Chapter 56
“Hooh―!!”
Chiwa’s already large eyes grew even wider.
April’s magic was perfect.
The summoned mop was spotless and diligently cleaning.
The four children immediately ran toward April.
“W-what, how did you do that?!”
“Emily, can’t you tell me how you did it?”
“It’s not Emily, it’s April! April, if you help me just once, I’ll never forget it!”
“April, please, tell me…!!”
April suddenly felt overwhelmed by the children rushing at her.
She was surprised herself.
She had never imagined she could cast magic so effortlessly in one go.
She felt the warmth and tingling of magical energy lingering in her palms, confirming that some magic still remained.
“…Th-the method is simple. To cast magic, you must never doubt it.”
April nervously stammered her words, but the children didn’t seem to care at all.
She calmed her pounding heart.
Those were words written on the first page of an ancient book.
It seemed to be a book written by a wizard to teach humans magic.
Seeing that passage had made April dream of becoming a mage.
She had tried reciting the spells written in the book, but, of course, she couldn’t use magic.
“If you want to cast magic, never doubt it.”
Now, having seen magic with her own eyes, knowing she had the ability to amplify magical power, and having come to the Magic Tower, April could finally stop doubting magic entirely.
“Is that all?”
“Tch, if it’s just that…”
As soon as April spoke, the four children dispersed.
It seemed they were even more ungrateful and mischievous than April had expected.
Back at their spots, the children began shouting “Laxchir” endlessly again.
But, astonishingly, nothing happened.
The discouraged children gradually slurred their words, some even chanting “Laskchir,” while others, feeling they had no magical talent, began to whimper.
“Isn’t there another way? Don’t just try to stand out, tell us!”
“N-no… it’s true! There really is no other way.”
The children gave up chanting and began demanding April to tell them another method.
Yet, among them, there was one child who didn’t argue and continued shouting “Laxchir!” at the top of his lungs.
It was Kevin.
Even amidst the other children’s half-hearted chants, Kevin’s “Laxchir!” remained as strong as when he started.
The other children treated Kevin as a spectacle.
“He doesn’t even get tired, huh.”
“Is he crazy or something?”
Just as the children were about to start mocking Kevin, it happened.
“Laxchir!”
At Kevin’s shout, a mop appeared from his hands.
It didn’t move as smoothly as April’s, but it slowly cleaned the floor.
“Hooh…!!”
Chiwa was amazed.
When she had heard April’s words earlier, she had been surprised.
Perhaps the decisive reason humans couldn’t cast magic like mages was their mindset toward magic.
April had succeeded in magic elegantly on her first try, and Kevin followed suit.
April was happy about Kevin’s success.
Though the children were a bit rough and prickly, as fellow students of magic, she wanted to celebrate their success.
“Huh…?”
Kevin turned to glare at April.
His dark eyes seemed to be saying something.
April felt she knew what those eyes were saying:
“I’m going to beat you!”
It was clearly the gaze of a competitor.
April opened a tall door, three times her height, with a creak.
The room was filled with books to the point where one might suspect it contained every book in the world.
By the window, bathed in sunlight, Lucael sat at a desk reading an ancient book.
April stared intently at him.
White dust floated around Lucael, as he was engrossed in the book.
It didn’t look like ordinary dust—it seemed like fairy powder.
He was a truly mysterious and beautiful person.
Chiwa once mentioned that the Magic Tower Lord had lived over a thousand years.
Though his appearance hardly suggested a thousand years, the aura he gave off inspired an inexplicable reverence, like standing before an ancient tree.
The reading glasses Lucael wore didn’t quite suit him but somehow did, and April let out a small chuckle.
“…Pfft.”
She thought it was very quiet, but Lucael’s eyes turned toward the interloper interrupting his reading.
His transparent gray eyes were paradoxically unreadable.
Afraid she might be scolded, April froze on the spot.
“…Chiwa must have sent you to organize the books, right?”
As Lucael said, April was here to organize the books.
The library of wizards required real-time magical borrowing and returning, so the books needed to be organized.
Of course, it could have been done with magic, but it was meant to help the chosen children get familiar with magical texts.
Although Lucael’s tone was emotionless, April’s heart jumped, and she moved with lightning speed.
Even if she wasn’t skilled at much, April was confident in organizing books.
Though not comparable to the Magic Tower library, Count Emeldia’s estate had a fairly large library, and she had organized books from a young age alongside her father.
As April began tidying the shelves, Lucael returned to his book.
Yet, he was lost in thought.
He had finally brought the children who would succeed him.
Though he seemed to know all the answers, it was uncertain how he would identify his successor among them.
Unlike his immortal self, humans live at most about a hundred years; mages slightly longer, perhaps 150–200 years.
He needed to prepare everything so that his successor could continue the Tower, train future mages, and find a successor within that short time.
Most of the books here were written by Lucael, though some were by other mages.
Some were books he had long forgotten and had little interest in reading.
He thought most of them were dull and repetitive.
At the time, he felt they weren’t worth reading, but now he found some genuinely interesting.
“Oh, that one! I enjoyed reading it too.”
Having finished organizing one shelf and waiting for the next task, April unconsciously spoke upon recognizing a familiar cover.
“…You read it?”
Lucael’s eyes turned to April.
The books here were highly confidential magical texts.
He had heard tales of mages stealing or copying these books when leaving the Magic Tower.
Still, it seemed strange even to a millennium-old wizard that a human child had read such rare books.
He studied April’s expression, sensing she wasn’t lying just for attention.
From his experience with her, she didn’t seem foolish enough to lie about something that would be immediately detected.
“They were at my father’s estate. At first, I couldn’t read them because of the strange letters, but my grandfather had books on ancient languages, so I studied them and could read! Oh, now that I think about it, that book mentioned the Magic Tower Lord too! Back then, I thought it was just a story someone made up…”
April recalled the book’s contents.
At the top of the Magic Tower was the Silver Monster called the Magic Tower Lord.
It was a cruel, bloodless, and merciless creature described in chilling detail—the scariest book April had read as a child.
Now she realized that the silver monster was Lucael himself.
Lucael recalled old memories.
The book’s author had been a mage with considerable talent, but he envied Lucael and sought to defeat him to become the new Magic Tower Lord.
At that time, Lucael had thought, How could he hope to become the Tower Lord with such weak magic?
He had only lightly teased the foolish and pitiable mage with magic.
He hadn’t realized that the book written by this semi-mad mage—after being ridiculed by all the other mages—contained such content.
Rather than being displeased, Lucael felt a little sorry, recognizing that the mage had more talent than he thought.
“…He must have really hated the Magic Tower Lord.”
“It seems so.”
Lucael closed the book.
No wonder he had tried several times to kill Lucael with his staff, but ironically, it took five hundred years for Lucael to fully realize it.
