Chapter 17
Selenium, the holy land of the Adventurer's Guild.
Among its streets, the most bustling was First Avenue, where a fledgling guild had established its guildhouse.
At a solid-wood table inside, an unusual group of men and women sat facing one another.
Three young adventurers.
And one knight in a worn uniform.
“Pfffft! Kael, is that really true?! How can a wyvern grow old and die in midair?!”
The blond adventurer with a sword at his waist, Leon, burst into laughter the moment the knight finished speaking, clutching his stomach.
Across from him, the black-haired knight, Kael, groaned.
…
The two female adventurers seated on either side of Leon began to giggle and join in.
“Give it a rest, Leon. Don't tease him so much. Kael must be troubled enough with his imminent expulsion from the Lumen Kingdom's knight order.”
“Pfft! Ellen, you're the worst.”
“Do you think he'll get off with mere expulsion? If the knight assigned as the princess's sole escort allowed her to fall, isn't that grounds for execution?”
“Kael, it's been fun. Goodbye….”
“I told you… I wasn't the rider….”
Kael protested, but the only response was even louder laughter.
“Pfft! Then four people, including the rider, were riding that old wyvern? Pfffft!”
“Heehee. I'm losing it… At that point, shouldn't we be impressed that it managed to take off at all?”
“Stop making me laugh, Kael. My stomach hurts….”
“I wasn't trying to be funny….”
A knight and adventurers.
Generally speaking, these two professions were sworn enemies, looking down on each other.
But these people were different.
They had been childhood friends, growing up together since before the academy.
Of course, Kael's background was exceptionally provincial as well.
The knights of the minor kingdom of Lumen, to which he belonged, were not even up to the Empire's standards for a mercenary band. Even less so with one black-haired knight excluded.
“So, after sending the princess and the old chancellor to that grand Continental Unified Supreme Council in a hired carriage, you crawled all the way here because you were afraid of getting kicked out of the knight order? Pfffff!”
“I didn't run away, Leon. Mock me one more time, and I'll make you regret it.”
“Oh, how frightening.”
Kael glared at him, but Leon merely rested his chin on his hand and laughed it off.
“At last, we'll find out who the academy's true valedictorian is! We should call all our classmates together. Puena, you prepare the cookies.”
“Okay! Ellen!”
The knight Kael was being made the butt of their jokes.
He was on perfectly familiar terms with these freewheeling adventurers.
The male adventurer Leon had been his healthy rival throughout the academy years, competing with him for the top spot, while the two female adventurers, Puena and Ellen, were…
Kael himself had no awareness of how he treated them, but in truth, he harbored romantic feelings for both women.
The reason a man of chivalry could possess such an irreverent sort of heart was that he was so inexperienced he had not even realized those feelings were love.
The proof was that he had allowed them to join the guild Leon had established.
The adventurer Leon, on the other hand, knew everything.
He knew that Knight Kael was in love with both of them at once,
and that he had taken on the role of keeping Kael from realizing it.
The adventurer Leon cared for his friend Kael more than anyone else in the world.
“Kael. There's something I need to tell you.”
The smile vanished from Leon's face.
“But seriously, why don't you leave that little kingdom and join our guild? If it's you, I could even give you the guildmaster's position.”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden, Leon? I'm a knight of Lumen.”
Leon leaned forward and whispered.
“We've received some incredible information.”
“…What is it?”
“The contents of the Supreme Council meeting have been leaked. Apparently, the gatekeeper on Floor 1 of the mighty Demon King's Tower has left its post, and the demonic energy emanating from the entire tower has noticeably weakened.”
…?
“So the council is planning to organize a continental joint expedition and march on the Demon King's Tower soon.”
Kael's eyes narrowed.
“Leon, I'm sorry, but I find that difficult to believe. I'm not trying to insult you, but how could an ordinary adventurer like you know something that classified?”
Leon smiled again.
“Information in this world always reaches those who chase the scent of money first.”
Kael still looked unconvinced.
“Hmm. Even if that information is true, the expedition won't accept adventurers.”
At that, all three of them collapsed onto the floor at once.
It was as though Kael had used some kind of quick-draw sword technique.
Roaring laughter.
The three adventurers laughed so hard their chairs nearly toppled backward.
“PfffffHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
“Heehee. Kael really is so innocent! Ahaha!”
“Hehehehe. You haven't changed one bit….”
When Kael looked deeply puzzled, Leon spoke.
“Kael. Listen carefully. Our party isn't trying to join the council's expedition.”
“If that's not it…?”
“We're going to reach the tower before they do and plunder it clean.”
Kael sprang to his feet.
“Have you gone insane?!!!”
But Leon continued without changing his expression.
“It's not illegal, either. Haven't the council been encouraging adventurers to scout the tower by paying them all this time?”
