Approaching the entrance, Theodore could see with his own eyes the walls of the tower up close. They were pure white walls of unknown material, spotless, flawless, and seemingly inviolable. From the Demon Lord's memory, Theodore knew that the tower had been here long before the Demon Lord arrived in this world. Yet, despite its age, there were not a single crack on its surface or even the smallest patch of moss. Up close, the tower gave off an air of sanctity.
Upon arriving before the entrance, the doors slid easily open on their own, opening the way for Theodore and Annaliese to proceed.
"Did the doors just open themselves?" Theodore asked arbitrarily, thinking that it would be odd if he stayed silent at the sight of those automatic doors.
"That they did," Annaliese answered, already expecting Theodore's surprise beforehand. It's what happens to everyone that visits for the first time. "It's not even magic as far as we know. This tower, it is as if it's alive somehow."
"You sound like you don't know much about it. I thought it's called the *Mage* Tower?"
"That's what it wounded up being called, yes, but as far as I know, it wasn't called that in the beginning."
"Then what was it called?"
"I don't know. The original name had been lost to time. After the mages started settling around here to study it, people just started calling it the 'Mage Tower'."
"What about the city, Lancea?"
"That was also here before the mages arrived. Though, it was in ruins when the mages first came here. It's been rebuilt since, but there are still plenty of places hidden throughout that we do not know about. You best be careful if you run into such places, you might get lost and we might not be able to find you."
"So you're a bunch of squatters, huh."
Annaliese let out a small laugh at Theodore's blunt words. She had gotten to know him well enough to understand his sense of humor and was quite taken to it.
"I suppose, in a sense. Don't let anyone else hear you say that though. Mages tend to be prideful. They won't let it go so easily if you hurt said pride, even if it's only a jest."
The two talked as they walked, Annalises taking the lead as she pulled Theodore by hand. While the conversation had distracted him briefly, once his attention turned to his surroundings, however, Theodore was appalled.
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The outside of the tower had a flawless, dignified appearance, yet, Theodore found the inside to be repulsive. Spoiled were the clean, white halls of the tower by crude furniture and decorations, the shelves an affront to the perfect walls and the carpets, tables, and chairs a perversion of the spotless floor. The paintings too were a defilement to the scenery, the only saving grace was that they were floating in midair with some form of magic, likely due to how they could not nail a single hook into those impenetrable walls.
It wasn't that the furnishing was tasteless. Had they been placed in another building, they would have given it quite a refined look. However, against these flawless halls, they could not help but look lacking, a mismatch against the purity exuded by the building.
(What desecration...)
The thoughts swimming violently through Theodore's head were intrusive, the surfacing of something that should have been hidden in the depths of his mind. The Demon Lord had never set foot in this particular tower, but they had seen a similar scenery before. The place in their memory was pure white as well, sterile and inviolable. It was a quiet place, a peaceful place. It was a memory from one of the Demon Lord's many lives, but as for who it belonged to, Theodore wasn't sure. He wasn't sure who, where, or when it was from. Either he had no access to that particular memory yet, or it was simply a piece of recollection that had been lost at some point in time, dissipated into the flow of Aether.
Yet, even while not being able to remember, this place had a nostalgic feeling to it, or so it would have had it not been for the mismatched furnishing. It was a feeling not unlike being away from home for years only to find that some stranger had moved in and decorated the place with their bad taste. The bustling of mages moving about did not help alleviate the sensation.
Still, even while criticizing the decor, Theodore took in the layout of the tower's inside. The first thing one would encounter from the entrance was a vast hall with a ceiling so tall that it extended at least five floors up the tower. Looking up from the hall, one could even spot the railings on the upper floors from which various banners and tapestries were draped. Likewise, one would likely be able to see the ground floor from the five floors above.
In the entrance hall, there were many passageways, too many for someone visiting for the first time to remember, each one presumably leading to a different hall. Upon entering the tower, Annaliese took a left turn and led Theodore into one of said passageways.
Within the tower, there were no torches or lamps. Instead, lights came from the ceiling, lit by neither magic nor crystallized Aether of any kind. The light appeared to have come from the tower itself. According to Annaliese, so long as there is light in these halls, the tower was considered 'alive'.
After many twists and turns, some of which looped into one another, Annaliese led Theodore into one of the many rooms. it was a room with many desks lined up with a podium at the front. It appeared to be a lecture hall of some sort.
"Wait here," said Annaliese. "Someone will come to meet you shortly."
With that, she left. As if saying that her job had been completed, she simply strode out of the room, leaving Theodore behind, feeling a little lost now that his guide has left him.
***
End of Chapter 21
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