Alice visited Edward after the meeting ended.
She reckoned that if she were to visit the Tower of Knowledge, getting a referral would be better for what she was about to do.
And who better to give it than the Kingmaker himself?
Alice also knew that he seemed to relent in anything whenever Ashen's name came up, as if he owed him something, so she didn't hesitate to use it.
And indeed, the man whipped out a scroll and started writing on it before stamping his mana signature onto it without hesitation.
But Alice couldn't focus on that, because the sight before her was somewhat surreal.
The man who had been on the verge of death was now sitting there, radiating immense vitality, as if his previous state had been a mere illusion.
What's more, he emitted a dangerous feeling that Alice had only felt when encountering catastrophes or commanders of the Second Step of their pathway.
"...Have you ascended?"
She finally couldn't help but ask as she received the scroll.
"Indeed." He nodded candidly.
"...How?"
Alice was half certain that he hadn't had more than a few years left to live, and his previous state did not even allow him to move past the confines of his house.
She couldn't understand how he could embody whatever epithet had been granted to him in that condition.
Even more so a Third-Step epithet.
Edward sensed her confusion and decided to explain further.
"I'm of the Pride Pathway. My pride is my students. Their accomplishments are my fuel."
"Ah."
Everything finally clicked.
She finally understood why he kept asking about the battlefield's condition in every Absentia meeting; why he focused on Ashen's feats, and hers, as well as Seraphine's and Lucia's too, to a certain extent.
Why he was happy when the moniker "King of the Battlefield" started spreading around; why he nodded in satisfaction when he heard of her excellent commanding, but remained indifferent to the accomplishments of others…
It was because, aside from the simple happiness of seeing his students thrive, his own fate was also tied to them.
Alice stood frozen for a moment, not knowing what to make of this unexpected development, before she mentally shrugged and relaxed.
'Well. Either way, it's a good thing. Edward had always been a useful piece to have.'
"Congratulations, Teacher. I'm glad to have you back."
"Thanks, girl. Now go; you still have many things to do, right? I will hold down the fort here. As you can see, I'm now quite capable of that."
"Yes. I will leave it to you."
◉◉◉
Seravelle Continent, Greed Domain, Tower of Knowledge.
The tower that had gathered the majority of the human mages in Seravelle was experiencing an unusual bout of activity.
It was all thanks to the recent arrival of the woman dubbed the Treasure Lady of the continent.
Her inventions were well known, and her fame was widely spread, so there was no question regarding her intellect.
But what they didn't anticipate was that she was an equally great mage.
She had joined only a month ago, and in that mere month, she had turned the tower on its head.
To get a better understanding of her accomplishments, one would have to understand the inner structure of the tower.
Said structure was built in floors, and each floor contained knowledge, teachers, and resources better than the floor beneath it.
The mages always strived to gain access to better floors, but it was easier said than done.
One would first have to display mastery of the spells taught on the current floor, and then they would have to add enough knowledge to that floor to gather enough merit to gain access to the next floor.
But those were only the surface conditions.
When humans gathered, and when they were humans of power, ego and arrogance would always be present.
Corruption and politics would, of course, manifest themselves in equal measure.
But this lady had bulldozed through it all.
Knowledge?
She absorbed it like a sponge. Her mind worked at supernatural speed, pulling one theoretical thesis after another.
Spells?
She mastered them with insulting ease. Like she had some kind of library in her mind to store them and display them at will.
She actually did.
Politics?
Envy toward her success? Malice toward her genius?
There had been plenty, but she wasn't called the Treasure Lady for nothing.
This woman's pockets were loaded, and she treated money as dirt, using it to shut up whoever stood in her way.
If they weren't persuaded by money, then their rivals and political enemies surely would be.
And Alice had a knack for spotting such people.
After all, due to her traits, she could read individuals like an open book as long as she spent enough time analyzing their behavior.
And just like that, she found herself on the last floor; the one where the Greed Lord himself acted as the personal teacher.
The man himself was unusually silent, no matter how much havoc Alice wreaked in his own backyard.
This also made the senior mages who were sensitive to their lord's actions restrain themselves, even when they knew that Alice was secretly recruiting mages behind their backs.
As for Kokan himself, he actually wanted nothing more than to chase this troublesome woman away, but he couldn't.
Whenever he thought of acting against her, an involuntary image of that soul appeared in his mind, and overwhelming terror spread throughout his being.
"No… As long as I don't see the corpse of that man with my own eyes, I can't act recklessly…"
He kept muttering gloomily whenever he saw her.
But that statement was being challenged when Alice dared to reach for his most precious possession.
◉◉◉
"Those merits indeed allow for a personal audience with the Archmage… In fact, with this much, you can visit her everyday for the next seven days…"
"Then? Grant me permission, please."
Alice asked the fidgeting clerk responsible for exchanging merits for rewards with an impassive look.
Among the many rewards available was an audience with the so-called Archmage.
Many longed to meet her, so such a reward was placed on the list. But its ridiculous price, alongside the rumors of the Archmage completely ignoring the people who came to see her in favor of sleeping, had long since stopped anyone from ever choosing it again.
The clerk was trying to explain this to Alice patiently, but the latter wasn't having it.
In fact, from the moment she heard of this Archmage, only one thought came to her mind.
'I should recruit her.'
She did not care for any lectures. Even with this sea of knowledge she found herself in since coming here, she never lost sight of her objective.
Recruit as many mages as possible.
She wasn't blatant about it at first, treading slowly and carefully, but whenever she tested the boundaries and found there was almost no backlash, she became bolder.
She found those greedy for money and promised them riches; those greedy for knowledge and presented them with that; those greedy for fame and lured them with it…
Now, she had a faction of no less than two hundred mages behind her.
But Lapis' letters didn't allow her to take it easy after all that.
From what she heard, Lucia had been having seizures for the last week, endlessly muttering, "Don't die… don't die…"
Whatever was happening on Ashen's side, it did not seem to be looking hopeful.
So, she set this Archmage as her new and last target before she would make her way back and start the rescue operation.
In the end, the clerk could only relent under her increasingly cold gaze and give her the pass.
◉
Alice's first meeting with the Archmage left her with an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
She soon understood the source of this feeling.
The sleeping woman seemed to be of the Sloth Pathway, just like her man.
But unlike him, she seemed to be taking her Sloth embodiment much more seriously than Ashen; at least, judging by how comfortably she was sleeping.
Alice had no scruples about walking up and gently nudging her in an attempt to wake her.
The woman's eyes faintly fluttered before her eyelids slowly parted.
"..."
They stayed open for exactly two seconds before promptly closing.
After that, she couldn't wake this lazy woman no matter how much she nudged her.
"Hah…"
Alice rubbed the bridge of her nose.
'Now I understand what they were talking about… This is going to take some work.'
But she wasn't overly worried.
Just like every other mage, she would observe her, catalog her patterns, and build a personality sheet around her.
By then, all she had to do was see what she desired and grant it. In turn, the woman would fulfill Alice's desires.
There was no reason for the method not to work, even if she had some grand title like 'Archmage'.
As long as she was human, it would work.
…Alice was sure of it.