Ortes’ allocation of tasks was reasonable. The skill in selecting appropriate opponents tailored to the abilities of the subordinates under the board members was extraordinary.
Of course, the volume of work was no ordinary matter.
Each bounty hunting assignment wasn’t particularly difficult. The required number of clerics was precisely calculated according to the grade of the fugitive, and when dispatched as instructed, they invariably returned successfully.
Under normal circumstances, the board members would have comfortably directed their subordinates to apprehend criminals. Skilled mages among the criminals were rare.
Survival crimes? Mages supported by a Magic Tower rarely fell into financial hardship unless they got involved with gambling.
Serious crimes like m*rder? Talented mages could usually suppress most crimes committed within the influence of their affiliated Magic Tower through its power.
Most wanted individuals were middling mages without support from any Magic Tower for this very reason. Ortes personally took down specially dangerous criminals that required board-level attention, making the act of capturing fugitives essentially simple labor.
However, the time limit was an issue.
Ortes demanded results within the tight deadline until the submission of the listing review documents. His calculated daily capture quota cleverly maximized productivity while preserving organizational strength.
“Hah… Haha…”
Arabel finally rejoiced that the long period of labor and patience had ended.
Though she lacked the energy to truly celebrate, she felt a small joy internally.
“The document submission is done, and now the chairman and Ortes will go to Elysion for the practical examination…”
The two hardest-working people in the company would be gone for a while.
Freedom awaited.
The day after fulfilling all the paperwork requirements for the Magic Tower’s listing review, Carisia delivered a chilling prophecy during a meeting.
“Director of the Sacred Investigation Department has discovered one fact regarding the d*ath of Dimedes in the divine investigation task.”
Divius let out a low exclamation of “Oh.” It must have been about the silver embedded in Sikton’s brain.
He distinctly remembered being told it would be revealed after consulting with the chairman. This was the moment when a piece of the secret shared only between the chairman and Ortes was disclosed to the board members.
“There is internal conflict happening within a secret organization controlled by the Ten Towers.”
Even Arabel, who possessed Nardanit’s testament about Ortes being Blasphemia’s secret inspector, was surprised by the news.
“It’s not just something on the level of branch manager embezzlement, right?”
Something was happening—a stirring that shook the rigid hierarchy of the Ten Towers.
Though extremely rare, there had been instances where an old school occupying the Ten Sages position was overthrown, and another school inherited the names of the Ten Sages and Ten Towers.
But this was not a succession battle for the Ten Towers—where those aspiring to ascend clashed with those defending their seats—but rather an internal conflict within an organization under the Ten Towers’ umbrella.
This was unprecedented even in Arabel’s database.
“They will actively sabotage to conceal their base. It’s certain that a major incident will occur during the listing review, and scattered terrorist attacks are expected across various locations.”
Kreton’s face darkened. More than half of the new buildings in Etna City bore his touch.
If terrorism struck Etna City and damaged the buildings, he himself would likely need to rebuild them.
At the thought of possibly having to reconstruct everything he’d built so far from scratch, Kreton’s vision went white.
“Etna City, being relatively peripheral, has a lower probability of being targeted by their terrorism, but I ask you to prepare as much as possible.”
Carisia had rented out the entire first-class compartment of the magic train heading to Elysion.
Partially because she disliked the noise, but also because there was a need for somewhat confidential conversations.
“Miss Kine.”
“Yeah.”
Ortes felt a kind of regret seeing Kine sticking closely to Carisia instead of him.
‘Come to think of it, I saved her, yet strangely she seems wary of me…’
It was a story that would make Kine laugh if she heard it.
“As I mentioned earlier, I intend to act separately from the chairman at the registration office. After completing your entrance exam registration, please return to the chairman.”
He didn’t elaborate on why Kine should stay close to Carisia. He’d explained enough before boarding, and even with the entire compartment rented out, there was still a risk of their conversation leaking to the Ten Towers.
“And how is your control over ‘power’ going?”
Kine nodded. She spread both her hands, which were entirely left ones. From the mechanical prosthetic hand attached to her right arm emanated a somehow vivid grape fragrance.
From the other side, a blackish, dim magical force rose. Despite the mutually exclusive nature of sacred and magical powers, she succeeded in handling both simultaneously—a testament to Kine’s exceptional mana control.
Ortes found the current situation hard to understand.
