Chapter 1

1. A Curse and the Azure Tower In the wilderness stood a tower of the faintest azure blue. The surrounding land was sparse, adorned with only a few patches of grass. In the midst of that wasteland, a young man on horseback looked up at the lofty spire. “So this is the tower where a witch lives.” There was not one shred of excitement in his tone as he gazed at the colossal structure. The young man had hair so dark it was nearly black, and he had deep-blue eyes—the same color as the sky after sunset. The quality of his clothing and his graceful appearance spoke to an innate elegance. That was not to suggest he was frail, as his muscled body also exuded an aura of constant readiness. One who looked upon him would liken him to a commander on the front lines of a battlefield, despite his young age. He was about to dismount and stride up to the tower when a voice whined from behind him, giving him pause. “Your Highness, we really shouldn’t…” “Shut up, Lazar. What would I be if I faltered here?” Shaking his head in exasperation, he turned back around. The young man who had just been called Your Highness was Oscar, the crown prince of the kingdom of Farsas, the lands that extended east of the tower. Oscar’s retort to the attendant, a childhood friend he had brought with him as his only companion, brimmed with confidence. “After all, we managed to break out of the castle. Wouldn’t it be pointless if we went back now? It’s just some light sightseeing.” “No one goes to a witch’s house for sightseeing!” Lazar protested. A witch. There were only five throughout the entire mainland. Perhaps owing to their tremendous power, they were treated as separate from everyone else. The Witch of the Forbidden Forest. The Witch of the Water. The Witch Who Cannot Be Summoned. The Witch of Silence. The Witch of the Azure Moon. These were the common names of the five. The witches appeared only when they themselves desired it, using their almighty magic to summon disasters and then promptly vanish. Over the last several hundred years, they had come to symbolize fear and calamity. Of this quintet, the one who possessed the most powerful magic was the Witch of the Azure Moon. She had erected a suitably azure tower in the wilds beyond any country’s borders and lived at the very top of it. It was said that she would grant the wish of any who could climb to the pinnacle of her great spire, but as word spread that such challengers never return from the tower, fewer and fewer people dared to even approach it. Oscar and Lazar had come to this dangerous tower with a specific purpose in mind. “I told you, it’s just as dangerous as I thought. What will you do if the witch magnifies your curse?” asked Lazar. “I’ll deal with that if it comes. I don’t have any other clues, do I?” “There are still other ways… I’m sure if we look, we’ll find something…” Oscar listened to Lazar’s pleading as he dismounted his horse. He took up the longsword in his saddle and returned it to the sword belt at his waist. “You mentioned other ways, but none have been found in fifteen years. First, I’ll meet this Witch of the Azure Moon and ask her how to break the curse. If this is a dead end, I’ll go back to the Witch of Silence who cursed me in the first place and get her to undo it. Flawless, right?” “It’s not flawless at all,” Lazar whimpered, sounding close to tears as he finally dismounted from his own steed. His skinny, gangly physique was wholly unsuited for battle. He wasn’t carrying any weapons, but that was because the two had left in such a hurry. Lazar jogged after his lord, much like he must have done when they’d escaped the castle. “Your Highness, I understand your feelings… But the reason no one’s contacted the witches in fifteen years is because it’s too dangerous! Any search for the Witch of Silence has been fruitless, and no one who’s climbed the tower of the Witch of the Azure Moon has ever returned!” “True. It does look a bit tall for taking the stairs,” Oscar said. The tower’s walls were made of a blue-tinted, crystalline material that made the structure appear to blend into the sky. Oscar craned his neck to look all the way up toward the hazy, indistinct rooftop. “Well, I’m sure I’ll figure something out,” he said. “No, you won’t! It’s supposed to be full of traps! If something was to happen to you, how could I possibly return to the castle? What would I say?” “Just act like you’re really, really sad.” Oscar shrugged and ambled off. “Wait. I’m coming, too!” Lazar watched Oscar go and rushed to hitch both their horses to a tree before hurrying after him. It had all begun fifteen years ago. One night, a witch’s proclamation suddenly echoed throughout the castle. “Never again shall you have children. Neither shall that son of yours. The blood of your family will tear a hole in a woman’s stomach. The Farsas royal family dies with you!” Oscar didn’t quite remember the exact words the witch had said as she cursed them. What he did remember was the shadowy silhouette of the witch with the moon at her back. And how his father’s arms had trembled as he held Oscar. At only the age of five, Oscar hadn’t understood how serious such a pronouncement was. He had simply recognized that something bad must have happened because of how the color had drained from his father’s face. Oscar was the king’s only child. This curse that threatened the lineage of the royal family was a well-guarded secret. Few knew of it, most of those being exceptional mages and scholars who’d been searching for years to find a way to break it. In contrast to such a dark thing to bear, Oscar himself had