C95: The Tower
Another chapter sponsored by mystichead. Thank you for your support.
When Rudger told them directly that he would never join the Tower, Altego just opened his mouth and didn’t say anything. It was the same with the five wizards who followed him.
Although they are now called the old guard and have declined considerably compared to the heyday of the Tower, which wielded absolute power, there were still countless wizards who dreamed of joining the Tower.
Altego was one of the 12 members of the Tower Council that only a selected few members of the Tower could join and the reality was that he couldn’t even put pressure on the wizard in front of him.
‘But, what?’
What did the boy in front of him say now? Even if they give him a seat in the Council, he won’t join the Tower?
“You punk! How dare you say that in front of me?”
The first to grasp the situation was one of the five disciples Altego brought.
“The chairman is kind to the teachers of Theon, so don’t be arrogant! Master, you should just ignore a guy like that.”
He couldn’t control his anger, and he looked like he didn’t want to be here for even a second. But as soon as he was about to leave, he heard Elisa’s giggling, not Rudger’s reply.
“Hahahahaha”
Instead of her usual fake laughter, her laughter was 100% real this time.
Altego was embarrassed by her laughter and it was the same for the five disciples. After a long giggle, Elisha laughed so hard that she had to wipe away her tears with her fingertips.
“It’s so funny. I don’t know how long it’s been since I laughed like this.”
Saying that, she returned to her usual appearance.
“Mr. Rudger doesn’t want to go, so what can I do? You came all the way here for nothing.”
It was a good opportunity for Elisa to tease Altego since he was rejected by someone much younger than him and had his pride hurt.
“I told you~ you’ll be rejected anyway, so why bother visiting the academy? Do you think the current Tower is still the old one?”
“You! Can’t you watch your mouth?”
One of Altego’s five disciples stepped up in a fit of rage and Elisa’s expression changed in an instant.
“What if you don’t like it?”
“What?”
“What are you going to do if you don’t like it?”
At the moment Altego’s disciple panicked, a chilling spell erupted from Elisha and began to tighten his body.
“Cough!”
He couldn’t breathe properly and stared at Elisha with disbelieving eyes.
He knew that Elisa Willow was a genius wizard who achieved the sixth rank at a young age. Even though she was a member of the Tower she suddenly left, and became the President of Theon.
When the public praised her as a genius, he couldn’t take it. If she were a real genius, she should have stayed in the Tower and made a name for herself. Why did she left and became Theon president?
Of course, he thought that she ran away and went to an academy where she played house for children because she was afraid that she couldn’t handle the situation in the Tower.
He thought that the rumors about her were exaggerated and if he met her he could prove that he was superior.
‘Different dimensions.’
He couldn’t move even a single tip of his finger. It is difficult to even breathe, let alone use magic. He felt like he was deep in the deep sea filled with endless darkness. But what makes him even more distressed is that Elisa was at least considerate of him so he could breathe.
‘I’m not her opponent.’
This was the power of the youngest 6th-level wizard, the power of the [Lexorer] rank, which is the 3rd highest among the existing 8 ranks.
“Stop it.”
It was Altego who broke the overflowing tension with a single word.
Elisa sighed inwardly and withdrew her magic power. Despite his personality, she knows Altego abilities are real. He is a 6th level wizard like her, so if they clash for nothing, things will only escalate.
Altego restrained his disciples with a calm voice.
“You should stop, too.”
“Oh, but, sir,”
Altego looked back at his disciples in silence. The disciples, who tried to refute something, shut their mouths when they saw Altego’s expressionless face.
“Let’s go.”
Before leaving, Altego glared at Elisa for the last time and then glared over her shoulder at Rudger, staring at him with a blank face.
“You’ll definitely pay for it later.”
Even if he’s a no-nonsense person, he’s just backing down because his personality isn’t so bad that he would make a fuss in a place like this.
Altego promised time and again that he would never forget this disgrace. Usually, in this situation, the other person will also react nervous or embarrassed but Rudger didn’t, he only nodded his head slightly.
It was like he was saying ‘try it if you can’.
Altego left the banquet hall, biting his molars and the five students, who were at a loss, rushed to follow after Chairman Altego.
“Phew.”
When Altego disappeared completely, Elisa relaxed her shoulders. Then, unlike usual, she smiled at Rudger with a little tired look.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Rudger. I should have been more thorough.”
“No, the president helped a lot.”
“You don’t have to say that. Anyway, the reason I interfered is because I have a bad relationship with them.”
After saying that Elisa asked abruptly.
“Do you hate the Tower?”
If he had to answer, he would say yes and it was the same with Elisa.
“Actually, I was a magician from the Tower.”
“I know.”
“It’s actually harder to find a wizard on the continent who’s not from the Tower, anyway I called a genius there…..Oh, that’s too much bragging about myself.”
“That’s all right.”
“I worked hard there but the Tower is a bit old-fashioned, isn’t it? These days, science and magic are advancing, so it was hard for old people in the Tower to accept them and we fought a lot.
