The AI Archmage - Chapter 70

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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AI Grand Mage Episode 70

A brief silence fell between Maxwell and Lumia.
“……Lumia?”
“It’s Sion.”
“…….”
At that answer, Maxwell found himself wondering if Lumia before his eyes had contracted some delusion that made her think of him as Sion.
Then Lumia spoke.
“Ah, please don’t misunderstand. I was merely demonstrating Control Magic through your body, Tower Master, but it seems to be taking some time to unweave because your constitution is rather unusual.”
“……Control Magic?”
“Yes, well, it’s nothing special. It’s just magic that lets me manipulate someone else’s body as if it were my own for a limited time—it’s not as difficult as one might think.”
“……?”
Not as difficult as one might think?
Maxwell fell into a moment of confusion, but soon decided simply to accept it.
“Then how long will it take?”
“I’m not sure.”
“I’m not sure.”
Sion, who had been sitting quietly in the back, lifted his body and spoke, causing the two voices to ring out simultaneously.
The sight of it was, well…… how to describe it.
Quite eerie.
“Ah, I made a slight mistake just now. Anyway, I can feel my control weakening. Tower Master, you speak instead.”
“Ah, yes.”
Only then did Lumia come to her senses and murmured with wonder.
“So it really works?”
“Do you understand the principle?”
“Yes, I understand it. Wow…… approaching it this way is something new for me. It’s fascinating.”
“That’s the nature of magic.”
Maxwell stared blankly as the two of them conversed.
These two…… there was something strange about them.
Maxwell himself was hardly lacking in magical talent, but these two were certainly different.
Then Lumia spoke.
“Senior!”
“What, what is it?”
“I’d like to run an experiment. Could I borrow your body for a bit?”
“Ah, that wouldn’t be possible, would it?”
“I see…….”
Lumia nodded with a dejected expression.
Maxwell fell into thought as he watched her.
This was not the scenario he had envisioned for his return. He’d imagined something far graver, something colder.
That even if branded a traitor, there would be no escaping it.
But the sight before him now was…… entirely different from those expectations.
No one seemed to care at all.
Maxwell could not understand how that was even possible.
“Do you…… not resent me? I chose magic over the Blue Tower in the end. Unlike Barean…….”
“Is that…… wrong?”
Lumia tilted her head in confusion.
“Senior, you never blended in at the Red Tower either, and you stuck with that ash-grey robe. Isn’t that enough…… ?”
“Is it…… ?”
The reply was so remarkably matter-of-fact that Maxwell turned his head toward Sion as well.
“And you…… .”
“Why should we refuse the 6th Circle labor we went through such effort to bring?”
“……?”
The term “labor” struck him as strange, though Sion seemed to show no particular other reaction.
“Serentia, you…….”
“Yes? Wasn’t this supposed to be a celebration party?”
“…….”
Truly, no one cared at all.
The resolve with which he had come here felt hollow in comparison.
Sion, with his arms crossed, asked in an expression of utter bewilderment.
“What on earth were you imagining to make such a face?”
“Well, I was thinking… that you might not easily accept it, or that you’d consider me a traitor, or something along those lines…….”
“I will.”
Though I might, couldn’t I?
Such thoughts circled through Maxwell’s mind, yet he kept them unspoken.
What more could he say when the other party had already agreed to accept him?
“There’s something I sometimes say, and I thought I should share it with you as well.”
“What, what is it?”
“Don’t try to understand it—feel it.”
“……?”
“That’s the orientation of our Magic Tower. Now that you’ve returned to the Blue Tower, you need only hold to that principle.”
“I, I see.”
Maxwell nodded, if only to acknowledge her words.
He had already sensed that the Blue Tower had changed in many ways since his time here.
Sion turned to him and spoke.
“In any case, sit down.”
“What… are you planning to do?”
To his question, Sion replied lightly, as though she meant merely to tidy the room.
“There’s a constraint. We should remove it. Let’s just get it done quickly.”
“……!”
At those words, Maxwell’s pupils trembled.

