“When I first came in, I wondered what the hell this was.”
Inside the tower he had entered with Fran, there was nothing at all.
Only stairs installed along the wall.
If there was one peculiar point, it was that the ceiling was extremely high.
In terms of the White Tower, it seemed as though the height of about five floors had been sectioned off as a single floor.
“There really isn’t much here.”
“This way.”
Fran began climbing the stairs with practiced steps.
“As you can see, to go up, you just use the stairs like this.”
“That’s all?”
“Only the first floor is like that. You saw the tower from outside, right? It should be easy to see even from far away.”
“It was pretty flashy.”
Oscar answered while recalling the sections where storms raged and fire and thunder poured out.
“Right. That starts from the first floor.”
Click.
The moment they reached the end of the first-floor stairs and opened the thick iron door, Kwaaaaaa!
A fierce wind began shaking their clothes and entire bodies.
“Urgh! This is the second floor, the storm zone.”
Oscar frowned and lifted his head.
The ceiling height seemed exactly the same as the first floor.
The only difference was that a storm had been added.
“Hup!”
When Fran closed the iron door again, the wind vanished as if it had been a lie.
“Why’d you close it? Aren’t we going in?”
“You can’t talk once you go in there. The sound of the wind is too loud.”
Well, it had been strong enough that even keeping one’s balance was difficult.
“Anyway, the only thing that changes is the environment. You climb the stairs the same way.”
“With your physical abilities, that couldn’t have been easy either.”
“Heh heh, don’t you see this?”
Press! Fran proudly showed off his arm, which had more muscle than before.
“I’m no longer the me you used to know, okay? You said I couldn’t neglect physical training either.”
“Hmm.”
Only then did Oscar look at Fran’s body again, and sure enough, muscle had clearly developed here and there.
When he first saw him, Fran had been slender, like a typical shut-in mage or a rich family’s young master.
‘Now that I think about it, Veronica and Killian are like that too.’
It seemed they had each not neglected their training even without him.
Oscar smiled with satisfaction.
“You have put on some muscle. Looks good. Though you still have a long way to go.”
“......Stingy bastard. If you’re going to praise me anyway, why not go all the way? It’s not like it’ll wear you out.”
“You’ll develop bad habits, so no.”
Oscar firmly cut off his complaint and said,
“From now on, let’s keep going straight up without stopping. I think I’ll only get a feel for it once we try it once.”
“Got it.”
Fran opened the iron door again and began climbing the stairs through the storm.
‘The second floor is wind, and it’s not really dangerous enough to threaten your life.’
After they passed through without trouble, the third floor that appeared was a place where thunder raged.
The fourth floor was a place where furious flames swept about.
The floors above that each had a theme called an attribute as well, so passing through them was not easy.
“This is the last floor.”
The tenth floor, reached after hardships, was an empty space just like the first floor.
Oscar looked around and asked,
“It doesn’t look particularly special.”
“I told you, didn’t I? I’m not lying. I even wondered if there were devices in the floor or walls, so I pushed and pulled everything.”
“How many times did you say you climbed this tower?”
“Probably close to fifty. Mu, do you happen to remember the exact number?”
-Total of 47 times.
47 times.
It certainly did not seem as though he had climbed it only once or twice.
Fran looked quite familiar with climbing the stairs, too.
“......Or maybe you aren’t supposed to climb it with physical ability alone?”
“Don’t even start. I’m telling you, there really isn’t anything I haven’t tried.”
Fran lightly waved his hand.
“There was a time I climbed up using only 『Flight』 through mana, and there was a time I turned my whole body into wind with Lord of Wind and climbed up while ignoring everything. I’ve climbed the outer wall instead of the inside too...... Ah, recently, I even climbed up and came back down while walking backward.”
“......You worked hard.”
At that level, it really was true that he had tried all sorts of methods.
The problem was that even so, the dungeon had not judged the attack as successful.
‘What’s the problem?’
Wondering if perhaps he had to find something on each floor, he stared into every nook and cranny so hard that his eyes hurt.
Naturally, nothing could be seen.
‘No, maybe I’m too buried in the tower right now.’
