Skrcch!
Elena scratched her plate with the knife she was holding and made a grating sound. She thought it voiced the screams of her heart. Walwiss’ lips twitched. It seemed like he was wondering whether he should continue speaking or stop.
Elena wished her grandfather wouldn’t open his mouth again, but unfortunately, her wishes didn’t come true.
“I understand your dream and your talent. Even I am impressed by your ability to combine magic circles and recount spells,” said the greatest magician in Sunewick and the head of the magical tower. “But Elena, you can only activate magic if you have mana.”
The talent that Elena displayed since she was young had attracted attention and high expectations from everyone around her. Not only was magic enjoyable for her, but she also had talent and got compliments from all the adults around her for it; in a way, it was only natural that Elena fell deeply in love with magic.
As she grew older, her understanding of magic became deeper. Since she was blessed with an environment ideal for mages, she learned even faster than normal; and as she learned more, she wanted to use magic earlier. Thus, she tried her hardest to release her mana even a day earlier. However, as more and more peers around her age began to release their mana, her mana didn’t show itself.
At first, people weren’t that disappointed. No, they were plenty of people who were happy for her. They thought her innate capacity of mana would be outstanding considering how difficult it was to wake it up. People murmured amongst themselves how much of a great mage Elena would be with her combination of talent in magic and immense mana. There were even rumors that she might be the next head of the magical tower or at least the next one or one after that.
Yet, Elena couldn’t wake her mana up even as time passed. People knew that those who possessed an immense amount of mana had difficulty releasing it early, but there was a limit to that. As days continued to pass by and Elena failed to awaken her mana, the expectations surrounding her began to crumble away; and in place of that, disappointment and lament filled their empty spots. In the end, people couldn’t help but accept the reality that Elena had no mana in her. It was basically a death sentence for someone who dreamed of becoming a mage.
All expectations disappeared, and people stopped paying attention to her. Around then, Elena’s grandfather, who she revered the most, began telling her to quit studying magic.
“If you don’t have mana, you won’t be able to activate magic. You know, no matter how efficient and sturdy a water wheel is, it’d be useless if there isn’t any water,” her grandfather said to her. He wasn’t scolding, pressuring, or comforting her. He simply spoke the truth in a matter-of-fact tone, which made Elena fall into greater despair.
“That’s also the reason why I canceled your allowance so that you won’t be able to buy anything like magic books or ingredients anymore.” Then, Walwiss sighed and continued, “But how could you try to sell self-made items that aren’t even artifacts to get some money?”
“…I won’t scam anyone. Look, Grandpa! I made some money!” She showed her grandfather the money she collected. Walwiss glanced at a couple of coins on the table. He didn’t look pleased at all.
“How could you, with those…?”
“What’s the problem, Father?” At that moment, someone entered the room and interrupted her grandfather from speaking further. Elena’s face brightened up.
“Dad!”
“You are back?” Walwiss asked.
“Yes, it’s been a while, Father. Elena, how have you been?” The intruder bowed his head towards Walwiss and smiled at Elena. The man’s name was Orland Dwayne, Walwiss’ son and Elena’s father. He was a fairly promising magician who was also one of the candidates to be the next head of the magical tower.
“Have you eaten?”
“Yes, I came after eating.”
Orland sat next to Walwiss in front of Elena. Then, he stared at Elena while smiling and said, “I heard that you did something funny today.”
“Did rumors spread already?”
“Well, you know, Elena is a celebrity in many ways.”
She was the fallen genius—a being that the public loved to gossip about and chew out. The fact that she was a member of an elite family made her story even more delectable to her audience.
Elena hung her head gloomily.
“There’s no need for you to feel that way, Elena. I didn’t bring that up to mock you. Like I always say, I’m always on your side.”
“Hmph!” Walwiss made a disgruntled sound. “It’s because you keep acting like this that Elena can’t get rid of her lingering feelings.”
“What’s the issue? She should be able to do what she wants.”
“If she had even a tiny bit of mana, I would have agreed with you. However, Elena doesn’t have any. Are you saying that we should let her get tortured by a false sense of hope forever?”
“I was a late bloomer as a magician too. Elena could be like me.”
“You were at least able to handle your mana. Elena doesn’t have any mana.”
“It’s not definite yet.”
“If she hasn’t awakened her mana at this age, it wouldn’t be a complete exaggeration to say that her mana capacity would be at the level of a legendary dragon. Are you saying that’s the case?”
“There’s no rule that says that it’s impossible. Moreover, what’s the problem of cheering on your child?”
“Her future depends on this! You can’t say such irresponsible—!” Walwiss’s voice rose and stopped. Orland, who kept retorting back, glanced at Elena.
“…I am going to get up since I’m done eating.” Elena got up. She still had half of her meal left on her plate. However, neither Walwiss nor Orland stopped her from leaving.
After she left, an awkward silence surrounded the dining table. The father and son pair met each other’s eyes and let out a long sigh.
