Floor 32, The Sky Whale Guardians (3)

I drew the dagger from the mimic.

Time had slowed to a crawl, but Retra's bodyguards and the captain still managed to react. The expedition commander might have been a political appointment, but the rest of them clearly had real skill.

They just couldn't keep up with my speed.

I kicked off from where I stood and closed the distance in a heartbeat, seizing Retra's shoulder and wrenching it around. Pulling his arm to spin his whole body, I pressed the dagger to his throat.

Time snapped back.

The captain hadn't even finished drawing his sword.

Bang! The bodyguards, a beat too late, fired at the spot where I'd just been standing.

"Uwaaagh!"

Retra's shriek of terror rang out, and the sailors' gun muzzles swung around belatedly — clack, clack — to aim at me.

The moment Retra realized the guns were pointed in his direction, he panicked outright.

"Put those down, you idiots! Put the guns down!"

The sailors glanced back at the captain, waiting for orders. Our eyes met — his sword still half-drawn. Confusion and fury flickered in his gaze.

What's it going to be?

When I asked with my eyes, the captain gritted his teeth and bellowed at his men.

"Put the guns away!"

He'd barely finished before they hastily lowered their muzzles.

"You son of a bitch! Let go of me! ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Let go, I said!"

Even with a blade at his throat, Retra thrashed wildly in my grip. Either he simply couldn't read the situation, or he didn't care to. I found it a little tiresome, honestly.

Not threatening enough, huh?

Instead of words, I gave the dagger a slight tug. The honed edge skimmed across the soft skin of his throat — his skin probably nicked, just barely. Feeling that cold sensation, Retra went rigid.

"Stay still if you want to live."

"Hhk…!"

Control of the situation swung back to me.

That flash of inspiration I'd had earlier — this was it. In a situation this hard to break through head-on, Floor 32 offered only one way out.

A hostage.

If I'd merely taken the captain hostage, the captains of the other airships wouldn't have stood by quietly. But Retra was different — he had powerful backing.

'The kind of guy who curses out his own captain, after all.'

Which meant no one could move rashly against me under any circumstances.

The plan from here was simple. Take Retra back to our airship, move the Sky Whales east of Regium, then let him go. After all, I'd be returning to the Waiting Room anyway — and the fake expedition commander impersonating Retra was someone we'd never have to face again. No problems there.

'Wait a second…'

Just as I was about to head back to our airship with Retra in tow, another clever thought struck me. Did I really need to return to the original ship at all? The combat airship the pursuit team had arrived on was far faster — and the whales would follow the lure incense regardless, so we might as well simply switch ships.

"Y-you think you'll get away with this?!"

"You — quiet down."

Dragging my captive along, I looked back at the captain.

"If you'd rather not watch this one die, how about swapping airships with the elves?"

"What in the world are you talking about?!"

"What do you think? We're switching airships. We're planning to move the Sky Whales east of Regium. Once that's done, I'll release him."

"And why should we believe—"

"And if you don't?"

When I shot the question back brazenly, the captain's mouth snapped shut. He glanced at Retra's bodyguards, but they had no solution either. The bodyguards glared at me with faces like they'd bitten into something foul.

Hmm — they weren't worried about their master so much as picturing their own futures. Fair enough, really. Once Retra got free, their suffering would be plain to see. Knowing his temper, he'd raise hell later about why they'd failed to protect him.

Well, better to get chewed out than to die by my hand, no?

"Roxanne! Grab the whale lure incense and come over here!"

"Yes?"

"We're switching airships! The combat one is faster."

We wouldn't be able to run at full speed because of the whales, of course, but every scrap of time saved counted.

Hmm… once I'd said it, a twinge of regret crept in. I worried whether they'd raise a fuss about cleaning again, now that we'd switched airships. No — in a situation like this, they'd see to it themselves.

"Y-yes, sir! Everyone!"

Roxanne, quick to grasp the situation, told the elves to gather the lure incense and move.

I turned my gaze back to the captain. Worried he might lose his nerve and order an attack, I added:

"Let's do this quietly. It should only take two or three days to reach eastern Regium. Once the whales are moved, I'll release him and return your airship."

The captain's face clouded over, and he fell into deep thought.

Hmm. Not enough, is it? He still couldn't bring himself to trust my word. Let's see… what could earn his belief…

Then I remembered what had happened on Floor 31. Right — better to give an example than to merely talk.

"Nobody at the expedition camp or the temporary dock was hurt. That should tell you something. I have no intention of harming anyone."

"…And how exactly do you plan to return Retra?"

"You follow at a set distance. If things go wrong, you can attack us then."

I'd already worked this part out, too. With Retra as hostage and the pursuit team trailing behind us, the hunters wouldn't dare come close. In other words, the royal airships would effectively become our bodyguards — and with no need to loop back through the city, we'd move faster as well. And from the captain's standpoint, he could strike at us the moment anything went south.

He'd probably take it positively?

After a brief huddle with Retra's bodyguards, the captain nodded firmly.

"…Fine, we'll do it that way. Keep your promise. Unless you'd rather be blown out of the sky."

"Good, that's settled, then. Oh — don't follow too closely. The Sky Whales don't like it."

Just as I'd predicted, nothing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠much happened after I took Retra hostage. The royal airships trailed us at a set distance, so no hunters made an appearance. And with our course bent away from the cities, we were sailing smoothly toward eastern Regium.

Only one nuisance remained.

"You garbage elves! I said bring me food! I'm hungry!"

