Chapter 558
Step. Step.
In the suffocating silence, Ivory Tower Master Bermude descended the stairs.
His long gray hair fell to his shoulders, and a thick, shadowy beard hung from his face. The prominent, heavy brows gave him a stubborn impression.
He wore an ivory-colored robe and carried a magical staff in his hand.
‘He really doesn’t look anything like Serne.’
That was Simon’s impression. Considering Bermude was not his real father but his foster father, that was only natural.
But if there was one similarity…
Rumbleeeee—!
That overwhelming pressure and charisma that made one instinctively shrink away.
He was, after all, the man who ruled both the vast organization of the Ivory Tower and the great city it stood upon.
Still, his condition didn’t seem too good. His complexion was pale, and his steps had a slight limp.
“Tower Master.”
Daniella approached and bowed his head.
“I report as follows. Girdon attacked the Tower’s guests and then fled into the Tower of Time. We must immediately stop the festival and send our army to capture him.”
“Daniella.”
From the Tower Master’s dry lips came a voice, flat and without inflection.
“You are always the same. Especially that rigid part of you.”
“……”
Daniella remained silent, head bowed, waiting for his response. The Tower Master tapped his staff and descended into the banquet hall.
He glanced across the gathered crowd.
“Honored guests, welcome to the Ivory Tower. The festival will proceed as planned. As for Girdon, we will take responsibility and capture him, so rest assured.”
Half the room broke into startled murmurs, while the other half cried out in delight at the chance to enter the Tower of Time.
Meanwhile, Daniella’s face turned deathly pale.
“But Tower Master! A criminal guilty of mass slaughter has entered the Tower of Time! He nearly killed children—children! At the very least, we must apprehend Girdon first—”
“I have already received that report, Daniella.”
The Tower Master swept his staff. Not Darkness, but pure mana surged outward as a brilliant blue aura, spreading across the banquet hall.
Creak!
Clink!
In moments, the wreckage of the banquet hall began to restore itself at astonishing speed.
Shattered dishes fused back together, broken table legs reformed, collapsed columns were stitched with fragments as if flesh, while the steel beams and pipes Girdon had hurled were floated out through the windows.
“……!”
Simon’s eyes widened.
Time.
It was as though time itself had rewound, and the banquet hall returned to its spotless state before Girdon had torn it apart.
“I hereby declare.”
Thud.
The Tower Master struck his staff against the floor.
“The Festival of Time will continue. The Tower’s soldiers will seek out and arrest the fugitive Girdon. There will be no chance for him to attack you guests. And if, by some chance, trouble does arise because of him—”
He slowly placed his hand over his chest.
“—then I, Ivory Tower Master Bermude, will take full responsibility.”
One wealthy-looking guest sneered.
“Responsibility? And how exactly do you intend to take responsibility?”
“I will step down as Tower Master.”
Murmur! Murmur!
The shockwave of those words was immense. Guests who had been doubtful moments before now nodded, muttering, “If the Tower Master himself declares that much…”
Only Daniella’s expression grew darker and darker.
“……Tower Master! This concerns the safety of the guests!”
“Then you mean my title as Tower Master is not enough?”
“That’s not what I mean—”
“If you insist that strongly, then let us have the guests themselves decide.”
The Tower Master turned to the audience.
“Our Ivory Tower will guarantee your safety. But if you still lack trust in us, you may give up your chance to enter the Tower of Time and return home.”
Clunk!
With a motion of his staff, the door out of the banquet hall swung open.
“Of course, once you leave, you cannot come back. What will you do?”
A heavy silence pressed down as the crowd whispered and argued among themselves.
Ten minutes passed.
Out of over one hundred people, not a single one chose to leave. Daniella, watching, looked stunned.
“You see, Daniella.”
The Tower Master raised the corner of his mouth.
“No one here wishes for the festival to be stopped. Not a single one.”
His gaze turned toward Simon and Merida.
“Not even the children who were attacked by Girdon.”
“……”
Simon felt bitterness on his tongue.
‘Sorry, Uncle Daniella… but there’s no helping it.’
This mission evaluation was a Completion Test.
