[V10C15] Vegetable Soup Delivery
Translated by Jodas 10: A Job for a Con ManThe three Spiremasters, Abel, Lowein, and Alto, gathered in a room together to piece together some semblance of a plan.
They had yet to inform the Wedge Tower’s mages of the outline of their plan for one simple reason: the three of them still had yet to come to an agreement on one.
The one thing they could all agree on was that they wanted to eliminate the Monsters and retake the Wedge Tower.
However, Abel refused any idea of calling for outside support and, once they did take back the Tower, was intent on once again using ‘Chariclea, the Wedge Tower.’
On the other hand, Lowein believed they should seek help from anyone who could possibly provide it, and had already sent urgent letters to numerous outside organizations on his own accord.
And, after they recaptured the Wedge Tower, Lowein insisted on halting all use of ‘Chariclea, the Wedge Tower.’
Alto supported Lowein, but she understood that, whether they sent for help or not, no support would reach them in time before the Wall dissipated.
Most of all, even if they did receive support from an outside force, there was a chance that those outsiders would just take over the Wedge Tower for themselves. Abel’s refusal to accept outside aid was prudent.
(…Oh, dear. I can’t get my thoughts straight.)
Alto traced the creases on her brow with her fingers. All this stress wasn’t good for her aging heart.
“Abel, are you really not going to change your mind?”
Alto asked with a sigh, eliciting only a gentle smile and blunt “Yes.” from Abel.
She’d always been like this.
Despite being younger than Alto, Augusta Abel was her senior.
No matter how much older Alto was, Abel had simply enrolled in the Wedge Tower before she had.
And since the beginning, Abel had always been a well-mannered woman with a gentle smile.
While she wasn’t a standout beauty, she was cute in the right ways, and she often saw Abel being hit on by the boys. She was the polar opposite of Alto, who had a reputation for being stubborn and hard to approach.
Ever since then, Alto had inadvertently developed a certain loathing towards Abel. Mostly because Abel was the favorite of the Headmaster at the time, and people were always paying attention to her.
Somewhere in her mind, she looked down on her as a woman who got ahead by charming men.
(…Why was I so cruel?)
Only once had she considered being nice to her.
That was when Abel’s pregnancy ended in a stillbirth.
Back then, Alto had offered some run-of-the-mill words of consolation, knowing nothing of the burden that Abel had to bear.
She wasn’t quite sure what it was she had said — something like “Don’t let it get you down” or “Don’t be too hard on yourself” — all she remembered was that Abel had only looked at her with that same gentle smile.
Now she knew. She knew that Abel had been used by the Headmaster at the time. That there were other women just like her, too.
Abel’s daughter hadn’t died at birth, but became a sacrifice to ‘Chariclea, the Wedge Tower.’ And all she could do was watch over as it happened.
“Abel… Answer me just this once:”
Alto spoke slowly and haltingly, to which Abel softly hummed “Yes?”
“…Was it because of my age that the Headmaster didn’t use me?”
“That might have been a factor, but ultimately I believe the number one reason was because you were talented. The previous Headmaster respected you as someone who might make fusion between magecraft and the arts a reality. He didn’t want to waste you.”
‘You can’t just casually say I have talent!’ Alto wanted to scream.
As an artist, Alto had spent her life wallowing in despair over her lack of talent.
Yet how could she possibly express her lament to Abel?
“I was but an ordinary person with nothing to my name aside from my mana reserves. I was no genius, so he did not respect me. That is all there was to it.”
Abel had seen a hell no one else had, and been trampled on. She had truly been used until she was dry.
Nevertheless, she still worked to defend the Wedge Tower, that very place that had been her hell. The continued existence of the Wedge Tower must have become the thing that kept her going.
“Therefore, such on ordinary person as I shall protect the Wedge Tower and humanity’s peace as I see fit.”
How could she argue against Abel when she said it with such calm? How could she, who stayed in a safe place, totally oblivious to the cost of the peace she had enjoyed?
