Chapter 114
The dark dawn air enveloped the top of the Magic Tower.
The light in the Tower Lord’s research lab was still on, even though it was a time when it shouldn't have been. If it wasn’t for a deep dive into research, it was unheard of for the light to still be on at this hour.
The owner of the lab, Roa, was flipping through ancient books, treating them roughly—far from the careful handling they used to receive in the past.
‘It must be here somewhere…’
Roa's serious face looked unusually shadowed by the flickering candlelight.
An hour ago.
- Hey, Grandpa.
Hearing the news of Joo Yi-Gyeol’s disappearance, Roa had been tossing and turning in guilt, nearly falling asleep when a rude summons made him sit up straight. It was dark, but there was no sign of anyone entering the room, and the entrance, locked by mana, gave no warning. The voice also came not through his ears, but directly in his mind.
- Grandpa.
With the repeated call, a clear image of a white butterfly appeared before him. It was strange for a butterfly to be in a room where all the doors were magically sealed at such an hour, and even stranger was how clear the butterfly’s form was despite the darkness.
But Roa wasn’t unfamiliar with strange occurrences like this, so he quickly grasped the situation.
“You came all the way here to be used in my research, didn’t you?”
The voice that came from the white butterfly sounded like a young boy, but it was the voice from when he died. He had died as a child, and although his mental age had stopped there, the time spent as a wandering soul was unknown. Roa spoke to them with respect, as was his habit with those like him.
- You don’t bother them if they don’t want to, do you, Grandpa?
Even though a sorcerer could see soul butterflies, it didn’t mean they collected and researched every one they saw. Roa had long since become accustomed to respecting and helping the souls that appeared before him, granting them their small wishes while continuing his own research.
It seemed this butterfly knew how Roa interacted with them. He soon realized that this soul might have been one he had intended to collect. Then he realized that he had heard the boy’s voice before, and the day the emperor was killed by Zair came back to him.
Roa’s eyes widened as he stared at the white butterfly in front of him.
“What does the soul of someone who served Zair have to do with me?”
The boy's voice, like the crows that had flown for Zair that day, echoed in his mind.
The butterfly that had landed on Roa’s lap responded sharply when Zair’s name was mentioned, as though reacting to the name.
- I didn’t come here because I wanted to.
“If that’s the case, then go back. The current emperor will not take kindly to your presence, and even if you're a soul, you might not leave unharmed. You might even end up trapped in a glass bottle for the rest of your life.”
Even if the soul was pitiful, having been used by Zair, Sethian wouldn’t care about such considerations. He might even make things worse than Roa had just suggested.
“I don’t know what happened, but…”
- Do you know what your disciple was plotting?
The question from the child’s voice sent a shock through Roa’s senses. Startled, he urgently asked.
“Are you talking about Eda? Do you know something about her…?”
All the souls that Zair had taken with him had vanished without a trace. Even the soul butterflies that had been submerged in the pool of blood had disappeared.
Eda, who had mastered mind-altering magic, likely took control of them and had made them her puppets. But this soul before him had stuck with Zair until the end, helping him. Roa faintly remembered the boy’s voice, weeping as he disappeared when Zair died.
- I don’t care what your disciple is doing with the souls, but that bastard used Zair and abandoned him. I had no place to stay except next to Zair, but he only used him and got him killed.
There was unmistakable fury in the voice of the butterfly.
- So, I’m going to try to mess up that bastard’s plans.
The soul butterfly’s words were enough to make Roa jump up and rush out of his room.
The butterfly, who had given him the information for revenge, said it had things to do and left the tower. Roa, without hesitation, stormed into the research room and began frantically searching through his accumulated ancient books, his eyes filled with anxiety and impatience.
After searching through an unknown number of books, Roa’s hand paused. He was staring at a magic circle printed on one of the pages.
The circle, composed of runes and ancient language, had a vertical line in the center and accompanying notes on the side, detailing what was needed for the spell to activate.
But strangely, the adjacent page, which should have had some description of what kind of magic circle it was, was completely blank.
Roa’s fingers brushed over the empty page. The bluish light from his fingertips illuminated the page, yet there was no trace of any text. Unlike the smoothness of the page, Roa felt a distinct resistance as his magic brushed against the paper.
‘Someone erased it forcibly.’
Roa’s face hardened as he examined the magic circle. It was the same one as the magic circle inside the booklet Eda had dropped by accident when Roa startled her earlier.
Roa flipped the page, revealing the cover of the book, where, instead of a name, the author was listed as “the First Tower Lord.”
The only one who could erase the contents of a book written with the author’s mana was someone with the same mana.
In other words, the First Master of the Tower.
Roa didn’t know why this page had been erased, but seeing the magic circle that Eda had been holding carefully, he suspected it was linked to the reason Zair and the souls had been used.
Shivering with a sense of foreboding, Roa pulled a chair up to the desk and pushed aside the cluttered papers. Clearing a space, he took out some paper and a quill.
Carefully, Roa began writing down the complex runes and ancient language of the magic circle, translating it slowly.
