A Crisis of Survival

“‘As far as I know,’ the Tower Sorcerer never showed any signs of communicating with anyone inside. Ah, you say he was mentally unstable? No, no, no, that was likely just him talking to himself. He could only talk to himself. As for what he muttered about all day, I have no comment. If I had to say, it was probably about what to cook for dinner…”

A surprisingly domestic scene emerged from Rhine’s words.

“In any case, the long and short of it is this: the Tower Sorcerer and King Duran were not acquainted. There were no familiar faces there, only cooked meat.”

The group fell into a contemplative silence.

“If the Tower Sorcerer wasn’t plotting against Lanburg County, and he wasn’t colluding with King Duran, then why did he build his tower in the Ancient Zhi Forest?”

“Who knows?” Rhine crossed his arms, annoyed.

“Perhaps he just enjoys building towers? I’ve often thought about it myself. Most sorcerers’ towers are built for deterrence or to display power and glory. But his tower… it’s so incredibly high. It seems like a tremendous waste of resources if it was just for the sake of reputation.”

Audrey gestured extravagantly with her hands, mimicking the black tower’s height.

“Actually, I’ve also wondered what the view from the top is like. I’ve only ever seen clouds drift above my head, but from the top of the tower, you could look down on them. Maybe that was the reason?”

Rhine’s body went rigid for a moment.

Was that an overly naive reply? And yet, it was alarmingly close to the truth.

“In any case, just discussing this won’t get us anywhere. We should focus on the potential consequences of this matter.” Chris produced a full-page map of the Ancient Zhi Forest.

“Look, this is the tower’s location. It’s in the northern part of the forest, quite a distance from us, but relatively close in the grand scheme of things.”

His finger then slid downwards.

“To the south, about thirty-five li away, is the tomb. That’s the absolute core of the Ancient Zhi Forest.”

“I always thought the tower was in the inner circle,” Colette said, surprised.

“You could say that, but it’s not at the very center. It’s on the outermost edge of the core area. It would still take Lord Ferren the better part of a day to get there.”

As he stared at the map, he seemed to have a realization.

“King Duran’s authority to command all beasts is terrifying, but he is currently sealed. His influence is likely less than half of what it was at his peak, so he can probably only command beasts in a radius around his tomb. If that’s the case…”

He formed a straight line between the tomb and Lanburg County with his index finger and thumb. Precisely in the middle was Babel Tower.

“If… if he wanted to command a beast tide, Babel Tower’s territory would be an unavoidable path. And over the years, nearly a fifth of the magical beasts in the core area have been bound beneath the tower.”

“And it just so happens that we only just repelled the first beast tide this spring and then launched the crusade against the Tower Sorcerer… If this is all a coincidence, it’s far too convenient.”

After Chris finished speaking, the expressions of everyone present grew grim. Even Rhine himself fell silent.

‘A coincidence? I remember that night… I just took a nap, and all the magical beasts fled. But was it really just a coincidence?’

A genuine seed of doubt sprouted in his mind.

He knew his own beast-taming methods better than anyone. They were fundamentally different from the authority King Duran wielded.

The magical beasts, though physically powerful, had souls weaker than even an ordinary mortal’s.

Despite his considerable expertise in soul manipulation, he couldn’t control hundreds or thousands of magical beasts at once. So, being the genius he was, he devised a convenient shortcut.

He simply had to inscribe a soul-binding seal on Babel Tower itself, imprisoning the souls of those beasts within the tower.

The beasts’ meager brains could never have imagined that all their efforts in building the tower were, in fact, forging a stronger cage for themselves.

‘I really am a first-rate capitalist!’

Theoretically, King Duran would be unable to command the beasts already imprisoned by Babel Tower. If he were still at the tower now, he wouldn’t care what emperor or king you were in your past life; you would have to watch your tone around him. And he, in turn, could give you the cold shoulder. (The probability of that was about one thousand percent.)

However, having served as the chief engineer for so long (two and a half years), he had to admit that failing to maintain the tower’s seal was a problem worth reflecting on. Even machines rust after prolonged use.

But at the time, he had been overwhelmed with self-reproach, his mental state had been on the verge of collapse, and then the knights had stormed his home. He never got the chance to carefully inspect the internal workings of the tower’s seal.

Thinking about it now, the problem was far from small. It was entirely possible some bastard had secretly tampered with the seal from the outside while he wasn’t paying attention.

“If the enemy’s plot began back then, the implications are truly terrifying to consider.”

Once Babel Tower’s beast tide struck Lanburg County, the Cavendish crusade against the Tower Sorcerer would have been inevitable.

The group then began chattering, discussing various seemingly unusual incidents, large and small, but they couldn’t find a way to connect them.

“Speaking of major events, haven’t there been two others recently?” Audrey, for once, pushed the conversation forward.

“The first was Daniel’s assassination attempt. Hasn’t the mastermind behind it still not been found?”

“Alas, there are too few clues. There’s nothing we can do,” Chris sighed.

“Daniel, the ones who attacked you were two sorcerers, correct?”

“Yes, but my memory of it is hazy. Thankfully, Rhine was there…”

He spoke with lingering fear, his grateful gaze turning to Rhine.

‘How did I get dragged into this again?’ Rhine thought, his mood darkening.

“There’s not much to say about those two assassins. They operated in the gray areas of the fighting arenas, weren’t very professional, and were purely hired hands. It’s clear the person behind it was very cautious and didn’t want to leave any traces,” he explained briefly.

“Alright, let’s put that aside for now. Audrey, what was the second thing you wanted to mention?”

“The dragon disaster in the southwest,” she said calmly. “The Rimehawk Knight Order is our strongest fighting force, and Lord Ferren is a renowned Divine Retribution Knight.”

“But after the recent dragon incident, they were all dispatched to the southwest to fight the black dragon. If they were still in Lanburg County, our situation would not be nearly as desperate as it is now.”

One event after another, a chain of coincidences. The shadowy mastermind seemed to be emerging from the darkness. Every plot, every scheme, ultimately pointed to the current state of Auetland—its defenses at their most vulnerable, its situation at its most dire.

“But, after all this talk and analysis, who is the mastermind? What faction do they belong to? What is their ultimate goal?” Colette pinpointed the crucial questions.

“Father and the others might have some idea…” Chris said uncertainly.

“Our defensive forces are already stretched incredibly thin. If the beast tide truly comes, the city guard will only be able to hold them back on the southern side, buying time for the main force to retreat…”

A look of pain and sorrow crossed the eldest son’s face.

“In other words, anyone who stays behind will be facing a life-or-death situation.”

“And Father… he is the Duke. He would never flee from his post…”

The room fell into a long, heavy silence.

At that moment, everyone present finally understood: this time, House Cavendish might truly be facing a crisis of survival.