Chapter 128
Everyone in the room forgot how to breathe. The blackened emblem in Do-Jin’s hand projected four letters into the air, spelling “Sion.” The sight alone made them freeze. The name hung there like a command from the heavens, burning itself into their minds. It wasn’t just any mana signature but the personal crest and name of Archmage Sion Grace, the master of the Tower itself.
Do-Jin stared blankly for a second, then let out a strangled shout. “Wait, that crazy woman actually gave me hers?”
The disbelief hit him like a punch. This wasn’t something a normal person could even wrap their head around. He’d assumed the emblem she tossed at him back then was just some mass-produced access pass, but this lunatic had literally handed over her own emblem, the one tied directly to the head of Elthomagia.
He wanted to laugh, scream, and curse all at once. Still, as dumbfounded as he was, his reaction was nothing compared to the two mages standing before him. Viego’s face had gone ghost-white and every drop of color was drained from it.
His eyes were wide and trembling as he tried to force words out. “Y-y-you... You’re not... Are you, by any chance, the Tower Master?”
In his frantic mind, it was the only explanation that made any sense. The idea that some lunatic would forge Sion Grace’s emblem and walk straight into the heart of Elthomagia was absurd. It was far more believable, at least to him, that Sion herself had shapeshifted into this man and was pulling one of her bizarre pranks. The logic was ridiculous, but all other possibilities collapsed under the weight of his fear.
Meanwhile, Do-Jin was seconds away from losing his patience. “What the hell are you even talking about? Why the fuck would I be your god damn Tower Master? She just tossed this thing at me, and I used it. That’s it!”
But his protest didn’t matter. The moment the word “Tower Master” left Viego’s mouth, Renée practically had a breakdown.
“I, Orange Mage Renée Dacia, humbly kneel before the Tower Master! I-I failed to recognize your greatness and acted with unforgivable ignorance. Please, forgive my blindness!” Her voice cracked halfway through, and she dropped to her knees so fast the sound echoed through the hall.
The instant she’d seen Sion’s name and crest, her mind had simply shut down. Now she was trembling like a sinner in front of a god, completely incapable of rational thought.
“I said I’m not—!” Do-Jin snapped, but his voice was swallowed by the chaos.
Neither of them heard him. Renée kept shaking, babbling apologies under her breath, while Viego’s eyes darted like he was trying to solve a cosmic riddle with his sanity hanging by a thread.
Just then, a clear, almost melodic laugh echoed through the chaos. It wasn’t carried through air but through mana itself, humming like something alive and way too pleased with itself. There was no way to tell where the sound came from or where it was headed. It just filled the whole space, like it had been sitting there all along, waiting for the perfect moment to make fun of him.
Do-Jin closed his eyes, one hand covering his face. Oh, for fuck’s sake. This crazy witch...
He then let out a long sigh. “You really get a kick out of messing with your juniors, don’t you?” he muttered toward the empty air.
“Hmm. Not as much as I thought,” came the reply.
This time, it wasn’t a voice carried through mana. It was real sound, ordinary and close. Every head in the room turned toward the source of the sound. The voice was seeping out of a painting hanging on the wall.
“Hello?” Do-Jin said.
The man inside the painting smiled and waved at him before stepping right out of the frame. And by the time he finished crossing the floor, he was wearing Do-Jin’s face.
“L-Lord Tower Master!”
Viego dropped to one knee immediately. Unlike Do-Jin, who had met Sion several times before, neither Viego nor Renée had ever seen her in person. But Viego was certain that the sheer weight of mana rolling off the figure before him was enough to crush the air out of the room. Only a handful of beings in the entire world could wield magic that distorted reality itself with every breath.
The mana in the room bent toward the figure as if the world’s very center had shifted. That alone was proof enough. There was no doubt the person before them was none other than Sion Grace, the supreme master of Elthomagia, the mortal being closest to the origin of magic and truth itself.
“I-I beg your forgiveness!” Renée stammered so hard her voice cracked.
She could feel her own mana kneeling, submitting to a higher existence. It felt like her soul itself was being forced to bow.
Viego was barely keeping himself together. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he tried to resist the overwhelming pressure, but it was no use. His body trembled despite his desperate attempts to maintain composure.
Something’s not right about this whole thing.
Do-Jin watched the two of them struggle to breathe before turning his gaze to Sion. “What exactly are you doing to them?”
