Quit The Hero Party

EP.72 The Next Master of the Tower, Resti (Part 2)

I have met her before. A lot.

That answer was somewhat expected. Resti knew quite a lot about Professor Rania.

Because that record is also listed in the Ashen Tower.

“I received ten years of teachings from Professor Rosel.”

Although it was buried under Raniel’s name, she was also one of Rosel’s long-time disciples. Only after the Ashen Mage disappeared did she formally rise as a disciple.

It wasn’t that rare.

The magical families tended to have a strong tradition of single inheritance, but they often took in at least one more disciple just in case.

Resti thought.

Ten years ago was around the time when the Ashen Mage began to reveal himself at the Ashen Tower.

“And there must be a connection with Professor Rania.”

Having lived in the shadow of that mage for ten years.

Professor Rania was recently recognized as Rosel Elder’s adopted daughter and disciple.

A long decade.

For a long time, she must have lived hidden in the shadow of the Ashen Mage.

Asking such a person about something like this might be very rude. It could even touch upon trauma.

Still, Resti spoke up and asked what she hadn’t been able to until now.

“…What kind of person was Raniel?”

“What do you mean ‘what kind’?”

“I’ve seen her a few times in the tower. But I just can’t grasp what kind of person she was…”

She was constantly compared.

However, Resti actually knew very little about the Ashen Mage. She always faced him only through his achievements.

The Ashen Mage.

Raniel van Trias.

Resti didn’t know Raniel as a person, only as an achievement. And it wasn’t just Resti. The mages of the Ashen Tower were the same.

They knew the symbolism of Raniel.

They knew the achievements and feats he had accumulated.

But they did not know the person named Raniel.

“What kind of person would she have been…”

Resti pondered.

“As the next Master of the Tower, how would she have lived?”

That was what she was curious about.

“I’d like to ask you that.”

With those words on her lips, Resti glanced at Professor Rania. Contrary to her expectations, she didn’t seem annoyed.

“Umm…”

Instead, she made a perplexed expression.

“…Well, I guess.”

Then, after a while, she opened her mouth with difficulty.

“You seem kind of similar to her.”

“…Huh?”

That was an unexpected answer.

Resti blinked at the response. Professor Rania tilted her coffee cup and said.

“Do you know what the tower was like when the Ashen Mage first rose to Master of the Tower?”

“…No, I wasn’t in the tower back then.”

“When did you say you joined the Ashen Tower?”

“It’s been about six years. I was selected as the next Master three years ago.”

“Six years ago… that was just before the Ashen Mage left the tower, huh? So it makes sense you wouldn’t know.”

She smiled sadly.

“That person wasn’t all that different from you.”

“…Not different?”

“What I mean is she was also overlooked, like you. Disparaged by the Elders, isolated by fellow mages… things like that. The Ashen Tower must have been pretty harsh.”

“…Huh?”

The Ashen Mage was treated poorly?

‘Did she say I resemble her?’

Resti tilted her head in confusion.

The Ashen Mage she had randomly encountered in the tower was always dignified. He never hunched his shoulders.

Whenever he walked by, the other mages straightened up, trying to show even one more research result in his line of sight.

The Ashen Mage Raniel was that kind of person.

A figure that shined just by existing.

‘…That mage was overlooked?’

She found it hard to imagine.

As Resti was pondering, Professor Rania continued speaking.

“You don’t get belittled because of your background, do you?”

Resti nodded her head.

Indeed, she had never been belittled because of her background.

“That’s a relief.”

Professor Rania shook her coffee cup and continued.

“The Ashen Mage was belittled because of her background. People would say, what can a lowly mage from a lost hometown know? That’s how they belittled her.”

“…All that just because of her background?”

“Yeah, all because of that background. Sure, she was an adopted child of the Trias family… but she was still a refugee. It’s really funny, but they said her thesis was trash and refused to acknowledge it.”

Listening to this was absurd.

Seeing Resti’s expression, Professor Rania chuckled softly.

“Funny, right?”

“That’s… yeah.”

