Chapter 20
The Ice Emperor admitted defeat and withdrew without hesitation. Zion urged the Ice Emperor to stay until Ifrit woke up, but...
All the Ice Emperor offered in reply was a bitter smile. The Ice Emperor shook their head, saying they wouldn’t appear again unless their daughter wanted them to.
‘Unless that child wants me to, I’ll never appear before her again.’
Zion had wondered why the Ice Emperor kept such a distance, but after hearing the circumstances from Ifrit, who woke up three days later, she understood.
“Where is Rin?”
“She went up to the higher floors. She said she hadn’t been doing enough monster hunts and quests lately... She asked me to pass along her regards.”
“Maintaining a High Ranker position takes results. You both have it rough.”
“……What happened between you and the Ice Emperor?”
Fortunately, Ifrit was safe. She hadn’t been injured; she’d simply used up far too much of her strength.
That gave Zion a chance to ask Ifrit about her troubled history with the Ice Emperor, naturally but carefully.
Ifrit fell silent for a moment and stared at the ceiling. After about five minutes, she finally spoke.
“I’d been locked up in the castle since I was little. I didn’t lack for anything, really. It wasn’t like I was abused.”
“I see.”
“……That’s unexpected. I thought you’d scold me for making a fuss over something so trivial.”
“What may seem like a minor hardship to others can be more agonizing than hell to the person enduring it. How could I presume to judge your pain?”
‘Keeping someone locked up is abuse in its own right, so why go that far...?’
Except for two months, Zion had spent her whole life in the modern world. From her perspective, it was abuse.
But things were different in the Tower. Every floor except the Starting Floor was rife with the threat of monsters and bandits.
So keeping a child locked away for their own protection was considered perfectly acceptable. Even if it went on for years.
“……Ah.”
“Are you all right?!”
“S-sorry. My emotions suddenly welled up, and I couldn’t help it……”
To some people, it might have seemed like an obvious precaution. Or perhaps it was simply a parent’s love for a child they cherished.
That was how everyone Ifrit had met so far had described it. Had they meant it sincerely?
Or had they only said that because they didn’t want to upset the Ice Emperor? Either way, no one had ever understood her.
“I managed to escape somehow. It happened to be during the Wild Hunt. I was more likely to die, but I thought dying would be better.”
“……”
“I know it was reckless, but I couldn’t help it. If I had to spend my whole life locked in that castle…… I’d rather die outside.”
When Zion put on a stern expression, Ifrit spoke as if to defend herself. Of course, she couldn’t blame anyone for scolding her over it.
But the reason Zion’s expression had stiffened wasn’t the one Ifrit imagined……
‘What’s the Wild Hunt……?’
“Luckily, a Ranker who was fighting off the Wild Hunt rescued me. That’s how I made it to the Starting Floor.”
“……And that’s how you became an adventurer.”
“That’s right. But even after that, the Ice Emperor kept interfering with everything I did. Whenever something seemed suspicious, it always turned out to be the Ice Emperor.”
Ifrit poured out all the feelings she’d kept bottled up, while Zion simply nodded beside her and listened.
Unfortunately, Zion didn’t know much about things like this. So all she could do was listen……
But that alone was enough. Just having someone you could trust listen to you was enough.
“……I must’ve shown you a pretty embarrassing side of me.”
“It’s all right. Friends can be like that with each other.”
“Friends……”
“D-do you not like that?”
“No. I just thought it was a nice word.”
Friend. That single word made her heart stir. At first, Zion had been nothing more than a Hidden NPC she’d approached to gain power……
But at some point, just as Zion had come to think of her as a friend, Ifrit had come to think of Zion as one too.
Still, it was important to keep proper boundaries. Zion stopped Ifrit just as she was about to get up.
“You need to rest a little longer.”
“I’m fine. This much is— Ahk?!”
“What do you mean, you’re fine? You collapse if I so much as poke your side with a finger.”
Zion had only given her side a light poke, yet Ifrit fell over as if on cue, letting out a strangely breathy sound.
She hadn’t been injured, but it seemed to be the backlash from pushing her flames past their limits at the end.
Zion clicked her tongue. The new power had plenty of drawbacks for now, but with training, it could become an incredible asset.
“Ugh, I guess I have no choice. For now, I’ll have to be satisfied with discovering this new power.”
“That’s right. Your recovery comes first.”
“Thanks, Zion. Thanks to you, I don’t think I’ll have to push myself to decipher that book.”
“Huh? A book?”
“The book you gave me as a present before. I had someone try to decipher it, hoping it might show me a way to get stronger. They all failed, though……”
Oh, that one.
Only then did Zion finally remember. The book that had been rolling around in a corner of the half-destroyed chapel. She’d given it to Ifrit as a reward.
