A Horror Novel’s Supporting Character Wants to Live as a Human

Chapter 279

Chapter 279

Asgard's 'Mage Tower' was about a 10-minute wolf sled ride from the imposing royal castle.

As the largest magical research building currently in Asgard, most mages had flocked here where they could focus on abundant resources and research.

Of course, Small Mage Towers like the one they had used were also built in Asgard, but many places had suffered serious damage, perhaps due to fierce winds and frost.

Moreover, unlike in Aquilonia, the Small Mage Towers didn't have permanently residing mages in charge.

Not only was the territory too vast to send mages to all the Small Mage Towers scattered everywhere,

But managing a Small Mage Tower alone in a remote location could lead to difficult situations.

It was a country where the phrase 'might freeze to death if not careful' was quite fitting.

Anyway, it was good that he had come to a place swarming with mages.

"...It seems like everyone doesn't like me much."Wherever he went, people would scatter and clear a path for him.

It wasn't exactly out of respect or admiration either. Their sidelong glances contained obvious discomfort and displeasure.

He, who was unintentionally performing Moses' miracle wherever he went, spoke to the escort who was faithfully following behind him,

But the escort remained taciturn and said nothing.

Of course, he hadn't expected to receive a warm welcome from Asgard's mages,

But at the same time, he hadn't known they would be so reluctant to make contact.

He grabbed a mage who happened to be walking past him while pressed against the wall and asked.

"I just want to ask one thing here."

"Wh-what? Please don't do this to me."

"What?"

What had he done for them to already be telling him not to do this?

As he stared dumbfounded at this absurdity, the mage quickly scurried down the corridor.

He didn't even have a chance to grab him. Was he some kind of plague carrier or something!

As he watched the retreating figure in disbelief, he heard the escort knight clear his throat with a 'ahem' from behind.

Did he laugh? Did he laugh? He would complain to Yurik on his behalf when he returned.

"At this rate, never mind three days. Even after more than a week, I wouldn't be able to get even the first letter of investigation out."

Special measures were needed.

If possible, it seemed like he needed someone of higher rank to come out rather than ordinary mages for any conversation to happen.

While standing and wracking his brain for some method, a good idea suddenly occurred to him.

He immediately rushed out of the comfortable interior to the outside of the Mage Tower, and the escort knight hurriedly followed and draped a cloak over him.

But his interest wasn't in the cold or the frozen path that crunched underfoot.

It was the statue erected in front of the entrance to the Mage Tower.

Below the statue of an unknown mage standing with a short beard, elegant lettering was engraved.

'In honor of Eibon, the greatest Great Mage in history.'

Though he couldn't know exactly when the statue was made, it looked quite intact.

As Dardin had once said, every Mage Tower had at least one portrait to honor the Great Mage.

Here it had just taken the form of a statue instead.

Perhaps they had put effort into it since they were close to the capital of ancient Acheron, but that wasn't his concern.

"Hey, I have a favor to ask."

The escort knight, whose face wasn't visible, nodded.

He pointed to the statue impersonating Eibon and asked.

"Can you cut this in half?"

"...?"

"I want to cut it down. Is it difficult? If it's difficult, never mind."

The escort knight looked down at his own hands as if hearing such an order for the first time.

The escort knight, who had been looking back and forth between his own hands wearing black gloves and the statue, turned his face toward him.

Somehow it seemed like the escort knight was asking 'Really do it?' so he nodded.

He sighed slightly, then drew his sword with the scabbard and approached the statue.

With light movements, the escort knight jumped up onto the pedestal supporting the statue, gripped the sword handle like an axe, and swung it with all his might.

-Clang!

A clear sound rang through the blizzard-filled sky.

Quite loud sounds continued to ring out.

-Clang! Clang! Clang! Claang!

As the sounds continued, people began coming out of the Mage Tower.

They saw the escort knight striking down the fake Eibon statue and him grinning, then screamed and came running.

"How rude!"

"Hey. Try moving just one more step from there. You think I can't smash you before I finish destroying Eibon's statue?"

"What are you thinking! A mere foreigner! How dare you damage Great Mage Eibon's statue!"

"It's not damage."

This was closer to a restoration process, if anything.

To properly erect an Eibon statue, fake statues had to be demolished in advance.

