The Problematic Child of the Magic Tower
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Chapter 342: Wind and Lightning (1)
A delegation of priests sent from the Grand Temple arrived.
It was an incredibly luxurious lineup, including not only the Saintess but even an Archbishop.
“Thank you for coming such a long way.”
“After hearing that you were hovering between life and death, how could we not come? After all, we are comrades who once even subjugated the Demon King together.”
Following behind Archbishop Baldwin, the Saintess stepped out of the car and spoke.
“How bad is the Holy Son’s condition?”
“The Holy Son...? Ah, you mean that fellow Oscar.”
Maxim, still not accustomed to the title “Holy Son,” answered somewhat vaguely.
“Well, I’m not sure. Wouldn’t it be more accurate for experts like yourselves to take a look?”
“...?”
“...?”
It was only natural for question marks to appear above Baldwin’s and the Saintess’s heads.
Even if someone wasn’t an expert, shouldn’t they at least know roughly how serious the patient’s condition was?
Knowing full well what they were thinking, Maxim let out a faint sigh.
“It’ll be faster if you see for yourselves. I’ll guide you to where he is.”
As Maxim took the lead, the entire priestly delegation moved along the corridors of the White Tower.
Seeing high-ranking priests, an archbishop, and even the Saintess walking in a line together made the mages whisper among themselves.
“So that’s the rumored priestly delegation.”
“The newspapers said even the Saintess was coming... wow, she’s really there.”
“Isn’t Oscar actually on the verge of dying?”
Leaving the worried murmurs of the mages behind, Maxim stopped in front of a certain room.
“Here it is.”
Creeeak—
The hospital room door opened, revealing a darkness that was hard to believe.
Even more so considering it was the middle of the day with the sun high in the sky.
“Let’s open the windows first. What kind of hospital room has blackout curtains like this?”
Baldwin strode forward and tried to pull the curtain aside, but it did not budge.
It felt as if something were gripping the curtain tightly and refusing to let go.
“Arrr....”
Hearing the unidentified sound from below, Baldwin lowered his gaze.
And the next moment, his eyes met a pair of golden eyes shining from behind a mask.
“G-Good heavens! What on earth is this!”
“First—light! Find the switch for the lights!”
At the Saintess’s command, the priests bustled about in a flurry.
Just then, the bathroom door opened and Oscar walked out, wiping his hands with a towel.
“Oh, what’s this. You’ve already arrived.”
“H-Holy Son?”
“Oscar!”
“Arrrrr!”
“......”
Looking at the hospital room, which in the blink of an eye had turned into something like a bustling marketplace, he slowly opened his mouth.
“For now, everyone except those two, please leave.”
After Maxim dragged the high-ranking priests outside,
Oscar served the two of them some hot tea.
“You must have been quite startled.”
“I was indeed startled, but I’d like to hear how this situation came about first.”
Baldwin demanded in a slightly sharp tone.
“We were told you were at death’s door.”
“That’s right. What exactly is going on here?”
“And what is that?”
As Baldwin pointed at the Mad Fiend, Oscar scratched his head.
“Well... I’m not sure where to begin explaining... okay. I’ll give you the three-minute summary.”
As he quickly summarized the events starting from the airport terror incident, Baldwin frowned.
“Hoh... Isel Marcos. So that wraith we thought dead had been wandering about.”
“More importantly—the Black Finger and the demon race? Does this mean the Yellow Tower truly joined hands with them?”
“Well, they probably think they were just using them.”
“If that’s true, they’ve crossed the line by a long shot. We should inform the Imperial Family and have them severely punished.”
“Saintess. To speak frankly, do you really think the Imperial Family can severely punish them?”
At that question, the Saintess hesitated and could not give a clear answer.
The Imperial Family was certainly the central authority of the Empire, where all power was concentrated.
But that did not mean they could decide every major and minor affair of the Empire alone.
That was politics.
“As much as I hate to admit it, the Yellow Tower is indispensable to the current Empire. Just look at magical engineering—it has advanced the Empire’s level of civilization by a hundred years.”
