“What did you just say?”
“They destroyed all the materials that had been gathered to treat Rine. I tried to protect them as best I could, but......”
Gariel couldn’t bring himself to finish speaking.
Because Ludger had grabbed him by the collar and yanked him up.
“Is that something you call an excuse? You should have hidden them! You should have kept them somewhere safe where they couldn’t be found!”
“......I have no excuse.”
Normally, Gariel would have shouted back that it wasn’t his fault, but this time was different.
Looking dejected, like a man who had lost everything, Gariel’s weak response made Ludger glare at him—then he suddenly released his collar with a sharp flick.
Gariel sank helplessly to the ground.
Seeing him like that, Ludger saw an image from the past overlapping before his eyes.
—No. No, you can’t.
The sight of Gariel clutching her cold corpse, sobbing in despair, still remained vividly in Ludger’s memory.
How could he not have known?
Every time Gariel looked at Rine’s mother, the look on his face and the light in his eyes made it painfully clear just how much he loved her.
Even though it was a love that could never be fulfilled, he had accepted it, and yet could never let go of his feelings. Watching that, Ludger had thought he was such a fool.
But Ludger didn’t hate that kind of fool.
Even if they bickered and clashed on the surface, Ludger knew well how important a man like Gariel was to both Rine and her mother.
And who was it that took away the woman that man loved?
Ludger looked down at his own hands.
The red stains of blood still carried the warmth of the dead, as if their body heat hadn’t yet faded.
That warmth made Ludger’s skin crawl.
When he turned his trembling eyes toward the thicket, he could see Rine—still unable to accept reality—and beside her, Freuden staring wide-eyed in shock.
Remembering that moment, Ludger bit his lip.
“For now...... we focus on developing a cure.”
There was no time to wallow in helplessness. The immediate priority was to find a way to stabilize Rine’s condition.
The materials could be gathered again—Ludger told himself that to keep going.
“I’ll find a way. You check on Rine’s condition first.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’ll do whatever it takes.”
“......You’re not giving up?”
At Gariel’s question, Ludger answered as if it were obvious.
“Are you going to give up?”
“.......”
Just then, Phyron and Cravat arrived.
“What a damned mess. Hey, weakling! You still breathing?”
“Doesn’t look like there’s any major injury, but the real problem is whether we can even treat her properly under these conditions.”
Cravat clicked his tongue as he looked around at the wrecked surroundings.
His skill wasn’t something affected by mere environment—but still, it did put him in a foul mood.
Then, from afar, a crow flew over and landed on Cravat’s shoulder.
Caw. Caw.
As the crow cawed, Cravat’s expression stiffened slightly.
“I see. So that’s how it turned out. Got it. Good work passing the message. Stay alert in case something happens.”
The crow spread its wings and flew off as if it understood his words.
“Huh? What was that? You can talk to crows now?”
“It’s not a crow. It’s one of our Ancient Curse School members.”
“You accepted a crow as a member of the Ancient Curse School?!”
Cravat’s brows twitched sharply.
“......Not accepted—a transformation spell. He used a curse to turn himself into a crow.”
“What? Oh. So what did he say?”
“Looks like something went wrong with the mage Lotheron, the one who headed to the New Mage Tower.”
At the mention of trouble with Lotheron, everyone’s attention turned to Cravat.
“Don’t tell me he’s been captured by the opposing faction?”
“Something close to that. The other side moved faster than we expected. They mobilized the Tower’s internal inspection unit and seized him.”
“An internal inspection during times this chaotic? People must be talking.”
Lotheron was one of the most capable mages in the [Proletariat] faction.
For the inspection unit to suddenly come forward and drag him away—it was an outright political attack.
And there was no way the Proletariat faction would take that quietly.
They’d likely retaliate with interest, paying back every grudge they’d been forced to swallow before.
“Looks like the bourgeois bastards are getting pretty desperate,” Phyron snorted, crossing his arms.
If they were moving even knowing the backlash to come, it meant their tails—those parts stepped on by Lotheron—were far too sensitive now.
It was too big to simply cut off, and now all that was left was to crash head-on.
