Chapter 141

The Ivory Tower reached a height of 500 meters and was a massive collective home to numerous magicians.

This group was extremely arrogant and headstrong, yet it had demonstrated sufficient strength and knowledge to the entire continent that it was not seen as arrogance, but rather confidence and pride.

The first Master of the Ivory Tower was a human who learned the Circle Magic System, originally considered an elven unique domain, over the shoulder, mastering systematic magic for the first time.

Magic boasted tremendous firepower and, unlike knights, could perform long-range attacks, and humans outnumbered elves significantly.

When dozens of magicians utilized grand magic under the protection of knights, none could withstand it.

The vast elven forests, the dwarven stone fortresses, and the underwater palaces of merfolk crumbled before the relentless bombardment of the Ivory Tower magicians.

They monopolized the power of magic in a continent from which they drove out heterogeneous races.

Although some outside the Ivory Tower had begun to awaken to magic and tread the path of the arcane, their lifetime achievements were comparable to what the students of the Ivory Tower could learn in a single semester.

Numerous noble lords offered tremendous wealth to admit even the failed students of the Ivory Tower Academy into their courts.

“That’s enough.”

“Yes?”

“Money is no longer an issue. I need reagents. Hand over the land and the mine.”

“!”

“Don’t want to? Then I’ll sell this magic tool to the neighboring lord.”

“Ah… No!”

They realized they had no choice but to be continuously dragged along like this, and even belatedly tried to secure their own magician resources, but the only region to achieve even half-success was the Imperial Court Solletarass.

The Ivory Tower was that powerful.

Their autonomous realm was not merely a small piece of land adjacent to the Empire.

The Ivory Tower purchased provinces, large farms, mines, and islands across the entire continent with vast amounts of gold.

Some claimed this was a display of the Ivory Tower’s ambition to conquer the continent, but the external tower master, who oversaw the Ivory Tower’s external asset management, thought differently.

If they had truly wanted to conquer the world, they would have already done so.

What they sought was not land or people, but the truth, and they only needed sufficient reagents to pursue that truth.

And one thousand years had passed since the founding of the Empire.

The external tower master of the Ivory Tower finally fulfilled a wish that had spanned generations.

* * *

The room was spacious and bright, but the brows of those gathered there were furrowed and dark.

The clothes and adornments they wore gleamed with gold and jewels, yet their faces resembled those of serfs on the brink of starvation due to poor harvests.

“We’re all doomed.”

“Don’t we have to do something? Whether to kill or save, we must act.”

“I’ll opt out. Having lost my fortune, I must at least save my life.”

“Everyone, please stay calm!”

Dixon, 43 years old.

He was not a representative of some vile secret organization but merely the president of the merchant association established within the Ivory Tower’s autonomous special zone.

“I’ll recap the situation once more.”

However, he had worn an expression akin to a defeated soldier since months ago, and his receding hair and increasingly grim demeanor made him appear as the head of a cabal of war merchants.

“In late winter, Duke Valenciaunos rampaged through this street. I know everyone has suffered greatly since then.”

“President! Wrap it up quickly!”

“Who do you think I’m messing with?”

“Let’s just listen. There are newcomers here!”

“The next day, the magicians declared their intention to demolish all commercial buildings within 300 meters, or a diameter of 600 meters, from the Ivory Tower and create a park.”

This was the most expensive street in the capital.

To turn such a place into a 600-meter diameter lawn?

The power of the Ivory Tower could make such words a reality.

“This means we’re all going to perish as merchants.”

Most of them made their living supplying reagents and through tourism.

But who would come to visit when they couldn’t even set foot near the Ivory Tower?

Of course, the reagent supply was still intact.

For now.

“I know that most of you here have received notices to halt the extension of your reagent supply contracts.”

Since it was now April, there were about eight months left.

…The Ivory Tower had always sought the truth and desired sufficient reagents to pursue that truth.

They purchased land with the money earned from selling knowledge and secured reagent farms and mines.

To get enough reagents for countless magicians to use liberally.

And one thousand years had passed since the founding of the Empire.

