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“Lord!”
Quilt said as he blocked in front of Reinhardt.
Reinhardt shrugged his shoulders as he looked at Quilt’s startled trembling eyes. It was himself who was intervening in an already created assembly, he just needed to leave it.
‘I see…’
So that was why that human called duke was filled with trepidation about her keeping her distance. The Duke wanted to place her in an already created assembly, and she would naturally reject it.
“If the other side finds fault about it, just say that the Tower Master dismissed himself out of the Magic Tower.”
“…Lord.”
“Doggie, from now on, I’m not your master anymore.”
“My only master is the Tower Master that the Magic Tower has chosen.”
“You won’t have a master this generation then.”
Barrio Baloxi furrowed his brows as if disappointed at Reinhardt’s light, preposterous narrative. He said he wanted to hear their thoughts, but he made such a decision out of the blue.
‘Young and inexperienced.’
Bartio Baloxis let out a really light sigh and shook his head.
The murmurs grew louder and louder. It was the sound of agitation. The magicians must not have really wanted Reinhardt to leave.
It was simply reckless words coming from dissatisfaction and disappointment. Knowing that, Bartio Baloxis naturally opened the conversation.
He thought there would be something like a clue to the solution.
“Is that what Lord has decided on after hearing our thoughts?”
Reinhardt, who glanced at Bartio Baloxis after hearing his question, lightly tapped the floor with the tip of his shoe.  A small magic circle appeared from his feet, and began to grow in size.
“Have you ever drowned and couldn’t breathe?”
“…What?”
Everything was for her.
“Or have you ever thought about a creature with gills that was forced to be put on the land?”
So without her, there was no need for him to be there.
The magic circle that started at the size of a fist at Reinhardt’s feet was growing in size, enough to fill half the conference hall.
He let out a smile and slowly lifted his gaze from the floor. His red eyes, reflecting the candles in the conference hall, oddly shined.
“If you take away the oxygen from the living things on earth, they will suffocate and die.”
At Reinhardt’s out of the blue and profound words, the magicians closed their mouths.
Bartio Baloxis stood up, holding his staff in his hand, and listened to him.
“If you’re asking me to close up my only windpipe, I have no choice but to leave.”
The magician’s expressions stiffened at Reinhardt’s words.
The reason why Magic Tower’s Masters were violent was so they would not go insane.
A lot of information would overflow to their head and numerous previous Magic Tower’s Master would suffocate them and eat away their life. He could feel dozens of lives in his head and the feeling of boredom is imprinted.
Humans would no longer look like humans. The hatred that magicians feel towards humans was felt by Magic Tower’s Master deeper.
The lives and memories of the precious Magic Tower’s Masters, as well as their knowledge was living and breathing inside his head.
There was nothing new. This magic and that magic, he knew all of them. He knew how to deal with people and there was nothing new to learn.
To live the life that you seemed to have already lived was bound to be boring. Nothing was new and nothing was enjoyable.
“What on earth is that Sokor?! You mean to say that she was more important than us?!”
One of the magicians clenched their teeth and shouted.
All of the sudden, Reinhardt’s magic circle was spreading all over the Sky Island without stopping, even after covering the entire magic tower.
Reinhardt, who tilted his head, slowly lowered his gaze.
“Do you remember the first time you breath?”
“… How would I?”
“I remember. To a monster who was born with their entire body and windpipe blocked, bounded limbs and didn’t even know they were suffocating, that moment will never be forgotten.”
He could not forget the warmth of that kind person. Even though she told him that she doesn’t like him, avoided him and told him to leave, during crucial moments, she would still defend him.
To a sl*ve that no one cared about, she was just as concerned about his safety.
What were his thoughts seeing that kind person, who couldn’t even ignore injured animals or reptiles, trampled on by Count Delight, and her heart being killed?
“Master, if one of your wishes could come true, what would it be?”
The question he once asked was still vivid in his mind. Late at night, it was a conversation they had through a door. Looking after her who was trapped in the dark all night long.
If he were to blink once, under his eyelid, he could still see that day’s scenery, the atmosphere and even the tremor. Everything was still rooted into his retina.
She could not easily answer his question. The other person trapped behind the door did not speak for a long time. As he was about to crouch down in front of it, he could never forget the small voice that he had heard.