Oscar thought about the very method by which this dungeon made challengers stronger.
He had solved the problem the same way during Killian’s case too.
‘Does Fran currently have some kind of problem or weak point?’
When he stared fixedly at the guy, Fran scratched his cheek for no reason.
“Um, this is really pressuring me right now.”
“Do you have some kind of problem somewhere?”
“Huh?”
“When you think about yourself, is there any part where you feel, I’m lacking in this, or I’d like to fill this in a little?”
After seriously thinking for about five minutes, Fran opened his mouth with difficulty.
“There is one part that’s a little embarrassing to say.”
“It’s fine, so say it. Unless you want to live here with me for the rest of your life.”
At those words, Fran hesitated for a moment, then mumbled awkwardly.
“Fame. To be exact, an epithet...... or something.”
“Huh?”
When Oscar furrowed his face, wondering what kind of nonsense this was, the guy raised his voice as if he had a guilty conscience.
“N-No, I mean, isn’t that how it is! You’re the Noble of the White Tower, and Killian is the Holy One. Even Veronica apparently got an epithet not long ago! After reaching Level 6, she’s been performing incredibly on missions.”
Phew, right, this was not something he could simply blame Fran for.
There had definitely been a lack of explanation on his own part too.
“Not something like that. Something thoroughly related to your skill or realm as a mage.”
“Y-You should’ve said that from the beginning!”
The guy, whose face had gone bright red, sank into thought again.
Then, after a long while, he shook his head.
“I’m not sure.”
“......Are you bragging in front of me?”
“No, it’s not that. I really don’t know!”
Fran looked on the verge of tears, as if he sincerely felt wronged.
“If I had known something like that in the first place, I would’ve fixed it long ago! But lately, everything is so good that I wonder whether it’s really okay for me to have no worries like this. To begin with, you know, don’t you? My self-esteem isn’t that high.”
“Hmm.”
That was certainly true.
The reason this guy had tried to return to his family was also because he had no certainty that he could succeed as a mage.
‘To be exact, he thought his own talent was ambiguous.’
But the Fran of now was a completely different mage from back then.
Fundamentally, his magic skills were incomparable to before.
‘The part I could at least call a weakness was his lack of mana control.......’
Originally, a low-grade spirit had been controlling it in his stead, but recently Mu had been handling it.
That was a definite upgrade even if one grabbed any passing elf and asked them.
In other words, the Fran of now had no restrictions at all even when using Lord of Wind.
“Technically, there’s no problem, but perhaps some trauma remains?”
“Mm, not at all from what I feel? Mu, do I have anything like that left in me?”
-When the contractor uses Lord of Wind, no emotions of fear or dread are felt whatsoever.
“That’s what it says?”
So it was not a psychological issue.
“What about spirit affinity?”
“No worries there either. By now, it’s probably even higher than yours.”
-Agreed.
If a spirit felt that way, then it must be a fact with no room for disagreement.
“Mm, then what else is left? How’s Dance of Steel?”
“Now that I’m fully proficient and can adjust the strength, I don’t collapse from exhaustion after using it a few times like before.”
He had a named spirit, used Lord of Wind, and could even freely use Dance of Steel?
Oscar looked at the mage before him with a newly impressed expression.
‘Then...... he’s just a ridiculously high-level mage, isn’t he?’
He was at a level where he would rank at the very top even if placed against the entire White Tower.
It felt like only yesterday that he had been whining about having no talent and being scared to use Lord of Wind, so it really was deeply moving.
“It’s all good news, but it’s not especially helpful in this situation.”
“Because I’m not lacking anything?”
“Right. I have to know what you’re lacking to guess the attack condition.”
Or was reaching Level 7 really the attack condition?
But if that were the case, the tower itself did not help in any way with reaching Level 7.
“This is difficult. Let’s go down for now.”
After descending the tower, the two of them continued talking a great deal.
Usually, it took the form of Oscar asking questions and Fran answering.
“Hmm.”
After a long conversation, night had already fallen.
Oscar sat before a torch, stared at a paper marked with check marks, and shook his head.
