Chapter 35
After the final match of the Arcane War ended,
the excitement from the last game spread throughout the world.
COL began to attract immense attention.
“If COL gets officially released, how about hosting a tournament like the Arcane War in the Empire, Galliard?
Wouldn’t it be thrilling if nations and factions participated and fought?”
“I was thinking the same, Your Majesty. If it happens, I’d definitely want to join.”
The Emperor, greatly impressed by COL, shared such a conversation with Galliard.
The other nobles had similar thoughts as well.
The Illusion Magic Tower received an influx of inquiries about the official release date.
Only a select few invited guests were able to watch the Arcane War.
Nobles who weren’t invited went from party to party, seeking information about COL.
Meanwhile, the nobles who did attend the Arcane War became instant celebrities at these gatherings.
“Have you heard? They say even the Second Princess is showing interest in COL.”
“Oh… does that mean the Arcane War was that impressive?
For the Second Princess, who never cared about ‘Maple Leaf Story,’ to take an interest… just how fun must it be?”
In the capital, interest in COL was high.
Even the royal family occasionally discussed it.
“Rikal, how does one buy COL?”
“Why are you asking me? And it’s not even released yet.”
“Don’t think I don’t know that you’re always sneaking into the Illusion Magic Tower.
Next time, I was thinking of tagging along.”
“To the Illusion Magic Tower? Seriously, just stay out of it.”
“This brat…!”
Rikal and the Second Princess Eliya had never gotten along.
But lately, Eliya had been asking Rikal many questions about the Illusion Magic Tower.
“Brother, when COL is released, will you try it out?
It seemed like you were quite fascinated by the Arcane War.”
“If I have time, I might give it a try. Actually… I promised to play with JeBbit.”
“With JeBbit? When did you make such a promise… was it that time?”
“Yes. I briefly exchanged greetings with him on the first day of the Arcane War, thanks to Riot.”
Eliya and Leo conversed as Rikal listened in.
Rikal’s expression soured rapidly.
‘When did we ever make a promise to play together? Seriously, damn…’
He had never made such a promise.
What kind of delusion led to this imaginary promise?
Rikal wanted to punch his delusional brother, but he held back.
“He said he wanted to play games with JeBbit?”
“Yes. He even recommended it to me.”
“Ah, seriously… don’t do it. Brother, just don’t play. Focus on your work; the state is in chaos, and yet you think about games?”
“What… do you think you have the right to say that, Rikal?
If your troubles were cut in half, my work would decrease significantly!”
“Seriously, just… I promise I won’t cause any more trouble, so don’t play the game! Just stop, please, because I can’t stand it!”
“Hah, this is unbelievable…
What right do you have to complain? You play ‘Maple Leaf Story’ every day, don’t you, Rikal?”
“N-no, that’s… seriously… just… I hate it, okay?
I’m telling you, JeBbit hates you, so please don’t play!
Arghhhhh!”
“This brat…!”
The fights between Rikal and Leo became more frequent lately.
Only Rikal knew the reason behind it.
In any case, COL was attracting immense interest.
But it wasn’t just this kind of attention.
“Humans… were up to some interesting things.”
A certain nobleman with pale skin wandered through the social circles, gathering information about the illusion games.
Though he didn’t dare enter Trinity due to the risk of his identity being exposed,
there was still plenty of information about COL and ‘Maple Leaf Story’ everywhere.
It showed just how central these things were to humans at that moment.
“This is something I need to report to the Demon King.”
The man’s true identity was Malphas, a Demon.
Assigned the mission to conceal himself and gather information in the human world,
he returned to the Demon Realm with information about the Illusion Magic Tower’s artifact that was sweeping through all the conversations.
“Th-this, th-this… this… could mean… my dr-dream… huff, huff…”
And there was another man interested in the Illusion Magic Tower’s game, though from a completely different angle.
He was Count Pophos, a central nobleman of the Imperial Court.
With an unremarkable appearance and a protruding belly,
he had never married or even held hands with a woman, despite being over thirty.
His personality was far from masculine, and he had a habit of stuttering.
“Heh heh heh, heh heh…”
With a rather perverse smile,
he wrote a lengthy letter to the Illusion Magic Tower.
Thus, after the Arcane War,
many new challenges awaited the Illusion Magic Tower as it prepared for the mass production of artifacts and the release of COL.
***
“31 in favour, 0 against. It is approved.”
Finally, the mass production approval for ‘Maple Leaf Story’ and COL was granted.
There was no longer a need to stay up for months to meet the demand.
