Chapter 212: A Bit (2)

Louis was dragged to a nearby inn and tavern by the Twins. He gulped down large swigs of beer.

Crash!

The beer mug slammed onto the table. Neither the table nor the mug was broken, suggesting Louis still retained some rationality. Yet, despite this, Louis let out a snorting sound from his lips.

As if his stomach was burning, Louis drank more beer in large gulps.

At that moment, Kendrick sitting next to him opened his mouth.

“Is the teacher really the Lord of the Tower? But why can’t anyone recognize…”

Crack!

Before Louis could react, a fist flew from the side and struck Kendrick’s ribs, sending him tumbling to the ground.

The fist belonged to Tania.

Lavina raised her thumb at Tania.

Meanwhile, Louis had downed two cold beers instead of water, barely managing to calm his nerves.

This is going to be a pain.

Judging by the guards’ reactions, it seemed news of the proof token and the rusty sword had spread throughout the neighborhood.

The sword’s existence was one thing, but only Dexter had known about the proof token…

And now even that was common knowledge?

As Louis pondered the cause, the answer came quickly.

Which bastard spilled the beans?!

His eyes instantly turned fierce.

If it was old Dexter, he would’ve told only his four disciples… So one of them must be the one spreading it.

He roughly guessed who the culprit might be.

Either Douglas or Erica.

The stupid Douglas couldn’t tell what should be said and what shouldn’t.

The drunken Erica became excessively honest whenever she drank.

These brats!

Louis’s shoulders trembled with rising anger as he tried to soothe himself with beer.

When the heat finally subsided, what washed over him was a profound sense of futility.

“Sigh…”

Now that he’d regained his rationality, he could understand the situation to some extent.

”…Right. Who could I possibly blame?”

He realized it all stemmed from his own karma.

His mistake of leaving the Tower Lord position vacant for a staggering 250 years.

Had he periodically checked in at the Tower of Wishes, none of this would have happened.

Today’s events were the direct result of his failure to do so.

Yet even Louis had his excuses.

What should I do if Father won’t let me out?!

After the forced runaway incident, Louis had been confined to his room under Genelocer’s overprotective watch, living a life akin to imprisonment. Perhaps it was inevitable that things would reach this point.

“Ugh…” Louis sighed heavily.

Kani observed him and asked, “What now? The proof token and that rusty sword aren’t convincing anyone.”

As Kani said, all evidence meant to prove his status as the Lord of the Tower had failed completely.

Even if they presented undeniable proof, those wearing colored glasses would never believe it. That left only one remaining option.

“What else can we do? We need to find someone who can verify his claim.”

No one would accept his claim of being the Lord of the Tower simply by his word alone.

Instead, he needed someone to prove it.

Someone with more authority than anyone else.

Khan nodded and asked, “Those four?”

“Yeah.”

“But I didn’t see them in the Labyrinth earlier?”

“They might be somewhere else, not in the Labyrinth.”

“What if they’re dead?”

To begin with, werewolves didn’t live as long as other races. The chances of them still being alive were slim. Douglas, who had been around 200 years old at the time, had a fifty-fifty chance of being alive or dead. But it was different for Harpies and Floria, who could live nearly a thousand years.

“Victor and Douglas might be dead, but Erica and Floria are probably still alive. As long as they haven’t had any major accidents.”

If they were still alive, he would prove his status as the Lord of the Tower.

That’s why he had to find them.

Louis closed his eyes right there.

His perception spread out widely.

Seeing this, Lavina asked Kani:

“Louis, what are you doing right now?”

“Using mana to find people. You know that each person has a different energy, right? He’s gathering that energy to locate the ones he wants.”

“Huh?”

Though she repeated the question, she fully understood what Kani meant.

After all, she could do what Louis was doing herself.

The only difference was the scope.

“So… you’re finding people using the range of your mana perception?”

When mystics or warriors reach a certain level of cultivation, they form a sensory domain around their body’s center during combat. This allows them to detect and deflect arrows approaching from behind, as if they had eyes on the back of their heads. The size of this domain varies with each individual’s cultivation level.

Currently, Lavina could barely maintain a sensory domain with a radius of 5 meters.

Find people with that?

Is that even possible?

At that moment, a gasp came from beside her.

“Goodness… Is that possible? I can only manage 15 meters…”

”…”

Lavina stared at Tania with incredulous eyes.

Isn’t that incredible?

Of course, that was from Lavina’s perspective.

Kani patted Tania’s shoulder.

“That’ll improve with practice.”

“How about you and your brother?”

“Us? Khan and I probably cover around 500 meters.”

“Wa…”

Lavina was stunned.

Five hundred?!