* * *

“It’s complete.”
Removing the constraint from Maxwell took only five minutes.
Maxwell circulated his Mana and found himself releasing a hollow laugh.
“This is… really true.”
He could feel the upper limit of the Circle that had stagnated all this time now released.
He couldn’t help but be astonished.
He’d heard the claims, but he never imagined the constraint placed by that Vice Tower Master of the Red Tower would be lifted so easily.
“How could this…….”
“It wasn’t difficult. The magic blocking your Mana Conduit was only a standard-level constraint.”
Just as she said, the constraint binding Maxwell’s realm was indeed quite orthodox.
In other words, if one possessed a level of magical understanding higher than that of a Vice Tower Master, releasing it would be far from impossible.
Therefore, for Sion, it was rather simple.
“Thank… you.”
Maxwell bowed deeply, his gratitude genuine.
For a long time, his realm had remained stagnant by another’s hand, forcing him to live through ten years without any advancement.
And now, at last, he was freed from that long suffering.
‘This is truly… unbelievable.’
Maxwell lifted his head in wonder.
There was no question that she possessed a talent that defied reason.
Lumia was a genius within comprehensible bounds, but Sion transcended those bounds entirely.
“……So the Main Tower obtained its treasure only at the brink of ruin.”
If such a prodigy beyond all measure possessed the potential she did, it was possible—perhaps even likely—that a brilliant golden age could return to the Blue Tower.
Maxwell looked toward Sion and spoke in a resolute voice.
“Whatever you need, you have only to command it.”
In his eyes, Sion had already transcended the role of the Blue Tower’s greatest mage and become its very heart.
“You released me from the contract that bound me, and furthermore, you’ve resolved my constraint. I owe you an immense debt.”
“Ah, but if you say so, there is one matter I must entrust to you.”
“A matter to entrust? What is it?”
Sion’s voice grew heavy.
Maxwell, in turn, accepted her words with a grave expression.
What could she mean to say?
Was it that he needed to repel some assassination attempt?
Or perhaps there was a dangerous monster lurking nearby that needed to be subjugated?
If it required the strength of a Sixth Circle mage like himself, it was certainly no light matter.
Then Sion smiled faintly and spoke.
“Teach me.”
“……?”
“Let’s study Magic Engineering. The way I see it, all the Blue Tower mages from back then probably taught themselves too.”
“W, what?”
Maxwell froze.
Wondering what in the world he was hearing, he glanced toward Lumia and Serentia, only to find them both averting their eyes awkwardly.
‘What’s going on here? What is happening right now?’
No—more than that, he couldn’t accept what he’d just heard.
Self-taught?
Magic Engineering learned under the guidance of the great Grand Mage Belusian during the Blue Tower’s golden age—dismissed as self-taught?
“Now, no matter how junior you are, there are things you can say and things you can’t! The teachings that the former Tower Master created…….”
“He was a Grand Mage, but not exactly a renowned Artisan, was he?”
“B, but as a close friend of Altair, the craftsman of the age, I learned some of his knowledge…….”
“He was still a mage, though, wasn’t he?”
“……y, yes, I suppose so.”
Sion felt his irritation mounting as well.
‘What does that Belusian fool think he knows about Magic Engineering!’
True, he’d learned enough to earn some acknowledgment—even for a mage, he was fairly knowledgeable—but it was undeniable he still fell short!
And now disciples trained by such a Belusian dared to talk back to him?
‘Preposterous.’
Sion quickly resumed his “education” of Maxwell.
“The Auxiliary Mana Device that Senior Barean uses—you know I made that, right?”
“Y, yes, I’ve heard.”
“Was that made during that golden age?”
“N, no, it wasn’t…….”
“So did the Magic Engineering you learned in that golden age change the world? No, it didn’t—it fell apart, didn’t it?”
“No, I, that was… the Magic Council conspired to bring us down…….”
“You lost all your battles, didn’t you?”
“…….”
Glimmer.
As the conversation went on, something began to stir deep in Maxwell’s chest, a faint tingling sensation.
Sion opened his mouth again to drive home his point.
But at that moment.
“Sion, st, stop!”
“Why?”
“Look at your Senior’s eyes!”
At that, Sion turned his gaze toward Maxwell.
He saw clear beads of tears forming at the corners of his eyes.
“See? This sort of talk doesn’t help the situation at all…….”
“No, why are you crying like that, Senior!”
“Siiiiiiiiooooooon!”
Lumia and Serentia’s cries echoed through the Blue Tower for a long time.
……All told, Maxwell successfully returned as a mage of the Blue Tower.