Magical engineering had even taken deep root throughout society.
If one were to suddenly tell people to return to a society without it, citizens would protest immediately.
“The Imperial Family will never abandon the Yellow Tower. At best they’ll apply some pressure and settle it with disciplinary measures.”
“I fully agree with that opinion. So what are you proposing? Private retribution?”
“The Yellow Tower Master is a dangerous man. He knows all too well which lines must not be crossed—and which ones he can cross.”
“...Isn’t that a good thing?”
“The problem is that lines that shouldn’t be crossed shouldn’t be crossed at all, yet he crosses them openly—so long as it’s within a range where he won’t be punished. This incident is part of that.”
Through Isel Marcos, he had orchestrated terrorism alongside not only the Black Finger but also the demon race.
The scale of it was far too large to dismiss as mere loyalty from Isel.
“The Empire cannot abandon the Yellow Tower—but it can abandon the Yellow Tower Master. I intend to bring him down this time. If we leave him alone, he’s bound to cause a major disaster sooner or later.”
“Hmm.”
“Hm......”
The reactions of the two were strange.
Oscar’s words were the correct principle—but realistically, the chance of executing such a plan was extremely low.
“Oscar. You’re a smart man, so let me give you one piece of advice. In this world, there are things we know are wrong but must still bury. If you dig up everything in the name of justice, sometimes that very justice ends up hurting more people. That’s what a nation is like.”
“That’s not very priestly of you.”
“Heh heh, forgive my shame, El Tera.”
Baldwin’s words had plenty of logic to them.
If poking the hornet’s nest caused a war, it wouldn’t end with just one or two deaths.
“But since you said I’m smart, do you think I haven’t already considered that? There’s a way.”
“And what might that way be?”
At the Saintess’s question, he nodded.
“I’m planning to imitate the dead Isel Marcos and contact the Yellow Tower Master.”
“Hmm... Do you think the Yellow Tower Master would fall for that?”
“I agree. He’s a meticulous man. A sloppy imitation wouldn’t deceive him.”
“That’s why I’ll create a situation where he has no choice but to believe it.”
At that point, Oscar revealed one of the cards he possessed.
“Do you remember the spells our White Tower revealed at the last White Night Festival?”
“Hmm, I remember. They were relics lost during the war, weren’t they?”
“I remember them clearly. The performance was so moving.”
“In truth, those spells should have returned to the White Tower 21 years ago.”
Oscar’s gaze grew serious.
“The previous White Tower Master, Oscar Sage, entrusted those materials to a dragon named Edna Sol Laplace, leaving instructions that they be delivered to the White Tower if he died.”
“Huh. If that’s true, why did it take so long?”
“Lady Edna said that while crossing the Red Mountains back then, she was struck by lightning and crashed.”
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Lightning.
At that word, the expressions of the two changed.
“Surely...”
“No way.”
“Unfortunately, your guess is correct. Naturally, the culprit was Isel Marcos.”
It was the Yellow Tower that had orchestrated the White Tower’s lost twenty years.
At that shocking revelation, the two were left speechless.
“Most likely, this was a truth known only to the Yellow Tower Master and Isel Marcos.”
“I see. And you plan to lure the Yellow Tower Master using that?”
“Yes. I’ll report that the White Tower has begun to suspect the truth and has dispatched mages who are now chasing after me.”
As if they had made a promise, the two nodded together, clearly picturing the situation.
“Indeed... in such circumstances, the chances of the Yellow Tower Master moving personally would be high.”
“But won’t he be suspicious?”
“Of course he will. Suspicion. Especially the Yellow Tower Master—he’ll constantly suspect that it might be a trap.”
Oscar tapped his chest lightly with his fingers.
“In particular, he’ll suspect me. He has already seen my abilities during the Mage’s Night and the White Night Festival. He’ll think that someone at my level could easily imitate Isel Marcos’s mana code.”
“Ah! Then pretending to be a patient—?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Oscar nodded and continued.
