Chapter 74
74. Curse on Slow Feet
I tossed and turned for a moment on the bed prepared for me.
It's been a long time since I last spent time lying still like this.
Of course, even if I say I've been spending time, only about thirty minutes have passed so far. Any longer than that and I'd get restless, making it hard to stay still.
The duel over the spot as Eleanor's betrothed ended in my victory.
Mercedes, who'd taken the backlash from forcing Mana Enhancement's output too high, couldn't beat me once I activated Unyielding.
After we exchanged a few more blows, the winner was decided, and I was carried back to the village by the dark elves, leaving me here alone.
Well, since I won the fight, it's only natural that there's nothing else for me to do.
Strictly speaking, I was basically Eleanor's champion too. She'll handle the aftermath herself.
Apparently there are a few things the victor of a duel is supposed to do, but it doesn't seem important enough to make a critically injured patient handle.
And so I got some alone time to rest.
“Well then, for now.”
But as always, I have no intention of just lying around and resting.
First, a review of the duel.
I won the duel, sure, but if you ask whether I surpassed Mercedes, the answer is no.
Mercedes was suddenly summoned by that prince and dragged into the duel. As a result, her gear was in terrible shape.
She had her main weapon, a sword, but was missing her shield—the other weapon a close-range fighter practically depends on.
And above all, she fought in an uncomfortable dress uniform with no armor at all.
Compared to the armed state I'd seen when she entered the 7th floor, she was definitely fighting at reduced strength.
On top of that, she was ridiculously careless from the very beginning.
Until I read her movements and started keeping up, she fought with one hand behind her back.
If she'd gone into the fight with Mana Enhancement active from the start, who knows how it would have ended.
Worse, in the latter half she lost her cool after her ear was cut and went berserk, losing the sharpness of her technique.
Well, that was her own fault, so it doesn't count against me.
Just on that basis, I'd score it around 80 points.
The problem is that I can't reproduce the performance I showed in that fight.
“It's empty.”
Until just a little while ago, I was lying in bed and sorting the items in my inventory.
I lost not only the material items that had been packed full, but most of the spare armor and weapons I'd set aside.
Most of them were things I wasn't using anyway, but that doesn't mean they were easy to get.
The strategy of hurling items out to obscure vision and force an opening.
The problem with this strategy is that it burns through too many items, junk or not.
As a one-time shield to block an absurdly powerful attack, the gear's durability was shredded in an instant.
Especially the spoils from the lower floors, which had low base durability, were smashed to pieces and became impossible to repair.
I ended up using up the items I'd scraped together from the 1st floor to the 7th in just one fight.
[Trial Tower#2661 (1/1)]
If someday another challenger enters this tower, what would they think of me for sweeping up all those resources and throwing them away?
“Still, there was no way some newbie was going to come in here now...”
They'd naturally think I was a fucking bastard. Though honestly, I don't care what they think.
So what if they're pissed? What are they going to do about it?
**
Enough pointless thoughts. Let's sort it out again. For one thing, the inventory strategy was fine, but I can't use it again.
There's also the problem that it consumes way too many items, and above all I could only use it because my opponent was a warrior.
If Mercedes had been a mage, a single wide-area spell could have blown the items away.
And even as a warrior, if she had a skill like Aura Mastery, she could attack over a wide area.
If the enemy on a higher floor were stronger than Mercedes, then warrior or not, it wouldn't work.
That's how strategies are, after all.
There isn't any strategy that works on everyone. This one was tailored specifically for Mercedes.
I threw everything I could use into this one fight, so I basically went all in.
As a result, I put out 150 percent of my usual strength.
Mercedes, hampered by carelessness and her gear, could only bring out 80 percent.
And even then I only won after a grueling fight, so I can't say I outclassed Mercedes.
I'll have to devote myself to training even more from here on.
Facing a wall of just the right height becomes a powerful source of growth. Even more so if you've glimpsed what lies beyond it, even for a moment.
For now, let's make increasing my mana attunement and control my first goal.
Mercedes is a wall I can definitely overcome.
