Floor 32, Guardians of the Sky Whale (1)

"…I'll be cleaning and stirring up dust while I tidy things up, so give me a moment before you come in."

She was talking faster than usual.

Not only that—her tone was oddly commanding. It was like she'd swapped places with a completely different Roxanne than the one I knew.

Well, to be fair, I hadn't spent enough time around her to know her all that well in the first place.

Still, it raised questions. She'd said everything was fine, so why insist?

"I really don't mind, but—"

"No, *I* mind. My companions are unusually fussy about cleanliness, so it's far worse in there than you can imagine. One moment, please."

With that, Roxanne hurried into the airship. Her footsteps were brisk, almost frantic.

Seriously—how messy could cleaning be that she had to keep me out of the room for it?

Is something fishy going on?

The suspicious behavior stirred a flicker of doubt in me.

But the thought soon faded. Whatever the elves were doing inside the airship was none of my business.

The situation was already past the point of turning back. The trial of the 32nd floor had to be completed alongside these elves—and the elves' goal was to save the sky whales, same as mine.

Whatever. Not my problem.

They shared my objective, so I doubted they'd do me harm. Whether they even had the ability to, I honestly wasn't sure.

For all I knew, they really were just ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cleaning with extraordinary dedication.

I gathered my thoughts and turned my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠gaze to the sky whales trailing the airship, mulling over the raid that was bound to come.

The hunters and the pursuit squad…

How would they attack?

The harpoon guns the culling fleet had used came to mind first. They'd likely bring similar weapons.

As for the kingdom's pursuit squad, they'd be targeting me and the airship rather than the sky whales, so shells of some kind could well come flying.

At worst, one of the kingdom's combat airships might give chase.

While I was racking my brain, a promising idea surfaced.

The elves located the sky whales scattered across the mountain range using wind spirits.

Which meant spirits could just as easily detect the presence of enemies, too.

If hostiles appeared within a certain range, I could simply deploy the Shadow Curtain. Couldn't I?

The mission instructed me to move as many sky whales as possible.

Just like the deck stained by betrayal on the 29th floor, my score here would hinge on how many whales survived.

Seven days given at the start—and seven sky whales.

It could have been coincidence, but the numbers felt deliberate.

There was no need to fight while exposing the whales to danger when I didn't have to.

Just then, Dobby tugged at my arm.

"Kkiik! Suyeok!"

"Hmm? What is it?"

Dobby jerked his head behind us. When I turned, Roxanne was walking toward me.

I'd been so lost in thought that I hadn't noticed her approach.

She spoke calmly as she drew near.

"I think about ten more minutes should do it."

"That's quicker than I expected."

"I hurried them along a little…"

Roxanne trailed off with a sheepish smile.

Suddenly, it struck me that her lips looked redder than they had a moment ago.

"Did you put on lipstick or something?"

"Pardon?"

Roxanne flinched and ran a hand over her mouth.

"No, it's just—your lips seem a little redder than before."

"Hmm, perhaps my circulation is improving from the joy of saving the sky whales. In any case…"

Roxanne's expression turned mischievous, the corner of her mouth curling upward.

"Stealing glances at my lips? You're bolder than I thought."

"What? No, that's not—"

"Haha, I'm only teasing. You have an innocent side, don't you?"

Flustered by her prank, I must have made an amusing sight—Roxanne clapped her hands and laughed.

Hmm. First Alexei, and now it seemed everyone had been playing jokes on me lately.

As I stood there exchanging idle chatter with Roxanne, an elf soon emerged from the airship and called out to us.

"Lady Roxanne! The cleaning is finished!"

"You heard her. Let's go in."

The moment I followed Roxanne aboard, a fragrant scent washed over me from the entrance.

It wasn't anything artificial like perfume—more like the scent of flowers?

Reading my expression, Roxanne offered an explanation.

"Pleasant, isn't it?"

"Mm, it is, but it also feels a bit much. Is it flowers?"

"Yes, we scattered powdered lorren petals."

"I don't know much about flowers… but is it really all right for elves to use them this way?"

Powdered flower petals? Weren't they supposed to be extreme naturalists? It struck me as odd that they'd cut flowers and put them to use like this.

When I voiced the question, Roxanne smiled with her eyes.

