Chapter: 2
Since the virtual idol Heart-chan achieved an unprecedented success, the state of the Purple Tower Master has been somewhat peculiar.
It seems he was harboring a slightly unpleasant misunderstanding.
“⋯⋯.”
That gaze of ‘Are you really gay?’
The only person on the entire continent who knows the identity of the mysterious beautiful girl Heart is the Purple Tower Master. It’s not surprising he thinks so since his male apprentice’s illusion magic (female character) has shaken the continent like a storm.
However, the Purple Tower Master fails to comprehend one important truth.
“Characters and players are distinctly separate.”
“⋯⋯⋯⋯?”
Right. Characters and players must be distinguished.
When playing an RPG game, one might immerse themselves in the character, but one should never become one with the character. What would happen in reality if one becomes one with a character while playing GTA? Life would be ruined.
This also applies to TRPGs.
Just because I’m playing an ultra-pretty girl character doesn’t make me an ultra-pretty girl. The moment you start identifying with the character, disaster strikes. You catch the disease of ‘not viewing the game as a game.’
“GM, I put so much effort into my character, and even if I rolled a 1 on the dice, can’t I succeed?”
A level 1 character challenges a dragon, and on top of that, they’re rolling a fumble—what do you expect?
“GM, so my character is an elf and doesn’t want to sit with those pathetic humans at the same table?! It’s not that I don’t want to play; it’s just what my character deserves!”
What do you expect to happen in a session where everyone else chose human races?
“⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯”
Are you now just playing Hearthstone because your character failed a check?
“Cough.”
Gripping my chest, I stumbled under the rising feelings of anxiety.
In any case, characters and players are distinguished, just as it’s completely absurd for a novelist to include a furry female character while claiming to not be a furry female character themselves.
I may have manipulated Heart to rake in donations sweetly, but that means I created and unleashed the character Heart; it doesn’t mean I was doing net-kama activities.
I like girls.
“Y-you’re still hurt from your breakup with the Northern Duke…?”
How could she have seen me tormented by trauma?
The Purple Tower Master decided to ignore the taboo of love.
Misunderstandings are notoriously hard to clear up. If they won’t believe your words even if you say them, it’s better to leave the rest to the heavens and focus on what you need to do.
Which is magic development.
The next magic to create was already determined.
The three elements of storytelling are character, event, and setting, right?
By implementing the virtual idol Heart, I was just completing my paper on ~Realistic Hologram Implementation Using Illusion Magic: Focusing on Tactile Illusion Enhancement through the Immersion of Fish Electronics~.
Illusion magic is, after all, an illusion. Just as cutting off your finger in a dream or having a person burn won’t leave a scar in reality, no matter how much you deceive through illusion, physical damage is zero. It’s a critical weakness.
Moreover, to those beyond a certain level of superhumans, illusions don’t work well. Even if their magic resistance is high, they’re unaffected. Even if the will of the fish electronics is strong, it still doesn’t stick. A Sword Master can break hypnosis with sheer willpower.
What I developed was a special hologram to compensate for such weaknesses.
It’s magic that reverses the subject’s will to actually enhance the illusion magic. If the opponent even thinks, “I want to believe,” that feeling can be inflated to fortify the illusion.
Thus, the enhanced illusion can evoke touch sensations. You can feel an illusion!
In the development stage, I couldn’t implement smells due to resource shortages, but after modifications and improvements, I could now also apply scents to the illusion. With the character perfectly implemented, the next step was the setting.
Land, flowing streams, rising suns, whispering winds.
The sound of sunlight shattering between swaying leaves and the scent of phytoncides. What if I could make that felt through illusions?
At that moment, my Otherworld TRPG plan was practically complete. My enthusiasm ignited.
I boldly made demands to the Purple Tower Master.
“I’m going to lock myself in the room for about three years for magic development, so please prepare three meals a day with meat, and don’t disturb me for trivial things.”
“Y-you’re getting increasingly trashy with your words… But, three years?”
“If it’s short, two and a half years, maybe.”
“U-uh, do you realize there’s a presentation early next year?”
“Eh?”
“The Tower’s Research Presentation… The nobles and those dispatched from the royal family visit the tower to inspect the usage of the grant funds… I’ve been scolded daily, but this year, you’ll be there…”
“Hmm…”
A state of extreme emergency.
While I sweetly squeezed donations through Heart, it wasn’t enough to earn a fortune by doing it with a clear conscience. If I’d sold my conscience and also swayed my backside, I could have made enough to build another tower, but then my tender heart would have been torn along with masculinity.
The amount of the grant was too significant to casually say, “I’ll just earn it myself” if the support were to be cut off. Somehow, I had to secure the budget to cover research expenses…
A presentation.
I think demonstrating the virtual idol project would generate quite a buzz, but the tower might actually catch fire that day.
Carefully probing the Purple Tower Master, I found out that Heart-chan’s popularity was beyond imagination.