He absolutely had to finish the assigned task in order to return to school. Whatever unexpected incidents occurred in the field, the students themselves had to resolve them. That was why Keyzen had given them investigative and command authority in the first place.
Keyzen was an inflexible institution.
True, since a dangerous criminal like Girdon was involved, there might be some leniency if Simon failed, with only the lowest possible grade. But Simon had even received direct orders from headquarters.
He could not retreat.
“Then, I take it no one will be leaving.”
The Tower Master moved his staff. The exit door closed, and this time, the door leading to the Tower of Time, where Girdon had gone, opened.
“May you all have a pleasant journey in the Tower of Time.”
* * *
The Tower Master and Daniella departed, while a unit of armed Ivory Tower soldiers entered the Tower of Time first.
They were tracking Girdon’s trail and preparing to apprehend him.
The guests’ turn would come two hours later. After a dull wait, the promise that they would soon step into the Tower itself was met with a cheer.
Simon smiled bitterly.
‘Girdon or not, these people only cared about getting inside from the very beginning.’
The Festival of Time, held once every five years.
Everyone dreamed of entering at least once, but to be among the one hundred chosen guests who could enter was like plucking a star from the sky. Only by providing the Ivory Tower with steady tribute—whether in money or services—could one’s name make it onto the list.
And even then, the chosen guests themselves had to be necromancers strong enough to protect their own lives inside.
Even the safest lower floors were still part of a dungeon, where battles were frequent.
“Then, let us depart!”
Thus the entire assembly of guests walked through the banquet hall’s door, into the inner tower.
“The Tower of Time is, in truth, the true homeland of our Ivory Tower. It is also a place we must reclaim someday.”
Along the path, the Ivory Tower guide leading the guests spoke with fervor. His voice swelled as he delivered a long, passionate speech extolling the Tower’s ancient history.
“For two thousand years, we carried the duty of recording history and passing it down! Accidents like forgotten histories or the loss of magical technology were unacceptable. We engraved our magic, our rituals, our history into the Tower itself. But to record only on paper or in books risked loss.”
So they created time magic.
Back then, there were no mana-cameras or memorial crystal spheres. Using colossal, intricate magic circles, they invented record-keeping magic.
At first, it was primitive—like cylinder records or phonographs—called ‘Time Artifacts’. But over time, the mages sought to grasp and bind time itself.
The Ivory Tower poured everything into the Time Magic Project, until the fever reached its peak.
“The Dungeon Gate opened.”
Perhaps it was human obsession and arrogance toward time itself that summoned such a dungeon. That dungeon devoured all the Ivory Tower’s magic and materials, swelling ever larger.
“The dungeon grew unstoppable in its strength! The continent fell into peril, but thanks to the sacrifice of the Frost Mage—then Tower Master—and his disciples, the continent was saved from the hell of time!”
Listening to the tale, Simon scratched his head.
‘……So basically, they made a mess and then cleaned it up themselves.’
At that moment, one of the guests raised a hand.
“Then why not simply destroy the dungeon and the Dungeon Master with the current strength of the Ivory Tower?”
“This dungeon has existed on the continent for far too long. Scholars warn that if this tower were to suddenly vanish now, space-time itself would twist, and catastrophic consequences would follow.”
In truth, this was one of the Ivory Tower’s strongest justifications for its existence and necessity on the continent.
They were proclaiming: We are the ones who control the space-time of the continent.
“Our Ivory Tower even now keeps that horrific monster of time sealed within the Tower! The Tower of Time still devours the continent’s flow of time and records it! To honor the noble sacrifice of the Frost Mage and his disciples, we must continue to preserve this place!”
By the time they had half-listened to that speech, they arrived at the interior of the Tower.
The Tower of Time, once the Ivory Tower’s very headquarters, stretched from the 1st to the 100th floor. The closer one climbed toward the summit where the Gate had opened, the stronger the dungeon’s influence became.
From the banquet hall on the 1st floor up to the 20th, the place was arranged like a museum. Here, it was rare to be attacked by dungeon monsters or to witness anomalies.
From the 20th floor onward, anomalies occurred two or three times a day. From the 30th floor upward, the conditions were said to be perfect for observing such phenomena.
And on the 100th floor, the infamous Dungeon Master, “Frozen Clock”, was said to exist. Entry beyond the 90th floor was strictly forbidden to outsiders.
