A towering structure raised by an ambitious nation more radical than any other in its pursuit of knowledge.
The Magic Tower had fallen.
But the incident did not end there. After demolishing the Magic Tower, the man in green immediately moved on to another stretch of sea and caused yet another disturbance.
“W-where do you think you are, daring to touch me with those filthy tentacles?!”
He had gone to meet the ruler of the neighboring nation.
Naturally, gaining an audience was no simple matter.
“Ah, so the rumors are true. Commoners really do drag their tentacles along the ground when they move.”
“How can someone who calls himself an intellectual be so ignorant? Those precious tentacles are what you use to cast magic. Why would anyone walk on them?”
Still, one point deserved mention.
The green one was, at the very least, considerably more courteous than the people of the Magic Tower.
There was also the craftsman once renowned for his leatherworking. As mentioned before, that eccentric scholar, owing to the hereditary duties of his family, enjoyed a certain degree of access to the highest ruling class of his homeland.
Thus, with the aid of his eccentric compatriot, the green mage seized the opportunity to establish contact with the leaders of his homeland.
More precisely, he requested their cooperation.
“The outcasts of the Magic Tower are beyond even our control. How dare you mobilize a nation’s military over something so trivial!”
“Whether you killed them or spared them, you should have handled the matter yourself.”
“Do you truly intend to go to war with us?”
“This is precisely why nations with such short histories are no good. One look at the way you conduct yourselves is enough to see that you lack any proper foundation...!”
The green mage’s proposal was accepted without much difficulty.
In the end, the western nation—the homeland of the war hero—sent a message to the neighboring country.
[The Blue Guest will soon visit the Tower of Knowledge and the heart of your nation. Take heed.]
For reference, the Alphauri were capable of producing ultra-low-frequency sound waves that traveled for several hundred meters with ease. So long as no special barrier, such as a shield, interfered with them, they could relay messages rapidly to an envoy of another nation regardless of the distance between their respective territories.
“You lunatic! Is that all you ever do? Send a notice and then barge in without waiting for an answer?!”
There was, however, one small problem.
The other party had already arrived before the nation could give any response, whether acceptance or refusal.
[Words of Request]
□ The bearer of this tablet is a legitimate subject under the protection of *** of the Western Sea and must therefore be granted peaceful passage across the border without harm. Should this traveler be unjustly or deceitfully detained within your territory, know that the price of such petty malice shall be repaid in war.
The mammalian creatures of that alien planet would have called such an object something like a “passport.”
Or, more precisely, a relic of an older age—a writ granting safe passage.
The fact that the ruler of the western nation had bestowed such an object upon the green mage carried an unmistakable meaning.
[Aah.]
——“We are prepared to go to war with you.”
[Can you hear me?]
To invade another nation’s territory with such arrogance was little different from making a declaration of war.
“W-wait. That sharp, metallic resonance... Could it possibly be...?”
“Everyone, look carefully at that! Now that I see it, it’s completely—”
“Huh?”
The Alphaurins gathered along the walls of the building began to murmur.
A humble visitor—the war hero—had arrived at the castle of their ruler.
At first, they had assumed that the enormous shadow belonged to the deep-sea creature himself.
But the longer they stared, the more unnatural its shape appeared.
An uneasy feeling began to spread among them.
“What is that? It’s a puppet!”
What stood before them was not a living creature.
“It’s just a puppet covered in Alphaurin skin!”
“No wonder it looks so different from what I saw on the battlefield.”
“Wow. I thought he’d simply gotten older and changed.”
“Hey! What is all this commotion? I came to see what was happening, and it’s obviously a fake body! The outer layer is crudely assembled, and the body itself is sagging like ice beneath the midday sun. How could anyone mistake that thing for a living creature?!”
Mud.
Metal components.
And an inanimate form seemingly stitched together with gelatin harvested from a living Alphauri.
It was a golem.
Standing before their sea was a crude imitation of the planet’s dominant species.
And this was only the prologue to the disaster.
“H-huh?”
The central figure of this story—the green deep-sea creature—had a slight tendency toward perfectionism, much like many other geniuses.