been a bright, brave boy who’d mastered both swordsmanship and scholarship. Because of his brilliance and good looks, many had high expectations for his future, though they knew nothing of the curse. They would murmur “In time, he’ll be a king remembered throughout history.” If the curse wasn’t lifted, however, all he’d leave behind would be an ill-fated name. At the age of ten, Oscar came to understand what the curse meant and began searching for a way to break it. Unfortunately, no matter how many books he’d consulted or leads he’d chased down after practicing his swordplay, Oscar hadn’t found even a shred of a clue to show for it. Fifteen years had passed since that night. This man who would become king someday had traveled westward, beyond the borders of his country, and now stood at the foot of the azure tower where a witch lived. “Well, let’s go,” Oscar said. “You can’t just open the door so callously! Be more cautious!” With Lazar shrieking in his ear, Oscar pushed open the double doors and stepped inside. He looked around and found himself in a round, spacious hall. The center was an open atrium, and a passage on the right-hand side led up. It was not a staircase but a gently sloping path that hugged the wall and extended upward in a corkscrew shape. Oscar craned his neck; the whole tower appeared deserted. “Looks just like the records said, I guess. At least the entrance does.” “Does this satisfy your curiosity?” Lazar asked shrilly. “Let’s keep going. C’mon, up we go.” According to the records left in the castle, the tower was fraught with several checkpoints. The witch would grant the wishes of those who made it past these challenges and reached the highest floor. Oscar’s goal was to do just that. Checking to make sure his beloved sword was still at his waist, Oscar set off with Lazar in tow. There was no handrail along the passage, and Oscar could see that it led up to a round landing. Some sort of huge stone slab had been placed there, and Oscar headed for it as he climbed up the path. Lazar was trailing behind timidly. “It’s dangerous, so you wait there. I’ll be back by sundown,” Oscar called. “N-no… I couldn’t do that…,” answered Lazar. For quite some time, Lazar had been following after Oscar, starting with when Oscar had first escaped from the palace, and Lazar had ended up in some nasty situations because of it. Each time, he’d rained complaints down on Oscar’s head, but it still didn’t look like he planned on abandoning his reckless lord. Oscar regarded Lazar and smiled faintly before turning to continue upward. As the two approached the landing, they saw it was about the size of a small room. A list of numbers was carved into the stone slab in the middle. Oscar started to think of solutions as he strode up to it, and Lazar piped up in a quivering voice, “Your Highness…th-that’s—” “I’m thinking now. There’s most likely some sort of commonality,” Oscar said, cutting him off. “Not that! The snakes! There are so many of them!” “I see them.” The floor of the landing was overflowing with writhing snakes. There was no wall separating the landing from downstairs; what kept the snakes from escaping the landing was likely some kind of magical barrier. Oscar remained undaunted. He crouched down and grabbed the head of one of the snakes that was sticking out into the passage. “They’re not venomous, so it’s fine. They’re just here to get in our way.” He tossed it over his shoulder, earning a scream from Lazar. Oscar paid it no mind and stepped into the midst of the serpents. When he approached the stone slab, he put his hand on his chin and pondered. The rock had been placed to obstruct the passage upward, so Oscar couldn’t proceed. He mulled this over, ignoring the snakes winding around his feet, while Lazar let out little shrieks as he gingerly picked his way to his lord. This was most likely the first checkpoint. Oscar nodded, his eyes on the stone slab. “I got it. This is a mathematical theory studied about a hundred years ago in a small country to the east. It was famous among mathematicians for being an unsolvable problem.” “Unsolvable?!” “At the time, yeah, but someone figured it out around ten years ago. The witch in this tower really knows her stuff.” Oscar reached out and touched the slab. The spot where his fingers connected lit up with a faint white light. Following that trajectory, he input the answer, and then… The gigantic stone slab crumbled into sand. At the same time, the snakes writhing at Oscar’s feet vanished as though they’d been entirely illusory. Astonished, Oscar gaped around the landing, which was now distinguished only by a mountain of sand. “I see. So that’s how things work.” “…Shouldn’t we go home?” Lazar pleaded. “No way. It just got interesting.” Lazar chased after his spirited lord as he continued the climb up the path. The top of the tower was still so very far away. The wind that blew through the windows on the topmost floor was always somewhat dry. A voice called out in a large, disorderly room with books piled all over the floor. “We have the first challenger in a long time, Master.” The person speaking from the doorway was a small child of about five or six years old, judging by appearance. This youth had pretty features but a blank expression, making it difficult to discern their gender. Their emotionless voice gave the odd child a doll-like quality. The witch’s child-shaped familiar looked at the table—no one was there. Atop the table sat a lone, steaming cup of tea. It had been there for over an hour but showed no sign of cooling. The one person who should have been there was missing