Chosen by the Northern Grand Duke

Chapter 29: Watchtower (2)

Unlike a typical boundary, this land lacked chill and cutting winds.

Instead of chill, a matching heat settled, and the sun in the cloudless sky was blinding to look at.

Compared to this land, I was far too small.

My mana was buried in this land’s mana.

It felt like fire being consumed by a greater fire.

That relationship reversed.

The heat settling on the land suddenly felt faint. The sun in the sky seemed smaller.

It was consuming this land.

Looking at it burned my eyes.

But Ellen didn’t look away. Her unique Aura somehow made it possible.

It was a sphere the size of Jesult’s body.

Its color was dark. Not entirely dark. A reddish hue mixed in, making it more menacing.

Light shone from the sphere’s surface.

The scene resembled an eclipse, with fire writhing on its surface.

That was all.

The fire merely raged on the surface.

Ellen realized there was no need to intervene.

Jesult was shrinking.

Its mere presence melted and killed Jesult.

Wings approaching the sun melt, they say.

Jesult was those wings. It wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t him; the sun had descended.

Yes, the sun.

Ellen, forcing her dry eyes open, thought so.

Even without knowing my Origin, she would call it a sun.

There was no other way to describe it.

‘A 3rd Rank like a 4th Rank?’

Nonsense. Ellen laughed in disbelief.

How was that 3rd Rank? Even 4th Rank was hard to believe. Jesult, a 4th Rank, was dying so futilely.

Because of this land?

Projection. That black sun had risen in the North too. Ios died by it.

Suddenly, she recalled the ragged beast.

Ellen had lost to it. I had won.

Back then, she felt defeated.

Not by me, but by the beast. Because I knew my victory was thanks to her contribution.

Of course, that alone made me a special mage.

But Ellen never once considered me an equal or superior.

She often wanted to fight me, but it was clearly out of curiosity.

…Not anymore.

Ellen felt a competitive spirit rising from her toes.

Could I cut that down?

She couldn’t be sure. She’d have to try to know. She wanted to try. That was reason enough. Instinctively, she drew her sword and took a stance.

Then our eyes met.

I was gazing at Ellen steadily.

Jesult was gone. What was once Jesult was flowing into the black sun.

“Mind the time and place.”

My eyes looked languid.

They seemed angry, or maybe laughing.

It was hard to read my emotions.

Come to think of it, I was that kind of person.

Yet, I always seemed to see through her.

“I’ll have plenty of chances to face you.”

Ellen didn’t like it but didn’t entirely dislike it either.

“If you want.”

There would be plenty of opportunities.

* * *

My body creaked, but surprisingly, I was fine inside.

Though a part of the sun had manifested, my vessel wasn’t damaged.

It must be this land’s power.

A land dominated by fire, favoring fire.

Here, manifesting magic was easy.

Even projection.

‘Tempting.’

I wanted to take this land with me.

If I hadn’t regressed, living here wouldn’t be bad.

“You okay?”

“Why ask me?”

“You messed up Gullen. An Origin that doesn’t distinguish friend from foe.”

“My eyes are dry, but I’m fine.”

As expected, Ellen was different from Gullen.

“Why did you do that at the end?”

Ellen asked abruptly.

“Me?”

“The mage you ate.”

“Oh, he was eaten by the Origin.”

I said casually.

“That’s because a mage’s essence is the Origin. I’m a vessel for the sun, so to speak.”

I pressed my left chest firmly.

“When the vessel shakes, the contents spill. That’s what happened to Jesult.”

“…”

“I told you, Origins are never docile. They always try to consume the mage.”

Origins were double-edged swords.

“Of course, some Origins are different. I call them tame Origins. Kubel’s smoke might be one.”

In my previous life, Kubel might have been addicted to hearts, but he wasn’t consumed by his Origin.

Even when consumed by revenge.

“Could you end up like that too?”

It never happened in my previous life.

I don’t know about this time.

“Every mage has that possibility. It’s not your concern. It’s mine.”

