Chapter 32
Chapter 32
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 32
Chapter Title: For Elizabeth (4)
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The storyline hidden within the Absolute Defense Line and the Sealed Tower!
Once the viewers grasped it, their reactions were all the same.
How does every rise, development, turn, and conclusion lead straight to insulting me?
These bastards only ever think about new ways to trash me.
"Nah, fuck that. We don't even know if they're good yet. And they didn't die from the bombs. They got bitten by that spider."
If I had to pick between those two ways to go, dying to the spider seems better, right? At least Giant Queen Spider's got some queenly dignity. Yeah, sure.
At a loss for words, I brought my index finger to my lips.
"Shh, everyone quiet down. Let's watch a bit more of the footage. Looks like I can't stop it at will."
Hmm, now I get it.
These fuckers are definitely not my fans.
I grumbled as I switched my built-in bio-speaker to mute mode. Meaning I clamped my mouth shut.
The bleeding knight fiddled with his gauntlet.
"Thanks to the training I've built up as a knight, I'm holding on, but this body won't see tomorrow's sun."
"...I have no words."
"Mourn me or whatever. This life's ending soon anyway. I'll lock the door from inside and die."
"From inside?"
"If I take the key and go in, won't that give those bastards after the princess a hard time?"
These guys are louder. Should I just ignore the chat?
"What if Lord Giroshi doesn't return? What then?"
"My traps? He'd break through in under an hour. There's no way undead me would attack him, so he'd get the key."
"We'd better pray the door doesn't get smashed."
"Haha... It's just an iron door, after all. If we don't guard it right, it'll break in no time."
The mage looked down at the base of the tower with a bitter smile.
Then, a lightbulb went off in my head.
"Got it. One of the key drop conditions must be clearing the gate in under an hour."
I lowered my voice and explained.
"That plain iron door wouldn't break because until you open it with the key, the Sealed Tower gate beyond it hasn't spawned yet."
Yeah. Total asshole, just for me. Damn it.
That's when the mage extended a hand to the knight.
"Farewell, then. Sir Rodrigo."
"I won't forget you either, Vicious."
They shook hands with resolute eyes.
Soon, the mage leaped from the tower.
Planning to fly to the hallway with flight magic, probably.
The knight watched him go, then entered the door.
"Hup!"
Then, mustering his remaining strength, he twisted the lock mechanism.
That must be why the door was jammed.
"Right? Dude's insanely strong."
I wanna cry.
Hate comments on streamers? No way, never.
One second later, I was seriously pissed.
"...Even if Lord Giroshi doesn't come, someone else might save us. Gotta check the escape route."
The knight's mutter right after was that important.
The knight went to the wall and pulled out one brick.
Rumble-!
A small hole in the corner tried to open.
Seemed like a structure that opens even if the mechanism breaks.
Clearly an emergency escape route.
Seeing the hole, the knight quickly put the brick back.
The hole closed again.
"Phew..."
Was he checking if the escape route worked? Like fulfilling his duty, he sighed.
Too weak to stand, he headed for the chair.
The chair with the skeleton sitting in it.
He didn't sit directly, but it was obvious that was his final destination.
And so, the knight never moved again.
Quark-.
The role-playing zombies melted away too.
'...The zombie that fell outside the tower must be dead?'
No, no. That's not the point right now.
"Did everyone see that?"
I moved in sync with the frozen knight.
No, all of us who were holding our breath moved.
"Right?"
I touched the exact spot the zombie had.
Rumble-!
The hole snapped open like jaws!
Chills raced up my spine.
The Psychometry skill wasn't just for show.
'This... it's a skill!'
Not fortune-telling the future, but reading the past!
That's when enlightenment hit me.
God exists, and he's my viewers.
Disagree? I'm right.
"Uwaaaaaah!! Fuck, did you see that?! See it?! Live righteously and blessings come like this!!"
The chat's raw assessments didn't even register.
Psychometry's utility was endless.
'With this skill alone, any tricky gimmick reveals clues instantly.'
While broadcasting movie trailers, no less.
A skill that catches two rabbits: production and performance!
'There's a similar epic skill for assassins.'
A skill that spawns illusions of the target's past actions based on clues.
Illusion Chaser, I think.
'You can vaguely see where and what the chase target did.'
Super useful for disarming traps too.
Used for trap gates like Absolute Defense Line.
'Difference from mine: others can see the past footage too.'
But Illusion Chaser has longer range.
Hundreds of meters effective.
'This thing's way more useful than I thought!'
Still, for specifically, mine's better.
For streaming and raiding alike.
I lit up the darkness inside the hole with ghost cam.
"Who knew there was an entrance like this. No wonder the door won't open."
"At the point where an E-rank gate needs an A-rank, this is the proper strat."
El Ayla crawled right into the hole.
Don't want the stream cut, so cam's ahead of her.
