“The tower is a closed group.”
“The tower is an open group.”
It sounds like a contradiction at first, but both statements can be true.
A group consists of multiple people, and just because you belong to one group, it doesn’t mean everyone in it shares the same tendencies.
In the tower, there were those who were indifferent to the outside world and solely dedicated to the pursuit of magic and truth, while there were others who actively poured their magical power outward.
The former stayed in the tower, while the latter dashed out to establish a new tower.
Thus, the Tower of Prophecy, belonging to the former, was the most closed-off group.
However, this brought up one significant issue.
The Tower of Prophecy values tradition and rules.
And among their traditions, there are rules that were established before the tower split.
These were rules created by the vibrant magicians eager for external involvement and active exchange with people.
For the magicians of the Tower of Prophecy, this became a major headache.
Some argued that since the tower had been reborn, the existing rules should be abolished, while others insisted that if they changed the rules too conveniently, how would that be different from the others?
As expected from a tower where only stubborn and obstinate individuals remained, the debates did not wrap up easily.
While some rules or traditions were reformed or abolished to fit the situation, others remained intact.
The ‘Rule of Hospitality’ was one of those traditions that did not disappear.
This was back when the tower was expanding and accepting various magicians.
– Is there really a need to reveal our knowledge and achievements to those who are not our own? It would be better to accept only those who wish to belong to the tower.
– If we only filter people like that, no one will easily join us. And that would mean we would be rejecting countless wisdom and knowledge that could come to us. The tower shouldn’t be like that!
The North Witch, one of the founders of the tower, argued that they shouldn’t take aim at magicians who were not affiliated with the tower, and such arguments might have played a part in the tower’s major resurgence, which could have otherwise ended as a small hobby group.
In a sense, this was a tradition that was essentially the root of the tower, and thus the picky magicians couldn’t casually eliminate it.
Unable to openly express their dissatisfaction, the magicians of the Tower of Prophecy responded by concealing the very existence of the rules.
If no one comes, there’s no need for hospitality.
Up until this moment, that had been the case.
There was a murmur. A whispering.
With wary looks and hushed chatter around them, Dorothea and her group strode confidently toward the center of the tower.
[‘The Tin Knight’ rates it as much more magical than before!]
Honestly, the sights they had seen in the Magical Kingdom until now had been rather disappointing.
Except for some differences in clothing or architectural style, there wasn’t that much of a difference from the cities they had seen so far.
But the inside of the tower was different.
Wizards dressed in the tower’s unique attire, golems following them like aides, spirits floating in the air, doors that opened and closed on their own, and moving stairs. Strange symbols carved into the walls and floors.
Each scene was dizzying, but they didn’t appear messy.
The weight of the place itself acted as a central axis, solemnly anchoring them.
“Wow.”
“Ooh.”
Like experiencing a stage from an intriguing story, Adelheid’s eyes sparkled.
As if trying to memorize every detail of the building’s overall shape and its various decorations, Sophia’s gaze darted around.
The Tin Knight looked with interest at a new type of spirit spewing fire in mid-air, while only Dorothea maintained a calm demeanor as she moved ahead.
Most of the wizards watched from afar, merely acting as if they were stiff wooden puppets, but some were blocking their way.
“Wait, Poi. Who are these people? They don’t seem like applicants; why are they in the tower?”
A female sorceress with sharp eyes and thin cheeks glared at Poi with a somewhat angry expression. A symbol of three books was inscribed on her chest.
Poi, taken aback, replied quickly, “They’re, um, visitors for a study! They were let in according to the regulations!”
“Visitors? What’s that?”
“Uh, well, you know how we memorize the rules before letting others in? Right here.”
As Poi quickly presented a small notebook, the female sorceress checked its contents and frowned.
However, her expression soon shifted as if she remembered something.
Dorothea, facing the female sorceress blocking her path, asked, “Do you have something to say?”
“Where did you hear about the rules? No, I shouldn’t even have to ask. Seeing you prance about in that tacky attire, you must have been trying to charm some guy.”
It was a venomous insult.
Yet, Dorothea remained unflustered.
Dorothea pointed at a silver horse that was trying to advance somewhere while still tied to the Tin Knight.
Unlike outside, if the horse were to move freely inside the tower, it could lead to all sorts of troubles, which is why it was prepared.
The female sorceress’s expression twisted for a moment, but she soon wore a smug smile.
“You talk too much.”
“What?”
Dorothea interrupted the female sorceress, pulling out a small glass vial and opening its lid.
The black liquid that flowed out of the vial didn’t fall to the ground; instead, it rose into the air, tracing complex patterns.
“That’s…!”
“Is it air control magic?”
“It’s not the Wizard school’s way. It’s closer to the Alchemist’s methods.”
Those around initially showed confusion, but, just like in a tower filled with talented wizards, they quickly realized the value of what Dorothea was demonstrating, their eyes lighting up with interest.
“So, you can only be a guest if you provide knowledge and wisdom? Well, here you go. Those who have come into my shop know better than anyone whether I have that ability.”
Ignoring the stiffened female sorceress, Dorothea declared,
“But it won’t be for free. For every hundred steps, I’ll give you one piece of knowledge that you might find interesting, as long as you don’t block my path like this.”
The Tower of Prophecy. One of the four pillars supporting the Magical Kingdom.
Against these individuals who couldn’t be easily intimidated even by noblemen, the Black Witch threw down a challenge.