The old and new towers are separated.
The old Tower is a place where pure wizards gather. Their mindset it’s that magic is the greatest and only the chosen ones should practice it.
‘On the contrary, the God Tower is a faction trying to cast off the authoritarian mask of magic and combine it with modern science.’
It may have been hundreds of years ago, but human history has made rapid progress in the last 200 years. Cars appeared instead of carriages, and weapons using gunpowder instead of simple swords were the mainstay.
Nevertheless, the existence of wizards and knights was still an axis of the world, but they could not completely reject change either, especially the wizards.
Magic and science seem to be the same, but they are different.
The Old Tower wizards argued that science should be rejected, but the New Tower wizards thought science and magic should be combined so they acted and created magic engineering by combining magic and science.
The birth of magic engineering made the world develop faster. Steamboats, engineering trains, steam golems, flying airships and all sorts of things were born, and even now new things are continuing to appear.
In such a turbulent world, the tower was torn apart by the two forces. The confrontation between Altego and Elisa shows the relationship between the old and the new and Rudger was a new-age wizard.
To be more precise his mind is that of a new-age wizard but his magic is old fashioned. The “real magic,” which he did not show well to others, was much closer to old-fashioned magic than to new-age magic.
However, it was not something to brag about, so Rudger nodded and only responded to Elisa’s words.
“Did I talk too much? Still, this is a banquet for a long-awaited celebration, and Mr. Rudger must be tired.”
“No.”
“I’ll leave you alone now, I have a lot of people to deal with. Mr. Rudger, enjoy yourself today but with just a little bit of alcohol! You get it, right?”
“Of course.”
Elisa disappeared from his sight, fluttering the hem of her black dress as she did when she appeared.
‘Is it finally over?’
Following a quarrel with Ivan Luke, the wizards of the Tower came and bothered him. It was quite a mental exhaustion, but Rudger soon got back on track, because he came here for a purpose.
“Ah! Mr. Rudger!”
As Rudger approached, Selina, who was with the others, welcomed him.
“Teacher Selina, are you all right?”
“Yes. The president of that Luke Company personally came and apologized.”
“That’s a relief.”
No matter how incompetent his son was, the chairman apologized himself. He may have an ulterior motive, but he is certainly not a fool like his son.
Rudger glanced back and looked at the faces of the people with Selina.
“You were talking to other people.”
Selina had very few friends present in the banquet hall, but besides her was Ms. Merylda who often takes care of her.
“Oh, nice to meet you.”
“You are the one from the rumors…….”
Three women and a man open their eyes in surprise at Rudger. They were people he met for the first time, but faces that he passed by at least once. They were the teachers in charge of Spirit Studies at Theon.
There were four of them, each taking up one seat from the second grade to the fifth grade.
Rudger greeted them courteously.
“I am Rudger Chelici, the teacher in charge of the 2nd grade Manifestation class.”
“I heard of the new teacher in charge of the second grade. I’m Sethruna, the second-year Spirit Studies teacher.”
Sethruna was a woman with short red hair. For a moment, Rudger suspected that she might be Esmeralda, the First Order.
‘No. I can’t make a decision yet.’
The other teacher introduced themselves as well.
“My name is Partonya, and I’m in charge of the third grade.”
Partonya, who teaches third-grade students, was an impressive lady with a great presence.
“My name is Vierano Dentis, and I’m in charge of the fourth grade.”
The teacher in charge of the fourth grade was the only man in the Spirit School and he looked rather timid with a small frame. Surprisingly, he was an elf with pointed ears.
‘Is he an elf?’
There was nothing particularly strange about having multiple sub-races in Theon so an elf in charge of the Spirit Studies class is nothing special.
“I’m Angela Anderson.”
Finally, the 5th grade teacher in charge of the graduating class was a sharp-looking woman wearing glasses. She was strict but quite beautiful and looked like she was hard to approach.
‘If I narrow down the list, one of those three should be Esmeralda.’
The problem is who the real one among the three is. Esmeralda knows about the identity of Rudger so she might show some kind of reaction when they shook hands but none of them showed any particular reaction towards him.
‘Could it be that it’s none of them?’
Esmeralda’s personality is fiery and tricky and she gets annoyed quickly when things don’t go her way.
‘The second grade teacher Sethruna it’s the most suspicious.’
Only teachers with experience are appointed for the third grade and higher and the new teachers are mainly in charge of the first two grades so if the Black Dawn Society wants to plant people they would most likely be there.
‘Should I get Hans to find out about the person named Sethruna?’
As his worries deepened, he was a little thirsty and as he was about to call a waiter he had no choice but to pause for a while because she looked familiar.
“……….Rene?”
A student who attends his class and possesses non-attribute magic and because she was paying attention to him she was staying close to Rudger.
Wearing a black and white waitress suit and holding a silver tray in one hand Rene also froze when she saw Rudger.