"Lorren petals fall naturally on their own. We harvest a portion of them for use."

"I see. Still… aren't they laying it on a bit thick?"

The fragrance was lovely, but overdone. The deeper we walked into the ship, the more it stung my nose.

Could Roxanne be angry with me? Had my pestering her about the cleanup annoyed her?

Nothing else explained blanketing the entire interior in flower scent like this.

Roxanne shook her head lightly.

"The stale, musty smell was far too strong—we had to use at least this much. Besides, it's closer to a deodorizer than an air freshener, so it'll settle down soon."

I gave a small nod. Now that I thought about it, beneath the heavy floral scent there really was a faint fishy odor.

At a passing sniff, it almost resembled the smell of blood.

Hmm, hard to say. Maybe the airship's crew had caught rats and simply left them lying around somewhere?

At least she'd promised it would fade soon.

"You can rest here. I'll be in the room next door, so call if you need anything."

"Thank you."

Just as I was about to step into the cabin, something I'd been thinking about earlier resurfaced.

"Oh, Roxanne—the hunters and the pursuit squad. Can your spirits detect them too?"

"Of course. We can track them without any trouble up to around three kilometers."

"Oh—only three kilometers? Didn't you locate the sky whales far off in the mountains?"

"That's because we attached spirits to the sky whales themselves."

Right. One had been attached to my ring as well.

Hmm, so the spirits' detection range was narrower than I'd assumed.

Three kilometers…

Plenty of distance to spot an airship hanging in the sky with the naked eye.

So I'd have to wait until the enemy spotted us before raising the Shadow Curtain.

Better than nothing, though. The airship moved at a decent speed, so if we slipped out of view, we'd have a window to escape.

"Could you alert us the moment enemies appear? If we play it right, we might evade a fight entirely."

"Oh? You have a plan of some kind?"

"I'll show you later. You've had a long day—get some rest."

"Very well, then. I'll set today's curiosity aside for future enjoyment. Rest well, Kwon Suhyeok."

After parting with Roxanne, I stretched out on the bed in the cabin.

There was only one bed, so I had no choice but to share it with Dobby—but thankfully it was wide enough for the two of us.

My head throbbed a little.

I couldn't tell whether it was from thinking too hard ever since we'd entered the 32nd floor, or from the floral scent.

Either way, the elves' spirits would warn us of any incoming attack.

It was time to grab a little sleep.

Contrary to my initial worry, a full day passed without the hunters or the pursuit squad showing themselves.

We detoured around the cities, and in hindsight, the pursuit squad had probably needed more time to catch up to us anyway.

Because of that, Dobby and I were enjoying a leisurely stretch of time aboard the airship.

Drifting through the sky like this, the 588th Night Witches Bombardment Brigade of Saborne Planet suddenly came to mind.

Maybe I should have asked Erendil to at least lend me a broom back then.

Not that it mattered much—I could already walk on empty air with Kashahtum's Shoes of the Sky… but still, I found myself wishing for a proper flying tool.

Come to think of it, I'd never actually browsed the shop.

That shop had everything under the sun, so there was a chance a broom was in there somewhere.

Hmm. I'd have to look in the next Waiting Room.

Or… should I just take the airship with me when this floor ends?

The thought came to me out of nowhere.

It was a mimic that had swallowed even a giant dragon's corpse. An airship would be no problem at all.

If I held onto it, it would come in handy on the combined floors to come.

I could load it up with mages, for instance, and rain spells down on the ground below.

The only issue, of course, was that I had no idea how to pilot the thing.

Mid-thought, one of the elves abruptly shouted.

"Nine o'clock!"

The cry was urgent. Even before the word left her mouth, I knew enemies had appeared.

"It's the hunters!"

Right—we'd been quiet for a day, so it was about time they showed up.

The moment the elf finished speaking, I whipped my gaze toward the nine o'clock direction.

Thankfully, they hadn't come by airship.

Above the sky to the left of our vessel, clouds of dust were rippling.

Roughly twenty bizarre vehicles.

As I focused my vision, the cannon-like contraptions mounted on them came into view.

They looked strikingly similar to the harpoon guns I'd seen before.

The elves on deck sprang into frantic motion.

"Lady Roxanne!"

"I see them! Move, move! Load the shells and commune with the spirits!"