“…”

I turned my head.

Herbis looked surprisingly fine.

He was unconscious but seemed unharmed.

“Let’s go back inside the tower.”

I grabbed Herbis’s collar and walked.

Or tried to. Herbis didn’t move. Not because he was heavy, but because I had no strength left.

Compared to Ios, it was a minor aftereffect.

“Can you carry him?”

“That’s your problem too.”

For some reason, Ellen was cold.

* * *

The cold moment was brief.

I didn’t know why, but Ellen was a person driven by curiosity above all.

Ellen pointed at the tower, mouth agape.

She was too shocked to speak.

Jesult had clearly destroyed the space between the first and thirtieth floors. The walls too—some floors had no walls left.

Yet the tower still stood.

The middle section was completely severed.

No, it was more like it was floating.

The upper section, from the thirty-first to the fiftieth floor, existed in the air without support.

“Remarkable.”

Instead of explaining, I marveled with Ellen.

I had never seen a building floating in the air, even in my previous life.

“Is the tower itself a magical item?”

“This land doesn’t want it to collapse.”

Herbis, now awake, stood up. He stared at me intently, his face heavy with burden.

I avoided his gaze and looked at the floating tower. I didn’t feel this land’s interference.

“You treat this land as special. Or is it the Red Tower?”

“Yes. We consider it a land bestowed by the heavens.”

Herbis pointed upward as he spoke.

“Let’s go up.”

“How?”

“It’s just a shell.”

Herbis walked.

Ellen pointed at his back. ‘Should I kill him?’ she seemed to ask. I shook my head. I was curious about the tower.

The tower resembled an icicle.

As if the clouds were the ceiling, it hung beneath.

The lower section left no trace.

Yet Herbis moved as if the first floor existed.

He acted as if there was a handle in the empty air, grasping, turning, and opening a door.

He kept acting as if the tower was there.

He pressed a finger into the air, waited, and stepped forward.

Like using an elevator.

‘Is he mad? No.’

My narrowed eyes widened.

There was nothing, yet there was. A shell. Herbis’s word was apt.

“It’s not that the land doesn’t want it to collapse. It was built this way to begin with.”

“It could only be built this way because of this land.”

Ellen understood their conversation when she followed them inside.

A sense of weightlessness hit. It wasn’t an illusion.

Her body was actually floating. She was ascending through the air.

“It’s the elevator we used earlier.”

“…?”

Touching the side, she felt an invisible wall.

“It was originally a transparent building. The Red Tower coated it with a brick-like shell.”

How was that possible?

If it was truly transparent, when Jesult destroyed the floor, they should’ve been standing on a transparent floor.

“Don’t try to understand. That’s what makes it magic.”

As always, I didn’t expect Ellen to understand.

Ellen didn’t like that. It felt caring yet dismissive.

After a while, the weightlessness faded.

Herbis pressed an invisible but existent button and stepped forward.

“Thirty-first floor. You’ll have to walk from here.”

Herbis stood by the entrance, waiting for Ellen and me to exit.

Specifically, for me.

He stayed still when Ellen exited but followed when I did.

From here, the tower’s shell existed.

The thirty-first floor was entirely a spiral staircase, seemingly leading to the top.

“I have a lot to ask.”

“Ask as we climb.”

I climbed the stairs with Ellen.

Herbis followed respectfully.

“Come beside me.”

“How could I…”

“It’s an order.”

“Yes.”

Ellen’s eyes widened.

I shrugged. For some reason, Herbis treated me as a superior.

“You’re awfully compliant. You must’ve known I’m not from the Otherworld.”

No need to pretend anymore.

Jesult was already dead. Yet Herbis still followed me closely.

It meant Jesult was irrelevant.

“Is the Red Tower like that?”

“Fire is precious. We all revere it in our own way.”

“Revere.”

I laughed.

To Ellen, it looked like a sneer.

“3rd Rank?”

“An inadequate body.”

