The girl left alone in the room thought to herself.
What a strange fellow.
Seeing him so easily open the door and leave, Besia had also tried to follow him out, but the door wouldn't open.
Of course there was a lock.
That boy had naturally unlocked it and left.
"What kind of noble is he?"
Judging by his skill in unlocking the door, he's probably some talented young thief.
Thinking this, Besia gathered her legs to her chest and sat down on the floor.
The floor was cold.
But she didn't want to stand.
Even just standing was tiring.
Her exhausted body continued to gnaw away at her mental strength.
Just sitting still made her feel depressed, and she wanted to collapse and faint.
But still, Besia believed in Argal.
Or rather, wanted to believe in him.
That this boy who seemed to have nothing,
would throw her a lifeline in this hell.
*Grumble*
Feeling her empty stomach, she recalled the white bread she had eaten yesterday.
The single piece of bread she'd eaten after so long was excessively sweet.
If she could go back, she wanted to pile up mountains of cake even sweeter than that white bread and eat it every day.
She didn't know if a clergyman could indulge in such extravagance, but if she endured this suffering and went back, surely they would allow it?
If she begged the kindly Bishop Rave, wouldn't he feed her until her stomach burst...?
While imagining such things, an existence that would sharply dash those feelings to the ground returned.
*Thud*
"Tch, look how much fuss he kicks up over a single potion."
Gaudium appeared, jangling potions in one hand.
After glancing around the room, he tossed a bottle to Besia, but noticing something off, Gaudium said,
"Hey, where'd that guy go?"
He was asking about the disappeared Argal.
Besia wondered if she should speak honestly here, or lie, but the truth was that even if she tried to lie, she had no plausible story.
He had simply opened the door and left after all.
It wasn't like he had vanished into the ground.
On top of that, Besia didn't even know where Argal had gone.
"...He opened the door and left."
"Huh, so the tame cat tries to climb the wall first. What a mess no matter how you look at it."
Gaudium slowly turned his finger.
He was tracking Argal's location with dark magic.
A black magical circle appears above his hand.
"Does he think the shackles around his neck are just for show? I wonder how he opened the door, but no matter where he runs there's nowhere to go inside this tower... Hm?"
He frowned in puzzlement.
Normally one would head upwards where the light shines.
But Argal had gone deeper underground.
Gaudium was interested by this and murmured,
"No matter, he can serve as an example. Girl, tell me how he's behaved up till now."
Hearing those words, Besia didn't understand for a moment, but soon realized.
He meant to use torture magic on Argal.
It was a malicious act to show her how a person thrashes about in extreme agony.
Gaudium beckoned her to follow, but the girl couldn't take even a few steps before collapsing.
"Tch, come to think of it, you can barely walk. Drink this first."
Gaudium tossed Besia a blood-red potion.
She hesitated.
Was it right to drink this?
But Besia's throat was so parched that she gulped it down desperately regardless.
Even though up till now she hadn't drunk or eaten anything the dark wizard gave her, since she had pretended to listen to him already, she didn't feel the need to stick to that line.
But it seemed Gaudium hadn't tampered with the potion, as Besia soon felt invigorated.
Following behind Gaudium, at the scene she saw, Besia was startled.
'A underground space like this exists?!'
If magicians who research magic have towers at the highest peaks, then dark wizards would dig tunnels and descend underground opposite them to avoid the eyes of others.
These structures were also called Dark Towers, and were targets for subjugation by any kingdom or church.
Therefore, a Dark Tower on this scale could not exist without the permission of a kingdom.
Just how many food resources were needed to sustain this many dark wizards?
At the minimum, transactions on the scale of those above ground had to come and go, and that process could not escape the eyes of the kingdom.
While the church would never compromise, the kingdom could politically negotiate with the dark wizards.
This Dark Tower existed under the permission of the kingdom.
Besia feared how much greater conspiracy could be brewing here as she followed behind Gaudium.
Gaudium had been happily pondering how to subdue Argal, but paused for a moment as they headed in an extremely deep direction, and his expression stiffened.
Their destination was the vault where the tower's treasures were stored.
It was guarded by dark wizard exclusive passwords, so unless one knew the code, entering was absolutely impossible.
Gaudium magically strangled the manager guarding the entrance.
"Gehehe, G-Gaudium-sama!"
"Did that slave go in there?"
"Y-Yes, he just entered!"
"How did he get in?"
"Huh?"
The manager gave the obvious answer.
"He wrote down the password and entered, so I let him through. Wasn't he sent by you, Gaudium-sama?"
"What nonsense. I never sent that slave. And I had even locked him in the room..."
He thought realistically.
It was natural that a slave brought in yesterday wouldn't know his treasure vault's password.
The manager must have made a mistake.
Otherwise, how could Argal possibly know the password that existed only in his head?
"I'll deal with you later, Manager. Depending on the severity of your crime, you've earned yourself death."
"I've been wronged!"
"We'll see about that later. First, enter the vault."
He roughly scribbled the password on a piece of paper and threw it to the manager, who entered the vault tearfully murmuring,
"But I'm right, I know I am..."
Gaudium wanted to beat the manager to death right then and there, but there were more urgent matters, so he entered the treasure vault.
And as expected, Argal was there.
With dark hair, wearing shabby experimental clothes.
The boy standing motionless before the mountain of magic-related treasures didn't react at all when Gaudium entered.
Gaudium was relieved that the slave hadn't done anything to the treasures, and at the same time felt angry as he prepared the cruelest torture spell.