“Currently, Girdon has been confirmed to have passed the 70th floor and is staying around the 80th.”
The Ivory Tower’s official in charge spoke.
“Floors 70 through 89 are under lockdown. Until Girdon is apprehended, entry to those floors is prohibited.”
“What?!”
“The highlight starts from the 70th floor!”
Some guest necromancers who seemed confident in their abilities expressed their disappointment.
“Then are you opening the 90th floor for us?”
An elderly necromancer in robes asked. The official shook his head.
“Apologies. Even for VIPs, floors beyond the 90th are strictly off-limits.”
“Then this year will be boring.”
The necromancers dispersed, seemingly used to such restrictions.
“Hey! You two, I’ll guide you!”
Mird, a student belonging to the Ivory Tower Academy, approached Simon and Merida.
“It’s your first time in the Tower of Time, right? Follow me!”
The two of them weren’t honored guests, but dispatched students sent to help with the Tower’s business. Their destination was the 50th floor.
Following Mird along the passage, they reached a space where endless staircases stretched upward.
These stairs connected the floors all the way to the 100th, but the Ivory Tower also operated magical circle elevators to ease the journey.
Simon’s group, along with many other guests, boarded one.
‘Hmm.’
Simon closely observed the other guests.
Some disembarked immediately at the 2nd floor to start at the museum. Younger-looking novices got off at the 20th.
The 30th and 40th floors also proved popular, with many alighting there.
But from the 50th floor onward, the numbers dropped by half. Simon, Merida, and Mird got off there.
“Your lodgings are strictly limited to designated quarters. Unless you want to be ambushed by dungeon monsters in your sleep. Oh—and absolutely never enter another room without permission.”
As they walked toward the lodgings, Mird chattered away with endless explanations.
“If you find anything belonging to the Ivory Tower, report it. You’ll be rewarded. Take it without authorization and it’s theft, you understand? And I trust you’ve memorized all the rules the Tower provided.”
Near the elevator stood rooms that seemed to serve as the lodgings.
This was a safe zone.
Any deeper in, they would be under the dungeon’s influence, where monsters could appear.
“This is your room. Use this to contact me if you need anything.”
She handed them a communication crystal.
“Got it? Then I’ll be off, I’ve got afternoon classes—”
“Mird.”
Just then, Merida spoke. Mird turned back, puzzled.
“Thanks for guiding us.”
Merida extended her hand. Mird blinked, then smiled and stepped forward.
“Don’t mention it.”
But the moment their hands clasped—
Fwhip—
A wave of drowsiness crashed over Mird’s entire body.
‘Huh? Wha—’
Her vision spun wildly, and at once Merida’s curses pierced into her. Mird collapsed into deep sleep.
* * *
No telling how much time had passed.
“Gasp!”
Mird awoke, her entire body drenched in sweat.
“Haa! Haa!”
Her pupils darted frantically.
Just now—
She couldn’t recall clearly, but it felt like she’d had a horrific nightmare.
Her body ached all over as if wracked by muscle pain, and a bitter taste filled her mouth.
‘What… what happened?’
She realized she had been sprawled on the floor.
A little ways off stood Simon, scratching his temple with an awkward look, and in front of her stood Merida, staring blankly.
“You—you bastards! Do you want to die?!”
“You. Back at the banquet hall.”
Merida spoke, cutting her off.
“You deliberately lured Girdon toward us, didn’t you? Repeating ‘Keyzen’ over and over loud enough for him to hear.”
“You f***ers! Undo this curse right now! Damn Keyzen lunatics—!”
Before she could finish, Mird’s head slumped forward.
The Sleep curse struck again. As if plagued by some grotesque nightmare, her joints convulsed, her body writhing like a broken marionette.
Snap.
Merida snapped her fingers, and Mird’s eyes opened once more.
“You led Girdon to us on purpose, didn’t you?”
“W-Wait…!”
Mird gasped, bloodshot eyes glaring as she panted harshly.
“Wait—! Let’s talk! Just talk!”
“Answer me.”
Merida’s voice was cold as she prepared to cast Sleep again.
“Who put you up to it?”
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters