The rank system of the towers was unified into five ranks regardless of which tower, to clearly establish superiority among members and minimize incidents resulting from this.

For example, if the Tower of Foresight had three ranks and the Tower of Annihilation had five, even if both were 3rd rank mages, their actual standing would be different.

The criteria for rising to higher ranks varied by tower, including scholarship, experience, combat power, strategic insight, number of patents held, etc., but basically, if one had the ability, it was possible to rise to higher ranks.

Except for one: the Tower of Control.

In the Tower of Control, there were basically only two ways to rise to 4th rank or above.

Be born into the royal family, or become a marriage partner to the royal family.

If neither, no matter how excellent a mage one was, it was impossible to rise above 3rd rank.

Of course, this wasn’t legally established.

Officially, the prevalence of royalty in the 4th rank was due to their magic prowess, and any mage without background who rose to this rank and became intimate with royalty was supposedly just interacting with those of similar ability.

However, there were rules in the world that were silently shared without openly discussing them, and ignoring such implicit rules only made life tiresome.

Some might think, “Why obsess over the Tower of Control when there were other towers where one could rise to high ranks based on ability alone without restrictions, why not just go to another tower?”

It was a fairly valid point.

Indeed, due to this aspect of the Tower of Control, the number of mages who chose other towers was by no means small.

But as many mages left, just as many chose the Tower of Control and knocked on its doors.

While the Tower of Control was the hardest tower to climb among the various towers, it was also the tower with the sweetest rewards when one did climb.

In the Magic State, tower mages were comparable to nobles of other countries, but in reality, the proportion of those who treated commoners arbitrarily like real nobles of other countries was much lower.

This was due to the characteristics of tower mages.

The Tower of Foresight was rigid in their ways and somewhat elitist, but many were shut-ins in their labs, so they had little contact with outsiders. Naturally, they caused little trouble.

The Tower of Annihilation had a strong tendency to worship strength, so instead of wasting time bullying the weak, they spent time on self-training. They were indifferent to civilians.

The Tower of Protection was originally a gathering of those with the ideology that magic should be used to benefit people, so there was nothing particular to say. Of course, as with most organizations, there were those who did other things, but still.

Those who chose the Tower of Control were those who felt uncomfortable with these trends.

They wanted to become powerful and wield that power.

They wanted to fully enjoy the pleasures that privileged classes of other countries enjoyed.

Why couldn’t the rulers of the Magic State, one of the strongest superpowers, enjoy what even insignificant rural nobles or wealthy individuals from the frontier enjoyed?

The Tower of Control understood this desire of such people, so entry restrictions were notably looser compared to other towers.

If one had the minimum ability to recognize and handle mana, even if they could only produce a flame the size of a candle from their hand, they could be recognized as a tower member.

And mages who became 1st rank this way could attempt all sorts of power trips against ordinary people outside.

Even newcomers, who initially had no such intentions, gradually became tainted watching their peers and seniors all behave this way.

The sweetness of power wielded in this way was, in a sense, like seawater.

The more one drank, the more it failed to quench one’s thirst, but rather brought on greater thirst.

However, unlike the 1st rank, which could be obtained relatively easily, rising to higher ranks was absolutely not easy.

Because it wasn’t easy, those who couldn’t rise up drooled looking at the fruit hanging above their heads.

Because it wasn’t easy, those who did rise up wielded power even more, as if to be rewarded for the hardships they endured to reach this point.

Because it wasn’t easy, to protect their positions, to maintain the power they enjoyed, they did their best to maintain the tower’s system.

Some mocked, “As expected of old noble blood, they’ve mastered creating structures where people oppress other people.”

Otto Millian was a mage belonging to the Tower of Control.

While the Tower of Control was evaluated as inferior to other towers due to its loose entry standards, that was only true for the 1st ranks at the bottom.

3rd rank mages like Otto were precious and received treatment befitting that preciousness.

It might seem somewhat laughable to call it power limited to the area controlled by the Tower of Control, but the Magic State was a great power that had swallowed the entire northern part of the continent. Even a quarter of its divided territory was larger than a decent great power by past standards.

If he was careful of only the extremely few colleagues and superiors compared to the area his power reached, he could do almost anything he wanted within that vast territory.

So, the current situation of being cooped up in the forest for days, leaving behind all those pleasures, was absolutely not pleasant.

All that could be seen were grass, dirt, insects, and the expressionless faces—like masks—of colleagues.

Otto thought he probably had the same face.

It wasn’t because he felt no emotion about this work. Honestly, he wanted to spew out all sorts of curses while throwing every kind of tantrum.

But he couldn’t.

After all, the one leading this operation was a 4th rank mage, and moreover, Jeras Rognir, who was mentioned as one of the candidates for the next tower head.

That arrogant royal boasting silver-white hair and beauty was a big shot who could elevate Otto’s life to heaven or throw it down to hell.

If he took a liking to Otto and introduced even one of his sisters, Otto, too, could rise to the top ruling class of this tower, but conversely, if he fell out of favor, he could lose all power and fall to the very bottom.

The other 3rd rank mages deployed on this mission were likely harboring similar thoughts.

Revealing his true dislike near such colleagues? It was no different from advertising to please stab him in the back.

Regardless of his true feelings, he had to perfectly handle the job as if he had no complaints at all.

No, damn it. They should at least tell us specifically what we’re looking for.

“Seal off the forest, search it. And if you find any suspicious beings, report immediately.”

