Chapter 310

The 46th floor… I didn’t think she’d be on such a high floor.

After taking the mana elevator up one floor after another, Alice finally sensed that she was on the same elevation as the remnant of her psychic energy when she arrived on the 46th floor. So, the girl Alice manipulated should be on the 46th floor. Now, what Alice needed to do next would be to search this floor.

The innermost part of the Royal Magic Tower’s 46th floor was Zone D. Zone A, which was also the original Mihla Magic Tower, only existed up until the 20th floor, whereas Zone B only existed until the 30th floor, and Zone C until the 40th floor. Zone D only came into existence when the 41st to 50th floors were added during the tower’s third expansion.

The 46th floor housed mainly laboratories. Alice walked in the direction her senses led her, passing by many laboratories on her way. Every one of these laboratories was labeled, though they were given basic names such as Lab 1, Lab 2, Fire Attribute Magic Research Room 1, and so on.

The occasional person Alice passed by on this floor also looked much more mature than the students she met elsewhere. Most of these people should be students from the Royal Magic Tower’s university department. They wore white magic cloaks and could typically be seen holding research materials or documents in their hands.

When these university students saw Alice, they naturally wondered why Alice, who clearly looked like a middle schooler, would appear on this floor. However, they didn’t think much about it and simply assumed she was here to find an acquaintance.

Alice didn’t mind these people’s gazes. She wasn’t worried they would suspect her to be an intruder. There was a barrier that enveloped the entire Royal Magic Tower, and this barrier would immediately sound the alarm if it detected someone entering the premises without a valid ID. So, since she didn’t trigger the alarm, these university students wouldn’t suspect her even if they were confused about why she had appeared on this floor. Instead, they would come up with their own explanation for her presence here and leave her be.

It should be this room…

After tracking down her remnant psychic energy, Alice found herself standing before a room on Floor 46’s Sector E7. The sign hanging on the room’s door wrote “Spirit Magic Research Room 6.” By the looks of things, the Royal Magic Tower’s authorities should have realized that she had manipulated the girl using spirit magic.

The good news was that the authorities must have realized that the girl wasn’t the mastermind of this incident and was only a victim. So, they were unlikely to trouble the girl too much. Otherwise, Alice would feel very guilty if the girl got into big trouble because of her actions.

However, even though Alice had found her target, she didn’t have any way of observing the situation inside the room. Although there were spells that could be used to eavesdrop on others, she hadn’t learned any such spell yet. Moreover, the room seemed to have incredible soundproofing as Alice couldn’t hear anything even after she stuck her ear to the door.

It should be known that her sense of hearing had long since surpassed the average person’s hearing. Yet, she couldn’t hear the slightest sound coming through the door. It was as if the door could prevent even air particles from vibrating.

Magic in this world allowed people to accomplish many unreasonable things. At least, these things were unreasonable in Alice’s opinion. So, Alice wasn’t exactly surprised to come across such a high standard of sound isolation.

…

Meanwhile, inside the room that Alice had failed to pry any information from, aside from the girl who had the misfortune of being chosen as Alice’s messenger, there were two other people in the room. Among these two, one of them was even someone Alice was acquainted with. This person was none other than Prince Etoria, the Rhine Kingdom’s Second Prince, whom Alice had met during the Conference of Kings.

The appearance of the Demon King wasn’t a trifling matter, so the Rhine Kingdom naturally had to dispatch someone of suitable authority to investigate this matter. Meanwhile, Prince Etoria just so happened to be the official chosen for the task this time.

Of course, Etoria wasn’t given this responsibility solely because King Haydn wanted to improve his second son’s resume. While that was indeed one of the factors for Etoria being chosen, it was also a fact that Etoria possessed the strength and wisdom to lead this investigation.

“Yes, there’s no mistaking it… This kind of sophisticated mana structure… This child should have been the victim of a spirit-type taboo.”

Aside from Etoria and the girl, the third person in the room was an old man dressed in white robes. This old man was the master spirit magician Etoria had brought to inspect the girl’s spirit.

After learning that a female student had passed on a message to the Royal Magic Tower’s “Magic Tower Know-It-All” saying that the Demon King was in the tower, Etoria promptly investigated this female student’s background. However, after finding nothing suspicious about the girl’s family background and daily behavior, he quickly realized that someone might have manipulated the girl using spirit magic. Hence, before setting off for the Royal Magic Tower, he had brought the royal family’s master spirit magician with him to inspect the female student’s spirit.

Sure enough, things turned out just like he expected. Someone had used spirit magic to manipulate the girl to pass on a message for them. Moreover…it was even a spirit-type taboo.

Spirit taboos were not spells that one could master easily. Even the white-robed old man, who was a master spirit magician working for the Rhine Kingdom’s royal family, had to expend tremendous effort to cast a spirit taboo. Moreover, his spirit would be drained after doing so, and he would need to rest for several days before making a full recovery.

However, the person who had manipulated this female student evidently did not suffer from spiritual exhaustion even after casting a spirit taboo. Otherwise, this person would have been found collapsed somewhere in the Royal Magic Tower already. This also meant that the person who had manipulated the female student might very well be the Demon King.

“The taboo used should be ‘Consciousness Transformation.’ It is a very useful and versatile taboo, and it can accomplish almost any type of spirit- and memory-related manipulation,” the master spirit magician added after seeing Etoria remaining silent. “Should we block access to the Royal Magic Tower, Your Highness? The Demon King might not have noticed our arrival yet and should still be in the tower.”

“…What can we do even if we isolate the tower? If the Demon King notices what we’ve done, she might try to force a breakthrough. What should we do when that happens?” Etoria said, sighing. He wasn’t a fool. He could see the big picture very clearly. “Don’t forget that the Demon King is an existence capable of casually flinging taboos. The Royal Magic Tower might have the Third Hero’s magic stone, but nobody can say if the magic stone can restrict a rampaging Demon King.”

After pausing for a moment, Etoria looked toward the elderly magician and continued:

“And should the magic stone fail to restrict the Demon King, do you know what consequences would result? Not only will we fail to capture the Demon King, but the Royal Magic Tower might even suffer irreparable damage.”

“But… Logically, shouldn’t the Demon King still be in a developing stage at this time? Maybe she still doesn’t have the strength to ignore the magic stone’s restrictions?” the elderly magician said after some thought. He agreed with Etoria’s words to a certain extent. If their opponent was a full-fledged Demon King, it was highly doubtful that the Third Hero’s magic stone could restrict the Demon King. In that case, they would only be digging a hole for themselves should they forcibly restrict access in and out of the Royal Magic Tower. “If it’s a developing Demon King, I think we still have a chance of capturing her.”

However, after hearing the elderly magician’s words, Etoria shook his head and said, “You should have also read about the historical records on Demon Kings, right? Every Demon King will have their body and mana modified when they start to inherit the Demon King’s Power. Because of this, all the spells they use will be forcibly converted to the dark attribute. Only after a Demon King has grown to a certain extent can they break free from this limitation and learn how to use other attributes.

“So, do you understand now? You’ve just inspected the girl, right? Was the taboo used on this girl of the dark attribute?”

“No.” The old man finally understood Etoria’s point. At the same time, he couldn’t help but sigh in admiration of Etoria’s insight and acknowledge that Etoria was indeed worthy of being the Rhine Kingdom’s successor. “The Consciousness Transformation used on this girl isn’t fueled by dark mana. In other words…the new Demon King should have grown to a point where she is no longer restricted to only dark mana.”

“…And there is nothing we can do against such a Demon King. Only the Hero can go against her,” Etoria said. Then, grunting lightly, he continued, “Let’s go and contact the Hero.”