[V6C9] Digging Into the Past
Translated by Jodas 6: Secrets of the Wedge TowerThe third-rate con man Smoke Fox pulled out all the stops with his intricate impersonations, which seemed to work wonders alleviating the awkward mood between these old men.
In a much more relaxed atmosphere than before, Hütter poured cheap wine in Möbius and Otto’s glasses. The good wine he brought with him had long since been drunk dry.
“Man, you know I’ve put in a little practice into this. The key is to get the shape of your mouth just right.”
“You’re a proficient observer, Mr. Hütter.”
Möbius sounded impressed, so Hütter responded with a proud smile.
“You’ve got to have a good eye if you want to make accurate illusions of animals, you know? I’m an illusion idiot, after all.”
… He made a confident face to sell the excuse as he took a sip from his glass.
It may look like he was deeply imbibing in his drink, but Hütter had actually yet to drink a single glass’ worth.
He made sure to always have the glass to his mouth whenever someone looked at him, but when no one was looking, he would stealthily exchange glasses.
Whenever it was too difficult for him to pull off the glass swap, then, so long as he was outside, he would just dump the glasses’ contents on the ground. (It was a waste to throw this stuff away, so Hütter had to convince himself with this thought.)
Getting others drunk without drinking himself was a key technique for a con man.
“Here, have another glass!”
“Hey, Hütter! Gimme one too!”
“Well, we do owe today’s great victory in the magic battle to Director Kappel, after all! Here’s to our king of inventors!”
Hütter passed the time by putting on impressions and passing drinks around to the other three.
Otto was the first to pass out.
He started the night very awkwardly, so he’d been drinking a lot to disguise his unwillingness to speak. It was no wonder he got drunk much faster than usual.
Next, Kappel stood up from his seat, saying “Toilet.” He swayed back and forth as he stepped into the Management Office.
Möbius, meanwhile, wasn’t very drunk at all. Rather than holding his liquor well, it seemed he was deftly managing his consumption. He would be a tough nut to crack.
“Mr. Hütter.”
Möbius adjusted his posture and spoke to Hütter.
“Thank you for today. It’s been a long time since I’ve had such fun drinking.”
“I have to thank you for sparing us your time. Do you come here often, Headmaster Möbius?”
“No…”
Möbius glanced at Otto, who was passed out on the table.
With an expression that said a thousand words.
“Ever since Satie… Lutz’s wife passed away, I haven’t had the chance to talk to him like this.”
“You don’t usually go drinking with Otto?”
“Yes, I don’t. I didn’t expect Lutz to come here tonight… I still can’t look him in the eye, so I thought about trying another day, but…”
(He can’t look him in the eye? …Did something happen between them?)
Möbius cut himself off and closed his eyes. He wasn’t drunk; it couldn’t have been the alcohol.
It felt more like he was facing the past and trying to find his place in it.
“I apologize for making you worry about us, Mr. Hütter. I came here tonight because I wanted to talk with you. I heard you come here quite often.”
“…Huh? Me?”
“Regarding the Apprentices’ magic battle today…”
(Ah~~~, ‘Your students were spending the whole time chirping ‘piro-piro’ for some reason, don’t you think they need to be taught the gravity of the situation?’ Or some sort of lecture like that is coming…!)
“I watched them make plans, find jobs for each of them to do, and work together to confront a superior foe. It was truly impressive. This was all thanks to your guidance, so I would like to offer you my heartfelt thanks.”
When he said that, Möbius bowed deeply. Hütter was taken aback.
‘Is this guy drunk after all?’ He thought, but Möbius shouldn’t have drunk that much yet.
For the time being, it would be best not to joke his way out of this.
Hütter tried to wipe the retorts from his mind and reassumed the face of a dedicated instructor.
“All I’ve done is listen to my students and give them a little bit of advice. Everything they did in the magic battle was all their own idea, and the product of their own labor.”
It was the truth. Hütter hadn’t given them any meaningful guidance. He was only a con man, after all.
Nevertheless, Möbius interpreted that as humility.
“Most mages dispatched by the Mage Association find guidance at the Wedge Tower to be a daunting task. I am truly grateful to have someone like you who earnestly engages with the Apprentices.”
Unlike his usually dignified presence, he came across a little more folksy now. This was perhaps Möbius’ true nature.
(He’s still dignified, but he doesn’t put on airs. He’s honest, earnest — why would such a person butt heads with the previous Emperor? …No, maybe it’s precisely because he’s that kind of person.)
The previous Emperor was a womanizer, and a man whose approach towards political and military matters was far from passionate. People often joked that his only true passions were women and art collecting.
It was only natural that he would be at odds with the diligent-looking Möbius.
(…So, how do I start prodding into him?)
The third-rate con man Smoke Fox’s goal was to find out the reason behind the Wedge Tower cutting off all relations with the previous Emperor.
If he didn’t get serious with his job soon, the Black Lion Emperor would have his head.
That said, it wouldn’t do for him to ask “What happened between you and the previous Emperor?” so naïvely. Hütter couldn’t allow anyone to learn that he was a pawn of the Black Lion Emperor.
A faint hint of regret shone through on Möbius’ stern face.
“The Wedge Tower is currently facing an unprecedented crisis. You must surely be aware that Monsters have been spotted in territories they never used to appear in, yes?”
“Yes, my students encountered them when we accompanied the Investigation Office once.”
He must have been talking about the ice Monster and those Snow Boar things that Tia and the others encountered.
Monsters couldn’t leave a certain radius around the Crystal Territory. This exception that occurred in spite of that common belief was said to still be under investigation.
