After adopting Codename: Cosmo, Reed had a clear path he needed to follow.
'Changing the Life of Fake Boss, Reed.'
From the lame villain Reed with no sense of style to a Reed who can at least leave an impression on someone.
Reed decided to make a note of what he needed to do to achieve this.
1. 'The Project: Flower Garden will be scrapped.'
Since Codename: Cosmo, the first target of the project, has been taken in as a daughter instead of an experimental subject, it's impossible to follow the same path.
"And it's physiologically impossible, too."
Provoking someone's hatred and turning them into a monster was not his style.
2. ‘Fulfill my role as tower master’
Reed had never been fully committed to his role as the master of the Silent Tower.
He always harboured ambitions to leave the tower and swallow the Cloud Continent, the continent of <Disaster 7>.
Because of that ambition, he ended up turning everyone against him, and ultimately, Reed faced his death.
'What is the role of a tower master?...'
The tower advances magic, and the height of the tower showcases the status and honor of the magicians, making it their pride.
Of course, it doesn't end there.
Protecting small villages that are not influenced by the kingdom, monitoring the monsters and any abnormalities in mana that inhabit the area, and analyzing those abnormalities to contribute to peace and well-being were also their responsibilities.
Those who took on such a mission were the magicians of the tower.
'...and as always, busy with fantasy plots.'(?????)
As is always the case with fantasy settings, it begins with the crumbling of that status and honour.
Breaking, breaking, and breaking again.
As if it's destined to collapse like Jenga, with each piece being pulled out and barely holding together!
[T/N: Jenga, for more info]
The Tower of Silence was also destined to fall like other magic towers.
However, it bothered him that it would be done by the hand of a protagonist, not an enemy.
'I have to protect the tower.'
It was such a reflexive judgment that it seemed like remnants of his past conscience remained.
Next, he wrote down his last task.
Reed's most shining trait was undoubtedly his "Talent Appraisal."
Given the state of the world a decade ago, there must be many talented individuals who can't even recognize their own talents and are wandering aimlessly.
"Hmm..."
The roadmap ahead can be divided into two parts:
3-1. Focus on educating Codename: Cosmo, who has been taken in as a daughter.
3-2. Gather other potential disasters besides Cosmo. The more, the merrier.
Reed, tapping his memo pad with a pen, pondered and finally reached a conclusion.
"Number 1 seems to be the way to go."
First, focus on one thing wholeheartedly.
If he couldn't properly raise the most outstanding talent, Codename: Cosmo, he would already be disqualified.
'Because I promised to be her father.'
Nurturing her abilities not as a researcher and experimental subject, but as a father and daughter.
For him, who was a novice in every aspect, as a father or a caregiver, the situation with just the girl was already overwhelming.
At first, it was best to suppress his greed and do what he could.
"Ah."
With that thought, an idea flashed through Reed's mind.
He wrote down an additional point, realizing it was far more essential than the previous two he had recorded.
'Reed will undoubtedly have many enemies.'
It's impossible to say he has no enemies with that personality.
'Besides, all the characters I have in mind now are villains.'
Most of the talents Reed would recruit in the future would inevitably be people destined to be villains.
Such talents harbor emotions which are like ticking time bombs, and they often don't act rationally.
Codename: Cosmo will eventually become a magician who surpasses him, and if he doesn't prepare enough countermeasures for that, he would become a person who aims for a position that doesn't match his worth.
But Reed faced another problem.
'He's already a completed character...'
He had accessed all fields of magic and had hit the limit, which is why he tried to obtain greater power through the extreme measure of Project: Flower Garden.
'First of all, being versatile gives a wide range of choices.'
Reed Adelheits Roton was a versatile character capable of using all magic, except for the high-powered spells that could turn an area into ashes.
'Is this the ability I should choose after all?'
The ability Reed was looking at was something that should have been sealed deep within his mind.
<Magic Engineering Lv. 4>
It was a technique that combined magic stones and magical incantations with machines to draw out power.
For example, the magic tower elevators and the screen magic on office desks were all realized through magic engineering.
However, Reed didn't have a high opinion of this ability, to the point of sealing it away.
The main reason was that the advancement of magic engineering was believed to be detrimental to pure magic.
'In the end, during the <Disaster7> story, everyone acknowledged magic engineering and relied on its power to overcome disasters.'
It was an excellent technology for supplementing inadequate abilities.
Magic engineering was perfect for making the most of Reed's ambiguously mediocre abilities.
Reed must have known this fact and practiced it since his apprenticeship.
However, ultimately, what he desired the most was pure magic.
He thought that using shortcuts meant admitting the limitations of magic, and as a tower master, he completely abandoned magic engineering.
'But even other magicians who love purity have come to recognize the necessity of magic engineering.'
In a world where such a future is guaranteed, is it necessary to insist on this?
'If I delve into magic engineering, I can raise other magic skills to level 5.'
With just a little more ability, even reaching level 6, called transcendence, was possible.
This was a fact known only to Reed, who had experienced <Disaster 7>.
