Chapter 320 : Chapter 320
Chapter 320. A New Laborer at the Mage Tower (3)
The top floor of the Mage Tower.
A high-ranking mage’s chamber.
The room was filled with ornate and bizarre decorations that reflected its owner’s taste.
Plants that writhed as though alive, strange orbs embedded with dozens of eyeballs, and a lamp containing an ever-burning green flame.
Yet the most overwhelming feature was the enormous window that covered an entire wall of the room.
The Mage Tower stood on a remote island.
Beyond the window, one should have seen a blue sea.
Instead, what lay outside was a hellish landscape where crimson lava flowed like a river.
It was a scene created by powerful illusion magic.
Proof of just how formidable a mage the room’s owner was.
A man stood by the window, holding a wineglass as he gazed at the view.
A man with violet hair and blood-red eyes—Aaron Daryu.
He was the rising young prodigy of the Mage Tower and the most likely candidate to become the next Mage Tower Master.
The Mage Tower was a world of absolute meritocracy.
Ranks were determined by magical prowess, and rank itself was power.
The master of the Mage Tower had to be the strongest mage of all.
But now that the current master’s strength was waning, a fierce, unseen struggle over the position of successor was underway.
“Armandy Stein has returned?”
When Aaron asked quietly, the mid-ranking mage standing behind him like a shadow lowered his head.
“There is no mistake. I confirmed it with my own eyes. He entered the Mage Tower a few days ago.”
“…….”
Aaron said nothing and continued to stare out the window.
The glow of lava flickered in his red eyes.
After a long silence, a bloody smile crept onto his lips.
“So he crawled back here, knowing full well it is a place of death…… truly, as foolish as ever.”
His sole goal was to become the Mage Tower Master.
And to him, Armandy—once the beloved disciple of the current master—was an intolerable nuisance.
A rival who had once stood shoulder to shoulder with him.
No, perhaps someone who had possessed even greater talent than his own.
When Armandy had vanished from the Mage Tower without a trace, Aaron had pursued him.
Following the faint remnants of his magic power, he had searched the entire Empire.
But at some point, the trail vanished completely.
For several years, Armandy had not released his magic power even once.
The implication was obvious.
Either he was dead, or he had not used proper magic at all.
And yet he had returned alive?
“A beaten dog, crawling back.”
Aaron twisted his lips.
He was certain something had gone wrong with Armandy.
For a mage to survive years without using magic was impossible.
Especially Armandy, whom Aaron knew to possess an exceptionally strong pride as a mage.
If he could not use magic, he would have had no reason to live.
There was no doubt that he had reached his limit, or that something had gone wrong with his magic power, forcing him back to the Mage Tower.
All the better.
With the Mage Tower Master bedridden, the disciple who should have remained at his side had been absent for years.
‘Too late. Far too late.’
Aaron looked down at the scene outside with cold eyes.
In fact, this worked out perfectly.
The one he had searched for so desperately had delivered himself.
Now all that remained was to cut off the breath of that pathetic loser and claim the Mage Tower as his own.
“Keep watching him. Report everything—where that lost dog settles, and who he associates with.”
“Yes.”
The mid-ranking mage vanished into the shadows.
Left alone, Aaron lifted the glass of red wine.
The crimson glow of lava shimmered through the liquid.
Foreseeing his victory, he drained the glass.
***
Among those who possessed magic power, there were many peculiar individuals.
Given that they could see and sense things invisible to ordinary people, it was hardly surprising.
They lived within worlds of their own, separate from normal society.
Watching Radel stare intently at a book in one corner of the ship, the new laborers whispered among themselves.
“He must be one of those types. Let us just try to understand.”
“Then should we nod along as if he really is talking to a book?”
“It would not hurt to humor him a little. We are going to be working together anyway.”
“Yeah. That must be his thing.”
Since Gaspen, the laborer manager, had chosen them carefully, most of the new laborers were fairly easygoing.
They knew that in an unfamiliar environment, it was best not to make enemies of one’s coworkers.
Still, there were always prickly types.
“Understand him? Do not be ridiculous. Why should we understand someone like that?”
“Exactly. Does he think the Mage Tower is a joke?”
“Have you all forgotten why we came here?”
They openly expressed their irritation at Radel’s behavior.
For them, becoming laborers at the Mage Tower was a gamble with their entire lives.
Learning magic was incredibly difficult.
For those with little magic power like themselves, it was even more so.
They could not even dream of the Academy, and their skills were woefully insufficient for any decent magic school.
The Mage Tower was their last remaining hope.
The hope that, if they worked here as laborers, they might someday be given a chance to learn the Mage Tower’s magic.
They had staked everything on that slim possibility.
And yet Radel behaved like this.
“That guy is obvious. Just some delusional fool lost in his books.”
“Look at him. He does not even seem capable of proper work.”
“I just hope he does not drag us down.”
One of the laborers who had been grumbling spat onto the deck.
He glared at the other newcomers and growled,
“Listen carefully. Do not get comfortable just because you got in. You can be fired at any time.”
