Chapter 66
The war tent was abuzz with murmurs.
The same was true as the man who had identified himself as the expedition commander began introducing himself.
“Kael, a swordsman of the Royal Knights of the Kingdom of Lumen. I have been appointed commander of this expedition.”
The black-haired young man bowed from the platform.
A face that still had a youthful air.
A worn uniform.
The crest of a knightly order that could not have been more unfamiliar.
By any measure, he was an unlikely candidate for supreme commander of this united human expedition.
“Who is that?”
“Unbelievable. Some greenhorn like that…”
“The commander of the Demon King Tower expedition is merely some backwater youngster… Is the Council’s decision really final?”
The warriors looked Kael up and down, openly expressing their disappointment.
Grumbles erupted here and there, accompanied by sounds of tongue-clicking.
But those with political insight suppressed bitter smiles as they watched the black-haired swordsman on the platform.
‘That damned Council has pulled a stunt worthy of them.’
The reason was obvious.
Among the great powers of the Eastern and Western Continents, the Council could not appoint anyone belonging to a single faction as the expedition commander.
If someone from a single power were to take the position.
After achieving meaningful results in the Demon King Tower, that commander might be hailed as a hero by the entire world.
The Council was wary of that.
No great power wanted someone from another faction to bask in the attention of the entire continent.
This expedition had not been organized to bring down the Demon King.
Therefore, no hero would emerge, but the rulers were wary even of a similar idol appearing.
This was an age of rival warlords.
The common people who longed for peace yearned for a hero, but the rulers did not.
They had never once wanted humanity to unite.
That was the Council’s true intent.
But the Council was the body organizing the united expedition, so someone had to take the lead.
At that moment, there was a faction perfectly suited to the role.
The scarecrow that had taken the Council’s seventh seat in place of the Dwarven Kingdom destroyed by the Eastern Continent’s Empire.
A minor kingdom that could be cast aside and erased without a trace as soon as the Tower’s conquest was over.
Lumen.
It would have been perfect if someone from that kingdom’s warriors took charge of the expedition.
Since the hilt of the holy sword had pointed to the Kingdom of Lumen in the Council’s selection, they had more than enough justification.
“That’s enough. Let’s get on with the council of war!”
Unable to endure it any longer, a mercenary captain from one of the duchies stepped forward and barked.
Kael on the platform bit his lip.
“I will. But before that, there is something I must make clear to all of you.”
The murmuring in the war tent died down.
“Before our united expedition was formed, there were already people who had set out for the Demon King Tower.”
A stir ran through the tent.
As soon as he finished speaking, the mood began to boil over, and Expedition Commander Kael hurriedly continued.
“The first is a young adventurer party that departed from Selenium. And the second is…”
Kael’s thoughts were wholly with them, but he continued speaking quickly without betraying a hint of emotion.
“The third prince of the Sahad Empire, Marwan, who attended the Council. He led his private soldiers and advanced toward the Demon King Tower ahead of us.”
“What?!”
A commotion of unprecedented proportions shook the war tent.
Several gazes turned toward the warriors directly under the Sahad Emperor standing there.
But that was all.
“As the expedition commander explained, it was solely the Third Prince Marwan’s decision.”
They offered only that brief, irresponsible explanation afterward, but no one pressed the issue.
The Sahad warriors’ brutality was notorious, so most lacked the nerve to challenge them, while
those strong enough to rival them had known about it from the outset and said nothing.
The mere fact that Kael was able to mention the Third Prince Marwan’s solo advance
was proof that it was already known and that its public announcement had been approved.
But.
The existence of the adventurer party that had entered the Tower before them was completely new information to everyone.
Even the high-ranking officials here had never heard of it, so they immediately demanded answers from Kael as if interrogating him.
“What is the source of that information?!”
Kael answered.
“…They are my fellow students. They told me directly that they were going to the Tower.”
Leon, Ellen, Fuena.
The inflexible swordsman Kael spoke his friends’ names aloud himself.
“How did information from the Council leak out?!”
“Those insolent fools must be arrested and punished immediately!”
The commander of the Holy Kingdom’s knights slammed his fist on the table, veins bulging in his neck.
“Where are those arrogant adventurers now?!”
Kael’s head drooped.
The fingertips of his clenched hand had turned white.
“Just like Prince Marwan’s army… I believe they are inside the Tower.”
He had to find his friends.
That was the very reason Kael had volunteered for the expedition.
- You are a promising knight who will lead Lumen’s knights in the future. How could you set foot in such a deathtrap…
Princess Elia had attended the Council barefoot.