“The reason the Elders didn’t belittle you because of your background, if you think about it… it’s because if they belittled you, they’d have to belittle the Ashen Mage too.”

“…But didn’t you say the Elders treated the Ashen Mage poorly?”

“That’s all ancient history.”

She shrugged.

“In today’s Ashen Tower, no one dares to belittle the Ashen Mage, right? Am I wrong?”

“…”

Resti nodded.

She knew that better than anyone. She had constantly been compared.

“Why do you think that is?”

Professor Rania pressed down the lid of her coffee cup with her finger.

“Because they were suppressed.”

The lid of the coffee cup sank in.

“Because she proved herself through her achievements. With accomplishments that no one can overlook, she suppressed the Elders.”

She turned to face Resti.

“And that didn’t happen overnight.”

“…”

“It took a long time. For a long time… well, they were constantly at odds with the Elders.”

At those words, Resti blinked.

“I saw that person up close. At first, she really struggled. I mean, she’d grind her teeth, threatening to destroy all the mages every single day?”

Resti looked at Professor Rania.

Her eyes seemed to gaze far away.

“She would say she’d drink the Elders dry, and would write reports even while losing sleep. Being belittled in the tower was part of her daily life, and she would come home and drink far too much for someone like her. She even whined to her Master.”

That mage had such human-like traits?

Resti blinked as she asked again.

“…Really?”

“Yeah, I saw it up close.”

Professor Rania sipped her coffee, looking nostalgically into the distance.

“Everyone’s mistaken. They elevate her as a genius, a one-of-a-kind mage that people admire, but if you peel back just one layer…”

She smiled.

“She wasn’t all that different from you.”

“…”

“She just endured. Hard, grinding her teeth.”

Resti fell silent.

She mulled over all she had just heard. Professor Rania kept talking.

“Being the next Master of the Ashen Tower is like that. You’d think that once you sit in that seat, everything would be fine… but it really isn’t.”

Thud.

“You get belittled, and only when you step down do they stop tearing you down. Continuously, all the time. You’re just a thorn in their side. The tower would continue to run just fine without the next Master.”

Thud.

“So until now, many who were appointed as the next Master other than the Ashen Mage have become mere puppets. Because it all got too troublesome. They shift the burdens onto others.”

She lifted the finger that had been touching the coffee cup.

“But you?”

That finger pointed at Resti.

“You don’t seem like that.”

“…”

“You have a wish, don’t you?”

“…Yes.”

“The position of the next Master doesn’t seem to be your biggest concern. You have another purpose, right? And that purpose probably isn’t that grand.”

It was a thought she had never shared with anyone.

However, without thinking, Resti nodded her head.

“…Yes, I do.”

“I want to be recognized.”

Thud, Professor Rania said.

“Just one person would be enough. I want them to be proud of me. I want to prove that their choice to take me in was right.”

Resti swallowed.

“How would you…”

“The Ashen Mage did that.”

She smiled.

“I did, and the Ashen Mage must have done the same.”

Professor Rania gazed into the distance with a smile.

“Honestly, I don’t care what anyone else says. I don’t mind if they belittle me. I can handle that… but…”

She spoke.

“I can’t stand it if the person who took me in is belittled. So I’m here, desperately holding onto that spot.”

That was it.

Resti nodded absentmindedly.

‘…Because I couldn’t stand the Elder being belittled.’

There were voices that belittled her. Many of them.

They didn’t target only her.

To be dismissed meant dismissing the Elder who had taken her in as well.

That.

More than anything else, Resti couldn’t tolerate that.

“If I were to rise to the position of the next Master without such motivation… I wouldn’t have lasted three years.”

Resti looked at her.

Meeting her blue eyes.

“…Professor Rania.”

Then, she brought out the question she hadn’t asked moments ago.

“When you took on the position following the Ashen Mage, did you ever feel the weight of the expectations placed on you?”

Thinking back, it made sense.

This professor in front of her had lived ten years in the shadow of the Ashen Mage. She had lived being compared.

A decade of waiting.

Waiting without showing herself to the public.

