Chapter 342 – Blue Ghost (1)
The place where the carriage arrived was the entrance of the Mage Tower. Because I didn’t know what state the place where Theoter was now was, I couldn’t blindly teleport there. It was necessary to view the situation from a distance and enter. At the entrance of the Mage Tower, we held the reins nervously.
We rode together in the driver’s seat of the wagon and carefully entered the city of the Mage Tower. Originally, neither the guards who roamed the streets nor the touts who sold order books energetically did not exist in this city. As the leaders died, it seemed that the city died along with it. A.A moved his hand to the hilt of his sword without even realizing it and said.
“It is bizarre.”
Excessive silence made the world unfamiliar. The city, with its tall spiers as usual, was welling up with bizarreness only in the silence. We had to shudder as we experienced the echo of wagon wheels in the center of the stillness.
“Is anyone there?”
AI’s voice rang out loud. We had to check who was left in this magic tower. However, the city where commercial districts died was asking us in the voice of A.A. ‘Is anyone there?’ We stopped in front of the largest mage tower. I said as I got off the carriage.
“There might be someone inside. Still, it’s the center of magic, so it doesn’t make sense that all the wizards have left.”
“Shall we go together?”
“If you lose the wagon, you will be in trouble, so wait here. I’ll go alone. If a suspicious-looking guy passes by, I’ll stab him. You never know what will happen here.”
“Ah, I guess that’s about it.”
A.A let out a blank laugh as if he was dumbfounded by my worries. I left her and entered her magic tower. Unlike the quiet exterior, the interior was quite tidy and felt inhabited. In the hallway, a grim-faced scholar was walking around with a stack of papers. They didn’t seem to be able to afford to care about the new stranger who entered the Mage Tower.
I grabbed one of the scholars by the shoulder and made him look at me. The suddenly caught scholar adjusted his glasses with a face full of annoyance rather than surprise. I said.
“There is no one outside. What happened?”
“Are you an outsider? Right now we are not accepting outside guests.”
“The situation seems to be very urgent, so I came here. This is Peta Lucius of the Peta Territory, and the hero A.A. Is waiting outside. If you explain the situation, I want to go to the Dwarf Kingdom. From what I’ve heard, the leaders of the Mage Tower are all missing…”
I took out my ID and showed it. After checking his ID his, the scholar’s face softened slightly. It seemed that he had been plagued by merchants for a while. He looked around and then he opened the door to the little room and said.
“Come this way. It’s not something to talk about outside…”
He was kind to me. I cautiously followed him into the room. The space presumed to be an old library smelled of dusty books. I coughed lightly and fanned the dust with my hand. I felt stuffy just looking at the space where even the windows were blocked by bookshelves. I sat on a low shelf and looked at the scholar. The scholar put down the pile of papers and said.
“Since you have a rough idea of the situation, it would be easy for me to explain. Currently, all the leaders of the Mage Tower are missing, so nothing can be done inside the Mage Tower. Thanks to this, many wizards returned to their hometowns because their research items were not approved, and merchants left because they could not receive orders from the Dwarven Kingdom.”
“Okay. Why did the Mage Tower leadership go to the Dwarven Kingdom? Did you go to see for yourself that the manastone mine collapsed?”
“That is…”
The scholar was speechless. From here on out, it meant secrecy. I said as I got up from my seat.
“What are the wizards in the depths of the mage tower doing? I heard that there are a lot of weirdos living there.”
“For now, we are distributing magic stones to the remaining wizards, but this is also the limit. After the magic stones run out, the wizards will protest in earnest, but we have no means to control it. The Mage Tower lord should come back soon…”
Even inside the Mage Tower, all the leaders had disappeared, so it seemed embarrassing. I asked.
“Aren’t you sending troops separately?”
“In the article, it was said that only the ‘magician’ was taken, but he took most of the available security forces. We don’t have troops to send. The mages under study are very uncooperative in this kind of thing…”
“For now, we are also on our way to the Dwarven Kingdom, so we want to find out some news about the owner of the Mage Tower.”
“Would you please?”
The scholar’s face widened. I asked, raising the corner of my mouth slightly.
“By the way, in order to do that, we need to know for what purpose the Master of the Magic Tower went where. It’s too unnatural to be lost in a magic stone mine, right? Where did the Master of the Magic Tower go?”
The scholar began to hesitate again at my question. I persuaded him once again.
“Teacher. If we’re not careful, we could just sneak a peek in front of the Manastone Mine and come back. You need to know exactly where it was and why it went so you can track it.”
Scholars were still conflicted. I said again.
“Teacher. The Master of the Magic Tower has to come back. If you do it right, I’ll find it and send it back to you somehow. There are warriors, too.”