The external tower master of the Ivory Tower finally fulfilled wishes passed down from previous generations.

Now, they no longer needed to purchase reagents from merchants who had been trained in numerous power struggles within a small society.

All magicians within the Ivory Tower—from the elders to the students—had secured farms and mines sufficient for them to use reagents freely.

After capturing the rabbit, it was only natural to cook the hunting dogs.

The elders of the Ivory Tower, for the first time in centuries, jointly announced the termination of supply contracts and simultaneously designated certain merchant associations for transport deals alone.

“We’ve traded for years. At least let us eat.”

“Thank you. Thank you.”

Though they despised the secular world, they were rulers forged through countless faction battles.

They too understood the phrase “divide and conquer,” ensuring a few positions to incite the merchants to compete for those seats.

The elder of the Black Academy, a black magician named Blahon who spread the rumor that Valenciaunos had ordered the gates closed, executed a plan that worked exceedingly well and continued to prevent merchants from uniting.

They could not gather in one place, and even when they did, they either cooperated with the merchant association that held ‘those seats’ or plotted to stab each other in the back to seize them.

“The last time, the Hands Association bought the magical tools for student assignments at a 50% discount…”

“The Bis Association has colluded six times. Six times.”

“You probably don’t know how many disposal materials the Kyslre Association smuggled for profit.”

“The Endil Association disposed of the entire waste from the chimera research facility of the living anatomy department…”

“The Haspar Association sold five students who left the tower to the southern kingdom under false pretenses.”

This was how they reported numerous scams, collusions, and crimes committed by those associations to the Ivory Tower.

The external tower master then summoned the head of the relevant association to notify them of the contract termination and pocketed a significant contract sum.

At the same time, they collected another large contract sum from the association head that reported the matter, which then led another association head to report their scams and collusions to the Ivory Tower.

As this happened repeatedly, the merchants began to scatter, seeking their own survival.

“Gather everything. Damn it!”

“Don’t repay that promissory note. It’s all over anyway.”

“They probably still don’t know. Borrow from every place that will give.”

“Count Haren struck a large reagent supply contract with the Ivory Tower, right? Collect all the contract fees. Where are the magic tools? Are there even any?”

“Tell the kids it’s too tough, and give them next month’s wages.”

Before they were expelled, they would do anything to make even one more coin.

“Gather anything that can be sold at the incinerator. It’s dangerous with the chimera? Isn’t it too ugly? The magic tools touched by the Ivory Tower magicians will be bought up by the wealthy as pets. Gather whatever you can, danger be damned!”

“What? Guards? Is there such a good thing still left? I’m going!”

Of course, the Ivory Tower didn’t label things as dangerous without reason and didn’t send them to the incinerator for no reason.

“…It’s times like this that we must unite…”

Dixon was wrapping up his long explanation.

“They say Duke Valenciaunos is mobilizing the constables to repatriate the refugees.”

An employee rushed into the meeting room.

One of the merchant heads hesitated before asking.

“Have you seen the escaped chimeras…?”

The employee almost replied that Duke Valenciaunos was a no-eyed bastard but held back, reminding himself he needed to make a good impression to secure his retirement package and nodded.

“Yes. And His Highness Duke Sererassie…”

Ahhhhhhh!

Crackle!

Duke Sererassie burst into the meeting room, swinging her staff.

* * *

Sererassie was a genius mage.

She had talent in nearly all schools of magic that humanity had mastered, including fire, earth, lightning, wind, life forms, black magic, and destruction.

With her striking appearance and royal bloodline, she was a well-known figure, even among the exceptionally talented within the Ivory Tower Academy.

“Join our school.”

“I’ll give you the treatment of a direct disciple…!”

“I’ll have you publish five papers within three years.”

“I’m thinking of sharing the original grimoire; are you interested?”

Even the elders of the Ivory Tower, bowing their heads before noble lords, were clamoring to propose direct disciple statuses.

Naturally, she absorbed all that knowledge, which allowed her to immediately recognize the danger posed by the chimeras wandering around that northern refugee village.

‘In the end, mixing human blood seems to be the final stage.’