The version of Sion wearing Do-Jin’s face shook his head. “Nothing at all. In fact, it’s you who’s doing something to them. I’m keeping my influence from interfering with your mana flow.”
In other words, the Archmage was holding back the natural disaster that happened every time he so much as breathed.
Do-Jin let out a quiet sigh. “If you’re already holding back, maybe you could spare them a bit more mercy. They look like they’re dying over there.”
Sion tilted her head, clearly amused. “From your point of view, they treated you unfairly. Why should I?”
“Well, technically, they were just following protocol.”
It still pissed him off, sure, but if he was being honest, it was a misunderstanding anyone could’ve made. No one in their right mind would have expected a situation this insane.
Do-Jin’s eyes flicked toward the woman responsible for this circus, a tiny bit of resentment in his gaze. Sion let out a soft laugh at that look and retracted every bit of the mana she had unconsciously spread through the room.
“Haaah...!”
“Ugh...”
Renée and Viego gasped for air as the mana flow in their bodies returned to normal. They both looked like they’d just come back from the dead. But while their bodies relaxed, their minds were far from calm. Everything about the crest on Do-Jin’s emblem, the conversation, the familiarity in their tone, screamed that Do-Jin had some sort of personal connection with Sion Grace.
Both Renée and Viego felt the sting of regret. They had confronted and insulted someone who apparently stood under the direct favor of the Tower Master herself. In an instant, the figure resembling Do-Jin vanished, and a small silver-furred cat appeared in front of Renée.
“My child,” Sion said, breaking the silence.
Renée nearly screamed. “Y-yes, Tower Master!”
The feline’s eyes blinked slowly. “You followed the rules and tried to uphold the principles of the Tower. That is admirable.”
“Th-thank you,” Renée managed to whisper, barely able to keep her voice steady.
“But there is a difference between following rules and hiding behind them.”
The moment her voice sank, both Renée and Viego froze. Their mouths were gone, wiped from their faces as if someone had erased that part with a brush. They tried to lift their hands to examine their faces, but their arms wouldn’t move either. They were completely immobilized, trapped in a silent nightmare.
“The emotions I felt from you two were unpleasant,” Sion said quietly. “Do not disguise hatred as principle. Do not use rules as a veil for prejudice. Remember that.” Her voice was calm, but her words hit like thunder.
Inside Elthomagia, Sion wasn’t just a Tower Master. She was an object of reverence, nearly divine in the eyes of her followers. Hearing such words coming from the embodiment of the Tower’s ideal was the kind of humiliation that hollowed a person out from the inside. Their faces went pale as if all life had drained from them.
A dry thought crossed Do-Jin’s mind. They look like a couple of priests who just got caught breaking their own commandments.
It was more than enough payback for how they’d treated him earlier.
He sighed and finally spoke up. “That’s enough. If we’re pointing fingers, the one who caused all this mess is you, Sion. You started this with your little prank.”
Even without mouths, their shock was obvious. Their eyes flew wide, as if they couldn’t believe someone had just talked back to the Tower Master, much less accused her of tomfoolery.
However, Do-Jin’s patience was running thin, and his tone showed it. “Now, would you please swap this thing out for a normal one?”
He held up her emblem with visible irritation.
The cat, Sion, turned her head away and pretended to groom her paw. “It is normal.”
“No, it’s not,” he shot back. “The fact that we’re standing in this mess proves it isn’t.”
“I haven’t used that emblem in ages,” she replied. “I must have forgotten its... effects.”
Her tail flicked as her eyes glowed faintly. “I just registered you properly in Elthomagia’s database. From now on, this won’t happen again.”
Do-Jin squinted at her. Something about her tone was different. She sounded playful, almost fond. It wasn’t the usual cold detachment he was used to.
What’s with her today? he thought.
Maybe it was just another whim of a bored Archmage, or maybe it meant something else entirely.
He decided not to dig into it. “Fine. I give up.”
Sion’s feline mouth curved into a pleased smile.
“Then at least undo the spell on their mouths,” Do-Jin said, pointing at the frozen pair. “You’ve had your fun, so let’s wrap it up. I’ve got a pile of things to do, and this isn’t helping.”
The cat tilted her head and looked up at him. “You’re full of surprises. Even after the way they treated you, you still care enough to speak for them.”
“I’m not antisocial like some people,” Do-Jin replied.
