well.
And the gazes of those busy mages briefly landed on 1 particular spot.
A fairly small frame.
Eyes startlingly sharp, belying it.
Beside an open book lay a wand, set with a red gemstone that seemed like condensed flame.
‘Debbie Jane. You were born destined to save the world. Become my companion.’
The cool words he had thought up in advance.
The moment he saw Debbie Jane, unchanged from how he remembered her, those words scattered completely.
"Debbie Jane!!"
Roan bellowed.
With those enormously powerful lungs of his.
Crash!
Bang clatter!
Several people startled by the piercing cry turned to stare blankly at Roan.
"Wh-what… is this a fight?"
"Insane… picking a fight with Debbie Jane?"
The surroundings began to stir.
It was because the students of the Mage Tower were buzzing over the name that had been shouted so loudly.
A prodigy.
A genius of flame magic.
The one who had elevated the Flame Tower.
Because they assumed that calling out such a person's name that loudly must mean a fight or a provocation.
But they were wrong!
The reason Roan had cried out her name was not a fight!
"She's really… she's really Debbie Jane! Aaah!!"
Roan sobbed as he moved toward her.
He had seen a companion alive and breathing with all limbs intact—of course he would.
The regret and guilt he had suppressed.
All of those emotions began to flood and overwhelm him like a burst dam.
"I really tried so hard…! Nothing like before will happen…! I'll never let you die again—"
A reunion accompanied by weeping.
Seeing that, Jane placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Jane…!"
And at that same moment—
"I told you not to let strange people in, didn't I? Throw him out."
The sequence he had imagined had come to pass.
***
‘Talking about a previous life only puts me at a disadvantage.’
A truth he had come to realize after being treated as a doomsday cultist back in Melgen.
But that didn't mean he could give up here either.
At the very least, he needed to have a conversation.
At the very least, he needed to make an acquaintance.
At the very least—
"Let me out. We're not like this with each other."
"…What do you mean, 'like this'? Based on my first impression of you, this seems exactly right to me."
He needed to escape this mana prison.
The 1st basement floor of the Red Mage Tower.
Roan had found himself locked in the place where the Mage Tower's troublemakers were kept.
‘At least she locked me in rather than just walking away.’
If she had left without a second thought, he would have broken free out of sheer frustration.
As he stayed still for a moment, Jane swept her gaze over him from head to toe.
"Setting aside the very peculiar personality—what you said is quite interesting."
Having said that, she stood before his cell.
"Basement Floor 10 of the Mage Tower. A heretic's ritual. Its success and the summoning of a being from another world. And the fact that the greatest sacrifice for that ritual is me."
She began reciting, one by one, the things Roan had said.
"It's too specific to call you a doomsday cultist. It's detailed enough to pass as a prophecy."
"A prophecy…"
Right.
A prophecy.
But no matter how much Roan proclaimed his innocence, he had no way of earning her trust.
"However. There is one part that's wrong. The Mage Tower only goes down to Basement Floor 9."
That would be what the Mage Tower's people knew.
No.
That's not right.
A little lower than Floor 9.
There is a hidden space.
But saying that earnestly right now didn't seem like something the Debbie Jane of today would listen to.
Roan went quiet for a moment, and Jane closed the book she had opened.
"Hmph. You want to say it's not delusion. Coming from a doomsday cultist."
‘It's not!’
Roan cried out inwardly.
But the words Jane continued with were headed in a different direction from that jab—
"Even so, there's some persuasiveness to it, so I'll give you a chance."
She snapped her fingers.
With that, the mana chains binding Roan's body fell away.
"Persuade me."
And she gave Roan a chance.
The meeting that had stumbled from its very first step was moved back into its proper place. There was no need to even look at Roan's reaction.
"…How do I persuade you?"
"A mana crystal."
A rare material imbued with mana.
"One of those lies dormant on Basement Floor 9. But I can't go there."
"Why? Because it's the dark mages' territory?"
"…Because it's dark."
The murmured voice was too small to reach Roan's ears.
