Chapter 78
The moment I opened the front door and stepped inside.
I couldn't believe my eyes.
The inside of the house looked as if it had been bombed.
"What the...?"
The floor was completely covered in sand.
On top of that, pillows and blankets were strewn all over the place.
Snack bags lay on the floor, half their contents spilled out.
There was even an unidentified sticky liquid on the floor.
It looked like the scene after a burglar had ransacked the place.
No, even a burglar would have been cleaner than this.
"The desert's little sage, the man rich enough to buy a hundred chickens, the god of civil engineering...."
It wasn't just a visual shock filling the house.
A flag planted in the middle of the living room.
A noisy sound kept pouring out nonstop.
"This was a feature I definitely turned off...?"
Pointlessly thunderous sound effects and a machine voice echoed throughout the entire house.
The culprit was obvious.
"That bastard, Unit One...."
My trembling hands clenched into fists.
The fatigue I'd built up running back and forth across Seoul all day turned to anger in an instant.
But the culprit was nowhere to be seen.
"Hey! Where'd you go?"
The only answer to my shout was the echo of an empty house.
Unit One was nowhere in sight; I had no idea where it had gone.
I rubbed my forehead.
"Ah, my head...."
I started opening every room in the house and searching for it.
The basement training room, the bedroom, the bathroom.
But nowhere could I find it.
The last place left was the glass door leading to the backyard.
I opened the door and went outside.
And there, I finally found the culprit.
"What are you doing here?"
Unit One was locked in a bizarre wrestling match with a creature about its own size.
Apparently completely absorbed, it didn't even notice I was there.
"A cat?"
Its opponent was a black stray cat.
The cat was on high alert, hissing at Unit One.
Unit One carefully extended its sandy finger, trying to stroke the cat's head.
Every time it made contact, the cat swung its soft little paws at it.
Every time the cat's sharp claws struck Unit One's body, it made a sound like stone being scratched.
"...?"
Unit One tilted its head, seemingly feeling no pain at all.
Unfazed by the attack, Unit One grabbed the cat.
Its actions were more like play than a fight.
At last, after persistent attempts, Unit One managed to grab the cat around the waist and climb on top of it.
The cat ran around frantically trying to shake Unit One off, but Unit One only seemed delighted.
"Hey."
"...!"
At my low voice, Unit One's shoulders jolted in surprise.
Only then did it realize I'd arrived, and slowly turned its head.
The panic on its face was obvious.
"Haa...."
I sighed and walked over to the cat.
I lightly stamped my foot and waved my hand.
"Hey, shoo. Get out of here."
"Mew!"
After a moment's hesitation, the cat shot over the wall and vanished.
"Phew...."
At last, I let out a sigh of relief, thinking the problem was solved.
But that was only my mistaken assumption.
Unit One, standing beside me, tugged at my sleeve.
It stared sadly at the place where the cat had disappeared.
And then a clear strand of intent flowed into my mind.
I gasped and looked up.
"What? You want to keep the cat?"
I shook my head firmly.
"Absolutely not."
At my refusal, Unit One's body slumped.
Not giving up, it looked up at me with pleading eyes this time and sent its intent again.
"You'd be bored if you're alone?"
I pointed into the house.
The house had turned into complete chaos.
"You turned the house into this mess and now you want to keep a cat? How much more are you planning to wreck the place?"
At my rebuke, Unit One flinched and lowered its head.
It seemed only then to remember what it had done.
The sandy face turned sullen.
Its shoulders trembled violently, looking like it might burst into tears at any moment.
Watching that, the anger that had been surging just moments ago melted away like snow, and my heart softened.
"...No, even so, it's still no."
But that didn't mean I could suddenly take in a cat.
I had absolutely no confidence in raising a living creature.
I had zero experience keeping animals.
What kind of feed should I give it, how were vaccinations supposed to work?
I didn't know a single thing.
Above all else, I was a lazy human who could barely take care of myself.
I didn't think either of us had that much responsibility.
"...."
Still, Unit One's dejected look bothered me.
I couldn't keep watching Unit One stare at the floor with slumped shoulders.
"Haa... fine, fine. Stop looking so glum."
At my words, Unit One snapped its head up.
A faint glimmer of hope appeared on its face.
I pretended to be defeated and decided to take a step back.
"It's absolutely not coming inside the house. Instead...."
I pointed at the backyard with my hand.
"Let's compromise and say it can only play in this yard. If it comes to the yard when I'm not around, I'll even let you play with it."
That was the best compromise I could offer.
I didn't have the confidence to call myself its caretaker, but I could at least let it use the yard as a playground.
At my suggestion, the gloom around Unit One visibly lifted.
It gave a small nod.
It wasn't completely satisfied, but it seemed willing to accept it.
'I should look into pet care later.'
I thought to myself.
Or maybe make it a second one, a Unit Two.
Now that I even had a prosthetic hand, I'd been thinking about making a forge-specific Unit Two anyway.
But first, I had to deal with the immediate problem.
"All right, then you know what you need to do, right?"
I gestured with my chin toward the disaster zone that was the house.
Unit One wordlessly turned around and quietly started cleaning.
***
Before heading to the 33rd floor.