"Are you ready to pay the price for what you've done?"
"It was a meaningless act."
"What?"
"Even transcending time, the connections of the soul remain."
Argal reached out a hand.
"But I did learn one thing, so it wasn't completely without meaning, right?"
At its master's will, a most deeply buried treasure rose up from below.
It was a very shabby dagger.
Covered in rust stains, its design was crude in the extreme.
Rather than calling it a treasure, it was just an antique.
Seeing that, Gaudium smiled coldly and taunted Argal.
"I don't know how you got in here, and picked out an artifact so fitting for the situation, but do you think you can escape this place by sacrificing your lifespan?"
"..."
"The Dagger of Kersia's Altar, a dagger that eats away at lifespan whenever it pierces one's flesh, allowing powerful dark magic to be used. Even using that, considering your lifespan, you'd be lucky to live a year if you escaped. Wouldn't it be better to follow my will and attain eternal life? If the immortality experiment succeeds, I'll even gift you that dagger."
Hearing this, Besia was startled.
Could that have been the method he mentioned?
A dagger that uses one's own lifespan?
"Not only have you never used dark magic in your life, ignorant child, but could you even properly control such great power? In the end, you'll be stopped by me and die. Put it down now, and I promise not to harm you..."
"Are you afraid?"
He muttered briefly.
A line provoking Gaudium's pride.
"....What did you say?"
"Does the elder of the Dark Tower fear just this one thing? That's understandable. While confident you won't lose, you aren't confident you can win unharmed either."
"You dare spout such impudence."
*Swish*
"But you're mistaken about one thing."
Argal stabbed his own hand with the dagger.
Besia's eyes widened in disbelief.
According to Gaudium's words, an enormous lifespan should have been the cost.
She could only be bewildered at the sight of Argal sacrificing himself like this to escape.
'Or could this be better than becoming the dark wizard's slave?'
Even if a short life as a free human was better than eternal enslavement?
A storm of magic power swirled around them.
Besia was already weak in body as a priest, so the magic power engulfing the area made her on the verge of fainting.
"Kugh, crazy!"
Swept along against her will, Besia instinctively swore.
If this kept up she'd really die, right? Shutting her eyes tightly, a hand came to rest on her head.
That hand was warmer than she expected.
"Stay still. I'll go kill the dark wizard and come back."
"...You."
Besia looked at Argal's pale face.
Blood was pouring from the hand stabbed by the dagger, and his magic-eroded body looked painful just to see.
Only then did Besia realize.
He truly intended to save me.
Even sacrificing everything, he wanted to get me out of here.
"If you die... I definitely won't... let you..."
With that, she fainted.
**
Leaving Besia who told some nonsense about not letting him die if he died, he faced Gaudium.
It had been a while since he last felt such omnipotence.
The magic power that had been a lifelong companion after attaining immortality.
For now, he focused on controlling the recovered magic power.
Originally, even dark wizards didn't directly contain pure magic power in their bodies.
Unrefined magic power was an extreme poison to the human body after all.
So they either neatly sealed it away somewhere, or kept it outside their bodies.
Those were the two main methods used.
While I as an immortal could roughly keep magic power inside me without much issue, the problem was that it left the human body nearly corpse-like.
To be in a state neither dead nor alive even while alive, for someone planning to attend the academy and aid the heroes, it was not a worthwhile deed.
Therefore, he decided to store the magic power elsewhere.
Since he had the best medium for it.
-WOooOOoO
He focused the magic power on the dagger.
This way, there was a high chance of being rendered powerless if he ever lost the dagger, but since he intended to always keep it on his person anyway, it wasn't a major concern.
As black clouds were absorbed into the dagger, the chaotic surroundings settled down somewhat.
And the composed Gaudium appeared before him.
"...I didn't know since I never used it before, but it has the helpful effect of gathering magic power too. Perfect for a beginner to use."
"You are quite mistaken."
He spun the dagger around.
The escaping magic power drew circular patterns.
After drawing several times with the dagger, intricate magic circles were instantly formed.
Bewilderment filled Gaudium's eyes at the sight.
"It even assists in using dark magic? With a reservoir close to a demonic sword, it was an unexpectedly tremendous treasure indeed. Truly unexpected."
Of course he wouldn't think I did it.
Only natural.
Just moments ago, I was still an incompetent noble youth without even basic magic, let alone magic power.
For me to suddenly use high-level dark magic would be unbelievable.
"Can you defeat me by relying on a tool?"
As expected of a dark wizard who could be counted on one hand even within Ambrosia, he began firing counter spells at the dark magic I was using.
As my magic continued to be nullified, his expression gradually grew more confident.
However, that expression didn't last long either.
"Just why..."
In the end, since it was just an imitation of a true spirit sword, an egosword had limits.
Gaudium would also know the dagger I held was no demonic sword.
While tremendous power was granted initially, it would only grow weaker from that peak, not stronger.
But as my attacks gradually strengthened, became more intricate, and high-level dark magic began to be cast.
Even the world's Gaudium noticed something was off.
The dagger moved frantically.
The higher the level of dark magic, the more extreme the magic circles required to manifest it.
It took more time, but the effects were certain.
Dark magic Gaudium couldn't overlook, no, that even the Tower Master of Ambrosia would be hard pressed to surpass, took form.
"I told you, didn't I?"
This would be the last. Gaudium.
After this, only the hell you must face remains.
"You cannot defeat me."