Next time, I'll surpass your 100 percent with my 100 percent. And if you keep picking a fight even then-
I'll cut off the other ear too, you knife-eared bitch.
**
After I mostly finished reviewing and reflecting on the duel, I spent all the remaining time meditating.
Raising my mana attunement and control is my immediate goal anyway, and I'd just experienced the power of Mana Enhancement firsthand.
But no matter what I do, this damn meditation just won't go right. Eleanor's talk of a confused heart must be the cause.
Wasn't it said that when the mind is confused, mana gets confused too?
I'm nothing but a lump of one-track desire. But I hate that about myself. I wish I'd just drop dead.
But I can't die. I have to get through this tower.
If I don't somehow do something about this contradictory mindset, perfectly controlling mana may be impossible.
But when I think about myself using that as an excuse to do nothing, disgust rises again.
And so I keep repeating the futile meditation like an idiot.
“Hoo...”
When I opened my eyes for a moment and let out a breath, it was already night outside.
Meditation seems to make time fly. Maybe that means I'm focusing on it that much.
But Eleanor still hasn't come back. She did say the post-duel cleanup would take some time.
Still, as long as that perverted elf doesn't get in the way, that's good for me.
Still, around this time she usually used to talk about what happened in the Trial Tower, so it feels strangely empty.
“No, what am I even saying?”
Feeling empty over this is not okay, huh? I'm starting to lose it. I need to get to the 8th floor soon.
I'll be seeing Eleanor on the 8th floor too, but in that setting there won't be any room to relax like this.
Then I felt a powerful presence deeply etched in my memory approaching.
-creak.
The door opened, and Eleanor entered with cautious steps.
“Are you asleep?”
I keep thinking it, but Eleanor's presence really is unusually easy to recognize.
**
Given how intense the fight had been, Eleanor must have thought I'd be lying down.
“No, come in.”
Seeing that she wasn't in her usual negligee, it looked like she'd come straight after finishing the duel's aftermath.
Honestly, by now I don't care much whether she's in a negligee or not.
“You were awake? You must be tired, so why aren't you resting?”
“I'm not that tired.”
“Rest is important. That won't be any different for you.”
Eleanor gave a faint smile and sat beside me. By now I was pretty used to that too, so it didn't bother me.
“Thanks to you, my engagement to that bastard has been thoroughly ruined. It seems the truce with the forest folk has also fallen apart nicely, so the request is complete.”
As she said, the quest window showed [Dark Elf's Book - Chapter 1] as complete and that the reward was being prepared.
“Ah, and don't worry about the promised thank-you gift. I'm preparing something you'll really like, so don't worry.”
Honestly, I'd half forgotten about the reward by then.
I hadn't promised anything specific, and it didn't seem like she'd give me the same reward as the other challengers in the community.
And I figured even a mediocre reward would be fine. I don't even know why I thought that.
“From here on, you can do whatever you want.”
Before I knew it, Eleanor had edged a little closer and let out a warm breath.
Eleanor's hand covered mine where it rested on the bed.
“You can choose whether to stay here or leave. You've officially become my betrothed, after all.”
Eleanor had only asked me to break off the engagement; she never said what to do after that.
I had taken the place of her betrothed, but it wouldn't matter if I just left like this.
That had been the contract from the start.
And conversely, I could stay here and live with Eleanor like this.
“Honestly, the more I look at you, the more you're my type. Even after a few hundred years, I doubt anyone as ideal as you will ever appear.”
Eleanor's face, already close, drew even nearer, until our lips were almost touching.
And then she stopped right there.
“You're going to leave, aren't you?”
“Yeah.”
“Right, you had that look in your eyes.”
Eleanor said calmly, as if she'd known all along. She didn't seem especially disappointed.
As if she'd noticed that I was a little reluctant to leave this place, and was satisfied with that alone.
Eleanor is always like this. Even when she only seems like a pervert, she thinks with surprising depth.
“Tch, I thought I could seize the moment and at least get a kiss.”
Yeah, even this has already become familiar.
Too many things have become familiar.
It's something I can no longer tolerate.