I was confident that no one knew more about magic than I did.
It wasn't baseless arrogance that had driven me to attempt the Ninth Circle.
I had spent decades in the Mage Tower doing nothing but research.
Mana refers to the innate force of nature that flows through the atmosphere. When a human absorbs and stores that mana to wield it artificially, it is called magical power.
Of course, even I couldn't force a First Circle body straight to the Third Circle in one go.
But my mind held the knowledge of the Eighth Circle, and thanks to Mana Reflux, the vessel for storing mana was grotesquely vast.
If I filled it with high-purity mana, breaking through to the Third Circle temporarily wasn't impossible.
'That said, it won't be easy. In this world, where the atmosphere itself contains impurities, anything you create will be tainted.'
That was what made the Mage Tower—composed entirely of one-hundred-percent pure mana—so remarkable.
'And I know of one object with properties similar to the tower's.'
If I could get my hands on it...... I could awaken the Mage Tower.
'But it's not something easily obtained in the North.'
The conclusion was simple.
The Mage Tower, the territory's people, my parents' debt—to solve everything, I needed one thing.
"I need money."
"The territory is short on funds, that's for sure. The Lord is drowning in debt, too."
I rose from where I'd been sitting in front of the tablet and turned to Julian.
"Come make money with me."
"You meditated for nearly an hour and now suddenly you want to go earn money?"
"Yeah. I know where to find it."
Julian's face said he didn't understand.
I couldn't blame him. If there'd been money to be made in this barren North, no one would be going hungry.
But I knew.
Who the only wealthy person among the Northerners was. The first person to flee when the North fell.
"I need to pay the administrator a visit."
I'd been planning to go see him anyway.
I knew he'd used the funds he'd amassed through corruption in the North to flee to the capital and live in luxury.
The man was a parasite feeding off the North.
And the very first thing I said when I went to see him was:
"Lend me some money."
***
The next morning.
The cleric who'd come for the day's treatment spoke with a mildly surprised expression.
"The mana flow is stable. His condition has improved considerably."
"Really?"
"Is the illness cured?"
The cleric shook his head at my parents' question.
"No. There are still impurities in his body. It seems to be a temporary improvement, but if this state persists, he may eventually recover."
My parents' faces lit up. Hearing that their terminally ill son had improved must have been the most welcome news in the world.
Of course, it was merely a deception. I was regulating the mana flow myself.
There was no way to cure this illness outside the Mage Tower.
"So there's hope. Thank you."
My parents' joyful expressions were satisfying enough. But I had another objective.
"It seems like going outside has helped. Since I started taking walks, my body feels refreshed."
I'd barely moved before, using my illness as an excuse.
If I suddenly started running around, my parents would worry—that much was obvious.
This was groundwork to prevent that.
The cleric answered exactly as I'd expected.
"It's possible that it helped. There's very little documented about Mana Reflux, so the person living with it would know best."
My parents nodded and slowly stepped away. They always left the room during treatment, so as not to interfere.
After they left, the cleric's treatment began. It was a method of infusing mana through healing magic.
But this was no different from pouring water into a bottomless bucket.
Not only was the cleric's skill lacking, but because humans cycle mana and impurities through respiration, fresh impurities entered almost immediately.
"That should be enough."
I sat up from the treatment and spoke.
"I'd like to buy some elixirs."
The cleric tilted his head.
"The Lord has been purchasing them one at a time."
"I know. But I'd like to buy some on my own. How many do you have left?"
"Five. But they're expensive. One gold coin each."
"As it happens, I have exactly five gold coins."
It was the money I'd borrowed from the administrator the night before.
The cleric handed over the elixirs without suspicion.
"That's six."
"One was purchased by the Lord. I'll include it."
"......Please keep this from my parents. I don't want to give them anything to worry about."
The cleric was a man paid for his services. Protecting a buyer's privacy was only natural.
"Of course."
True to his word, he left without saying anything to my parents.
The only person who knew about this was Julian.
"Lord Lumio, you do have a plan, right?"
Julian's eyes were full of unease.
"The Lord is already deep in debt, and now you're borrowing more? Is your condition worse than you're letting on? Is that why you need more elixirs?"
"You heard what the cleric said. My body's gotten better."
"Then why......?"
"It's an investment."
Five gold coins wouldn't be enough to buy what I wanted. I'd need to squeeze more out of the administrator.
Borrow the administrator's money, then use it as leverage to extract even more from him.
That was my plan.
"Let's go."
"Where to now?"
"To pay back my debt."
"You just spent all the money......"
His face was pure bewilderment. I tapped Julian lightly on the shoulder and smiled.
I already knew how that expression would change later.
***
Administrator Mozar was in the middle of filling out paperwork at his home.
He served as both administrator and supply officer, and was using that position to skim a considerable amount from the provisions shipped in from the capital.
A biting northern wind crept through the gaps in the window frame and traced along Mozar's nape.
"Brrr, it's freezing...... I need to get out of this place."
Mozar shivered and pulled his coat tighter. When he'd first been banished to this barren North after getting caught running schemes in the capital, he'd thought he'd freeze to death on the spot.
But as it turned out, this territory was a land of opportunity.