And now, after keeping the fruits of his research hidden for so long, he had finally chosen to reveal them.
“W-wait a minute...”
“Something keeps rising out of the ground...”
“How many of them are there?”
During the few days in which the eccentric scholar from his homeland had been extracting information from the brains of his fellow species, the green Alphaurin had hurriedly put the finishing touches on his own research.
Beginning with the initial concept proposed by a rural lord, he had completed a new form of magic—one destined to leave a lasting mark upon this planet.
And that was why the towering pillar known as the Magic Tower had failed to endure for more than a few hours.
“Where is the sorcerer controlling those dolls? Is something wrong with my senses? Why can’t I detect the sorcerer or even the slightest trace of their magical power...?”
To bring down that enormous structure single-handedly...
The fate awaiting those who now stood before him would not be much different.
Hardly surprising, given how terrifyingly effective his newly revised golem magic had proven to be.
Through his experiences at the academy, the Great War, the ruler’s treasure vault, and the academic hall, the green youth—now fully in his prime—had finally grasped the beauty of mathematics and formulae.
Combined with his natural talent, that knowledge allowed him to achieve the greatest academic accomplishment of his life.
He had laid the foundation for something that would completely reshape society.
The end of this tedious Middle Era, however, would not come just yet.
That still lay some distance in the future.
As happened with so many new fashions and technologies, the unfamiliar weapon created by the green scholar was destined to make its first true mark on the battlefield.
[Judging by your reactions, it seems my voice is reaching you.]
“There it is again! I heard that sound!”
“A-a golem speaking with the voice of a living creature...”
“Are we actually holding a real-time conversation through a puppet? There’s no pipe connecting it to anything. How is that possible?”
“Right. Underground! The caster must be hiding beneath the doll...!”
“Calm yourselves. Why are you all making such a fuss over a mere sound-producing puppet? It’s only a golem. A clumsy lump of dirt that couldn’t even plow a field properly!”
A little further explanation was necessary here.
On this ocean planet of the Alphauri, there existed a tradition that had been passed down since ancient times.
The culture of the “fortress.”
Structures consisting of numerous soldiers enclosed behind rigid walls, functioning almost like an immune system.
There was, however, a distinctive form of high-ranking dwelling here that differed greatly from anything found on the alien planet called Earth.
The Alphauri possessed a concept roughly comparable to the fortresses of Earth.
Defensive strongholds were constructed to protect rulers, nobles, and other so-called precious individuals.
For lack of a better translation, “fortress” was the most suitable term.
Such fortresses were the preferred residences of the upper classes.
Like a rare sphere of calcium carbonate formed inside a shell, they proclaimed their territory through perfectly rounded, spherical homes.
Moreover, a “fortress” was generally considered most beautiful when it floated slightly above the ground, leaving the entire curve of the sphere exposed.
[Hoo. As expected, a fortress inhabited by a ruler is enormous compared with the others.]
Since Alphaurins lived underwater, their inhabitants effectively flew through their surroundings.
A completely enclosed spherical fortress was therefore a natural architectural development.
[An ignorant worm might mistake it for a celestial body that happened to fall from the heavens... It truly is an enormous castle.]
But there was another reason those spherical castles were such objects of pride.
[How much money would it take to build a castle this size?]
Cost.
That was the answer.
At the time, refining technology remained comparatively underdeveloped. Constructing walls capable of absorbing mana, maintaining defensive barriers, and supporting a fortress of this scale required an astronomical quantity of resources.
In Alphauri society, building a castle was an extravagance available only to those at the very summit.
[Well, I suppose money means little to someone of your rank.]
Destroying one of Alphauri’s castles was correspondingly difficult.
No matter what type of magic was used, most spells lost a considerable portion of their power the moment they struck the walls.
Inside, the combined effect of mana-absorbing materials and the work of barrier mages disrupted magical flow, making coordinate-dependent spells nearly impossible to land accurately.
The greatest obstacle, of course, was the wall itself.
The outer walls of these structures were absurdly tough.
During the Beta Star invasion, spatial-teleportation coordinates had rebounded from walls and floors, resulting in more than ten thousand lunatics appearing inside—fanatics willing to sacrifice anything, even their own lives.
