欧美曰韩国产无线

“Only your highness wields the power of magic unrestricted within the palace! It sounds kind of unfair but considering his majesty doesn’t use magic that often, it’s sort of balanced! So all we’ve been working on is research in the Tower!”

Yakety-yak!

They were quite talkative! I was dripping cold sweats as I lost focus in their chit-chat.

Wait, there’s a restriction to using magic within the palace? Doesn’t Lucas use it whenever he wants to?

“Plus, I’ve never seen someone acquire such tremendous capabilities in magic!”

“Right! That’s why you’re what we’ve all been talking about these days in the Tower!”

“What a wonderful capability too! Being able to teleport multiple times a day…!”

“Your highness, could you visit our Tower in your spare time?”

Ring!

[You have been invited to the Black Tower! Accept? Y/N]

I blinked as I hallucinated about the video game popup thing again.

I’ve got nothing to do anyway and I’ve been always curious about the Black Tower. Should I go?

Ring-ring!

[Invite accepted!]

So I compulsively decided to visit the Tower.

* * *

“Our Tower’s been maintained by the greatest Mage of all time, the ‘Dark Mage…’ blah blah… So we set out to relive the olden legacy by gathering the greatest Mages of our times… blah blah…”

I was listening to what the guide of the Tower was saying without paying attention.

The talkative Mages weren’t here anymore now as they were away to call the Headmaster of the Tower.

So I was listening to the expansive history this Tower’s been through by this self-proclaimed ‘Guide’ Mage.

“These crystal-like walls were made by the Inaugural Headmaster who hand-carved Mithril…”

I kept listening to this must-hear first-time introduction until I asked the question I always wanted to bring up.

“Umm… So why is the tower so white when it’s called the ‘Black Tower?’

Startle!

The Guide suddenly stopped talking and was shaken up. I kept squinting at him.

You see, it’s virtually a White Tower at this point with both the exterior and interior all painted in white!

There are some black patches here and there but they look like they’re just burnt spots. I always wondered about it so I asked Claude on the matter but he just was like ‘It doesn’t matter to you anyway.’

But the Guide was different. He went on to explain very enthusiastically about it.

“That’s our unique sense of design! There are two types of chocolates, White and Dark! There are White and Black in chess, and the opposite of darkness is light! When the ex-ex-ex-Headmaster decided on that name, they made the wonderful decision to not simply redesign the tower accordingly but give it an impactful all-white redo! If it were black, the people looking at the tower would feel depressed, and we don’t have to work in a depressing mood as we constantly look at the blacked-out walls! Plus…”

“I know for a fact you didn’t have the budget to paint it black when you came up with the name back then.”

“Yes, it really was depressing with the bla—Gasp!”

We turned our heads backward at the voice from behind.

I saw a slim shape who had his Royal Mage robe on loosely like someone who’s just woken up.

The person had long hair that rendered it impossible to figure out their gender. The voice was rather vague too. Looks pretty young, I’ll say that.

“Ah, if it ain’t the Fairy Princess my kids were singing all day about.”

Choke!

The forbidden phrase pierced my ears!

But the Mage didn’t care about how I reacted; they went on to examine me with great interest.

Hold on a minute…

“Are you the Headmaster?”

“Mm, your magic resembles a pretty rainbow.”

…Excuse me?

Come again? I—I’m not buying it. Get away from me you fraudster!

I watched the Mage who made weird remarks about me very carefully.

“Our Headmaster can see everybody’s unique color palette of their magical powers.”

The Guide Mage answered my question for me. Hmm, that’s a quite interesting power to have!

“Your magical powers shine brightly in many different hues. It’s dangerous enough to charm anyone.”

Halt.

I won’t complain about someone complimenting on my powers but that person looks pretty high on drugs right now.

“Wow… His Majesty’s colors were a crystal-clear blue with traces of gold within it but Your Highness possesses an aurora-like, or rather your glittering gem-like-eye-dissolved color…”

“Headmaaaaaaster!”

“Your highneeeeeeees!”

