Did we take everything?
Cyril stood in the middle of his room, carefully thinking about what he would need for the journey ahead.
Today was the day.
He was supposed to be in front of the academy gates in some thirty minutes from now.
He already wore his usual uniform, soon ready to leave.
“Let’s see: a notebook, writing utensils, a change of clothing, mana potions…”
“Seems to be everything.
The Tower will provide us the rest.”
Good.
Cyril took a deep breath, steeling his resolve.
Next, he needed to do an important but difficult thing.
He looked at the red butterfly perched on his shoulder.
“Morpho, you should stay here.
Who knows-”
Anticipating this conversation, Morpho hastily shook her head.
She radiated pure rejection.
She refused to stay behind!
Cyril frowned, trying to endure her wave of emotions.
They were going to the Tower, the den of all curious mages of the Empire.
While he passed for a human well enough, her insect form and bright coloration would be too conspicuous.
What if a particularly maniacal mage there notices her?
What if they have means to discover her true nature?
He was only a student.
He didn’t know what they were capable of.
“You want to leave a month-old child home alone?!” Rhamn pointed at him with disbelief.
The corner of Cyril’s eye twitched.
…I know it might be scary for her, but it’s for the best.
“It will be terrifying for her.
This trip will take three days!
That’s almost an eternity!”
She wagged her finger with a solemn face.
“Look at her and tell me she is ready to stay alone for that long.”
Morpho’s gaze pierced his soul, begging him not to leave her behind.
It was impossible to resist.
Cyril looked away.
Fine.
“Yes!
Thank you!”
Morpho excitedly fluttered in place, radiating gratitude.
“She is just a beautiful little butterfly.
Anyone who rears their ugly head at her will get the full wrath of a noble family!”
Cyril could only helplessly shake his head.
Indeed, as the heir to the Thorne family, he should be able to get away with some things.
He grabbed his bag and finally left the dorm.
With a red butterfly on his shoulder, he walked towards the academy gates slightly earlier than the arranged time.
A few people already stood waiting there.
They all stood apart from one another, but they all shared a similar nervousness in their expressions.
For many people, this trip was an invaluable opportunity.
Perhaps they’d spent the night before sleepless.
He knew that was definitely the case with one human he saw here.
Rose sat on the bench near the gates.
There were prominent dark circles under her eyes, revealing just how much she awaited this trip.
She rummaged through her sling bag time and time again, as if worried an unknown force would steal her belongings.
“Blank notebook.
Check.
Pen.
Check.
A list of questions.
Check…” she mumbled to herself without end.
“I hope I didn’t forget anything…”
Cyril looked around, finding the other students unfamiliar.
They were also among the top ten of the grade, though it seemed that metric wasn’t particularly impressive.
Paying his other classmates no further attention, Cyril approached the bench and sat down near Rose.
“Hello,” he casually said.
The butterfly on his shoulder waved her wings as well.
“Ah, you are here.” Rose snapped from her bag.
“Is there anything you are particularly looking forward to?”
Finding out why my heart can talk.
“It’s a miracle!”
Cyril lightly shook his head.
“We’ll see.
What about you?”
“There are so many things I am curious about: demonology, astromancy, elementalism, conjuration…
I don’t even know where to begin!”
“Perhaps astromancy?
Maybe I’ll find out how Myra did that trick yesterday?
Oh, what am I thinking?
Of course she didn’t use divination.
That thing doesn’t work.
Then, maybe…”
Cyril listened to Rose’s excited ramblings, nodding from time to time.
Perhaps talking eased her nerves, as she refused to stop.
He never thought about what school of magic would suit him best.
“Something cool and powerful!”
Something that would help in becoming a Knight.
After a couple more minutes of enduring Rose’s ramblings, he saw Myra approach them from a distance.
She strolled up to them with a listless expression, plopping down on the same bench.
“Did we have to go this early?
I still sleep at this time.”
“Yes,” Rose immediately replied.
“The journey to the center will take the whole day by itself.
Obviously it’s necessary to go out early.”
“…Never mind.”
Myra sighed, her expression helpless.
Soon, all of the students arrived before the academy gates.
These were the ten most talented students of the grade.
Two of them he knew personally.
One he knew but wished he didn’t.
Cedric stood a little bit away from everyone else and carried a stiff smile.
This friendly commoner, or potentially noble, student behaved a bit less confident than he would usually.
