Chapter 325 : Chapter 325
Chapter 325. The Abandoned Collection Area (1)
The lowest level of the Mage Tower.
The place where the Magical Beast Dissection Area, the breeding facility, and the laborers’ workshops were located.
Radel sat perched on the bed in the dormitory left empty by his companions, staring at the map of light spread out in midair.
It was the Mage Tower’s original blueprint, manifested by the Spirit of the Library disguised as a book.
Particles of light wove together in three dimensions, forming corridors and rooms tangled like a complex maze.
Radel’s gaze lingered at the very bottom of the diagram, on a small, isolated space tucked into one corner.
It was faint, but there was no mistaking the words engraved there.
‘Mage Tower Master’s Chamber.’
The moment he confirmed its location, a familiar scene flashed through Radel’s mind.
It was a place he had visited not long ago, together with the rookie laborers from the Magical Beast Dissection Area, when they had gone searching for food for the Moonstone Cavrins.
‘The Abandoned Collection Area.’
Unlike the Mage Tower’s other herb gardens or greenhouses, it was not carefully maintained.
Cut off from human presence and left to the flow of time, it was a primitive space ruled solely by the laws of the wild.
Ordinary plants had twisted and grown at will, mutating into beastified forms……
“No.”
Radel murmured quietly.
A question rose in his mind.
No matter how abundant the Mage Tower’s mana might be, could ordinary plants really mutate into such aggressive and bizarre forms?
There was a sense of wrongness that simple neglect alone could not explain.
A memory surfaced in Radel’s mind—the garden of the Esven Marquisate he had once visited while accompanying senior Venus.
The enormous carnivorous plants there, grown to a size incomparable to ordinary vegetation, were not mere ornamentals.
They functioned perfectly as living guards, protecting the deepest secrets of the Esven family.
If so, could the plants in the Abandoned Collection Area be the same?
Perhaps those beastified plants were not a coincidence at all, but camouflage and traps carefully designed to protect something.
“What could they be guarding?” Radel asked.
The Spirit of the Library snapped back, his pages trembling.
“With heretics carrying a Key of Seal already inside the Mage Tower, what is there left to be surprised about? Just assume this entire tower is a den of lunatics!”
At the spirit’s curt voice, Radel recalled the high-ranking mage he had encountered in the Sealed Archive.
The vile, chilling blue light emanating from that man’s chest had been the aura of Mammon, the Archdemon of Greed.
He had thought that once he found the Mage Tower Master’s chamber, he could quickly seize Armandy and leave……
But things were unfolding far more dangerously than expected.
The Black Order’s influence had reached even the heart of the Mage Tower, the most closed-off organization in the empire.
He needed to move faster.
“When I went there before, there were only plants. I did not see anything resembling an entrance to the Mage Tower Master’s chamber.”
“Then the map must be nonsense! Hundreds of years have passed, so the Mage Tower must have changed. There is no reason to leave an important chamber in a hazardous garbage dump like that!”
The Spirit of the Library’s reasoning was perfectly logical.
The Abandoned Collection Area and the Mage Tower Master’s chamber appeared to have no connection at all.
But Radel thought differently.
‘It is possible that, back when Ancestor Hayden was active, the Mage Tower Master’s chamber truly was on the lowest level.’
It was entirely plausible.
There was no reason for Radel not to verify it himself.
***
The highest level of the Mage Tower.
A high-ranking mage’s chamber.
Beyond a massive window, red magma surged like a flowing river.
Aaron Daryu, the purple-haired man, stood gazing at the scene.
The crimson glow of the magma flickered within his blood-red eyes.
“Is it still not done?” he asked.
A mid-ranking mage, standing behind him like a shadow, spoke carefully.
“The mages are working on it day and night. There should be results soon.”
“So it is still not done,” Aaron said.
A blade-like contempt seeped into his voice as he slowly turned to glare at the mid-ranking mage.
“Is figuring out how to undo the seal on this key really something that takes so long? Even with the Mage Tower’s mages working on it around the clock?”
The mid-ranking mage broke into a cold sweat, flustered by the rebuke.
“If you could tell us even a little about how you obtained the key, or its origins, Lord Aaron, we might be able to decipher it more quickly—”
“Silence!”
BOOM!
As if answering Aaron’s fury, a pillar of magma outside the window erupted violently.
The air in the room heated instantly, and the mid-ranking mage shrank back without realizing it.
“Do not excuse incompetence. Figure it out. One way or another.”
“Y-yes!”
The mid-ranking mage bowed repeatedly. Aaron looked at him as if he were an insect, then turned his gaze away.
He knew that pressing further would be useless.
He drew out the key emitting a blue glow from within his robes—the key sealing Mammon, the Archdemon of Greed.
Merely holding it felt as though it could corrode the soul, yet he had still not discovered how to wield its power.
He was anxious.
Suddenly, his thoughts returned to what had happened in the Sealed Archive a few days earlier.
‘I definitely sensed something back then.’