Though they said “five hundred,” it meant Khan and Kani’s absolute sensory range extended 500 meters from their center. If they focused their minds and concentrated, they’d detect any assassin approaching from 500 meters away.

Lavina’s startled gaze landed on Louis, who stood with his eyes closed.

If these two are this powerful… how far does that monster reach?

As if reading her mind, Khan smirked.

“Louis? If it’s his territory, he could probably swallow up this entire city, right?”

”…?!”

Lavina’s jaw dropped.

While they were engaged in this conversation, Louis had been spreading his perception as thin as possible, reaching out as far as he could.

At first, he started from the inn where they were staying, rapidly expanding his perception. In this way, Louis’s perception kept growing until it finally enveloped all of Syron.

After being closed for quite some time, Louis opened his eyes with a frown.

Seeing this, Kani asked, “What’s wrong? Not working?”

“Damn, there are too many.”

While Louis had successfully stretched his perception to cover all of Syron, the problem was there were simply too many people in this large city. Finding the energy of his four disciples from 250 years ago among them was proving to be no easy task.

The energy he sensed was faint to begin with, given the vast range and his own weak perception.

I’ll have to narrow my search area and investigate methodically.

With this resolve, Louis rose from his seat.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to track down those guys. It’ll take an hour or two. Oh, and there’s something you need to do.”

“Us? What is it?”

“Just in case you don’t know, take the kids around and ask around about those guys.”

“Right!”

“Got it! Leave it to us!”

The twins eagerly accepted their mission. As Louis prepared to leave after assigning the task…

Thwack!

“Ugh!”

He delivered a sharp rap to the back of Kendrick’s head, who remained slumped over the table. Then he strode out the door.

Tania’s punishment was one thing, but Louis had his own reckoning to settle.

Louis exited the inn, activated his spatial distortion field, and soared above Syron.

What followed was a simple repetition of labor.

He expanded his sensory range and scanned.

Expanded and scanned.

He swiftly circled Syron, searching for familiar energy signatures.

When he reached western Earth:

“Hm?”

He snorted at the familiar energy.

Shiba.

Having detected Shiba’s energy from earlier, Louis pushed it aside and resumed his repetitive search.

An hour later:

”…They’re not here?”

He’d thoroughly scoured every corner of Syron, but found no trace of the four disciples of the Tower of Wishes.

Am I failing to locate them?

Even a dragon’s exceptional memory can make mistakes. After his initial search, Louis conducted another thorough exploration of Syron. He concluded that there were no disciples of the Tower of Wishes currently present in the area.

Floating high above the clouds, Louis tossed and turned in the empty sky, deep in thought.

Where… could they have gone?

Those four disciples were the only ones who could prove his claim as the Lord of the Tower. But the problem was, he had no idea where to find them.

Even if I force my way into the tower and bluff my way in, they’d never accept me as the Lord of the Tower.

They might even mistake me for a great imposter and attack me.

“At this point, all means of proving I am the Lord of the Tower are blocked…”

Louis pondered what else could prove his identity as the Lord of the Tower, aside from the proof token and the rusted sword. He racked his brain but couldn’t come up with anything.

The Transcendent he’d created?

His knowledge of the Transcendent?

While these were undoubtedly exceptional, they wouldn’t be enough to convince others of his status as the Lord of the Tower.

”…Should I search the Labyrinth?”

He didn’t know for sure.

Perhaps Dexter or the four disciples had left something behind for him.

But that seemed too uncertain.

After much deliberation, Louis shook his head.

Finding those four is still the fastest way.

For now, it would be best to ask around Syron about the whereabouts of the four Grand Masters.

Louis decided to return and meet with the twins and children. Just then, a communication came through from the twins.

Louis, Louis!

“It’s me. What happened?”

Yeah! We figured it out. It seems the people in this city don’t know much either. Among those four, Floria was the last one seen, and that was already 22 years ago.

“Really?”

Yes, that’s what’s publicly known.

“You’ve worked hard.”

Then we’ll stay at the inn near that bar we mentioned earlier.

“Okay.”

After ending the communication, Louis descended back to the ground. He sat on a bench near the fountain, beginning to ponder.

What’s publicly known.

That meant there might be something to discover within the Labyrinth itself.

That’s certainly true.

The Grand Masters, spiritual pillars of the Labyrinth, had been absent for so long. They must have put at least one safety measure in place to prepare for unforeseen circumstances.

Whether it was a direct emergency communication line to them,

or clues about their whereabouts.

That means I need to talk to someone connected to the Labyrinth.

They’d have to be someone with at least some familiarity with those guys.

If not that, they’d have to be high-ranking officials within the Labyrinth.

“Where would I find such a person…?”

As Louis scratched his cheek in frustration,