* * *
“I need to return to the tower.”
“I will escort you.”
Upon returning to the tower, I found its atmosphere just as unsettled.
Abdication.
Right after I started supporting Ateol.
Right after the real Yuria appeared.
Was this truly just a coincidence?
…It was hard to believe that.
The impact of the oracle was immeasurable.
To the people here, gods weren’t just a matter of faith—they were real, transcendent beings.
You could call it religion, but it was more akin to the times of Greek and Roman mythology.
And in such a world, the same divine decree had descended upon every temple.
At the exact same time.
It was like every person in the world had the same dream on the same night.
And that dream commanded the Emperor to abdicate.
Both the tower and the imperial palace were swarmed with people demanding an audience, like a hive of bees.
In the Emperor’s chambers, furniture, decorations, and even servants’ heads were reportedly being smashed on a daily basis.
The Empress had taken to her bed in distress.
The officials, while carefully watching the situation, subtly began to plead for the Emperor’s compliance.
And in all of this, the one drawing the most attention was, of course, me.
People flooded to the tower like clouds.
Cloden, though flustered by the sudden turn of events, calmly turned them all away.
Serta and Bell tightened the tower’s security.
Locked away inside the tower, the only thing I could do was receive letters.
Of course, not all of them made it through.
Most of the painstakingly written letters were intercepted by Cloden and promptly discarded.
Honestly, they were probably filled with useless nonsense anyway, so I didn’t feel bad about it.
Even Ateol had sent one.
It simply reassured me not to worry—he was keeping an eye on Siu.
Given the current situation, if we were to meet now, things would spiral out of control, so we were both keeping to our respective places.
As for the letters from the Emperor and Empress, I didn’t bother reading them.
I just handed them over to Cloden.
I already knew what they would say.
After sorting through the letters for a while, Cloden approached me.
“Tower Master, this is unrelated, but… a monster has appeared in Luyard.”
“A monster?”
Just when things couldn’t get any more chaotic.
And now, a monster—so close by, no less.
If the matter had reached me, it meant it was serious.
I frowned, but then—
An idea flashed through my mind.
For whatever reason, the temples had issued an oracle demanding the Emperor’s abdication.
And given its magnitude, the Emperor could not simply ignore it.
If this oracle had come a while ago, the heir to the throne would have undoubtedly been the Crown Prince.
But now, that was no longer a given.
After all, I had thrown my full support behind the Fourth Prince.
And the timing coincided all too conveniently.
If I played my cards right…
Ateol might ascend the throne far sooner than expected.
Once Ateol became Emperor, I would no longer be in any danger.
All that would be left for me to do was gather my fortune and disappear.
“I’ll go myself.”
Clang.
A sound I had grown accustomed to.
The sound of my gauge depleting.
But there was no choice.
This was an investment.
One must spend money to clear the stage.
“What?”
“I said, I’ll go myself. With Ateol.”
“…That would mean—”
The ever-perceptive Cloden immediately caught my meaning, narrowing his eyes slightly before bowing.
“I will send a letter to the Fourth Prince’s palace.”
ꔚ
The reaction around them was beyond chaos—it was complete pandemonium.
Those who had never even considered the Fourth Prince as the next Emperor were in an uproar, crying out that such an absurd situation was unheard of.
Meanwhile, those hoping to gain favor with Ateol now frantically searched for any tiny opening, eyes wide like frogs, as they hovered nearby.
Silencing those shouting about how unprecedented this was turned out to be simple.
Just saying, “I’m merely going to hunt a monster, nothing more,” left them with nothing to argue against.
The Tower Master didn’t actually have nothing to do.
He had the duty of protecting and defending the Empire—there just hadn’t been anything that truly needed protecting until now.
Since he was fulfilling that duty, anyone who tried to stop him would be the one acting strange.
And whoever he chose to bring along was entirely up to him.
In other words, while the political motives behind this were obvious, the monster hunt itself was a justification so grand that no one could object any further.
Ateol seemed quite pleased with the situation.
Even as they stood before the portal to Ruyard, his mood remained remarkably good.
“What? Do you like the taste of power now?”
“It’s quite sweet.”
I shook my head and stepped through the portal.
A blinding light flared, as if a high-intensity lamp had been switched on in front of me, then gradually faded to reveal an unfamiliar scene.
A high ceiling, windows shaped differently from those of the Magic Tower, countless paintings hanging on the walls, and a crimson carpet.
This was the lord’s castle in Ruyard.
Kneeling before the portal were easily hundreds of people.
At the forefront, on one knee, were my knights, including Serta and Bell.
After briefly acknowledging the gathered people and letting them rise, I approached Serta.
He spoke before I could even ask.
“No one has seen the monster directly, but traces of slime—like those left by a passing snail—have been found in multiple locations. Some people even had it on their bodies. We analyzed the substance and found no particular toxins.”
“A snail…?”
“It’s said to be quite large.”
Ugh. Disgusting.
I skimmed through the report Serta handed me.
No one had actually seen the creature, but something massive had definitely appeared here.
After returning the documents to Serta, I glanced at Ateol.
Despite the situation, he didn’t seem out of place in the slightest.
Well, with that face, it made sense.
You could drop him into a stranger’s 70th birthday banquet, and he’d still become the main attraction.
“A giant snail, apparently. Thoughts?”
“Hmm… Intriguing.”
“You must have a strong stomach. Mine’s weak.”
Ateol merely shrugged.
The thought of a massive snail oozing slime everywhere didn’t seem to faze him at all.
That was good. After all, he would be the one dealing with it.
That night, I silently floated above the empty streets.
By order of the lord, all citizens had locked themselves inside, even securing their shutters.
Perched lightly atop the temple’s spire, I gazed down at the hushed city.
The wind howled, and then—
Clink.
“….”
My gauge had dropped.
Right.
Using magic like this would have been unthinkable in my past life.
But there was no choice.
This was a resource—one I could only afford to use until half was gone.
Lifting my hood, I scattered my magic like weaving a thin spider’s web.
The energy spread like ripples in water, expanding outward—toward the city center, the outskirts, beyond the fortress walls, into the dense forest.
Then—thud.
Something snagged in the magical net.
Retracting my power, I looked down from the spire.
Ateol stood before the temple, gazing up at me with a peculiar expression.
Pushing off lightly from the ledge, I descended soundlessly before him.
He continued to regard me with that same enigmatic look.
[Special Affection Meter
40% ]
…Why did it go up?
I really couldn’t understand this man.
* * *
