Being Favored by a Veteran
"Do I have to go too?"
As if on cue, both of their gazes turned to me at once.
Sky blue, and crimson.
Yet the emotions behind them were completely different.
Why do you look so pathetic?
It was hard to read Carmia’s feelings, but the emotions leaking from Lisha were just as easy to understand as the bond we’d built so far.
Help me...!
Okay, I’m out.
Apparently this was the so-called time for an "important talk" between close female classmates.
Hoping they’d reach some kind of peaceful agreement, I cleanly excused myself.
"Ah, aah...!"
"Come with me for a moment."
Watching Carmia drag Lisha away, I rose to my feet as well.
"Where are you going?"
At the voice behind me, I turned around on reflex.
A head of thick brown hair.
The moment I lowered my gaze, I finally saw the face of the person who had called out to me.
"Ah, Illycia senior."
"...Just call me by my name. That's fine."
"Illycia, then. I should get some rest too."
"The Rest Area?"
"Yes."
"Then let’s go together."
"....?"
"Why? I can use it too, can’t I? The Rest Area."
"That’s true."
That was a remarkably logical answer.
She’d been a mid-to-high floor climber, so of course she’d have permission to use the lower-level facilities.
"You’re new to the Waiting Room, right? Just leave it to me~"
She took the lead with that easygoing air of hers, and somehow that made her feel incredibly reliable.
"And also."
Illycia, who had been walking ahead with light, unhurried steps, turned her head just enough to meet my eyes.
"If you go wandering around outside alone right now, it could get dangerous, you know?"
"Pardon?"
"There are way too many idiots in this Tower who go beyond what you’d ever imagine~"
Even if someone was climbing the Apocalypse difficulty—essentially alone and nearly without precedent.
There could still be those types who, without realizing how absurd it was, would cross the line anyway.
"There are climbers who decide that the things they’ve experienced are the whole world."
"Ah, I see."
"So I’m basically taking responsibility for your safety! Me."
As expected of a senior climber.
Deeply moved by her naturally considerate manner, I obediently followed behind her.
..
...
....
#
The silence settled heavily, and for some reason it felt like someone kept jabbing at the back of my waist.
"...."
The one who had just climbed through Apocalypse difficulty was, for the moment, carefully gauging the mood of the red-haired Dragonoid.
...No, wait.
Why am I?
Lisha suddenly felt wronged.
Come to think of it, wasn’t this the kind of situation where she should be getting praised as amazing?
I’d gone and carried the whole thing, marched straight into that hell, and even cleared it beautifully to boot.
"What, what, what?"
"...."
"Didn’t you call me here because you had something to say? Why call me over and then just keep staring at me?"
So.
Lisha, still wrapped in the contamination of battle in her saintess robe, glared at her classmate.
Sky-blue eyes and crimson eyes collided in the air.
"...You."
At last, with her patience exhausted, Carmia parted her lips.
"What in the world happened...?"
"I already told you. On the previous floor—"
"No, not that."
Carmia’s gaze drifted to Lisha’s current clothes.
Saintess...
The system window had certainly warned them.
It had said that because a saint and a saintess had been born on the previous floor, an event would begin.
But facing reality in person—
That had dealt Carmia far greater shock than she’d expected.
"...?!"
And when Lisha noticed that gaze, her cheeks flushed bright red in an instant.
Both of them knew it.
The current state of the person named Lisha was a long way from the image she normally projected.
"W-What? I’m not allowed to wear something like this...?!"
"That’s not the issue."
The mana core.
The central source of power for a climber ascending the Tower, and the very axis around which their life revolved.
If she had really absorbed the power of a so-called saintess and begun using strength derived from it—
"Is that... really okay?"
"...As far as my mana goes, there weren’t any problems."
It had been a concern for Lisha too, but fortunately it hadn’t blurred her essence at all.
Rather, it’s even stronger than before...
She didn’t know whether that was an added effect from the title, but the saintess’s divine power and the mana Lisha had originally possessed were blending together without any trouble.
In other words, her growth potential had opened up even further.
"Lisha."
But Carmia knew.
She knew the weight carried by the name Lisha, and the background behind the person she came from—
"This choice you made was too impulsive."
"I know."
"There’s going to be a lot of noise about this for a while."
"I don’t care. It’s not like I ever intended to spend my whole life tucked away in my tribe’s arms like a pet."
She refused to be a puppet.
"Or what, are you trying to check me now?"
"...What?"
This time, it was Carmia who was left speechless by Lisha’s question.
"Are you worried because I got a few crumbs from standing next to that ridiculous man?"
"Lisha."
"If not, then why would you bother saying this when I’m the one you’re competing with?"
Ah.
The delayed shock crashed over Carmia.
Really, why?
Why had she ended up alone with her like this?
- Tap. Tap.
When she finally came to her senses, she discovered her own tail beating the floor in annoyance.
Lisha, who had been with her since the very beginning of their climb—her rival, her classmate.
Come to think of it, there had always been an order to things.
She stood at the top, and below her was Lisha.
"Seeing that reaction, I guess I wasn’t wrong after all."
Lisha let out a dry laugh.
"You’re the one always acting like you don’t feel anything, and in the end, you were a beast too, huh?"
"...Lisha."
"If you’ve got nothing else to say, I’m leaving. I need to sort through my rewards too."
