A two-story gray building on the outskirts of Sirin.
Though ordinary on the outside, it was a gang's hideout.
"Um, Big Brother."
"Boss. It's Boss, you bastard. How many times do I have to tell you? I'm a businessman now."
"Ah, right."
"Sigh......"
Gordon, the leader, rubbed his throbbing temple.
He pitied himself for having a man like this as his right hand.
"Anyway, Boss, are you sure it'll be all right?"
"What will?"
"That mage. I heard he's hovering between life and death after taking the elixir he bought from us."
"So?"
"......Pardon?"
"What does that have to do with us?"
Fwoosh!
Gordon lit the cigar clamped between his lips and exhaled acrid smoke.
"Whew. Is this your first day doing business? That guy got greedy, lost control of his mana, and ended up like that."
"But what if those White Tower bastards investigate closely......"
"Oh, for heaven's sake...... Bart, you stupid bastard."
Gordon chuckled and asked casually.
"Do you know who hired us to pass that elixir to the bastard?"
"Of course not. They had a robe pulled over their head, didn't they?"
"That's why you'll never get anywhere."
"......Then, Big Brother, no, Boss, are you saying you know who the client was?"
"No. I don't need to know."
Whewww.
After exhaling another cloud of smoke, Gordon grinned.
"But I know where that bastard belongs. He's a mage from the White Tower."
"What?! Is that true?"
When Bart asked back in surprise, Gordon snickered and gestured for him to lower his voice.
"He might fool everyone else, but he can't fool me. When I got paid, I saw him wearing a White Tower ring."
"Wow, that's impressive. I didn't notice at all."
"Isn't that the difference between you and me?"
Just as Gordon was about to boast about his keen eye.
An unfamiliar voice cut into their conversation.
"If he were a real mage, he wouldn't advertise it so blatantly. He'd have to be an idiot."
"Who's there?!"
Both men turned toward the window.
At the same time, Gordon frowned.
"You're...... Oscar Crucian? Didn't I hear you were at death's door?"
"I wandered around there for a while, but I found my way back."
"Heh."
Looking amused, Gordon sank deep into the back of his chair and asked.
"So, what brings you here when you can't have fully recovered yet?"
"I took some interest in the conversation you two were having."
"Tsk. If you'd at least pretended not to hear, I might have considered letting you go."
Now that Oscar knew they had attempted the assassination of a mage of the White Tower, they could not let him leave alive.
Whether it all came together or turned to mush, they had to settle this here.
Gordon waved his hand as though shooing away a fly.
"Kill him."
"Yes, Big Brother!"
At the order, Bart drew his sword and charged without a moment's hesitation.
"......You don't hesitate to kill people."
"If I did, I could never have become the best on these vicious streets!"
"......"
Oscar's gaze turned cold.
'Good. This actually makes things easier.'
If his opponent was a third-rate thug, there was no reason for Oscar to hold back either.
"Wind Shield."
"Pfft!"
Bart, who had been wary of Oscar's magic, burst out laughing without meaning to.
Oscar needed to unleash a fierce attack merely to stop his charge, yet he had chosen defense?
'Then again, a Level 1 mage sheltered in a greenhouse couldn't possibly understand that.'
Oscar had apparently panicked and cast defensive magic, but the match had already ended the moment he did.
With Bart's strength, he could tear through that barrier and cleave the body beyond it.
Swoooosh—!
Then Bart, certain of victory, brought his sword down like a lightning bolt.
Oscar's Wind Shield tilted at an angle.
"What? What......?!"
It was a chillingly ingenious angle.
It preserved all the force behind the blade while twisting its trajectory only slightly.
CRUNCH—!
In the end, the sword slid away and buried itself in the window frame before Bart could react.
"......!"
His heart lurched, but like the veteran of the back alleys he was, Bart made a quick decision.
'The distance is already closed. I can beat a Level 1 mage to death with my bare fists.'
Bart immediately released his sword and threw a punch.
"Wind Cutter."
"Hmph!"
Bart hurriedly pulled his other hand toward his body to protect his neck and heart.
As far as he knew, Wind Cutter was certainly dangerous, but it could not inflict a deep wound.
'It can only attack enemies in a straight line, so its trajectory is simple too.'
In other words, defending like this might leave his arm cut and bleeding, but it could not kill him.
Bart's confident fist was about to strike Oscar.
"......"
SLASH—!
The approaching Wind Cutter suddenly slithered up Bart's arm like a snake.
The Wind Cutter claimed his shoulder in an instant and then sliced the back of his neck.
"Gah!"
