Ch. 123
The Mage Tower was one of the rare high-rise buildings in this world, rising up to twenty or thirty floors.
That’s why it was usually the tallest structure in any city—easy to spot. Normally, that would make it easy to find. But not for me, apparently…
I could see the pointed tower off in the distance, but every path I took ended in a dead end. It felt like I was trapped in a maze.
Damn it.
Not wanting to admit I had a terrible sense of direction, I wandered on my own until the sun was already high in the sky. In the end, I had to summon Undine to help me find the way to the Mage Tower.
I’d been out of the inn for about two hours now.
Considering the inn clerk said it was only a fifteen-minute walk to the tower, something definitely wasn’t right.
“Thanks, Undine.”
[Don’t mention it.]
Thanks to Undine’s help, I finally arrived at the circular platform marked with a hexagram—the symbol of the Mage Tower.
If Rai had been with me, I wouldn’t have gotten lost like that. Unfortunately, I’d left him behind with Annie.
The others were still sleeping, and there was no one else to watch her.
Undine waved her small hand and disappeared.
I waved back and stepped into the first floor of the Mage Tower. Inside, it was much more spacious and clean than it looked from outside. Maybe it was a spatial expansion spell?
“Welcome.”
This Mage Tower felt a bit like a post office to me.
The upper floors probably weren’t, but the communication section open to the public definitely gave off that vibe.
“How can I help you?”
When I approached the front desk, the female employee who had been scribbling something looked up.
Her attitude was as apathetic as expected. Mage Towers were known for their bad service.
“I’d like to use a communication spell.”
“For telegrams, fill out a form over there and bring it back. Payment is upfront. If you’re using the delivery service, make sure you write the address correctly. You’ll need to look up the code number yourself and write it in.”
“And I’d like a video call, too.”
“Did you check the price beforehand?”
“How much is it?”
“For 15 minutes, this much.”
She said it with a tone that clearly implied, ‘Are you sure you can afford this?’
I followed her finger to the price list posted above the counter and nearly gasped. Was that an extra zero?
Not 20 silver—but 200 silver. That’s 2 gold. A commoner’s monthly living expense was 1 gold. This was definitely the most expensive option.
“It’s expensive, right? No discounts. And if you go over 30 minutes, there’s a 20% surcharge.”
“You don’t give discounts, but you charge extra?”
“Mages can’t handle more than that. It’s too physically demanding.”
Video calls required a mage to cast a one-on-one communication spell, and mages were the most expensive professionals on the continent.
“And that’s just the base rate. There’s an additional charge based on distance. You’ll also be billed separately for wait time. Plus there’s a magic tax, city tax, and luxury tax.”
“Pretty steep.”
“Right? You’d be better off just sending a telegram…”
“But I’m rich, so it’s fine. I’ll be using it in ten minutes—can you get it ready?”
Who was I? A woman whose coin purse only held gold coins.
This is why I had Rai cough up a bunch of them this morning!
—
While waiting for the video call to Drike Academy to connect, I filled out telegram forms.
I was sending them to five people: home, Iruze, Mia, Bright, and Master Yael.
I could’ve video called home too, but the Crowell estate was so rural and underdeveloped that of course there was no Mage Tower there, and no resident mage who could receive a magic call either.
The Crowell Barony was a humble house with maybe five maids? Or fewer. No butler, for one—small enough to get the idea.
I wrote a longer message to send home. The ones to my friends were brief.
“TO FRIENDS. I. G. ALIVE. RELEASED. RETURNING. REALLY. G. DO NOT CRY.”
Telegrams were the cheapest form of magic communication available at the Mage Tower. They worked like Morse code.
Because of that, you could only send combinations of preset words. The more words you used, the more expensive it got.
The reason I kept the messages short was mostly because I couldn’t be bothered.
“Let’s see, the address…”
The one to Master Yael was easy. I could just send it to the Spirit Council at the Dmitri Royal Palace.
Bright also worked at the Royal Mage Tower, so that was easy too. Mia and Iruze were at the academy, so they’d receive it there.
Big institutions made it easy to find the code numbers. The problem was home.
No matter how much I searched the address book, I couldn’t find the Crowell Barony. It was a tiny place, sure, but it should at least have a mailbox. Strange.
Usually, there was one code number per village.
“Excuse me. I can’t find a code number.”
“Where is it? If it’s too underdeveloped, it might not have one. We can’t deliver there from the Mage Tower.”
The clerk waved her hand dismissively like it was a common issue.
I’d never sent a telegram or letter home before, so I wondered if it really wasn’t possible.
But then I remembered the stack of letters sitting in my desk drawer at the academy.