It was insane talk.
“Leon! That's something that will get you killed before the Empire can even judge you!”
“The Second Tower Rush has begun.”
Leon's eyes flashed.
“Five hundred years ago, before the gatekeeper took its place in the Demon King's Tower. We learned until we were sick of it in history class how many families became founding heroes of new nations during the First Tower Rush, and what level of power their retainers gained, didn't we?”
During the first hundred years after the Demon King was defeated by the hero and the tower was first built,
rumors spread that the tower was a gold mine, based on the testimony of adventurers who entered and returned.
There was an inexhaustible golden treasury on Floor 100 of the tower.
That was soon proven to be true, and the Tower Rush began afterward.
Leon was claiming that era had returned.
“We'll go in first and take our share before the expedition arrives.”
“Don't talk nonsense. It's too dangerous.”
“I'm not saying we'll clear the tower and kill the Demon King. We'll just loot the treasure on Floor 100.”
“Even for that, three people is far too small a force!”
“No, the fewer and more elite the party, the better for the tower. You don't have to split the combat experience. My ancestor was a climber, and that's what he said.”
Kael's brow furrowed deeply.
“In the first place, why do we need to go before the expedition? I understand that the golden treasury contains enough gold for everyone who reaches Floor 100.”
“The Sheath of the Holy Sword will take control of the tower after the expedition and monopolize it. It's obvious. Soon, they'll make sure no one but themselves can enter.”
Kael's gaze wavered.
Leon had told him countless jokes over the years, but this time, it did not sound like a joke.
Because Leon's face was more serious than Kael had ever seen it.
“Are you really… going to the Demon King's Tower, Leon…? Puena…? Even Ellen?”
Ellen spoke with a confident expression.
“Kael, don't you trust us? Since graduating from the academy, have you ever seen a party stronger than ours?”
“……”
“That's right! Have you forgotten our four-person team? We astonished every professor!”
Kael was struck speechless and could not open his mouth.
Then Leon spoke with a hardened expression.
“Kael. If you join us, you can lift that poor little backwater kingdom you're giving your life to straight out of the gutter. You could become the strength behind the princess you like third most.”
Those words struck a nerve in Kael's heart.
“Huh? Third? Who are the first and second?”
Srrrng-!
The blade at Kael's waist slid halfway from its sheath.
In an instant, the air in the guildhouse froze.
Kael fixed Leon with a fierce glare.
“My friend. That remark crossed the line.”
“W-whoa. Calm down.”
“Don't speak of the kingdom so carelessly.”
The blade caught in its sheath was trying to slide free.
“All right, all right. I apologize.”
Even so, Leon continued his persistent proposal with the same sly smile.
“But even if you return to the knight order, I want you to take part in this plan.”
“Leon, you really are….”
Puena and Ellen joined in as well.
“We were always a four-person team! That part drove the professors crazy too. They said even our party size wasn't normal.”
“Kael, it's time you got a taste of money! If the principal learned that you, who were effectively co-valedictorian, were living in such crushing poverty, she'd shed tears over the damage to the academy's reputation!”
“That's right… You should replace that old scabbard, too….”
Kael clenched his jaw and pushed the half-drawn sword back into its sheath.
Click.
“…I'll think about it.”
He had not meant a word of it.
Kael was thinking only about how to stop these immature childhood friends of his.
Whether Leon knew what Kael was feeling or not, his playful voice flew after Kael's back as he left the guildhouse.
“Don't think about it for too long! If you come back wanted in the Kingdom of Lumen for dereliction of duty, I'll cut you off, so keep that in mind~!”
*
And then came the day of the decisive battle.
Kael's reply never came.
The party of three adventurers left Selenium that night.
At this point,
the council's expedition had not even chosen its members, let alone departed.
Leon, top swordsman of the Imperial Academy.
Ellen, top mage.
Puena, second-ranked mage.
These eccentrics had founded an adventurer's guild after rejecting every offer from the mage towers and spurning every summons from the knight orders.
The academy's cautionary tale and legend.
The three troublemakers known, along with Kael, as the ‘Rusty Golden Riders’ reached the Demon Realm in roughly seventeen hours.
Vrrr-
That was possible thanks to Ellen's sixth-circle spatial-transference magic, which she took great pride in.
They pierced straight through the Great Mountain Range in a single stretch.
Puena, gifted with an innate talent for support, sustained Ellen's spell by supplying mana, and during the cooldown between uses of the transference magic…
Whoosh—!
Leon cleaved through the air with the two of them tucked beneath his arms, one under each arm.
At last, the sky turned crimson.
They had entered the domain of the demonfolk.
But there was not even a single ant, let alone a blade of grass.