There was one lesson I'd learned on the 32nd floor.
The importance of flags, above all else.
At the very least, in this world, a flag was one of the ways to prove yourself.
If I had carried a flag around too, I probably wouldn't have been looked down on for being young.
I decided not to repeat last time's mistake.
"Hold this."
I handed Unit One a pure white flag embroidered with a golden hourglass.
Unit One took the flag and began waving it vigorously from side to side.
"Don't wave it around... no, forget it. Do whatever you want."
This flag had a function that let you declare territory and dramatically announce your introduction.
Of course, I had no intention of enabling that option.
Instead, I'd already entered a short, concise line myself.
[Entering the 33rd Floor (EXTREME).]
This time, too, the starting point wasn't a battlefield.
When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a strategy briefing room with a table.
It looked almost identical to the scene I'd seen on the 32nd floor.
Apparently no one had noticed that I'd suddenly appeared.
Everyone was still seriously absorbed in the meeting.
I quietly looked around the room.
'That person is....'
A familiar face caught my eye.
Court Mage Gerard.
He was still wearing his ornate robe, but he didn't look the same as before.
The wrinkles on his face were deeper, and his hair was snow-white.
The signs of age were plain to see.
"How dare you say that when you don't know anything!"
But his personality seemed unchanged.
Gerard was standing before one of the young commanders, lashing out sharply.
"You haven't even experienced the war from fifteen years ago!"
"But Lord Gerard, at this rate...."
"Silence! How dare some knightly riffraff presume to argue with a mage?"
I let out a small laugh at the sight.
That old man really hasn't changed.
Looking more closely, the king's face had changed too.
It wasn't the old king I'd met on the 32nd floor.
A much younger, more boyish-looking king was looking at the others with an uneasy expression.
'Looks like quite a bit of time has passed...'
Apparently, this was a point several years after the previous floor.
I walked toward them with a friendly expression and spoke.
"Hello."
At my voice, all the noise in the briefing room cut off like a lie.
Every gaze turned to me at once.
And among them was Gerard.
Gerard turned toward the sound, and the moment his eyes met mine, he froze solid.
His eyes twitched.
"H-huh... huff...!"
Gerard panted heavily.
He kept opening and closing his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but no proper sound came out.
He raised a trembling finger toward me, his face turning deathly pale.
"Th-th-that is... ah, ah...."
"Long time no see. You've gotten a lot older since I last saw you."
"Ah, aah... ah!"
Unable even to answer my cheerful greeting, Gerard's body toppled backward.
With a thud, the old man fell to the floor.
"Huh?"
"Lord Gerard!"
"Master!"
The area instantly descended into chaos.
A young mage who seemed to be his disciple hurried over and checked on his master.
After checking his pulse for a moment, the young mage let out a sigh of relief.
"He's only fainted. His age-related ailments have worsened.... He probably couldn't withstand the sudden shock."
The disciple called over the soldiers to help carry the master out.
Then the disciple turned to me with an embarrassed expression.
"I'm sorry. My master is very old, after all.... By the way, who might you be...?"
It seemed most of the others in the room, including the king, didn't recognize me.
To them, I was just an unknown child who had suddenly appeared.
Wary gazes were fixed on me.
I looked around.
Seymour wasn't there to introduce me.
'No, how much time has passed?'
No one recognized me.
Of course, I didn't know any of their faces either.
"Hmm... is Mr. Seymour not here?"
At my question, the air in the briefing room froze.
Everyone fell silent with solemn expressions.
The young king spoke heavily.
"How dare you mention Sir Seymour's name in a situation like this. Are you mocking me?"
The knights all reached for their sword hilts at once.
I sensed things were becoming quite troublesome.
This was why I'd brought the flag along.
I motioned to Unit One with a tilt of my chin.
"Wave it."
Unit One stepped forward and held the flag high.
As it waved the flag enthusiastically, a booming shout shook the briefing room in time with the motion.
"The kingdom's savior and the Desert's Little Sage has arrived—!"
"Ahem."
Embarrassing as it was, that should have been enough to introduce me.
Sure enough, the people's wary looks vanished immediately.
Instead, their eyes filled with shock.
The young king, barely older than a child, asked me in a trembling voice.
"You mean you're that sage from the legends...?"
I nodded.
Now we're talking.
I walked up to the table and sat in an empty chair.
"Could you explain what's going on right now? And how much time has passed?"
The old chancellor beside the king stepped forward and began explaining.
"Fifteen years...?"
He said that fifteen years had passed since I last appeared.
During that time, the kingdom had been peaceful, but recently there had been another large-scale invasion by the orcs.
And just a few days ago, Seymour and his elite knight order, the pride of the kingdom, had suffered a crushing defeat at their hands.
"Commander Seymour and all of the surviving knights were taken prisoner."
A shadow of despair fell over the king's face once again.
"According to their savage customs, there will soon be a public execution at the festival celebrating their victory."
The atmosphere in the briefing room was grim.
They were planning a rescue operation, but with no good options, the discussion had gone nowhere.
I listened quietly to all the explanations. The situation sorted itself out in my head.
'So this floor's quest is a Seymour rescue operation, then.'
I nodded readily.
"Understood. I'll go rescue them."