WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 674: A Tower Without a Ceiling and Intermingling Humans - 10

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Elisha Celsius was a genius. She had been ever since the moment she realized that fact.

She had a sister three years her senior, but they had always been on equal footing. Elisha learned the same things as Elcia and used the same magic. It seemed as though Elisha had overcome the disadvantage of being born three years later through talent alone.

But the truth was different.

Despite being born three years earlier, Elcia felt inadequate. She tried to close the gap through effort harsh enough to make her cough blood, but even that was not enough. If Elisha had not deliberately neglected her studies, the gap between them would only have continued to widen.

Elisha saw her sister's inferiority complex, competitiveness, effort, and spite, and understood. She knew Elcia studied all night, coughing blood, because she did not want her younger sister to surpass her.

She also knew that no matter how intense Elcia's feelings were, she could never surpass her. That fierce inferiority complex would help her sister improve to some extent, but before long, it would destroy her.

Knowing more meant having more things to grieve over. Feeling sorrow for her sister, Elisha decided to step aside for her sake. On the day she turned eight, Elisha resolved to climb to the floating castle as soon as possible.

Two years later, she awakened her innate arcane and earned the right to ascend. On the night everyone blessed Elisha, Elcia Celsius came to condemn her.

Coward.

The more capable person had to be considerate. Not because they had the ability to do so, but because they recognized the problem. Elisha learned that truth while looking at her beloved but deeply lacking sister.

After ascending to the floating castle, she found mages who were still inferior to her, yet acted arrogantly simply because they stood on a higher floor. Elisha pitied them. To Elisha Celsius, the fools of the lower realm and the mages of the floating castle were no different.

Elisha was exceptional, and she was kind as well. She looked down on everyone gently, and she possessed a rare talent among mages.

The talent known as popularity, something mages could neither possess nor should possess.

With that talent, Elisha became the youngest Cyan Tower Master and formed many connections with other mages, both inside and outside the tower. Possessing such extraordinary talent, Elisha gradually began studying more difficult subjects.

That was how the Temple of the Demon God came to be.

Like all knowledge, Demon Gods were difficult to find, not difficult to understand. The Cyan Tower Master gathered information on Demon Gods, investigated the Earth Mother and the Lord of Gold, and learned of the relics left behind by Demon Gods.

After the Abyss appeared, a plain was devastated. The Lord of Gold created and destroyed the nation called the Lesser States simply by existing. The Tree of Corruption in the Kingdom of Ten Thousand encompassed the jungle in place of the World Tree.

The relic of a great person might change a single territory, but a Demon God's relic held the power to transform an entire nation. Unlike the relics in Celsius territory, these were not refined powers. They scattered power wildly, yet nations still staggered beneath their influence.

Perhaps...

If they could be woven together systematically...

Could they create laws that would cover the entire world?

Sweet honey drew insects. The alluring resonance of world law gathered geniuses of every kind. The Cyan Tower Master's authority and resources, the fiery debates of geniuses. All of it came together, and the Temple of the Demon God gradually took on a distinct and powerful form.

Then one day, the White Tower Master came to visit. Shrouded entirely in mystery, she secretly called for the Cyan Tower Master and showed her the truth.

The star floating beyond the sky. Pride.

A weapon made solely to collide with the ground.

Elisha understood Pride's purpose and danger. She also understood that it would be difficult to share that truth with other mages. Hwaran Fahrenheit, who had burned even her own territory, would not care about the danger of Pride. No, she might even try to use that danger as a weapon to achieve something.

Hwaran, who had tried to create a perpetual-motion machine with endlessly burning flames, might do exactly that.

Elisha tried to stop the Temple of the Demon God. But mages were not the sort to obey another mage's orders. With Hwaran and Lankart joining it, the Temple of the Demon God had become a runaway train without brakes. Even without the Cyan Tower Master as its center, it would creak onward.

One day, it would surely reach the Demon God.

So Elisha left the Temple of the Demon God and joined hands with the White Tower Master.

Because...

Elisha was a coward.

