Right after arriving at the explorers’ camp, Alon was hit with another round of “thank you”s.

Feeling awkward, he left the camp and moved straight to the Mage Tower, and it had already been two weeks.

“We’re here now—”

Penia spoke while looking at the Mage Tower scenery far in the distance, and Alon answered.

“I didn’t think I’d be coming to the conference this often.”

“I agree with that too. But did you really not need to stop by?”

“What do you mean, stop by where?”

“The Luxible Duchy. You said you should go at least once, but you just came back.”

Only then did Alon recall that time and nod.

She was right.

Originally, when he first arrived at the campgrounds, he’d debated whether to stop by the Luxible Duchy.

Because the Ronobelli Jungle was near the Luxible Duchy.

However, the reason Alon couldn’t go to the duchy was because of a rumor he happened to hear when he arrived at Caslet.

‘Did you hear that?’

‘I didn’t.’

‘Come on, you know. I’m not actually asking—I’m just making conversation out of politeness.’

‘Ahem. Then what is it?’

‘Ahem— I heard they’re preparing something in the Luxible Duchy this time.’

‘Preparing? What kind of preparing?’

‘I heard they’re secretly preparing soldiers. Of course, I don’t know exactly what it is, but anyway, because of that, it sounds like the inside is running really busy.’

‘Soldiers? Are you saying they’re going to war or something?’

‘Hmm— I don’t think it’s that, surely. But anyway, I did hear something like that, is what I’m saying.’

Since it was something he’d heard more than once over the two days he rested in Caslet, Alon decided not to go to the Luxible Duchy.

Because he thought it wasn’t that good to drop in while the kingdom was busy for no reason.

‘Well, the rumor about preparing soldiers is probably fake.’

Of course, Alon didn’t believe rumors at face value.

There was no way smoke would rise from a chimney with no fire, but in any case, he’d been painfully feeling lately just how much rumors could get distorted.

“Because it looked busy.”

Anyway, just as Alon briefly answered Penia, he recalled another rumor he’d heard about Luxible.

‘Three powerhouses died in Ashtalon.’

Of course, Alon realized not long after that the rumor was distorted.

As a result of asking the Information Guild.

He heard a report that the rumor had been distorted like that simply because contact had been lost with the three powerhouses who had taken the request from Ashtalon.

Of course, even so, he still had questions about what had happened in Ashtalon itself, so he’d put in an additional request to the Information Guild.

‘Well, I’ll know soon enough.’

Alon soon pushed that thought off to the side and naturally brought up another topic.

“Do you think one more spell got interpreted?”

Penia immediately responded.

“Mm— maybe you didn’t manage to complete all of it?”

“Yeah?”

“Yes. The first tier and the second tier aren’t that different, but...... if tier magic itself is a lump of information, it’ll be harder to interpret.”

As Penia added, ‘We only just found about two spell phrases for the first tier, right?’ Alon nodded.

“That’s true.”

“But even so, at this rate, it’s really fast.”

Just like Penia said, the speed of interpreting the information in tier magic was much faster than expected.

In the span of two weeks, they’d succeeded in finding two spell phrases.

“But really, what gets hard is after this.”

“You mean finding the sentence?”

“Yes. I think we can find the one remaining spell phrase soon, but finding the sentence is basically like pure manual labor.”

It was a natural statement he couldn’t help but agree with.

Finding the three spell phrases had been hard enough that his eyes were practically bloodshot, but.

From what he’d heard from Heinkel, the sentence was even worse.

How much time had passed since Alon thought that?

“Marquis, please get down.”

“Yeah.”

The moment they arrived at the Mage Tower, Basiliora—like it had been waiting—went straight into the ring.

After confirming that, Alon soon walked inside with Penia.

And the moment he stepped inside to meet Heinkel—he was momentarily bewildered by the sight of countless mages.

There weren’t supposed to be any mages at this time.

“Penia, is it already time for the conference to open?”

“Uh— no? The conference should still be a long way off......?”

Penia answered, looking just as confused.

