Chapter 30

“Sabotaged?” I asked, tilting my head in confusion. Based on what I had seen during the couple of months since I arrived here, I had never noticed anything suspicious among the mages I had met in the Tower. “You mean there’s a traitor?” I asked Master Elara to make sure I had understood her correctly.

The Dark Mage had hired the four kidnappers to kidnap children from the slums. I didn’t think it was impossible for him to have someone on the inside, especially since he operated near this town, where Veynes Magic Tower was also located. If I were in his position, I wouldn’t risk operating and kidnapping children, even those from the slums, in a town with a Magic Tower unless I had someone on the inside.

Master Elara shook her head after hearing my question.

“No, it’s not that,” she said.

After letting out a sigh, she began to explain what had happened.

…

Aaron POV

“Haa… Haa…”

Navigating the winding and twisting alleys of the slums as quickly as possible, I finally arrived at the front gate of Veynes Magic Tower.

Normally, a slum kid like me wouldn’t even dare to come close to this place. Most, if not all, of us slum kids were criminals. Of course, we didn’t do anything so serious that would get us hunted down by the guards. We only committed petty crimes like pickpocketing and stealing.

Most of us, myself included, were members of the Thieves Guild. As the name suggested, it was an organization made up of thieves. However, we didn’t just steal money and valuables. We also traded in information. I was only a low-ranking member of the guild, though, so I had no idea how the information side of the business worked.

Even petty criminals like us had rules, and one of them was to never steal from the Magic Tower or its mages. We were just a bunch of ragtag slum dwellers. No matter how good we were in a fight, there was simply no way we could defeat a mage and get away with it.

If one of us angered a mage and made an enemy of them, the entire guild could be put in danger. Not only were the mages far stronger than us, but the Magic Tower also had the support of the Mayor. One wrong move, and we could all end up being hunted down.

“Hm?”

I was about to call out to the guards when one of them noticed me.

“Do you need something?” the guard asked as he approached me.

It was obvious that he was suspicious of me. Who wouldn’t be? It was clear from my clothes that I came from the slums. Given our reputation, anyone who was suspicious of us would be justified. Even so, the guard kept his suspicions to himself.

Immediately, I showed the guards Hwi’s Tower Badge.

“Hwi sent me here and asked the Tower to send help.”

The guard looked surprised, but he immediately took me inside the Tower.

I was brought to a guest room. The interior was simple, but I could tell that everything inside was of high quality. Even the couch I was sitting on felt so soft that I thought I might sink into it and get swallowed up if I relaxed too much.

Not long after I was told to wait, someone came into the room. A woman so beautiful that if she went outside and walked around the town, anyone who walked past her would stop in their tracks just to turn around and get a second look.

“Sorry for keeping you waiting. My name is Agnes. I’m in charge of the library and investigations,” was how the woman introduced herself. She was smiling, but for some reason, I felt some kind of pressure that made me straighten my back and introduce myself.

“I-I’m Aaron.”

“Nice to meet you, Aaron. Then, can you explain the situation? How come you have one of our mages’ Tower Badges, and why is Hwi asking for help?”

Creeeak.

Not long after she asked her questions, the door of the room was pushed open, and a young girl, probably the same age as me, walked in holding a tray with two cups of tea and a plate of cookies. She quickly put down the two cups of tea and the cookies on the wooden table standing between Miss Agnes and me, then excused herself before walking out of the room.

“Please, feel free to help yourself with the tea and snacks,” she said while picking up the cup in front of her and taking a sip from it before putting the cup back on the table. I followed what she was doing and took a sip of the tea.

“How do you like the tea?” she asked gently, probably to make me less nervous. “I-Its good,” was my answer even though that wasn’t true.

‘The taste is too expensive. I don’t get it.’ That was my honest impression of the tea. I had only ever drunk water or beer all my life, so I didn’t know if the tea tasted good or not.

“Then, can you explain?” Miss Agnes brought the conversation back to where it was, the reason why I was here with Hwi’s Tower Badge.

“Ehem.” I cleared my throat first before explaining what happened. Because I wasn’t sure where I should start explaining the situation, I just explained everything from the very beginning, when I first met Hwi in the slums. I told her how I tried to pickpocket him only to get caught, how he shared his meat skewers with me, and how we parted ways. Then, today, after I had just gone home, I found that my sister had been kidnapped, and while I was frantically searching the town, I spotted Hwi and asked for his help.

Hwi decided to help, and I brought him to my home. Then, he used some magic to track the kidnappers, and before we parted ways, he handed me his Tower Badge and told me to go to the Magic Tower to call for help, just in case he said.

“I see, so Hwi is chasing the kidnappers right now?”

“Yes.”

“Did he say anything else? Like, are the kidnappers mages?”