We could finally proceed with the delayed updates as well.
The people of the Illusion Magic Tower cheered at the news.
Especially the newcomers, who no longer had to work through the night, were thrilled.
“We should be able to officially release it in about two weeks. By then, I think the quantity I have in mind will be produced. The number of ‘Maple Leaf Story’ players will increase too.”
The release date for COL was set for two weeks later.
And during that time, access to COL was restricted.
We needed to maintain the system and complete the features that hadn’t been implemented yet.
Because of that, complaints flooded in from mages who couldn’t play the game for two weeks.
Even the people of the Illusion Magic Tower were constantly clamouring about when the game would reopen.
Hina, in particular, was pushing hard. As expected from someone who plays a lot, it seemed like her temper was getting worse.
“Hurry up and reopen…! Po-po-po-po-pok—”
Hina lightly punched my back like a fluffy cotton ball.
Ignoring her, I continued my explanation.
“Also, the council will be coming soon for the tower expansion. On that day, make sure not to go up to the top floor.”
“Wow! So, our tower is finally expanding?”
“At last… I’m so touched, Tower Master…!”
“Y-yes…!”
The people of the tower were filled with emotion.
It was, of course, the first time we had ever experienced a tower expansion.
Rumour had it that the council would use an ancient artifact called the Babel Tower Builder.
This ancient artifact calculates the tower’s contribution points through some unknown method.
And it raises the tower’s height based on those points.
No one knew exactly what the criteria were, but all the Tower Masters agreed to the artifact’s method of determining contribution points.
“What is the method for calculating contribution points, Tower Master?”
“W-well, it was decided before my time, so I don’t really know…”
I asked Hina, but she didn’t know the details of the method either.
In any case, our Tower Master wasn’t very helpful.
“Anyway, since it’s come to this… it’s time to tidy up the interior and make the place look like a proper tower. Let’s use these two weeks to organize the interior and arrange the tower’s structure.”
We had made some money, after all.
It seemed like it was time to turn our place into a proper tower.
While I finished up COL during these two weeks, I planned to leave that task to others.
Thus, the time for our tower to finally grow had come.
“By the way, Rai, this letter came again. What should we do with it?”
“…Just throw it away.”
As the status of the tower improved a bit, we started to attract new attention.
One of those sources of attention was this persistent letter that arrived daily.
At first, we politely declined, but the letters kept coming.
“What kind of letter is it, anyway? From Count Pophos? It comes every day.”
“…He’s asking us to create a fantasy world where he can cozy up with beautiful girls. To be precise, a game where you, uh, ‘capture’ them.”
“Ugh. That sounds perverted. I bet that Count Pophos guy looks creepy too. Ugh…”
“It’s not good to have such prejudices, Medeia.”
Medeia shuddered at the thought.
While it might be a prejudice to judge someone’s appearance based on their letters, as Rain said,
it was true that the letters were disturbingly detailed.
They included descriptions of the girls’ appearances, the settings… all very specific.
In other words, he wanted us to create the ultimate dating sim.
I never thought there would be someone who could come up with such an idea on their own.
Well, people like that existed in my past life too, which is why dating sims were invented.
In any case, I had no time to create such a thing now, so I ignored Count Pophos’s letters.
“Okay, let’s get started then.”
Yes, sir—!
Thus, the Illusion Magic Tower began to take on a proper shape at last.
All the shabby robes were replaced with new ones.
We decorated the interior with various artifacts.
As the space increased with the tower’s expansion, there was more room for interior design.
We replaced most of the decorations with illusion magic.
Since they were illusions, we could create an expansive world that left people in awe.
But we made sure that the illusions wouldn’t cause any dangerous misconceptions.
Soon, the Illusion Magic Tower began to look like a real tower.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen someone accumulate so many contribution points at once.
Of course, it could be because this is the first time we’re doing an expansion.”
The tower expansion allowed us to reach quite a high level.
Of course, we were still far shorter compared to other towers.
But just that alone put smiles on our faces.
“I can’t believe our tower is growing this tall…”
“Even though it’s illusion magic, we managed to get recognition for our contribution points.”
“Doesn’t that mean we’ve had a significant impact on the world?”
After the tower expansion was completed,
we moved the giant artifact containing the main servers of ‘Maple Leaf Story’ and COL to the rooftop.
Just like how mana stones glowing with each attribute shine atop the other towers,
our tower too began to light up the streets of Trinity.
Thus, two hectic weeks passed,
and the official release of COL immediately created a massive sensation in the world.
—
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