The few people working in the Magic Tower, walking around in their thin fabric cloaks waving in the air, reminded them once more that this was indeed the Magic Tower.
“Excuse me. What brings you here today?”
Riley was giving dazed stares to marbles of glass and white square bricks floating around the first floor, but then he turned his head as he heard a voice from the rear.
The person that stroke up the conversation was a young man with a thin fabric cloak wrapped around his shoulders like the others, making it apparent that he may be someone associated with the Magic Tower.
“We are here to just look around,” Ian responded for the group.
“The Magic Tower is not a place that anyone can enter. By chance, do you have anything that you can present to prove your identities?”
“Yes, here.”
Ian showed the marker that proved their identities as people from the Iphelleta House. The young man, who appeared to be an associate, took a good look at the marker and nodded, satisfied.
“Ah, you are from the House of Iphelleta. Welcome to the Magic Tower. We will allow you to look around the first floor, but please do not go up to second floor or handle any objects without permission… Ahah?!”
The associate was continuing his explanation, but then he became bug-eyed and pointed toward somewhere with his finger.
The direction he was pointing was where Riley stood.
“Th-that! Please do not touch that!”
“…?”
The associate rushed forward and pulled Riley’s arm away.
“Ah, this…is it something I am not supposed to touch?”
It was one of the inventions created by the mages that were on display in the first floor.
Riley was brushing a ‘blue boulder’ with his right hand. He scratched the back of his head as if he felt awkward.
“Ugh, you are a Young Master from a Count’s House, but still, you mustn’t! This is not an ordinary object…”
“This boulder, what could it possibly be?”
“I cannot tell you that.”
The young associate was breaking into a cold sweat over the possibility of the boulder having smudges from Riley’s hand. He immediately examined the parts of the boulder where Riley touched and confirmed that the item was fine. The young associate sighed in relief.
“Phew… Most of the objects on display must not be touched. As for the ones that are ok to handle, they have signs that say so, so please keep that in mind. Other than those ones, you must not touch anything! Please enjoy them with your eyes alone.”
Riley beamed a smile and nodded.
“…Phew, still, I am glad you understood me. Thank you.”
The associate added that it was common for people to fire back and tell him ‘just who the hell do you think you are?’ The associate sighed bitterly.
“There are more than a few nobles that acted outrageously like that and went straight back to their residences. Of course, whenever that happens, I am the one that has to clean things up…”
His face was smeared with grievance.
As if feeling sympathy, Iris tilted her head to the side gently and asked him for a favor.
“Then could you please guide us through the Magic Tower? We don’t know about this place all that well.”
“Ah, if that’s what you would like, I will gladly!”
As if he was waiting for the request, the associate promptly responded.
“My name is Peruda. You can call me Peruda.”
As they listened to Peruda’s story, they learned that the associates took turns to protect and provide guidance in the Magic Tower’s first floor.
Peruda, the one that Riley’s group ran into today, was the one in charge of the task for the day.
“Mages, magic technique scholars, alchemists, and others… If I tried to sort them in detail, there would be endless varieties of mages in the Magic Tower. If I tried to sort them further down to the very specifics and explained, it will take more than a whole day.”
“Oh?”
“This is the manual for the basics of magic given to the apprentice mages. With this, you can use light circle magic such as energy bolts. Ah, what I mean by a circle…”
“Oh!”
“With this round device, you can pour water inside. If you wait a certain amount of time after pouring water in it, it comes out as ice. It works thanks to the magic circle drawn inside which activates when it comes in contact with water. The type of magic circle is…”
“Um, it is like a refrigerator.”
“A refrigerator?”
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
Perhaps an hour or two passed since the group made rounds around the first floor of the Magic Tower.
Thanks to Peruda, they were able to look around the first floor with efficiency. Riley crossed his arms and murmured his impressions.
“Hum, it looks like even mages don’t have it easy all the time.”
“Please come to visit again. If you go through the proper procedures, you can visit the second floor as well.”
“What’s on the second floor?”
“Um, that floor is best known for being able to spectate the apprentices practicing magic. For instance, the fireball that master Riley was curious about.”
“That’s intriguing.”
“…Master, over here, here.”