Meanwhile, the escort knight was persistently swinging his scabbard, steadily damaging the statue's legs.

-Clang! Claaang!

While everyone stood around in dismay, not knowing what to do, someone pushed through the mages and appeared.

"What in the world is this! Stop that immediately!"

Someone equally pale shouted like fire.

Seeing his completely bald head and beard reaching down to his chest, he could feel it immediately.

He thought, you're the top dog of this Mage Tower, aren't you?

* * *

"If you had given us notice, I would have come out to greet you in advance. I am Lars, who bears the humble responsibility for this Mage Tower."

"It was such an urgent matter that I didn't have the luxury for that."

He said he would have come out if notified. What a funny guy.

They, who had executed 'bring out the highest person in charge' by destroying the fake Eibon statue, were immediately guided to a reception room.

Surely someone must have reported his visit, yet now he was acting as if he hadn't known.

But he didn't want to nitpick over such things with someone much younger than him, so he silently took a sip of hot tea.

Watching this, Lars spoke with great dignity and propriety.

"I don't know how it might be in Aquilonia, but at least Asgardians have respect for Great Mage Eibon."

"Really? I didn't know. It would be good to bill His Majesty King Oderus for the damaged statue. While we're at it, why don't we scrape off all the rust too."

"Wouldn't it be troublesome if His Majesty King Oderus heard about this?"

"Not particularly."

If it were up to him, he would have wanted to pull out all the fake Eibon statues and plant the people who cast the statues there instead.

But those people would all be dead by now.

Hearing his answer, Lars let out a hollow laugh.

"You're quite an extraordinary person. Having gained much compared to your age, the world must feel like it's beneath your feet."

"Still, I'm troubled because I don't seem to have gained as much as you yet."

After exchanging 'this is a rare crazy bastard' and 'look in the mirror, rare guy,' they glared at each other and waited briefly.

Eventually, Lars was the first to speak.

"Since the Asgard royal family made a direct request, I'll check it. What did you come here for?"

"His Majesty the King told me. When investigating the hopeless cold, mages were also present."

"That's correct. Did you come to see the records from that time? If so, you should go to the royal scribes rather than the Mage Tower-"

"I could inquire with the royal scribes to find the records. But that's not what I'm curious about. I became interested because I heard mages mentioned a 'great being' at that time. Who were the mages who participated in that meeting?"

What he was curious about was information about the 'great being.'

Other scholars would have logically concluded that the weather had gotten cold,

But mages, unless they were on Eibon's level, were people who couldn't even predict tomorrow's weather, let alone the massive flow of magical power flowing through the planet.

Yet they pointed to a 'great being' as the cause of the weather change?

Without knowing what the being's identity was, what role it played, or how humans perceived it.

It was suspicious that they were trying to shift responsibility to some unknown something.

It would be good if he could meet the mages once and hear information about it.

But Lars shook his head.

"That was before I became the person in charge, so I don't know in detail who participated in the meeting."

"But if they participated in the royal policy meeting, they must have been quite well-known mages. Still impossible?"

"From what I remember, the Mage Tower's position was that weather changes were problems that scholars should solve. Magic to artificially control weather is theoretically possible, but it requires enormous amounts of magical power. It's not something a few humans gathered together could accomplish."

"To change the climate of a large country like Asgard, it would be impossible even if all of Asgard's mages gathered."

"It's magic that exists in theory but cannot be implemented in reality. So there was no need for the Mage Tower to get involved. But..."

Lars let out a deep sigh. It seemed there was something.

"Mages who had just entered the Mage Tower caused a commotion, claiming they knew the solution to this climate problem. I know they petitioned several times to the Mage Tower's director at the time to let them participate in the investigation being conducted by the royal family."

"And eventually they talked about the 'great being' at the meeting, and after that?"

"What after would there be? The Mage Tower's position became difficult because they had proposed unverified hypotheses, and those mages were dishonorably expelled from the Mage Tower. That's all I know."

"Didn't the Mage Tower try to find out about the 'great being' separately?"

"Unless it was officially approved or there were existing research results being conducted. The Mage Tower doesn't have the talent or time to prove such absurd hypotheses."

"Then do you know where they went after being expelled?"

