Chapter 21

Chapter 21

“N-not at all...” someone said in a shaky voice, cutting through the silence.

Reinhart started to raise his eyebrows when a voice boomed through the crowd.

“You can’t just do whatever you want!”

A magician in a gray robe pushed his way through the twenty or so magicians gathered in the hall.

“We’re not trying to look down on you, but we have some complaints,” he continued.

Reinhart wasn’t aware that this was one of the magicians Valeta had overheard complaining in the library. His eyes narrowed before crinkling with amusement.

“Complaints?”

“Many of us here question if you’re truly qualified to be the head of the Magicians’ Tower. The rumors say that you sold yourself to a socoro as a slave!” the man exclaimed.

Caspelios kept quiet despite the insult hurled against their leader. He was the keeper of the tower but also a bystander as well and, although he served the head of the Magicians’ Tower, he wasn’t loyal enough to defend him if he wasn’t ordered to do so.

No, the thing that he loved most was the tower itself, the tower that he and his eleven companions had built. Not the head of that tower.

“Sold myself? To whom?” Reinhart asked with a chuckle.

“That doesn’t matter! The problem is that there are rumors like that in the first place!” the magician retorted. “If you want to be our king, you need to prove that you have the power.”

Reinhart laughed after quietly listening to the man’s insincere reply. His laugh was so bright and clear that, for a moment, it stunned everyone in the room, including the hostile man in the gray robe.

“Your king? I don’t want to be the king of vermin.”

“Vermin?”

“I needed some power because I felt so small next to her. That’s all. What’s so great about being the king of a nest that’s teeming with bugs?”

“Are you looking down on us magicians? How dare you!” the man yelled in reply.

However, as soon as his glare rested upon Reinhart, he found that he could no longer move. It felt like an immense amount of energy was pressing down on him.

Reinhart grinned.

At the same time, the man in a gray robe let out the breath that he’d been holding. Am I... imagining things? He raised his head, a dazed expression on his face.

“What a shame. I was giving you a chance to say the right thing,” Reinhart said lightly. Despite the smile tugging at the corners of his lips, his eyes were cold. Not a single person noticed the unsettling disconnect. Instead, they were captivated by his smile.

“Oh, let me correct myself.” His words snapped everyone back to attention. “I was giving you a chance to save yourself. I guess that’s more accurate.”

They had no idea what those moving, red lips were saying. Reinhart snapped his fingers. The man didn’t have a chance to process what his lordship had just said. He couldn’t even think anymore. Clutching his throat, he made sounds of gurgling, as though he were choking.

“Ack! Gah! Save me—!”

The magician in the gray robe fell to the floor, rolling around, still grabbing his throat as if he were suffocating. His face went from red to blue to white. Then, as though he were extremely itchy, the man started clawing at his neck.

Laughter rang out. The crowd, who had been watching the magician in horror, turned toward the sound. Some of the other magicians near the gray-robed magician attempted to cast a dispel. But it was impossible for them to dispel Reinhart’s magic.

“Wh-what is the meaning of this, my lord?!”

Another young magician shouted as he stepped in front of Reinhart.

“Hmm.” He smiled and snapped his fingers, and the magician in the gray robe was able to breathe again. Reinhart watched him for a moment as the man gasped for air before snapping his fingers again.

“Ahhh!”

This time, large shards of ice embedded themselves into both shoulders of another magician, the one who had confronted him, pinning him to the wall behind him. He dangled as if he were just another ornament tacked up for decoration.

The man screamed in pain. Reinhart burst into laughter as blood dripped from the man’s shoulders, pooling into a puddle on the floor. He ambled over to the magician in the gray robe and stood in front of him.

“Get up,” he ordered.

Reinhart always humbled himself in front of Valeta. However, that behavior was only limited to her. His back was straight as he stood in front of the magician. The man trembled. He realized now just how powerful Reinhart really was.

“Aren’t you going to get up?”

“Eek! Y-yes, I will!”

The magician’s neck was in pain from scratching at it just moments ago, but he managed to pull himself to his feet and stood before Reinhart, who watched impassively as the man took heaving breaths.

“Giving you only one chance was too cruel, I suppose.”

The corners of Reinhart’s mouth twitched upward as he approached, but the other man wasn’t fooled. Reinhart wasn’t smiling. Technically, though his lips were shaped into that of a smile, his eyes weren’t. The magician had finally realized that.

“So, who did you say I sold my body to?”

“I-it was a mistake! I made a mistake.”

Reinhart’s eyes narrowed. The corners of his mouth fell into a straight line. With a wave of his hand, another ice shard appeared out of nowhere and impaled the man.

“Wrong answer.”

The man in the gray robe didn’t even have a chance to scream before he was speared to the wall. The other magicians started trembling with fear after seeing their companion’s limbs skewered by shards of ice. Reinhart smiled.

“M-my lord! Don’t you think this is going too— Ahh!”

A couple more magicians had stepped forward to voice their concerns, but they, too, found themselves pinned to the wall with icicles. Everyone backed away after that, their mouths shut.

As the people in the hall quieted, Reinhart slowly gazed around the room and took in his surroundings. Blood dripped from his cheek to the floor.

“Are you done blocking my view?” Reinhart asked with a tilt of his head. The other magicians held their breath. Had he turned those magicians into wall ornaments just because they’d blocked his line of sight?

Five magicians dangled from the walls, blood spilling from their wounds. They were still breathing, but losing a lot of blood.

“Hand,” Reinhart said with his palm outstretched. The magicians’ eyes filled with suspicion. A moment later, an answer came from behind the crowd.

“Yes... my lord,” Caspelios said as he placed a hand on top of Reinhart’s palm.

The magicians’ mouths dropped open. Although they called Caspelios the watchdog of the tower, they had never seen him act this way before.

“There’s a good boy. Do you think you know the answer to that question?”

He hesitated. “Are you talking about the person in the sky room?”

At his reply, Reinhart reached out and stroked the watchman’s hooded head, petting him as if he were an obedient dog. Caspelios’ eyes widened.

“As expected. Dogs are far better at listening than vermin. I thought the answer was obvious, but they’ve lost their chance to live.”

Reinhart’s words made the magicians want to tear their hair out. What was so obvious about that? They knew that someone was occupying the sky room, but how were they supposed to know whether or not that person was the one he had sold himself to?

“Remind me, how did you introduce yourself to me when we first met?” Reinhart asked the watchman.

“I said I was the Magicians’ Tower’s keeper and watchman.”

“Right. So, a guard dog, no? You should be making sure that no insects are getting into this place.”

The metaphor was a stretch, but Reinhart’s meaning was clear: he saw Caspelios as no more than a dog.

“My apologies,” Caspelios replied impassively. “That is my fault.”

The head magician slightly clenched his fists. His eyes slowly scanned the room full of magicians.

“If I just...” Reinhart said as he splayed out his hand. Chills ran down the backs of the magicians at their lordship’s icy demeanor. “It’d be rather troublesome, don’t you agree?”

Reinhart seemed to be talking to Caspelios, but his gaze was directed toward the crowd of magicians. Not a single person in the room felt eased by the smile on Reinhart’s face. They quivered with fear.

They couldn’t sense his magic. If he was powerful enough to be the head of the Magicians’ Tower, they should have been able to sense his strong magic. However, there was a reason why they couldn’t. It wasn’t that he didn’t have mana. He was simply hiding it. Reinhart was hiding his power, just like a predator hiding its claws and fangs.

The magicians sighed as they realized this fact all too late.