'Catch her ass and my channel gets yellow-carded.'
Before the pervs complained, I continued.
"But guys, didn't you notice something weird in the footage?"
"I'm really gonna ban you. Not that. He locked the door to protect the princess and even laid down the defense line."
I almost kicked the guy from earlier but swallowed my anger three times and just muted chat.
Specifically, requested Unity Manager to.
Whew, too nice and I won't last as a streamer.
"Your nitpicking is the nitpicking. Sigh, that's why you don't talk to people with 200+ IQ gaps."
"Finally appreciating my vast magnanimity."
Hunter Stella's superchat popped up.
Yeah, donations have been sparse today.
While I was muting the arrogant pricks left and right, similar thoughts popped up in chat.
Exactly. That was the issue.
'The contradiction I felt in the footage.'
Absolute Defense Line and Sealed Tower.
Both spaces to protect the princess.
The defense line of loyalists who gave their lives for her.
But it didn't account for the princess's survival.
Or rather, it ended up that way.
"Nah, probably not."
Finished talking to manager, I jumped in.
"Look at this place. Even stuffed with 100 years of rations, she'd have died of old age."
The skeleton-guarded hallway was near ruins.
Obvious tons of time passed.
Survive that long on rations?
Absurd. Unless corpses were rolling around for food.
"If it opens from inside, maybe. Doubt it though. Name's Sealed Tower for a reason."
"Could be."
This gate's called Sealed Tower.
High chance princess wasn't free.
"But those two don't seem like they'd build a tower like this."
"Yes. But even if they couldn't help her escape, those two definitely tried to protect the princess inside."
El Ayla advanced into the dim hole.
Damn, crawls great on all fours. Pro at it.
"In the end, all three met this fate without escaping."
The story became a gate without seeing its ending.
Or maybe their world reached a conclusion, but this tragic moment is eternally rebroadcast from the past.
"Is it?"
More bullshit. My emotions are plenty rich.
I cry watching Prisoner of Azkaban.
But... well.
Is this really a sad story?
'If it ends like this, yeah, tragic.'
Loyalists fighting to protect princess from invaders.
Great mage who couldn't come to their aid till the end.
And the princess they sacrificed for, dying because of it.
But don't forget.
This ain't some isekai human theater.
It's a monster den bent on exterminating humans.
'If things went this way, you can guess, right?'
Something's still here in this gate.
Something the loyalists couldn't speak of.
Above all, we haven't met it yet.
The boss monster of this 'Sealed Tower'.
Screeech...
Ghosts slipped out into the room connected to the hole.
And there, in the shabby room's corner, it was.
A red-lacquered coffin bound in iron chains.
Time rusted the chains, but they held firm.
Until just seconds ago.
Clangclatter-!
Clang!!
The rusted chains shattered and flew.
Snapped from inside as the coffin opened.
Right after, a woman rose from the coffin.
"Well, figures."
I shook my head and muttered.
Some curse cast with malice?
Or what the princess wanted?
Either way, this is the whole story.
The cause and origin of the Sealed Tower.
Why blood bats swarmed.
The princess they tried to protect wasn't human.
The white-haired princess before us was a vampire with alluring red eyes.
"...Ufufu, ufufufufufu. Guests. Such long-awaited, welcome guests."
Flap-!
The princess in her seductive leather dress fluttered her bat wings as she emerged from the coffin.
Viewers were mesmerized by the vampire even through the screen.
Not literally mind-controlled, but the bloodsucking princess's beauty was on another level.
But I wasn't swayed by her looks.
Sorry, lie. I was a bit, but held firm.
'No matter how pretty the monster.'
You paying off my loans? Huh?
If she tossed me 100 gold like a proper princess, I'd loyally serve, but this ruined house didn't look capable.
Is this a home or pigsty? Clean up!
"El Ayla. Load one bomb."
So I kept my cool and commanded.
El Ayla calmly took combat stance too.
Yeah. No zombies left. Used 'em all pounding the door.
The last two vanished during psychometry.
'But there's still a corpse left.'
I manipulated El Ayla.
Obviously not blowing her up.
'Can't waste El Ayla. She's today's main DPS.'
Top of the tower's too cramped for Giant Queen Spider anyway.
So the corpse I'd blow was this one.
That's why I dragged it along on purpose.
Prophets are persecuted, geniuses mocked.
I ignored the public's misguided outrage.
Watch closely with eyes wide open.
This is the optimal solution for time attack!
"Princess! Your knight has returned!"
I hurled the corpse at the seductive vampire princess.
Sir Rodrigo's, the door guard knight.
"Catch the bomb!! Corpse Explosion!!"
The bloodsucking princess tilted her head at the flying loyalist's corpse, not grasping the situation.
Kaboom-!!!!
Purple flames slammed into the princess's face.
"Unh."
No personal grudge.
Totally not 'cause she fucked up the tower.