* * *

A few days later, Hayden returned to the Red Tower with his shoulders slumped.
Naturally, he bore none of the confidence he’d shown when he departed.
“……Master.”
“Report your findings.”
In a chamber swirling with crimson mana, Rotel Kaul, Hayden’s master, fixed him with an icy gaze.
“Your mana already tells me the result, but I wish to hear it from your own lips nonetheless.”
“The Blue Tower, according to the Council’s directive, serves the Magic Tower faithfully, and so we have concluded……. Ugh!”
Crash!
The Grand Mage Rotel merely regarded his disciple with that cold stare.
Yet that alone was enough—the mana in the entire chamber began to press down upon Hayden according to his master’s will.
He was the sovereign of this space.
All the mana that existed here recognized Rotel as its master, obeying his intent.
Crunch! Crunch-crunch!
“Gh, ugh! M, Master……!”
“It seems I have been too merciful with you. Perhaps it is time I administered a proper beating.”
Rotel could already see the shackles bound to Hayden’s Mana Heart.
Shackles born from a legitimate duel, woven by the will of Mana itself.
These were chains that even a Grand Mage could not break.
Because in the end, he too was a mage who belonged to Mana.
“The matter is plain enough. You underestimated the Blue Tower, and paid a humiliating price for it.”
……
“I can easily guess what price you’ve had to pay. No doubt the Council demanded you keep their eyes off them.”
“…… I… I apologize, Master!”
Hayden threw himself prostrate, begging for mercy.
His master knew it all.
“My disciple, no less. Ha!”
For Rotel to punish what the Blue Tower had done, the method was simple.
Abandon Hayden.
But the boy was too valuable to discard.
Among the young mages of the Red Tower, he possessed the finest magical talent, and his bloodline traced back to one of the great noble houses.
There was no guarantee he would ever find such talent again.
All things considered, Hayden was the core talent who would one day lead this Red Tower.
…… Yes, the boy had caused trouble this time—serious trouble—but nothing beyond what he himself could manage.
“I will leave the Blue Tower alone for now. I will tell the Council the same.”
“M… Master……”
“There is no second chance.”
At those words, Hayden wept openly, pressing his forehead to the floor.
What had he done to cause such merciful concern from his master?
“Master, this disciple swears never to make such a mistake again!”
“No, you mustn’t.”
With that, Rotel Kaul descended slowly, dragging the staff in his hand behind him as he approached Hayden.
Hayden’s voice trembled as he spoke.
“Master?”
“Today we’re going to catch a mad dog.”
“A mad dog?”
“That’s right. A mad dog.”
Rotel fixed his disciple with a glare, his eyes blazing.
“Because right now, I don’t see my proud disciple—I see a rabid cur in his place.”
“W-wait, please! Your disciple kneels before you, Master!”
“I know, you bastard.”
With that, Rotel began striking Hayden relentlessly with his staff.
“Aaaahhhhh!”
As he beat the mad dog that had been his disciple five minutes before, Rotel Kaul reflected.
‘The Blue Tower.’
Truly, they were an irritation beyond measure.
In the past.
…… And still, now.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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