“It’s not mana control or circulation, and the circuit design is flawless. No problem psychologically either. On top of that, he’s in a state where he can freely use Lord of Wind.......”
Tap, tap, Oscar tapped one line with his finger.
“Then it really seems like there’s nothing but the spirit left.”
“I guess so after all?”
Fran scratched the back of his head.
He looked at Mu, who was hovering near the torch, and said,
“It’s true that the one with the most open growth potential right now is that guy.”
“Have you figured out what a colorless spirit can do?”
“Not yet.”
Fran shook his head.
“Basically, Mu is an incredibly old spirit, so even its memories of the past are blurry. It doesn’t even know when it started existing. Naturally, it doesn’t know what abilities it has either.”
“Then right now, helping with mana control is about the extent of it?”
“Right.”
Of course, even that was an incredible effect.
In fact, it was surely far more effective than when he used a low-grade spirit.
But that alone was not enough.
‘This guy rejected two Spirit Kings in order to contract with the colorless spirit.’
And yet he did not know how to use it.
He did not even know what it could do.
He had simply contracted with it out of his single-minded desire to complete not another person’s color, but his own color.
“Fran Sirius’s own color, huh.”
Oscar suddenly spoke.
“What is that?”
“......All of a sudden?”
“You said it yourself. The reason you rejected the Spirit Kings’ contracts was because you felt their colors would paint over you. On the other hand, you chose Mu because you thought it wouldn’t dye you.”
“I did. And in reality, I think I saw that part accurately.”
“Then what is this color of your own that you wanted to protect and complete so badly?”
At that question, Fran was rendered speechless.
His own color.
He had said that back then, but he had never seriously thought about it in particular.
He had been busy training day after day, trying to catch up to the companions who had already gone far ahead.
“That’s a difficult question. Honestly, I don’t really know.”
He muttered while looking at the torch.
“You already know this, but ever since I was young, I grew up watching the backs of my older brothers and sisters.”
In the eyes of a child, they shone.
The sight of them producing clear achievements in their respective fields and being acknowledged by everyone was something he admired.
“No matter what I did, I was above average, but not enough to aim for first place. I was ambiguous.”
Swordsmanship, magic, martial arts, business, politics.
There was not a single area where he could feel certain that he was better than his brothers and sisters.
“I think that’s still the same now.”
Fran, wearing a self-deprecating smile, looked at him.
“When it comes to mana control, I can’t even reach your toes. In combat sense using magic or close-quarters hand-to-hand fighting, I can’t match Killian, and I can’t even dream of reaching Veronica in ultra-fast casting and calculation ability. Compared to before, I’ve become absurdly strong, but I’m still an ambiguous mage.”
Fran slowly lowered his gaze.
Saaaaa.
His two hands, which had become wind, fluttered as if rippling in the torchlight.
“If I didn’t have the special ability called Lord of Wind, I probably wouldn’t even have been able to stand shoulder to shoulder with all of you.”
“Now you have the colorless spirit too.”
“That’s on the same extension. If I didn’t have Lord of Wind, there would’ve been no reason for me to go inside the World Tree either.”
A mage who would have been nothing without Lord of Wind.
What kind of color could possibly suit such an ambiguous person?
As Fran looked down at his own hand with a lonely gaze for a moment, Mu slowly approached.
Ssk, sssk.
The guy rubbed its body against his hand, which had become wind.
“......What, are you comforting me right now?”
-I am aware that humans feel great emotional stability from the act of touching flesh with something.
“It’s not like you’re some cat or dog.”
Fran chuckled.
It was after that that he noticed the sense of incongruity.
“Wait, but is it because of the firelight? You look a little redder than usual.”
-Is that so? It is probably because I ate a bit of the torch.
“......Why would you eat that?”
-I do not know. As I watched it quietly, it looked tasty, so I ate it.
No matter how different a spirit’s eating habits were from a human’s, for it to eat fire of all things.
The baffled Fran shook his head, and the moment he stroked Mu.
Hwaaaak!
Suddenly, the red energy drained completely out of Mu’s body, and his hand was dyed red.

Comments

Loading...