Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Hill also couldn’t quite figure Aislin out.

If she really were as she presented herself—harboring an uncontrollable greed for the power in her hands—then she wouldn’t have mentally collapsed just because of something Ruth said.

She really was collapsing.

That instant, wanting-to-dig-a-hole-and-hide sense of shame was practically condensing into a layer of Shadow around her.

Hill genuinely felt there was something off about this woman.

The reason Ruth was so tolerant of her didn’t seem to be just because Aislin was so doggedly loyal to him.

Hilbert decided to temporarily stop going after that woman... he’d wait until he figured out what exactly was wrong with Aislin, then give her a proper beating.

He certainly wouldn’t forgive the discomfort and irritation Aislin had brought him just because there might be some deeper cause, some pitiful past behind it.

At most he wouldn’t kill her, but he definitely wouldn’t skip beating her up.

He might not agree with those sayings about ”pitiful people always having hateful sides,” but he never once believed that a hateful person deserved forgiveness just because part of her was pitiful.

There are plenty of people who live difficult lives.

Those who absolutely have to inflict their own pain on others, who can only catch their breath after seeing someone else more miserable than themselves—even if their actions can be ”understood” as not coming from nowhere—there’s no need to forgive their so-called suffering.

But Hill did indeed draw a question mark in his heart.

In fact, one of his goals in coming here today was to make Aislin lose part of her power... before he was in a position to slap her to death, he didn’t want that woman living too comfortably.

Yet Hill suddenly discovered that Oliva, who had been constantly fighting Aislin for control in both her words and mind, although always mocking her, had never turned any of it into action.

Just like the several chances Hill had just offered in the hall—chances enough for him to drag Aislin down—Oliva had only sneered and watched Aislin with a provocative gaze, but he had absolutely no intention of making a move himself.

The relationship between Ruth’s two students who held real power was definitely not as hostile as they appeared; though it was also possible that Oliva knew perfectly well that the opportunities Gilbert had provided weren’t enough to truly cripple Aislin.

But Hill could tell from the aura coming off him that it was calm, without any fluctuations.

He had never intended to act.

Aislin herself hadn’t worried in the slightest about what Oliva might do either... all her attention was on Hilbert.

Hill certainly didn’t believe that after seeing Aislin’s glorious history, Oliva would still harbor some personal feelings for her; Oliva’s gaze didn’t linger on Aislin either. That kind of bland yet tolerant feel—tsk... it was more like he just couldn’t be bothered to stoop to her level.

This woman Aislin... does she have some sort of psychological Disease or what?

Hill twitched his mouth and turned to look at Ruth... Although this man had spoken up to rebuke Aislin, he was also using this method to soothe Gilbert, even hoping that, seeing how Aislin had already lost face both inside and outside the Tower of Dark Enigma, he would temporarily let her off.

If he’d seen these people’s interactions earlier, Hill would still have thought that Ruth just didn’t want to give up such a useful tool as Aislin.

But now his thinking had completely shifted in another direction, and he temporarily abandoned the plans he’d had before coming.

There were some things he needed to reconsider carefully.

However, if it were Gilbert, even if he sensed the implication in Ruth’s words, he wouldn’t just put on a harmonious face and let everything end so naturally.

So even knowing what Ruth wanted to find out, Hilbert still kept silent.

”Gilbert...” Ruth of course also understood his student’s rotten temper. ”Speaking of which, you’re already at Seven Rings now!

Time really does fly.

It feels like the days when I worried about your injuries, your future, are still right before my eyes.

But you’ve already stepped onto a new rung.

Your teacher really is happy for you.”

Hilbert stood up and, smiling, performed a Mage Ceremony. ”Thank you for your concern. From now on, my future can finally be something I can actually think about.”

Ruth shook his head helplessly. With a flick of his fingers, a storage ring flew towards Gilbert. ”This is for you.

Heh~ no need to look at anyone else.

Every one of my students gets the same gift on the day they reach Seven Rings.

It’s possible you won’t use these things in the future, since they’re all standard resources for Seven Rings.

But as your teacher, this is all I can do.

In this Profession of Mage, aside from leading you through the door, there’s nothing else a teacher can really teach.

The rest is entirely on yourselves.

Aislin, if you could have figured this out sooner, I wouldn’t have to worry this much.”

Ruth still couldn’t hold back from lecturing this most worrying female disciple of his... Aislin really was someone who needed constant watching.

She wasn’t truly the kind of ruthless person who had to kill off anyone capable of competing with her, yet she just couldn’t stop herself from making a move.