"The Mage Tower has no right to track the whereabouts of unregistered mages."

Something felt unsettling.

The more he heard the story, the more incongruous it felt, but he couldn't clearly pinpoint where that feeling came from.

He needed a clue, even a very small one.

"Still, there should be records from when those people were at the Mage Tower. Can't you show me even those?"

If the Mage Tower was a group for mages' research, no matter how much they were expelled, they wouldn't have casually deleted all records including research achievements.

Whether his expectation was correct, Lars hesitated for a moment, then finally answered as if he had no choice.

"I'll guide you to the Mage Tower's records archive. The expelled members' records are stored separately, so let's look for them. But this is only out of respect for His Majesty King Oderus's request. Please refrain from actions like earlier."

If the Mage Tower officials had come out barefoot when he first arrived, there would have been no need to destroy the statue.

As he nodded while recalling the statue with one leg grotesquely distorted,

Lars stood up and opened the reception room door.

Just then, a mage wearing a dark navy cloak was pacing in the corridor connected to the reception room.

Lars seemed to recognize him and suddenly shouted like thunder.

"You there. Do you have time to spare? Then guide our guest to the records archive!"

"Me? You mean me?"

"Is there another mage here besides you? Just try getting trapped again by misallocating magical power when going up!"

His momentum was quite fierce.

As he left the reception room with the escort knight who had been standing behind him, the mage who had been standing awkwardly not knowing what to do followed along.

"Th-this way, please. It's quite complicated to get to the archive, so please follow me well. Geez, what is this..."

Following the muttering navy-robed mage to the archive, there were various mages along the way.

Overall, most wore dark-colored robes with quite heavy, serious-looking attire,

And they had serious expressions as if having low-voiced, earnest conversations.

But when they made eye contact with him, they would turn their heads away as if seeing something unclean.

Similar reactions to the first mage he had met earlier made him curious again.

"Are Asgard's mages originally exclusive?"

"Are you asking me?"

"Yes."

The mage looked back in alarm. Yes, he had asked him, so what about it?

"Don't outsiders usually enter the Mage Tower? Everyone acts strangely when they see me. I'm curious."

"...Generally, yes. It would be a big problem if research leaked from the Mage Tower. Visitors can't enter unless they're pre-authorized people. Moreover, I heard you're a foreigner - is that really true?"

"It's true I came from Aquilonia."

"Just in case, but don't get any foolish ideas."

"Why would I do that?"

The wariness was excessive for simply worrying about research data leakage.

But in this era, mages received special treatment, so perhaps it was natural.

Even teleportation magic couldn't be used without mages.

Having various thoughts, he passed many mages who glared at him or showed disgust, heading toward the center of the Mage Tower.

In the center was a circular space with one wall opened,

When they entered there, the navy-robed mage placed his hand on a round sphere on the wall.

After a moment, the floor vibrated faintly and began slowly rising.

"This goes up?"

"Aquilonia probably doesn't have this kind of magic."

Wasn't this completely like a modern elevator?

The mage smirked, but even that wasn't bothersome enough to care about because it was so interesting.

When the thick floor rose to some extent, he could see the mages below at a glance.

When the floor changed, there were mages running around as if on fire with thick smoke,

And places with huge gemstones of various colors set up.

The sections between floors were quite long, and while waiting, he even felt anticipation about what kind of floor would appear next.

While he was enjoying waiting for the next floor, something suddenly entered his hand.

"?"

It was a small piece of paper.

The person who had pushed it into his hand was none other than the mage wearing the navy robe.

He neither looked back at him nor spoke to him.

After handing over the paper, he stood still with his back to him as if he had done nothing.

The slowly moving floor stopped with a grinding sound.

The dusty smell that could only be found in books was thick in the air.

"I'll come back in a little while. Guests have limited time they can stay in the Mage Tower."

"Oh, but you just gave me-"

"So please finish all your business in the archive by that time. If you're not here when I return, all the mages in the Mage Tower will be searching for you, so don't do anything strange."

The mage who had spoken rapid-fire by himself went down alone again.

After the mage completely disappeared from sight, he read the piece of paper he had secretly handed over.

[Enhancement Therapy: Gambling / Founder / Birch Forest]

What did all this mean?