The lord was so desperate to save his dying son that he'd gone into debt, pushing the territory's administration and supply management to the back burner.
Thanks to that, Mozar had been able to manipulate the supply lines and pocket a tidy profit.
'And yesterday, that very son came to me on his own two feet and borrowed money.'
Mozar cackled.
The lord couldn't begin to imagine that his dying son was now indebted to him.
He'd never intended to get the principal back from Lumio. The plan was to wait until the interest snowballed, then use it at the decisive moment to squeeze the lord's throat and extract far more.
"How much more can I milk from this territory?"
Mozar murmured contentedly as he tapped the ledger where he'd tallied his stolen funds.
He'd recently heard that war might be on the horizon. He planned to drain everything dry and flee.
Just then, there was a knock, and a man walked in.
"You're here?"
The man Mozar welcomed was the Vice Commander of the northern knight order.
No matter how blind the lord was to everything except his son, recklessly siphoning supplies was a dangerous game.
Having been caught once back in the capital, Mozar was all the more cautious—and had brought the Vice Commander into the fold with bribes.
"You never miss payday, do you? Always right on the dot, first thing in the morning."
"You forget I covered for you when the lord got suspicious? This much is only fair."
"I am grateful for that. Thanks to you, the lord won't even think of suspecting me again."
Mozar placed a prepared coin pouch on the desk.
"No need to check the contents, I assume. Losing my trust would be worse for you."
"Goes both ways, doesn't it? If word got out you'd been taking bribes, those savage Northerners wouldn't sit still."
Knowing each other's vulnerabilities served as the foundation of their trust.
"We're in the same boat. By the way, I heard the lord's son came to see you yesterday?"
"Borrowed money from me."
"Ha! The lord really raised that boy wrong. Wasn't he already known for acting like a delinquent? And now borrowing money on top of it? Must be planning to blow it on entertainment."
"I don't care much about a brat who's about to die anyway. No idea why the Northerners are so attached to the kid, though......"
"From what I hear, he used to be kind and diligent when he was young. Apparently his personality warped after the illness hit, and people felt sorry for him."
In the middle of their gossip, another knock sounded at the door.
"Who's that? Were you expecting someone else?"
"No, not that I know of."
The door opened, and the face that entered made both men freeze.
"Lord Lumio?"
He didn't so much as answer. He walked straight up and snatched the documents off the desk.
Then he said something neither of them had remotely anticipated.
"I just came from the supply warehouse underground. Sure enough, the quantities listed here don't match. And I certainly didn't expect to find you in bed with the Vice Commander."
Lumio's gaze drifted to the pouch in the Vice Commander's hand.
He sat down beside the table and continued.
"I'm here to repay my debt. But first, you'll be returning what you've been skimming."
Mozar and the Vice Commander swallowed hard.
"What do you mean by that? Does the Lord know you've barged in here like this?"
"He doesn't. If I went to him without evidence, he wouldn't believe me."
At those words, Mozar's lips curled upward.
"Then why don't you hand those over quietly. If you agree to leave peacefully, we won't do you any harm."
"I can't return evidence to the criminals."
Mozar locked eyes with the Vice Commander.
The boy had always been frail from his illness—if he dropped dead out of nowhere, no one would think twice.
"We could just kill him, couldn't we?"
Saying it openly meant they had no intention of letting him live.
The Vice Commander drew his sword and advanced toward Lumio.
"What a nuisance."
At that moment, the door burst open. There stood Julian, who had been hiding his presence outside, waiting.
Julian's eyes blazed as he drew his sword in a flash. Even with a blade at his throat, Lumio opened his mouth calmly.
"I was right, wasn't I?"
"You really were."
'He walked in alone on purpose to draw out their true intentions?'
Mozar bit his lip.
"We take both of them out at once."
Both of them knew Julian was rumored to be strong. Against the Vice Commander alone, it could have been dangerous.
Magical power gathered in Mozar's hand.
"Kill Julian first. Lumio's next."
He was a Second Circle mage.
"Don't let your guard down. That kid's supposed to be strong. If we lose here, it's over."
The Vice Commander reversed his grip and raised his sword toward Julian.
"You're underestimating me a bit too much, don't you think?"
Lumio placed his hand against the Vice Commander's abdomen.
Foolish—punching armor with a bare fist would only break his own hand.
In that instant, an enormous shockwave slammed into the Vice Commander's midsection.
THWACK—!
Force enough to crumple the armor. The Vice Commander was hurled backward and crashed into the wall. Shock flooded both their faces.
Mozar watched as Lumio reflexively clutched his chest.
'That bastard...... he can use magic?'
Then a thin rivulet of black blood trickled from Lumio's mouth.
'Then again, even if he can, a body like that can't possibly hold up.'
The surprise lasted only a moment. A grin spread across Mozar's face as he moved to cast his spell.
Or rather, tried to.
Before he could, Lumio drew elixirs from inside his coat.
Six of them.
They couldn't have been cheap.
The memory of the money Lumio had borrowed yesterday flashed through Mozar's mind.
"You planned this from the start?"
"Bottoms up—"
He downed all six at once. The surge of ferocious magical power that erupted in their wake set Mozar's hands trembling.