She had tried again and again to dissuade Kael from joining the Demon King Tower expedition.
Kael was the warrior she valued most in the kingdom. She had wanted to accompany him to the Council as well, but she had been unable to because of the unfortunate incident in which the old wyvern fell.
- The Demon King Tower is no longer a deathtrap below the 100th floor. You heard the news that the Gatekeeper’s magic has disappeared too… Your Highness heard it as well, didn’t you?
She could not sway Kael’s stubborn resolve.
In the end, the princess’s final condition was…
- I won’t allow it unless you become the expedition commander!
That was it.
She was certain that Kael, who was not yet a knight commander, would never be elected even if she registered him as a candidate. To her, it was an impossibility.
But Elia’s assumption proved completely wrong.
Kael was chosen as expedition commander for much the same political reasons that had placed Princess Elia in the sheath of the holy sword,
and he willingly shouldered the burden in order to find his friends.
‘If they still haven’t returned by now… they must be stranded somewhere in the Tower.’
Resolve filled his black eyes.
But the scene below the platform was completely at odds with Kael’s feelings.
“Prince Marwan is still in the Tower as well…! We’re not too late!”
The news that they had not all returned alive yet.
It washed away the discontent that had been blooming on the warriors’ faces.
“Then the gold coins on the Tower’s 100th floor are still there!”
“The Gatekeeper’s magic really has disappeared, right?”
The war tent was filled with greed.
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“Mmm··”
I braced a hand against the floor and pushed myself upright.
“Here again…”
I was in a tent on the 121st floor of the Demon King Tower.
Not my studio apartment.
It still felt strange; I hadn’t gotten used to it yet.
“Has it been exactly seven hours…?”
The fatigue had completely left me.
The part of my consciousness synchronized with the Blood Knight’s senses was at peace as well.
Nothing had happened on the 100th floor.
First, I brought up a hologram and logged into the gallery.
“Let’s see if a conclusion was reached…”
Before I fell asleep, Death Note Daejang-gyeong, Seol Harin, and Sword Venerable Jihee
had been debating what I should learn next.
Who could have won after seven hours of keyboard warfare?
My scrolling finger stopped.
The atmosphere in the gallery was strange.
[Title: Black Tea Teacher’s hijacking at the end is fucking absurd lol]
[Title: No, but if that’s possible, then it really is the first thing he should learn, yeah]
[Title: Was Black Tea Bro a natural-born member of the Demon King’s army?]
Unexpected post titles had taken over the main page.
An unexpected figure seemed to be drawing everyone’s attention.
One Who Knows the Leisure of a Cup of Black Tea.
It seemed the necromancer with the permanent handle, who had never participated in the debate at all, had suddenly been chosen.
What on earth had happened while I was asleep?
ㅇㅇ(121F) : I’m here. What happened? Why is the necromancy teacher…
ㄴ One Who Knows the Leisure of a Cup of Black Tea : Oh my, you’re here!
ㄴ One Who Knows the Leisure of a Cup of Black Tea : I had to be away for quite a while on personal business·· I never dreamed such incredible things would happen while I was gone…
Like me, she seemed completely bewildered.
ㄴ One Who Knows the Leisure of a Cup of Black Tea : I’m so glad we could meet at last! I never imagined you’d break through to the fourth Circle and even achieve Circle Uplift in such a short time…^^
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(249F) : A three-Circle leap in twenty hours was genuinely impossible to predict lol
Apparently, my rapid growth while she was away had caught her off guard.
ㄴ One Who Knows the Leisure of a Cup of Black Tea : If you’ve learned Persona Divide and succeeded in separating your thoughts, Newbie, there is one secret art I need to teach you. ^^
ㄴ One Who Knows the Leisure of a Cup of Black Tea : More than anything else, you need to learn that right now!
Had I missed the chance to learn something truly important?
Despite her sudden intrusion, everyone in the gallery seemed to accept her claim.
For that stubborn trio to back down, it had to be an exceptionally sound and important technique.
I tapped away at the keyboard.
ㅇㅇ(121F): What might that be?
ㄴ One Who Knows the Leisure of a Cup of Black Tea : I don’t have much time, so I’ll teach you as we jump straight into practical training. ^^
She issued her instructions.
ㄴ One Who Knows the Leisure of a Cup of Black Tea : First, the intruders you killed at the very beginning·· Would you take the corpses of those humans you stored in your inventory out and place them on the floor?
The first intruders I had killed.
‘You mean those female mages…’
It seemed she needed their corpses.