Chapter 890: The Eyes That See Fate (26)

“If she had a way to escape the Tower, she wouldn’t have used such a cumbersome method.”

A cold voice echoed from the hallway on the floor above.

“She’s still in the Tower. Let’s start by gathering only those who have spoken directly with the Lighthouse Keeper.”

“……”

District 49, Magic Tower of Adamant Thunder. The Item Business Division, located on the 8th floor.

Hiding under a cart piled with items, Lapis listened to Jenny’s voice.

It took less than three minutes to restore the Magic Tower’s internal facilities after the blackout and organize personnel for a search.

It was a swift and agile response, enough to dismiss the opening Lapis had spent days agonizing over as a mere momentary disturbance.

But knowing this would happen, Lapis had no choice but to begin her escape in front of Jenny.

The brief opening created by causing a blackout in the Tower’s facilities.

It was virtually impossible for Lapis to become free in that single moment.

For Lapis, who was always under surveillance, there was practically no way to shake off the dragnet.

That was why Lapis, conversely, had decided to choose her observer herself and create an opportunity.

Jenny, who managed the Tower, was not a person of high magical aptitude or talent, despite her competence.

If Lapis could escape while in a one-on-one situation with Jenny, she could temporarily free herself from the Tower’s surveillance.

‘I can’t move. If I move…’

Lapis, who possessed the ability of Chogyeon, reacted with extreme sensitivity to the gazes and senses of others.

She could perceive the moment the pursuers’ eyes fell on her and had managed to remain hidden by intensively concealing her presence.

But that, too, did not last long.

Clatter!!

Someone began to pull the cart Lapis was hiding in, abruptly moving it toward the inside of the branch office.

Entering the office would make it easier to evade the pursuers’ gazes, but getting out of the hallway would become a distant prospect.

But Lapis, knowing this, remained crouched inside the cart.

Step, step.

The person who had moved the cart into the office and closed the door was now walking back this way.

As if searching for a necessary item, a hand reached into the cart and began to rummage through it.

“……”

She closed her eyes and held her breath, waiting for an opportunity.

She hadn’t been discovered yet. If she could subdue the person using her ability before anyone else’s eyes were on her—

Thump.

The cover hiding her head was pushed aside, and just as Lapis was about to draw upon her mana.

“Lapis?”

A woman with an exotic appearance was staring at Lapis in surprise.

An unfamiliar face. But Lapis, instantly recognizing the voice, asked with a flustered expression.

“Evelyn…?”

“Why so surprised? Ah, is it because of this?”

Riiip!!

Casually touching her face, Evelyn removed the disguise mask and smiled sheepishly.

“I’m no match for that guy, but I have some skill in disguise myself. Pretty natural, right?”

“You surprised me…!”

As Lapis clutched her chest, Evelyn placed a hand on her hip, looking exasperated.

“You’re the one who started this without a word, Lapis. Do you have any idea how much I had to rush to match your timing?”

“…I couldn’t know the exact moment I’d be able to get Jenny alone.”

Lapis replied as she stood up from inside the cart.

“I figured I couldn’t do anything about it even if you couldn’t help me.”

“Hmm… honestly, I’m still not sure starting the plan in front of Jenny was the right choice.”

Evelyn said with a dubious expression.

“She’s an extremely sensitive person with sharp intuition. In the worst-case scenario, she could catch up to you even after you escape Vulcan.”

“I know.”

Lapis nodded.

“The power supply circuit for the Tower’s facilities that you told me about. She restored it less than a minute after it went down.”

“She probably knows more about managing the Tower’s internal facilities than the Tower Lord himself. She has a reputation for her work ethic.”

Evelyn said this as she immediately pulled out a long box.

“Alright, get in so I can pack you up.”

“…Frankly, I’m the one who’s not sure if this method is right.”

Lapis slowly sat down inside the box with a hesitant expression and looked up at Evelyn.

“Disguising me as cargo to transport me out of the Tower… are you really sure this plan will work?”

“In terms of getting you out of the Magic Tower, absolutely.”

Zzzzip!!

Evelyn began to apply packing tape to the box and spoke.

“Since they’ve sealed all the entrances to the Tower, they’ll be most wary of you trying to escape through a door or a passage.”

“That’s…”

“So we’ll exploit a loophole in their thinking and escape by breaking through the Magic Tower’s outer wall.”

“……”

“The place to aim for is the 13th-floor research wing, where the barrier’s strength is relatively weak. It’s an area where the barrier is intentionally loosened for spellcraft research.”

Evelyn said, pointing to the Magic Tower floor guide attached to the wall of the business office.