Having decided to end the conversation, Lisha passed Carmia by.
"And also."
- Thump. Thump.
Steadying the thrill pounding in her chest, Lisha left her parting words behind.
"Don’t interfere over something like this anymore. It’s annoying."
Every action came with a price.
She had endured experience that was enough to kill her, so she needed to make absolutely sure she collected the reward for it.
We came here to cash in big.
With the man’s voice lodged firmly in her mind as she said it, Lisha strode proudly toward the Rest Area.
#
You have entered the Rest Area.
Your rank is The Black (SSR).
"It’s been way too long."
I finally got to enjoy the rights I hadn’t been able to use until now.
I melted away my fatigue in a hot spring with steam rising warmly all around me, then went out and stuffed myself with an extravagant spread of dishes.
With my mind growing pleasantly sluggish, I stepped into the lobby and happened to meet the mid-to-high floor climber who was enjoying her leisure time there.
"Did you have a good time?"
"I almost passed out halfway through. It was seriously insane."
"Heh."
Seeing her smile so relaxedly with a wineglass in hand, I could really feel the hidden depth of a true veteran.
"Well then..."
With only the two of us there, Illycia’s eyes sharpened as she seized the opening.
"What should we start with?"
Seated naturally across from her, I focused on whatever would come out of her mouth next.
"What’s your relationship with that kid, Lisha?"
"Pardon?"
My brain stopped for a second.
I’d assumed she’d ask how I woke up, what I’d experienced, and what kind of rewards there were.
On top of that, I figured there were mountains more things she’d want to ask.
But this—
"Mm-hm~ I heard you just fine."
"Lisha?"
"Naturally. You know at least a little about the status she originally had, don’t you?"
"No, I don’t."
"Then... huh?"
Now it was Illycia’s turn to lag.
"You don’t...?"
"I only knew she was a promising rookie, and that she was pretty strong among the newcomers. That’s about it. Beyond that, well..."
I really didn’t know. I was being completely honest.
Sure, I was grateful that she’d supported me so reliably on the previous floor—
But I had never once thought about her background.
Come to think of it, I never knew.
She never said anything about it either, so I just figured that was that.
"Don’t tell me she’s nobility, or something?"
I asked, suddenly uneasy.
That would be a pain, wouldn’t it?
Some bad genre of baggage where you get tangled up for no reason and end up dealing with all kinds of trouble?
"What...?"
Illycia, upon hearing my question—
"Pfft."
"...?"
—covered her mouth and burst out laughing, clearly caught entirely off guard.
"Ahahaha! What is that, really!"
"Hahaha, I was surprised too. I thought she was some kind of true noble—"
"Yeah, that’s exactly what she is."
"Ah."
"The tribe that kid belongs to is actually... pretty famous among climbers."
The Frostfoot Tribe.
Their naturally enormous mana reserves and physical abilities were said to be unmatched in combat.
Damn caste system.
For someone like me, who had grown up in South Korea, it was a concept that felt deeply uncomfortable.
How could everything be decided from birth? That was absurdly unfair.
"That’s one thing, but the members of that tribe are all fiercely independent."
"I see."
"...Especially to a pathological degree."
Pathological?
Based on my experience so far, I hadn’t felt that much resistance from Lisha.
She followed along, she helped out, and I honestly thought there wasn’t a better ally or partner than her.
"And yet that same girl suddenly decided to help some strange man. Then she just went *whoosh* and jumped straight into Apocalypse difficulty."
And that was how things had led to the present.
We were both safely inside the Waiting Room now, waiting for the moment when we could sort through the rewards we’d earned.
"Well, isn’t it fine if the result is good?"
"....?"
"Lisha’s a climber, and I’m a climber too. All that matters is that we climb the Tower."
Advance through the floors, collect the rewards, and then—
Get stronger.
For all the things I didn’t know, there was one rule that governed this place that I understood more clearly than anything else.
Rewards don’t lie.
No matter how remarkable someone’s background was, the work that had to be done was already decided.
"Anyway, she got stronger, right?"
Even if Lisha’s judgment had been impulsive, in the end she’d ended up at my side and reaped outrageous rewards.
That was what mattered.
"You... are interesting, too."
"I’m a pretty charming guy."
With her gaze lingering on me as though I’d become even more intriguing than before, I started thinking about the rewards I hadn’t checked yet.
"So."
"Mm?"
"I already answered one of your questions, so now it’s your turn to answer mine. Nice and clear."
"Sure. That was fun."
Since I had permission, maybe it was time to talk business.
◈ Absorbing it increases stats.
◈ A fragment of the hidden boss’s lingering memory.
◈ Absorbing it increases stats.
◈ A corrupted fragment of the fourth-floor boss’s lingering memory.
"These memory fragment things keep sticking in my head."
Maybe they were deeply connected to this "event."
They were the memories of boss monsters tied to the Main Story, after all.
Depending on whether I used them, they might prove extremely helpful in clearing the next stages too.
So.
These were rewards that had to be digested here, in this place.
"Memory fragments... That was one of the things I was planning to ask you about anyway. Good timing."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah. Come on."
Come on—where?
As I watched Illycia rise naturally to her feet, she glanced back at me.
"It might be a little too rough to crack them open here, so we should head to the Training Room."
"I see."
As expected of a veteran.
With a flutter of excitement in my chest, I followed after her.