And when she finally emerged.

When she was recognized as Rosel Elder’s disciple, and became known under the name of Trias.

‘From the very beginning…’

This person had been dignified.

She didn’t shrink in the face of others’ gazes. Resti found that fact incredibly fascinating.

If it had been her.

She wouldn’t have been able to withstand the torrent of stares.

“…Did you never think about wanting to quit?”

At that question, Professor Rania blinked.

Her closed eyes narrowed.

It was an illusion.

Professor Rania roughly grasped what was being asked. She aware that Rania was asking the question in a roundabout way.

However.

Resti didn’t know but, that illusion was not entirely wrong.

The weight of the position.

The gazes expected of that position.

Those were things that the Ashen Mage had felt every day.

“I don’t know.”

Rania, embodying Raniel, smiled.

That was an illusion. However, just because the other person had illusions, there was no need for her to lie.

She.

In a manner unlike Rania, answered the question as Raniel.

“It was heavy.”

The position of the next Master of the Tower was taxing.

The role of the Sage in the hero party was even more so.

“My mistakes didn’t just end with me.”

A blemish on the reputation of her master.

Mistakes on the battlefield led to someone’s death.

“Symbolic positions are all like that. They’re heavy, and… I thought about wanting to quit every single day.”

There are many expectations.

“You always had to be perfect.”

When she was Master of the Ashen Tower, it was somewhat manageable. However, it was different on the battlefield.

The Sage, Raniel van Trias.

A member of the hero party, the Ashen Mage.

The significance of that name was immense. Everyone had expectations of her. Whenever she appeared on the battlefield, she was to be a symbol of hope.

Even in desperate situations, she had to bring hope.

She had to grasp and counter many traps set by Ancient Liches who had lived for centuries.

She faced Gletus the Betrayer and Ganikalt, the Death’s Blade.

In situations where answers were non-existent, the Order of Knights, Heroes, Saints, Archers, all looked to Raniel.

‘They expected me to find the answer.’

It was always like that.

Star,

When she faced the Demon Lord, it was the same.

I will offer half of my lifespan.

Raniel had to find a way, somehow. That was the role expected of a Sage.

That role was heavy.

She wanted to quit at any moment, wanted to throw it all away.

“But…”

Each time, Raniel thought.

Raniel,

What her master had told her.

Don’t hesitate to challenge because you fear losing something. A mage must be a challenger before being a calculating being.

She would recall those words.

You will live a satisfactory life.

“I thought I would regret it if I quit.”

Raniel, as Rania, and perhaps as a master, gazed at Resti.

“It was heavy, difficult, and damn annoying…but I felt I would regret it if I quit. I thought I would not be satisfied.”

“…”

“You feel the same, don’t you?”

Professor Rania took a sip of coffee.

Then, she casually admitted.

“I’m still holding on because I feel I would regret it.”

“…”

Slowly.

Very slowly, Resti nodded her head. Seeing that, Rania smiled. As she smiled, she thought.

‘I eventually made a regretful choice.’

Should she hold on a bit longer? She considered that, too.

But since that was all in the past, as a senior who had lived a similar life, Rania advised.

“All mages are like that.”

She smiled.

“So that’s why mages don’t die of old age.”

It was a smile as a senior in life.

Resti gazed at that smile for a while.

—

Don’t make regretful choices.

Make choices you can be satisfied with.

‘It’s a simple line…’

Ironically, it was the thing Resti wanted to hear the most.

‘Because I wished for someone to say that to me.’

That line bore a resemblance to what the Elder had once said. Resti contemplated its meaning.

‘A satisfying choice.’

Ultimately, it returned to the starting point.

But now it felt like, at last, she was standing at the starting line.

“…That’s true.”

An involuntary smile slipped out.

There were no longer chains tying her down that she had bound herself to for so long. Being aware of the starlight glittering in her eyes, Resti made a vow.

Nothing would change immediately.

It was only from now that she had to change things.

The only difference from before was that the way she viewed those things had shifted a little.

‘From now on…’

As Resti was trying to solidify that commitment.

