Adopting Disaster - Chapter 4: 13 Tower Lords

Chapter 4: 13 Tower Lords

“I am here, Tower Lord.”

After he had decided on his path, he heard Phoebe’s voice from outside the door.

But rather than her usual self it was a quivering voice.

When he looked up, he saw that Phoebe’s hair had just dried out.

“I came here after washing the young lady as ordered.”

She comes in with a girl while having a cheerful expression on her face.

The girl who seemed impressive even in her shabby appearance was now starting to glow. As if a freshly woven Silk, her slender arms, shiny white hair and moist ruby eyes and even beaming white dress. I thought that she was a doll for a second.

“Where did you get the clothes?”

‘There are so many dolls, hehe…….One of them was just the right size.”

“Hmn……..”

The feeling of the doll wasn’t out of reason.

“Good job. She will be staying in the tower from now on so please go and get more clothes for her.”

“Yes, Sir! Just leave it to me.!”

“Now go out.”

Phoebe smiled on being praised. She retreated cautiously, leaving Reed and the girl alone in the room.

“Uh, Ummm…….”

“……”

“By the way, I don’t know your name.”

“……”

“Do you know what your name is?”

“…….”

She cautiously looked up at Reed and then lowered her again and wiggled her fingers.

First of all, he claimed that he knew who she was, codename Cosmo, the name he was familiar with but that was the name of the true final boss, the Mad Woman. No it wasn’t even a name. A codename is literally just a codename.

It’s nothing other than a simple set of letters devoid of any affection. So what should her name be?

‘Actually, I had thought about it beforehand.’

Thinking about the last boss of <Seven Disasters>, there were a lot of times when he wondered what would he name her if he raised the codename Cosmo.

And now she can finally be called by that name.

“Your name will be Rosaria from now on.”

With his declaration, her eyes widened. A message appeared in front of Reed and he liked it.

[The name has been changed. Unknown > Rosaria Adelheight Roton]

[The job has been changed. Orphan > Adopted Daughter of Master of Silence.]

With the messages, the changes were made and her job also changed. With this she has completely become Reed’s daughter.

‘By the way……Would a kid who doesn’t even know her name understand this?’

She hasn’t spoken anything so he doesn’t know.

As she was thinking about it, Rosaria shifted her gaze to some other place in his office.

“Rosaria.”

“………”

Rosaria turned her head and looked at Reed.

It became certain that she knew her name.

“Yes, your name is Rosaria.”

Reed patted her hair. Rosaria softly smiled.

***

The Wizards in the Cloud continent have been divided into two categories.

The Wizards belong to either the Empire or the Kingdom, the so-called Workshops and the wizards of the tower draw from the Ley lines and pay attention to magic concentration and security of their surroundings.

Although both believe in the well being and advancement of magic, their goals differ considerably in their development.

While the wizards at the workshops focused on the white magic like healing or defensive magic with the idea that they will benefit the humans. The wizards of the tower focus more on the black magic like Curses and Attack magic. [1]

Therefore, in , the Towers were portrayed negatively. There are a total of 13 Magic Towers on the Cloud Continent. They had the monthly [Tower Lord Convention] to share information against their rivals’ Workshops and strengthen unity.

The stronger is the conflict between the Towers and the Workshops, the stronger is the bond that must be formed at the Convention.

Therefore being absent from it was a taboo. The meeting place had Antique furniture.

A large round table on which the map of the Cloud continent was engraved, surrounded by 13 chairs.

However, there were only twelve people sitting whereas there should be 13 of them.

The empty seat was engraved with the name [Reed Adelheights Roron].

“Is Roton absent today?’

The big man peeked at the empty seat and broke the silent atmosphere. Then as if everyone was waiting for this moment, they started speaking one by one.

“Actually, it’s surprising that the one who can be said to be the main guy of today’s meeting is not coming.”

“Is it about the Project Flower Garden? I have heard a lot of rumours about it but Tower Lord of Jack said that it was a good idea.”

“Hmn. What are you saying? Isn’t the Lord of Greeny who was the most excited?”

Although they had gathered in the name of friendship and information exchange, the arguments were inevitable.

The giant man mediated the fight which was about to break out.

“Are you going to have a childish quarrel at that age?”

“Excuse me.”

“Anyways, does anyone here know the reason for the absence of Tower Lord of Silence?”

Everyone is silent at the big man’s words.

Reed Adeleheights Roton was the Tower Lord of Silence and it was the weakest among all the Towers.

Reed was busy trying to expand his personal network but he was not fit for it. He was a twisted human who did not know when to back off and when not to speak, when to speak or how to speak.

So of course, there was no one here who could communicate with Tower Lord of Silence and hence no one was clear idea about the current situation.

…….That was what everyone was thinking.

“They said that the project was cancelled.”

Everyone’s gaze focused on the side of the women who spoke those words. There sat a woman about the size of a girl in her early teens.

She had a cheeky expression with dark hairs as if everything around her was bothering her.

She was wearing a dress that showed off her shoulders rather than the neat usual uniforms like the other Tower Lords and no one was rebukking her even though she was rudely putting her feets on the table.

The master of Black Heaven, Phrygia Vulkan Darksider.

“It seems that the Tower Lord of Black Heaven knows something.”

“It isn’t something that I really wanted to know but someone working at the Tower of Silence told me this.”

“The project is cancelled?”

“Yes, a kid working in the Tower of Silence told me. The rumours were going on that all the theories of the project were in place but it was suddenly abandoned.”

“Cancelled……I guess that means it was a nonsense project.”

“Or a lie.”

A project related to magic research means there is enough money for information with the tower.

Therefore, it’s nothing more than to show off his status and power.

Therefore, all the Tower owners had one or two projects whether they were short-term or long-term and they are bound to come to a conclusion whether they succeeded or not.

