*
Chapter 318: Ashen Tower (1)
*
The Holy Grail was shattered.
The broken Holy Grail seeped into Lac and Belnoa, and Rania didn’t fully grasp what it meant. But Lac and Belnoa understood.
‘I saw the path.’
The Holy Grail didn’t grant Lac and Belnoa superhuman powers. It merely showed them the way.
The path that heroes of ancient times once walked.
And the fate they faced.
The heroes manifested in the Holy Grail pointed beyond the path they had taken, saying that was the way they must walk. They advised to walk your own path.
‘My path.’
Belnoa and Lac felt the realm.
They confirmed the path they were meant to take. At the end of that path, they saw the realm they needed to reach. They felt it, confirmed it, and saw it, now all that remained was to move.
When they closed their eyes and looked at the inner wall.
It wasn’t as enormous as it once was, nor perfectly insurmountable. There were walls before them that could be crossed and shattered. Both sensed that the day they would pass beyond was near.
“······.”
Rania glanced at the two without a word.
Then, she recalled the Holy Grail that had just moments ago been in her hands. The Holy Grail transformed into light. Although broken, it hadn’t disappeared.
It resided within Lac and Belnoa.
She didn’t know the effect it would have on their growth, but surely, it wouldn’t be negative. Rania let out a slight laugh.
‘Impressive guys.’
She felt delighted at her disciples’ growth.
“Good job, both of you.”
Rania wrapped her arms around the necks of Belnoa and Lac.
Bending slightly at the waist, Rania whispered to the two with a gentle smile.
“From now on, you have to work harder. Right?”
Lac and Belnoa trembled slightly.
Rania laughed joyfully and led the two out of the forest.
‘They’ve only just stepped onto the path…’
Before long, they would stand by her side.
She eagerly anticipated the future when her disciples, who walked paths similar to hers, would one day stand beside her. She hoped for that day to come.
With a smile, Rania muttered.
“Come quickly, you rascals.”
She would be waiting.
A little ahead of you.
2.
Royal Guard, or Hound.
The special unit known as Hound, dubbed the hunting dogs of the royal family, had no leader since time immemorial. Naturally. Their master was a member of the royal family, and the level gap among the Hounds wasn’t significant.
A leaderless group.
One that took no order from anyone outside the royal family.
The Hounds had upheld that tradition for a long time, but it was recently shattered by the emergence of one individual.
“Finally found you.”
Guarder.
“Did you block the entrance on the other side?”
“Yes, it’s blocked.”
“Then that’s fine. No need for too many people. Just bring someone to clean up the bodies.”
A human who had thwarted calamities three times in one year.
A knight who reached superhuman levels at a young age.
Kalt, who broke the traditional leadership of the Hounds and rose to the position, let out a short breath.
“Let’s wrap this up quickly and head home early today.”
Kalt was accumulating fatigue from long nights of work.
With bloodshot eyes, he looked at the iron door in front of him. He knew that the culprits keeping him on late nights would be gathered beyond that door.
‘It’s been a long, long time.’
The crazy ones preaching the end of the world.
A group formed by Dark Mages who dabbled in magic and Sorcerers who broke taboos. A group that was too adept at evading tracking, which made Kalt suffer late nights until he found their base.
‘A long time of hardship and torment.’
The contemptible late nights he had to endure.
Now it was time to return to regular hours.
Swish.
Kalt paused mid-draw of his sword.
If he swung it, he would kill too easily. Some needed to be kept alive for information, and even aside from that, he didn’t plan on easily killing them.
Thud.
Kalt lightly stomped his foot.
The water flowing through the underground waterway splashed violently. The thick iron door creaked. Within the echoing sound, Kalt kicked the iron door.
Bang!
With a tremendous noise, the iron door flew off.
The door flew a considerable distance and finally stopped after crushing several Sorcerers who were preparing their defense inside.
“H-huhhhh!”
The Sorcerers gasped.
Traces of all kinds of experiments were visible.
Kalt examined it at a glance and puffed, lightly dusted his fist. His red, bloodshot eyes gleamed ominously in the dark.
“I found you, cockroach bastards.”
Crash!
Kalt’s shot was fired.
There were about six Sorcerers standing in its path, and the time it took for their heads to turn one full circle was less than a second.
Thud, Crack. Crash!
Their bodies fell without a proper counterattack. After the sound of something breaking and shattering echoed for a while, a silence came as the bloodied Sorcerers rolled on the ground.
The clack and clack sounds as the Dark Mages clashed their teeth together were equally lost to resolve. Kalt stomped their fingers, preventing them from drawing circuits, and then he turned his head back.
“Let’s finish up and go back.”
With a flat expression, Kalt muttered those words, and the Hounds could only quietly gulp their dry saliva.
Guarder, the leader of the Hounds.
No one questioned Kalt’s rise to that position. After witnessing such a sight, who could dare to question it?
*
“Are you looking different than usual?”
Raniael asked, pointing at Kalt.
Kalt, slouched and dozing off with bloodshot eyes, was familiar to Raniael. The current appearance of Kalt sitting in front of her felt quite strange.
His skin was glowing with vitality.
