Chapter 120

“Aha~ about that.”

“…?”

“My mast—I mean, the Tower Master isn’t someone who meets just anyone. If you have something to say, Professor, I’ll be happy to deliver the message for you.”

Cheon So-baek, who had frozen for a moment, leaned back and returned to her usual playful, sly demeanor.

However, having always found it suspicious how unnaturally she acted whenever the Heavenly Immortal was mentioned, I wanted to confirm once and for all if she was hiding something.

“This is something I must speak to them about personally. You might not know this yet, Miss Soso, but it’s a very important matter involving the fate of the Special Unit and all of humanity.”

“Aha, I see~. But, uh…”

“…?”

“Magic research! Right now, our Tower Master is incredibly busy pushing the boundaries of magical research! They’re developing a spell to wipe out the demons threatening humanity in one fell swoop, and if anyone interrupts, it’ll be a total failure! They said they’d just quit everything if that happened!”

What kind of nonsense was this? It sounded like Wei Yan accidentally blowing out Zhuge Liang’s life-extending candles.

Sensing Cheon So-baek’s ironclad resolve to prevent me from meeting the Heavenly Immortal, I simply nodded.

Then, carrying the flowerpot where Mala-nim was planted, I started up the stairs for my class.

“I see. If they’re that busy, there’s nothing to be done.”

“I’m glad you understand. But is there something urgent? For you to suddenly want to meet the Heavenly Immortal like this.”

“No special reason. I just felt like I needed to ask for permission.”

“Permission?”

“Since we’ve already made a joint date fund, the next step is a newlyweds’ housing savings account, right? It felt a bit much for us to decide that on our own…”

“Eh? Ah…!”

In an instant, Cheon So-baek’s face turned beet red.

Taking advantage of her flustered state, I sprinted up the stairs and bypassed the floor where the classrooms were located.

“Th-that’s cheating! Stop right there!”

“There’s no such thing as cheating in the world! You shouldn’t have hidden it from the start!”

I whipped out my tentacles from beneath my robe, using them to clear six steps at a time.

Not to be outdone, Cheon So-baek gathered her mana and followed close behind using Spatial Shift.

However, she ran into an unexpected obstacle: her current public status.

On the wall of the seemingly endless spiral staircase, a red warning sign read: ‘Graduate students shall ascend using their two legs.’

“Ack! A graduate student is using magic without permission!”

“What? A graduate student?”

“Lord Hans! Help me! A graduate student whose Master’s graduation has been delayed by three years is chasing me!”

“Huh? You are…”

Just then, I spotted my second target, Hans, near the Astronomical Observation Wing. I immediately called out for help.

Hesitating for a moment—perhaps remembering me from the Tower of Proof—he used his magic to disrupt Cheon So-baek’s Spatial Shift.

Taking that opening, I dashed through the Astronomical Observation Wing and headed straight for the Tower Master’s Room at the very top of the tower.

As I approached the door, Cheon So-baek shouted from behind.

“It’s no use! I’ve made the security there foolproof…!”

Just as she said, the tightly closed door was fitted with a lock unlike before. It was a magitech device embedded with blue mana stones, likely designed to prevent magical tampering.

“88th Tentacle, Tentacle of Mold.”

I pulled a single strand of tentacle from my sleeve.

The squishy, liquid-like appendage slipped into the gaps of the lock and began to harden. Originally, this one preferred molding itself after other body parts rather than keys, but…

Well, it’s useful for this, too.

With a satisfying click! the lock gave way. I shoved the door open.

I had finally set foot inside the Tower Master’s Room.

There, beneath a glass ceiling that looked up at the sky…

“Heavenly Immortal! I, Sae Hayan, the Light Mage (in training), have come under orders from the Special Unit! You must evacuate to a safe place immediately—huh?”

There was no one, and nothing, there.

Where did they go?

Did they go to the bathroom?

Since the Tower Master’s Room was connected to every Magic Tower in the world, this was undoubtedly where the Heavenly Immortal should be.

Yet, the space before my eyes showed absolutely no sign of being lived in.

No, to be more precise, there were traces.

The neatly organized desk and the grimoires on the bookshelf didn’t have a speck of dust on them. Even the various formulas drawn on the walls and ceiling were the marks of someone who had been coming and going quite recently.

However, those marks didn’t belong to the Heavenly Immortal, one of the Seven Immortals and the greatest mage in Korea.

Instead, it was a scent more familiar to me than anything.

It was the scent of Cheon So-baek’s perfume, which I had smelled so often in the research lab.

“…I told you not to come in.”

Cheon So-baek, having entered the room a step late, locked the door behind her.

Her expression was heavy with a sense of frustration.

Unable to fully grasp the situation, I asked cautiously.

“Is Miss So-baek actually the Heavenly Immortal?”

“I am not.”

“Then did the Heavenly Immortal go on vacation? Why is this place filled only with your traces, So-baek?”

“They aren’t here. That person is no longer anywhere.”

The Heavenly Immortal is gone?

As I stood there dazed, she gestured for a chair to move over and sat down. She began twirling her hair, looking as if she were reminiscing about the past.

“It was quite a long time ago. Maybe over ten years? When I was young—right when I first started learning magic—my master had already finished preparing to leave for somewhere else.”

“Somewhere else?”

“In their own words, a higher realm. They didn’t explain more than that, so I don’t know. They were the type to teach that you should only fill your vessel to the extent it can hold.”

“…”

A place where an Awakened who had already reached the Transcendent Realm could become even stronger.

Given that the person was a mage, I had a hunch.

It was the creation of a new path of magic.