“It’s a noble estate, though. Are you sure it’s not listed? I used to send letters there all the time.”
“Really? If mail reaches it, we should be able to send a telegram. What was the place again?”
“The Crowell Barony. It’s in the Kingdom of Dmitri.”
“Just a moment.”
The clerk disappeared into a room behind the counter and came back several minutes later with a thick binder of documents.
Judging by her expression, she had good news.
“Found it. The address is the same, but the title changed.”
“The title?”
“It changed recently. You looked under Barony, right? It’s not there anymore.”
That unexpected news made me nervous. Don’t tell me the family collapsed while I was gone.
Did they not even have money to pay for my funeral or something…?
“It was upgraded from Barony to County. Look. That’s a huge jump. I’ve been working here for two years, and I’ve never seen anything like—oh my, it’s that place!”
“That place?”
“You know, from Elan—”
“Video call ready.”
The red door next to the counter swung open, and a robed mage poked his weary face out. I was the only customer, so he gave me a lazy nod.
“Connection in one minute. Please step inside.”
He looked like he was in his late 30s and completely burned out. Definitely the type who hated waiting.
The clerk quickly took my paperwork.
“Is this everything? I’ll take care of the rest. Go on inside.”
Maybe because I had already paid a fortune, or maybe because the mage was glaring daggers, the clerk was suddenly being quite kind.
Pushed along by her insistence, I headed toward the communication room.
For some reason, I felt like I’d just missed something important.
—
The room packed wall-to-wall with books was the headmaster’s office at Drike Academy.
All was calm—only the sounds of pages turning and pens scratching could be heard.
Then someone banged on the door, shattering the quiet.
“Come in.”
The headmaster looked up from his paperwork and set down his pen. His white hair and deep crow’s feet spoke of his age.
The assistant who burst into the office looked unusually flustered.
Not even when the cafeteria caught fire did he look like this.
“H-Headmaster! It’s—it’s urgent! No, not bad! I mean—just listen to me!”
“What’s gotten into you?”
“It’s good news, but…”
“Then explain it properly.”
“No time! You have to come to the communication room immediately! A call just came in!”
The assistant was visibly frantic, trying to drag the headmaster away from his desk. It was such strange behavior that the headmaster hesitated to follow.
“A call? From who? His Majesty?”
“No! Geenie Crowell!”
He looked like he’d just been struck in the back of the head.
“…Who?”
“From Miss Crowell…!”
Mid-stride, the headmaster tripped over a stack of books and fell flat on his face.
The usually quiet office was suddenly full of clattering books and crashing chairs.
The headmaster’s eyes widened in shock, not even noticing he was face-down on the floor.
“What nonsense! How can someone dead—!”
“She’s alive!”
Papers fluttered from the desk in the commotion.
The headmaster’s monocle even popped off from the sheer force of his shock. It dangled from its chain under his chin.
And then, silence.
“…Gasp!”
Only after the headmaster gasped did everything start moving again. The assistant, near tears, blurted out:
“You have to go to the communication room! She’s been waiting for ten minutes!”
“You should’ve said that first!”
“I ran here as fast as I could!”
“Good heavens…”
It took twenty minutes to walk from the office to the communication room—or five if you ran.
The headmaster, short of breath, stuffed his fallen monocle into his robe and hiked it up to his knees.
“No time for this! Let’s go!”
He was the first one out the door, sprinting down the hallway. The dignified man who normally moved like a graceful swan was now sprinting like a wild goose.
He reached the communication room, panting.
When the most powerful figure at the academy burst in like a charging beast, the young mage holding the communication orb jumped to his feet in fright.
“Headmaster!”
“Geenie! Where is Geenie Crowell?!”
He shoved the assistant aside and peered into the communication orb.
But nothing was there.
Only a lingering warmth showed that a call had just ended.
“She just now said she’d call back later… and ended the call. It was her side that hung up!”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier!”
The headmaster’s fury terrified the young mage, who practically tucked his head into his collar like a turtle.
“Well… she just called out of the blue and asked to speak with the headmaster… without an appointment… and wouldn’t explain her purpose… She was kind of arrogant… I thought screening those calls was my job…”
“You don’t know who Geenie Crowell is?!”
“I’m sorry! I’ve never seen her before!”
“She said her name was Geenie Crowell but I thought she was joking… I thought it was a fake name… I was going to disconnect her until a senior mage happened to walk by and told me it was real.”
The assistant caught the headmaster as he nearly collapsed, clutching the back of his neck.
His frail old body trembled with disbelief, making everyone nervous.
“Did she… leave any message…?”
“She said she’d call again tomorrow or the day after… I’m really sorry. It was all so sudden… Ah! But I know where the call came from!”
“Where?!”