His eyes shimmering instead of looking dull.
“Do I look so?”
Even his voice was full of life.
It wasn’t the cracked voice of a zombie. While Raniael nodded with a weird expression, Kalt sipped his tea.
“Yesterday, I finally had a good sleep. Do you have any idea how many hours I slept, Senior? You’d be shocked if you heard.”
“How many hours?”
“A whole six hours.”
Six hours?
“People say you should sleep an average of six hours, don’t they? So I packed it in and slept for six hours straight, and my body feels so refreshed!”
Six hours.
Not an insignificant amount of sleep, but not exactly a lot either.
“Is that so…?”
“Wow, it’s been ages since I slept this long. Today, for the first time, I realized that the morning sun can look beautiful when you’re awake!”
What kind of life are you living?
Feeling a strange sense of guilt, Raniael slyly pushed the bread she had bought for herself over to Kalt.
“…You eat it.”
“Eh? What’s this? Senior, you’re giving me this? You usually finish it all by yourself without offering me any.”
“Just eat it. Eat a lot.”
“If you’re offering, then…”
Kalt chewed on the bread while sipping his tea.
With how relaxed he looked, Raniael decided internally that she needed to give him less work in the future.
“Oh, speaking of which, Senior.”
“Oh? What is it?”
Kalt took out a report.
“I found this research material while cleaning out an organization this time. Do you know what it is?”
It was the research material he had discovered in the cockroach nest he had smashed the night before.
“I think it’s a collaboration between Dark Mages and Sorcerers, but those guys were doomsayers? Saying something about the end times or something…”
As Kalt’s voice trailed off, Raniael inspected the report he handed over. After scanning through it, she finally spoke up.
“This…”
“Do you know something?”
“It’s actually nothing much.”
Raniael lightly poked the report.
“It’s what Dark Mages do, you know? Sacrificing offerings to increase their mana. Seems like they were just trying to do that?”
“…Is that so?”
“What, is there something bothering you?”
“Well, you see, Senior.”
Kalt hesitated before speaking.
“It was pretty difficult to find their base. Setting aside them knowing my abilities, I searched everywhere they could reasonably be but found nothing.”
But, you see.
“When I finally found the location, it made sense why I hadn’t been able to find it. I’d never imagined they’d set up somewhere like that.”
“Where was it?”
Kalt answered.
“Under the Ashen Tower, the flowing waterways.”
3.
The next Master of the Tower, Resti.
Having seized the power of the Ashen Tower and driven out several Elders, she was now practically the Master of the Tower. If she were merely wielding power, there would have been noise about it, but her exercise of power was matched by appropriate results.
For the past year, Resti proved her abilities.
Under the disappearance of the Ashen Mage, the Ashen Tower, which had been on a steady decline, was showing its first upward trend this year. Once again, the Ashen Tower was aiming high, and at the center of this flow was Resti Elenoa.
Sometimes acting decisively to cut through.
She invested in departments others thought would fail, pulling in unexpected profits.
Her eyes always pierced to the essence, rendering superficial results meaningless in front of her. As this repeated, the tower’s Mages eventually acknowledged Resti’s talents.
A talent comparable to that of the Ashen Mage.
If the Ashen Tower were to ascend once more, Resti Elenoa would undoubtedly be at the center of it. With such evaluations, Resti continued to manage the tower.
“······.”
While checking documents in her office, Resti suddenly looked out the window. From her office, located on the top floor of the Ashen Tower, the cityscape unfolded before her.
In the office that had now fully become hers, she reminisced about the past. The time when she first came here. Memories of the Elder who took her in, and the times spent together.
“One day, I look forward to seeing you in this position. Resti.”
Krenbel Elenoa.
The Elder who was at the heart of the Ashen Tower, sitting in a position just like that of the Master of the Tower.
“If I can see you sitting in this place, recognized by everyone, what more could I need? That is my dream.”
Also, the one who recognized Resti’s talents and became her foster father. Thinking of her benefactor, Resti wore a faint smile.
“I wish you would wake up soon.”
Krenbel Elenoa, who had been bedridden for many years due to an unknown illness, remained in an unconscious state. However, his condition was slowly improving, and she believed he would soon awaken. Resti felt that way.
With her eyes closed, Resti envisioned the future.
‘If he wakes up.’
If he opened his eyes and saw the current her, she imagined he would say with a gentle smile.
“Excellent, Resti.
I am proud of you.”
How wonderful it would be if he said that.
As Resti smiled, someone abruptly kicked the door to her office, entering without even knocking. Just as she was about to say something about the rudeness…
“Master! Master of the Tower!”
Her secretary burst in, shouting.
“The Elder, Elder Krenbel has awakened!”
Resti gasped.
*
“You know, Kalt.”
“What is it, Senior? Why does your voice sound like that? Why are you speaking to me so gently?”
Kalt jumped back in surprise.
“When you call my name like that, something very bad usually happens to me.”
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
“I sincerely hope it’s only nonsense. Please, don’t betray my trust…”
“Enough.”
Rania slammed the table.
With a bright smile, she continued speaking.
“Let me ask you for a favor.”
Kalt’s expression soured.
*