“As you know, I’m currently known to be hovering on the brink of death after the airport terror attack. Especially since the Grand Temple even sent the Saintess and Archbishop Baldwin, the Yellow Tower Master will suspect it even less. After all, he doesn’t know that I’ve become the vessel of Itaca and the Holy Son.”
The fact that he had become the Holy Son was known only to a very small number within the order.
Even among the high priests who had come today, most likely didn’t know.
“If he appears at the meeting place I designate, everything will be over. It would be equivalent to him admitting that he had been in constant contact with Isel Marcos all this time.”
“Hm. In short, you’re saying the order should participate in the White Tower’s effort to bring down the Yellow Tower Master.”
“Yes. After all, haven’t we become one body?”
“Ugh.”
Baldwin was dumbfounded by Oscar’s shamelessness, but it wasn’t exactly wrong.
From the moment he came to possess divine power, Oscar and the order were bound together.
“Alright.”
“Saintess!”
Baldwin jumped in surprise at the Saintess’s clean agreement.
But she shook her head as if to say she would accept no objections.
“As I’ve said many times before, the Yellow Tower Master is clearly a dangerous man. I also agree that someday he will surely bring a great calamity upon the Empire.”
“But representing the order’s will among ourselves without reporting to the Pope first—”
“Do we really need to represent the order’s will? The two of us just need to act well.”
Since there was no real flaw in that logic, Baldwin shut his mouth as if he had swallowed honey.
“Whew... then we won’t report this to the order either?”
“It seems like an operation that only gets worse if too many people know. And since the other party is Sir Oscar, the Pope will surely understand.”
At those words, Oscar nodded as well.
“Archbishop, you know me, right? Vessel of divinity, master of Itaca, Holy Son of the order.”
“Ugh...”
Clutching his head with both hands, Baldwin looked at the two of them in turn before raising both hands.
“It doesn’t look like you’ll listen even if I oppose it, so let’s just get on the same boat.”
“I like that straightforwardness.”
With a gentle smile, Oscar signaled to the Saintess once the conversation had concluded.
Understanding the meaning quickly, the Saintess spoke.
“Archbishop, please guide the high priests to their quarters and publicly prepare for the treatment. I’ll remain here to ask Sir Oscar a few more questions regarding the divine power.”
“Understood.”
Once Baldwin left the room without any suspicion, the Saintess asked,
“What is it, Sir Oscar?”
“You once said that the original owner of my body seemed to have been favorable toward the demon race, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I do remember saying that.”
“If that’s the case, could you possibly determine exactly what that remnant left in my soul is?”
“I’ll take a look.”
The Saintess, her eyes covered with cloth, looked straight at him.
After a moment, she tilted her head.
“Something is strange.”
“What part?”
“Last time, that remnant was clearly perceptible. But now it’s faint... huh? Now it’s clear again.”
As the presence of the remnant changed from moment to moment, she could not make sense of it.
“Did the divinity say anything about this?”
“Well... I haven’t been able to speak with it lately.”
“...Pardon? Why not?”
“How would I know? Maybe it’s sleeping and recovering its strength. No matter how much I call, there’s no response.”
“T-That’s rather strange. Just a moment.”
After staring at him for quite some time as she searched for the divine presence, she spoke again.
“This can’t be... The divinity is currently residing within Sir Oscar’s soul.”
“Wasn’t that always the case?”
“No. Previously, it resided within Sir Oscar’s body, using it as a vessel. But now it has changed its location to the soul.”
‘Why? Did it not like my body and decide to move into a new house?’
As Oscar merely blinked, the Saintess said something meaningful.
“Perhaps... it moved there to keep the remnant within Sir Oscar’s soul in check.”
“To keep it in check...?”
Little Oscar would hardly be an opponent that Itaca even needed to keep in check.
At most, he had been a human in life—and even then, merely a twenty-year-old youngster.
But for Itaca to abandon the body that served as its vessel and shift all its power into the soul?
“......”
It seemed there really was something within his soul.
Something that even the divinity Itaca had to struggle desperately to suppress.
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]

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