The last person to arrive was their professor of spellmaking, Richard.
He was here as a guide, though Cyril suspected the academy just used this opportunity to send someone into the Tower.
Richard unceremoniously arrived from the direction of the castle, yawning from time to time.
He quickly went over the list of the students, making sure everyone was here.
Then, without any ceremony or fanfare, they quietly left the academy’s gates.
They were going to travel via the manarail.
Cyril experienced a perplexing feeling at the thought.
Last time he rode it, he started hearing voices.
He could only hope this time would be less eventful.
“But it was a good thing, wasn’t it?”
We’ll see.
…
The students and their professor scattered to whatever seats they could find.
Luckily, the cabin was mostly empty, so there was plenty to choose from.
Cyril, Myra, and Rose sat together, silently waiting for the ride to end.
It was an uneventful journey, just as he wished.
However, he quickly grew weary of it.
Even Morpho grew bored from seeing the grey stone buildings endlessly scroll past the window.
The academy was close to the border of the city.
It took a few hours before the view outside the window turned better.
The buildings became taller and gained more color.
They began to look more luxurious, more decorated.
The city finally looked alive for a change.
The closer they were to the center, the easier Cyril found it to breathe, quite literally so.
There’s more mana in the air.
With his current condition, Cyril felt it more clearly than ever.
Despite them waking up early and already spending a few hours on travel, he didn’t feel a hint of physical exhaustion.
He felt like he could stay like this for as long as he wished.
In comparison, Myra could no longer fight back her sleepiness and was currently snoring on his shoulder.
“…Why is she there?”
It doesn’t matter.
“…”
This liveliness that both he and the city were slowly filled by came from a single thing: the cluster of manaveins located beneath the Empire’s center.
It was the richest humanity has discovered.
While mana was present everywhere in the world, its concentration was a different question entirely.
If one wanted to force a metal cabin to move at fast speeds, it would require a colossal amount of magic.
Simply siphoning it from the air alone wouldn’t be nearly enough.
Perhaps a powerful mage would be able to do it, but using one like that was wasteful and they wouldn’t be able to do it for long.
But the manavein underneath the city was a source of an unimaginable amount of magic.
It could power the manarail every hour of every day for countless years to come.
More than that, the manavein under the city was powering every single magical technology: from the lights illuminating the roads at night to the automatic doors at their academy.
And they were currently heading to the very place siphoning most of the magic needed for the city’s survival.
The Tower served as a hub, where the manaveins underneath the city converged.
It allowed the Empire to develop far stronger than its neighbors, and the speed of its growth only continued to increase.
Everything around was changing at an alarming pace.
And already the Empire had the luxuries other countries could only imagine in a utopia.
For example, according to the Empire’s books, the closest country to them was the Kingdom.
Magic wasn’t nearly as developed there.
Their people still relied on burning trees to stay heated during winter or to simply see at night.
Their citizens didn’t even get access to books, while their nobility lived in castles.
But Cyril struggled to believe in such a thing fully.
The Empire most likely exaggerates to make the Kingdom seem barbaric.
“I wouldn’t mind living in a castle.
That seems great.”
…Maybe so.
Cyril looked at the familiar city outside the window, feeling strangely nostalgic about it.
He only spent a month away from the splendor of this place, yet it seemed longer than that for some reason.
Well-dressed people walked the streets.
Luxurious carriages drove through the roads, pulled by horses, monsters, and everything in between.
Mixed in with regular people, guards in enchanted armor patrolled the streets.
There were many, their faces obscured behind intimidating helmets.
No matter where you went, their presence would follow.
It was a familiar, warming sight that convinced anyone they were in a safe place.
At least, that’s how Cyril thought in the past.
Now, when he looked at the guards, he experienced a peculiar urge to shield the butterfly on his shoulder.
Feeling something, Morpho’s antennae suddenly twitched.
She flew up from his unoccupied shoulder and landed on his lap, keeping her wings close to her body.
“Sorry,” Cyril whispered to her.
“You don’t have to hide.”
Eventually, the manarail slowed down, soon to arrive at their stop.
Cyril turned to look at Myra half-lying on his shoulder.
He first intended to give her a few more minutes of sleep.
However, she started to drool.
“Wake up,” he uttered, shaking her.
The head that was half-resting on his shoulder suddenly snapped up.
Waking up immediately, she briefly scanned her surroundings before slowly relaxing.