The faint noise that had come from the pile of clutter the moment he slammed the bookshelf.
He had immediately torn away the cloth, but there had been nothing there except old junk.
‘There is no way someone could have escaped my sight.’
Unless they were a highly trained assassin.
And even then, it was unthinkable for a mage to move with such agility.
It was likely just his imagination. Still, the unease lingering in the back of his mind refused to fade.
If someone learned that he possessed the key—and worse, if someone who understood what the key truly was appeared.
He needed to break the seal quickly and form a contract with the Archdemon.
Only then could he become the true master of the Mage Tower.
Suppressing his boiling anger, Aaron asked another question.
“……No one has entered the barrier, correct?”
“Yes. No one has entered. I confirmed it myself.”
“Continue monitoring it. If anyone enters that place……”
A chilling killing intent burst from Aaron’s red eyes.
“None of them will leave alive.”
His voice echoed through the room, colder than the abyss itself.
Overwhelmed by that murderous aura, the mid-ranking mage could only bow, unable even to breathe properly.
***
Radel stepped into the Abandoned Collection Area.
According to the blueprints, the ‘Mage Tower Master’s chamber’ was hidden somewhere within this garden of chaos.
Hiss!
He deftly avoided the writhing plants and pressed deeper inside.
After some time, Radel came to a halt.
An unbelievable sight unfolded before him.
In the middle of the desolate collection area, overtaken by beastified plants, there was a small vegetable garden.
Radel felt a spark of curiosity as he looked at the peacefully growing crops.
It was a space far too incongruous with the surrounding, hostile scenery.
Ripe red tomatoes hung plumply, while fresh cucumbers and eggplants gleamed under magical lighting that mimicked sunlight.
Drawn as if enchanted, Radel approached the garden and bent down.
He carefully touched the soil with his hand. The sensation was familiar.
“It is similar to the soil in Raviedel.”
The land of Raviedel, the territory he governed, was rough and barren.
Potatoes were about all that could be grown.
Recently, with the help of the Lizardmen, they had begun planting corn, but the yields were unimpressive.
But this place was different.
Despite the soil having similar properties to Raviedel’s, the condition of the crops was completely different.
Tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, carrots, potatoes—variety of crops were growing vigorously, as if they could barely contain their vitality.
“……They are in great condition.”
Without realizing it, Radel began inspecting each plant carefully—the color of the leaves, the thickness of the stems, the size of the fruit.
He was just beginning to wonder what kind of special farming method was being used when he sensed a sharp gaze upon him.
Radel reflexively looked up.
An old man stood there.
Seated on a worn chair placed outside a shabby hut, the old man stared quietly at Radel, as though he had been watching everything from the very beginning.
The chair and table, though old, looked sturdy, as if he had made them himself.
Beneath the wide brim of his straw hat, his face was etched with deep wrinkles, yet his eyes were clear and profound.
Seeing Radel, the old man spoke as if he recognized him.
“So you are the one who turned my garden into a battlefield.”
Was this elder the gardener who managed the Abandoned Collection Area?
Radel calmly straightened his back and bowed politely.
“Yes, sir.”
The old man seemed to know even that Radel had taken insects from this place.
“So. What did you do with those insects?”
“I fed them to the Moonstone Cavrins. They seemed to enjoy them very much.”
“I see.”
The old man smiled faintly, then lifted his head to glance up at the sky.
Though it was an artificial sky, it was astonishingly similar to the real one.
“Hector is skilled, but stubborn. He tried to raise the Cavrins in his own way.”
“Even so, it seemed to me that he cared for the beasts greatly.”
“That is the interesting thing about him. At times, he treats magical beasts as more precious than people.”
The old man appeared to know the Mage Tower’s laborers far better than expected.
“Come to think of it, I do not recall ever seeing you before. Have you been in the Mage Tower for a long time?”
“Of course you would not have seen me. I do not go to the laborers’ cafeteria.”
He gestured toward the garden behind him.
“I eat here. If I plant just a little, it grows quickly, and even eating it all every day becomes hard work. Heh heh.”
“You are a natural farmer.”
“Does it look that way?”
One glance at his hands made it clear—they were the hands of someone who worked the soil.
Seeing those hands, Radel’s eyes gleamed.
He took a step closer and asked,
“May I pull some weeds for you?”
“Hm?”
From beneath the straw hat, the old man gave Radel a meaningful look.
“It seems you want something from me.”
“Yes, I do.”
Radel answered without the slightest hesitation.
A quiet tension filled the space between them.
Radel was the one to break the silence.
“Please tell me what kind of fertilizer you use in this garden. We have a potato patch at home, but it does not grow very well.”
At the unexpected question, the old man’s eyes widened slightly.
He stared at Radel for a moment, looking utterly bewildered, then asked in a low voice,
“Is that…… truly all?”
Radel broke into a grin.
“What else would one ask a farmer?”
With that, he rolled up his sleeves and stepped into the garden without hesitation.
The old man watched Radel’s back as he went to pull weeds, his gaze deepening.