from this tableau. However, the attendant received a reply right away. “A challenger? How rare. I thought everyone had forgotten all about this tower.” “There was one a month ago, too. They couldn’t solve the first stone-slab puzzle and ran out of time,” answered the child. The traps in the tower were changed regularly, but ever since the first checkpoint had been set with its current challenge, not a single contender had managed to get past. Perhaps they hadn’t thought they’d have to solve an impossible math problem right off the bat in a tower said to have the most difficult obstacles in the entire land. There also weren’t many contenders to begin with, so it was no wonder the owner of the tower had misremembered. The familiar reached with their mind to sense the challengers very far below them. “It seems like the ones this time around are making steady progress upward. Would you like to go take a look?” “No. The real fun starts on this level, if they can actually reach it.” “Indeed.” Witches were beings better off lurking in the shadows of history. While this one’s exact whereabouts were known, very few humans could actually make it past the tower’s perilous checkpoints. The witch had no desire to reveal herself, content to wait for others to reach her. She sang out in a clear tone, “Go, Litola. When our guests fail, be sure to take care of things.” “Yes, Master.” A dry breeze wafted in. The familiar she had called Litola disappeared, and the witch, floating upside down on the ceiling, cocked her head. She muttered to herself, holding an open book to her chest. “Even if these two are advancing at the moment, no one makes it past the first guardian beast.” A double-edged sword pierced the lion’s throat. Oscar had expected a splatter of blood, but none came. The white lion, frozen in a leaping attack, tumbled to the floor like an automaton. Without sheathing his sword, Oscar took a closer look at the beast’s huge body. It was even bigger than a horse. “I thought this thing’s fur was super-white, but it turns out it wasn’t even real. I guess it’s some sort of guardian beast animated by magic?” “A lion this huge is terrifying, but the fact that Your Highness isn’t scared of it at all is even more terrifying…” “I’m just warming up. Wonder what’ll come at us next…” Exiting the hall where the lion had been, Oscar and Lazar were met by the tower’s passageway again. Oscar looked down the open atrium in the middle of the tower. The distant sight of the ground floor was enough to make anyone feel light-headed, but Oscar peered at it fearlessly. “That’s a mortal fall,” he remarked. “Please don’t get so close to the edge!” Lazar pleaded. “You should’ve just waited for me at the bottom…” When Oscar looked back, he saw Lazar edging nervously along the wall. With that attitude, he might never reach the top floor. Nevertheless, Lazar’s face was desperate and determined as he cried, “I won’t let you die alone here, Your Highness!” “I don’t plan on dying.” Oscar lightly brandished his sword. Along the ascent, he’d encountered countless traps and monsters in the guise of guardian beasts, but he’d cut them all down easily. They were about to reach the midpoint of the tower. At first, his biggest worry had been the tower’s height, but as a device had activated that brought them automatically to the next level after disarming a trap, that was no longer a concern. The traps, on the other hand, were clearly testing Oscar’s physical strength, power output, judgment, and intellect. All of these were equally necessary to get past them. “I guess normally you’d attempt this with a team of people,” mused Oscar. “No one’s been fool enough to try to climb with only two…” “The last one who made it all the way was my great-granddad, right?” “I heard he went up with a party of ten. Although, His Majesty the former king was the only one to reach the top.” “I see…” Oscar pondered that, putting the hand not currently holding a sword to his chin. About seventy years ago, Regius, his great-grandfather and the king of Farsas at that time, had reached the top of this tower and received the witch’s assistance. However, that had apparently incurred some form of debt. Nowadays, it was a story told only to children as a fairy tale. “It’s been a walk in the park until now,” Oscar commented. “We should go home!” Lazar whined again. “You can go home. You’re useless anyway,” Oscar quipped flatly as Lazar burst into anguished tears. As they spoke, the next door appeared in front of them. From about the fifth floor up, checkpoints had occurred not on the landings connected to the passageway but in separate chambers. Oscar opened the door without hesitation and saw, in the middle of the room, a pair of winged stone statues twice the size of a human. The sight would’ve made any child cry, but Oscar seemed content to offer his casual thoughts. “Those really look like they’d move if you get close to them.” “Without a doubt! They will move! Let’s leave!” “You should seriously wait outside…” Oscar took a deep breath and readied his sword. As he did, the stony skin of the statues morphed into a bewitching black color. Their empty eye sockets glowed red. Spreading their enormous wings without so much as a sound, they flew up into the air. Oscar signaled with his left hand, and Lazar rushed to plaster himself against the wall. Immediately after that, one statue flew toward Oscar. The black monster swooped in fast, like a bird of prey diving after a kill. Just before its sharp talons could rip his body apart, Oscar leaped nimbly to the left. As if it had been waiting for that, the