Well, regardless—if she was giving him a chance, that was enough.
"I'm not forcing you, of course. If you don't want to, you can just turn back."
"Of course I'm going! So, you're coming with me, right?"
"No? Why would I? I need to stay here and elevate the Mage Tower further. Do you have any idea what kind of value I have here?"
"You really haven't changed at all. Still so prickly."
‘How aggravating…’
Jane muttered inwardly.
How could he just toss out words like that, as if he knew something.
And with that relieved, softened expression on his face, no less.
For some reason it felt like being poked in a sore spot.
"Anyway! The Mage Tower will assign someone to keep watch over you! So go get it from Floor 9! Do that, and I'll listen to you at least a little more seriously!"
"Alright, good."
Since he could just dig out the seed hidden deeper inside while he was at it.
"Ha! What's with that confidence? Are you thinking something like 'it's the Mage Tower, so they'll use teleportation for me if it comes down to it'?"
"No."
No need for that.
"I worked far harder than before."
Because now there's absolutely no breaking through.
***
"You're… the one being monitored?"
A red robe.
The man wearing it looked Roan over.
He was the Red Mage Tower member Debbie Jane had assigned to the monitoring role.
His name was Velrog.
At least he was someone who had gone in and out of the Mage Tower's basement a few times.
"Yes! My name is Del Roan! Pleased to meet you!"
Roan greeted him with full energy.
But it didn't land with him at all.
"Introductions aren't necessary. Down here, it's one of 2 things: you die, or you run. That's it."
A tone oozing with blunt disinterest.
But that reaction of his was actually what surprised Roan.
"Oh? You're not going to mock me for being a country bumpkin, or my shabby clothes?"
"I don't care about that. Just know that I won't help you even if you're in danger. My role is to carry what's left of your half-corpse back up."
"Oh, is that so? Then you won't have anything to do."
Roan laughed with an easy air.
‘Annoying guy.’
That got under his skin somehow.
The way he reacted with such detached composure, like someone who had seen it all.
"Enough. I'll open it."
As if there was nothing more to say, Velrog opened the iron door.
The old door let out a spine-chilling screech as it revealed the interior.
A darkness where you had to feel your way forward with the faintest of light.
Through the gap, the cold of somewhere deep underground could be felt.
"You've been told."
"That it's the dark mages' territory?"
Velrog nodded.
"Failed experiments turned monsters, stray mana, corpses and homunculi. Everything comes together down here. Basement Floor 9, where you're headed, is even worse."
The dark mages themselves were only found down to Floor 3 at most.
"Once you go below the dark mages' territory, nothing but endless darkness and screaming will welcome you. Even I, with experience, had Floor 5 as my deepest record."
"I see. Understood."
Having heard the explanation, Roan stepped forward without hesitation, as if it were nothing.
With each plodding footstep—rustle rustle.
Dark mages vanishing like mice could be seen.
‘…Perfect. After getting what I need from Floor 9, I'll search for where Floor 10 is.’
Roan himself didn't actually know where Floor 10 was located.
Which was why he planned to brute-force his way through and search one by one.
Not a single moment of hesitation—a swift, unbroken advance.
At the end of it, Roan's party reached the entrance to Basement Floor 4 in an instant.
―Thud.
"It certainly feels different from here."
No answer came back.
Only the hollow echo of his own voice bouncing off the walls.
‘It really is dark down here. Jane always hated the dark, even back then.’
With that irrelevant thought, Roan took a step forward.
And at that same moment—
―Splat!!
―Bubble…
"It's begun."
Along with Velrog's murmur, the remnants of a failed dark art—
KABOOM!!
"Huh."
…were erased by a single blow from Roan the instant they revealed themselves.
The bubbling, boiling gelatinous thing splattered instantly to the floor.
Its core had been split, making it impossible to maintain its form.
‘But I shouldn't be making that much noise.’
Velrog readied himself to flee.
Squirm…
―Bubble gurgle…
Kiiiii…!
Everything else began to reveal itself.