That was the order Jeras had given.

There were no specific explanations about what the target’s appearance was like, whether it was human or an object.

Moreover, the search area was a huge forest that would take several hours on foot even taking the shortest route.

Originally, such physical labor would normally be delegated to those lowly creatures below, but this operation only deployed 3rd rank mages like Otto.

No matter how accustomed to power trips they were, it was impossible to pass the buck between those of the same rank.

Over fifty 3rd rank mages were deployed for this operation. With proper shields prepared, it’s a force that could attack even an imperial fortress. To use such force just for reconnaissance. What on earth is it for?

It was a course of action he couldn’t understand at all.

Of course, excellent mages would possess one or two detection-type spells with some minor differences, so they could search a wide area, even with few people.

But considering the value of high-ranking mages, it would be much more cost-effective to just bring lots of soldiers and physically throw them into the forest.

Yet they didn’t do that.

Is whatever needs to be found better the fewer people know about it? To the extent of hiding detailed information even from us?

It was then, as he was pondering what that might be, that something strange flitted past the edge of his vision.

Rustle.

Among the bushes. Something like the shadow of a small animal was briefly glimpsed.

It could have been ignored as something that could normally happen in a forest, but the obsession to succeed in his mission made Otto move.

A magic detection spell was cast, and the mana distribution of the surrounding area unfolded in Otto’s mind like a map viewed from above.

Nothing special.

All that was detected were large and small animals.

Some individuals had slightly higher mana, but it was at a level that could be easily dismissed as individual characteristic differences.

If there was magic influence, for example like a familiar, it would normally show a much higher mana response.

Well, if it were a mage of a higher level than Otto, they might be able to pull off some deception, but even then, there were clear limits.

Feeling utterly sick of the tedious repetitive work, Otto began searching the forest again.

– Squeak.

Unaware that a mouse with dull eyes was watching his back.

***

“…This one’s a hit.”

Ruminating on the past remnants shown by the Chalice of Tuberose, Dorothea turned her eyes towards the distant forest.

Although they had moved quite far from the forest to avoid suspicion, perhaps because she had seen the interior scenery so many times, the forest landscape was clear, as if it were right before her eyes.

On the outskirts of the forest was an encirclement, as if to thoroughly control entry and exit. And inside were numerous mages with excellent skills.

While the individual skills were at a level that couldn’t match Dorothea, monitoring without being detected among so many mages was a separate issue.

This was especially so because Dorothea’s specialty was power contests using vast amounts of mana, not delicate techniques.

If she hadn’t used almost flawlessly intact mouse corpses instead of her usual bone mice, and extremely reduced all functions to suppress traces of mana, she would have been detected immediately.

It was reconnaissance work that would have been impossible from the start without the cheat that was the Chalice of Tuberose.

“It seems even the people searching don’t know what they’re looking for.”

“How do you know that? None of them are opening their mouths to talk.”

“You can tell by their eyes and attitudes. It feels more like ‘let’s search anything suspicious’ rather than ‘searching for something specific’.”

“Hmm.”

Dorothea fell into thought for a moment with her arms crossed.

It was because Sophia was exceptional, but Dorothea wasn’t at a level to be outdone in terms of intellect either.

She had abundant experience from dealing with her teacher’s unreasonable errands since childhood.

She soon arrived at a conclusion.

“Even the side that gave the orders doesn’t know much about what they’re looking for. Or, they know, but don’t want to explain it to many people.”

“Personally, I think the latter possibility is higher. In other words, there’s something in there that would be troublesome for the tower if many people knew about it.”

“The forest where Adel’s father and the army he led were annihilated. In a place where the testimonies of the Empire and the Magic State contradict each other.”

It was truly suspicious.

A suspicious smell was wafting strongly.

“Could it be survivors? No, this doesn’t seem right. They said it was an old incident that happened at least a few months ago, and even if there were survivors, they wouldn’t have stayed in the forest until now.”

“It might be possible if it’s not living people. Like souls, for example.”

“So what? Are you saying they’re looking for earth-bound spirits now?”

Dorothea brushed it off lightly, but Sophia’s eyes were serious.

“I’ve read in books that undead aren’t only created through necromancy. With strong grudges, lingering attachments, and environmental factors like abundant mana supporting it, they can occur naturally, too. It’s also common for there to be a time gap between death and undead transformation.”

“…It does fit. I don’t sense any traces of necromancy, but that could be because I haven’t gone there directly, so I might be mistaken.”

A conjecture arose.

But what was really important came next.

If what was really in there was the undead of those who died in that battle, or something equivalent, they needed to intercept it before the Tower of Control could get their hands on it or destroy it.

The problem was that this could potentially turn one of the towers into a complete enemy.

Based on uncertain speculation, with unknown rewards, to antagonize one of the strongest forces.

The cost-benefit analysis didn’t add up at all.

Judging coolly, it was rational to just continue reconnaissance like now, watching the situation, and wait for Gale to return.

A witch had to be cold-hearted.

So the choice to be made was set.

“…Haa, wake the kid and the tin can up. It was almost the scheduled time anyway, so their physical condition should be sufficiently recovered.”

Saying they should flee straight to the Tower of Protection’s territory if things went wrong, the black witch sighed as if lamenting.

Sophia quietly smiled and bowed her head.

Thinking that a witch who wasn’t cold-hearted was therefore trustworthy as a leader.

***

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