"......So this is why they say you should live a long life."
Fran (age twenty, male) gazed at the scene before him and muttered with a hollow laugh.
And no wonder. The potion production room, desolate for decades, was now packed to bursting.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that every unemployed layabout freeloading in the tower had gathered here, and the reason they had come was quite the spectacle in itself.
"I heard we get meat dishes if we work here. Is that true?"
"Would an elder really lie to us?"
"The rumor says it isn't even chicken, but pork."
"Slurp...... That's insane."
It had already been a year since the tower cafeteria's menu became nothing but beans and canned soup.
These mages had become creatures willing to endure any hardship for a meat dish.
"But I'm a little worried."
When Fran muttered while rubbing his chin, Oscar glanced at him.
"About what?"
"I'm sure you had a plan when you hired them...... but I don't think we have enough time."
"Not enough time? What do you mean?"
"Think about it. Teaching every one of them Dual Casting alone will take several full days."
"Hmm?"
Oscar replied with a look that asked what kind of idiotic nonsense he was spouting.
"Are you stupid? We barely have enough time to make the treatment. When would I ever teach all of them that?"
"......But Dual Casting is essential if we want to make the treatment, isn't it?"
"Who in the world told you that?"
Even in the White Tower of his previous life, mages who could not use Dual Casting had far outnumbered those who could.
Yet potion production had never once fallen behind.
"You really are a mage through and through. Thinking you have to handle everything by yourself. That's the chronic problem with mages."
The greatest reason humanity had driven away countless predators and become the dominant species of the continent was the exact opposite.
It was their power to band together when faced with hardship and adversity.
That was the most terrifying thing about humans.
"If we pair them up, there's no need to use Dual Casting."
"......Huh? That's right? Why didn't I think of that?"
"I'm telling you, it's a mage thing."
Oscar shrugged, immediately climbed onto the platform, and shouted.
"All right, seniors. Look this way!"
A few mages turned toward him, but most were still busy talking among themselves.
Fran asked quietly from behind him.
"Should I bring over a magical loudspeaker?"
"Forget it. Those mage bastards never listen when you ask nicely."
Shaking his head, Oscar lightly snapped his fingers.
At that moment, he invoked 『Sound Binding』.
The loud and disorderly sounds pouring from dozens of mages' mouths merged into one and created powerful white noise (White Noise).
-RIIIIIIING!
"Urgh!"
"Wh-What is this all of a sudden?"
Everyone frowned and clapped their hands over their ears at the deafening noise that threatened to burst their eardrums.
Their gazes naturally turned toward the platform, the source of the sound.
"......Finally, some quiet."
With a satisfied expression, Oscar took in the mages' faces, which looked as though they'd been chewing shit, and began to speak.
"Everyone, pay attention. The reason you've gathered here today is to make a treatment for Cadenna influenza."
"......A treatment for Cadenna influenza?"
"What's he suddenly talking about?"
"Is this why they told us to come to the potion production room?"
Having apparently received no information in advance, they merely stared blankly at one another.
"The work isn't particularly difficult. You simply have to follow my instructions."
"Hmm...... You think so?"
"I wonder whether ordinary mages like us could ever dare hope to keep up with a genius like you?"
What's this?
Every response he received was belligerent and hostile.
Slightly flustered, Oscar glanced behind him and whispered.
"Hey, Fran. Do those people hate me?"
"Yeah. Almost no one in this tower likes you."
"......"
Confronted with a somewhat shocking truth, Oscar asked in bafflement.
"Why?"
"You're an arrogant, obnoxious guy who drains a ridiculous amount of the tower's budget, never does any research, and spends every day drinking like a hippo. Rumor has it that you're also the reason the tower cafeteria serves nothing but beans and canned soup now."
"......"
Put that way, Oscar could understand to some degree why they hated him.
Then a sudden question occurred to him, and he looked at Fran.
"Then why don't you hate me?"
"I like canned soup. There's something fun about that distinctively cheap taste."
"......"
This guy really wasn't normal either.
Oscar let out a hollow laugh and looked at the thirty-eight mages glaring at him with displeasure.
'This situation wouldn't have happened if the Vice Tower Master had said a few words to them......'
From the perspective of a former Tower Master, however, Oscar suspected that he had deliberately created this situation.
He probably wanted to see whether Oscar possessed sociability and tolerance as well.
That would be essential information for a superior tasked with managing an eccentric genius.
'Well, I would've done something similar.'
After organizing his thoughts, Oscar spoke.
"Even Fran here succeeded, so there's no need to be too afraid."
"......I'm Lena White, a Level 5 mage. May I ask you a few questions?"
A woman in her late twenties with a rather cold gaze raised her hand.
Oscar nodded.
"As many as you like."
"As I understand it, our White Tower lost every potion formula twenty years ago. So where did the formula for the Cadenna influenza treatment suddenly come from?"
"I restored it."
The mages murmured among themselves for a moment.
"......Well, I guess that hippo bastard wasn't only fooling around while taking our budget?"
"What are you talking about? After receiving that much money, he should've produced results like this ages ago."
"Hmph. He strutted around calling himself a genius, and now he's finally earned his keep for once."
Amid the mixed reactions, Lena, who had remained silent, asked another question.
"Has the treatment's effectiveness been proven?"
"It's already proven effective on patients in Vins, where Cadenna influenza was raging. We've signed an exclusive contract with an archbishop of the El Terra Church who confirmed the results, and we've even received an imperial patent."
The murmuring grew louder.
"If the notoriously strict church signed an exclusive contract, it must be legitimate......"