While Alto grinded her teeth, Lowein gave her a pitying look before opening his mouth.
“I have my thoughts about the circumstances you endured and the nature of the Wedge Tower. Regardless, I earned my title as Spiremaster of the Second Spire by the merit of my strategic acumen. Thus, I will say this much: We must plead for outside help.”
Lowein stopped himself there, then spread a report he had just received from his subordinates onto the table.
“These are the results of the Investigation Office’s survey. Due to crystal contamination, the mana density of the Wedge Tower campus is climbing rapidly as we speak. Do you understand what this means?”
In Abel’s stead, Alto answered with a grim expression.
“The Monsters had been impaling themselves with those rivets of crystal to weaken themselves in exchange for the ability to operate in areas of low mana density. But in a place with mana density comparable to the Crystal Territory… there’d be no need for them to weaken themselves with those rivets.”
During the attack the night before, the Monsters all had crystals impaled somewhere in their bodies. That meant the Monsters that night had been in a weakened state. Even then, they had been too strong.
Yet now that the mana density of the Wedge Tower had risen, there was no need to use those crystals.
Alto grinded her teeth.
(…It’s the worst-case scenario.)
The Monsters would be able to fight with their full, unmitigated strength.
Meanwhile, the humans wouldn’t last an hour before succumbing to mana poisoning.
On top of that, the one who instigated this crystal contamination was most likely the contractor to ‘Chariclea, the Wedge Tower,’ Fiene. She had raised the flag of rebellion against humanity, and sided with the Monsters.
It was said that Fiene could control some of the crystals at will. Headmaster Möbius himself had been impaled by those crystals in his defeat.
(Fiene’s treachery hasn’t been made public yet. Still… It’s only a matter of time before it gets out.)
Lowein had intentionally concealed the fact that Fiene had sided with the Monsters.
Because, after all was said and done, they would have no choice but to kill Fiene.
“There is only one option available to us.”
Abel smiled softly as she spoke.
“We kill Fiene, install a new contractor, then undo the crystal contamination. Unless ‘Chariclea’s current ‘daughter’ dies, it will not choose its next contractor.”
‘Chariclea, the Wedge Tower’ must always have exactly one contractor.
Therefore, the idea of preparing multiple contractors to alleviate the burden was a non-starter.
“I shall be the one to approach and kill Fiene. I have visited that mana-dense underground room so many times since I was young, so I have a reasonable resistance to it.”
“But that just means there’s another sacrifice! You probably won’t make it out in one piece yourself, Abel!”
Alto shouted, yet Abel still smiled, albeit with deeper wrinkles around her eyes. Her smile was unnervingly merciful and kind.
“Then allow me to tell you the same words I’ve told myself for the past ten, twenty, thirty years.”
She, who knew the most about the Wedge Tower’s dark side, asked with a smile:
“Do we have any other choice?”
“…”
“…”
Neither Alto nor Lowein could say anything in return.
As a suffocating silence hang in the air, they heard the sound of the door opening.
“Hey everyone, I brought you some food!”
‘Good grief. Now’s not the time for food! Some of the Tower’s youngsters must just be worried about us.’
Intending to tell whoever it was to go away, Alto turned to face the door, only to freeze with her eyes wide.
Bringing in a pot of soup was a man with fuzzy red hair and a beard that covered his face. That sun-tanned muscular body belonged to the Apprentice Mage Rose. The three Spiremasters had recently learned his true identity through Assistant Headmaster Miriam.
Still smiling, Abel narrowed her eyes.
“I presumed you were staying put out of your own best interest. I didn’t expect you to be so thoughtless.”
The three Spiremasters had been divided over what to do with this man.
It seemed impossible to have him behave in a room by himself, so they’d asked him to wait along with the other Apprentices, but it appears he’d wandered out.
