To film inside the Mage Tower, Angell had to lead the crew himself.
Even Hume, Branch President of the Magic Association, wouldn't dare wander around the Mage Tower grounds without permission.
Aside from the issue of access, the grounds were filled with countless Defense Arrays and magical traps, both in the sky and underground. They were the painstakingly crafted masterpieces of countless mages over thousands of years. Even an Archmage who accidentally wandered into an area that wasn't theirs could end up in a sorry state.
Angell, however, knew the Mage Tower exceptionally well.
He led the crew through the public area to the abandoned Mage Towers in the east. There, he manually dismantled several ancient Magic Circles, then turned and instructed the Rune Apprentices he'd brought along to set up new Defense Arrays.
"...Bury Rune Stones six and seven in the southeast corner. There's an Explosion Array above them, so be careful... Hang a Magic Circle at Tower Three. You don't need to worry about the one below it; that array's already broken... Right, the crew can move around inside the area marked with yellow runes. Though, you probably wouldn't be able to get out anyway."
Branch President Hume listened from the side, then cautiously asked, "Senior Angell, you seem to know this place very well?"
...Senior?
Angell glanced at his wrinkled-faced junior. "I was part of the 'Abandoned Society' for a while."
"The Abandoned Society?"
"A club made up of people who liked tempting fate. We investigated abandoned Mage Towers that had lost their owners, collected dangerous items inside, and recorded them," Angell said. "It wasn't a big club or anything. There are all kinds of groups in the Mage Tower, aren't there?"
...I'm starting to think we weren't in the same Mage Tower.
Branch President Hume was about to ask more, but a tremendous roar sounded overhead. Everyone around them looked up at the sky and cried out in alarm.
"A Dragon!"
"It's really a Dragon!"
"Why does it look like it's flying this way?!"
"Ah! It's coming down!"
Branch President Hume looked up in terror and saw a colossal red creature charging straight toward them.
Why was there a Dragon?
No, this was dangerous—
Hume's thoughts were in chaos. He was just an office worker, after all, with little practical combat experience. When he saw the Red Dragon diving out of the sky, his whole body locked up, leaving him unable to move.
But out of the corner of his eye, Hume saw Angell make a casting motion. The shadows beneath the Mage Towers writhed as if they were alive.
They turned into countless shadowy hands that seized the Red Dragon and yanked it straight into an Explosion Array on a nearby Mage Tower.
"Boom—"
The Magic Circle exploded with earth-shaking force, sending clouds of dust billowing into the air.
But when the dust cleared, the enormous Red Dragon was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a handsome man in a dazzling outfit, whose whole person seemed to shine, charged toward Angell.
"Angell, you cutie! Long time no see—Pfft!"
Angell raised his long leg and stomped without hesitation on the man's shining face.
Hume was stunned.
"Who is this...?" he asked fearfully.
Could he really be a Dragon?
Angell, however, said oddly, "You don't know? He's the husband of Avelie, the Archmage you admire."
"—" Hume's brain had clearly stopped working.
"My darling and I got married so early, and we never made a point of announcing it, so most people don't know," the shining man said as if it were nothing. Taking advantage of the moment, he wrapped his arms around Angell's leg and rubbed against it. "Only friends we have in common know."
"Then I'm truly honored!" Angell added another kick.
Just thinking about it annoyed him.
Angell didn't have any particular feelings for Avelie, but as a longtime bachelor in both of his lives, he'd been delighted when a woman finally showed interest in him. Then he'd found out the interest came with a bonus! Did he look like some kind of marital sex toy or something? Angell felt he'd shown remarkable restraint by not blowing up the couple's Mage Tower.
Angell stomped on the Red Dragon Mage a few more times before he finally felt better.
"By the way, why did you come? Where's Avelie?" Angell finally remembered to ask.
"Avelie's still in bed. I was worried about holding you up, so I brought the things over first," the Red Dragon said, his eyes darting about as he gave a very suspicious explanation.
That woman was practically the embodiment of fire. She couldn't sleep for three hours in an entire month, so how could she still be lying in bed?
Angell wondered, but he had no interest in prying into the affairs of that bizarre couple. He simply held out a hand. "Then hand it over! The access permit."
"Sure." The Red Dragon placed his claw on Angell's outstretched hand.
Angell smiled, punched the Red Dragon in the face again, then tossed him over to Hume and Mandela to discuss the Mage Tower access permit.
Once Angell had a moment to himself, Mithril poked its little head out of the hood of his black robe.
"You know a lot of people!" it said, perplexed.
It had thought this socially anxious person wouldn't have any friends in the Mage Tower!