“We are almost there…” She lethargically stretched in her seat.
“Can’t wait until they introduce sleeping compartments.
This stuff is bad for your neck.”
Rose slowly nodded at the side.
“Sleeping compartments?
That’s not a bad idea.
If only I could fall asleep on the spot like you…”
Myra crossed her arms behind her head, replying proudly.
“It’s a learned skill.”
After waiting for a short while longer, the manarail finally stopped.
Cyril, Myra, Rose, and the other students who chose different cabins all exited together.
There, they silently followed their professor to the road outside the station.
Already waiting there for them was a sizeable carriage pulled by four horned horses.
With the help of those magically enhanced beasts, they navigated the streets, passing under the gorgeous high-rise buildings.
Their destination was the high wall on the horizon.
It separated the area around the Tower from the rest of the city.
The carriage rode into the opening in the wall, arriving in a guard station.
Here a few humans clad in armor already waited for them.
Before they could enter, they had to perform a few mandatory checks.
Cyril’s heart skipped a beat.
“No, I didn’t.
We’ll be fine.
Don’t worry.”
…
Cyril stood mostly by himself in the middle of a small stone room.
He stared into a wide window leading into another room, where a guard sat by the paper-cluttered table.
The guard wrote something in his notebook before briefly looking at the butterfly perched on Cyril’s shoulder and writing something again.
Cyril was yet to be asked anything, nor did he say anything himself.
This silence proceeded for a few minutes.
At random intervals, Cyril felt a wave go through his body, one after another.
Currently, he was feeling an ironic sense of wariness against the whole affair.
Last time he was in a similar atmosphere, when Cyril didn’t know anything, he was hoping for the authorities to detect something within him, to help him.
But now, when he knew that his heart was a sentient being capable of morphing his flesh in grotesque ways, he hoped for the opposite.
It was a bizarre feeling.
“That’s a bit rude.”
“Name?” the guard uttered without too much care.
“Cyril Thorne.”
The guard’s movements paused.
He slowly looked at Cyril, his wrinkled face appearing unsure.
He narrowed his eyes, as if to get a better look at the young man on the other end.
Then, the guard pulled out a particular document from the pile on the desk and briefly read through it.
Here we go…
“Everyone and their damn mother has heard of Nostro, it seems.”
He sighed, bracing himself for what’s to come.
However, the man reacted differently from Cyril’s expectations.
“Indeed!” the guard suddenly exclaimed, stars in his eyes.
“I thought you looked a bit familiar!
You are Nostro’s son!
How could I’ve missed that?”
“Many people outside doubt your father right now, but know that many of us still appreciate what he has done.
So what if he now decided to take a break and earn a little money?
He deserves it!”
It was an unusual situation, so Cyril wasn’t sure how to react.
In the end, he stiffly nodded.
“…I see.”
The guard quickly scribbled something down in his notebook as he continued to speak.
“I will not be delaying you any more.
Please proceed, and enjoy your stay at the Tower, sir!”
Cyril numbly nodded, then stepped through the nearest door, passing the inspection with flying colors.
This went smoother than I thought.
I suppose Nostro still has a few supporters.
“As expected, we have nothing to fear here!”
After passing a few more rooms, he reached outside again.
On the other end of the wall it was flat metal ground all the way until the Tower itself.
There was a road leading straight to it, with checkpoints placed periodically across it.
At the beginning of the road, another carriage waited for them.
So far there was only their professor standing in front of it, staring wistfully at the tall Tower in the distance.
Richard turned around, finding Cyril the first student to pass the inspection.
There was no surprise in his eyes.
“You can take a seat inside.” He pointed at the carriage behind him.
“It might take a while before all pass.”
The process was indeed long.
It took about thirty minutes before another person arrived, then another, and so on.
After what felt like hours, the last person finally joined them.
It was Myra, her face infinitely more tired now.
She approached Cyril and Rose, enduring the urging eyes from everyone else.
“Because I am not from the city, it took them forever to find my info…” she said in defense.
“Uh-huh, a likely story.”
Myra then glanced at Richard with a bit of complaint.
“Why didn’t the academy give them all they needed beforehand?
It would’ve been faster…”
Professor Richard looked away.
“I forgot to do it.”
Without any guilt on his face, he calmly strolled towards the carriage.
“We are all done, so let’s go.”
“I am losing any respect for him as a professor.”