Before the distance between us and the hunters could shrink any further, I activated the Shadow Curtain.

In the blink of an eye, the curtain swallowed the airship and all seven sky whales.

Reliable as ever.

Even in the sun-drenched daytime sky, the curtain ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠held steady.

I'd only ever used it on the ground, so I hadn't known—but its effect was even better than I'd imagined.

Through the monochrome expanse of my darkened vision, I watched the hunters' panicked movements.

Vehicles slowing down, swerving left and right for no reason…

The elves and the sky whales were just as startled by the sudden inversion of their vision.

The elves blinked rapidly, trying to make sense of the situation.

The sky whales stirred and fussed for a while, but thankfully they soon settled back into following the lure incense.

In the silence that followed, Roxanne and the elves all turned their eyes on me.

"Th-this is… impossible. The power of yet another god…"

So flustered was she that Roxanne actually stammered.

But she quickly steadied herself, fixing me with a far calmer gaze.

"Just who… are you?"

"Kwon Suhyeok."

"Don't joke with me. You are wielding the powers of two gods that don't exist in this world."

When I didn't answer, Roxanne bit her lip.

"I could accept one. You told me you were a god from another world—and perhaps another god might be quietly coming into being in this one, unknown to us. But this… this makes no sense."

Listening to her, a question nagged at me.

How could they tell that the powers I used were divine in the first place?

Even Komet, a chronicler of gods, hadn't been able to tell.

Did elves, so intimate with nature, simply sense things differently?

While I was turning this over in my head, Roxanne dropped her gaze to the floor. She seemed to have resigned herself, all on her own.

"You have no intention of telling me."

"It's less that I won't and more that I can't. I'm sorry."

"No, it's all right. I have my own circumstances as well—and you have yours, Kwon Suhyeok."

I gave a small nod and turned my attention to the hunters.

Having lost their target, the hunters were firing harpoons wildly into empty air.

But there was no need to worry. We had already traveled a long way, and their harpoons went flying off into pointless nowhere.

When I looked back at Roxanne, she was wearing a somewhat awkward smile.

"Still… you've received the blessing of the Wind God, so you… you do love nature, don't you?"

The question came so abruptly that for a moment I had no idea how to answer.

Did I love nature?

Well, if pressed, I suppose I leaned that way?

The thought drifted through my mind, and I quickly sorted myself out. There was only one answer worth giving here.

"I'd say you could call it that."

"That's a relief."

Roxanne beamed—but it was a smile with something faintly unsettling about it.

An awkward silence hung between us for a moment afterward.

It felt as though one use of the Shadow Curtain had put a strange distance between Roxanne and me.

"You did tell me to alert you the moment enemies appeared… so I take it you can't maintain this shroud for very long?"

Perhaps the silence bothered her—Roxanne smoothly changed the subject.

"No, I can't keep it up for long. Once the hunters drift out of range, I'll have to withdraw it."

"Tell me when you do. I'll have the spirits sweep for any hostiles nearby."

With that, Roxanne turned away. But the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠eyes of the other elves remained fixed on me.

I couldn't tell whether they were friendly or hostile, which made their gazes all the more uncomfortable.

I had no idea how things had come to this.

When they'd seen the Ring of the Azure Dawn Breeze, they'd reacted so positively—yet one use of the Shadow Curtain, and everything turned awkward.

Did elves simply hate shadows?

Hmm. Now that I'd started paying attention, yesterday's suspicious behavior from Roxanne came back to me too.

Ugh, forget it. I just need to clear the hidden mission anyway.

I cast my gaze outside the airship.

Another day and a little more went by.

The hunters showed up two or three more times, but against all expectation they posed little problem. Raising the Shadow Curtain was all it took.

Every so often a blind-fired harpoon would streak toward the whales, but the elves swatted them away with the power of their spirits.

The real problem came in the early evening, when the kingdom's pursuit squad appeared.

Six airships surfaced over the eastern sky.

Unlike the vessel we were riding, the sheer number of weapons bolted onto them was on another level.

I hastily unfurled the Shadow Curtain—but Roxanne was already despairing.

"Gods… six combat airships…"

"What's wrong? They can't see us, so we just run, right?"

"No. They may not see us, but they can pinpoint our position."

"What?"

"They're royal airships. They carry tracking devices."