I shook my head. “No, he never said anything about whether the kidnappers are mages or not. He just said that, at the very least, there are three kidnappers, and because there’s a chance that there will be more of them wherever the kidnappers brought my sister, he told me to go here.”

She wrote something in a book she had brought with her, then nodded after I finished my explanation. “Thank you. We will take it from here. Please, don’t go anywhere before we find Hwi. Someone will take you to a guest room in a little while, so you can relax while we search for him.”

Not long after Miss Agnes left the room, the same young girl who had brought me tea and snacks came and told me to follow her. She then brought me to a guest room. The room wasn’t too big. There was just a bed, a table, and a chair right by the window. Having nothing to do anymore, I just stayed in that room while praying that my sister and Hwi would be safe.

…

“Hee… So Aaron arrived at the Tower right after we parted ways?”

Master Elara nodded. “That’s what he told us. Agnes and the guard who brought him in confirmed it too.”

“Then why did it take so long to track my location?”

“I told you, someone sabotaged the search.”

“How?”

“I wasn’t at the Tower at the time, so I had to rely on Agnes’s account. But I’ve confirmed the details myself since bringing you back here.”

Master Elara let out a deep sigh before continuing. “Some of the mages here aren’t happy about the fact that I took you in as my direct disciple.”

“What?” I couldn’t believe my ears.

“You realize there are a lot of young mages here, right?”

“Yeah. I know a lot of young mages joined Veynes Magic Tower specifically because you’re the Tower Master.”

As soon as I said that, something clicked in my head. I finally understood why it had taken so long for help to arrive.

“Wait, Master. Don’t tell me the reason they sabotaged the search was…”

Master Elara nodded. “That’s right. Some of the mages here were already dissatisfied with me because I never paid them much attention, even though they came to this Tower specifically to learn from me. While I was away chasing Edmund, they formed a group behind my back. Then, when they found out that I had taken you in as my direct disciple right after bringing you here, they couldn’t accept it.”

“But how did they sabotage the search?”

“Some of the mages in that group worked as magic item craftsmen. Since the Tower Badges are made here, they had the means to tamper with yours. As you know, each badge normally records its owner's mana signature and uses it to track their location. But those bastards modified yours so that it would track several duplicate mana signatures instead. They had already scattered those duplicates throughout the town and its surrounding areas, so when the Tower tried to locate you, your badge led them on a wild goose chase.”

Master Elara pressed the space between her eyebrows as she spoke. She was trembling and sighing a lot. She must have been furious knowing that the reason I had almost died was simply because of some mages’ petty jealousy.

“After Agnes realized what was happening, she sent some of her subordinates to Aaron’s house to track your location directly. Since you were chasing the kidnappers, they could use the same method you used to track them. Eventually, they should have been able to find you. Only…”

“Don’t tell me…”

“…The subordinates Agnes sent were also part of the group sabotaging the search. After arriving at Aaron’s house, they erased all traces of you and the kidnappers. Then they reported that the house was clear, but there were traces of magic that had been used to erase the tracks.”

“…No way.”

I had never thought I was hated that much. Sure, I knew some of the mages here didn’t like me, but to go that far?

“Anyway, when I returned, the Tower was in an uproar. Everyone was running around trying to find your location. The Saintess was accompanying me at the time and wanted to pay the Tower a quick visit because there was something we needed to discuss. After Agnes explained the situation, the Saintess offered to help search for you using divination. That’s how we found your location.”

“THAT Saintess offered to help?”

“Yeah. It might be hard to believe, but she really did help us find you. We were about to enter negotiations, after all, so she probably wanted to use the fact that she had helped the Tower find you to gain an advantage.”

That explained why Master, who was known for her dislike of the Church, was together with the Saintess. Nodding my head, I realized there was another question I needed to ask.

“How many mages were in the group that sabotaged me?”

“Fifteen,” she said with a sigh. There were a lot of them. To think that so many people hated me that much just two months after I arrived here.

“What will happen to them?”

“I personally destroyed their mana coating, effectively taking away their ability to use mana. I also placed a seal on their bodies so that no matter what they do, they won’t be able to gather mana again.”

Basically, it was like what happened to martial artists who turned into vicious criminals. Martial artists like that had their dantians destroyed, effectively ending their lives as martial artists because the dantian was where inner energy was stored and cultivated. It was the core of martial arts.

Creeak.

The door opened, and I saw Luna and Aaron walk in with worried expressions on their faces.

“Hwi!”

“Big Bro!”

Aaron and Luna ran to my bed and asked me a lot of questions, like how I was feeling and whatnot. They kept asking me questions nonstop, making it impossible for me to answer any of them.

“Heh, well, that’s about it. Anyway, just rest up for now,” Master Elara said as she stood up and walked toward the door before stopping.

“Hwi.”

“Hm?”

“You did good,” she said before walking out of the room.