Chapter 1355: Designed Transcendence (33)
The extravagant lights, reflected by the chandeliers, illuminated the vast ballroom.
Hundreds of people bustled in and out of the vibrant hall, filled with music and lights.
Some moved about with drinks in hand in the ballroom, others strolled through the outer garden, conversing.
Amidst the stream of gifts and wreaths, gazes remained fixed on Lennok.
“Felix. Can you stop picking at the tuna belly for a bit?”
“Because of you, the seafood section has been refilling only tuna since earlier. Give some to the other guests.”
“…I’ve only had five pieces of tuna belly, Mila. It’s a bit unfair that only I’m being interrogated.”
“Whoa~ We should have thrown a party like this right after the Subjugation War ended.”
“Idiots, just eat and drink quietly. Do you think we’ll get another chance to drink such expensive liquor?”
Familiar faces chattered and passed by Lennok in various parts of the opulent ballroom.
His colleagues, instead of greeting him directly, grinned or nodded, then disappeared.
The moment Lennok turned his gaze, sensing they were intentionally making way for him, a familiar voice came from behind.
“Van. Still standing there?”
“…Jenny.”
Jenny approached, dressed in a red gown, a wine glass in one hand.
She stared intently at Lennok’s face, then smiled and lightly clinked her glass against his.
“Madam said you seemed deep in thought, and it was true. It’s about time you got used to this.”
“I’m afraid I can’t agree. Get used to a party held less than a day after the Ascension Ritual?”
Lennok shook his head with a wry smile.
“I waited because I knew you were behind it. If it weren’t for you, I’d have left immediately.”
While many people worked with Lennok, not many could pull off something like this without his explicit permission.
Unless it was an administrator handling all the tower’s affairs, it would be impossible to organize a large-scale banquet without Lennok’s knowledge.
“I’m sorry for calling you straight to this. But it was absolutely necessary.”
Jenny whispered into Lennok’s ear with a playful smile.
“The atmosphere in Vulcan is unusual right now. You know that, right?”
“…”
Despite her smiling face, Jenny’s voice was calm and subdued.
“Rumors are circulating throughout the city that something went wrong with the ritual. Especially since you seemed to clash with an Ascendant during the process.”
“…”
“We know the situation has been resolved, but we can’t tell everyone the full story, can we? So…”
“You intentionally threw a big banquet to defuse the tension in the city?”
“There’s no need to verbally explain what happened at the Ascension Ritual.”
Jenny, maintaining her smile, pulled her face away and swirled her wine glass.
“You just need to show that you’re perfectly fine walking around the ballroom. Then everyone will imagine that things turned out well on their own.”
“…I see.”
“Besides, that’s exactly the conclusion we want them to draw.”
Indeed, if they truly wanted to congratulate Lennok, there would be no need for such a grand banquet.
Gathering his close tower colleagues for a drink at a bar would have been sufficient.
Jenny would undoubtedly know this, yet she still held the party, likely because the banquet itself was a performance.
They wouldn’t officially announce the success or failure of the Ascension Ritual, but they wanted to imply that things hadn’t ended badly.
“I understand what you mean, but… even considering that, the scale of the banquet and the attendees are excessively lavish.”
Lennok turned his gaze, a slightly dazed expression on his face.
“This level of crowd and facility can’t be prepared in a day or two. When did you start preparing?”
The banquet hall where Lennok stood was the VIP Exchange in District 49, entirely cleared out for the event.
Considering it was bustling with catalyst and material preparations right before the ritual, the speed of execution was unbelievable.
Moreover, most of the attendees gathered here were high-level superhumans or leaders of various organizations.
These were individuals who would find it difficult to make time unless their schedules were cleared days in advance.
Jenny’s answer was simple.
“Weren’t you already guessing? We started preparing the moment you decided to accept Dadam’s proposal.”
“…That’s…”
“Since you were determined to step in, I knew the Ascension Ritual would likely end safely. But I also knew you’d have trouble worrying about the reactions inside and outside the city. So I thought we’d need a way to clean up the aftermath.”