“The fact that they’re acting this openly means they’ve got strong backing.”
Ludger could already guess why the Bourgeois faction wanted to capture Lotheron.
This move would ensure that the New Mage Tower would now split perfectly in two and go to war.
And since the Bourgeois faction already carried a notorious reputation, their position would be even weaker in terms of justification.
Even so, the fact that they’d still made this move meant they’d calculated that it was worth ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) the risk.
“Nicolai must be the one pulling the strings.”
The funds gathered through the Black Mages’ uprisings—combined with Nicolai’s support after forming an alliance with him—that was what made such an operation possible.
“A man who’s been scheming from the shadows wouldn’t make a move without reason. Has he decided he doesn’t need to hide anymore?”
“He’s probably concluded there’s no point in staying hidden now that he’s already released so many test-subject troops.”
If Nicolai was moving in earnest, it meant they no longer had much time left.
“First, we continue the research for the cure.”
“To do that, we’ll need materials that can serve as a curse medium.”
“I’ve got bad news about that. During the recent attack, part of the materials were lost.”
At Ludger’s words, Gariel hung his head in shame.
Cravat’s expression grew grave.
“What about the reagents and mediums used for the curse itself?”
“Those, at least, I managed to protect. But the ingredients needed for the medicine to improve Rine’s condition afterward......”
They’d been destroyed in the battle.
“......Even if I can still carry out my part, what about after that? You planning to raid the Tower again?”
“There’s no way we can pull the same stunt twice. And the materials we lost can’t be replaced—they were all taken from inside the Tower.”
“......Then doesn’t that make all of this meaningless?”
“That’s why I’m coming up with a plan.”
“What kind of plan?”
Cravat decided to at least hear him out.
“Cravat. I want you to use the remaining reagents and materials to purge the divine power rampaging inside Rine’s body. Can you do that?”
“Yeah, it’s possible. But what do you plan to do after that? We can’t go back to the Tower, and there’s no way to buy those materials on the market.”
“We’ll use substitutes.”
“There are substitutes?”
“Right. If we had lost the rare materials needed as the medium for the curse itself, that would have been hopeless—but the medicinal components that suppress the rampaging mana afterward can be replaced with something else.”
“That stuff was pretty damn valuable though. To replace it, don’t you need something just as rare?”
“Exactly. And as it happens, there’s someone on this island who has plenty of such rare material.”
Cravat, after a moment of thought, immediately realized whom Ludger meant.
“Nicolai! You’re talking about that bastard.”
“He used the World Tree’s cells for his biological experiments. The cells of the World Tree—the very source of life—are more than enough as substitutes for what we lost. And I’m sure he has plenty of other reagents too.”
“Even so, the World Tree’s cells aren’t something you can just handle lightly. Aren’t they even more dangerous?”
“You don’t have to worry about that. At least here, there’s no one who understands the World Tree better than I do.”
Cravat wanted to ask what gave him such confidence, but before he could, Phyron burst out laughing beside them.
“Khahahaha! Magnificent, professor! That’s the spirit! But are you sure you’ll be all right? You’ll have to fight that vile Nicolai.”
“I was planning to fight him anyway.”
“When a man goes to battle, who am I to stop him? I’ll fight at your side!”
Phyron pounded his chest with his fist. His booming confidence was reassuring in itself.
Ludger had already intended to ask for his help, so he accepted the offer.
“Wait a minute. What about Lotheron?”
Cravat brought up the man who wasn’t present.
Wasn’t Lotheron, who had been captured by the inspection unit of the opposing faction, someone they should help too?
At that, Ludger and Phyron exchanged glances and spoke almost in unison.
“There’s no need.”
“No need at all.”
“What? Weren’t you two acquaintances? How can you just abandon him like that?”
“It seems you’ve misunderstood. We’re not abandoning him—it’s the opposite.”
“The opposite?”
“Lotheron is a Sixth-Circle mage. You know what that means, don’t you?”
Cravat realized then that his worry had been pointless.
Ludger drove the point home.
“If he decides to act, nothing in this world can stop him.”