For a moment, as if thinking about whether there was something she’d missed, she rubbed her chin, but soon shook her head.

And around the time Alon and Penia—and Evan—were staring blankly at the crowd of mages.

“Huh? It’s Marquis Palatio—”

Someone opened their mouth.

And—

───────the surroundings became quiet in an instant.

“??”

As the place that had been murmuring to match the crowd suddenly went silent, Alon flinched.

What is it?

What happened?

After briefly turning his head around with that feeling—

“Marquis Palatio?”

“He came?”

“Where, where—”

“Ah, he’s there.”

“Gasp—!”

As if they’d been waiting, eyes gathered on Alon all at once.

Before Alon could even say anything—

“Marquis Palatio! Teach—teach our Red Mage Tower—!”

“Marquis Palatio! Let’s—let’s talk once!”

“An exchange meeting! Let’s do an exchange meeting!!”

“Or at least just once, a magic appraisal!”

“You’re saying what you used last time was really Light!?”

Watching the mages swarm in like mad, Alon’s spirit was completely crushed.

“Hoo—”

“Are you okay, Marquis?”

“I’m fine— thanks to you, I lived.”

“Come on— it’s nothing.”

In the end, Alon was able to escape from the mages who had swarmed in thanks to Penia.

Penia had been staying in the Marquis Palatio household for quite a long time now, but maybe because she always attended the conference, the moment she got hysterical, everyone immediately made a path.

‘......What kind of life is she living where I can’t see?’

Just for a moment, Alon recalled the sight of the mages flinching and opening a path as soon as Penia so much as tried to reveal a bit of anger.

“Mm— but this is going to be a problem. In a little while, it feels like the tower masters will come.”

“Tower masters......?”

“I think the impact of Light magic was big. You saw it earlier, right? Over there, all of them gathered up and using Light magic.”

“......I did see it.”

Yeah, he saw it clearly.

Even while making way because of Penia, the mages of the five Mage Towers were firing Light magic nonstop in the gaps along the path, saying things like “Look at my magic!!”

So Alon could feel like a celebrity walking a red carpet.

......Not like he’d ever wanted to feel that.......

Against the background of Penia’s voice saying, ‘If you’re an ordinary mage, of course you’d be like that. If I didn’t know either, I would’ve been like that,’ they soon arrived at the library.

[Hm, you came?]

They encountered Heinkel, who waved lightly like it was familiar now.

[A month, huh? Is all the work finished?]

“Yes, we finished what we originally intended to do.”

[How’s the research?]

At Heinkel’s continued question, Alon briefly briefed the current situation.

“Hooong— so you interpreted two spell phrases? And for Light magic, you found the hand seals?”

“That’s right.”

“So, what’s the completed ‘Light’ magic like?”

“......It’s considerable. My mana can hardly endure it.”

“So enough to exhaust you after using it once?”

“That’s right.”

Heinkel nodded with a hooong—.

“I do want to appreciate Light, but— first, rather than that, I’ll tell you about the research progress.”

“How is the second-tier magic going?”

This time Alon asked back, and Heinkel went mm— and thought for a moment.

“Honestly, it’s a little hard. In the month you were moving around, I barely found one spell phrase.”

“If it’s that much—”

“I know, it’s not that fast. Ah, right. If it weren’t for the friend you gave me, it would’ve taken much longer than now.”

“......Is the difference between the first tier and the second tier that severe?”

He already knew there would be a difference, but since it was the first time he’d seen Heinkel so anxious, Alon was also a bit surprised.

She nodded.

“Pretty much. Extracting the necessary information from magic is the same. But the method of finding the spell phrases gets complicated.”

“......For example?”

“Mm—”

Heinkel pondered what kind of comparison to use, then thought of something and waved a hand.

And a sheet of paper was pulled out.

“......This is—”

“It’s a blueprint. Words from the ‘old era’—”

Heinkel spread a blueprint that looked extremely complicated even at a glance in front of Alon’s eyes and said,

“Simply put, the first-tier interpretation you’re solving feels like this kind of blueprint. But the second tier is—”

She waved her hand and brought out another blueprint and overlapped it.