Even after two years since Heart graduated, there are still men searching for her whereabouts, making it impossible to go public. The girl I used to obsess over turned out to be a male magician’s illusion magic?!
Wouldn’t they come running with pitchforks and gasoline to the Purple Tower?
That said, I didn’t want to research any fresh mass destruction magic for the presentation. Studying such a boring and uninspiring kind of magic would kill my soul.
Hmm.
Without much thought, I spoke.
“Just trust me.”
“A-are you serious? This time, it’s not going to be some strange… strange thing, right?”
“Yes. Those high-ups will probably like it too.”
“Then I’ll trust you… Fighting! I’ll make lamb tonight…”
The Purple Tower Master rushed out, her face blossoming cheerfully, which was nice to see given she seemed to be suffering from gastritis.
Yes, I should feel at ease at least.
There’s such a thing as a benevolent lie in this world. Would she have smiled so brightly if I had spoken my true intention: “Thinking it over, I’m not the tower master. If there’s a budget shortage, it’s not my concern. It’s the tower master who should earn it.”?
I think not.
I sincerely hoped her peace of mind would last long. After all, it would ensure good meals.
===============================================================
The Purple Tower Master’s heart, calmed by my promissory note, was soon swirling with storms as the presentation approached.
One week before the presentation.
Perhaps because she had said, “I trust you,” she now couldn’t even ask, “Are you ready?” or “How’s it going?” and busily hovered beside me.
Determined, she would say, “H-hey, let’s talk!” only to smoothly pivot to, “Ah, how was today’s stew…”
Three days later, my sympathy transcended academic zeal. Seeing her gnawing at her fingernails like a woodpecker was pitiful, so I decided to show her my magic.
“R-really…?!”
“Yes. I thought it might ease your worries.”
“You’re just using your brain in strange directions… but you’re a genius! You did prepare for the presentation properly, right? So I’ll believe you…”
The unmatched trust of the Purple Tower Master moved my heart.
After all, I only uttered a single syllable of condemnation regarding her “thinking in a trashy direction,” so that’s safe, right?
I raised my staff, levitating it in the air, crossed my hands, and spread them sideways.
Gathering magic power. The magic coursing through my whole body follows a specific law across various parts.
Meticulously. Just as one scrapes water to sharpen a blade, it is done with precision.
I pour my soul into this meaningless motion converging to perfection. This is called magic.
“The sky is indifferent. There’s no love in the gaze that looks down.”
“If no one understands my heart, I’ll have no choice but to soar beyond that moon alone.”
“I use my heart as a brush to bloom beneath my feet.”
“Jeyul-gyeong (濟月景) – Gongsangjubakh (空上柱縛).”
The world turns upside down around me.
Moisture seeps from my feet. The moisture slowly transforms into droplets that rise into the air. The dry floor of the practice room becomes a calm lake’s surface instantaneously.
“⋯⋯Ugh, uhh!!”
Even if the Purple Tower Master flounders in her panic, she won’t be submerged in the lake. The droplets merely splash around; the still lake is supporting her feet like jelly.
Beneath the clear lake, the sky reflects.
The blue and pristine sky reflected in the lake, with a massive pillar floating in the air, akin to Son Goku’s Ruyi Jingu Bang. Threads of magic power drift like jellyfish across the surface of the pillar. It’s a beautiful and majestic sight, yet the Purple Tower Master eagerly shrank back from the intense sense of threat.
Her intuition was correct. The threads of magic emitted from the pillar are toxic, like the tentacles of a jellyfish. The moment she is struck even once, she loses her power to resist the illusion magic.
It was the background modeling of the ultimate in illusion magic to grant penetration of magic resistance to every illusion that occurs within the secured space…
Hmm.
The old nerds would call it a unique boundary, while the modern nerds refer to it as domain expansion.
I worked hard to refine it. I’ve even implemented the scent of moisture and the smell of the lake, along with that feeling of pressure.
The Purple Tower Master, initially stunned by the unusual effect, gazed at me wide-eyed, filled with anticipation and awe. Placing a hand on her chest, she took a deep breath to calm herself.
Then she carefully asked.
“W-what kind of effect does this spell have…?!”
I also responded cautiously.
“It’s stylish.”
“⋯⋯Huh?”
“It’s cool.”
“⋯⋯What about other effects?”
“There are none.”
“Gulp.”
The Purple Tower Master flopped backward, her twin tails swaying.
Seems she was too moved by the declaration of coolness.
Hmm. I hadn’t planned on using this at the presentation. Strong opponents would quickly see through an illusion that’s only stylish; no matter how much I pretended it was a super move, it wouldn’t work.
She was deceived, perhaps because her specialty was a bit different.
The video I was going to play at the presentation is something else altogether.
The gist is that I can produce spectacular visuals. If that’s the case, there’s no reason not to jump into the film-like media industry! What’s the genre with the highest market share in movies? Action.
Everyone loves action, regardless of gender or age.
And I’ve heard that nobles love new things.
Then the answer is… a Thousand Strikes.