“Um…”

Suddenly, Professor Rania stretched her arms.

“I actually thought about it a bit.”

Then she spread her arms wide in front of Resti. Resti looked at what was in her hand.

“What is this?”

What lay in that hand was a key.

From the way the mana flowed, it seemed to be a type of key that interacts with magical tools.

“There’s still the Ashen Mage’s research room left in the tower, right?”

“Oh, yes… I heard it was kept just in case of her return.”

“Hmm… A3, right? The third drawer in A3 line.”

“…Huh?”

Professor Rania smiled bitterly.

“That’s something the Ashen Mage left before departing. If the Elder acts like a jerk, just throw what’s in that drawer in front of them.”

“…Throw it?”

“I’m not sure what it is. They said if you throw it and state your demands, they’d probably listen to a certain extent.”

She gestured.

“What are you doing? Won’t you take it?”

“…Isn’t this meant for you, Professor Rania?”

“What do you think I’d do in the Ashen Tower? I hate taking on troublesome tasks.”

When Resti hesitated to take it, Professor Rania eventually forced the key into Resti’s hand.

“…Am I really allowed to take this…?”

“Just take it.”

She shrugged.

“It seems the professor writes recommendations for the top student in each class, but I don’t have any recommendations I can write at the moment, so I’m giving you this instead.”

“…Top student?”

“Yeah, you’re the top student. Don’t you dare tell anyone about this?”

She flashed a mischievous smile.

At that smile, Resti tilted her head in confusion.

“…But I didn’t solve everything?”

“You solved up to the seventh one. You showed me that much effort; even the others barely managed six. You are undoubtedly the top student.”

That’s strange, isn’t it?

It felt like a problem that was solvable.

As she pouted at that thought, Resti suddenly let out a laugh.

“The problems were just too difficult.”

“You really put a lot of effort into explaining!”

“Just because you explain doesn’t mean I can solve it. Time was a bit tight too.”

Something feels strange.

“…Is that so?”

“The class is indeed difficult.”

“Really? I’ve been doing just fine…”

How long had it been since she could speak so casually?

It felt a little odd, a ticklish sensation in her throat.

“…”

Resti looked at the key placed in her hand.

An old bronze key.

Holding that key, Resti looked at the clock.

Ding, dong.

Just then, the bell rang.

It was time for the students to return to their dorms. Following the terror incident, the Apuria had temporarily moved up the curfew.

Even though the sun had just set, it was already time to return.

“Oh, is it already time to go back?”

Professor Rania nodded.

Resti slowly stood up from her seat. They walked through the garden. Exiting the garden, they headed towards the square.

As they stepped into the square, a fork in the road appeared.

One way led to the professor’s office, while the other led to the Central Academic Hall. Standing in the path illuminated by the sunset, Professor Rania paused for a moment and waved her hand.

“Go ahead and go in.”

“Yes, Professor.”

Resti walked ahead.

Professor Rania stayed behind, watching her back. Just then, as she was about to move her feet again.

“Professor Rania.”

A voice stopped her.

Turning her head towards the voice, Resti was looking back at her. Her purple hair fluttered in the spring breeze.

Backlit by the sunset, Resti smiled.

It wasn’t the same faint smile, nor a sneer or wry smile; it was a true smile that flowed across her lips.

“Thank you.”

The sun set.

In the garden where the sunset was fading, she smiled brightly.

—

Apuria is a cradle of learning.

Many talented individuals gain knowledge.

Through learning, they gain insight.

It is not limited to the study of magic. Learning would hold a broader meaning.

And here is a mage.

That mage is young. She has learned magic from a young age, but she has not had many chances to use it as she wishes.

She has always been afraid of something.

She couldn’t overcome the weight pressing down on her.

—

“…”

Here, there is another mage.

That mage has experienced countless things. She has achieved most of the accomplishments possible as a mage. Yet, what remains is regret.

That mage sees a fellow mage walking a path similar to hers.

“Sure.”

Seeing a girl so much like herself, the Ashen Mage smiled.

“I’ll support you.”

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