Chapter 85….
The next morning, Dante left the inn together with Eina, Milleon, and Elaine.
Even at such an early hour, the capital was bustling with people.
Those preparing from dawn to open their shops.
Those forming caravans to head toward other cities.
And the guards carrying swords to protect them.
The capital was like a miniature version of the world itself.
“It’s so different from our village.”
A village, she says…
The Marquisate wasn’t exactly small enough to be called a village.
Still, Dante nodded. Compared to the capital, any place on the continent would look tiny.
“This way, Sir Dante.”
Today’s guide was Milleon.
All he really needed to do was check the route to the Magic Tower, but with his overly serious sense of responsibility, he had memorized the entire map of the capital by heart.
According to Zionhack, Milleon had stayed up the whole night.
It wasn’t necessary at all, but Dante patted his shoulder, telling him to take it easy, and walked on.
“The roads here are so straight and easy to walk.”
Unlike the Marquisate’s dirt and gravel roads, these were cut from solid stone, each block precisely the same size, laid out evenly across the ground.
Thanks to that, not only walking but even riding in a carriage caused little shaking.
“This too was made using magic,” Milleon explained.
“Magic?”
“Yes. I’ve heard the Magic Tower often creates such useful things for daily life.”
Milleon addressed even Eina with honorifics.
Well, he had spoken that way even to commoners they met on Mount Kalrotes.
He was simply a man of kind nature.
If only he could change that overly rigid side of his…
Then he would truly be perfect.
But what could one do? That was simply how he was born.
“Not only these roads, but those lanterns as well.”
Though extinguished in the daylight, at night the streetlamps would shine with light.
“I wish we had those too. Right?”
Eina muttered with her mouth agape.
Indeed, there were so many things in the capital she wished to bring back to the Marquisate.
Among them, the object Dante most desired were the spires standing at intervals along the streets.
“They say those hold artifacts with communication magic. Even when your voice wouldn’t normally carry such a distance, it can transmit clearly—very useful for operations.”
At Milleon’s explanation, Dante kept gazing at the spires.
If only the Duchy had such things, countless lives could have been saved.
It was a regret that lingered.
“They likely couldn’t afford it. The price must be immense.”
Indeed, only the capital could manage such things.
The Duchy’s finances couldn’t even dream of it.
“What about the northern borders?”
“They use them there too, though only in limited numbers.”
That was new to Dante.
When he first went to the battlefield, the Kingdom of Kaldrion had already occupied the Marquisate.
Before that, he hadn’t even been qualified to set foot on the battlefield.
A faintly bitter look crossed Dante’s face.
“Sir, is something troubling you?”
As if sensing it, Eina asked cautiously.
“It’s nothing,” Dante shook his head.
It was something that would never happen again.
The future mattered more than the past. There was no need to waste the present on old regrets.
“Ah, here we are.”
Guiding them eagerly, Milleon’s voice drew Eina’s attention forward.
“T-that’s the Magic Tower?”
It was enormous.
No—enormous wasn’t even enough.
A tower that seemed to reach the very ends of the sky.
It wasn’t a metaphor or exaggeration.
The peak of the Magic Tower truly soared higher than the clouds themselves.
“How could something like that not have been visible until now?”
It didn’t make sense.
With such size, it should have been visible not only from the capital but even from tens of kilometers away.
On a clear day, it should be observable from over a hundred kilometers.
Yet Eina had never once seen it until now.
“It’s a vision-distorting spell. Beyond a certain range, you simply can’t see inside.”
Unlike Eina, who gaped in wonder, Dante wasn’t particularly impressed.
He had seen it many times in his previous life.
What surprised him instead was something else.
Just how much has he researched?
Milleon was like a walking encyclopedia.
He knew everything they passed and kindly explained it.
And Dante had only asked him to check the way to the tower…
Once again, Dante couldn’t help but marvel—half admiring, half exasperated—at Milleon’s rigidity.
“But can we even get inside?”
Eina asked nervously, looking around.
Indeed, the area around the tower was oddly quiet.
