Chapter 19
Back when Altair was still alive, the Blue Tower had been counted as one of the Four Great Mage Towers.
And what did that mean?
It meant that the Blue Tower still had resources worth exploiting.
Just like Belusian’s hidden workshop from before—“treasures” that weren’t visible on the surface.
‘It’s about time I started taking them one by one.’
[That is correct, Human.]
For now, one major problem—“the Blue Tower’s mana supply”—had been resolved.
On top of that, his position within the Blue Tower had become firmly established.
So the next step was obvious.
‘Materials.’
The number of materials required to craft magical tools was staggering.
If he were only making a single type, that would be one thing.
But what Sion ultimately wanted was a magitech tower capable of mass-producing hundreds of different magical tools.
The ultimate workshop—one that even “Altair” himself had never dared to recreate.
Of course, that was a distant goal.
To lay the groundwork at present, what he needed were raw materials.
And among them, the most essential of all was—
[Crossstones, correct?]
‘Exactly.’
They were called crossstones because the raw gems naturally formed in the shape of a cross.
Before Altair’s emergence, crossstones had been nothing more than worthless minerals—no more, no less.
But Altair’s existence completely changed their value.
With a specific processing method, crossstones could compensate for the inherent side effects of mana crystals.
And the one who had used that processing method most efficiently was none other than Altair—now Sion.
As long as there was a steady supply of crossstone ore, he was confident he could continuously produce high-quality magical tools.
Those tools would, in turn, play a crucial role in strengthening the Blue Tower.
[Come to think of it, I’ve heard there’s a crossstone mine within the Blue Tower’s territory…]
‘That’s right.’
However, it wasn’t publicly known.
Originally, it had been a mine meant to be developed under Belusian’s direction, but—
‘My condition wasn’t great back then, so the project kept getting postponed.’
Belusian himself never bothered to reveal the crossstone mine.
Since even Lumia seemed unaware of it, it was safe to assume the mine had been left abandoned within the Blue Tower’s domain.
—A crossstone mine?!
He still vividly remembered having to stop someone who, in shock, insisted on rushing to the mine immediately.
He had told Lumia and Serentia to focus on the tasks he had already assigned them.
Having finished his thoughts, Sion turned his attention back to the students.
“Looks like everyone’s here.”
There wasn’t a single student who hadn’t been captivated by the magical tool Sion had shown them.
‘Just wearing it on your wrist lets you perform spell modification!’
If that didn’t excite you, you barely qualified as a mage.
The students stared at Sion with desperate, almost worshipful eyes—as if they were ready to offer up their souls.
Not only Tult, who had successfully bought in at rock bottom earlier, but even Briella had long since fallen under the spell of Sion’s magical tools.
‘Can’t be helped. I wasn’t planning to bring this out, but…’
Recalling her body, optimized for manual labor, Briella widened her eyes.
There was something her father had always said to her.
—My daughter, you’re destined to wield a sword. Stop talking nonsense and grab one already.
‘…This time, I’ll accept my fate, Father.’
With her resolve set, Briella followed Sion along with the other students.
Sion continued walking, leading them onward.
[Human, we are approaching the reaction zone.]
‘Alright.’
Sion halted his steps as he listened to Akasha’s report.
“Um, Professor?”
“Hm?”
Eira cautiously raised her hand and asked in a small voice.
“Earlier, you mentioned ‘manual labor’… what exactly does that mean?”
“Well then—where do you think this place is?”
At Sion’s gesture, the students tilted their heads.
“…Isn’t it just a forest?”
“Yes. A forest. For now.”
“For now…?”
“This land was originally scheduled to be developed into a mine. It had enormous potential.”
Sion chuckled softly.
“But after several issues piled up, the mining project was halted midway—and it was left abandoned.”
“T-that happened?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t we know about it?”
“You didn’t even know about me, yet you’re awfully chatty.”
“……”
The students quietly averted their gazes.
How were they supposed to know?
That unspoken sentiment hung in the air, but no one dared say it out loud.
After all, it was true.
And considering the rumors about Sion spreading throughout the tower lately…
“Uh—hey!”
“Hm?”
With her arms crossed, Briella raised her hand confidently.
“What is it?”
“Before we start working… there’s something I want to ask you, Professor.”
“Go on.”
“Well…”
Uncharacteristically hesitant, Briella finally forced the question out.
“Is it true? That you’re actually a ‘Blue Tower elder’ who secretly trained for years within the tower?”
‘What kind of nonsense is that?’
Sion thought so internally, but he didn’t show it.
It sounded utterly ridiculous—but Briella’s expression was serious.
‘…Do they really believe that?’
Logically, it made no sense.
An elder who had trained in secret?
Then he should have stood out long before the tower’s decline.
Appearing as a savior on the brink of collapse was pointless.
And if they had seen Sion Rosterly’s absurd behavior over the past few years, this idea shouldn’t even exist—
[But, Human.]
‘What?’
[Aren’t people always inclined to force things to fit?]
‘…Hm?’
[Honestly, isn’t that explanation more believable than you suddenly achieving enlightenment overnight and becoming an archmage beyond even the Tower Master?]
“……”
…He had a point.
If anything, the idea that the omniscient Altair reincarnated into Sion Rosterly using an ancient artifact sounded even more absurd.
‘Hmm.’
After thinking it through, Sion nodded once and smiled faintly.
“Well. I don’t think I can answer that question.”
A deliberately ambiguous response—one that left room for misunderstanding.