"No, the moment the imperial family recognized the patent, there was no reason to doubt its effectiveness in the first place."
The successive pieces of good news had just begun to soften the mages' hostility.
Lena asked an unexpected question.
"Then the treatment is worth more than a fortune. What is it about us that you trust enough to share the formula?"
"......"
The whispering died down, and a strange tension spread through the room.
As she had said, with Cadenna influenza spreading, its treatment was a treasure beyond price.
Anyone who successfully leaked its formula could amass tremendous wealth.
As gazes filled with a mixture of emotions turned toward Oscar, he calmly read the documents lying on the platform.
"Let's see...... 35 Level 4 mages and only 3 Level 5 mages. Ages ranging from 22 to 26."
Oscar looked up from the documents, swept his gaze over them once, and shook his head.
"To be honest, I don't understand why you're all still at the White Tower."
"......"
"......"
Silence.
The room grew so quiet that even the sound of someone swallowing would ring out starkly.
But only for a moment. The mages, unable to contain their anger, began to erupt.
"......Are you saying we're shamelessly clinging to the White Tower?"
"I heard you'd changed after nearly dying, so I wondered, but you haven't changed at all."
"Not one old saying is wrong, I tell you. They say you can't fix a person."
The insulted mages poured out every manner of complaint and grievance.
Even Lena, who had asked so many questions, looked cold now.
"......It seems coming here was a waste of time. Just remember this: not a single person gathered here today deserves to hear that sort of thing from you."
She judged that working together was impossible and turned away without hesitation.
"I know."
The quiet voice echoing through the production room stopped her in her tracks.
Lena slowly looked back, narrowed her eyes, and asked.
"......What?"
"I said I know. I know exactly how much everyone here loves the White Tower and what you gave up for it."
Tap, tap.
Oscar tapped the documents with his finger and continued.
"You probably thought you'd hidden it well, but the White Tower isn't quite that incompetent."
Leaving their questioning gazes unanswered, he read several noteworthy entries from the applications.
"Level 5 mage Lena White, age twenty-five. The Red Tower and various companies highly valued her unique talent and leadership and attempted to recruit her a total of seven times. She rejected every offer."
"Level 5 mage Harok Dryan, age twenty-six. The imperial family recognized his exceptional mastery of magical martial arts and offered him a position as an imperial palace mage. He refused."
"Level 5 mage Deckard Rhine, age twenty-six. The Imperial Academy offered him an instructor position four times. He declined each offer."
"Level 4 mage Sepia Rose, age twenty-three. The Yellow Tower coveted her creative alchemical ability and secretly approached her with a recruitment offer. She refused."
......
The room grew deathly silent as Oscar continued speaking.
The thoroughly flustered mages looked at one another for a while, exchanging glances that asked, 'You too?'
Oscar set down the documents and continued.
"As I said earlier, I don't understand why you're all still at the White Tower. If I had received offers this good...... well, I'm not sure I could've refused them."
The reason was simple.
The White Tower was ruined.
Because no matter how hard one searched here, it was difficult to find anything resembling a future.
"But you didn't leave."
There was only one reason.
They must have loved the White Tower.
They must have wanted to revive this fallen tower with their own hands.
"......"
Lena bit her lip, suppressing an unknown emotion boiling in her chest.
"......The elders knew about all the approaches we'd received?"
"They did. They simply had no choice but to pretend they didn't."
They must have thought that acknowledging it would only burden the mages.
They wanted them to stay, but they did not want to hold back children who could rise higher somewhere better.
That was why they had no choice but to pretend they knew nothing.
Oscar spoke calmly to the tight-lipped mages.
"The White Tower is enduring the coldest winter in its history. Even in these circumstances, you chose to remain in the cold despite being able to work somewhere better under better conditions."
He asked them in return.
"If I can't trust people like you, who in the world can I trust?"
With that meaningful question, Oscar stepped down from the platform, put on his goggles, and spoke.
"Fran, get ready. It seems the two of us will have to do the work."
"Huh? Uh, sure."
Fran followed him down and was just about to start deftly preparing the ingredients.
"......Tell me. What do we start with?"
Lena quietly approached the two and naturally picked up a pair of goggles as she asked.
That moment became the turning point. One by one, the mages who had been about to leave the room gathered around them.
"Ahem. Why didn't you say all that from the start?"
"We got angry because we thought some wet-behind-the-ears brat was berating us, didn't we?"
"There's no time for nonsense. Didn't you say we only had a week?"
"Hey, you in the back! What are you standing around gawking at? Come over here and get ready to work!"
"Hey, junior. Is this how I put this on?"
They all grumbled as they donned goggles and pulled on gloves.
Watching them, Fran let out a hollow laugh.
"Ha, haha. The great Oscar actually talked people around. Am I dreaming right now?"
"......If this is a dream, dreaming isn't so bad."
Oscar took in the suddenly bustling production room and smiled faintly.
For the first time since awakening in this body, he felt as though life had returned to the tower.
'I suppose there's no need to mention that even if someone leaks the formula, the patent will keep them from profiting.'
Wanting to preserve the good mood, he spoke.
"Oh, I should tell you in advance that the meat served with every meal isn't pork......"
"Damn. Is it chicken after all?"
"......It isn't rat meat, is it?"
After looking around at the tense mages, he shrugged.
"It's beef."
"Oooooh!"
"Meat! Meat! Beef!"
Was it the meat, or was it because the White Tower's mages had united with one heart and purpose for the first time in ages?
In just one week, production of the treatment remarkably surpassed 140 percent of the seemingly tight target.