"I don't understand why you're getting involved in this fight in the first place. Is mediation your hobby?"

My words dug into the Cyan Tower Master's heart.

"First you stopped the Green Tower Master and the Black Tower Master, then the Red Tower Master. You climbed the tower to stop Lankart and me, and now you're trying to stop the White Tower Master. You only ever want to play the mediator."

I could not deal with both the Cyan Tower Master and the White Tower Master at once. I needed to recruit the Cyan Tower Master or force her out.

That would not be difficult.

"Are you afraid of fighting?"

Elisha answered lightly.

"I'm not afraid of fighting. I've never lost. I just think it's foolish and pointless."

"Is that why you always stepped away? You left Celsius territory because you might have to fight your sister, and you left the Temple of the Demon God because you might have to fight the Red Tower Master."

The Cyan Tower Master was a mediator. She tried to resolve conflicts between both sides. She was exactly the sort of person order loved most.

She was easygoing and sociable, with the thoughtfulness and reason suited to her outstanding intelligence.

But the Cyan Tower Master had a weakness.

"Step aside like you always do. This isn't a fight you need to get involved in. Your job here is to keep Avant-garde safe."

"Stopping you is also my job. Stop here. Then nobody gets hurt."

She was too powerful.

She did not need any particular resolve. With powerful innate arcane and exceptional magical skill, she could easily overwhelm her opponent. She could pause a fight and bring peace.

That was why Elisha could not understand fierce emotions powerful enough to burn oneself away. They burdened her. They frightened her.

"That thing above us isn't Pride. Pride is only a byproduct of the Demon God. The real thing is the Demon God beyond it. The great knowledge that placed a star in the sky. I'll have it."

"That's the same thing. In the end, you'll obtain Pride. It cannot fall into anyone's hands."

"There's a contradiction in that, Cyan Tower Master. Doesn't Lord Demon King already possess Pride? It's knowledge Lord Demon King put up as a prize."

The Cyan Tower Master had left the Temple of the Demon God. Though she could have obtained Pride if necessary, she had given it up herself.

"If you truly wanted to protect Pride, you should have been the first to climb the Tower of Babel and obtain the knowledge of Pride. Then you should have held it close and protected it. Like Lord Demon King."

"...Only my master can do that."

"Then it is Lord Demon King's right to pass that knowledge on as well. Why are you trying to stop it? Wouldn't it have been better if you had obtained the Demon God fairly and monopolized it yourself?"

There were probably many reasons. Space magic was power that could not be understood through common sense. Even the Cyan Tower Master could not easily learn it, and even if she acquired it, managing it would be difficult.

More than anything, she was burdened by the mages who would come after her power once she acquired that knowledge.

"Lord Demon King intended to hand Pride and the Demon God over to someone else. As one of the five strongest people in the floating castle, you might have passed that trial. Instead, you chose to become a gatekeeper. For someone who set herself up as a gatekeeper, your resolve is far too weak."

"Resolve? I don't need it."

"No. You do. I'll show you myself."

Free at last, I walked forward.

Once the Cyan Tower Master moved away, Shei blew apart the ice crystal confining her and came running over. Lankart broke through Ruel's light trap and approached me. Someone in disguise slipped into the crowd of mages.

Even the White Tower Master would have difficulty handling Shei, Lankart, and me at the same time. The Cyan Tower Master did not forget her duty and poured mana into the air. With power that could freeze even the atmosphere, she could stop this battle as well.

"If you're going to interfere, do it with the resolve to match, Elisha Celsius."

I took a long stride toward the Cyan Tower Master. She reacted to my aggressive advance. Mana stretched out like branches, and a blue wall formed before me.

This was a duel.

I was targeting the Cyan Tower Master, and she had to stop me. When she gave me a problem, I had to solve it. If I solved them all and reached her, I won.

The first problem was, as expected, an ice crystal. The Cyan Tower Master created an ice crystal shield to block my approach.

"It's an ice crystal. You experienced it in Celsius territory, didn't you? Be careful. It's dangerous."

She was telling me that?

The Cyan Tower Master's warning was so gentle it almost made me laugh.