(We definitely had the wrong person standing watch… But I thought he would consider the position he was in and keep a low profile. Abel’s right, he’s awfully thoughtless for one of the Seven Sages.)
Said Sage, the Fifth Thorn Witch, spoke as he passed out bowls of soup.
“You know, everyone’s so short-staffed! Everyone who escaped the Tower is all so worn out and tired, so of course I’d want to help out! Oh, I made this soup myself by the way. I hope you guys enjoy it. It’ll keep your stomach warm!”
Inside the bowls appeared to be some sort of vegetable soup. It looked basic, but it smelled delicious.
Alto was conflicted. She’d heard about this man’s identity, but she didn’t know anything about his personality.
Alto knew all too well that there were people out there who could serve poison with a smile. That said, this man didn’t give her that impression.
Staring at the bowl of soup, Alto asked:
“What’s the meaning of this soup? Are you hoping we’ll hear you out?”
“Huh? I made something tasty, so I wanted you to try it.”
“……”
Was this man truly the Fifth Thorn Witch? Alto was suddenly unsure. Both Abel and Lowein eyed Rose with similarly cautious looks.
“I’m not so good at making deals and whatnot, so I’ll just say it straight. That crystal contamination is basically just mana contamination, right?”
“…In the broadest possible sense, you could say that.”
When Lowein gave his curt answer, Rose rolled up the sleeve of his shirt. On his wrist was a chain-like pattern.
It was the mark of a seal made by the Ancient Magical Artifact ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools.’
“If I could have this removed, I could do something about the mana contamination.”
He said such absurd things so casually that Alto doubted her own ears.
“Could you really do such a thing? We’re talking about mana reserves that rival the Crystal Territory, you know.”
Alto made her doubts clear, but Rose kept his calm.
“Of course I can. I’m the Fifth Thorn Witch, a Sage, after all.”
Alto restrained herself from saying ‘It’s impossible!’
Standing before them was an existence that far exceeded the understanding of even the three Spiremasters. That was how vast the gulf was between their skills as mages.
Even if all three of them worked together, they doubted they would be able to kill this man. Knowing that, Alto asked:
“…Lord Thorn Witch, what are your demands?”
He likely had no intentions of explaining why he had infiltrated the Wedge Tower under a false identity.
However, considering that he came to negotiate like this, he must have had some demands.
Tales of the Thorn Witch were well-known even here in the Empire. The First Thorn Witch, Rebecca Roseberg, was a villain who controlled the King at the time like a puppet. She was famous for slaughtering the Empire’s soldiers and having the roses she controlled suck the blood right out of them.
Just what could the descendant of that bloodthirsty tyrant want from the Wedge Tower?
(The reason Abel didn’t want to ask help from outsiders was because there were people like this… There’s no guaranteeing these folks won’t just take over the Wedge Tower for themselves the moment the Monsters are dealt with.)
In contrast to Alto and the others’ caution, Rose spoke nonchalantly.
“I guess I just want you to make sure the Apprentice Mages are safe. I don’t want you to curse and exile Julius, or force Sophie to curse people… or, um, well, anything cruel the Apprentices don’t want to do. As long as you can promise me that, I’ll leave the Wedge Tower once this battle is over.”
The three Spiremasters fell silent. Each one of them tried to decipher the hidden meaning behind this man’s proposal… But was there really such a meaning at all?
(Does this man really just want to protect the Apprentices…?)
After a long pause, Abel was the one to finally break the silence.
“The Ancient Magical Artifact ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools’ has fallen into enemy hands. That said, sealing formulas made by this particular Artifact can have unsealing formulas set on an individual basis.”
“Like making a spare key for a door lock?”
“Yes, the only one who knows that formula is the one who used the Artifact on you, Assistant Headmaster Miriam. Do you believe you can earn her trust?”
Rose scratched his beard as he answered Abel’s query.
“I’m pretty sure Mr. Hütter can do something about that! …Probably!”