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Chapter 79
It was when Lexian captured a wizard whose name was on the fugitive list he had received from the Magic Tower that he learned about Blue Bird.
Security in the capital had been tightened in preparation for the crown princess selection, and during that time, he discovered a wizard who appeared to be out of his mind.
The wizard, whose eyes were filled with madness, wore a robe embroidered with a blue bird.
Remembering that the one he encountered at the imperial hunting grounds was wearing a robe with the same symbol, Lexian interrogated him fiercely.
“What is your relationship with the one who attacked the Empire’s noble?”
“Attacked a noble? What do you—ahh, Tolle?”
Even though he had a magic-suppression shackle on, the wizard laughed wildly as if unafraid.
“That guy is crazy! He’s not like me! I’m normal!”
“Are you normal, yet abandoned by the Magic Tower?”
The wizard, who kept insisting he was normal, abruptly stopped laughing when he heard “Magic Tower.”
“Idiots! Narrow-minded fools who fear opening a new frontier of magic! Even the rocks of the Caucasus Mountains are more open-minded than them.”
Just as Lexian was wondering if he should just deal with the wizard who was passionately cursing the Magic Tower, the wizard suddenly stared blankly into thin air.
“But that person is different. No matter what I do, he’s never surprised—he even encourages me. Only that person truly understands me.”
“That person? You mean Silla Bernstein?”
“How do you know him?”
“How do you know him? Don’t tell me you’re from the same group as me?”
Feigning ignorance, Lexian asked again, and the fugitive wizard’s eyes bulged.
“What, you’re Blue Bird too? I thought you were from some lab connected to those Magic Tower losers.”
Blue Bird.
The name of the organization he’d been tracking was finally confirmed.
The blue bird embroidered on the wizard’s chest indeed signified membership in a certain organization.
“And how dare you refer to Lord Silla as ‘that guy.’ Call him Lord Silla!”
“Why should I? I possess power no lesser than he does.”
“What? Who do you think you are? You’re just a servant who follows Lord Silla’s orders to find strange and unusual humans. I am the scout who finds them!”
Lexian had wondered what the illegal group’s goal was—only to find that it was merely to search for “strange humans”?
‘Are they looking for people with special abilities, perhaps?’
Lexian thought of things like half-bloods from other species, or high priests who were common until 500 years ago.
The founding emperor had possessed extraordinary abilities—breathing fire and summoning wind. Perhaps the Tower Master was looking for such people.
He couldn’t tell why.
Lexian tried to gather more information from the wizard, but two days later, the wizard’s mana suddenly erupted on its own, killing him.
“Any injuries or casualties?”
“Only Sir Gix broke one arm. No deaths.”
Inspecting the secret prison outside the palace where the wizard had been held, Lexian found scorched marks.
‘The one from the hunting ground burned the grass black too.’
Judging from how it differed from normal mana rampage, Lexian suspected the Tower Master’s involvement.
To avoid the Tower Master tracing him, he obtained holy water and sprinkled it throughout the prison and surrounding area.
Even as a Sword Master, he could barely sense mana afterwards. It would be difficult for even the Tower Master to detect traces of his subordinate.
“Tell the capital guard to check if there are any other suspicious individuals like the one recently found. They are likely wizards. Report to me so the palace knights can capture them.”
“Yes, sir.”
After secretly ordering his deputy knight commander to track the fugitive wizard’s traces, Lexian hired 1st-rank mercenaries from the Silver Guild to raid one of the illegal branches of the organization within the empire.
Most royal knights and capital guards were focused on the crown princess selection.
He couldn’t pull them away, and if he acted openly, the Tower Master would notice and react.
So Lexian disguised the mercenaries as bandits to raid the organization’s branch, which was disguised as a shop.
They successfully found boxes and documents marked with the blue bird emblem.
He had everything moved to a ducal villa belonging to the House of Rysianshus in the east, bringing only key individuals and the contents of the vault back to the capital.
Inside the secret vault were double-entry ledgers and a list of “interesting people” the fugitive wizard had mentioned.
It contained personal information and strange behavior—but they did not possess special abilities…
“…Are they really just searching for weird people?”
The list included vicious criminals, someone obsessed with charity work, a girl who danced and sang in the streets every day for a year—even a noble who donated his entire fortune to the poor.
“What in the world are they planning to do with these people? Don’t tell me it’s treason?”
“T-treason?!”
It was widely known that anyone who plotted treason would have their entire family executed publicly, sometimes even burned alive.
Ordinary workers who knew nothing and even middle managers confessed readily.
But nothing useful came from them. Only when they tortured the branch leader did Lexian learn something meaningful.
“I… I used to be a pickpocket. Five years ago, I tried to steal from a man’s pocket and got caught.”
Unfortunately for him, the man was a wizard, and he thought he would die.
Yet while he trembled, regretting that he would die before his ill mother, the wizard made him an offer.
Since he was a pickpocket, he must know the back alleys well—so he was to find people with strange behavior.
The wizard provided funds, and the pickpocket used them to find unusual people—and secretly start a business.
Whether by skill or luck, his business thrived, and he created a merchant guild—which then became a Blue Bird branch.
The wizard had no interest in the business itself.
He was obsessed only with finding people who acted strangely.
A large portion of the profits was used for that purpose, but the former pickpocket now lived comfortably.
He was content—until someone suddenly mentioned treason, sending his heart into shock.
“I may have underpaid taxes, but I never plotted treason! Truly!”
He pleaded desperately, mentioning his sick mother, but Lexian’s focus was on the wizard who made that unusual offer.
“What did the wizard look like?”
“I… I can’t remember. I clearly saw his face at first, but after taking the medicine he gave me, I forgot. After that, he always wore a mask.”
Lexian’s expression did not change, and the pickpocket hurried to add that the voice was also disguised.
‘It must be the Tower Master.’
Judging by the effort to hide his identity, Blue Bird and the Magic Tower were clearly operating separately.
Then why had he built an illegal organization to find people with strange behavior?
‘Can he perform some kind of magical ritual using them?’
When Lexian went silent, the former pickpocket sobbed that he knew nothing else. Asked about other branches, he cried, “There are more places like this?!”
Leaving him behind, Lexian stepped outside the underground prison. A Silver Guild mercenary captain, leaning against a wall chewing on foxtail grass, raised a hand in greeting.
The captain was middle-aged but had once fought magical beasts with Lexian on the border.
“Find the people on this list and investigate them. I expect results in a week.”
“Eh, investigating isn’t exactly our specialty.”
“Triple the originally agreed payment?”
“Well, if it’s inquiries, that’s our thing.”
The captain swiftly snatched the documents from Lexian’s hand.
“And one more thing: dispose of them without drawing attention.”
“Leave it to us.”
Whistling, the captain left the duke’s secret villa.
Lexian ordered his house knights to guard the captured men well, then rode back toward the capital.
The fastest way to satisfy his curiosity would be to ask Rosia. Surely she was deeply connected to whatever the Tower Master was doing.
— How many questions will you ask? Too many questions… I cannot… cannot answer them all…
Yet he did not want to face again her trembling shoulders and pale lips.
— Then the act of pretending to be in love with the Tower Master was entirely your own will, yes?
And one more thing: he feared visiting her because he feared hearing the answer he never heard back then.