I could see a bunch of Mages rushing toward us in the distance.

“Please understand. They’re still too immature for the job.”

Umm… The Mage in front of me sounds more like a boomer, treating me with absolutely no regard of who I am. Other Mages do it too, is it like, a regional thing here?

To be fair, since they practically live here for the rest of their lives in a pretty parallel workplace hierarchy (except for the Headmaster), the social stratification of the outside world must be unheard of.

“Those troublemakers are too hyped to see you here in the Tower.”

“Oh, thanks for inviting me. I’ve heard of this place a few times from Lucas and I’ve always wondered what it would look like.”

Halt.

The Headmaster and the Guide Mage became noticeably startled. The Mages rushing toward here even stopped.

“…Lu…cas?”

“Lucas…?”

What…? What’s up with this sudden silence? Has Lucas become ‘He-who-must-not-be-named?’ Is Lucas like the Voldemort of the Tower?

The Mages started to yell furiously with their veins bulging from their necks.

“Lucas! The filthy outlaw of the Tower!”

“The Corrupt of the Corrupt world!”

“The son of a bitch who uses magic like it’s nothing while all the others practice their asses off!”

“I put so much effort into making one Telegraph Stone while he made ten of those bloody things with a wave of his hand while—get this—yawning!”

“He looked at us in infuriating pity when we asked him to tell us easier ways to use magic, merely showing off his ability and telling us ‘You can’t do these simple charms?’ God damnit, choke!”

Gasp!

The Mages expressed their misery in unison. Listening to them made me forget what to say next.

L—Lucas! What have you been doing in the Tower? Now I know you’ve not been acting like the ‘Young and Handsome Genius Mage,’ at least not within the Tower.

“I think I’ve heard that he had been friends with Her Highness for 10 years now.

“It’s—cough—seven, sir.”

As the Headmaster squinted to recall his memories, the Guide Mage corrected him with a cough.

The Headmaster glared at the Guide, raising one of their eyebrows as if it were of same difference, then proceeded to talk to me.

“Lucas, that bastard… He’s got a disgustingly immense magical capacity! It drives me nuts whenever I see him!”

Cough.

The Headmaster showed genuine disgust while thinking of something, probably not too different from his facial expression.

Naturally, my curiosity about what Lucas has been doing around the Tower became a level deeper.

“Not once in my sixty years in this world have I seen such a powerful man. It makes me sweat like bullets as if a trypophobe were to look at a bunch of holes!”

[TL notes: trypophobia is a fear of tightly-packed circular holes.]

Huh? Hold up. Did I just hear sixty?

I subconsciously asked the Headmaster, still rambling about Lucas’ creepiness.

“Sixty?!”

Did—did you just say ‘my sixty years in this world?’ No, that can’t be right!

“Oh, yeah. People tell me I look particularly young for my age.”

What? No way. You look like you’re in your thirties and somehow you’re sixty?

“Hehe… Thank you, your highness. Us Mages tend to age more slowly than normal, you know. Hehehe.”

The Headmaster laughed it off as any other granny or grandpa would.

“Th—then are they…?”

I stuttered as my eyes trembled in disbelief, looking at the Mages who looked like they were in their twenties. The Headmaster put a soft smile on their face like looking at his own granddaughter.

“Oh, they’re still young. The oldest of the bunch was… Hey, Dil-dil! How old were you again?”

“Forty-one, sir!”

“How about you, Mojil?”

“I’m still twenty-eight! Fresh as new!”

“Eh, grow up, will you?”

He looked worried about them being young and inexperienced and clicked his tongue but my pupils were shaking from the utter shock. I—I honestly thought they were young Mages!

The Guide Mage went on to educate me further.

“The aging process for Mages slow down drastically after they’ve turned into adults, so we’re able to maintain our youth longer than normal folks. I may look much younger, but I’m actually forty-six.

I—I knew that from the book but it’s even more shocking to see it in person.

Oh! That’s why Claude was able to maintain such tight and bouncy skin! It’s like being able to wield magic is the best anti-aging cosmetic product in the world!