His left hand instinctively flew to the wound behind him at the searing pain.
The Wind Cutter traced a red line across the now-exposed front of his throat as well.
"Ghk, gurg......!"
Gushing blood like a fountain, Bart staggered backward and fell with a THUD—! He never rose again.
"Bart!"
Gordon leaped to his feet and spewed a curse.
"You goddamn bastard!"
He rummaged through a drawer, pulled something out, and aimed it at Oscar.
BANG—! BANG, BANG—!
After firing three bullets in quick succession, he panted heavily for breath.
"Huff, huff. How dare you come in here without a shred of fear......"
"This is rather interesting."
Oscar carefully observed the three bullets spinning in place before his eyes and murmured.
Their speed and destructive force were astonishing.
Had he cast Wind Shield even a little later, they would have punched a hole through his head.
"I sensed no mana at all...... How does it produce such destructive force?"
"Y-you stopped the bullets?"
Gordon, who had naturally expected him to die, opened and closed his mouth like a crucian carp.
"Bullets? Is that what these are called?"
A ranged weapon that looked easier to handle than a bow and could easily kill a person without mana.
So many strange things had appeared over the last twenty years.
Oscar murmured with interest.
"Well, I can study them later...... For now, I'll return your bullets."
WHOOOOSH—!
A fierce wind sent the bullets back to their owner.
"Agh!"
With his collarbone, the back of his hand, and his thigh pierced in an instant, Gordon collapsed.
Oscar walked to the desk, sat in the plush chair, and crossed his legs.
"Now, I'd like to hear the rest of what you were discussing with that corpse."
"......Heh-heh. Did you bring plenty of money? That information is rather expensive."
Gordon chuckled, brimming with malice.
He was probably counting on his subordinates swarming in after hearing the gunshots.
Seeing straight through him, Oscar offered some advice.
"For your information, your men aren't coming. I blocked the sound."
"......You can use 『Silence』?"
"It's a little different."
Silence was ordinarily a spell only those at Level 5 or higher could wield.
Even Oscar could not reach into that domain with the body of a Level 1 mage.
"What I used was 『Sound Binding』. It only holds in the sound that would otherwise escape for a while."
"......What an absurd bluff."
Gordon had never even heard of such a spell.
"Believe what you want, but I'd like you to answer my questions."
"......And if I refuse?"
"Pride more important than your life. Not bad."
Then again, wasn't that much nerve exactly how Gordon had become a leader in the back alleys?
Oscar shrugged.
"Then endure it with sheer spite. It's the path you chose."
"Endure what......? Mmph! Mmph!"
SNATCH—!
Oscar forced Gordon's mouth open and sent wind flowing inside.
A moment later, a deafening scream filled the room.
"Aaaaaaagh! Gaaaaagh!"
Gordon flopped like a fish on a cutting board.
It probably felt as though thousands of needles were tearing through his insides.
Oscar could say with certainty that it was a kind of pain Gordon had never experienced in his life.
"I don't particularly like torture either."
His ears always felt muffled afterward.
Covering both ears with his hands, Oscar made a request.
"So I'd like you to talk as soon as possible. I mean that sincerely."
"Ghhk, ggggh!"
With tears, snot, and even drool streaming down his face, Gordon finally grabbed Oscar's shoe after only a dozen seconds.
The eyes staring up at him were filled with nothing but terror and regret.
"P-please...... I'll tell you everything......"
"Good."
Snap! Oscar stopped the torture with a flick of his finger and spoke.
"Tell me everything you know about the client."
"Huff, gasp......"
After catching his breath for a moment, Gordon cried out fearfully.
"Th-they suddenly came to me and gave me a large sum of money and a bottle of elixir, telling me to sell it to you cheaply! They said you probably wouldn't be able to refuse......"
"What did they look like?"
"They wore a deep hood, so I couldn't see their face...... but as I said, they wore a White Tower ring."
"Enough about the ring."
It had plainly been an act intended to deceive this man anyway.
"Ah, and the smell! They had a distinctive scent."
"A scent?"
"Y-yes! It was a fresh mint scent that left my nose feeling cool, but other than that, I don't......"
This was a typical disposable errand runner who knew nothing useful.
'So all I learned was that fresh mint scent?'
But countless perfumes smelled like that.
There had been plenty in the past, so there must be even more in this era.
And even that could have been a smokescreen.
Oscar sighed and asked.
"There's one thing I don't understand. How exactly did you plan to deal with the consequences after killing me?"
"Well, the White Tower is currently busy with the matter of expulsion from the Four Great Magic Towers, so we thought their investigation would be relatively lax......"