* * *
It was deep into the dawn, but there was still no sign of Joo Yi-Gyeol.
However.
“Your Majesty, there are signs that an unbroken twig was stepped on and snapped.”
A knight who had diligently followed the order to search the area came running to report to Sethian.
“After looking around, we’ve found the direction in which he went.”
“Where did he go?”
As Sethian had predicted, it was surprising to learn that Joo Yi-Gyeol had been in the forest, but even more so that he had not been found by the knights so far. He hadn’t expected the use of sleeping potions to allow for such swift astral projection.
The knight, who had rushed to report, pointed in one direction and spoke.
“In the direction of the Imperial Palace.”
Sethian’s eyes twitched. Renoc, who was standing beside him, spoke in place of the knight.
“He wouldn’t have gone to the Imperial Palace. The village near there is heavily guarded with checkpoints, and Yi-Gyeol must have known that too. He would have gone around it…”
“No.”
Sethian walked past Renoc and the knight, his eyes focused on the direction the knight had pointed to.
“That direction is correct. But he wouldn’t have gone to the village.”
“Since Joo Yi-Gyeol doesn’t know the external geography, he would have bought a map. So, he must have gone to a different village…”
Sethian headed toward the place outside the forest where the horses had been gathered, and Renoc followed right on his heels.
“Having a map means he didn’t go to a village.”
“What?”
Sethian, after ordering Kirsty, who was nearby, to gather the knights in the forest, continued as if answering Renoc’s question.
“Joo Yi-Gyeol will deliberately avoid villages as he moves.”
There were already checkpoints and guards in the villages, and on top of that Sethian himself was out searching for him with the knights. Joo Yi-Gyeol was not foolish enough to choose a village in a situation like this, where there might or might not be inspections.
Instead, he was using his map to avoid villages and hide in less monitored areas.
‘If Joo Yi-Gyeol is trying to hide somewhere, then it means it’s somewhere between here and the Imperial Palace…’
But even if it was somewhere in between, there was not just one road, and it wasn’t as if there were no forests like this one. To blindly move and hide with only a map in a place where he didn’t know what might be there, his condition could not have been normal.
As Sethian thought about where Joo Yi-Gyeol could be hiding, his steps suddenly stopped. Renoc and Kirsty, who were following him, stopped as well.
'Go left using that tree ahead as your marker. If you keep going, the path will probably cut off, but I found a place.'
'Wait a moment. I’ll go look inside.'
In Sethian’s mind, the small cave Joo Yi-Gyeol had once guided him to was taking shape.
The light in the Tower Lord’s research lab was still on, even though it was a time when it shouldn't have been. If it wasn’t for a deep dive into research, it was unheard of for the light to still be on at this hour.
The owner of the lab, Roa, was flipping through ancient books, treating them roughly—far from the careful handling they used to receive in the past.
‘It must be here somewhere…’
Roa's serious face looked unusually shadowed by the flickering candlelight.
An hour ago.
- Hey, Grandpa.
Hearing the news of Joo Yi-Gyeol’s disappearance, Roa had been tossing and turning in guilt, nearly falling asleep when a rude summons made him sit up straight. It was dark, but there was no sign of anyone entering the room, and the entrance, locked by mana, gave no warning. The voice also came not through his ears, but directly in his mind.
- Grandpa.
With the repeated call, a clear image of a white butterfly appeared before him. It was strange for a butterfly to be in a room where all the doors were magically sealed at such an hour, and even stranger was how clear the butterfly’s form was despite the darkness.
But Roa wasn’t unfamiliar with strange occurrences like this, so he quickly grasped the situation.
“You came all the way here to be used in my research, didn’t you?”
The voice that came from the white butterfly sounded like a young boy, but it was the voice from when he died. He had died as a child, and although his mental age had stopped there, the time spent as a wandering soul was unknown. Roa spoke to them with respect, as was his habit with those like him.
- You don’t bother them if they don’t want to, do you, Grandpa?
Even though a sorcerer could see soul butterflies, it didn’t mean they collected and researched every one they saw. Roa had long since become accustomed to respecting and helping the souls that appeared before him, granting them their small wishes while continuing his own research.
It seemed this butterfly knew how Roa interacted with them. He soon realized that this soul might have been one he had intended to collect. Then he realized that he had heard the boy’s voice before, and the day the emperor was killed by Zair came back to him.
Roa’s eyes widened as he stared at the white butterfly in front of him.
“What does the soul of someone who served Zair have to do with me?”
The boy's voice, like the crows that had flown for Zair that day, echoed in his mind.
The butterfly that had landed on Roa’s lap responded sharply when Zair’s name was mentioned, as though reacting to the name.
- I didn’t come here because I wanted to.
“If that’s the case, then go back. The current emperor will not take kindly to your presence, and even if you're a soul, you might not leave unharmed. You might even end up trapped in a glass bottle for the rest of your life.”
Even if the soul was pitiful, having been used by Zair, Sethian wouldn’t care about such considerations. He might even make things worse than Roa had just suggested.