* * *
Inside the New Mage Tower’s interrogation chamber, Lotheron sat still, staring straight ahead.
Facing the man in the iron mask was a mage from the Inspection Division—a Fifth-Circle mage.
Chief Inspector Dimpelmozer.
“If it had been any other mage, we would’ve restrained your entire body. But since you, Lord Lotheron, have contributed greatly to the Tower, we decided not to go that far.”
Dimpelmozer spoke proudly, as if he were granting Lotheron a great favor.
Lotheron clenched and unclenched his fists.
There were no restraints holding him down; his body was free—but it was only an illusion of freedom.
The room itself, this very interrogation chamber, was a prison.
No matter how much power he unleashed here, it would be useless.
Magitech devices built into the walls absorbed any released mana and redirected it into the Tower’s energy grid.
Meanwhile, Dimpelmozer kept talking.
“Until you can prove your innocence, you’ll have to remain here. Don’t worry—it won’t take long, of course.”
“I’m sure it won’t.”
Lotheron sneered faintly at the man before him.
“You must be terrified of the backlash from our faction. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have staged such a baseless accusation.”
“Ahem. What are you implying?”
“Keeping me confined for a short while—this whole act is just to buy time, isn’t it?”
“If you continue to insult our department with these groundless remarks, we’ll no longer be able to offer you any leniency.”
“Leniency? Did you just say leniency?”
Lotheron couldn’t help but laugh under his breath.
“I knew you people liked to do your dirty work behind closed doors, but I didn’t think you’d stoop this low.”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“No, maybe I just wanted to believe otherwise. That those who walk the path of magic would at least have a shred of pride. But clearly, I was wrong.”
For the first time in a while, Lotheron felt the full weight of his own disillusionment.
He had been born a beastkin—with the bloodline and talent worthy of a future chieftain—but he had left his homeland for the human world, thinking there was no future among his own kind.
He’d believed he was different from other beastkin, that he could adapt to human society.
But now he realized the truth—he had been the foolish one.
“I see now. I’m no different from the beastkin I once tried so hard to distance myself from. Admitting that... actually feels liberating.”
A low chuckle escaped from behind the mask.
“......Don’t move!”
Dimpelmozer shot to his feet, pointing his staff straight at him.
“Move even a little, and you’ll only make yourself look guilty!”
“You intend to delay no matter what I say, don’t you? But something’s bothering me. Since when did a Fifth-Circle mage dare lift his head and raise his voice in front of me?”
A torrent of powerful mana surged around Lotheron’s body.
Dimpelmozer, facing him directly, felt his breath catch in his throat.
‘Th-this... this is the pressure of a Sixth-Circle mage?’
He’d always thought himself strong. A Fifth-Circle mage wasn’t exactly low-ranking.
People praised the Sixth Circle, but he’d consoled himself—how big could one level’s difference really be?
But facing a mage of Lexuror class in person proved how wrong he was.
That one step was an abyss.
The wall before him was higher than everything he had ever climbed combined.
“Even if you stir up mana here, you think you can escape? You know how this chamber was built!”
“I do. I know it better than anyone.”
As he said that, Lotheron lifted his hand and took off his mask.
“Y-you’re removing the mask?”
The Iron Mask Lotheron—his fame came from never showing his face to anyone.
Despite being called a mask, it was really a large iron helmet that nearly covered his entire head, stifling to breathe in. He had drawn attention wherever he went.
Now, his true face was revealed.
When Dimpelmozer saw the beast ears sprouting from his head, his eyes went wide.
“A b-beastkin!”
The truth hit him—Iron Mask Lotheron was one of those “barbarian” beastkin humans mocked and looked down on.
But Dimpelmozer’s shock didn’t end there.
Behind Lotheron, a massive translucent figure began to manifest.
“Who do you think designed the magical system that built this chamber?”
Revealing his true self completely, Lotheron bared sharp fangs in a chilling grin.
“I did.”
“Wha—”
“Of course.”
Lotheron clenched his hand, crushing the iron mask like paper.
“And I know its weaknesses better than anyone.”