"Can't help it. It's work," Angell said, feeling exhausted by it all. "Stay in the Masterless Tower long enough, and all sorts of weird people show up at your door. You can't help getting to know them."
"Even if you say that... Wait, the Masterless Tower?!" Mithril cried.
It was the first time it had heard this. "Have you always been in the Masterless Tower?"
"Oh, didn't I tell you? What's so strange about that?"
"No! It's strange! Really strange!" Mithril said. "I heard only super-geniuses at the Archmage level receive invitations to the Masterless Tower. Aren't you only a mid-tier Mage?"
"...Oh, that? It's just a rumor," Angell said. "Think about it. The Masterless Tower has no master, so who could invite people in its name? That means anyone can enter the Masterless Tower."
"Meow, you're lying!" Mithril refused to fall for it.
If anyone could enter the Masterless Tower, it wouldn't be called the Star Glory Tower.
Just because MeowMeow hadn't gone to school didn't mean he could trick it!
Angell chuckled and stroked its head. "I'm telling the truth... Though the Masterless Tower has no master, its magical core was preserved, and it chooses people according to two criteria."
"The first criterion is the one everyone knows. Once someone enters the Mage Tower grounds, if their talent is high-tier or above, a Magic Puppet sent out by the Masterless Tower will invite them to study there.
"The second criterion is to find clues to the puzzles left behind by the Masterless Tower's builder somewhere on the Mage Tower grounds. Solve the riddles, and you can get permission to enter the Masterless Tower too."
Angell was actually a little proud when he said this.
"Though I'm the only one in nearly three hundred years to get in through the second method, it does exist."
You're so amazing, meow!
Mithril snorted. Though it thought its master might be a little impressive, it didn't want to praise him at all.
Just then, someone suddenly asked:
"...So there was no invitation letter?"
Angell and Mithril turned around to find Jack standing there, staring at Angell with an unfathomable gaze.
Who'd brought this Black Sheep along too? He couldn't help with anything, could he?
Mithril wondered.
Jack repeated his question. "The Masterless Tower... didn't send an invitation letter?"
"No. If you mean a Mage's invitation letter," Mithril said, "the tower has never sent one. Even when it chooses someone, a... Magic Puppet comes out of the tower to greet them."
"If you're interested in the Masterless Tower, you'll probably need to study for a while first," Angell said with a smile.
But Jack shook his head and reached out to clutch the hem of Angell's clothes.
"Save... him."
"?"
"Save... Silverleaf!" Jack pleaded.
"Silverleaf?"
Angell looked at Jack in confusion. Just then, the Red Dragon came over.
"Angell, looks like you're missing four people! I can't register them here."
*
Silverleaf walked through the Mage Tower grounds with a letter from the Masterless Tower in his hand. Mira, Gru, and Allen walked beside him.
"Silverleaf, you got an invitation from the Masterless Tower?" Gru looked at the letter in Silverleaf's hand. He seemed envious, but not surprised. "Just what you'd expect from our Chief Student! So what are you still hesitating about?"
"Who knows?" Silverleaf replied vaguely, his tone indifferent.
He was looking at the back of the letter.
The invitation letter was a magical item. Once they'd entered the Mage Tower grounds, a map had appeared on its back, flashing to guide Silverleaf onward.
Silverleaf looked at the directions, but felt no joy. He only furrowed his brow.
Mira beside him looked just as troubled.
She carried her sister's letter, but didn't want to look at it. Instead, she gazed up at the towering Mage Towers.
The Mage Tower grounds were very densely packed.
The mages hadn't built their towers far apart—or rather, the first mages might have spaced their towers out to keep a safe social distance, but later generations built new towers nearby for reasons like "not wasting energy," "wanting to live closer to their teachers," "inheriting an estate," or "we're married." Some even built directly atop the ruins of abandoned Mage Towers. As a result, the whole area had grown like a city that could build itself, growing ever higher and denser until it had almost become one enormous structure.
The eastern area Angell had chosen was more spread out, since all the abandoned Mage Towers there were dangerous.
But Silverleaf and the others were now in the western area, where all the Mage Towers had owners. It was much more tightly packed. Most of the mages also kept defensive Familiars, which either perched at small windows in the towers or hid in the shadows. They watched Silverleaf's group without restraint and whispered among themselves, making the place feel unsettling.
Mira moved a little closer to Silverleaf.
At that moment, Allen suddenly let out a "Hee-hee" at something he'd seen.
Mira jumped.
She thought this screenwriter was the most frightening one of all.
"What are you laughing at?" Mira asked warily. "And what are you doing here with us?!"