You’ve had some to begin with?
“No.”
…
Under the watchful eyes of the guards, passing checkpoint after checkpoint, they slowly arrived in front of the Tower’s base.
It was already evening by now, with the sun no longer visible.
From up close, the Tower truly seemed colossal.
Its base alone was as wide as a city block.
Going up level by level, it gradually thinned until disappearing past the clouds.
While already unfathomably tall, he knew the Tower kept getting higher with each year.
He didn’t know why the Empire needed it so high.
“Maybe for the looks.”
Maybe.
There were numerous entrances on the ground, far more than was simply visible in front of it.
After marveling enough at the Tower from up close, the professor led the nervous students to an inconspicuous entrance closer to them.
Before even entering its doors, another wave hit the students.
Cyril felt as if countless eyes momentarily focused on him, disappearing only after he went through the automatic doors.
Inside he saw a spacious, wide room.
It had white metal walls, reflecting the pristine white desk at the center.
Behind the desk stood a woman with a professional, hollow smile on her face.
“Welcome, group from Ailanthus.
Your accommodations are all ready.”
“Feels like a high-end hotel.”
Rhamn curiously looked around the white room.
There were guards everywhere in here, standing in front of every door like they belonged to the decor.
They were dressed differently from the ones outside.
These didn’t wear the armor but instead opted to dress in black suits.
“Come on, don’t stand still,” urged Richard to the hesitant students.
Not one person here below the age of 17 has ever been to the Tower, so they were acting much more subdued than usual.
They followed their professor like scared ducklings would their mother.
However, their mother was cruel.
The professor quickly grabbed something from the desk, then walked towards the one door that lacked a guard.
“I’ll be going first.
The receptionist here will tell you everything you need to know.
See you tomorrow.”
The students froze, staring at him in disbelief.
Finally, they all stiffly moved their necks to look at the smiling woman behind the desk.
No one moved for a second.
“Cowards.”
Cyril took a step forward, followed by Myra.
He calmly nodded at the woman, staring at her with expectation.
The rest of the students slowly crawled closer, staying behind him like they were taking cover.
The woman’s smile remained professional throughout it all.
She explained a few things to the students.
The Tower was a culmination of humanity’s magical advancements.
It held all the knowledge one would ever need.
However, there was not nearly enough time to learn it all, not even the very basics.
As such, every student would choose for themselves what area to investigate.
The receptionist gave each student a folder with basic information about each path available to them.
Inside of the folder was also a small card inlaid with crystal.
This was actually the key for their assigned rooms.
It was already late, and they had until tomorrow to make their choice.
A lecture would take place on the sixth floor, where a famous mage would guide them if needed.
Right now, they were encouraged to rest.
As the rest of the students were processing this information, Cyril took his folder and went for the door Richard had disappeared behind earlier.
Naturally, Myra, followed by Rose, quickly headed after him.
Before the rest of the students could realize it, they were gone.
…
Rose obsessively read through her folder, her eyes shining like a glutton in an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Myra quickly went through her folder, as one would casually browse through a random magazine they found.
“Where are we going now?” she said with a yawn.
“To our rooms,” Cyril replied as he showed her a card given to them.
His card had the number ‘666,’ meaning his room was on the sixth floor of the Tower, sixth compartment.
Presumably other students wouldn’t be too far off.
“Oh,” Myra uttered before continuing to scan her surroundings.
This whole place was unlike anything else in the Empire.
White metal was more plentiful than stone in here, and the walls were decorated with unknown but clearly magical appliances.
Observing this peculiar sight on the way, Cyril walked with an expressionless face.
The butterfly on his shoulder folded her wings, staying particularly quiet.
Morpho was like this ever since they entered the Tower.
Cyril felt it too.
It was an ominous sense of alienation.
He felt like an intruder here, sneaking in under the watchful eyes of the guardians of this place.
It was quite distracting for him.
“It must be because of all the white!
Who made this place?
Are they insane?
Would it have killed them to add a bit of color?”
Wondering about important questions like these, Cyril’s group navigated the mind-numbing corridors while following the occasional signs on the walls.
Soon enough they entered a spacious circular chamber.
There was no ceiling in this place, only an endlessly stretching shaft above them.
They stood still for a moment, observing their surroundings, before Cyril found a pedestal sticking out in the middle of the platform.
He walked towards it, followed by the rest.
