A Conversation With A Friend

“…Mr. Felipe still wants Mr. Tommaso to become the Mage Tower Towermaster, doesn’t he?”

“Yes, that’s right. Even now, I believe this man is the one fit to be the Towermaster.”

Felipe agreed with Jonah’s words without a moment’s hesitation.

That was precisely why he couldn’t clear the three trials, no doubt.

Yes… Felipe alone had remained trapped by the past.

“I’m afraid I have no intention of becoming the Towermaster. You may hold me in such regard, but unfortunately I know myself best.”

“No, you don’t understand. You are the most fitting to be the Towermaster. As the previous Towermaster himself acknowledged.”

Tommaso insisting he’s unfit to be the Towermaster, and Felipe insisting he is the one fit for it.

It seemed their conversation would remain at an impasse forever. Or so it appeared.

“Nuhoho. In the first place, after seeing such exemplary skill as a Towermaster displayed right before my eyes, even if I stood on my head I couldn’t compete.”

Saying that, Tommaso laughed cheerfully.

Felipe on the other side of the wall might not understand, but Jonah sensed that Tommaso truly believed it from his heart.

In other words, Tommaso had no regrets whatsoever.

Earlier, when he spoke of the past he wore a lonely expression, yet he believed his choice was not wrong… No, he was probably convinced it hadn’t been wrong.

Otherwise, he could never have been able to pass the Three Trials.

“…Just as I thought, Felipe, once he became Towermaster, brought together the Mage Tower’s mages and magical studies advanced greatly. Having witnessed that, I was rather jealous of you.”

“You…? Of me…?”

From beyond the wall came Felipe’s incredulous voice.

Because he considered Tommaso the most excellent mage in the Mage Tower, and the previous Towermaster had acknowledged that.

“Do you think that the previous Towermaster would give up just because I declined? I heard it directly—he seemed troubled over which of the two to make the Towermaster. So I only pushed on the back of the previous Towermaster as he prepared to make that bitter choice.”

“Lies! That person did say he would make you the Towermaster! Then!”

“No matter how much you deny it, it’s the truth. My sin is that I didn’t tell you that sooner… I had thought you were already, by your own and others’ recognition, the Towermaster…”

Though there were resentments born from that incident in selecting the Towermaster, I had thought Felipe had accepted the position of Towermaster.

However, Felipe had not yet acknowledged that he himself was the Towermaster.

Learning that, Tommaso regretted it.

Why hadn’t he spoken with him sooner?

“Besides, I entered the Mage Tower to study ancient magic. I don’t have the same attachment to the Mage Tower as you do. A man like me as Towermaster? Don’t make me laugh.”

Shrugging, Tommaso cracked a light joke.

However, that claim of having no attachment to the Mage Tower was a lie.

He had spent ten years there. The Mage Tower had already become a home he should return to.

Even so, Tommaso had to tell that lie.

For the sake of his one and only friend on the other side of the wall.

“So that’s that: you should give it up and continue as the Towermaster. Even if you try to hand that seat to me any further, I refuse.”

“I can’t believe it… I’d like to say that, but unlike me, you passed the Trials and are on the other side of this wall. So that’s what it is…”

Although Felipe spat curses, his voice was calm and his words flowed steadily.

If asked whether the resentment he’d held for these five years had vanished, surely that wasn’t the case.

He had simply decided to try to accept this as the truth.

“Hey.”

“What is it?”

“Be prepared when you come back. There are mountains of things I want to say, including about everything that has happened so far.”

“Nuhoho, indeed. I too have a mountain of things to say to you.”

Tommaso answered with a laugh and slowly stood up.

“Little Jonah. Well then, shall we be off?”

“Ah… y-yes!”

The two inseparable friends spoke to each other for the first time in five years, separated by a wall.

They will continue this after returning from the underground labyrinth.

Thinking that, Tommaso pinched his Kaiser mustache and, together with Jonah, descended once more down the spiral stairs that led into the continuing darkness.