“I don’t know what happened, but…”
- Do you know what your disciple was plotting?
The question from the child’s voice sent a shock through Roa’s senses. Startled, he urgently asked.
“Are you talking about Eda? Do you know something about her…?”
All the souls that Zair had taken with him had vanished without a trace. Even the soul butterflies that had been submerged in the pool of blood had disappeared.
Eda, who had mastered mind-altering magic, likely took control of them and had made them her puppets. But this soul before him had stuck with Zair until the end, helping him. Roa faintly remembered the boy’s voice, weeping as he disappeared when Zair died.
- I don’t care what your disciple is doing with the souls, but that bastard used Zair and abandoned him. I had no place to stay except next to Zair, but he only used him and got him killed.
There was unmistakable fury in the voice of the butterfly.
- So, I’m going to try to mess up that bastard’s plans.
The soul butterfly’s words were enough to make Roa jump up and rush out of his room.
The butterfly, who had given him the information for revenge, said it had things to do and left the tower. Roa, without hesitation, stormed into the research room and began frantically searching through his accumulated ancient books, his eyes filled with anxiety and impatience.
After searching through an unknown number of books, Roa’s hand paused. He was staring at a magic circle printed on one of the pages.
The circle, composed of runes and ancient language, had a vertical line in the center and accompanying notes on the side, detailing what was needed for the spell to activate.
But strangely, the adjacent page, which should have had some description of what kind of magic circle it was, was completely blank.
Roa’s fingers brushed over the empty page. The bluish light from his fingertips illuminated the page, yet there was no trace of any text. Unlike the smoothness of the page, Roa felt a distinct resistance as his magic brushed against the paper.
‘Someone erased it forcibly.’
Roa’s face hardened as he examined the magic circle. It was the same one as the magic circle inside the booklet Eda had dropped by accident when Roa startled her earlier.
Roa flipped the page, revealing the cover of the book, where, instead of a name, the author was listed as “the First Tower Lord.”
The only one who could erase the contents of a book written with the author’s mana was someone with the same mana.
In other words, the First Master of the Tower.
Roa didn’t know why this page had been erased, but seeing the magic circle that Eda had been holding carefully, he suspected it was linked to the reason Zair and the souls had been used.
Shivering with a sense of foreboding, Roa pulled a chair up to the desk and pushed aside the cluttered papers. Clearing a space, he took out some paper and a quill.
Carefully, Roa began writing down the complex runes and ancient language of the magic circle, translating it slowly.
* * *
It was deep into the dawn, but there was still no sign of Joo Yi-Gyeol.
However.
“Your Majesty, there are signs that an unbroken twig was stepped on and snapped.”
A knight who had diligently followed the order to search the area came running to report to Sethian.
“After looking around, we’ve found the direction in which he went.”
“Where did he go?”
As Sethian had predicted, it was surprising to learn that Joo Yi-Gyeol had been in the forest, but even more so that he had not been found by the knights so far. He hadn’t expected the use of sleeping potions to allow for such swift astral projection.
The knight, who had rushed to report, pointed in one direction and spoke.
“In the direction of the Imperial Palace.”
Sethian’s eyes twitched. Renoc, who was standing beside him, spoke in place of the knight.
“He wouldn’t have gone to the Imperial Palace. The village near there is heavily guarded with checkpoints, and Yi-Gyeol must have known that too. He would have gone around it…”
“No.”
Sethian walked past Renoc and the knight, his eyes focused on the direction the knight had pointed to.
“That direction is correct. But he wouldn’t have gone to the village.”
“Since Joo Yi-Gyeol doesn’t know the external geography, he would have bought a map. So, he must have gone to a different village…”
Sethian headed toward the place outside the forest where the horses had been gathered, and Renoc followed right on his heels.
“Having a map means he didn’t go to a village.”
“What?”
Sethian, after ordering Kirsty, who was nearby, to gather the knights in the forest, continued as if answering Renoc’s question.
“Joo Yi-Gyeol will deliberately avoid villages as he moves.”
There were already checkpoints and guards in the villages, and on top of that Sethian himself was out searching for him with the knights. Joo Yi-Gyeol was not foolish enough to choose a village in a situation like this, where there might or might not be inspections.
Instead, he was using his map to avoid villages and hide in less monitored areas.
‘If Joo Yi-Gyeol is trying to hide somewhere, then it means it’s somewhere between here and the Imperial Palace…’
But even if it was somewhere in between, there was not just one road, and it wasn’t as if there were no forests like this one. To blindly move and hide with only a map in a place where he didn’t know what might be there, his condition could not have been normal.
As Sethian thought about where Joo Yi-Gyeol could be hiding, his steps suddenly stopped. Renoc and Kirsty, who were following him, stopped as well.
'Go left using that tree ahead as your marker. If you keep going, the path will probably cut off, but I found a place.'
'Wait a moment. I’ll go look inside.'
In Sethian’s mind, the small cave Joo Yi-Gyeol had once guided him to was taking shape.
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