If the Celestial Demon Lord uses the Thousand Demon Supremacy and wipes a mountain away with the Thousand Demon Death Beam, wouldn’t that be totally awesome?
Surely everyone will love it again this time!
⋯⋯⋯⋯.
It was a failed analysis.
“Did you really think you could get funding with such a ridiculous illusion? How laughable.”
“Looking at your form, it seems you don’t know the first thing about swordsmanship. Why did you swing sideways? That must be quite inconvenient when containing magic power, right?”
“Teehee… Hahaha! What kind of knight would use such a dumb and cost-inefficient technique?”
“You’re using words that sound impressive, aren’t you? What about ‘talented reinforcement’? Hahaha!”
In a world where magic exists, it wouldn’t be strange if a swordmaster suddenly appeared among the oppressed serfs. What does that mean? It’s tough to play the noble role without power in this world.
In general, titles and power are proportional. Even if they aren’t, there’s a strong bodyguard nearby. And in front of human weapons that roll around battlefields, slaying various people, my illusion magic…
Would be like showing a soccer player “How to dribble well: Use your heel to get it right!”
I just ended up taking a hefty amount of insults.
The only one who didn’t seem entirely negative was a small boy knight. Well, at that age, anyone would love something flashy and cool…
After the disastrous presentation ended, the Purple Tower felt like a 0.7 funeral home.
“M-my sponsorship… The sponsorship…!!”
Thud.
The Purple Tower Master collapsed, gasping for breath.
I brooded over my defeat with a solemn face.
Though I wouldn’t dive headfirst into research for destructive magic, I realized there was no benefit in sulking; the character and setting were done, and now it was time to metaphorically build the server.
I quietly entered the laboratory and closed the door.
“Y-you bastard! You want to do that even now—agh!”
I heard someone cursing harshly, but I wanted to believe it wasn’t from the Tower Master…
===============================================================
Clatter. Clatter.
A wagon was being pulled by its driver and servant, passing through a forest path.
A boy, towering over his remarkable sword, was sitting at the front, and a bearded middle-aged knight held the reins. It was quite an unusual sight.
They were discussing the bizarre performance presented by the Purple Tower.
“It was a ridiculous magic show. Although the illusion magic was flashy and plausible, the content was just so childish.”
“Hmm…”
Interestingly, the middle-aged knight used honorifics while the boy talked casually.
The boy tilted his head to one side and asked the middle-aged knight.
“Do you really believe it was illusion magic?”
“Are you saying it wasn’t illusion magic? Sir?”
“What we were shown was indeed an illusion. However, the content of the illusion wasn’t fabricated. How did you see that man’s martial arts?”
“I thought it was absurd. It’s ridiculous for the earth to tremble simply because you take a step, and creating aura spheres from the tip of a sword… Isn’t that something only a magician would think? The final strike that cleaved the mountain was laughable at best.”
“Is that how you saw it?”
The young knight recalled the illusionary man clothed in peculiar finery.
A man who likened himself to a devil. The Celestial Demon.
His martial arts surely had sloppy and absurd aspects.
Yet his words contained the intricate principles of martial arts. Some words and expressions possess a depth that leads to enlightenment the more you ponder them. Talented Reinforcement. Water Extremis, Fire Return.
Is it possible for a mage who has deeply delved into and comprehended martial arts to conjure such clear realizations all by themselves? Furthermore, the man’s attire and the terrain he stood on belonged to a cultural realm unseen on the continent.
Rather than a solitary delusion.
It was the illusion magic recreated by a mage who directly witnessed that scene, but it’s reasonable to suppose that the mage’s insight fell short of 100% reproducing the movements’ subtleties.
“Did you mean…?”
“I thought dimensional magic had been realized.”
Yes.
The idiots laughed, believing it was merely an illusion fabricated by a magician, but in reality, that space was not for ‘demonstrating illusion magic.’
Dimensional magic.
The Purple Tower presented it metaphorically, claiming to have observed other worlds across the sea of time and space.
“So, why then did they present that great achievement so obliquely? If all the nobles present invested funds, it must have been considerable.”
“It was probably to filter them out.”
Filtering out the chaff and only demonstrating it to those who could recognize its true value.
Instead of feeding wealth and fame to the entire continent, it whispered to a select few strong individuals.
Though open to many interpretations, the fact that the video showcased a man unabashedly claiming ‘I alone reign supreme’ was quite…
The message contained was quite clear. “We’ll go our way, you’ll just have to manage the traffic yourself.”
“Charming.”
If the unveiling of practical dimensional magic could prevent the ensuing chaos across the continent, investing in the tower seemed a bargain. The boy jotted down on fine parchment: “Increase of Purple Tower Royal Support: 30-fold.”
⋯⋯.
After the demonstration, the Purple Tower Master, who had been bedridden, was suddenly hit by a 30-fold sponsorship punch and spent the entire day running around the tower, showering everyone encountered with kisses.
Now the tactile sensation of lips has been added to illusion magic.
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