“…”
“Fortunately, the City Government and the Cartel cooperated on both sides, and things went smoothly. Originally, I had a few other alternatives in mind, but it seems we won’t need them, which is a relief… Why are you making such a strange face?”
“No. It’s nothing.”
It seemed too obvious now to say he had just realized how competent an administrator Jenny was.
There must be a reason why the Mayor of Vulcan and high-ranking city council members praised Jenny’s work ethic endlessly.
[Master doesn’t need to be grateful. A thank you is enough with an incentive, right?]
“…”
As Lennok ignored Davi’s nonsense, Jenny pulled his arm.
“Well, you just finished a major ritual yesterday, so you must be overwhelmed. Come on, let’s go greet the acquaintances who attended the banquet today.”
“Greetings? In the first place, among the people in the ballroom right now—”
Lennok, about to say something as Jenny pulled him along, shut his mouth when he saw a tall woman standing in the ballroom.
A dignified robe, enveloped in a radiant glow. Iridescent eyes, barely concealed by the veil covering her face.
A domineering aura that commanded the room even as she stood still, and a striking appearance that caught the eye immediately.
[Oh dear… look who it is.]
Ignoring the pouring gazes, Olivera, who had been leisurely sipping wine, turned her head.
Her eyes, behind the veil, curved into a long arc as she looked at Lennok, being led by Jenny’s hand.
Swirling the glass in her hand, Olivera asked, [The protagonist of this banquet is quite late. So, did you fully enjoy the event that perplexed the entire city?]
“…Olivera.”
[I thought the outskirts were about to be swallowed up by a mad wizard’s rampage. I suppose I should thank the tower lord for safely concluding the matter.]
“Don’t say things you don’t mean.”
Lennok sighed and straightened his posture.
He exchanged his glass for one offered by an approaching waiter, then glanced at her and asked, “From the way you’re talking, you seem to know roughly what’s going on. Why are you here?”
[Can’t you tell? I came to give face to the event your partner organized.]
Olivera said leisurely, [If you simply show your unharmed presence at the banquet today, people will imagine the outcome of the ritual themselves. You know that, don’t you?]
“…”
[You chose a rather sophisticated method to resolve the commotion that turned the entire city upside down. As expected of a Vajour descendant, you certainly have a talent for such social maneuvering.]
Her mystic eye, behind the veil, turned towards Jenny.
[Given that resourcefulness, I personally made the trip today. It was unpleasant to venture out after so long, but the wine isn’t bad, so I’ll forgive you.]
“We only procured the finest items to entertain our esteemed guests who took the trouble to attend.”
Jenny calmly held the hem of her dress, smiling as if curtseying.
“Thank you for the Chairman’s consideration. I hope we can continue a constructive cooperative relationship with the Cartel in the future.”
[My subordinates will desire that more than you, so there’s no need to worry.]
Olivera laughed and asked Lennok, [So, how was your experience clashing with an Ascendant? Considering Dadam’s nature, it must have been quite difficult to deal with.]
“You speak as if you know Ascendants well. Were you acquainted with Dadam herself?”
[You youngsters might not know, but she was quite a famous Ascendant back when the Imperial Palace was still standing…]
Olivera swirled her glass leisurely and said, [The cabinet tried hard to make her a Grand General, but I heard she refused them all and remained a recluse. Even before she became a plant, her transcendent nature was quite stubborn.]
“They tried hard to make Dadam a Grand General… That’s surprising.”
Lennok, holding his glass, faced Olivera and tilted his head.
He was playing along with the conversation to show his unharmed presence as per Jenny’s plan, but Olivera’s words contained something intriguing regardless.
“The Imperial Palace cabinet I knew wasn’t an organization that fixated or clung to outsiders. Was there something that special about Dadam?”
[Well. It’s hard to say. But if I recall…]
Olivera tilted her glass inside her veil, and her answer was momentarily delayed.
[At the time, there were rumors that the Imperial Palace’s master was interested in her archery.]
“…The Imperial Palace’s master?”
The master of the Imperial Palace of the Ars Nova Empire.