"Wait. What's that supposed to mean?"
Oscar's eyes narrowed.
"Expulsion from the Four Great Magic Towers?"
"S-surely you know more about that than I do, Lord Oscar?"
"I don't. I lost most of my memories after taking the elixir I bought from you."
Gordon's shoulders shrank at the brazen lie.
"......Once again, I'm sorry. I've committed a crime worthy of death."
"Enough apologies. Explain it in detail."
"The related documents are in the safe beneath the desk."
"Then open it."
When Gordon opened the safe, Oscar took the purse and several documents inside.
They were respectively titled <Ledger>, <White Tower>, and <Oscar Crucian>.
'First, the <White Tower> document.'
Rustle, rustle.
His eyes quickly scanned the densely filled pages.
[White Tower Records Lowest Achievement Among All Magic Towers Again Last Year.]
[White Tower Lost Everything Twenty Years Ago, and the New Wind Never Blew.]
[Imperial Position Announced: Major Declaration Regarding the 'White Tower' Expected at This Year's White Night Festival.]
[Experts Cite Failed Businesses and Lack of High-Level Magic as White Tower's Greatest Problems.]
The hand turning the pages stopped.
He simply could not understand.
'Why doesn't the White Tower have high-level magic?'
Of course, he knew the demons had invaded the White Tower and burned almost all its materials.
But hadn't he made preparations precisely in case something like that happened?
'......Did Edna betray me?'
He had entrusted all the materials to her, the world's observer and mediator of balance.
He had even asked her to deliver them to whoever became the new White Tower Master.
'No, she isn't someone who'd betray me, and she has no reason to.'
Deciding to investigate that separately, Oscar turned the page again.
[April 28, the day the Great Emperor died, was designated the national holiday White Night Day, and the Emperor granted the White Tower the tremendous benefit of thirty years' tax exemption in honor of Archmage Oscar Sage's sacrifice.]
[However, the White Tower's decline began somewhere no one anticipated. After the war ended, the other magic towers found success in businesses that leveraged their respective strengths, while the White Tower alone failed to do so and fell behind.]
Business? What did all this talk of business mean?
Oscar pointed at the sentence and looked at Gordon.
"Does 'business' here mean the potion business?"
"These days, that barely even counts as a business. Aren't potions the most basic source of income for a magic tower?"
"......Then tell me what businesses the Four Great Magic Towers each run."
Ahem! After clearing his throat once, Gordon began his explanation.
"The Yellow Tower, which controls lightning, ushered in the great age of magitech. They made a fortune from it."
"By magitech, you mean those streetlights and automobiles?"
"That's right."
As expected, magitech was the Yellow Tower's technology.
'I knew it. Even in my previous life, those people kept rambling about magitech this and technological revolution that.'
He had never imagined their nonsense about a magitech revolution sweeping the world once the war ended would actually come true.
Back then, he could never have imagined magitech advancing this far in only twenty years.
......Had he known, he would have invested his entire fortune.
Oscar swallowed his regret with difficulty and spoke.
"What business are those Blue Tower guys running?"
"They have a few. The main ones would be drinking water, agricultural support, and potions."
"Didn't you just say potions barely even counted as a business?"
"The Blue Tower is a different story. They're the leader in the potion field and practically monopolize the market."
"......Those wretches are the leaders in potions?"
Oscar's face crumpled.
Twenty years earlier, the White Tower had dominated the potion market.
Of course, with all those potion formulas completely burned away, there was nothing to be done, but it still stung.
"And what are drinking water and agricultural support?"
"They sell clean water at a high price and make it rain in regions struck by drought."
"......They'll play the clown any way they can for a few coins."
This was why one should never befriend those ill-bred Blue Tower wretches.
Oscar clicked his tongue lightly, then suddenly found himself wondering.
"But people actually buy and drink this clean water?"
"Oh, you wouldn't believe it. These days, anyone with money drinks nothing else."
"......"
He wondered whether he was strange or the world had become strange.
Couldn't people just draw water from a well and drink it?
Shaking his head, Oscar moved on to the next subject.
"The Red Tower will obviously focus on combat."
"Yes, they've entered the military. As a result, they take practically every operation, including monster subjugations."
"Hmm."
Having gained a rough understanding of the other magic towers' business models, Oscar asked.
"Good. Then what's the White Tower's business? Do we sell fresh air?"
"Ha. Ha."
Gordon let out an awkward laugh at the stale joke and answered.
"Delivery. The White Tower's main business at present is delivery."
"......"
Had he misheard?