“If you plan to work with half-baked resolve, we will not let it slide.”
As their threatening voices died down, something else began to change.
The storm that had seemed ready to swallow the ship suddenly started to ease.
SHHHHH.
The roar of waves subsided, and a single beam of light cut through the pitch-black sky.
The light tore apart the gray clouds and calmed the raging sea.
As if nothing had happened, the ocean grew still, like a clear lake.
And upon that tranquil surface, a pure white tower emerged.
The tower rose skyward as if to pierce the heavens, standing tall above the clouds.
Its material and the magic used to create it were impossible to discern.
It was simply, unrealistically beautiful.
A tower shining with dignified splendor.
“……!”
The once-noisy laborers were struck speechless by the sight.
Even those who had been criticizing Radel moments ago could only stare in a daze.
That was the Ivory Tower.
The cradle of magicians they had admired all their lives.
Radel, too, gazed at the Mage Tower with keen interest.
‘So there is a weather-control spell in place.’
Only the area around the Mage Tower was spared from the storm.
It must have been a type of barrier magic, but maintaining a barrier of such immense scale at all times was no small feat.
It was clearly a place that followed a magical system entirely different from the Academy’s.
What kinds of things were hidden inside?
A grin spread across Radel’s lips.
***
The ship carrying the new laborers finally reached the island.
“New hires! Move it! Stop dawdling!”
The moment they set foot on land, a senior laborer waiting for them shouted in a rough voice.
His sharp gaze seemed to pierce straight through their thoughts.
“You! You! Over here.”
Pointing at them at random, he began assigning their workplaces.
Some were sent to the kitchens, others to the laundry rooms, and still others to clean the private laboratories of mages.
The new laborers were stunned to be thrown straight into real work without proper training.
Vague fear spread across their faces.
Yet among them was one person who remained perfectly calm.
Radel.
Like someone on a picnic, he looked around with bright, curious eyes.
That attitude grated on the others’ nerves.
“That bastard really gets on my nerves.”
“Same here. One day, I will deal with him.”
Especially those who had disliked him since the ship glared at him with hostile eyes.
“You four. Follow me.”
Whether by misfortune or fate, the laborers who had picked fights with Radel were assigned to the same place as him.
The senior laborer led the four of them deep into the darkest part of the tower.
A damp, fishy stench assaulted their noses.
They had arrived at the magical beast dissection area.
“……Ghk.”
“What is that……?”
The new laborers swallowed hard at the sight before them.
Inside massive iron cages, living magical beasts snarled and thrashed.
On the other side, piles of magical beast corpses were stacked like mountains.
An overwhelming number of carcasses they had never seen in their lives.
The stench of blood and entrails mingled into a nauseating reek.
No matter how resolved they had been to become Mage Tower laborers, they were still just ordinary youths who dreamed of becoming magicians.
Faced with such a horrific scene, several of them turned pale.
The senior laborer’s eyes sharpened.
‘Is there not a single decent one among them?’
He clicked his tongue inwardly.
The ones who gagged while handling corpses, those who did not even know how to hold a knife—sights he had seen countless times while training new laborers.
This time, he had chosen ones who seemed feisty enough, but the results did not look much different.
‘At this rate, can I even teach them everything by today?’
Sighing, the senior laborer began his explanation.
“As you can see, this is the magical beast dissection area. We handle the magical beasts that the mages use as research materials.”
Pointing at the hammer, chisels, and sharp knives laid out on the worktable, he continued,
“Using those tools, you must process them so that nothing goes to waste. Bones as bones, hides as hides, entrails as entrails. The mages are extremely particular—if there is even the slightest damage, they will refuse it. Keep that in mind.”
That was when it happened.
Twitch.
One of the magical beasts buried among the corpses moved.
The beast, thought to be dead, suddenly opened its eyes and struggled upright.
-Grrr…….
Gathering its last strength, it lunged at the nearest new laborer with its jaws wide open.
-Kraaagh!
“Aaah!”
“Get out of the way!”
The new laborers screamed in panic.
The senior laborer tried to move, but someone was faster.
THUD!
With a dull impact, the beast’s head shattered.
Someone shot forward through the crowd and swung the hammer without hesitation, crushing the beast’s skull.
All eyes turned to that person.
The one who had cleanly taken down the beast was none other than Radel.
Even the laborers who had been picking fights with him gaped at him in shock.
They had thought he was a weakling who only stared at books—never imagining he was hiding such monstrous strength.
Radel calmly shook the bits of brain matter from the hammer.
Then he bowed toward the senior laborer and spoke.
“Ah, my apologies. I should have handled it more cleanly, but I seem to have broken the skull by mistake. That will make it difficult to use as research material.”
At his unruffled apology, the senior laborer was momentarily speechless.
Staring at Radel in disbelief, he asked,
“You…… what kind of life did you live before coming here?”
Radel looked down at his callused hands and replied evenly,
“I am just an ordinary country boy.”