Did this mean the Emperor himself had a personal interest in Dadam’s archery?
The moment Lennok opened his mouth to ask more about it.
[The party’s protagonist was hiding here.]
Another Yukhab Jeonseong, not Olivera’s, resonated from nearby.
[Everyone at the banquet is looking for you. What interesting story has you so engrossed?]
“…Ollynic?”
A refined man in a crisp tuxedo.
But the head, holding a wine glass in one hand, was not human but an iron sphere.
A transcendent of the public eye who accepted the Prohibition Edict, and the master of the Gisu Magic Bow. An 8-level archmage who manipulates metal.
Chuknoe, Ollynic, moved his iron sphere head and raised his glass as if to toast Lennok.
[Congratulations, Tower Lord. You finally completed the Ascension Ritual before tens of millions of watchful eyes.]
Ollynic approached, moving his metallic head with a creak, shrugging his shoulders with an exaggerated gesture.
[Just a few days ago, I suspected you had chosen a method of suicide, but you proved it with the outcome. What more can I say? I can only offer my congratulations.]
“…”
[Many are waiting. Why don’t we discuss this matter in detail inside the banquet hall?]
[If you want to bring people around him, you should get lost first, Chuknoe.]
At that moment, Olivera, who was standing beside Lennok, sneered.
[With a repulsive monster like you brazenly standing nearby, who would dare approach?]
[Hmph, Maize. Before criticizing others, perhaps you should look at yourself first.]
Ollynic, unflustered, retorted Olivera’s words.
[Wouldn’t the mere presence of a suspicious figure like yourself roaming the banquet hall be a discordant sight?]
[I don’t wish to hear that from a madman who replaced his head with a metal sphere. Do you intend to pour that wine between your parts?]
A bizarre situation unfolded as the tall, veiled woman and the gentleman with a metal sphere for a head engaged in a war of nerves, their Yukhab Jeonseong resonating.
Naturally, no sane person in the vast banquet hall dared to approach them.
“What, are they fighting?”
With a whoosh, a massive, pure white beast landed between the two.
A white tiger much larger than an adult man. On its back sat a playfully smiling woman, chewing on a canapé.
An 8-level tamer whose face Lennok had seen at the victory parade. Her name was Yuphi, wasn’t it?
Yuphi, perched on the white tiger, spoke to Olivera with a look of disdain.
“You should know the time and place, Olivera. What are you doing in front of Adamant Thunder, who went to all the trouble of inviting us to this party?”
[…I’m afraid that’s what I’d like to say, Tamer.]
Olivera’s cold gaze fixed on the white tiger she rode.
[To bring a furry beast to a place like this shows no manners. Can’t you get rid of it before I turn it into a tiger-skin rug?]
“What are you talking about? Our Whitetail gets a bath every single day! And I brushed his fur today, so he’s super clean!”
Yuphi said, showing the bow tie around the white tiger’s neck.
“Ta-da! We had to come to the banquet hall, so he even shrunk himself a bit today and matched the dress code. Good job, right?”
“Grrrr…”
The white tiger, however, shook its head as if displeased with the bow tie around its neck.
[I don’t even want to associate with you. Get away from me.]
Seeing Olivera’s genuine disgust, the white tiger bared its teeth, and Yuphi burst into laughter.
The Chairman of the Cartel, the Master of the Gisu Magic Bow, and a gigantic white tiger gathered in one place, drawing all eyes in the banquet hall towards them.
As it was a city with many superhumans, no one took issue with the presence of a beast, but even setting that aside, the gathering of individuals was exceptionally peculiar.
Transcendents scattered throughout the ballroom began to perceive the commotion and approached one by one.
“The Tower Lord needs stability after a major ritual. It would be best to refrain from causing a commotion.”
“A party? An interesting combination. It’s quite rare for such an event to be held in Vulcan.”
Krod stood protectively behind Lennok, and Silford, adjusting his fedora, approached with a smiling face.
“How long has it been since the war, and they’re already pulling off something like an Ascension Ritual? Humans, always either audacious or reckless.”
“Slane, shut your mouth. After what you pulled at the meeting, do you think you have any right to lecture anyone?”