After the Demon King fell, the demonfolk scattered, leaving the Demon Realm an empty shell, while the survivors hid themselves in the Demon King's Tower.
They soon passed through that desolate land and
encountered a pillar standing as though it were the world's standard itself.
“This is….”
They looked up, but it was futile. There was no summit to be seen.
They did not hesitate.
They immediately pushed their way through the enormous first-floor gate of the Demon King's Tower.
The three adventurers swallowed hard and gripped their weapons tightly.
But.
The common area of Floor 1 was likewise…
There was not a single ant in sight.
“What…?”
“Was the gatekeeper on Floor 1 not replaced… but completely gone?”
Puena gripped her staff tightly and kept watch on her surroundings. Leon turned to Ellen and asked,
“Ellen, what does the energy on Floor 2 feel like?”
Ellen closed her eyes and focused on the energy.
“I don't sense any dangerous demonic energy at all.”
Leon nodded.
“For now, let's proceed carefully.”
And so they headed for the next floor.
But.
“Again?”
When they opened the door to Floor 2, the situation was the same. There was nothing there.
They kept climbing.
Floor 3, Floor 4, Floor 5….
The empty scenery repeated itself.
Floor 10.
Floor 20.
Floor 30.
It was unbelievable.
The tower had become vacant.
It seemed that not only the gatekeeper on Floor 1, but every demon in the tower, had vanished.
Amid the confusion, Ellen asked,
“Could someone have already come through? Is it empty because they swept it clean first?”
“That's impossible. I was told the tower's monsters don't disappear. Like the golden treasury on Floor 100, it provides monsters equally to every party… I'm sure of it.”
Leon said that, but he was not confident.
His ancestor had left those records four hundred years ago, while the changes in the tower had occurred only three days earlier.
Honestly, he could not even guess what kind of change had taken place.
But they decided to keep climbing the tower's stairs.
Even if someone had already arrived at the tower, even if that was why it was empty, Leon thought there was still a chance as long as that party had not reached the golden treasury on Floor 100.
“Let's at least make it to Floor 100….”
Floor 40. Floor 50.
The floor numbers continued to rise.
And finally.
The party of three adventurers stepped onto the stairs leading to Floor 60.
Creeeeak-
It was when they opened the door.
“Uh….”
There was something there.
It was not a monster finally appearing.
The moment Leon looked ahead, he lowered the hand resting on his sword hilt.
“So someone really did get here first….”
“What a letdown….”
“It's all right! We're only on Floor 60!”
They did not recognize the girl as an enemy.
That was only natural.
Because in the center of the enormous chamber where the girl was…
A tent.
Chairs and planks.
A device spitting flames.
And a pot of food resting on top of it.
Those things had been set up there.
So it was only natural for them to think,
“Did she set up camp here…?”
Puena innocently called out a greeting.
“Hello?! That's a really unusual tent you've set up!”
The owner of Floor 60 turned her head.
An all-black goth-lolita dress adorned with frills.
A beautiful blue-eyed girl with silver hair tied into twin tails.
“Wow… that person is really pretty!”
And in one of the girl's hands was a steaming cup.
But.
She dropped it just then.
The moment she saw the three adventurers, she panicked and turned pale.
Vwoom-!
Ellen instinctively cast spatial transference and barely caught the cup as it fell toward the girl's knees.
But perhaps the sudden act of closing the distance startled the girl even more, because her face turned deathly pale.
She looked ready to faint.
Even so, she kept moving this way and that as though searching for something.
Ellen grabbed the girl and spoke to calm her down.
But perhaps it had the opposite effect, because the girl began struggling violently.
“You don't have to be so startled… We're not bad people!”
“We were surprised too, since we didn't expect anyone to have arrived before us….”
“She's adorable!!!”
The girl was trembling, her face pale with terror.
Even so, her appearance was unreal.
“Eek—! She's so cute up close. How old are you?”
“Oh, she really is pretty. Did you come to this tower alone?”
“Leon. Don't go near this kid. You're filthy.”
“I haven't even done anything yet….”
After warning Leon, the blond-haired adventurer, Ellen said to the girl,
“Would you like to join our party?”
“……”
The girl could not answer them.
She could not understand their language, but even setting that aside, to the girl, their voices sounded like
“우҉̢͕̞̰̅͋͆͠ 리҉̨̯͇̀͞파҈̢͓̖͆̔̿͝티҉̨͓̟̇̕에҈̧̞̙̎̃̕들҈̢͙̫̪̒͞어오҈̡̩̭҇̒지҉̨͉̠͛͒͡않҉̟͓̌̃̚͢͡을҉͇̈́͐͜͡래҈̨̜̋̕?̷̨̮̤̔̕”
because they were a noise that seemed to scratch at the inside of her head.