“…It’s because of the magic stone.”
“Is it because of the magic stone?”
I was pretty sure A.A. And I were right. According to the scholar’s explanation, the Mage Tower owner and his party he knew that a certain monster had emerged from the Magic Stone Mine through a source dispatched to the Dwarf Kingdom. Hearing that the King of the Dwarves had died while begging for magic stones from the monster, he decided to negotiate directly with the monster rather than through the Dwarf Kingdom, and led his troops and wizards to the Dwarf Kingdom.
While presenting the cause of helping the Dwarven Kingdom clean up the manastone mine and repair the damage.
“By the way, when I went to the magic stone mine, I heard that the news was cut off.”
“I don’t think he’s dead. No matter how powerful the monster is, he it won’t be able to kill the core talents of the Mage Tower at once.”
He must have died, but I decided not to tell him about it. There was no need to be rude, since he was the one who confirmed my guess.
“Thank you. It helped me a lot.”
“Ah yes. Then that… Are you leaving right away?”
“Yes.”
The scholar waved at us. I said goodbye to him and left the Mage Tower again. After escaping from the mage tower, which smelled of human life in its own way, I encountered Silence again. A.A. Was waving his legs on the wagon, humming his song. When she saw me out, she stopped her hum and pretended she didn’t do anything. It was so nice to see her becoming more like a girl day by day.
“Did something go wrong?”
“Yes. Not much? Were you okay at the Mage Tower?”
“Looks like our guess was right. The mage lord figured out that the magic stone came from Shiotere and set off.”
“Then, did you get hit by Theoter?”
“I guess so. If he had won, he would have boasted that he had obtained a magic stone slave. First of all, I think we need to go to the Dwarf Kingdom sooner. I don’t feel good.”
I said so and drove off. The horse, which had been looking for some grass and had put its head down, was started by our urging and began to run at a brisk pace. It felt strange to be running through the market streets where the traffic of bondi carriages was not permitted. The sound of horses hooves echoed through the towering mage towers. A.A tucked her windblown hair back and tidied it up. I said.
“She sang well.”
“Yes? Who?”
I grinned. Ai pondered my words, then his face blushed and he said.
“Poetry, if you’re bored, you can sing a hum song.”
“I call often too.”
“… Don’t make fun of me.”
We went to the border of the Dwarven Kingdom while chatting nonsense. The Dwarven guards, who were supposed to be here originally, were away. I blinked and looked around. No matter how you look at it, there was no one at the post.
“Does it seem like something big happened inside the Dwarf Kingdom?”
“I know, right. Seeing that there are no guards… What the hell happened?”
We entered the Dwarven Kingdom with a question. From the outskirts of the kingdom, we could detect a disturbing atmosphere. Originally, it was a neighborhood filled with an atmosphere of being wary of outsiders, but now the atmosphere is even worse.
Even if all the soldiers died, the dwarves were originally a fighting race. If you walk around the village, you can see dwarves dressed in simple armor. They were looking at us again with very kind eyes. Said A.
“The atmosphere is not good.”
“It’s only natural that everyone from the king to the soldiers were injured. However, this atmosphere… I don’t think it’s just because of that.”
“Me too. I wonder if something else happened inside the dwarf kingdom.”
As we chatted and drove the carriage, a huge armed chariot approached on the other side of the road, rolling on spiked iron wheels. A huge wild boar armed like a rhinoceros was tied to the front of the chariot, and the man riding the chariot was wearing thick golden armor.
He looked at us blocking the way and shouted.
“Hey stranger! Get off the road right now! You are our King! Do not interfere with the sacred mission given by General Evori!”
“General Evory?”
It was the first name I had ever heard of A.A. Diplomats were the only ones who knew about the dwarves’ royal family or political structure. Ai told me
“I have to go quietly for now, so get out of the way.”
I followed her words and turned the wagon sideways and stopped it. The streetcar passed us and reached the plaza, unfolding a large sheet of parchment. He cleared his throat in a commanding posture and read in a booming voice.
“Dwarves, listen up! As of the present time, the royal family! To General Evori, the greatest warrior since Egbold among all living warriors on this land! Legit! I declare the transfer of the throne in a very peaceful manner! Also, His Majesty Evori speaks of the human kingdom! He declared that he would receive a huge reward for this situation! Humans! Away from our pain! They pressed us with magic stones as if they were going to turn us into slaves! For thousands of years of history! The price of dedication to you is not worth more than a handful of magic stones! Our golden chariot corps! We want to show the price we deserve for this mean and callous response! Dwarves! Raise your arms!”
I felt alive on all sides. I felt I had to evacuate immediately.