They were all Mages of outstanding talent and lofty pride—what made Aislin think others were obliged to tolerate her presumptuousness?

If you really want to make a move on someone, then you have to slap them dead on the spot, so they can never get back up.

Otherwise, you might as well do nothing and just use your own strength to suppress them!

Among Mages, strength reigns supreme. Giving someone—especially someone very likely to surpass her in the future—a couple of slaps that don’t really hurt... is she asking for scolding or a beating?

It wasn’t that Aislin couldn’t see this point, she just had recurring episodes.

Every so often, that claw of hers would come out and scratch the other side’s skin open just a bit... what did she think she was? A cat?

Sometimes Ruth really wanted to throw an illustrated animal guide at his female disciple, so she could see for herself how she was living worse than some little creature that had already gone extinct!

Aislin only lowered her head, all grievance, without making a sound.

Ruth let out a soft sigh. Forget it—after pulling something like this, Aislin would at least behave herself for another twenty years. That much time was enough for them to get settled in Sia Tower.

Besides, although she’d lost some face, she had, by a stroke of luck, done something good.

The reason he’d waited so long after returning to the Tower of Dark Enigma before calling his students together was of course that there was something more important: the Kamente Tower couldn’t have come all this way just to deliver a mocking letter, right?

He had indeed received that sort of letter, just not today—ah, no, not only today.

He still didn’t know how Kamente Tower had managed it so that everyone other than him and Nicholson only saw the mocking content when they held that letter.

No, the real question was—how did Kamente Tower pull off sending a letter every few days, each brimming with ridicule yet with different content every single time?

Ruth twisted his mouth helplessly... Who the hell would’ve thought that the Kamente Tower, which he’d been constantly on guard against, would somehow, without his noticing, become a partner he could temporarily ally with!

This world really is full of accidents, full of surprises... No wonder he’d felt that ever since they handed over that visitor from the Stellar Realm, their schemes had gone much more smoothly.

Kamente Tower hadn’t turned out to be as shrewd and capable, as meticulous and cautious as they’d imagined.

Turns out the man was... half one of their own, so on many matters, as long as he could pretend not to see them, he simply didn’t look.

Ruth had of course guessed a bit of the inside story, since before that, Kamente Tower had indeed behaved very much like Sia Tower.

Cold-blooded, cruel, suspicious, and most importantly, utterly loyal.

The sort to report any hint of abnormality at once.

But by that point, the Mystery of Darkness had already fallen into the other side’s hands... Speaking of which, the most critical parts were indeed under Ruth’s control, but the three Towers were still interdependent.

As long as the other side destroyed the Mystery of Darkness, the grand Defensive Magic Array of the Tower of Dark Enigma would collapse instantly.

It wasn’t as if they were independent entities... The most important thing was that he and Nicholson couldn’t survive without a Magic Tower.

Swallowing some grievance and suffering some hardship was still better than going to someone else’s place to be treated like a grandson in the end.

Unfortunately, they still hadn’t managed to hold out.

Whenever Ruth thought about how those miserable events of the past were basically all thanks to Kamente Tower, his anger flared right back up—he truly had wanted to get that bastard killed before they even reached Sia Tower!

Reality, however, was even more brutal.

Compared to that, Aislin’s little issues were nothing.

Having no choice but to choke down his resentment and sincerely cooperate with Kamente Tower was what Ruth currently found most unbearable!

The only comfort Ruth had now was that there was someone taking it even worse than he was... Nicholson.

Compared to Ruth, what Nicholson had lost and sacrificed in this crisis of the Tower of Dark Enigma was far greater.

Most of the time, what Ruth thought about was how to coordinate with the other Magic Towers... Once he realized Sia Tower had its eye on him, he never pinned his hopes on so-called Meteor Summoning again.

To put it bluntly, whether the Summoning succeeded, on the surface, depended on the Mage’s perception of Meteorite flows in the Stellar Realm and on sufficiently fine-grained Control.

But whether their Spells succeeded or not... for people who were at least at Eighth Ring, how could they possibly fail to tell?

So, whether it was that they themselves fell short or that someone didn’t want them to succeed, everyone knew the score.

Who wants to keep living days equivalent to drinking poison to quench thirst?

Those who found their Spells’ summoned Meteorites being intercepted by others, those who found their Spells erased the moment they were cast—why would they keep trying?

Isn’t it just that they wanted to see what kind of Spell effects might actually have some impact on that cage enclosing the outside of the world?

Unfortunately, so far, there had only been failure.