The Problematic Child of the Magic Tower
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Chapter 339: Taming the Mad Fiend (1)
The very first thing he did after returning to the White Tower was to share the conversation he had with the Commander.
“My goodness!”
If it had been Veronica, she would’ve added, “Wow, that’s fucking insane! Is that shit for real?”, but Sasha, who didn’t know any bad words, just kept repeating, “My goodness!”
Meanwhile, Chester, sitting across from them, calmly nodded.
“If the Commander really was a demon race member... then that mysterious ability of his makes sense.”
“They’re born with plenty of innate abilities.”
According to what had been revealed so far, the demon race as a whole possessed unusual magic attributes.
No one knew how that was possible, but in any case, each one of them was troublesome to deal with.
“More importantly, if what he said is true, then this so-called Second Great Emperor sounds like a very difficult opponent.”
“After the Great Emperor they worshipped was killed by Master, the Demon Realm fell into great chaos. The fact that he managed to unite them again means he’s definitely not ordinary.”
The demon race never acknowledged anything weaker than themselves.
Otherwise, why would challengers constantly appear even among the nobles?
Setting everything else aside, if even the Four Great Counts followed him, that meant at least his strength was real.
Those he remembered were fanatical followers of the Great Emperor.
After thinking for a moment, Oscar spoke firmly.
“For now, don’t tell anyone about this information.”
“Does that include the Vice Tower Master and the other elders?”
“Yes. I mean literally no one. I’ll speak to Lloyd separately.”
With the matter of the Commander temporarily settled, they moved on to the next topic.
“Master, based on everything that’s come to light so far, the force behind the airport terrorism was the Yellow Tower.”
“The Black Fingers, the demon race, and even Isel Marcos personally disposing of them to erase evidence, every situation points to them being behind it.”
“.......”
Oscar fell silent for a moment at their words.
Honestly, it wasn’t all that surprising.
If those bastards pulling tricks were rare, that would’ve been shocking, but they had such a colorful track record that this just felt like, well, of course.
“You’re right. It’s an undeniable fact that the Yellow Tower took part in this terrorism. The one who actually knocked Edna down while she was returning was Isel Marcos.”
“My goodness! That was the Yellow Tower’s doing? Th-there really are awful people!”
Watching Sasha fume angrily, Oscar leaned back into the sofa.
“The problem is that we don’t have enough proof that the Yellow Tower was involved.”
“Huh? Haven’t the circumstances revealed so far already made the evidence pretty solid?”
“Chester, think carefully again about what kind of existence Isel Marcos is.”
“Well... ah.”
Realization dawned on Chester’s face, and his expression turned sour.
“I see. Officially, he’s a mage recorded as having died during the war, so at this point we can’t prove any connection between him and the Yellow Tower.”
“Exactly. They could just say, ‘Did something like that happen at the Yellow Tower? We didn’t even know Isel Marcos was alive. We express our deepest regrets about the airport incident.’ If they come out like that, we have nothing to say.”
In short, they needed solid proof that Isel Marcos had been acting on behalf of the Yellow Tower.
But naturally, they weren’t the type to leave evidence behind.
“How meticulous... it’s hard to even guess how long they’ve been preparing this.”
“They probably faked his death during the war as groundwork so they could assign him all kinds of dirty jobs after the war ended.”
“......Would they really go that far? Maybe he just miraculously survived?”
“That’s because you don’t know the Yellow Tower Master yet.”
The Yellow Tower Master as he remembered him was more than capable of such things.
“At first glance, he looks similar to the Blue Tower Master, but they’re fundamentally different. The Blue Tower Master is just narrow-minded while pretending to be a gentleman, unpleasant, sure, but at least he doesn’t do things he can’t openly justify. He moves cleverly and thoroughly within the system. But the Yellow Tower Master... he’s different from ordinary people.”
If it meant achieving his goal, he didn’t care about the method.
If there was no path, he would create one.
He couldn’t even understand people who didn’t act that way.
If he hadn’t become a great mage, he would’ve ended up on the front page of newspapers as a psychopathic killer.
“So are we just supposed to sit still like this?”
“Of course not.”
Oscar smiled coldly.
“They’re fighting dirty and underhandedly, so why should we only use clean methods?”
“......What do you mean?”
“Isel is dead, but only me, Sasha, the Mad Fiend, and the Commander know that.”
“Master... you can’t mean?”
As Sasha’s eyes widened into circles, Oscar nodded.
“I’m going to contact the Yellow Tower Master while pretending to be Isel and draw out evidence.”
“Hmm, that doesn’t sound easy. Especially considering the Yellow Tower Master’s personality... he’s probably prepared for situations like this.”
“Of course he has. But if we create a situation where he has no choice but to move, it’s doable.”
“A situation where he has no choice but to move?”
“Don’t worry about that part. I already have a plan.”
Grinning, Oscar changed the subject.
“Leave that to me, and let’s talk about the most important issue.”
“......The Mad Fiend.”
Chester let out a faint sigh.
Recovering him had been good, but after seeing him rampage all the way back to the White Tower, they were already thoroughly exhausted.
“Getting Gilliot back is certainly something to celebrate, but the real problem is what comes next.”
“I agree. Second Senior Brother doesn’t seem controllable at all.”
Oscar nodded quietly.