"I'm just looking around! Isn't that why everyone came here?" Allen said with a laugh. "You're not going to make up your minds today, are you?"
"...I didn't even want to come!" Mira said.
"But you still came," Allen said, cutting straight to the heart of it.
Mira bit her lip.
"But of course you're hesitating," Allen said, as if he understood human nature. "It's what your family wants. You can't say for sure that your choice is the right one, but you can't ignore their demands either. Even if there were a scale in this world that could weigh every decision, you couldn't say the lighter side didn't matter and could be thrown away. In the end, everyone sways under outside pressure and chooses the path they don't want..."
This guy was so annoying!
The three Rune Apprentices thought, frowning.
Even Gru, who'd been most eager to enter the Mage Tower, felt uncertain now that he was standing here. The last thing they needed was a human-shaped rapper droning on beside them.
"Shut up!" Mira said, unable to bear it any longer. "I won't—"
"Mira! Is that you, Mira?!"
Just as Mira was about to scold Allen, a woman's voice called out from ahead.
Mira's face went deathly pale. She looked like she'd seen a ghost and couldn't even bring herself to turn around. Allen, however, followed the voice and saw a tall woman hurry out of a Mage Tower. She looked seven or eight tenths like Mira, but much more feminine. Her skirt, covered in lace, made her look like a doll that didn't belong in a Mage Tower.
The woman didn't seem to notice Mira's resistance. She hurried toward them.
"Mira, I knew you'd come! You're old enough now to think about yourself and your family! It's not easy to find someone who doesn't mind your foolishness and is willing to accept you. You won't refuse him, will you—"
"Don't come any closer—"
Silverleaf drew his Magic Wand and pointed it at the woman, stopping her from advancing.
The woman froze, then looked furious. "Who are you?!"
But before Silverleaf could answer, she shouted at Mira, "Mira! What do you think you're doing?"
"She... really is my sister," Mira said timidly.
She dearly wished the woman were a complete impostor.
"I don't care whether she's your sister. The question is, how did she end up waiting here?" Silverleaf held his Magic Wand steady, watching the woman warily. "We only came here to 'look around' today. We never planned to meet them!"
"...Sis! Why are you here?!" Mira asked belatedly.
She hadn't wanted to come at all, let alone tell her sister.
Mira suddenly realized what was going on. "Could it be this letter?!"
She pulled the letter from her pocket and saw a map on it, just like the one on Silverleaf's invitation letter. But unlike Silverleaf, who'd been impressed by his invitation, Mira felt nothing but shame and anger.
"Were you keeping tabs on me?!" Mira accused her.
Knowing her family, Mira couldn't believe the letter was just a map.
Her sister looked awkward at first, but then grew indignant. "I'm worried about you! You haven't replied to any of my letters lately! You came to the Mage Tower without letting me know! How could I not worry that you were about to do something foolish again?"
"You still shouldn't have—" Mira's face flushed with anger.
While the sisters argued, Gru suddenly realized what was going on.
He pulled a letter of his own from his clothes.
Seeing the same map on it, Gru warily scanned their surroundings. "—Professor Ral, you're not here too, are you?"
He was calling out to the person who'd given him his letter of introduction to the Mage Tower.
At Gru's call, three men actually emerged from that Mage Tower.
Or perhaps they'd never intended to hide in the first place.
After all, the three were only Rune Apprentices.
Silverleaf frowned as he sized them up. Apart from Mira's sister, only one of them wore a Mage's robe, and none of them had the air of genuine mages.
"Children, I think you've misunderstood," said the man in the Mage's robe. "I mean you no harm. The Mage Tower is quite dangerous, so all invitation letters have tracking magic to keep you from getting lost. It wasn't meant to spy on you."
"Is that so?" Gru hesitated.
"All three of us?!" Silverleaf raised an eyebrow and waved the invitation supposedly from the Masterless Tower. "I didn't know the Mage Tower held group admissions!"
"Of course there are no group admissions!" The other man wasn't fazed by Silverleaf's words. "But since you've come to the Mage Tower, you'll receive a group reception. After all, children carrying invitation letters tend to wander off."
"So the letter I'm holding really did come from the Masterless Tower?" Silverleaf asked.
"Of course."
"The Masterless Tower in the Star Glory Tower?"
"Of course."
"Swear it?"
"..."
Silverleaf looked at the man, who had suddenly fallen silent, and snorted.
"In the five years we spent in the City of Academies, we never received a single invitation. When we were herded onto a Train like sheep, there was no invitation either. And during the first stretch of our time working at the Alchemy Workshop, there was still no invitation. But after Mr. Angell donated a Magic Well to the Charity School, we received an invitation to the Mage Tower?"
