The west tower dormitory, located in the apprentice safe zone, was still a danger zone for soone like Saul who used to be a servant. He often felt a faint sense of unease when walking through the dormitory at night.
But the floor where the ntors lived didn’t carry that eerie, dangerous feeling.
Not at all.
Was it because true wizards had much better control over their power, or had all the danger reached such a concealed level that it no longer leaked out?
Saul reached the end of the hallway and looked up the sloped corridor.
ntor Kaz lived on the seventeenth floor.
He rarely showed up in the laboratory or corpse chamber. Was he, like ntor Rum, using his dorm as his true laboratory?
As for the floors above eighteen, those were entirely the Tower Master's private domain.
It was said that Tower Master Gorsa was a Second-Rank wizard—an extrely powerful one, nearly at the threshold of the Third Rank.
As for how strong exactly, no one could say. They only knew that all five ntors followed the Tower Master’s orders without question.
Second-Rank wizards were still far beyond Saul’s current reach.
Thinking of the Vengeful Spirit on his body, Saul temporarily shelved his yearning for true wizardry and quickened his pace, leaving that floor behind.
When Saul arrived at the second lab on the fourteenth floor, he saw the door was open.
He walked up and peeked inside.
This lab was much smaller than ntor Kaz’s. It didn’t have rows of shelves filled with materials, but it did have many operating tables.
The most eye-catching feature of the room was a high-backed tal chair with double armrests. A few thumb-thick cords dangled from beneath the chair.
Directly across from the chair was an operating table, and behind it stood a man.
With curly brown hair and a Second-Rank apprentice badge pinned to his chest, the man stood with a blank expression as he tended to sothing burning in a brazier.
Wisps of greenish smoke rose from the brazier, sotis dispersing, sotis gathering, before finally vanishing into the ceiling.
Afraid of interrupting an experint, Saul didn’t speak.
If he startled the guy and caused him to ss up, and the man tried to pin it on him, that’d be bad.
So Saul waited silently at the door, planning to enter only once he was noticed.
But the mont Saul stopped walking, the man inside spoke up. “Why aren’t you coming in? The door’s open for you.”
“Senior Nick?” Saul asked cautiously.
Nick looked up, green smoke curling around his face. “You rember ?”
“…” Saul didn’t rember at all—he’d only just heard the na from ntor Rum.
“Oh, alright. Seems you’ve forgotten.” Nick lowered his head again, showing no sign of being upset.
As if not being rembered was perfectly normal.
“Co in and close the door. I’ll explain so of the precautions here.”
Saul stepped in as instructed and stood beside Nick.
Nick looked about eighteen or nineteen, but his composed deanor made him seem more like a thirty-sothing uncle than Senior Byron.
“I heard you work in the corpse chamber?”
“Yes, Senior.”
Nick nodded. “That’s dealing with the dead. Here, we mostly deal with the living.”
He turned and looked at Saul. “I specialize in observing emotions. Most of the wizardly I’m studying also relates to emotions.”
He just revealed his specialty right off the bat?
Saul’s mind raced. That probably ant this would be important for the upcoming experint—hence the advance explanation.
Manipulating emotions?
Didn’t sound that powerful.
Was it even offensive? What, make soone cry or laugh to death?
Wait a second—
Saul suddenly looked up at Nick.
He rembered who Nick was!
He had dozens of bizarre causes of death listed in his diary and one of them was death by laughter.
Nick was the senior who’d sat beside Sid during the initial test for Saul’s batch of newcors!
So back then, when he “laughed to death,” that was Nick’s doing?
He was also one of Sid’s hidden trump cards?
Nick continued calmly explaining, unaware that Saul was already reaching into his pocket.
“…Our experints here mainly focus on observing spiritual entities’ emotional states. The ntor appointed to lead this part. He said you’re good at directly observing spirits, so he sent you to assist… You seem agitated. Is sothing wrong?”
Nick put out the fire. The green smoke gradually dissipated, leaving nothing behind in the brazier.
“You were the senior who tested us that day?” Saul subtly moved his left hand to the front of his body while his right hand gripped a small bottle inside his pocket.
“Yes.” Nick put away the brazier and pulled out two sets of earmuffs from under the table—one he hung around his neck, and the other he handed to Saul.
“Sid and I usually worked as partners, so when he took on the task of testing newcors, I went with him.”
Saul accepted the earmuffs with his left hand but didn’t put them on.
Nick was Sid’s friend?
His right thumb pressed against the body of the bottle.
“ntor Rum isn’t planning to pursue what happened with Sid anymore,” Saul said, hoping that Nick was rational enough not to make a move in the lab.
But Nick was more rational than Saul expected.
He set down the tools he was tidying, turned, and said, “You’re still on edge… Fine. So Sid doesn’t beco an obstacle to our future work, I should probably explain everything to you.”
Nick’s expression remained flat, with no visible grief over Sid’s death.
“There’s no need to bear hostility toward . In a way, I actually saved your life.”
Saul still clutched the earmuffs and looked up at Nick.
“Sid was acting strangely that day. He had a bad temper and a sharp tongue, but it was still surprising when he suddenly killed a new apprentice.”
Nick recounted the events calmly.
“You see, one of the Tower’s rules is that everything here belongs to the Tower Master. So causing unnecessary loss may bring punishnt.”
“That’s why I was shocked. If Sid had a problem with that chubby kid, he could’ve just demoted him to servant or killed him in secret. Why act so openly?”
“Later—much later—after hearing you’d killed Sid, I realized it. Sid probably killed the fat kid just so he could use that as an excuse to kill you. At the ti, you were just a reserve apprentice. Whether you lived or died, I didn’t really care.”
“And Sid even secretly urged to kill you while you were unconscious, saying we wouldn’t be punished for it.” Nick looked down. “Because those who haven’t passed the test or been demoted to servants aren’t technically Tower property. I didn’t notice you were a servant back then and nearly got talked into it.”
“Sid was always good at exploiting loopholes—in rules and people. Fortunately, I kept my cool.” Nick nodded slightly, seemingly proud of himself.
So Saul’s “death by laughter” in his diary really was Nick’s doing!
Saul was grinding his teeth.
Even though Sid was already dead, just realizing how many traps he’d laid back then made Saul furious—he wished he could kill the guy all over again!
During the test, Saul had gone out of order because of his diary’s guidance. He skipped the lowest magic talent test and prioritized the others, eventually fainting after confirming a high ntal aptitude.
Maybe Nick spared him out of appreciation for talent, or maybe he feared being punished for killing soone whose potential hadn’t yet been confird.
Nick declared that Saul had passed the test, foiling Sid’s plan. All Sid could do was watch Saul beco an apprentice—an asset of the Tower Master.
If he wanted to kill Saul after that, he’d have to be far more discreet and take on greater risk.
Saul was silent for a mont, then followed Nick’s lead and hung the earmuffs around his neck.
“Thank you, Senior. If not for you, I might have failed the test, died on the spot, or been sent back to the servant quarters to be bullied.”
If Saul had returned to the servant area, whether it was the boys he’d intimidated or the stewards he’d mocked, they would never have let him live.
It would’ve been a death sentence.
Nick looked down at the worktable, stroking the stubble on his chin with his free hand. “Actually, the entrance test for apprentices doesn’t strictly require passing all three aptitude tests. As long as soone’s deed worth cultivating, they can be accepted. So don’t stress too much over your results. But one thing you must rember—rember this! It was who deed you worth keeping alive.”
Saul nodded vigorously. He would rember it.
(End of Chapter)
Reviews
All reviews (0)