For a moment, Sion blinked, then actually looked stunned, like she’d just been physically hit by his words. Do-Jin hesitated. Perhaps he’d gone too far, mouthing off to the strongest mage in the world. But before he could apologize, a translucent message window popped up in front of him.
[Sion Grace’s Favorability has increased by 10 points, rising to 20.]
Do-Jin could only stare blankly, every line of his face forming a question mark at the prompt.
Sion, still smiling faintly in her cat form, murmured to herself in a soft voice, “You really are strangely similar.”
“Huh?” He blinked, not catching a word of it.
“That’s enough. I’ve been out here too long, and it’s getting exhausting. Playing with you was amusing for a while, but I’m getting tired of it.”
“Playing with me?!” Do-Jin’s voice rose instantly. “You didn’t play with me! You just caused chaos everywhere and left me to clean up your mess!”
He couldn’t hold it in anymore. The way she said it casually, as if it were all a fun little game, pushed him right over the edge.
Sion just laughed, bright and unbothered. Her voice echoed faintly as her figure dissolved into shimmering motes of light. “Very alike.”
Do-Jin stood there, glaring at the spot where she had vanished. “Unbelievable...”
From his perspective, she had simply disappeared without a word, like she had better things to do after turning his day into a complete shitshow.
Do-Jin sighed while rubbing his temple. Whatever. At least her favorability went up. That’s... something, I guess.
He turned back toward Viego and Renée, who were standing awkwardly now that their mouths were restored.
“Alright, listen,” he said, pointing between them. “Whatever you two are thinking right now, throw it all out the window. I’m just as fucking confused as you are, so let’s agree to pretend none of this ever happened.”
“And seriously, stop looking at me like I just crawled out of a horror movie.” His voice dropped into a tired sigh as he begged, “Just... call Sisala, please.”
***
Far away, in a realm that wasn’t quite space or time, Sion Grace stared into an endless, rippling void. Her thoughts wandered back to the young man she had just left behind.
For centuries, she had searched without hope, drifting through the barren sea of emptiness that lay beyond dimensions. Every attempt, every trace, every echo had led to nothing. And then, one day, someone had spoken to her. There was a single voice from a Regenian that cut through the silence like light through a storm.
His words had kept her sane when she had been on the brink of giving up. When she learned that her voice had reached him, even once, it had given her the feeling of relief she hadn’t felt in an eternity.
“Now... wandering through this place no longer feels lonely... or painful,” she murmured, her eyes reflecting the void.
She extended a hand through the boundary of dimensions and her fingers shimmered with translucent mana.
“Today... someone told me I lack social skills.” Her voice carried across the void, as though speaking to a friend long gone. “If you heard that, you’d probably say whoever said it has pretty good judgment.”
After all, even that friend used to scold her often and would tell her she should try to learn how to deal with people a little better.
Sion let out a quiet breath. Memories of her lost friend flickered before her like starlight. Then she thought of Do-Jin, the strange, sharp-tongued man who reminded her so much of that same friend.
Her eyes suddenly widened. At the edge of her mana field, beyond the veil of nothingness, a faint, trembling sensation brushed against her consciousness. Maybe it was a mistake, just her imagination, or hope twisting itself into something false. It could easily be nothing. After all, the chances of finding what she sought were virtually nonexistent. If her goal truly lay beyond that barrier, it might take hundreds of years, perhaps longer, to reach it.
Even so, she smiled. This has never happened before.
For the first time in ages, something had answered back, however faintly. It made every year of persistence, every ounce of loneliness, feel worthwhile. And the timing couldn’t be ignored. It had happened right after she met Do-Jin. That alone was enough for her to quietly, secretly raise his standing in her mind.
***
“Seriously, you don’t have to keep apologizing!”
Back in Elthomagia’s lobby, Do-Jin rubbed the back of his neck, trying to look anywhere except at Viego, who had been bowing and apologizing nonstop for the past five minutes.
Viego’s voice trembled. “N-No, truly, we were blind. We failed to recognize—”
“I said drop it!” Do-Jin interrupted. “You already apologized, like, ten times. I’m not gonna explode.”
Before he could even sigh in relief, another system message flickered in front of him.
[Sion Grace’s Favorability has increased by 10 points, rising to 30.]
Do-Jin stared at the glowing letters, more afraid than happy.
What the hell is wrong with this woman?
He could no longer tell whether Sion Grace was a genius, a lunatic, or both. Either way, he silently added one more tally to his growing list of reasons why mages were the most unhinged maniacs in existence.