Together they scanned the surface of the pedestal, where numerous symbols and numbers were arranged in a purposeful formation.
Cyril knew what it was.
This was a control panel for the elevator, the platform they were standing on.
All he had to do was press a few symbols on the pedestal and the floor below him would rise.
He only needed a few moments to figure out how it worked.
So Cyril, ignoring all the triple-digit and double-digit numbers, found and pressed the number ‘six.’
Rose and Myra stood behind him, observing his actions with curiosity.
After a slight delay, the floor beneath them shook, making Rose almost fall in the process.
Slowly, the platform started rising, taking them to the upper floors.
“This is incredible…” Rose whispered to herself.
She awkwardly stood still, as if expecting the floor to fall at any moment.
“The Tower is even more magical than my wildest imaginings!”
Is it?
This is not any more impressive than the manarail.
Cyril didn’t reply, though a frown settled on his face.
He didn’t quite share her excitement.
On a whim, he glanced at Myra’s face nearby.
He was curious to see her reaction.
This auburn-haired girl casually stood with her head impatiently aimed above them.
She looked remarkably like a bored citizen waiting for the manarail to arrive.
“Huh, this ordinary girl from a village doesn’t seem very awed at all.
Do they have something even better out there?”
Who knows?
Her usual suspiciousness aside, Myra’s lack of joy at being here made him feel better for some reason.
Perhaps it was because he knew he wasn’t the only one like that?
Shortly, the stone platform stopped, leveling in front of the doors leading into the sixth floor of the Tower.
Just as Cyril took a few steps, an exhausted yet quietly excited voice called out from behind.
“My room is actually on the seventh floor.
So, I am going up still.” Rose remained in front of the pedestal, staring at it with anticipation.
“See you tomorrow.” Myra waved her a goodbye without too much thought.
One member down, Cyril and Myra entered the sixth floor as Rose excitedly operated the control panel.
The students aren’t all on the same floor after all.
Not putting too much thought into it, Cyril walked through the sixth floor, closely followed by Myra.
It didn’t look too different from how it was on the first floor.
However, the layout was somewhat more convoluted this time.
Coupled with how similar everything looked, things began to blend together.
He desperately tried to follow the signs, while Myra just strolled behind him without a thought.
Still, he felt like he was navigating a labyrinth.
It will be morning by the time Myra and I find our rooms.
Wait… Our rooms?
Cyril slowly stopped, a thought settling in his mind.
He turned around to face Myra, flatly staring at her.
“What’s wrong?” She innocently tilted her head.
“…Myra, what’s your room number?” he asked calmly.
He was the only one paying attention to the signs.
Where was she even headed?
Myra’s eyes widened as she kept her silence.
In a moment, she rummaged through her pocket and curiously pulled out her folder.
There is no way…
Finally, Myra pulled out a card inlaid with crystal, observing it in front of him.
Thanks to that, he saw it as well.
There was the number ‘777’ written on it.
“…”
Both of them stared at the card in silence.
Soon they looked up, meeting with their eyes.
“Oops, haha.” Myra scratched her head, awkwardly looking away.
“What a moron.”
Cyril massaged his temples.
It wasn’t a big deal, but it was headache-inducing nonetheless.
On his shoulder, Morpho’s antennae twitched a few times, giving the impression of a human laughing.
It doesn’t matter.
Not like I was the one who walked the wrong way.
All Myra had to do was navigate the mind-numbingly white corridors back to the elevator.
Surely, she was capable of that by herself.
So, Cyril nodded to Myra and turned around.
“See you tomorrow.”
Without waiting for a response, he began walking.
He still needed to find the room that belonged to him in this labyrinth.
However, another set of footsteps soon joined his.
“…”
He slowly turned around once again, locking eyes with Myra.
“Sorry, it’s because of my lack of sleep,” she said, her voice embarrassed.
Her face did look exhausted.
However, why was she apologizing to him?
“…But you know,” Myra continued, “we are all supposed to gather at the sixth floor tomorrow anyway.”
“Going back to the elevator would take too long.
And I don’t know how to operate that control panel…”
Cyril narrowed his blue eyes, staring at her with suspicion.
“What are you trying to say?”
She showed a big, shameless smile.
“How about I stay in your room?
Help me out, please.”
Huh?
He stared at her in silence.
Somehow, he didn’t expect a proposal like that.
“What the hell?!”