* * *
Zich and his companions went out of their lodging and walked towards the magical tower. Usually, when they arrived at a city, Zich gave Hans and Snoc freedom to explore, but this time, Hans and Snoc chose to follow Zich and Lyla. They wanted to see the famous magical tower. Zich and his companions first headed towards where Elena was selling her goods on the street. However, the place where Elena’s cart used to be was now empty. It seemed like she didn’t come out today.
“Look at that Nowem! That’s the magical tower!”
Koo!
When they stood in front of the magical tower, Snoc and Nowem looked up at the tower that seemed to pierce through the sky and let out their admiration. Next to him, Hans also stared at the magicians moving around the magician’s tower.
“Let’s go in.” Zich stepped forward and led his companions inside the magical tower.
The inside of the tower was wide; there were no walls to separate the rooms on the first floor, so the whole area was wide open. Tall pillars held up the tower. Even though there were people who looked like magicians wandering around the tower, there were many ordinary-looking people as well. It seemed as if a lot of people had also come to see the magical tower like Hans and Snoc too. Unlike Zich and Lyla who were here to collect information, people were here to sightsee and they acted like tourists.
Hans asked Zich, “Sir, what exactly is the magical tower?”
“It has a lot of different functions, but fundamentally, it’s a place where magicians gather to develop magic.”
“To develop magic?”
“There’s power in numbers, and it’s the same for magicians. Since they each have different knowledge and have different sets of skills and expertise, they’ll be able to develop magic better than working by themselves.” Zich straightened his fingers and pointed at the top of the tower.
“Most of the magical tower is made up of research labs. The floors are assigned based on your skill. Of course, the top floor is where the mage head is.”
Hans and Snoc looked up with curiosity.
“It must be tiring to climb up.”
Koo.
Snoc voiced his thoughts out loud, and Zich laughed a bit. “I don’t know about lower or mid-level mages, but magicians from high up can definitely use flying magic.”
“Ah, sir, that makes sense.”
Zich and his companions slowly began exploring the first level of the magical tower.
“There are a lot of shops.”
“When you’re researching, it’s annoying to go out. It’s good to have shops inside the tower like this.” Lyla replied to Hans’ question this time. Since she was also a mage, it seemed as if she could understand a mage’s state of mind. Soon, a staircase appeared in front of them.
Zich read the sign written on top of the floor number. “The magical tower is open to the public up to the 3rd floor. It must be for tourists.”
“This place is a bit different from what we were expecting.” Lyla and Zich chuckled at Snoc’s innocent words.
“In the end, mages are humans. They need money; no, they need much more money than the average person.”
Zich and his companions went around the 2nd and 3rd floor. On the 3rd floor, there was a rather luxurious restaurant that allowed them to eat food while enjoying the view outside. Zich and his companions ate a simple meal there, and the price was exorbitantly high. After finishing their meals, they left the restaurant.
“Then should we start gathering information?” After saying this, Zich began walking around the tower. People who were not magicians working for the magical tower were not allowed to go beyond the 3rd floor, so they could only look for information on the first, second, and third floors.
After buying a whole bunch of items from a store and gaining the favor of the shop owner, Zich asked a series of questions:
“What is the head of the magical tower like?”
“Are there any interesting stories around here?”
“Who are the famous mages here?”
“I heard that the head’s son is very talented.”
Of course, these were not the only questions Zich asked. In order to avoid suspicion, he added more questions about the magician’s tower and Sunewick in general. He was the perfect example of a tourist who had a lot of interest in the magical tower and Sunewick. However, no matter how big the 3rd floor was, Zich was unable to get much information from the shops on the 3rd floor. He also couldn’t go to every store and ask specific questions; that was way too suspicious.
‘I don’t need to go out of my way to attract suspicion right now.’
After exploring the magical tower to a certain extent, he went outside. There were also a lot of shops outside the magical tower. Even though mages were known to hate going outside while doing research, it wasn’t as if they trapped themselves in the magical tower. The shops nearby were there to sell products to mages who sometimes came out of the tower and the tourists who came to see the magical tower.
Zich also visited the shops there and went around asking questions. It was only when the sun was about to set and people were dwindling in numbers that Zich stopped going around and asking questions.
Lyla asked Zich, “Are we done?”
“Kind of.”
“Did you find something worthwhile?”
“I at least found every worthwhile rumor.”
“Then let’s go back.”
“Why? Was it boring for you?”
Lyla shook her head. “No, it was actually fun.”
This was also the same for Hans and Snoc. Zich also didn’t just pretend to be a tourist while asking questions; he really did go around sightseeing. It was to the extent that it was confusing whether they had come out here to collect information or go sightseeing.
Zich replied, “Then, that’s fine.”
They began heading back to their lodging.
“I was surprised by the treatment that Elena Dwayne is getting.” Since Lyla stood next to Zich while he collected information, she also knew what kind of treatment Elena was getting.
Zich agreed with Lyla’s words. “She is getting treated worse than I thought—especially for people to say that she’s a fallen genius of an esteemed family.”
Zich took a glance back at the magical tower. “It’s enough for the person on the receiving end to go crazy.”