"At a time like this, you're calling something as trivial as an ice crystal dangerous?"

Instead of resisting, I rode the wind forward. The air before me slowly hardened into crystal. An ice crystal was a wind bomb that could explode at any time.

Without hesitation, I reached out.

Perhaps because I moved too freely, the Cyan Tower Master became even more flustered.

"Wait. That's dangerou..."

The instant I snatched the ice crystal with my bare hand, it transformed into hundreds of cards and fell to the ground.

An ice crystal? It was a solid transformed by mana the moment her innate arcane crystallized it. No matter how dangerous it was, all I had to do was change it with alchemy.

"Alchemy on an ice crystal...?! How?"

"That's for you to solve. Give me the next problem."

Though flustered, the Cyan Tower Master immediately cast another spell. Cold mana wrapped around my entire body.

A tactical-grade spell, Ice Statue. It would turn the moisture gathered around my body into ice to imprison me. It was the spell used in Celsius territory by exploiting the freezing-point anomaly. Without the first Celsius's thermometer, I had no way to break the ice.

So I would stop the ice from forming in the first place.

"Hoo..."

I recalled a spell I had seen at the Crystal Tower. Crystal Amber, a spell devised by Ember, a disciple on the sixth floor. It covered one's body in crystal.

With my meager mana, I could only cover a single millimeter above my skin.

That was enough.

I would freeze myself before she froze me.

'My innate arcane doesn't work on Hughes's body?'

The Cyan Tower Master's innate arcane was the power to crystallize matter.

Just as one could not kill something already dead, she could not crystallize something that had already become crystal. I transformed myself into crystal beforehand and escaped Elisha's control.

That was enough.

"You lack resolve. Is this all? Give me the next problem."

I had overcome two obstacles. Before me was the Cyan Tower Master's face, as if she were slightly frightened. The moment I reached for her, an ice crystal floated into view.

"Haaah..."

Compressed air, an ice crystal. A substance that was itself no different from a bomb. Before I could react, the Cyan Tower Master released the crystallized ice crystal. The solidified atmosphere became gas in an instant and exploded.

'Oh no. I released the ice crystal without realizing it. He could die...!'

It was too late to take it back.

And I had no intention of taking it back.

I endured.

The impact shoved against my entire body, and the wind struck my head mercilessly. Still, I planted both feet firmly on the ground and held on. My neck jerked sharply, and blood burst from my mouth from the sudden pressure difference, but I endured through regeneration.

The Cyan Tower Master watched my hideous state from up close and froze in fear.

'How...? Why? Why would he go that far?'

It was only possible because the ice crystal had been improvised. I gritted my teeth, swallowed the blood flowing from my mouth, and glared at the Cyan Tower Master. Overwhelmed by my fierce emotions, all of her usual coolness had disappeared. Now that I had countered all her magic, she was nothing more than a fragile girl.

Thanks to that brief opening, my hand finally reached the Cyan Tower Master.

"Mmph!"

'It hurts...! My magic was broken through?! In that short moment? Wait. Could this...'

I reached out and covered the Cyan Tower Master's mouth. Her small jaw fit in one of my hands. It felt endlessly soft and fragile against my palm. The Cyan Tower Master was just a mage.

Now that I possessed strength slightly greater than an ordinary human's, I could kill the Cyan Tower Master like this.

'Kill... me?'

There was no reason to do that, of course. The Cyan Tower Master was not my enemy. Considering how Avant-garde and Shei would react if I hurt her, I absolutely could not do it.

I only needed to scare her so she could not interfere.

"I won, Elisha. You understand now, right?"

My violent appearance was reflected in Elisha's eyes. Completely overwhelmed, she answered in a trembling voice.

"Y-Yes..."

"Smart. Good."

I growled like a beast and lightly pushed the frightened Cyan Tower Master away. Her body gave out, and she collapsed to the ground.

The Cyan Tower Master would not interfere with Shei or me now. At least, I had achieved my goal.

The moment I felt slightly relieved, a fierce flash of light sent my body flying without mercy.

Footnotes:

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