It wasn’t that no one came to look, but no one ever approached within a certain distance.
Or perhaps… they couldn’t.
“That, I don’t really know…”
At last, Milleon encountered something he didn’t know.
Dante couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
“Ahem.”
Milleon’s face flushed red, embarrassed at not having figured this out too.
Barely stifling his laughter, Dante stepped forward himself.
“We’ll see when we try.”
When you don’t know, the surest way is to test it directly.
Without hesitation, Dante walked toward the Magic Tower.
Step by step, he drew closer—until suddenly.
“Hmm.”
He stopped.
“Sir, why did you… oh?”
Eina hurried up beside him, then froze too.
It would’ve been easier to understand if something invisible was blocking their way.
But that wasn’t it.
They simply couldn’t move forward.
Their feet could not lift from the ground.
Strangely, they could move backward or sideways without issue, but the moment they tried to step forward, their feet locked as if glued to the earth.
“…An interesting spell.”
If such magic had been cast across the Derkan Plains?
The monsters charging madly forward would have simply stopped in their tracks.
“Just shoot arrows from afar, and the battle would’ve been won.”
“Pardon?”
“Nothing.”
Dante felt both amazement and irritation.
Why hadn’t such incredible magic been provided to aid them?
True, the Empire had dispatched the mighty Third Magic Corps.
But to Dante, this spell seemed far more effective at stopping monsters than the destructive offensive magic they used.
That fact unsettled him.
“It seems those without permission cannot enter.”
Milleon sighed, looking ashamed he hadn’t discovered even the method of entry.
“Lady Elaine.”
At Dante’s call, she stepped forward.
“Can you break it?”
He was speaking of this spell of enforced immobility.
Elaine gathered her mana for a moment, then shook her head.
“It would be difficult.”
“Sir Milleon?”
“…Likewise.”
If even they couldn’t, then no one in Acrasion could.
To use such powerful magic only to keep people away…
Dante’s irritation grew.
“Well, that’s that. Just seeing it from here is moving enough. Honestly, even if we went inside, there wouldn’t be much to see. Why don’t we go somewhere else?”
Sensing his mood, Eina quickly tried to smooth things over.
She blamed herself, thinking it was her fault for suggesting they come.
But—
“We’ve come all this way. We can’t just turn back.”
Dante shook his head.
“What?”
Eina looked at him in surprise—
Rumble, rumble, rumble—!
Dante’s mana surged.
The ground beneath his glued feet began to tremble as though in an earthquake.
The vibrations were so great that Eina nearly toppled over.
“Kyah!”
Just before she fell, Elaine caught her and stepped back.
“…Sir Dante.”
Milleon called out gravely.
“This is the Magic Tower.”
In the heart of the Empire, second only to the Imperial Palace itself in sanctity.
If he caused a disturbance here, even Dante might not escape punishment.
The Tower did not hold noble authority in high regard.
“So?”
Dante was unconcerned.
“I will see inside, no matter what.”
At first, it had been for Eina’s request and curiosity.
Then, for his own curiosity about magic.
But now, his reason had changed.
He intended to ask the magicians inside one question:
Why had they not given their full strength to support the Duchy?
Even just the magic they used here for convenience could have saved countless soldiers and knights.
Why hadn’t they?
He would smash through whatever blocked his way and demand answers directly.
Crack, crack—!
Mana surged to its extreme, splitting the earth with web-like fissures.
The solid stone pavement could no longer withstand it.
Then—
Kwooooooom—!
With a deafening roar, Dante’s feet tore free from the ground.
Step—.
He took one step forward.
The spell that Milleon and Elaine had deemed unbreakable collapsed beneath his stride.
Rumble—! Rumble—!
The sky above the tower darkened, thunder and lightning raging wildly.
Krakoom—!
Bolts as thick as a man’s torso struck the ground nearby, yet Dante did not stop.
Soon he stood before the Tower’s grand gates.
Raising his hand, he knocked.
Bang—! Bang—! Bang—!
“Come out.”