second statue chose that moment to swoop toward him. “Oops.” Fending off its talons with his sword, Oscar slipped out from between the attackers and came around from behind. Effortlessly, but with phenomenal strength, he sliced off one wing from the first statue. The wounded thing let out an earsplitting shriek. Oscar lifted his sword again toward the monster curled up on the ground. It had all happened in a flash. “Master, the challengers have reached the stone-statue room.” Hearing her familiar’s update, the witch smiled a little as she boiled water. “That’s amazing. How many?” “Two… No, in reality, one.” This fact should have been surprising, but the witch only lifted an eyebrow. For decades now, none had made it this far, no matter the size of their party. It should have been impossible for one person to handle the stone-statue room. A challenger couldn’t properly fend off two quick-witted and agile enemies who could fly without someone to distract one, allowing the first to fight the other. That room had seen more challengers drop out than any other. “I thought I’d make some tea, but it looks like it’s pointless now. Since our guest has made it so far, I suppose I should take out the fighting-spirit prize?” “It looks like he’ll clear that rather easily.” “…What?” Dreadful shrieks echoed around the wide room. One monster with a sword stuck in its right eye was letting out a piercing cry. Its companion was already lying on the floor, its giant, motionless body slowly disintegrating into black specks that vanished into the air. The remaining enemy was lashing out with its left arm as black ooze dripped from its right eye. Strengthened by the statue monster’s rage, such a strike threatened instant death if it found purchase. However, the attack grasped nothing but empty air. Oscar dodged the deadly swipe with his formidable reflexes and slashed down to cut the monster’s neck. Its head hit the floor with a dull sound. The huge, headless statue swayed left and right and finally tumbled to the ground. “So that’s all there was to it? Pretty annoying.” Oscar flicked his sword to shake off the blood. He glanced back and saw Lazar giving him a relieved look. “I’m just glad you’re not hurt…,” he said. “I would’ve been worse than hurt if I’d taken a hit from them,” Oscar joked as he looked ahead. As the fallen statues disappeared, a spot in the back of the room began glowing faintly. The mechanism that would transport them to the next floor had begun to operate. “Let’s go.” Oscar set off for the device. That was when the whole room began to shake violently. “What’s going on?!” Oscar shouted. He looked around to see that holes had opened up all over the floor. The room caving in appeared to be part of a trap. The rest of the floor began slowly collapsing inward, too. “Hurry, Lazar!” Oscar looked over his shoulder, then gasped in shock. There was a gigantic hole between him and Lazar, who was still against the wall. Lazar was stranded. Oscar knew he could make the jump, but it was impossible for Lazar to leap that great a distance. Making a decision, Oscar turned on his heel to run toward Lazar. “Wait for me!” More and more of the room collapsed, revealing the distant ground level. The path to the transportation mechanism had largely fallen away; little more than bits resembling stepping-stones remained. Lazar raised his hands in front of him, urging his lord away. “Your Highness, please go on without me.” “Are you insane?! You’re going to fall!” “No, I’ll be fine. I’m very sorry, but I’m heading back first,” said Lazar. His face was pale, but he maintained a smile as he gave a deep bow. “Please go on ahead… With all my heart, I will be looking forward to the day you become king,” said the attendant who had been a constant at Oscar’s side for as long as either could remember. Lazar did not lift his head. His voice was quivering slightly but also held a note of tempered determination. “Wait, Lazar!” Oscar sounded panicked. He stretched out a hand in vain. The next moment, with an intense roaring sound, the ground beneath Lazar gave way. There were five floors left. All of these featured abstruse puzzles or powerful monsters, but Oscar cut his way through each dispassionately. It was as if he’d climbed the tower alone from the start. Even with Lazar gone, Oscar had no trouble with battle. However, an indescribable sense of despondency plagued his whole body. Oscar imagined that when his great-grandfather had climbed this tower seventy years ago with a party of ten friends and had been the only one to make it to the top, he must have felt the same. As the thought swirled about in his mind, Oscar at last reached the door to the top floor. The thing that first caught his eye when he opened the door was the incredible landscape visible through the chamber’s enormous window. It was the top floor of the tower, after all, so the view commanded the far edges of the wilderness. The sun was just setting, and Oscar was speechless in the face of the grand, natural vista dyed in reds and purples. He had never gazed out at the land from up so high before. A gentle breeze blew in, ruffling his hair. The room itself was large and messy. Along the walls, a variety of mysterious objects had been stacked haphazardly—from swords and boxes to jars and statues. Oscar could see a great many magical items mixed in as well. Aside from the jumble of paraphernalia against the walls, everything else resembled any ordinary person’s room. “Welcome.” A delicate, flutelike voice caught Oscar’s ear. It sounded like it was coming from the blind spot farther into the chamber.