“A home to return to…”
Although words were muttered in a drowsy whisper…
“Safe and normal… I wish there was a place that I could call home, where I could rest to my heart’s content.”
It still remained in his mind. After learning about the Sky Room, he thought it was the perfect fit for the utopia that she was talking about. However, if the original masters did not like it, there was no way they could rest peacefully.
“I don’t know what you expected from me, I don’t have any kind of great mission. I just needed a home to return to.”
Otherwise, he would just go somewhere with her. He was confident enough that he could deceive the eyes of the Emperor, and it wouldn’t matter if he had to cross the sea and go somewhere else.
Eventually, the magic circle that spread from his feet covered the entire Sky Island.
Reinhardt let out a low breath. Soon after, the magic circle began to slowly glow.
“It seemed like it was a wrong choice to enter an already created group. So that’s why Master is also like that.”
Even if she were to step into it, she knew that she wouldn’t be able to completely integrate, so she stepped out in advance. She has always been sensitive and defensive so it was understandable.
“It’s impossible to manage the magic tower but I can fix the creaky areas.”
Reinhardt grinned and snapped his finger. People frowned at the bright light. The light instantly spread throughout the Sky Island and slowly began to seep in. The old and crumbling place reverted as if it was new, and the magic circle was newly engraved.
The place where Caspelius had often wandered to and repaired was restored with a stroke from his finger. He looked at Reinhardt with his mouth and eyes wide open.
There has never been a Magic Tower’s Master like this. Magic Tower’s Master has alway stood above others and surpassed everyone’s abilities, but it wasn’t that different.
“Shall I find a home somewhere else? I feel ashamed towards Master.”
Reinhardt pursed his lips as he was in trouble. If he were to say that he left while in the middle of the work, she would definitely show a begrudging expression. Because that person is that kind of person.
“Are you going to leave the magic tower just like this?”
“You have to protect your home on your own. Isn’t it a bit wrong to ask someone else to protect it?”
“You won’t even tell us whenever something happens.”
Reinhardt smiled at Bartio Baloxis’ words.
“Isn’t it fine for me to take care of what I did by myself?”
It was not like he absolutely could not figure out how to catch the culprit. It was a magic circle that he remembered seeing somewhere, so if he were to meditate for a few days, he would be able to easily recall it. And if that was not possible, it wouldn’t be a problem to draw the same magic circle if he were to follow his memories.
“Why is Lord not saying that you didn’t kill them?”
“…”
Reinhardt’s eyes narrowed at his words.
The murmuring of the magicians grew even greater at the bomb that batio had detonated. He let out a low sigh as he looked at Bartio Baloxis.
“Is there any meaning to it?”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s human nature to believe only what they have seen, what I’m saying is that will there be any difference if I were to say what I mean?”
“You’re acting like a child who is rash and lacks judgement.”
“Keuk…”
A sneer escaped Reinhardt’s lips. Pretending to be an adult to distort his mind.
He lightly snapped his fingers.
“Kuheuk!”
(T/N: Choking sound.)
“B-breath… Heuk…!”
“Whether it’s a child or an adult, do you know what is the most important?”
Keuk-!
The magicians began to kneel one by one.
In an instant, the air became heavy. As if all the existing air in the tower were made of heavy lead.
Standing there with their clenched teeth were Bartio Baloxis, Caspelius, who has no body in the first place, and Quilt.
The mana stone of the magic staff that Bartio Baloxis was holding was glowing. It wasn’t perfect, but it was proof that he was blocking Reinhardt’s magic.
“It’s power. As long as I have power, you will kneel before me countless times and feel despair.”
Tak!
With the sound of his fingers snapping, the heavy pressure in the air disappeared.
The magicians grabbed their chest and breathed heavily. Reinhardt slowly turned his gaze to see them breathing in the air with red faces.
“So if I humanely say that I’m stepping down say ‘I understand’. It’s the virtue of Sokors that you hate so much that you survive.”
“Lord, do you really want to go?”
“You are egomaniac and reckless. You are forsaking your calling. The Magic Tower is…”
“It’s just not my home.”
Tak!
As Reinhardt snapped his fingers again, a magic circle formed under his feet. The magic circle activated in an instant, and a light hit the conference hall once again. Once they opened their closed eyes due to a much more intense light than before, there was no one.