That catastrophe had caused numerous castles to collapse.
Under normal circumstances, such an outcome would have seemed almost like an act of divine intervention.
In most situations, planetary defense overwhelmingly favored the defenders.
They could conceal themselves inside the hardened shell and turn the region surrounding the castle into a closed system. Whenever an enemy attempted to breach the walls, the mages sheltered within could unleash attacks outward.
Victory was practically guaranteed.
[Well, anyway, since we’re dealing with a short-lived species, let’s stop wasting time and get to the point.]
But the golem magic modified by the green youth overturned every rule that had governed warfare until then.
How long would it take to break through a barrier mixed with mana-absorbing material?
What if powerful mages inside the building continuously fired spells at anyone who approached?
[Let me warn you.]
From this moment onward, the ones doing the fighting would no longer be people.
[And while I’m generously taking the time to speak with you, don’t even think about secretly calling the Magic Tower for reinforcements. I knew you would try that, so I destroyed the tower before coming here.]
“Wait.”
“What did that deep-sea creature just say?”
“The tower...?”
“No. It has to be a lie. There’s no way.”
“But... now that I think about it, it has been quite a while since we heard anything from their side...”
Clank, clank, clank.
Harsh mechanical sounds continuously intruded upon the conversation.
More precisely, they were the sounds of various fuels being pumped up from the machines’ core reactors.
[Don’t make me repeat myself. Listen carefully.]
At the center of the battlefield stood the crudely manufactured imitation of an Alphaurin.
The mechanical monstrosity, built in the likeness of the planet’s inhabitants, shuddered as the tubes within its body vibrated.
Then, in stiff, halting motions, it delivered its message.
[Here and now, your nation will swear never again to take hostile action against another country. And as an apology for your past conduct, I intend to inscribe a magic-suppression formula directly into the veins of your ruler. Without that power, surely they won’t be entertaining any violent ideas for a while, will they?]
“What?”
[I imagine you’ve already realized it after hearing this much. With the assistance of a scholar from my homeland, I opened the brains of those who attacked the academy and examined what was inside. And guess what? Every last one of you was involved.]
The atmosphere froze.
[You pretended the Magic Tower was beyond your control. You folded your tentacles behind your backs and casually stepped away from the entire affair. But in truth, your plan was to join the offensive the moment the spell-hunting succeeded, then seize our waters for yourselves.]
The truth behind the assault on the Academy was gradually coming to light.
[You took advantage of the chaos following the Great War and tried to start that damned Unification War all over again. The more I think about it, the more astonishing—and infuriating—it becomes.]
Just as he said, the green one already knew everything.
At his words, the figures on the opposing side twitched at the tips of their tentacles.
Yet several of the mages were old and cunning enough to recover quickly.
They immediately raised objections.
“No! What possible basis do you have for making such an accusation?”
[I opened their brains, remember? Using something rather similar to that unique technique of yours.]
“Stop lying! The only evidence you have is your own word, and yet you dare make such a pathetic excuse? Do you think the countless nations of the sea will simply stand by and watch what you’re doing? You’re trying to put a leash around our necks using the actions of monsters from neutral territories like the Magic Tower as your justification!”
[Ah. I think you’ve misunderstood something.]
The voice from the puppet remained remarkably calm.
[I’m not asking you to believe me.]
A short pause.
[Eh, fine. I’ll be generous. Press your tentacle against the peace treaty I brought, and we’ll leave quietly. How about the person in charge comes out here for a moment?]
“That is absurd!”
“How dare a lowly creature like you speak of the ruler in such a manner!”
“Do you even understand where you are?!”
“Leave this place at once!”
The negotiations did not go well.
[Haa....]
Apparently, it was time to resort to the oldest method of solving problems.
And really, was modern society on Earth so different?
Regardless of an individual’s character or values, it remained a shallow age in which those who possessed the greatest amount of whatever society valued most—power, wealth, influence—could satisfy their desires with ease.
It was difficult to love such a world.
[Anyway, for a peace-loving person like me, the ways of the world are simply too complicated.]
Even so, the nature of this universe had always tended to favor geniuses like him.
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