It was Retra, whining all day long. At the captain's request that we keep the hostage where they could see him, we'd tied him up on deck — yet his voice carried all the way into the cabin. First he'd demanded water; now it was a meal.

At Retra's sudden bellyaching about food, Dobby spoke up to me.

"Kkiik! Suyeok! Dobby hungry!"

"Hm? Yeah? Then let's eat something too."

Just as I was pulling the jerky out of the mimic, a murmur drifted in from outside the cabin — from the far end of the corridor. The elves' voices. Bored as I was, I pricked up my ears, and whispers no ordinary person should have been able to hear began to filter through.

"Livren, don't you just want to eat that thing up?"

"Pffhah! The plump ones do look rather tasty."

Eating Retra?

It sounded like a joke, but something about the snickering made my skin crawl.

"No, wait — isn't he Delrheim's boy? One of the Furnace Lords of the Topf Kingdom? Honestly, he's exactly the kind we ought to just eat."

"True enough, but… we can't. We'd all die if we did."

Hearing the conversation continue, I started to suspect that first remark hadn't been a joke at all.

No way. Elves eating human flesh? That can't be right…

Then a memory struck me like a hammer.

Elves eat only the vermin that harm nature. And to the elves — fanatical naturalists to the last — the development-crazed humans of this other world were nature-destroyers, plain and simple. So in elven eyes, couldn't humans be classified as pests? Harmful insects crawling across a sacred world?

'Come to think of it, they were suspicious from the moment I first boarded.'

The way they hadn't let me inside the ship at first. And the red tinge around Roxanne's mouth when she came back from wherever she'd gone.

Had they eaten someone aboard while I wasn't looking?

'No — if they'd dragged a person onto the ship, I'd have noticed.'

Don't jump to conclusions. It could just be dark humor among the elves. Back on Earth, people said things like "If you don't behave, the scary man will come take you away," after all. I didn't know elven culture; I might be misunderstanding everything.

Keep the doubt alive, but don't let the imagination run wild.

"Kkiik? Suyeok? You sick somewhere?"

Dobby's words broke my reverie. He was peering up at me with puzzled eyes — I'd stiffened mid-motion while listening, and it had startled him.

I handed Dobby the jerky in my hand.

"It's nothing. Just had something to think about."

We sailed smoothly for two full days. Nothing happened, and the tedium gave me plenty of time to talk with Roxanne. It wasn't only boredom, though — it was something I genuinely needed. Since my choice had changed Floor 33, it meant Floor 33, too, would have to be cleared in this world.

Thanks to those conversations, I learned a few new things.

First: the gods of this world, unlike the gods of other worlds, never revealed themselves. Nor did they share their power through priests. The faithful simply believed, and lived according to doctrine — nothing more.

'And the second…'

The rift between humans and elves ran far deeper than I'd imagined. Humans had airships, cars, and guns — but the naturalist elves could wield those tools too if it came to it. Add spirits on top of that, and the balance of power between the two factions was tighter than I'd expected.

Neither side dared strike the other rashly, so small-scale skirmishes flared up fairly often — and those clashes had steadily deepened the bitterness between the races.

'To be fair, that's only what Roxanne told me. Judging from the Sky Whale Guardians alone, it's the elves who provoke the humans more often than not.'

Just look at what Roxanne had said days ago:

Unlike the humans, fragmented into separate kingdoms, the elves were bound together in a single federation. Open war never broke out, so whenever conflict arose, small elven guerrilla bands raised hell inside human kingdoms — and naturally, the elven federation denied having anything to do with it. And when another kingdom took losses, the humans saw no reason to help; a rival's misfortune was good news for their own country. So only the kingdoms that crossed the elves suffered the headaches, and everyone else kept their mouths shut.

In other words, even staging a riot like hijacking an airship — the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bottom line was that humans couldn't afford to harm the elves rashly. And so the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠elves acted without the slightest restraint.

Of course, from the elves' perspective, it was the nature-destroying humans who kept provoking them…

'Viewed from the outside, they're a shameless lot, aren't they?'

Neither side could be cleanly sorted into good and evil. But if I had to pick, then even while traveling among them, the elves grated on me a little. And if I — hearing everything from the elves' side of the story — felt this way, then the humans here must despise elves to a degree beyond that. The way we once looked at terrorists from the Middle East…

'Well, whatever. Floor 32 is over now.'

We had passed the fifth city, Regium, and the great mountain range loomed dead ahead. As I stood gazing at the mountains from the bow of the airship, Roxanne quietly approached.

"What will you do now?"

"About what?"

"The humans. Once you release him, they'll come after you all over again."

Ah — that's what she meant.

I shook my head lightly. We'd discussed this before, too.

"It's fine. You said it yourself, didn't you? There's nothing they can do against the elves. I'll just make my escape alone."

"From atop an airship? Then come with us instead. We will protect you. You're human, true, but you wield the Wind God's power, so it will be—"

"I'm fine. Even falling from up here won't kill me. And I told you — I have a promise to keep."

I cut off Roxanne's worried protests. The moment the floor-clearance notification appeared, I intended to leap straight off the airship. And with the Sky Shoes, I wouldn't die even if the achievement point settlement came late.

"…I see. You did say you had a promise."

Roxanne nodded slightly, a look of disappointment on her face. Then, a moment later, she lifted her head and studied me intently.

"Kwon Suhyeok."

"Yes."

"You are someone who treasures nature. It was plain enough from how you impersonated the Furnace Lord's son just to save the Sky Whales… Am I right?"

"Well, you could put it that way."

"Then… what do you think of the humans who destroy nature?"

Huh? Wait — this is…