It wouldn’t be wise to outright affirm such rumors.
‘I should talk to the Tower Master about this later.’
With the right coordination, they could fabricate a convincing past.
And honestly, that would be far more convenient.
“Wait—so it is true?!”
Briella asked with her mouth agape, but Sion merely smiled without answering.
That alone was enough for the students’ imaginations to spiral wildly—just as Sion had anticipated.
* * *
‘That rumor… is it really true?’
Briella’s eyes trembled slightly.
Sion had never explicitly confirmed it, but she was already half-convinced that he had revealed his secret.
Because—
‘Honestly, if it’s not true, nothing makes sense.’
There was no way someone could reach enlightenment overnight and become the strongest mage on the continent—strong enough to be mocked by even the Tower Master.
It made far more sense that a high-ranking mage who had already reached great heights had simply kept his identity hidden until now.
Thinking of Sion as the tower’s hidden trump card made everything click into place.
It wasn’t perfectly plausible—but compared to the alternative, it was far more convincing.
And if that were true, then all of Sion’s abilities were genuinely real.
In that case, perhaps—
‘Even that…’
Briella’s gaze darkened slightly.
Given everything she had suffered, it was impossible for her to feel positively toward Sion Rosterly.
But if it had all been unavoidable acting…
Then maybe—just maybe—his past words hadn’t been lies.
She could believe that a mage whom even the Tower Master couldn’t treat lightly hadn’t truly denied her as a mage.
That was when—
“Now then, I’ll explain why we’ve come here. But before that—take these.”
Sion pulled a large chest filled with magical tools out of subspace and placed it before the students.
“Put one on each.”
“This is…?”
“It’s the same magical tool I demonstrated in class. The one that allows spell modification.”
“…!”
The students’ eyes lit up.
Before Sion could finish speaking, they hurriedly grabbed the tools, strapped them onto their wrists, and cast spells.
Immediately, the same kind of spell transformations Sion had demonstrated manifested in their hands.
“O—Oh…!”
“It—it really works!”
The students stared at their magic with expressions of shock and awe.
They never imagined they’d experience spell modification like this.
Briella was no exception.
“I—it really works…?”
She gazed, spellbound, at the eight mana masses floating above her palm.
The sensation was incredible.
The moment she wore the tool, her mana began circulating in sync with it, automatically distributing itself to activate Magic Missile.
‘…This is possible with just one magical tool?’
She wasn’t inexperienced with magical tools.
But none had ever assisted directly with spell incantation itself.
“Ah.”
At a voice beside her, Briella turned her head.
It was Eira.
Though equally stunned, her focus was slightly different.
Eira wasn’t staring at the magic—but at the tool itself.
“This level of circuit efficiency is possible? And he made this many tools alone, in such a short time?”
She stared intensely at the tool, trying to analyze its structure.
“Ah…!”
Suddenly snapping back to reality, Eira quickly shut off her focus on the tool.
‘W-What am I doing obsessing over this? I didn’t come all this way to care about that!’
Right. Her dream wasn’t to become a workshop artisan.
She was a mage.
There was no reason to concern herself with such things.
She forcibly denied her instincts.
Talent as a magical tool craftsman?
She didn’t want to know.
‘I—I’ll overcome fate!’
Altair this, Altair that—she was sick of it.
Wasn’t escaping that cursed destiny the reason she’d come here?
Just as she reaffirmed her resolve—
‘…Wait.’
Sensing something off, she tilted her head.
“T-this place… don’t tell me…”
She crouched down, brushed the ground lightly with her finger, and rubbed the dirt stuck to it.
“…Crossstone?”
Eira’s eyes trembled.
She knew about crossstone mines.
Crossstone itself was a valuable mineral.
But extracting it required going through an inevitably “cruel process”—
“P-Professor…”
Eira cautiously raised her hand.
“Is the reason you distributed these magical tools… because of ‘something’ sleeping in the mine?”
Smirk.
A quiet smile spread across Sion’s lips.
Realizing her guess was correct, Eira staggered backward.
“I—I’m leaving!”
“W-What?! Why?!”
“Let go! Let me goooo!”
“Hey—what’s wrong with you?!”
Briella grabbed Eira’s shoulders in alarm.
She had never seen Eira this terrified.
“T-th-that’s because—!”
Before she could finish, Sion spoke to the students.
“The mine beyond this point is special. And because it’s special, it’s full of extremely ‘annoying things.’”
“…Annoying things?”
“Yes.”
Sion smiled brightly.
“Stone Ants.”
“Stone… Ants?”
Briella’s face stiffened.
She had heard of them before.
“You don’t mean those Stone Ants, right? The tiny but aggressive ones whose bites swell like crazy—”
“Those ones.”
“Are you insane?!”
Stone Ants were classified as monsters.
Individually, they were low-level threats—but in groups, it was a different story.
They were dangerous enough to strip an inexperienced mage down to bare bones in moments.
“Then we should hire mercenaries! Why are we doing this?! Even if they don’t attack unless provoked—!”
“Judging by your reaction, you know their habits well. That makes things easier.”
Sion calmly explained the nature of today’s “manual labor.”
“We need to reclaim the crossstone mine. The problem is that a Stone Ant colony has taken residence there. That’s an inherent risk of crossstone mines.”
“W-wait, Professor… are you saying—”
When Tult looked at him in panic, Sion grinned.
“Yes. Today, using the magical tools I distributed, we will exterminate the Stone Ants.”
“…!”
The students’ eyes widened in shock.