“It’s strange. She should have depleted all her sacred power due to her resentment towards Bacchus.”
Unless there was some extraordinary twist in her backstory compared to the original version, like Carisia not becoming Baegmun.
Ortes himself intervened too late.
By the time he defeated Sikton, everyone in the Bacchus Cult was already brain-dead. The resentment towards Bacchus should have been the same as in the original.
After pondering briefly, Ortes reached a simple conclusion: it was a positive change, so there was no need to worry. If Kine didn’t resent Bacchus, it meant her despair was less intense compared to the original situation.
‘It must be thanks to the adults around her. Even if she can’t rely on them entirely, it’s better than being alone.’
Unbeknownst to Ortes, Kine prayed every day for the peace of the family held captive by him.
Specifically, she prayed for the eternal rest of the family Ortes kept as hostages.
Elysion. The paradise of mages.
Through the window of the magic train, its panorama came into view. The towering spire located in the center was the very tower used by the Wizard King when challenging ascension.
The hemispherical barrier covering the city, originating from the spire, was a scattering phenomenon caused by residual magical forces from the Ten Sages converging on Elysion.
Different streams of magical power collided and neutralized each other, reverting back to pure mana.
It was a symbolic existence distinguishing the inside and outside of Elysion, a curtain of magical power encompassing all attributes.
As the magic train approached Elysion, Kine felt an oppressive suffocation akin to breathing underwater due to the dense mana concentration in the space.
It was a region far denser in mana than even most extradimensional erosion zones. The mana was so thick it gave the sensation of being submerged.
Carisia took control of the mana around Kine, reducing its density. Pointing toward the distance, she helped Kine calm down as she struggled to catch her breath.
“Look over there. Breathe slowly.”
Carisia’s fingertips weren’t pointing toward the interior of Elysion, blocked by a thick barrier. Instead, she pointed to the vast plains of Elysion far away.
There lay verdant greens.
Not the grotesque grasslands distorted by the extradimensional.
Not the cursed fields tainted by bubbling extradimensional foam.
Just lush green vegetation growing naturally.
The sunlit plants shimmered in different hues of green. As shadows cast by sunlit leaves overlapped and intertwined, they painted ever-changing shades of green.
Kine realized for the first time how diverse the colors lumped together as “green” could be.
Further away, golden wheat fields swayed in the wind, performing a communal dance. It was a scenery Kine, who had wandered throughout her life pursued by the Ten Towers, had never seen before.
Such landscapes stretched endlessly to the horizon. To Kine, it resembled emeralds inlaid with gold.
A scene of fresh nature only heard of in old tales.
“This is a sight you can only see in Elysion. While crop cultivation is possible anywhere within a Magic Tower’s sphere of influence, only the plains of Elysion allow such large-scale farming.”
All these belonged to the Ten Towers.
Kine recalled the wandering life of the Bacchus Cult. Though they survived using sacred power, their inability to settle in cities made their lives barren.
Clang! The magic train came to a halt.
Ortes stood up and opened the door. Carisia walked toward the open door. Shaking off a brief reminiscence of the past, Kine quickly followed.
Nothing unusual happened on the way to the Magic Tower listing examination site. The place being what it was, there was so much to see that it gave headaches, but it was manageable.
“Well, I’ll go look for my friend.”
“Speaking of which, I haven’t heard about this friend of yours. What kind of person is it? A man or a woman?”
“A man. A quite distinctive dark elf. He cut off his own ears and replaced them with sharp antenna-like devices─”
“…Is it this person?”
Where Carisia pointed, there stood a dark elf with a horizontal scar across his nose bridge. His copper-toned skin and silver hair fit the stereotypical dark elf appearance, except his ears were replaced with blade-like antennas instead of the usual elongated elven ears.
He seemed to have resolved some urgent matter and was sighing in relief.
“Ah.”
I let out a quiet exclamation.
We’ve met.
*
Lampades thought.
‘Gone. Gone. Gone. Fortunately…’
Apparently, that day’s words were just a whim. There was no way that person would come all the way to Elysion to meet him.
Surely, they wouldn’t be monitoring registered Magic Towers for the listing review either.
Throughout his life, there was no chance he would encounter that person again.
![[TS] The End of Magical Girls Has Come](https://i3.wp.com/novelhitam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1737407792-8993-TS-The-end-of-magical-girls-has-come.png?resize=151,215 "[TS] The End of Magical Girls Has Come")