Right now, he was no different from a three-year-old child.
If even the slightest thing displeased him, he immediately caused chaos.
A child was at least easy to handle, but this one was a late-stage Level 7 monster, which made things incredibly troublesome.
Oscar had even seriously considered contacting the Commander to take him back.
“What can we do? Whether sooner or later, this was something we’d have to deal with.”
“That’s true.”
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
“But didn’t the Commander say he tried all sorts of ways to treat him? If they all failed, I wonder whether there’s even a method left.”
“Hmm.”
Oscar nodded.
To begin with, the Mad Fiend’s current condition was naturally difficult to treat.
“It’s a textbook case of inner demon infestation.”
“Like what I went through at the Red Mountain Range?”
“It’s not even comparable to yours. This is basically the final version, mana rampage combined with loss of reason.”
According to the Commander, the Mad Fiend now acted purely on instinct and had no memory of his past.
On top of that, whenever his magic went out of control, he would go berserk, to the point that even he himself struggled with it.
“.......”
That bastard Commander, no wonder his expression had looked slightly brighter when he said he would bring the Mad Fiend over.
Anyway, they needed to find a way to control someone who had attacks multiple times a day.
“For the next few days, I’ll keep him with me. I’ll try various methods and see if he can be controlled.”
“You’ll do it personally, Master? Will that be alright?”
“Isn’t that too dangerous?”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I can handle that much.”
Oscar waved off their worries.
Standing in front of his room door, Oscar hesitated for a moment.
Then he carefully opened it and stepped inside.
“I’m back.”
No answer came.
Still, he hung his coat on the rack and kept talking as if speaking to a roommate.
“I just got back from a meeting. There were a lot of topics, so it went on for quite a while. I’m a little late, huh?”
“.......”
Still no response.
Unbothered, Oscar set water to boil.
Soon, he poured the steaming water into a coffee cup and sat down on the sofa.
“.......”
In the corner of the room, where thick darkness gathered because of the blackout curtains.
The Mad Fiend sat crouched there, hugging his knees.
Oscar called his name.
“Gilli.”
“Grrrr.”
“Ah, sorry. Is ‘Mad Fiend’ more comfortable for you right now?”
“.......”
The Mad Fiend reacted to the name Gilli with a low growl and began to rise—
“Kraaaah!”
He lunged toward Oscar, who was holding the coffee cup.
But clang!, the shackles around his ankle rang heavily and stopped his movement.
Sip.
Oscar calmly drank his coffee and spoke.
“You won’t be able to break that by yourself. I had Hagor make it, so it’s pretty sturdy. It even has magic-suppression effects.”
“Kraaaah!”
Clang! Clang!
Each time the Mad Fiend charged, the shackles rattled violently, but Oscar didn’t even blink.
Instead, he stared straight at the golden eye revealed through the broken part of the mask.
“Your eyes are still really pretty, you know. Not very manly, though.”
“......Grrrr.”
Feeling that gaze, the Mad Fiend quickly turned his body away.
Then he pulled the blackout curtain over himself, covering the hole in his mask.
“Are you embarrassed to show your face? Why?”
“.......”
“The you I remember was handsome even as a kid. You liked staring people right in the eyes, whenever we walked through Sirin together, older girls who made eye contact with you would go crazy calling you cute. Honestly, I even worried you’d cause trouble with women once you grew older. I remember consulting Vice Tower Master Marlon about it.”
Smiling softly as he recalled the past, Oscar set down his coffee cup.
“So why are you afraid of meeting people’s eyes now?”
“.......”
“Want me to take a guess?”
Oscar slowly approached the Mad Fiend’s back.
“First possibility. You were horribly burned and became ugly, so you don’t want to show your face.”
“Kraaah!”
“Oh, not that? Then... are you hiding from something? Or trying to run away?”
The moment Oscar reached out to place a hand on his shoulder—
“Kraaaah!”
The Mad Fiend suddenly spun around and slashed with his outstretched hand like claws.
Oscar easily dodged and clicked his tongue.
“Tch, you’re so prickly.”
“Graaaah!”
As the Mad Fiend kept charging and wildly swinging both hands, Oscar shrugged.
“Alright, alright. It’s not time for a walk yet, but if that’s what you want...”
Space split like paper, and in the blink of an eye the two of them were standing in a world of pure white.
The Mad Fiend looked around in confusion, only for click!, Oscar to crouch down and unlock the shackles.
“There. You’re free.”
Oscar shook the loosened shackles and smiled brightly.
“See? For the next two hours or so, you can run around as much as you want. Want me to throw a ball? Will you fetch it?”
“Grrrrrr!”
The Mad Fiend glared at Oscar as if insulted by being treated like a dog.
“Hmm. The fact that you understand how you’re being treated means you still have at least minimal cognition.”
And now that the shackles were off, he wasn’t charging recklessly or launching magic like before.
That meant the Mad Fiend wasn’t truly trying to kill his opponent.
“Now that I’ve set the stage, you’re holding back like a puppy too... well, fine.”
Still learning about the Mad Fiend one step at a time, Oscar slowly stood up.
“You’ve been feeling suffocated, right? Let’s loosen your body up first.”
The moment those words ended—
The Mad Fiend, wrapped in black wind from head to toe, kicked off the ground and charged.
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]

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