Slane, a phantom species scattering raven feathers, walked over with an expressionless face, and Feisha glared from beside him.
Transcendents of various origins, ages, species, and genders gathered in one spot in the banquet hall, instantly drawing all attention.
Throughout the vast hall, people murmured or made calls somewhere, watching the war of nerves among the transcendents.
“Gwi-hui. You should get a grip. Do you still want to pick fights in a place like this?”
A cold voice was heard, and a knight in pristine white armor stepped forward.
Kiriya Uberts. One of the public-facing transcendents and a former knight captain of Kabahim.
As soon as Feisha saw her icy face, foam frothed at her mouth.
“Ha, what are you talking about!! You don’t even know who’s really picking a fight—”
“Adamant Thunder. I heard about what happened.”
Kiriya ignored Feisha’s outburst and turned her cold gaze towards Lennok.
“Regardless of the good outcome, ominous rumors are circulating. Did you indiscriminately kill 8-level transcendents to perform the Ascension Ritual?”
“Where did you hear such nonsense?”
“Nonsense? I wonder if I received incorrect information.”
Kiriya tilted her head with a chilling expression.
“Changhwangmunju. Mangwisa’s Left Guardian. Barbarian Kargara. Corps Commander Asht. Weren’t they all killed by you?”
“…”
Only then did Lennok remember what had happened at the ruins and fell silent.
He had been so focused on acquiring the Mirror that he’d forgotten how violent the commotion at the ruins had been.
Since all the superhumans who intruded into the ruins, except for the necromancer, had died, it was natural for word to get out.
However, Kiriya, seeing Lennok’s expression, shook her head and raised her glass.
“I’m not criticizing. It was excellent work. I thought you were a bloodthirsty battle fiend, but I’ve reconsidered.”
“…What do you mean?”
“They were not honorable transcendents the moment they coveted the Ascension Ruin. They were villains who disregarded rules and order for their own enlightenment.”
Kiriya said with a cold expression, “They were merely those who deserved punishment receiving their rightful end. Even if your nature is violent, you always prove helpful in such matters.”
“…”
“If that power is used in the right direction, there will be good results, as there are now. It’s dangerous, but precisely because of that, there’s hope.”
“I didn’t know that could be called hope.”
“If a similar situation arises next time, I’d like to work with you. Will you contact me then?”
Kiriya didn’t even feign listening to Lennok’s words, instead pulling out a small gem from her pocket and handing it to him.
It was a tablet-like object, seemingly made from solidified white crystal, with specific characters carved onto it.
Lennok, about to refuse, inadvertently checked the inscription on it and paused for a moment.
=At the end of the Ascension Ritual, you refused to reach the upper heavens on your own and descended back to this world.
She had been speaking strangely, making no sense, so was this a bluff to hide her true purpose?
But what truly caught Lennok’s eye was written just after that sentence.
=The Ascendant I serve wishes to see you. If you consider it, please contact me.
“…”
He remembered that Kiriya Uberts’s information in the Eastern Continent Power Rankings didn’t have her affiliation properly listed.
He had simply assumed it was because she had resigned as the knight captain of Kabahim, but could there have been a deeper secret?
It seemed clear that the knight before him, who valued honor and rules, had some sort of cooperative relationship with an Ascendant.
The problem was that he couldn’t guess which Ascendant Kiriya served…
Just then, similar conversations were flowing among the transcendents gathered in the banquet hall.
[Since the Ascendant of the Oeroe Tribe, whose survival was uncertain, has moved, other venerable beings can no longer ignore it.]
“Something definitely changed when the Four-Heavenly-Flower Demonic Realm collapsed. I can truly feel it after this experience.”
“Now that it’s confirmed the Central Front can be breached, the monsters will start moving in earnest. How many living Ascendants are there at this point?”
Yuphi’s question left others with troubled expressions.
“Well… since Dadam was alive, it’s hard to say who’s dead and who’s alive.”
“Even when the previous Lighthouse Keeper and Jindun were still around, there were officially no more than ten Ascendants. Excluding the newly ascended Eunseong and the Snake of the Well, their whereabouts are even unknown.”