“However, to do that, we need to temporarily neutralize the Tower’s Domain, which is a really difficult task… It’ll be very hard even with your cooperation.”

“So clashing with that wizard’s Domain is a burden even for you, Evelyn.”

At Lapis’s surprised question, Evelyn nodded with a serious expression.

“Immensely.”

“……”

Evelyn Marcia was an archer who had transcended her rank to reach Level 8.

And yet, just neutralizing the Domain—not even confronting the archmage himself—was such a difficult task?

“Normally, it would be absolutely impossible for me alone. The fact that it’s possible is the result of many different situations… acting in concert.”

Evelyn’s face looked very strange, even as she said it herself.

Zzzzip!!

“Like I said, all I can do is get you out of the Tower. Getting to the fortress is entirely up to your will.”

After firmly securing the box with packing tape, Evelyn asked.

“If you understand, I’ll start right away. Are you ready?”

“Evelyn.”

Lapis answered quietly.

“I don’t have much time left.”

“……”

“Considering the circumstances and conditions, there’s only one chance to attempt the ritual… Sir Evan probably knows this as well.”

How long would the consciousness construct of the Heavenly Sight, existing on the boundary of the world, wait for Lapis?

In the first place, could the remnant thoughts of the Heavenly Sight truly take over the role of a lighthouse beyond the boundary forever?

If that were the case, the Heavenly Sight would not have needed to challenge ascension and could have simply volunteered to observe the Outer Sea for eternity.

That Lapis had found the remnant thoughts of the Heavenly Sight on the world’s boundary.

That the Heavenly Sight was waiting for Lapis from beyond the boundary.

What if it were all a coincidental miracle, fleeting as an instant?

Wasn’t it because both Lennok and Lapis understood this fact that they had come to Vulcan in such a hurry?

“From now on, we can only move forward assuming we will meet in time. And I…”

Lapis nodded and took a step.

“If Sir Evan hasn’t given up, I believe I will surely reach it.”

“Alright, I understand.”

Evelyn, having finished taping up the box, put her disguise mask back on and left the room.

“Let’s go.”

Click!!

Evelyn began to walk, pulling the cart containing the box in which Lapis was packed.

Her pace was neither too fast nor too slow, blending naturally into the crowd.

It was a perfect assimilation, so flawless that even Lapis, who was sensing the gazes around them, couldn’t help but be impressed.

“Hold on, where are you going? Can I check what’s inside?”

But even so, there were mercenaries who noticed Evelyn and approached her.

However, Evelyn didn’t panic and handed the routing slip she was holding to them.

“Delivery for the Materials Department. We’re scheduled to deliver documents with a security designation to the 13th-floor research lab. If you need to verify, please sign here as the person responsible.”

“Sign? What kind of documents require a signature from the person who checked them?”

One of the mercenaries scowled as he checked the name written on the routing slip.

“Hey, this is…”

“What is it?”

Mercenaries who belonged to the office but weren’t well-acquainted with Lennok looked at the slip with dubious expressions.

“It says it’s a letter sent directly from Professor Vylun to the Tower Lord.”

“Are we really allowed to open this here?”

At that moment, a woman with indigo hair tied up appeared.

Mila, who had been patrolling the hallway while chewing gum, looked over, her eyes glinting.

“Greg, what’s going on?”

“Mila, it says we need a signature to check the contents…”

“Give it here.”

Mila’s face scrunched up as she snatched the routing slip and scribbled her name on it.

Tossing the slip back into Evelyn’s arms, Mila jerked her head toward the sealed box.

“There. Open it.”

“…It’s probably a letter for Van. Is it really okay for us to open it?”

“Catching that blue-haired brat again is the priority.”

Mila retorted nonchalantly.

“We just don’t have to read what’s inside.”

“……”

“He’d hate it more if we let her slip by because we were being careless. If he gets mad later, I’ll just bow my head and take the heat. Open it.”

As Evelyn reluctantly tore off the tape, Mila flung the box open.

At the sight of the piled-up papers, a cold sweat trickled down Mila’s forehead.

“Shit. It was real?”

“Fuck, close it, quick!!”

“No, we still have to check inside!”

Mila rummaged through the box, confirmed there was nothing unusual, and stood up with a hesitant expression.

“Nothing…?”

“……”

Mila, who had been silently watching Evelyn’s reaction, cleared her throat and subtly stepped back.

“Uh, my apologies. Please continue with your work.”

“As you wish.”

“Could you perhaps keep this incident a secret from Van…”

“Excuse me.”

Ignoring Mila’s quiet attempt at persuasion, Evelyn began to push the cart around the floor.

