The Death Knight Became an Escort Knight for the Saintess

42. Tower of Magic

42.

Of course, the feeling you get when something you only expected materializes, that is, when it appears in reality, is beyond imagination. There are times like that. Even though it is real, it is difficult to believe that it is real and you cannot judge for yourself.

At that time, things like your own judgment and cognitive abilities are useless. At that moment, the subject loses its character as a subject and exists only as an object dependent on someone. In this case, the reality that exists before our eyes does not exist as reality. Reality exists only when it is ratified by someone.

Because of Celia too, when she opened the window and looked out, she couldn’t believe the sight before her eyes. It was like all the sights she had seen, yet different. Wagons driving on red dirt roads raising dust. Busy market.

As if branching, the heights of the roads extending from the main road and the buildings leading to a certain place presumed to be the center are getting higher and higher. There were as many races as she had seen.

Those scenes seemed awkward to her at the moment.

Women passing by in the eastern continent were mostly wearing monochromatic clothes, such as red, blue, or white, rather than clothes of various colors, and those clothes were stretched out long. It was as if he was wearing a robe-type garment. Occasionally, there were clothes of this type embroidered with picturesque figures in gold or silver.

The case of the men was a bit extreme, with some men completely stripped of their tops, while others were also wearing long, loose robes. Such unique – in her standards – combination of form and raucousness, and with the market’s unique heat, produced a strange holiness. The saintess liked her boldness.

But it would be hard to deny that at least half of that hum was attributable to the steamed octopus she was eating. Ashlia stuffed one of her steamed octopus into her mouth and mumbled. She bulged out one side of her cheek. As Celia chewed the steamed octopus she kept on one side of her cheek several times, Celia looked at the remaining steamed octopus in the container with a spleen look. Soon, her hand moved like lightning.

She tried to put her steamed octopus in her mouth as well as her house. Her heroic attempt failed spectacularly. Her small mouth and face did not dare to accept the second steamed octopus. She ate the steamed octopus one after another with a slightly depressed expression. Still, when she put her last steamed octopus into her mouth, her blues were much gone.

Escelia smiled as she rubbed the steamed octopus with her happy expression. The saintess, who had closed her eyes in her happiness, opened them gently. Because of her, her eyes met Jer Pied, who was staring at her. In an instant, the saintess felt a sense of shame rising from the situation that suddenly unfolded. She didn’t even have time to make excuses. Because Zerfied said it first.

“If you are hungry, say more. Buy some more.”

As usual, he was expressionless and calm in his tone. That made her even more ashamed. The saintess blinked her eyes wide, then quickly shook her head. Celia was still for a moment, so she must have expressed her affirmation. She wanted to get up, but Zer Pied sat down again.

Escelia did her best to drive away her shyness. She asked a question to turn the fire.

“That, so! Knight! Ooh, where exactly are we now?! Where are you going?!”

Her attempt succeeded differently from eating steamed octopus. Zerfied thought the question reasonable. She saw the escort knight nodding her head and thought something was fortunate. Zer Pied took a world map out of her backpack and fluttered. Death Knight tapped the port city at the western end of the eastern continent with his fingers. The name Ehardo was written there.

“We are here now. This is an inn on the outskirts of Ehard. We docked here in the middle of the morning. I had a hard time waking you up because you were sleeping soundly. I have no choice but to hold you and move……. Ecilia?”

The Death Knight frowned. It was because his lady had a unique expression. Because of his exceptionally white skin, his face, which was clearly red, seemed to be disturbed if he touched it lightly.

Unlike usual, he did not show a stable figure leaning on or lying down somewhere, but when he said that he had come carrying his sleeping self in his arms, Esilia imagined a ridiculous image of herself that she showed her naked appearance. Startled, he nodded his head.

“… Are you okay?”

Seeing that he nodded his head once more, Zerfied continued his explanation.

“This is just to give you a break, and you won’t be staying very long. It is this city that I am assuming as my destination right now.”

With his fingers in the air for a moment, Zer Pied quickly pointed to a point. It was a city located in the interior of the eastern continent. Seeing that city, Esilia tilted her head. The landmark representing the city was a long building. It looked like a tower.

“This is….”

“I finished checking on my way to buy steamed octopus. It’s a mage tower.”

Although, she was a saint with only indirect experience and almost no direct experience. Even her second-hand experience of that is hardly out of place in Central Continent. Still, there was one of her knowledge of the few other continents she knew.

Magic Tower. A place like the home of wizards and witches. Those who control the power that makes up the world close to distortion and bring about a momentary mystery.

They are only interested in how to arouse more colorful mysteries through the power that composes the world. Of course, what they focus on is the search for the cause that arouses the mystery, that is, the power that composes the world. They are indifferent to political matters such as occupying strategic points.

So they needed a space just for themselves. Their own space prepared solely to explore the power that composes the world without getting caught up in complicated or cumbersome situations. They made the magic tower like that. Naturally, the Mage Tower served as a central point for gathering wizards and witches, and when people gathered to a certain level, it began to function as a city.

The magic tower that the Death Knight and the saintess are looking at now was like this. However, the Death Knight slightly frowned and scanned the map representing the eastern continent with his eyes. Seeing the escort knight’s sharp gaze, the saintess cautiously asked a question.

“I… What’s up? Knight?”

“… I don’t see any other mage towers besides this one.”