“You claim that a wizard is someone who seeks knowledge and wisdom, right? Enough with this petty power play; let’s compete based on this ‘duty of a wizard’ instead.”
The tower heated up.
***
Fast forward a bit, as the wizards were not reading their past but visiting Dorothea to restore various lost documents.
“You want to hide information?”
“Yes. If, say, we discover a hundred bits of information, revealing about 30 to 50 of those would be sufficient. The rest, especially information directly related to what the client brought, would be best to keep to ourselves.”
The past projected by Tuberosum’s Chalice had some suitable aspects, swinging from barely recognizable small fragments to irrelevant information that popped up alongside.
For example, looking into the past of a parchment inscribed with a specific spell could also bring up images of another piece of parchment being created on the same desk.
Of course, this was practically useless capability.
There weren’t any records that could actively be viewed, and it was much too common for those ‘extras’ to drift past without being read thoroughly.
However, Sophia was an exception.
She could nearly remember anything she had successfully recognized and showed a remarkable ability to draw those words and symbols on paper.
The Tin Knight evaluated her to be a human scanner.
“But I keep running into things I can’t decipher, too.”
“We don’t need to decipher it. As long as we get the original, we’ll start analyzing it. In fact, they might get more fired up than if we just handed them the interpretations.”
***
Returning to the present, Dorothea thought to herself.
‘This is really heating up.’
“What’s this? Is it a picture?”
“No, it’s words. Looks like it’s from the city-state alliance period…”
“Bring me a dictionary.”
As Dorothea and her group walked down the path, numerous wizards followed behind them, forming a cluster.
While there were no ones shouting or running around, the fact that they were doing such things with serious expressions and tones made it all the more bizarre.
Thanks to the colossal scale of the tower, if something similar had happened in a normal tower, just the people would have made it impossible to move in the corridors.
[‘The Tin Knight’ feels as if he’s become a piper!]
In fact, among the information Dorothea had provided, not many were exceptionally powerful or practical.
Some of them even included ancient complaint letters that Sophia casually noted as being written in ancient script according to her era, and they simply complained to a fraud.
Yet, the wizards seemed unfazed by that.
Even if the content wasn’t directly related to magic, the act of understanding the written words by analyzing them could assist in interpreting other magical literature.
“Ah…”
Every time they climbed the floating stone steps to the next floor, several wizards paused with regretful expressions.
Even the tower’s wizards couldn’t freely access every space, as it seemed.
Seeing the outsiders, Dorothea’s group moving around freely stirred whispers among those nearby.
“But is allowing ‘visitors’ this far appropriate? Isn’t this section for those at least three ranks up?”
“You can tell that from previous case studies.”
“Case studies? What’s the use of bringing up cases from when the tower was only five floors?”
The wizards wore puzzled expressions.
They seemed to think something was off about this situation, yet without any clear regulations to stop Dorothea’s group, they appeared to be unsure how to judge.
At least their group only followed the silver horse around rather than poking into this and that, leading to less resistance.
‘If they had been rummaging through various rooms, the vigilance would have been way higher. But why on earth is this tower so poorly designed with stairs scattered everywhere? The route’s highly inefficient.’
Dorothea’s inner thoughts weren’t particularly comfortable, either.
Even if they were mixing in seemingly trivial documents to inflate their quantity, it wasn’t likely they’d amass such wealth in trade materials they’d hastily prepared in just a few days.
While she figured that handing out one piece for every hundred steps would help daze the wizards, seeing the silver horse showing no signs of stopping even after seven flights made her think they should have adjusted it to about one hundred fifty steps, even if it looked a bit lacking.
Determined to brace for the worst-case scenario where she’d have to share some of the magic she knew, Dorothea was relieved she didn’t have to as they reached the ninth floor of the tower.
This was a place accessible only to core figures among the faculty members of the tower, where finally the silver horse headed towards a direction other than the stairs to the next level.
A massive door, easily twice Dorothea’s height.
Seeing the silver horse hesitating about entering, Dorothea asked, “Where is this?”
“Uh, uh, yes?”
The guide and apprentice wizard Poi struggled to provide a proper answer.
After all, he was just a guide, merely following the flow of the atmosphere alongside Dorothea’s group.
What he secretly hoped was that some other senior or professor would say, “You can’t go any further, so I’ll need someone else to take your place,” but the wizards captivated by Dorothea’s performance didn’t throw a glance at the presence-less apprentice.
Not caring a bit, Dorothea turned her gaze back.
And squinted.
A man with long black hair.
Medir Geldnir was there, but that wasn’t the issue.
It wasn’t strange for the Master of the Tower to be in his own tower.
But it was undoubtedly a problem that the blonde girl, Rapunzel, whom they had left outside to avoid involving too much in this matter, was with him.
Seeing Dorothea’s eyes harden, Medir said, “Don’t get me wrong. She’s not a hostage or anything. Rather, wouldn’t it be better to show her the insides of the tower? Such opportunities are quite rare.”
“I’m, I’m fine.”
Rapunzel nodded repeatedly, trying to assert her independence, which made Dorothea come back with a disinterested expression.
“So, where is this?”
The wizards who were astonished that the Master of the Tower blended in with them were further stunned by the girl in divination clothing who tossed around informal language at him.
Of course, Dorothea, priding herself on her thick skin, didn’t mind in the least.
Medir said, “You’ll find out once you go in.”
“……”
That was quite a vague response.
Feeling a bit uncomfortable, Dorothea instinctively reached out, conscious of the Tin Knight’s presence, and without hesitation, pushed the door open.
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