“You could aim for 4th Rank in this land.”

“Yes. We call it the Sanctuary of Fire.”

That’s why Herbis wasn’t intimidated by Jesult.

“There must be sanctuaries for other towers too.”

“Not like this land.”

Herbis seemed immensely proud.

“You’re with the Red Tower?”

“It’s a common belief and fact in the Otherworld.”

“The Red Tower must be a greater tower than I thought.”

“No tower in history has surpassed the Red Tower.”

His eyes added that it would stay that way. They burned like fire.

“I heard the Red Tower has no master.”

“The King is merely absent.”

Herbis called the Red Tower’s master a king.

“I heard you’re blocking the flow of paradise.”

If even the Ivory Tower turned, the Red Tower couldn’t stop the flow of paradise, Herbis had told Jesult.

“What flow?”

“The conquest of the continent.”

Ellen’s eyes widened.

Her hand went to her sword. I raised my arm to stop her.

“It sounds like the Red Tower opposes the conquest.”

“You heard correctly. That’s how we are.”

“Why oppose it?”

“Because the King hasn’t returned.”

The Otherworld’s invasion was 15 years later.

Until then, they chose infiltration over assault.

‘That was their best option.’

Because the Ivory Tower was neutral, and the Red Tower opposed it.

‘There are factions in the Otherworld too.’

That’s why the conquest took 15 years.

In other words, the Red Tower would change its stance within 15 years.

Or fall.

‘The latter, likely.’

In my previous life, I knew only two fire mages.

One was myself.

“What’s your Origin?”

“A match flame.”

Herbis was the third fire mage I knew.

“Are all Red Tower mages fire Origins?”

“Yes.”

“Many?”

“As you might guess, not many.”

Meaning not few either.

“As expected.”

I asked more after that.

Mostly about the Otherworld, the rest about the Red Tower.

“There are nobles in the Otherworld too. From 4th Rank.”

The king was the tower master.

The Otherworld had several kings, then.

“Are children of 4th Ranks nobles too?”

“Not by rule, but practically, yes. The mother bird is a noble.”

Meaning they’re fed hearts.

Eating many doesn’t guarantee a higher rank, but it helps.

“The tower master isn’t hereditary either.”

“Yes. The most outstanding mage becomes the tower’s king.”

The most outstanding.

I knew that didn’t just mean rank.

In the Otherworld, talent meant Origin.

A great Origin meant a great rank.

One of the Otherworld’s truths.

“I heard towers are named after the greatest mage’s Origin.”

The proof was that towers took the name of the greatest mage’s Origin in history.

I knew the tower of wind mages was called Storm.

“Correct. Storm was truly a great king.”

As expected.

Herbis called the Origin, not the mage, a king.

It was the Otherworld’s ethos. They prioritized Origins over mages.

One reason I thought a mage’s essence was their Origin.

“Why is the Red Tower named after a color, not an Origin?”

“Because we dare not name it. The Red Tower is the greatest in the Otherworld.”

Meaning its master was the greatest king in the Otherworld.

I felt my face flush.

In the Otherworld, genius is judged by Origin.

The sun was the grandest concept among fires.

If the Red Tower chose a king, it would be me.

Not something I’d say myself, nor do I plan to go to the Otherworld, but objectively, it was clear.

I thought Herbis’s attitude was proof.

He was extremely deferential, answering anything I asked.

“Am I the mage to be king?”

“I hope so, but… probably not.”

Herbis gave an awkward smile.

“The Red Tower has a prophecy. We’re searching for the one it points to.”

Search and prophecy.

Ios had said the Red Tower was obsessed with both.

“Our King belongs to a woman. The prophecy says so.”

Herbis had called the Origin, not the mage, the king earlier.

Whatever that Origin was, the mage with it was a woman.

“Are you a woman, Harad?”

Herbis asked without a trace of prejudice.

“Pfft.”

Ellen laughed beside me.

“Oh, we’re here.”

…The top of the tower was in sight.