“—this.”

“.......”

“It’s just like it looks. For the first tier, one sheet of blueprint is enough, but for the second tier, you have to combine blueprints made separately like this to find the spell phrase.”

The moment the two blueprints were attached front-to-back, the structure of a new blueprint became visible.

Seeing how dense and complicated it was, Alon nodded as if he understood.

[Still, don’t worry. Even if it takes a bit longer, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be something we can’t interpret.]

“Is that so?” 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

[Mm— well, for now, that’s what I think. Ah, and how long are you planning to stay?]

“In the Mage Tower?”

[Yeah.]

Alon thought for a moment, then answered.

“I think I’ll be here about a week. I have some additional things I want to ask as well.”

[Good. Then go in and rest for today, and could I ask you for a magic demonstration around tomorrow?]

“Understood.”

They set that promise and wrapped up the conversation.

Back on the first floor again, Alon was able to see a familiar face after a really long time.

“It’s been a long time! Marquis Palatio......!”

“......Tower Master?”

It was Selaim Mikardo, the Blue Mage Tower master.

Approaching with that characteristic good-natured smile, he briefly greeted Penia too, then—

“Have you been well!”

“Yes. I’ve been well, but why are you here......?”

As soon as he responded, Alon belatedly recalled Penia’s words from earlier, that the tower masters would come.

Selaim cried out brightly toward him.

“Of course I came because of your Light magic, Marquis! I didn’t think I’d meet you like this, though.”

“Ah.”

“May I ask you for a demonstration?”

“A demonstration—”

“I mean Light magic. I truly want to see it once with my own eyes.”

Selaim sent a desperate look.

Alon thought for a moment, but he recalled that he’d planned to demonstrate the magic to Heinkel anyway.

So just as he was about to agree—

“Tsk—”

A blatantly clicking tongue sound was heard, so he turned his gaze.

And he discovered a woman standing there.

A woman dressed in green, making an expression cold enough to be chilling.

“Oh, Sharan Poranu. You were here too?”

At Selaim’s words, Alon only then realized who she was.

‘The Green Mage Tower master. Sharan Poranu.’

She was a character who sometimes showed up as the player’s ally in Psychedelia too.

Among the tower masters, while she was alive, she was a great mage closest to the ninth tier.

As Alon was recalling the information in his head, she didn’t erase that blatant gaze and said,

“Of course I came, because of someone’s outrageous lie.”

—like that.

In the middle of a forest where everything was dyed in blood.

In that place where the color of the leaves had been dyed a dark red, there was a man.

The man’s appearance was a little strange.

Soaked in sloth, inside the two eyes that were blankly open, there were two pupils seated in each.

And all over his body, purple threads of unknown origin floated and drifted through the air.

Sitting limply on fragments of a broken cocoon as if no desire existed at all, he, ‘Sloth,’ stared blankly up at the sky.

In the middle of the night. There was the Milky Way there.

A °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° cluster of big and small stars.

Stars that shone especially brightly.

As if they wanted to light the ground like a sun, the sky was shining brightly.

“Ehh—”

The man, who had only been quietly looking at that high sky, slowly let out a deep sigh.

“I hate it—”

And muttered.

“I hate it—”

He muttered again.

“I haaate it—”

The man kept muttering like that without end.

As if chanting a spell, repeating words like he truly found this situation annoying.

Then he lowered his head with a thud.

And he staggered weakly as he stood up.

Crack— dudadudadudadud—!

Then the broken cocoon he’d been sitting on melted helplessly, rapidly.

And at the same time, it was sucked into his body.

Tuduk— tududud—!

The surroundings began to be dyed black.

As if expanding a domain, the pitch-black color slowly spread outward.

Looking at that scene—

“But—”

the man muttered with bored eyes—

the Sin of Sloth.

“Still, I have to do it.”

He recited it like a sigh.

“Because it’s my duty.”