“Oh, yes. It will. I think I’ve seen that there are facilities in other cities that play an unreasonable role in the mage tower… However, the orthodox mage tower knows that this mage tower is currently the only one.”

“…… Is it unique?”

Death Knight blinked his sharp eyes once. About 1,000 years ago, when he was active as the main axis of the battle of life and death, the mage tower was basic. Unless it was a relatively small city, any city over a certain size had a mage tower.

Even in the case of the capital of a kingdom, three or four. There were places that had as many as five or six mage towers. He ruminated on the memory of ten magic towers in the capital of a country he knew. That’s why the fact that the mage tower was the only one seemed very strange to him. Seeing the escort knight blink her eyes, the saintess opened her mouth.

“Do you remember that the number of wizards and witches has greatly decreased since the War of Life and Death?”

The Death Knight nodded. The saintess also nodded.

“Of course, the wizards and witches who participated in the battle of life and death um… Well, they were kind of orthodox. That means they were high-ranking people. Those who are very orthodox and proficient in magic.”

The saintess’ white hand drew something in motion. The saintess was trying to show some flashy movement with her serious expression. However, in the eyes of the Death Knight, it was similar to a baby’s toddling behavior. The saintess gave her explanation.

“By the way, those orthodox wizards and witches popped up in an instant! It’s gone.”

Esilia’s hand, which had been toddling in the air, sank. Only then did the Death Knight know that her gestures represented the movements of the wizard and witch. Perhaps she is an expression of her magic in her own way. Although it was very different from the magic Death Knight actually saw. The thin finger of her saintess who was falling beneath her pointed at her Death Knight.

“It is because of the driver!”

After hearing the saintess’ words, the Death Knight felt that she would understand something. In fact, most of the forces he faced in the life-and-death war were knights, or wizards and witches. Seeing the escort knight stroking her chin, the saintess nodded her head proudly.

“The wizards and witches who participated in the life-and-death war lost their lives in an instant. Of course, the Mage Tower, the space where they were immersed in their research, all collapsed. Paradoxically, the wizards and witches who survived the life-and-death war were not very good at magic.

They didn’t actively participate in the war. But rather, thanks to not participating, the genealogy of magic did not end. The few wizards who survived gathered the remnants of magic that still remained. They managed to scrape together the legacy of high-powered men who were superior to them.

After all, they are magic wielders, and the view that knowledge of magic should not be lost was common to all of them. They decided to pass on the artifacts of the past to preserve this knowledge. That’s the magic tower. Since the current Mage Tower was created by gathering the remaining materials somehow, this is the only existing Mage Tower.”

After hearing the explanation, the Death Knight calmly expressed his thoughts.

“Then the level of magic must have been downgraded a lot, since the genealogy of high-ranking powers was cut off and the remnants continued their lives.”

However, on the contrary, Ecilia expressed bewilderment.

“Uh…. I’m not very familiar with magic, so I don’t know…. I don’t think I heard that much.”

The Death Knight tilted her head.

In the past, the relationship between the Mage Tower and politics was strange. The Magic Tower was not subordinated to any one place. They were inside a country, but had a unique form of acting as an independent institution. The relationship between Nara and the Mage Tower was horizontal. It was more like an alliance.

The country supported wizards and witches with the materials and money they wanted, and when they received such support, they studied or developed magic that was helpful to the country that supported them. When necessary, he was mobilized even in war and led the country to victory.

Of course, it would not have been a very pleasant experience for them to be dragged out of the Mage Tower and mobilized for war, unless it was the former. However, as long as the magic tower also existed inside the country, there was no particularly suitable method for them. If the country they are staying in perishes, it will be difficult to obtain the money and materials they have received so far. But that was all.

The only cases where the residents of the Mage Tower came out of the Mage Tower were in special cases, such as when materials needed for magic research ran out or when the country where their Mage Tower existed was attacked. Other than that, the residents of the Mage Tower did not want to come out of the Mage Tower and were only immersed in the study of magic.

Esilia’s explanation was similar.

She said, “I heard that she solved almost everything inside the Mage Tower in order to somehow restore the magic that was practiced. Of course, I don’t know if this is accurate. The Magic Tower is still a closed organization, and there are a lot of really absurd rumors about it.”

Death Knight laughed inwardly. Those who live and die by magic, when everything they had built almost disappeared, reduced the external relationship they had maintained to a minimum and further strengthened their own life within it.

Zerpied thought it was like them. His former contractor, the witch, was also engrossed in one of her studies, and she ended up skipping meals for several days, because he had to tell her to eat her meals at regular intervals. However, there was something else that drew Zerfied’s attention. He paid attention to Ecilia’s last words.

“What rumors do you hear?”

Upon receiving the escort knight’s question, Esilia bit her lip once. The saintess of hers wiggled her fingers anxiously.

“Um… It’s a really stupid rumor…. I heard she just turns living people into squirrels… !! When she was young, when Miss Belle Luke was very, very angry, she said that she would hand it over to such an evil wizard as research material… !”

Zer Pied raised the corner of his mouth slightly. How could he turn a living person into a squirrel? It was definitely a rumor full of absurdity. However, at the saintess’ continued words, the Death Knight slightly frowned at her eyes.

“Also, there was a saying that blood was drawn and used as a reagent….”

That was a pretty plausible rumor.