Möbius lifted his face ever so slightly to gaze at the Western sky.
It was said that there existed an invisible wall to the West of the Wedge Tower. It was a sort of barrier that made it impossible for Monsters to cross.
“Thanks to the Wall, Monsters won’t be able to proceed any further West, but…”
Möbius cut himself off mid-sentence and lowered his gaze towards his hands.
The lantern set on a nearby box cast a shadow over his face as his expression grew more intense.
“We must not delay in eradicating them all.”
His muttering carried as much sincerity as it did a dark, bottomless rage, prompting Hütter to gulp.
Even after becoming Headmaster, Möbius was said to sortie out to Monster exterminations personally, achieving more in battle than anyone else.
It felt as if this man was the embodiment of the human determination and obsession to eradicate Monsters, whatever the cost.
“Starting tomorrow, I’ll be out on another extermination trip for a while. While I’m out, I’ll be counting on you to take care of the Apprentices.”
“Best of luck.”
Hütter replied with a sincere expression, to which Möbius gave a faint smile.
With the corners of his brow dropped lower and the edges of his mouth lifted higher, it wasn’t much, but it was the most genuine smile he’d seen this man make so far.
“Today was truly enjoyable. You’ve given me the opportunity to laugh with friends in a way I haven’t for a a long time. Thank y—”
“Headmaster. Don’t say any more.”
Hütter held up a hand to prevent him from continuing his thought, then he leaned in and spoke to Möbius with a grave expression.
“If you thank me too much, it’ll be hard for me to invite you out the next time. At times like this, a casual parting like ‘Ah~ That was a blast! Let’s go drinking again some other time!’ is the right way to go.”
Möbius let out a little chuckle.
“…Ha, haha, I see. Perhaps that’s why I never get invites to go drinking.”
It seemed like the Headmaster rarely ever got invited to drinking events. What a pity.
“Very well, let’s go drinking again some other time, Mr. Hütter.”
Möbius spoke very plainly before standing up and leaving.
He was headed for the gardens. Perhaps he was going on a walk to sober up.
(The Headmaster is going to be away starting tomorrow… It could be a convenient time to start investigating inside the Wedge Tower. Maybe I’ll make some moves tomorrow night.)
“Phew, I feel sober already! Time for more drinking~!”
The door leading to the Management Office swung open. Old Man Kappel was back.
Kappel said nothing about Möbius’ absence as he returned to his seat and went right back to drinking.
This was how it always was whenever he went drinking here. He wouldn’t bother doing a toast to kick things off, and he would leave whenever he felt like it.
Hütter looked over at Otto, collapsed on the table and sleeping. This wasn’t a light dozing either; he was truly deep in sleep.
As Hütter collected the glasses and plates around Otto, he turned to ask Kappel a question.
“It got brought up a little bit earlier, but was Otto’s wife… was Satie a mage at the Wedge Tower?”
“Hm? Ah, yes, that’s right. She was classmates with Möbius and Otto back in the day, and all three of them joined the Extermination Office.”
She joined the Extermination Office, and she has since deceased. Considering that, the first potential cause of death that cropped up in his mind was ‘Killed by Monster.’
If that was true, that would explain why Möbius hated Monsters so much.
“…Was it a Monster, then, that got Satie?”
“Nnnope. She was pregnant, but it was a difficult birth. In the end, both the mother and child died during the birth. At the time, Otto had been sent out on an extermination mission, so he couldn’t be there with her when she died… That was right when the huge Monster attack happened, you know?”
The large-scale Monster attack was well-documented in the Wedge Tower’s records. It was an event that occurred roughly thirteen years ago.
(Considering that the relations with the previous Emperor were severed seven years ago… This probably has nothing to do with that event.)
Hütter plotted a chart of important events surrounding the Wedge Tower in his mind.
13 years ago: Large scale attack by Monsters. Otto’s wife Satie dies.
10 years ago: Headmaster Möbius and Assistant Headmaster Miriam assume office.
7 years ago: White Smoke Spiremaster Samuel Löwenich is expelled <— (The previous Emperor’s falling out at this point), White Smoke Spiremaster Abel assumes the office.
2 years ago: Golden Needle Spiremaster Lowein and Water Bubble Spiremaster Alto assume their offices.
While he came to the conclusion that this necessitated at least a little more investigation, Hütter questioned Kappel.
“What kind of person was Satie?”
“She was a bright young girl who loved to sing. She would often sit right over there and sing to herself.”
When he said ‘over there,’ Kappel pointed at some of the scattered wooden boxes lying around.
“There’s always all sorts of loud noises going on around the Management Office, so she said she thought no one would mind if she sang at the top of her voice here.”
“She sounds like a lot of fun.”
“Well, I know it’s a cliche, but that girl was like the sun to us. Whenever that girl smiled, even the prickly Möbius and Miriam would relax a little bit.”
“…Hm? By Miriam, you mean the Assistant Headmaster, right? That pretty nun?”
She was gorgeous beauty of a woman in a nun’s habit, but she had a chilly air about her. Hütter’s first impression of her was that she left no openings for him to latch on to.
“Miriam was best friends with the late Satie. They belonged to different Offices, but they were Apprentices together, and they were always practically attached at the hip… No, I’d say they were best friends even before they came to the Wedge Tower.”
Trying to dig up memories from long ago, Kappel pressed a finger to his temple.
Hütter poured some more wine for him. Drinking that, Kappel spoke again.
“Ah, that’s right, now I remember. Both of them came from the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy. They were former candidates to become Saint Helena.”