Silverleaf demanded, "What do you want? The runes for the Game Table? Or the secret behind the Mana Base Station?"
"You..." The man in the Mage's robe tried to explain, but another man wearing gold-rimmed glasses stopped him.
"No wonder you're the Chief Student of your year. You're an excellent analyst," the man said. To everyone's surprise, this man, who seemed to have no talent at all, appeared to be their leader. "But isn't it reasonable? You can't expect something for nothing. Our invitation proves that you're valuable."
"Exactly!" The man in the Mage's robe said, nodding as he turned to Gru. "Gru, didn't you want to enter the Mage Tower? This is a great opportunity."
Mira's Sister also opened her arms to Mira. "Come here! Mira, stop being stubborn!"
Gru and Mira looked at their mentor and their family, then glanced at each other.
"I refuse," Gru said.
"I refuse," Mira echoed.
They drew their Magic Wands and aimed them at the crowd opposite them, just as Silverleaf had.
Silverleaf's lips curled faintly. "Some lines can't be crossed!"
"Do your lines include your 'brothers and sisters'?" The man adjusted his glasses.
Silverleaf's eyes widened.
The Mage behind the man swept his robe aside. "You brats still don't understand? You have no choice here!"
As he spoke, a Magic Circle lit up beneath Silverleaf and the other two children. Golden Threads of Faith stretched out from the circle and wound around them.
"Let go!" Mira tried to cast a spell in panic, but the golden threads immediately tightened around her neck, and she passed out.
Gru didn't last much longer than Mira.
Only Silverleaf stood amid the golden threads, letting them spread over him without struggling. He murmured:
"Why? Again and again... I clearly don't want to anymore..."
"His Mana is a little strange." Seeing Silverleaf's condition, the Mage stepped in front of his leader to shield him.
"What a wonderful scent." Mira's Sister, however, wore an enraptured expression.
"Scent?" The man looked at Mira's Sister in confusion, only to see her face flush unnaturally as she threw herself at him. "What are you doing?!"
He struggled to push her away, but his body had gone weak, and he was burning up.
This feeling was...
The man looked up and instinctively turned toward Silverleaf in the center of the Magic Circle.
The proper, serious Chief Student now radiated a beauty and allure that transcended gender. Two enormous goat horns sprouted from his ash-gray hair, and a Demon's tail marked with heart-shaped patterns swayed behind him.
The man remembered the image he'd seen in the Demon Bestiary.
"Succubus..." he muttered.
The Succubus was walking toward him, step by step. But there was none of the book's bewitching allure in his eyes—only murderous intent. He held a sharp dagger in his hand.
"Mother was like this..."
"The Dean was like this too..."
"My teacher was like this too..."
"And you're just the same..."
"Again and again, over and over. I stopped wanting this a long time ago..."
The Succubus boy spoke through tears and raised his dagger—
At that very moment, darkness covered the boy's eyes, muffled his ears, and embraced his body.
The darkness spoke gently:
"If you don't want to, then don't do it—"
*
Allen stood in the crack, watching the scene like a bystander.
No one noticed him. No one thought of him. It was as if he had never existed.
This was Allen's "magic."
Actually, Allen had never been sure whether it was magic. His Mana Appraisal had been below par, so he couldn't even get into the Magic Academy in the City of Academies, let alone the Mage Tower.
But Allen did have "magic."
Ever since he was a child, he'd been able to see furtive Black Shadows lurking behind living beings and hear their furtive chuckles.
Those things seemed to be part of the human heart.
Filthy and dark.
But Allen's father had forbidden him to speak about it. "You'll be sent to an Asylum," he'd threatened.
That didn't seem entirely unreasonable.
Only recently, after meeting the Rune Apprentice Silverleaf, had Allen learned that he might have the constitution of a "Witch." Women whose Mana became unstable and drove them mad could see another world. Sometimes, though, this happened to men as well—and men had far less endurance than women. Men with this constitution were almost always consumed by madness right away.
Allen seemed to be a born male "Witch."
Ah, so I really am crazy!
But so what? The whole world is crazy!
That was what Allen thought.
He'd long felt it was a shame that no one else could see what he saw or hear what he heard. If he told anyone, they'd send him to an Asylum, and then even fewer people would know what he'd seen.
Allen came up with a solution.
He wrote novels about the things he saw and heard. That way, he could share them, couldn't he?
Just as Allen had hoped, his novels were soon published, and he received countless Reader Letters.
People praised him enthusiastically, calling him a "Genius Writer."
The day he received those Reader Letters for the first time, Allen laughed for a long while.