However, creating a path of magic was on a completely different level from simply raising one’s rank. There was one thing absolutely necessary for it.

『A Star Scar. Just like the one I was granted by Mala-nim.』

『FEAR NOT!!』

『I told you, I’m just borrowing it! I plan to give it all back later!』

In any case, it was a mystery to me as well how the Heavenly Immortal planned to obtain a Star Scar—or if they already had.

Could they be planning to hunt an Outer God, just like the single-digit ranked Archdukes?

While I was lost in thought, Cheon So-baek gave my shin a light poke. The usual laid-back composure she wore was nowhere to be seen; she looked strangely dejected.

“Are you disappointed?”

“About what?”

“The Master you were looking for isn’t here.”

“Well… I certainly don’t see them, no matter how hard I look.”

Judging by the fact that not even a trace of mana remained, it seemed she was right—they had been gone for at least ten years.

I think I understood now why she had kept it a secret, claiming the Heavenly Immortal was in seclusion. If this fact were to get out, it would cause massive unrest. One only had to look at the treatment Moon Ah-rin received from other mages for coming from the leaderless White Tower earlier this year to see that.

Perhaps because her hidden weakness had been exposed, Cheon So-baek’s expression looked more bitter than ever.

“This Magic Tower is ultimately nothing but a facade. And I’m just a puppet, lacking the talent to reach the Transcendent Realm, yet deceiving everyone just to keep this seat warm.”

“I don’t see it that way.”

“Pardon?”

“Actually, isn’t it impressive? It means that the current prestige of the Red Tower was built entirely by you, Commander Cheon So-baek.”

If the Tower Master had been absent, it meant that all the achievements in magitech credited to the Red Tower were actually Cheon So-baek’s work. Even if her master had set the initial direction, outstanding inventions like the Magical Siege Turret must have been born from her hands.

Acting as the Tower Master under the guise of a disciple while simultaneously serving as a Special Unit Commander… even ten bodies wouldn’t have been enough for that workload.

The way she used to appear and disappear like a ghost, or how she would occasionally return to the lab exhausted and ask for a massage, finally made sense.

“I don’t think there’s any reason for you to be criticized just for keeping that to yourself for over ten years.”

“…”

“Though things are looking pretty dire. The Winged Immortal is dead, the Dragon Immortal is missing, the Commander-in-Chief is halfway to retirement, and now the Heavenly Immortal is gone too. That’s more than half of the Seven Immortals out of commission.”

“…it.”

“Sorry, what was that?”

“I can’t… I really can’t hold back anymore. You’re the one who seduced me first, okay?”

I blinked, and in the next instant, I was flat on the floor.

Cheon So-baek had already decided my abdomen was the next place she was going to sit, and she looked down at me from above. I couldn’t imagine where that strength came from in such a small frame, but my pinned wrists wouldn’t budge an inch. Her breathing was ragged, and her beautiful eyes, usually sparkling, were shining with a more dangerous light than ever before.

“I’ve really held back for a long time. I know you’re dense, and I know you’re still hiding a lot from me, but if you keep wagging your tail this thoughtlessly, I have no choice but to make you mine, regardless of other units or anything else…!”

“C-calm down! I am not an object! Besides, I told you the situation outside is dangerous! The demons will invade soon…!”

“Oh, really? Then we need to evacuate to a safe place immediately. Let’s go to our research lab. I’ll tell the Special Unit you’ve been hospitalized with a lower-body injury!”

It seemed I had flipped a switch that should have been left well alone.

I resisted desperately, but persuading a Cheon So-baek whose reason had been paralyzed was impossible. She lunged at me like a survivor of a shipwreck discovering a campfire on a freezing winter night. She reached out for warmth, but flinched just before touching as if the heat were too much—her mind and body seemed to be clashing in a total system error.

However, soon coming to a decision, she reached for me again and spoke as if murmuring to herself.

“Yeah, it’s okay. It’ll be fine. If you think about it, I marked you first, so I’m just cleaning off the handprints everyone else keeps leaving on you.”

How could I calm her down?

Thinking hard, I recalled our date. She always tried to take the lead, but whenever I did something I’d learned from my childhood friend, she would often get flustered and back off. Like a glass cannon whose defense was infinitely weaker than her attack power.

In that case, I had to be the aggressor.

Instead of trying to free my hands, I lifted my head to close the distance between us.

And then…

Chomp.

“Hyaak!?”

“It’s been a while. Sae Hayan, was it? I didn’t expect to run into you in a place like this, but it’s good to see you.”

“Were you waiting for me?”

“Yes, I was wondering if there might be a problem.”

A short while later.

I managed to exit the Tower Master’s Room safely. Hans, who had been waiting outside, was curious about what had happened. He tilted his head slightly to look at Cheon So-baek, who was hiding behind me.

“Why is that graduate student’s face so red?”

“I had to administer some corporal punishment.”

“I see. You shouldn’t be too harsh on her. Even if she used magic on the stairs and tried to kill a professor, she is still a precious resource of the Magic Tower.”

“Thank you for the advice.”

She hurriedly adjusted her collar to hide the red tooth marks on her collarbone. Even though she was the one who had practically put a hole in my shoulder, she seemed embarrassed now that the tables were turned. It wasn’t like I’d planted a brand of domination or anything; it was just a light bite, so it would heal soon.

Having successfully calmed her down by exploiting her lack of immunity to skinship, I turned to the man who was conveniently right there.

“Lord Hans, I have something to discuss with you. Do you have a moment?”

This was the second mission Ha Yeri had given me: to confirm whether Hans Schneider had sided with the demons.