# Chapter 207: Tin Knight and the Forest of Deception
The rank system of magical towers was unified across all towers into five ranks to clarify the hierarchy among members and minimize incidents.
For instance, if the Tower of Prophecy has three ranks and the Tower of Annihilation five ranks, even though they both could have 3rd Grade Wizards, their actual standing would be different.
The criteria for ascending to higher ranks varied by tower, based on knowledge, experience, combat skills, strategic insight, and number of patents held. However, fundamentally, if one had the capability, it was possible to ascend to a higher rank.
Except for the Tower of Control, that is.
In the Tower of Control, there were basically only two ways to rise beyond 4th grade: either be born into royalty or marry a royal.
If you didn’t fall into either category, no matter how excellent a wizard you were, rising above 4th grade was impossible.
Of course, this wasn’t set in stone by law.
The reason there were many royals among 4th Grade Wizards was that they were outstanding wizards, and if a wizard with no background ascended to 4th grade, it was merely because they mingled with someone of similar caliber. At least, that was the official narrative.
However, there are unwritten rules in the world that are shared silently, and ignoring these tacit rules only makes life more tiring.
Some might think this way: why cling to the Tower of Control when there are other towers where you can rise to higher ranks without restrictions? Why not just move to another tower?
It was a pretty valid point.
In fact, due to this aspect of the Tower of Control, many wizards chose to go to other towers.
Yet, as many wizards left, just as many chose to knock on the doors of the Tower of Control.
The Tower of Control was the hardest to ascend among the towers, but at the same time, the benefits of rising in rank were the sweetest.
Wizards in the Magical Kingdom were comparable to nobles in other countries, but the proportion of those who treated commoners poorly was much lower than actual foreign nobles.
This was due to the unique characteristics of the tower’s wizards.
The Tower of Prophecy was fussy and had a somewhat superior mindset, but many were holed up in their labs with minimal contact with outsiders. Naturally, there were fewer incidents of causing trouble.
The Tower of Annihilation had a strong tendency to worship power, spending time on self-discipline rather than pointless acts of bullying the weak. They were indifferent to civilians.
The Tower of Guardian consisted of those who believed magic should be used to benefit people, so there was nothing more to say about them. Of course, as with most organizations, there were those who slacked off.
Those who chose the Tower of Control were those who felt uncomfortable with such trends.
They wanted to become power brokers and wield that power.
They wanted to indulge in the pleasures enjoyed by the privileged classes of other countries.
Why couldn’t the rulers of the Magical Kingdom, one of the mightiest powers, enjoy the same luxuries as even the most insignificant rural nobles or wealthy merchants?
Understanding the people’s desires, the Tower of Control had relatively lenient admission standards compared to other towers.
As long as one possessed the bare minimum ability to recognize and handle magical power, even if it was just creating a flame the size of a candle, they could be recognized as part of the tower.
Thus, wizards who became 1st grade could exert all sorts of tyrannical behavior towards ordinary people.
Initially, new recruits had no such intentions, but as they watched their colleagues and seniors behave that way, they gradually got influenced.
The sweetness of power wielded in this manner was, in a way, like seawater.
The more you drank, the thirstier you became instead of quenching your thirst.
However, unlike the relatively easy ascent to 1st grade, climbing to the upper ranks was anything but simple.
The harder it was, the more those who hadn’t ascended drooled at the fruits hanging above them.
The harder it was, the more those who had ascended wielded their power as if to reward themselves for the struggles endured to get there.
The harder it was, the more they diligently worked to maintain the tower’s structure to keep their positions and the powers they enjoyed.
Some scoffed.
They said that those of noble blood were skilled at creating a structure where one person oppresses another.
Otto Millian was a wizard belonging to the Tower of Control.
Despite being evaluated as lower quality compared to other towers due to its lax admission standards, that only applied to the 1st graders on the bottom.
3rd Grade Wizards like Otto were precious and received treatment befitting their value.
It might seem a bit ridiculous to say he had power limited to the area governed by the Tower of Control, but the Magical Kingdom consumed the entire northern part of the continent. Even a quarter of its territories was larger than any significant power from the past.
As long as he was careful around the incredibly few colleagues and superiors within his realm of influence, he could almost do whatever he wanted in that vast territory.
So, the current situation, stuck in the woods for days on end, was anything but pleasant.
All he could see were leaves, dirt, bugs, and the expressionless faces of his colleagues resembling masks.
He thought he probably looked just as expressionless.
It wasn’t because he felt no emotion about the situation. To be honest, he wanted to swear and vent all sorts of frustrations.
But he couldn’t.
This was due to the fact that the one leading this operation was Giras Lognir, a 4th Grade Wizard and a candidate for the next master of the tower.
That arrogant royal with stunning silver hair was a heavyweight who could either elevate Otto’s life to the heavens or plummet it into the abyss.
If he took a liking to Otto and introduced him to one of his sisters, Otto could ascend to the highest ruling class of the tower. Conversely, if Otto fell out of favor, he could lose all his power and crash to the bottom.
Other 3rd Grade Wizards assigned to this mission likely had similar thoughts.
Expressing his dislike in front of such colleagues? It was practically asking to get stabbed in the back.
No matter how he truly felt, he had to handle everything perfectly, as if he had no complaints at all.
‘Come on, damn it. But shouldn’t they tell us specifically what we’re looking for?’