Ah, see?
No one says it, but this is what they really like!
So, to help more people experience what he saw, he wrote novel after novel. He even visited the Asylum his father had always threatened to send him to, only to find it wasn't much different from the outside world.
If only he had even more material.
And Movies seemed like an even better medium than novels.
Allen had been thinking about all this lately. As for the Rune Apprentices' little struggles over employment, they seemed like trifles to him, hardly worth mentioning. He'd even have to think twice before deciding whether to use them as material.
In fact, they really weren't worth mentioning.
Whenever people chose their futures, they thought it was terribly important. But reality would teach them a lesson. They had no choice at all. Their ideals and hopes for the future were just fantasies; in the end, they would fall into the worst possible lives.
Ah, just like this—
Like this?
Allen stared blankly at the darkness before him, watching it engulf those people...
Even the "Genius Writer" Allen couldn't describe what happened next: acts so inhuman that he was confident even describing a tenth of the horror would get the article banned from every Newspaper and journal and leave everyone who read it with severe psychological trauma. When all was said and done, could the Black Robe—or humanity—really do such things? Allen felt his mind stop working. Every torture he'd ever read about seemed like a joke.
"Ugh!"
Allen clapped a hand over his mouth, trembling all over.
In terror, he saw the Black Robe who'd done all this glance coldly in his direction. He said nothing to Allen, simply drawing the darkness back in.
Once the darkness was gone, the Succubus boy called out innocently, "Mr. Angell..."
"It's all right now."
Allen saw the Black Robe place the hand that had just (indescribable, indescribable, indescribable) on the boy's head.
The boy stared blankly at the Black Robe, then at the enemies who had lost consciousness and looked unharmed, even though they had actually been (indescribable, indescribable, indescribable). Then he seemed to relax, closing his eyes with a comfortable expression as he felt the warmth of the other man's palm.
The Black Robe promised the innocent boy, "They'll never cause you trouble again."
"Okay! Thank you, sir." The boy smiled.
The boy didn't ask any questions.
Clearly, after what had just happened, the Black Robe's word was absolute in the Succubus boy's heart. He was omnipotent and worthy of the boy's trust. The boy believed the Black Robe could take care of everything, so he no longer needed to know what had become of those filthy things.
And he was right.
After all, those people looked unharmed, but in reality, they had...
"Ugh!"
Allen clapped a hand over his mouth.
*
Half an hour later · on set
"Are we really shooting this scene like this?" The cinematographer looked at the camera with distaste. "This is the most important scene. If we shoot it this way, we won't be able to change it later!"
"Let's wait. I'll discuss it with Mr. Angell and Mr. Allen." Director Peter was also uncertain.
He'd wanted to find those two for a while, but ever since they'd arrived at the Mage Tower, the producer and screenwriter had gone missing. He couldn't even call a little meeting.
Still, it wasn't as if they couldn't shoot the scene this way.
Director Peter had a feeling that if they settled on this scene, the Movie would be a masterpiece.
But he didn't really want to be the one to make such a bleak film...
As Director Peter hesitated, he suddenly saw Allen appear like a ghost.
"Mr. Allen, as it happens, I—"
"Sorry, could we change this shot like this?" Allen interrupted, holding out a new script to Director Peter.
Director Peter's heart gave a sudden jolt.
Lately, he'd practically developed a phobia of Allen's scripts.
Still, as a responsible director, he braced himself and read it over. Then he looked delighted.
"Great! This shot is fantastic! What a twist!" he exclaimed.
He handed the script to the cinematographer.
At first, the cinematographer looked just as disgusted. But after making the changes Allen suggested, his face filled with emotion.
"I can finally get a good night's sleep."
Then, for the first time, he praised Allen. "You really are a genius, Mr. Screenwriter."
"No, I'm nothing." Allen spoke in a daze. "Before absolute darkness, I'm nothing! I'm so insignificant. How could I have thought I could describe the darkness in his great work? It's like a little demon boasting of its Mana before the Demon King. What I should do is prostrate myself at his feet, kiss the ground he walks on, and use my feeble, burning light to praise his darkness! He is my lord, my Deity—"
The cinematographer stared blankly at the murmuring screenwriter.
"Is he all right?" the cinematographer asked anxiously.
The director glanced at the screenwriter, unfazed. "It's fine. Happens all the time. Everyone who writes has something wrong with their head."
"Before he changes his mind, we'd better hurry up and finish shooting!" Director Peter said cheerfully. "We might need to add a few shots to bridge the scenes, but it's such a heartwarming story that I can hardly wait to see it on the big screen!"