“Are we not counting the Owner of the Lost Paradise as an Ascendant anymore? Besides, that calculation doesn’t even include the Empire’s Grand Generals.”
“Since the central city was destroyed, all Imperial transcendents have been presumed dead. We might have to re-evaluate the count.”
[If we’re to consider likely living Ascendants, wouldn’t it just be Seok-yo and Muk-ryeon? I can’t imagine anyone else being alive.]
“You never know. Even Dadam was rumored to have been in eternal slumber until just a few weeks ago, and that was the prevailing theory.”
In the center of the banquet hall, transcendents held glasses and discussed seriously.
But watching them, Lennok realized that the issue of Ascendants had finally drawn close enough to be felt firsthand.
If Ascendants had hitherto been vague and incomprehensible transcendents, like stars in the night sky,
Now that the Four-Heavenly-Flower Demonic Realm had fallen, it was possible he would become deeply involved with them.
His encounter with Dadam in Vulcan, and even the message Kiriya had just passed, weren’t they all evidence of this?
“Jenny.”
At that moment, Aris approached the table where Lennok and the transcendents were gathered.
She wasn’t holding a wine glass; her attire was simple and neat, just as she usually dressed when staying at the magic tower.
Perhaps it was due to her experience at Sinclair Magic Tower. Even with minimal adherence to the dress code, she looked very accustomed to such events.
Aris, who captivated attention the moment she appeared, picked up a glass from the table and said, “You look tired. It might be good to take a short walk with the Tower Lord. I’ll take over here.”
“…Aris?”
Aris didn’t answer, instead quietly gazing at Jenny with her blue eyes.
At first glance, Aris showed no emotion or reaction.
Upon seeing her face, Jenny nodded immediately.
“Alright. Let’s head straight to the banquet hall entrance. I’ll leave this to you for a bit.”
“Jenny?”
There must have been a reason for preparing the banquet, yet she was following Aris’s words without even asking for an explanation?
Jenny, having swapped places with Aris, explained as she walked with Lennok out into the garden.
“Working with her a few times, I’ve realized the Professor has pretty good instincts. In cases like this, she’s trustworthy.”
“…That’s the first I’ve heard of it. Good instincts?”
“What, you scouted her yourself and didn’t know?”
Jenny asked as she walked with Lennok through the garden.
“Sometimes she speaks in such vague terms, but it feels like something more than mere intuition, something special? I didn’t ask in detail because I didn’t want to pry, but…”
“…”
Lennok had never heard that Aris Richellen possessed such an ability.
Could it be an ability she gained after multiple advancements at Sinclair Magic Tower? Perhaps it was related to why her Hierarchy wasn’t clearly visible.
The 고민 wasn’t long, but he quickly confirmed that Aris’s words were not false.
Because the attendant standing at the banquet hall entrance rushed towards them with a look of urgency the moment he saw them.
“Tower Lord. The guests who expressed their intention to attend the banquet have arrived.”
The attendant, who had been constantly checking the guest registry for the banquet, asked with a subtly nervous expression, “They wish to meet with the Tower Lord. How should I convey your response?”
“I asked them to notify me in advance if any guests specifically asked for you.”
Jenny whispered into Lennok’s ear.
“Since there are many foreign envoys in Vulcan because of the Ascendant, I thought some might want to attend the banquet. It doesn’t hurt to have more people, right?”
“Well. Considering what happened at the ruins, I don’t think many of them would be entirely friendly…”
“If they weren’t favorably disposed, they wouldn’t have sought us out. Would they cause a scene when there are so many watchful eyes?”
Jenny said, turning her gaze to the attendant.
“So, who came? Let me hear the list of those requesting a meeting first, then I’ll decide.”
“Understood. However, it’s…”
The attendant, hastily checking the guest registry, hesitated slightly in his reply,
And as he slowly called out the names, Jenny’s movements froze like ice.
“The Archmage of the Order Alliance, and the High Priestess of the Guido Cult have come. Which would you like to meet first?”