[V6 Interlude] The Fourth
Translated by Jodas 6: Secrets of the Wedge TowerWhen Julius’ adoptive father, Samuel Löwenich, had been exiled from the Wedge Tower, Julius was furious.
How dare they exile Samuel! Wait, no. Samuel was most definitely the type of evil mage who would get exiled, but he wasn’t the kind to lose against an organization like that!
No matter how bad of a spot he found himself in, his personal talent and wealth could turn the tables with ease. That was the sort of man Samuel Löwenich was.
Upon returning home, Samuel looked like he had aged decades. Yet, he looked as if he had just emerged from a long spell.
Julius approached Samuel and asked.
“Samuel, what are you going to do now? Are you going to take revenge on the Wedge Tower?”
“Kuku… I’ve had enough of the Wedge Tower. That place is too much for me.”
Those words came as a grave shock to Julius, as well as to Agniol, who had been rolling around in lion form.
“I thought nothing was beyond your reach, Samuel…!”
“Samuel, if something’s too big for you, all you need to do is cut it up into smaller pieces!”
Samuel laughed “Ku, ku, ku” at the stunned Julius and misunderstanding Agniol, then leaned back on his chair.
“I don’t have much time left.”
Julius had trouble at first understanding the meaning of those words.
Slowly, the words seeped into his brain. The moment he finally understood what they meant, Julius spoke urgently.
“A doctor! We can call a doctor! You can afford even the best doctor in the country, can’t you!?”
Samuel owned an unrivaled fortune. Coming from an impoverished background, Julius couldn’t even comprehend how much money he had.
Nevertheless, Samuel slowly shook his head.
“I have a disease no doctor can treat.”
Julius wasn’t a little kid anymore. He’d learned all sorts of things since Samuel took him in. So, he knew.
He knew that neither doctors nor mages were all-powerful.
“No…”
He spoke like a fussy kid refusing to eat his vegetables.
Ever since Samuel took him in, Julius had always been a hard worker. Never once had he raised a fuss or refused to do anything he was asked.
“No! Why… Samuel, you have everything…!”
Surely society would only say that the evil mage had finally earned his retribution.
Samuel himself insisted that he didn’t mind if they saw it that way. Julius, alone, found it frustrating.
In her lion form, Agniol slid her body in front of Samuel’s chair, beneath his feet. Samuel stroked her fur with his veiny hands.
Since when had those hands been so slender?
Samuel laughed, with a pride that defied even death.
“Kuku… I’ll do my best work you to the bone while I live out what remains of my life in this manor!”
For a short while afterwards, Samuel quietly lived with Julius, teaching him magecraft while he could.
He was happy to have Samuel teach him magecraft personally. However, that joy couldn’t compare to the loneliness, frustration, and feeling of helplessness he felt.
Suppressing the urge to cry, Julius memorized Samuel’s knowledge and skills. All the while telling himself he would never let a single thing die with him.
After a while, Samuel was no longer able to get out of bed.
Apparently, it was an illness that slowly rotted away at his heart.
No matter how particular he was about cleaning the room, no matter how many times he ventilated it, a foul odor reeked from Samuel. The scent of death.
“Kuku… I entrust you with my staff… No, not just the staff. I will give you my whole fortune. Money is worthless if you just let it pile up. In my place, I want you to spend it as much as you want… Ku, ha, ha.”
Samuel followed his words with a pained, wheezing laugh.
Every time he laughed, Samuel’s face winced.
“Samuel, you don’t have to force yourself to laugh. Every time you laugh, it just hurts you, right?”
“… Laugh, Julius. Laughter is confidence. Confidence is the secret to strength.”
What an insolent and conceited thing to say. How fitting it is for Samuel.
Julius nodded, forcing the corners of his mouth to lift upwards. He wouldn’t allow himself to cry here.
“Ku, kuku…”
He tested his throat, and laughed. Just like Samuel did.
Then, with a stiff smile, Julius looked down at his adoptive father.
“Kuku… Is this okay, dad?”
Samuel’s half-closed eyes opened wide.
His wrinkled face smiled proudly.
“Kuhaha… You’ve improved, Julius. You even surprised me.”
“Of course, I am the son of the great mage Samuel Löwenich, after all. Get better soon and give me your next challenge, dad. I’ll solve any problem you give me.”
“Challenge… Challenge, huh?”
Samuel closed his eyes.
He could hear a faint wheezing sound of air passing through the slimmest channel in Samuel’s throat. Between those breaths, Samuel spoke quietly.
“The Wedge Tower’s… fourth…”
The Wedge Tower was that institution of mages that Samuel had tried and failed to bring under his control, leading to his exile.
Just what was it’s ‘fourth’? Julius hadn’t the slightest clue.
As Julius fell silent in thought, Samuel looked up from the bed. He stared with the same eyes he had whenever he saw Julius struggling over a hard problem. He enjoyed it.
“If it strikes your fancy, take a crack at it.”
That night, Samuel Löwenich silently drew his last breath.
Julius spent a long time trying to form a contract with the flame spirit Agniol. Then, once he’d formed the contract, he brought Agniol along with him to take the Wedge Tower’s entrance examination.
It was the afternoon, on the day after their magic battle with the Extermination Office. When time came for their individual lessons, Julius and Finn headed together to the Third Spire: Water Bubble for a visit at the Management Office.
While Julius was a student of Sombart’s class, Sombart told him “Since you’re so talented, Julius, there’s nothing I can teach you!”
As a result, Julius was free to move around the Tower. Sombart probably expected him to be investigating details relating to Samuel’s exile.