“Block the forest, search it. Report immediately if you detect anything suspicious.”
That was the order given by Giras.
There was no description of the appearance of the target, whether it was human or an object, nothing of the sort.
The search area was a gigantic forest that would take hours to traverse even at the shortest distance.
Typically, such physical labor was left to the lowly underlings, but this operation only involved 3rd Grade Wizards like Otto.
No matter how accustomed they were to tyrannizing, it was impossible to push that burden onto another wizard of the same rank.
‘Over fifty 3rd Grade Wizards were assigned to this mission. With proper shielding, we could potentially attack even a stronghold of the Empire. To only be doing reconnaissance with such firepower, what on earth is going on?’
It was an utterly baffling action.
Of course, while outstanding wizards might have one or two detection spells, a few could scour a vast area even with a small number of people.
But considering the value of a high-ranking wizard, sending in a bunch of soldiers to physically toss them into the woods would be a much more cost-effective action.
Yet not doing that meant…
‘Does this something we need to find require fewer people knowing about it? Must they conceal even the specifics from us?’
As he pondered what it could be, something peculiar flickered at the edge of his vision.
Swoosh.
Between the bushes, a small shadow resembling a small animal made a brief appearance.
It could easily be brushed aside as something that could happen in the forest, but Otto’s compulsive need to succeed in this mission spurred him into action.
The magic detection spell flared to life, and the distribution of magical power in the surrounding area spread out in Otto’s mind like a map from above.
‘Nothing unusual.’
All that was detected were various small animals.
Some individual readings were slightly higher, but they were at a level that could easily be dismissed as mere individual differences.
If it were something magical, like a familiar, it would normally have a significantly higher magical response.
Well, if it were a wizard of even higher caliber than Otto, they might be able to pull off some tricks, but that would still have clear limits.
Sighing at the tedious repetitive task, Otto began to search through the woods once more.
-Snap.
Unbeknownst to him, a dim-eyed mouse was watching his retreating figure.
***
“…Looks like we’ve hit the jackpot.”
Reflecting on the vision shown by Tuberosum’s Chalice, Dorothea turned her gaze to the distant forest.
To avoid suspicion, she was currently a considerable distance from the forest, but perhaps due to having seen the inner scenery multiple times, the landscape of the forest appeared vividly before her eyes.
Outside the forest was a stringent perimeter, evidently intending to restrict access. Within, numerous highly skilled wizards were present.
Though none matched Dorothea’s abilities, navigating through so many wizards without being detected was a separate issue entirely.
Dorothea’s specialty was brute force using immense magical power, not delicate craftsmanship at all.
Rather than using bone mice as usual, she would be using intact mouse corpses that wouldn’t raise any issues externally. If she hadn’t suppressed the magical traces to the extreme, she would have been discovered immediately.
This operation was initially impossible without the underhand tactic of Tuberosum’s Chalice.
“The ones actually looking are clueless about what to find.”
“How would we know? No one’s opening their mouth.”
“You can tell from their gazes and attitudes. It feels less like they’re looking for ‘something specific’ and more ‘seeing if anything seems suspicious at all.’”
“Hmmm.”
Dorothea crossed her arms, deep in thought for a moment.
She wasn’t as exceptional as Sophia, but she certainly wasn’t someone to be easily outsmarted either.
Grappling with her master’s unreasonable errands from a young age had given her substantial experience.
The conclusion soon formed.
“Those who issued the orders are either unaware of what they’re supposed to be looking for or deliberately not explaining it to several individuals.”
“My personal guess tilts towards the latter. In other words, something troublesome for the tower is likely inside, as it’s not something to be disclosed to many.”
“The forest where Adel’s father and his army were wiped out. A place where the Empire and the Magical Kingdom’s testimonies conflict.”
It was indeed suspicious.
It stank of something fishy.
“Could it be a survivor? No, that’s a stretch. It’s been quite a while since that incident, and even if there were survivors, they wouldn’t have stayed in the forest all this time.”
“If not someone alive, perhaps something like a spirit?”
“Then what? Are they looking for some sort of restless spirit?”
Dorothea brushed it off lightly, but Sophia’s expression was serious.
“I read in books that the undead aren’t exclusively created through necromancy. If environmental factors like a strong obsession, reluctance, and ample magical power are present, they can arise naturally. There are often gaps in time from death to becoming an undead.”
“…That’s accurate. I don’t sense any traces of necromancy, but then again, it’s possible I might just be misjudging since I haven’t been close by.”
A hypothesis formed.
But what truly mattered came next.
If what lay within were really the undead of those who died in that battle or something equivalent, they needed to intercept it before the Tower of Control could acquire or eliminate it.
The problem was that it could potentially turn one of the towers into an enemy.
To launch an attack against one of the strongest forces based on uncertain guesses and with no guarantees of reward didn’t add up.
Logically, it made more sense to keep scouting as they were, waiting for Gale to return.
Witches had to be cold-hearted.
So the necessary choice was clear.
“…Hah. Wake the others. It’s about time, so they should be sufficiently rested by now.”
With the thought that if things got complicated, they would have to flee directly into the domain of the Tower of Guardian, the Black Witch let out a sigh of lament.
Sophia quietly smiled and nodded.
A witch who couldn’t be cold-hearted was, for that very reason, thought of as trustworthy in a leader.