The Tower of Stars Has No Tower

Rorschach and Kano left the Starlight Torch Tower. Mage Kano still needed to make a trip back to the Mage Guild. Kano's carriage was waiting right outside, bearing no family crest, only the emblem of the White Tower Under the Stars.

"A Tower of Stars carriage. Your mentor—well, I suppose I do have a little standing around here if I'm the one bringing you."

Traveling by carriage was much faster, and Rorschach found that compared with merchant caravans and public carriages, this one rode so smoothly he could barely feel any bumps. Its suspension was even better than modern vehicles from his previous life. It was definitely not a mechanical design.

"Actually, we don't need a driver or horses. This carriage can move on its own. We have two mages, after all, and it wouldn't take much effort." Kano leaned back comfortably against the cushions. "But this city—no, this whole kingdom—is terribly boring. The Church has 'protected' the people very well."

Rorschach thought of what had happened at the Grand Market, recalling the stifling atmosphere after he had cast his spell.

"My lords, we've arrived at the guild." The driver knocked on the partition.

"Good, good. Let's get out."

"Thank you."

Despite being located in somewhere as important as the kingdom's capital, the Mage Guild remained deserted. There was not a single person in the golden hall.

After Kano and Rorschach entered, they heard steady snoring.

"Hrrr... hrr... hrr..."

With a dark expression, Kano strode to the front desk, grabbed an ear, and pulled out a freckled face that had been sleeping until the pain woke it.

"That hurts! Let go! Damn it, Master Kano?"

"Pascal! I gave you this shift so you could make up credits, and you came here to catch up on sleep?"

Rorschach felt the master and disciple needed some room to talk, so he returned to the carriage first.

With three people crammed inside, the once-comfortable cabin became a little crowded.

Pascal yawned. "Junior Brother Rorschach, can you guess where the entrance to the Tower of Stars is?"

Outside the window were neatly trimmed square hedges. They seemed to have entered a carefully tended garden. The carriage wound through the hedges for who knew how many turns before finally stopping at the center of the garden.

"A small maze, combined with constant changes, helps us keep out uninvited guests without a pass."

At the center of the maze stood nothing but an isolated door.

"Go in." Pascal opened it, and the doorframe enclosed a dazzling cascade of flowing colors. Kano stepped through first, followed by Rorschach. But when Rorschach crossed the threshold, his foot landed on the lawn on the other side of the door.

"What's going on?" Pascal was still holding the door open for Rorschach. "Did the Star Gate's teleportation magic fail?"

An invisible hand seemed to reach out from the swirling colors, seize Rorschach, and yank him inside.

"Follow." Kano's voice came from within. Once Rorschach had fully entered, Pascal scratched his head, came in after him, and shut the door.

"I don't know what happened. It seems the magic attached to the door does nothing when I pass through it myself."

"This door's been around for quite a while. It's normal for it to have a few problems."

The hall they entered was topped by a massive transparent dome. The starry sky glimmered with countless fine points of light, enclosing distant planets and stellar blotches as they drifted slowly, flashing with ever-changing rainbow hues.

"Transmutation Dust. According to the records, it wraps around the stars. They are remnants left behind where the Divine Kingdoms of the gods intersected with our world."

The Tower of Stars possessed a vast starry sky, but no tower. A circular hall the size of a football field was surrounded by three levels of enclosed structures, each rotating slowly in interlocking paths. At the center of the hall stood a black triangular stone pillar carved with runes that shimmered with flowing light.

Pascal introduced it as the core of the "tower" spirit. "Mage Rorschach, activate your Mage Emblem with your mana, then press it against the core. It will remember you, and the Tower of Stars will officially open to you. You'll join Mentor Kano's group as a researcher, with faculty privileges."

Rorschach did as instructed. He infused the emblem with mana to activate it, then pressed it against the pillar. The runes on its surface immediately began to flow. After a while, an inhuman, stiff voice sounded. "Welcome to the Tower of Stars, Mage Rorschach."

Why did it have to announce that? After the tower spirit of the tower without a tower made its announcement, everyone in the hall turned to look at Rorschach, their faces full of curiosity as they sized him up.

Besides the hall, the first floor contained many public areas.

"This is the dining hall. The head chefs of Valuana's eight best restaurants take turns cooking here. As faculty, Junior Brother, you can eat for free."

"Senior Brother, how much do apprentices like you have to pay?"

Pascal said with a pained expression, "We pay by academic year. A full forty gold coins!"

Rorschach nodded. Was that expensive? He had seen the sky restaurant in the Starlight Torch Tower, where even a main course could sell for three to five gold coins. An annual fee of forty gold was definitely far below the normal prices of eight restaurants. But forty gold coins was by no means cheap. For a worker or farming family, paying even just the food expenses in one lump sum would mean selling everything they owned.

Good thing my meals are free.

"This is the first-floor library. It's open to everyone. To access the book collections on the second floor and above, you need a signed approval slip from a teacher. Oh, damn it, I forgot again. Junior Brother, you don't need one."

Rorschach could hear the envy in Senior Brother Pascal's voice. He smiled at Pascal. "Senior Brother, if there are any books you want, I'll write you an approval slip."

Pascal gritted his teeth. "Thank you so very much, dear Junior Brother!"

Some of the other spaces on the first floor appeared to be shops. One shelf held an entire cabinet full of Purple Potion.

Seeing what Rorschach was looking at, Pascal explained, "This is a product made by our own Alchemy Department. Otherwise, why would we have an entire cabinet of it? But take my advice: if you don't want to damage that clever brain of yours, stay far away from it."

Just as Rorschach was about to ask what exactly Purple Potion was, the broadcast sounded again. This time it was a real person's voice, distorted but somewhat familiar. "Hello? Hello, hello? Mr. Rorschach, Mr. Rorschach, please come to the Chief Professor's office on the third floor. That apprentice Pascal doesn't need to come. Go do whatever you're supposed to be doing.

"Oh, right. Be careful on the stairs. Don't get on or off until they stop. How does this work? I've wanted to try it for ages. Wait—"

"Master Kano?" Rorschach asked uncertainly. Pascal looked around, saw that Kano was indeed gone, and nodded with a twitching expression.

Rorschach headed for the stairs. Although all three floors were rotating, he noticed that everyone else took the escalators upstairs.

The escalators first remained still relative to the floor of the main hall. Once someone stepped onto one, it began moving to catch up with the rotating second or third floor, until the escalator and its passengers were once again still relative to that floor.

A door on the third floor suddenly began to glow. All the other doors were dark wood, making this one especially conspicuous among them.

"Strange, but rather thoughtful."

The moment Rorschach finished speaking, the glowing door began flashing on and off. Each flash changed it to a different color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. The young man thought of the nightclubs from his previous life. Of course, like most engineering students, he had only seen them in videos.

And now, faced with a "nightclub" bearing a sign that read "Office · Chief Professor," he had to walk inside under everyone's gaze.

The apprentices and mages in the hall simply stopped where they were, all staring at the flashing door and Rorschach. Pascal had already vanished without a trace. The previously noisy surroundings fell into an even more terrifying silence than at the Grand Market.

"Yahoo! You can play with it like this. Damn it, I didn't turn off the broadcast."

Thanks to the reader Confused Feather for the monthly ticket. It's my first time receiving one—thank you for the encouragement.