She hadn’t given it another thought until now, but hearing this made her curious about its contents. Well, it wasn’t as if she could find out right away……
◇
The requirements to become a Ranker are surprisingly simple.
Clear the Trial Hall on the 70th Floor on your own. Only adventurers who meet this requirement are granted the qualification to become Rankers.
Of course, compared with the mere one hundred High Rankers, the requirements might seem far too lenient……
But considering that, out of hundreds of thousands of adventurers, only a little over ten thousand were Rankers, they were by no means easy to meet.
More importantly, the qualification wasn’t permanent. Every three years, Rankers had to return to the 70th Floor and take the exam again.
If they gave up on the exam or failed it, they would become ‘former’ Rankers. Which raised the question:
If there were ‘former’ Rankers,
could there also be ‘former’ High Rankers?
Naturally, ‘former’ High Rankers certainly existed, too. Most were simply forgotten after falling behind in achievements or strength.
But right now, in this shabby, dust-covered mage tower, there lived a very peculiar ‘former’ High Ranker……
A petite figure so small she looked as if the wind might carry her away, with beautiful purple hair that fell past her waist all the way to her ankles.
She looked like a young girl, but astonishingly, her violet eyes held no more life than those of a corpse.
“Master.”
“……”
“I have good news.”
Her flawless, radiant golden hair looked as if it had been spun from pure gold into fine threads, and her skin was white as porcelain.
A maid whose beauty seemed to mock the finest works of any artisan approached the girl sitting there in a daze.
But the girl didn’t even answer. The woman took the girl’s rather rude manner in stride, as if she were used to it.
“I’ve obtained information about a new book.”
“……”
“Master, have you ever heard of the Saintess of the Starting Floor?”
At that completely unexpected name, the girl’s neck, which had been turned toward the ceiling, creaked around like a rusty machine.
“The Saintess of the Starting Floor. She’s an NPC who suddenly appeared in the Tower during the last Great Cataclysm.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“The first person to meet the Saintess of the Starting Floor, the ‘Blazing Flame,’ is looking for someone to interpret the book’s contents.”
“Don’t tell me that book is…??”
“Yes. It seems to be a book she received from the Saintess of the Starting Floor.”
“Resurrection☆!!”
Bang!
With a thunderous boom, the girl sprang up like a coiled spring. She climbed onto the desk and struck a pose.
It was an undeniably bizarre pose…… but the maid didn’t go out of her way to point it out.
“You found an unknown tome, and you didn’t even have the nerve to ask me to decipher it…… You’ve got some guts, Blazing Flame! Huhuhaha!!”
“The Blazing Flame probably doesn’t even know you exist, Master.”
“……What did you say?!”
The maid’s cool remark made the girl’s expression stiffen. She immediately turned to glare at her.
Terrifying mana rippled in her violet eyes, but her display of force was closer to a child throwing a tantrum than anything dignified.
“You mean someone could fail to know me, Lady Violet, the Purple Lightning, ranked 98th in the Tower?!”
“The Sage ranks higher than you, Master. Why would they entrust it to you?”
“That guy’s my disciple! You know?!”
The Sage, ranked 12th in the Tower.
The advisor to the ‘Emperor,’ foremost among the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, and the very pinnacle of all magic—could such a girl really be his disciple……?
Surprisingly, however, the maid didn’t deny it. She merely explained what was commonly known.
“Of course people know. It’s just that the public has it backward……”
“Ugh!!”
“Besides, as things stand, you aren’t even a Ranker, let alone a High Ranker.”
“What? I’m not a High Ranker? Why on earth not??”
“Because you’ve been holed up in this tower for fifty years, devoting yourself to research and deciphering.”
High Ranker rankings were determined by considering not only combat strength, but also quests completed, monsters slain, and all manner of other achievements.
In other words, becoming a High Ranker was difficult, but staying one was difficult too. And she’d spent fifty whole years doing nothing else?
In a competitive world where others could rise at a terrifying pace in just a day, falling behind was practically inevitable.
“Tch, if we’re judging by skill alone, I’m the strongest……”
“Who else can you blame? You ignored it all, saying it was foolish to get worked up over public opinion or rankings……”
“I get it, I get it, so stop nagging me already!”
“Are you going out?”
“If you’re thirsty, you dig your own well. Besides, I’ve been meaning to meet that person called the Saintess of the Starting Floor someday.”
The maid nodded. At least it was better than being cooped up in a place like this, staring at the ceiling.
‘Former’ Tower Rank 98, Violet the Purple Lightning.
Unlike the other High Rankers, she was an eccentric mage who enjoyed exploring the unknown. And now, she had begun to move.