As Valenciaunos had said, mixing human blood into chimeras to grant them reason and intelligence was nearly the final step.

For a chimera to reach that stage and end up at an incinerator was not a common occurrence.

There had surely been some substantial flaws discovered.

‘To think they were smuggling and selling such things.’

She had lived within the Ivory Tower since childhood, and she was well aware of the sordidness of the Ivory Tower merchants.

No matter how much they were told to avoid being burnt alive at the incinerator, they wouldn’t listen.

What else could she say to those who sold strange potions or talismans to tourists?

Merchants’ fates were of little concern to her.

The real issue was the chimeras they had been smuggling out.

‘To have leaked out to the extent that they would flow all the way outside means a considerable amount was sold. It’s unlikely it only circulated within the Ivory Tower’s autonomous district.’

Flawed chimeras had been sold outside.

They were synthesis creatures, inherently weak-willed and susceptible to corruption.

What would happen if they caused an incident?

Sererassie felt no pity for merchants who were bound to fail, nor for those who bought knowing what routes the items had taken.

The only person the dreaming genius mage feared was always Emperor Jeilliris.

Being a genius herself, she could feel it every time she beheld Jeilliris.

The Emperor’s power was akin to a natural disaster, something that could not be faced head-on.

‘She’ll hold the Ivory Tower accountable for the ill management of the incinerators. And then she’ll extract something from them. That’s certain.’

Although she had little interest in the world, she was sharp and intelligent.

The human world was viewed through the eyes of her half-brother Valenciaunos as something that functioned that way.

Rather than seek a predefined truth to problems, it was about interpreting the issues from as many perspectives as possible and then arguing that the most advantageous interpretation was the truth, armed with swords and legal codes.

Knowing that the world operated this way made the memories of her time in the Ivory Tower all the more beautiful.

Tears streamed down from her two heterochromatic eyes.

Those were the days she could freely enjoy what she liked alongside her worthy competitors.

Now it was a memory she could never return to.

‘I can’t watch my hometown be destroyed.’

The important thing was not whether the Ivory Tower had been negligent in managing the incinerators.

It was that Jeilliris wanted to extract something from the Ivory Tower during this incident.

Thus, that beautiful and powerful tyrant emperor smiled inhumanly and sent her twin, who bore the same face as hers.

Sererassie had been one to personally transfer dozens of grimoires she had held within the Ivory Tower for decades to her own workshop.

This time, she had no idea what the Ivory Tower would be required to provide.

Now there was only one way to see less of her hometown’s blood.

The starving Emperor Jeilliris would bring a chunk of meat that could satisfy his hunger instead of the Ivory Tower.

Merchants who had long operated within the Ivory Tower’s autonomous territory without paying a single tax to the Imperial Court and sold goods to the capital’s people could perhaps alleviate the Emperor’s hunger, even if just a little.

Thus, Sererassie raised her staff.

“Chain Lightning!”

Flash!

Crackle!

Blue lightning spread like vines between people.

The dark-furred magician entering the meeting room was a literal living disaster.

Her frantic appearance shone brightly with gold and jewels, and her lips, tightly closed, whispered a sound of silence, while the hand that gripped the front of her robe was preparing to conjure a second spell.

“Your Highness Duke Sererassie?”

“Why, why are you doing this?”

“Fool! Get out!”

A few quick-witted merchant heads tried to flee out the door, but Sererassie was one step ahead.

Boom!

Her second specialty, earth.

Stone columns surged up around the front and back of the door, preventing it from opening.

“Damn it!”

“Send the children in!”

“Guards!”

Some of them pulled out whistles that made sounds inaudible to human ears.

Sererassie clearly imprinted their faces in her memory.

‘I remembered.’

Boom!

The stone columns crumbled, and a door swung wide open.

“Screeeech!”

“Growl!”

Chimeras poured in.

“Why won’t you let me be still?”

Sererassie smiled coyly as she prepared her magic.

Close combat with chimeras of superior physical capabilities.

Her inherent advantage wasn’t great, but she had to defend her hometown.