As always the Tower of Silence was a different story. The weakest tower owner with a lower number of floors had lower manpower and only money.

In order to boost his reputation, the Tower lord was trying to take a leap forward with the Project: Flower Garden by all kinds of theories and words but it turned out to be a lie?

If that is the case then there will of course be a feeling of aversion and it will lead him to the abyss.

“Looks like Roton is finally over.”

Someone spits out what everyone has been thinking about but couldn’t say as if they all had made an unspoken consent.

“Do you think Reed Roton is such a person? That Iron Skin?”

There was someone who objected. The blue haired Tower Lord stood up and objected.

A question of weight which goes well with that neat uniform and tall height.

Her hidden blue eyes were shining.

She was the Tower Lord of Byeoklin, Dolores Jade.

“He is not that kind of person. That man is the perfect fit for the word, ‘Evil’. A wicked and cruel human being.”

“Oh the childhood friend has entered the defense.”

Phyrigia began giggling sarcastly.

Dolores glared at Phrygia sitting on the other side of the table.

“I had told you to stop calling me that, Tower Lord of Black Heaven. Aside from our past we have no other common points.”

“Yeah, *****. I am sorry for doing this?”

The blue haired Dolores glared at her fiercely but Phyrgia didn’t even flinch. She gave a dry apology while picking her ears.

“So, Tower lord of Black Heaven, do you think he has some other ideas?”

“I think he must have found a magic which was dangerous enough to give up on the Flower Garden which was to promote his fame.”

It was truly a frivolous thought but Reed was such a human.

“Well if the Tower Lord of Silence has scraped the Flower Garden then I can’t help but think that there is something more important.”

“Shouldn’t the Tower Master of Black Heaven know more about it?”

“I don’t have an unlimited source of information in my pocket. How would I know more about that?”

Even if she had an insider wizard working at Tower of Silence, he didn’t know the exact details because he wasn’t skilled enough to access the contents of the Project: Flower Garden.

Everyone went silent. There were no further speculations and everyone focused on what Dolores had said.

What if he had discovered some dangerous magic?

‘I am more curious.’

‘Though it doesn’t seem that there would be any more information lol’

Rather than feeling any antipathy or betrayal due to Project Flower Garden, they became more curious about the information which the Tower Lord of Silence was hiding.

***

On the other hand, while such conversations were taking place at the Convention, at the tower of Silence, what Reed was doing was neither hiding secrets nor studying forbidden black magic.

“Do you know what this is?”

“Wind!”

“This?”

“Apple!”

Rosaria was being directly taught language by him. The fact that he had an adopted was still unknown even inside the Tower.

The main tasks were not much by themselves and when the Project was underway, Phoebe was in charge of all its operations so Reed had nothing to do with it.

Therefore, Reed was teaching language to Rosaria in the library.

She perfectly absorbed all the words which Reed ever taught and then answered correctly except for one.

“Okay then, the last question. Who am I?”

“Dad!”

“I mean my name.”

“Dad!”

When he pointed to himself, she didn’t give a proper answer.

He couldn’t say anything because of her characteristics squishy pronunciation and bright answers. How can one say something to that face?

“Yes, Dad.”

“Hi-Hi”

Rosaria was smiling all the time. She began to read the book with pure ruby eyes.

What she was reading was an encyclopedia recording everything in Cloud Continent. There were no novels such as fairy tales or biographies in the magic Tower.

Among them there was only this encyclopedia with most pictures and text.

‘I hope she can learn the letters and words in a week.”

There was no strict teaching and Reed wasn’t particularly great at teaching in general. Reed opens the book, shows her a picture and then asks what the picture is.

In this way, he taught words and letters to her like a gentle stream.

‘It sounds as if I am teaching a dog but she understands it perfectly.’

It was hard to believe for Reed that until only a few days ago, Reed was a girl who could only tilt her head when he spoke.

‘Does this mean that she is at this level even though has not even though <Master of Adaptation> has not manifested yet?’’

Reed thought that he might have missed it and so he checked Rosaria’s stats once more through his <Eye for Talent>.

***

Name: Rosaria Adelheights Roton
Occupation: Tower Lord’s adopted Daughter
Age: 7 years
Disposition: Chaotic/Neutral

Health: 70/70
Stamina: 60/60
Mana: 40/40

[Characteristics]

None

[Ability]

<Digestion Level 1>

<Pure Level 1>

[Unreleased Abilities]

<Magic Level 7>

<Mana Sense Level 7>

<Spirit Sense Level 7>

And 7 others.

***

‘None of them have manifested yet.’

It was natural. She had never done anything related to magic before and expecting it to suddenly manifest was no different from wishing for Gold to fall from the sky.

“It’s time to teach magic…….’

He had succeeded in teaching language somehow but how should he approach magic?

He has been thinking about it for a week but hasn’t been able to come up with an answer. He deliberately didn’t even participate in the monthly Tower Lords Convention.

‘He should only participate in the convention when the situation is optimal, which it aint right now.’

He was already working at their bottom lines and the Tower Lords were looking forward to the Project. The more the expectations, the greater the disappointment.

Reed knew about that feeling and he had to handle the situation like an adult by making an official apology at the next Convention.

‘Well thanks to skipping it, I am able to teach her with peace of mind.’

Although that wasn’t a mature move, at least as a result, Rosaria was able to successfully learn the characters in a week.

And now was the time to take on the next step.

“Rosaria.”

“Huh?”

Rosaria, who had been looking through the book, turned her head.

“Do you want to learn magic?”

At Reed’s question, her eyes began to glow

[1] Here Black doesn’t necessarily mean bad. It’s more like White means defensive magic which is used to prevent a person from harm and Black the offensive which used to cause harm.