The timing was convenient to Julius as well.
During the afternoon individual lessons, no one would question an Apprentice wandering around outside of their assigned Spire.
Today, he chose the Management Office after realizing he hadn’t looked into the Management Office to a satisfactory level.
The Management Office had been especially busy during their preparation for the magic battle, so if he carelessly were to wander in there, Rukiye would end up saddling him with an interminable list of tasks, so Julius made sure to stay clear of that place.
Now that the magic battle was all wrapped up, the Management Office was relatively calm.
At the moment, it looked like they were in the middle of using the Mana Forge to imbue mana into some sort of metal. The Mana Forge was, as the name implies, a forge powered by pulling mana from an area of high mana density. There were only a handful of forges like this in the world.
Were Samuel still alive, he thought the Mana Forge would definitely have caught his eye.
The Mana Forge was a priceless tool that dramatically increased the quality and manufacturing speed of magical devices. There was no way Samuel would have let this slip past him.
As Julius stared at the Mana Forge, Finn, who came to the Management Office alongside him, called out to Rukiye.
“Rukiye, is there anything I can do to help?”
Before, every time he would try to talk to someone, Finn would radiate a sheepish, hesitant aura, but lately he’d become rather used to it, it seemed.
Rukiye’s thorny attitude had also softened over time.
Answering briefly “I appreciate it,” Rukiye glanced past Finn at Julius.
“I see you’re with Julius today.”
“Kuku, I have my days.”
“Whatever, I don’t mind. Anyway, can you sort these crystals for me?”
As she spoke, Rukiye hefted a large box onto the table. Inside were many fist-sized stones with crystals embedded in them.
Following, Rukiye grabbed what looked like a thin cloth off of a shelf lined with various small items, then spoke to Finn.
“This is yours.”
Finn stared at the cloth in shock. This beautiful piece of blue and turquoise patterned cloth was most likely a turban. Just like the turban Rukiye wore over her straight blonde hair.
Rukiye wrapped the turban around Finn’s head, holding his bangs in place, then cinched it tight.
“If you’re going to be doing delicate work, you should keep your hair covered. You come to help out at the Management and Maintenance Offices a lot, don’t you?”
“This is… mine…?”
“If you don’t need it, then just use it as a rag or something.”
Finn nervously touched the turban as his cheeks softened.
“T- Thank you…. Ehehe… The blue is so pretty…”
Still a little giddy, Finn took a seat and started sorting the crystals.
Julius picked one of the ore stones out from the wooden box on the table and turned to Finn.
“How are you sorting these?”
“Um, you see, once you’re done sorting them by size and color, then you sort them based on whether they have inclusions or not!”
When he said that, Finn’s short legs shook excitedly and he made a goofy smile.
“…Hehe, it’s the first time I get to teach you something, Julius! It’s like the opposite of usual!”
“Kuku, so it is.”
“Um, the inclusions could be a white hazy thing, or a gold-ish line looking thing or whatever, and we sort them in piles with the same type! If it’s hard to decide, I ask Rukiye!”
As he spoke, Finn checked the crystals in his hands and divided them into small boxes.
Considering he came here to investigate the Management Office, it might be best if he helped out with a little work while he was here. Julius grabbed a chair and started sorting crystals as well.
The cause behind Samuel’s expulsion, the mystery of the ‘fourth truth’ — Julius suspected it had something to do with the Third Spire: Water Bubble.
After all, the Water Bubble was the place where the most important grimoires and magical devices of the Wedge Tower were held. Physically, this Spire was also located in the furthest corner of the campus, making it feel more important as well.
(There’s also the Maintenance Office, which is responsible for the upkeep of the Tower… Finn also helps out a lot there, too, so I should try to check it out sometime soon…)
Theorizing as he sorted the crystals, Julius found an unusual crystal and held it up to the light shining through the windows.
There was an empty cavern inside of the crystal, and a transparent fluid sloshed around inside.
“Oh, that’s rare. A liquid inclusion.”
Rukiye stopped her work to inspect the crystal.
Julius lowered the crystal back down to the table and asked Rukiye.
“Should I put this in a different pile?”
“Yes, with this, we’ve got the whole Wedge Tower.”
Unable to decipher the meaning behind Rukiye’s words, Julius knitted his brows. Finn did likewise.
As the two of them gave dubious looks, Rukiye set three crystals with inclusions in a line.
One contained a white haze, one contained an inclusion that looked like golden lines, then there was the one with water inside that Julius had found.
“This crystal with a white haze in it is said in some reasons to contain a departed soul in that fog. Well, since it looks kinda like there’s smoke trapped inside, you could also call it ‘White Smoke.’”
Continuing, Rukiye picked up the crystal containing countless thin golden lines.
“This one should be easy to get. Since the inclusions are golden and needle-shaped, it’s the ‘Golden Needle.’”
“Then the one Julius found is ‘Water Bubble,’ right?”
Finn grabbed the crystal with water inside and shook it around.
Rukiye nodded as she placed the crystals back in their sorting boxes.
“White Smoke, Golden Needle, Water Bubble — I think all of these names come from crystals.”
The moment he heard Rukiye’s explanation, countless thoughts emerged in Julius’ mind.
— The three Spires that composed the Wedge Tower. The mystery Samuel left for him. The ‘fourth.’
Julius forgot to keep up his confident smirk as he hurriedly asked his next question to Rukiye.
“What other kinds of crystals are there!?”
“Well, for example…”
Completely out of nowhere, Julius started asking Rukiye questions with a weirdly intense face.
Finn stared at him with wide eyes.