She made one full circle around the circular hallway, and the moment she passed the room she had first emerged from.

Evelyn naturally switched it with a second box that had been placed behind the door and loaded it onto the cart.

Fwoosh!!

Lapis, who had been hiding in the box behind the door from the start, sent an admiring mental message.

[A professional thinks on another level. The more haste, the less speed, perhaps?]

“I’m not a professional. It was my job to catch bastards who pull these kinds of tricks.”

Evelyn grumbled in a small voice.

“I just learned the know-how from dealing with them so much.”

[For someone who says that, you seem to have done this more than once or twice…]

“We have to do it a few more times, so be ready. The number of times isn’t fixed; I have to adjust based on how watchful everyone is.”

[Details you can only learn from real-world experience, I see.]

Evelyn ignored Lapis’s words and began to ascend the floors quickly using a similar method.

There were a few more inspections after that, but Evelyn hid Lapis with astonishing perceptiveness.

As a natural-born archer, her ability to sense danger was likely superior to any other type of superhuman.

“Phew… I can’t make a mistake, so even I’m getting a little nervous.”

If she failed the switch even once, she would expose the hiding Lapis right in front of the mercenaries.

‘This way.’

Clatter!!

And so they arrived at the 13th floor of the Magic Tower. A hallway lined with research labs, and in front of the hallway door, a mountain of cardboard boxes.

Facing the sealed 13th-floor exit of the Tower, Evelyn took a light breath.

“Alright, then…”

“Oh, right. Stop that person for a moment.”

At the voice that came from behind her, Evelyn’s expression hardened slightly.

It was Jenny, holding a phone to her ear, pointing directly at Evelyn as she talked.

At Jenny’s gesture, Manson and Belver, who were standing beside her, immediately moved to either side of Evelyn.

“Yes, I’ll ask you to handle the insurance for the District 47 business division that Sebastian warned about.”

Click.

“You’re not one of ours, are you?”

Jenny, having ended her call in an instant, asked while looking at Evelyn’s back.

“I narrowed down the candidates to only those who passed the security checks, and you were the one following the manual most perfectly.”

“……”

“But that wasn’t enough. From the start, I was watching the people who made no mistakes at all.”

Seeing the silent Evelyn, Jenny gave a cold smile.

“I figured if the Lighthouse Keeper attempted to escape right in front of me, it must be because she had an incredibly skilled accomplice.”

In that moment, Lapis understood why Evelyn had judged Jenny to be an intuitive and sensitive person.

It was a conclusion far from rational deduction, one that couldn’t be reached without absolute faith in one’s own intuition and judgment.

But Jenny had spectacularly proven her judgment correct, right in front of Evelyn Marcia herself.

“An exceptionally skilled thief or assassin, I presume? There were no distinguishing features in your presence or your walk. In fact, it was so normal it was frightening.”

“……”

“If you were alone, you would have had the skill to feign a mistake to evade my eyes. The reason you couldn’t was that you had to ensure Lapis’s safe escape, right?”

Jenny said, slowly putting distance between herself and Evelyn.

A thorough response that completely blocked off even any potential variables.

“If you feigned a mistake to avoid suspicion, it would have been over the moment you were caught.”

“…Heh heh.”

At that moment, Evelyn let out a bitter laugh, as if she couldn’t hold it in any longer.

With a hand on her hip, she looked back at the slowly approaching Manson and Belver and shook her head.

“So this is what it feels like.”

“…What?”

Crrrack!!

In that instant, the pile of hundreds of boxes stacked behind Evelyn began to swell.

A change in atmospheric pressure that began without any precursor.

No one realized it was an expansion artificially created by suppressing the atmospheric pressure with will-thought, but everyone realized what was about to happen.

“Manson, get her!!”

Jenny shouted quickly, pulling a self-defense artifact from her pocket.

“She’s trying to obscure our vision. She’s about to do something!!”

The moment Manson and Weian, hearing her words, led the other mercenaries to charge toward the pile of boxes.

BOOOOOM!!!

“……!!”

The boxes exploded, their contents flying in all directions, completely obscuring the view around the 13th-floor hallway.

“Lapis.”

Fwoosh!!

An agile, stealthy movement so fast that even Lapis’s eyes had difficulty perceiving its exact speed.

In an instant, Evelyn had wrapped an arm around Lapis’s waist and stood before the outer wall at the edge of the hallway, whispering.

“Jump.”

KWHAAAAAANG!!!

The Magic Tower’s outer wall shattered into pieces, and Lapis’s body was thrown out into the air, dozens of meters above the ground.