Adopting Disaster

After the graduation ceremony and watching the entrance ceremony roughly, Reed didn't return to the Silence Tower but went to his family home.

Dolores told him the location of his birthplace.

She didn't doubt it when he said he hadn't been there for a long time and told him without hesitation.

The inside was neatly empty.

When Reed moved to the Silence Tower, he disposed of all the assets in the mansion.

'The inside is intact.'

Though dust had accumulated and spiderwebs were in a few places, as a large and expensive house, it hadn't corroded or lost its shape after being abandoned for several years.

Reed headed to the living room first.

Upon opening the door, an empty rectangular room was visible.

Reed lowered his head and looked down at the wooden floor.

He counted each uniformly cut wooden plank as he walked.

One step, two steps, three steps... and eight steps.

Reed stopped at that spot.

"There was... a sofa."

The item Reed mentioned was in this very spot.

Next to it was a table and a vase.

No, that vase was gone.

Reed had broken it while testing his psychokinesis when he was young.

Upon seeing the broken vase, his mother shed tears, and his father scolded Reed.

That vase was part of his mother's dowry when she moved into this house.

It was also a precious item containing memories of when she had fallen in love with his father.

'So, did I try to fix it?'

To make up for the mistake, he borrowed flattery from the staff in the mansion and painstakingly tried to put the pieces together.

He spent five hours fitting the fragments together, but he couldn't put them all together.

The shape looked plausible, and Reed showed it to his mother.

His mother burst into tears once again.

The first thing she saw was Reed's torn hands, not the broken pottery.

That's how they reconciled.

They can remember again because they can forget, and they love each other again because they hate each other.

That was the happiness of the Adeleheights family.

'Yes.'

This house was a happy house.

Only a few puzzle pieces were quickly fitted together, but other memories fit themselves into Reed's mind.

The Adeleheights were a noble magician family who knew how to mingle with humans while generously bestowing their knowledge.

From their ancestors, they accumulated knowledge and application, receiving support from the empire and many kingdoms, and becoming wealthy.

They didn't keep their wealth in reserve but spent it generously.

As they spent, it returned, and soon the Adeleheights family amassed enough wealth to stand shoulder to shoulder with the wealthy.

However, before Reed's second semester of his fourth year in college, the Adeleheights family fell into disgrace in an instant.

A villain broke in, killed everyone in the mansion, and stole all the knowledge of the Adeleheights family.

Reed felt a pang in his heart.

He knew what kind of emotion it was.

'Anger.'

The tragedy didn't end with the massacre.

People paid off all the debts owed by the Adeleheights family.

Even the targets of the debts were important at the time, so when they felt the Adeleheights family had no value to use, they repaid all the debts.

As soon as their value disappeared, they wiped their mouths and spat them out like despicable villains.

He was furious at the grief of losing his family and the fact that he was just a lowly person after all.

'And then I gave up the workshop.'

He headed to a tower that was relatively free from background and social status.

Only the former tower master, Jude Roton, accepted Reed.

At that time, the Silence Tower was the weakest force among the magic towers, but Reed didn't want to be bound by it.

'I poured all my money into the tower.'

On the contrary, Reed put all his money into the Silence Tower, trying to solve everything that could be solved with money.

As a result, it became a tower with only money.

The knowledge of a magician and what the tower pursued could never be solved with money.

'I'm starting to understand Reed.'

Though it looks unfamiliar, it blends in familiarly.

Reed stopped indulging in his thoughts.

'There's definitely some gain.'

Coming back to his birthplace was the right answer.

He only thought that if he could find a place that would stimulate the past, he could get a little closer to the past, but he could think of another clue.

'What was the information that supported the Adeleheights family?'

Could it still remain in his memory, even very faintly?

Reed decided to try moving again, stepping on the traces of the past.

He walked, filling the empty space where footsteps echoed clearly with memories.

Reed arrived at the place where everyone had targeted the Adeleheights family.

It was the library.

Reed entered it.

Creaking-.

As expected of a magician's family, the walls were filled with bookshelves.

It was much larger than the tower master's exclusive library, and there were several times more bookshelves.

However, there were no books left there.

He had already lost many books, and the remaining books were so useless that he threw them all away.

When he entered here, there should be dust piled up on the floor and spiderwebs hanging on the corners of the bookshelves.

Lost in such thoughts, Reed stood still with the library door open.

There should be no one here.

That's right.

Then who is that man?

The light that seeped through the tattered blackout curtains.

Standing in the middle was a figure wearing a robe.

The villain slowly raised his head, meeting Reed's eyes.

He was wearing a white porcelain mask.

It was a mask with nothing drawn on it and only two eye holes.

'Enemy.'

Even without an outcry, his instincts sensed the man's presence.

He reflexively checked the gauntlet in his hand once more.

The seams and bonding. He was sure that everything was in perfect condition.

"Reed Adeleheights."

The man called Reed's name in a low tone.