Chapter 18: 2nd Floor Hidden Route (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 18: 2nd Floor Hidden Route (2)
Back in my room, I sank into my chair, lost in thought.
"Why did I fail?"
Was that Demon not the boss I was supposed to defeat? Was there another enemy besides her?
If it were simply a matter of more enemies being present, there would have been no reason for an immediate failure. The fact that the trial ended the moment I killed her meant she was someone I wasn't supposed to kill.
In that case, was she an ally? Something like that?
But she had ambushed me out of nowhere. If my reaction had been even a fraction slower, I would’ve died with a blade in my throat.
Regardless, it seemed clear that killing the Demon was a no-go.
After hydrating and recovering my spent Willpower, I immediately re-entered the 2nd floor.
I navigated the platforms, climbed to the top, and took down the Minotaur. Descending from the Tower and returning to the starting point, I stepped into the forest.
This time, I stayed hyper-vigilant. One wrong move and it could be game over.
It was around here that she jumped out...
I sensed a presence lurking in the bushes to my side. Because I had all my senses dialed to the maximum, I was able to catch it. I stopped in my tracks and stared at the shrubbery.
A moment later, a blur lunged toward me, aiming for a lethal strike.
Clang!
I parried the attack with my sword, immediately leaped back, and shouted.
"Wait a second!"
The Demon flinched and stared at me. I raised both arms to show I had no hostile intent.
"I have no intention of fighting! Why are you attacking me all of a sudden?"
Since she had spoken before, she wasn't just a monster but an intelligent being. Surely we could communicate.
The Demon glared at me, leveled her sword, and screamed. "You treacherous human! How dare you spout such shameless lies!"
"Huh? Lies about what?"
"It was you who burned my castle to the ground with lava! Did you think I wouldn't know?!"
Castle? Lava?
I pieced the context together. It seemed the "castle" she was referring to was the Tower I had just escaped from. And she was under the impression that I was the one who had filled it with lava.
Alright, I understood the flow of things now.
To clear up the misunderstanding, I said, "I didn't do that. I'm a victim here, too."
"A victim?"
"Yes. I almost died falling into that lava myself. I barely managed to escape the castle."
"What? Who are you to claim you escaped my castle?"
"...What? I was just there from the start."
"What nonsense is this? So, in the end, you are an intruder!"
Wait, the conversation was looping. I realized I’d botched the excuse, and the Demon was now glaring at me with even more hostility.
"Stop your wordplay, human!"
The Demon lunged at me again, swinging her sword. I frantically dodged and blocked.
"I told you, it wasn't me!"
Listen to me, you crazy Demon!
As if she had no intention of listening further, her onslaught didn't stop. I couldn't kill her, so did that mean I had to subdue her? I was hesitant to use Flame Strike because a direct hit might kill her again.
Setting my goal to subduing her with my bare hands, I threw myself into the fight in earnest.
Clash! Clang! Cling!
Our blades met in a flurry of offense and defense. I seemed to have the upper hand in raw strength, and our speeds were roughly equal. However, her skill was superior.
I could feel that her swordsmanship—her technique—was far more refined than mine. I thought I’d grown accustomed to combat, but was this what real fencing looked like?
I can't keep up...!
I barely managed to block and dodge her attacks by stopping time at intervals. I also had Teleportation as a last resort.
As the battle dragged on, it became easier to endure. This was because the stacks of Exhilaration were building up, making my body progressively faster. Only after the effect of Exhilaration reached its peak did I finally gain the advantage in speed.
Finding my rhythm, I began to push her back. No matter the gap in skill, the balance shifted once I held the advantage in both strength and speed.
"...!"
Now, it was the Demon whose expression grew frantic. Still, clinching the victory wasn't easy.
In the case of the Knight Goblin or the Minotaur, they were simple enough that surpassing them in physical ability made defeating them straightforward. But this was my first time engaging in such a fierce, technical exchange, and it felt quite fresh.
This isn't working.
Deciding that this would take too long, I stopped time. The difficulty lay in the fact that I had to subdue her without killing her.
After finishing my Mental Focus, I teleported behind her. The Demon's sword, which had been aimed at my neck, sliced through empty air. As she panicked at my sudden disappearance, I delivered a powerful roundhouse kick to her back.
"Guh!"
Ah, did I kick her too hard?
Struck in the ribs, the Demon was sent tumbling across the ground. She scrambled to her feet as I approached, and the battle resumed. However, the damage must have been significant, as her sword swings were much weaker than before.
"Let's talk! Communication!"
"What... nonsense...!"
"I'm telling you, let's just talk. Is it that hard?"
Clang!
The Demon, who blocked my sword, was pushed back significantly. She clutched her side, gasping for breath in obvious pain. Maybe she’d listen now?
I tried talking to her again. "Let's stop fighting. I don't want to fight, so please, just calm down."
"Huff, huff... You human..."
She kept calling me "human" this, "human" that. And she was the one with the weird horns.
"I'm telling you, you've got it all wrong. I'm not an intruder, and I'm not your enemy. The lava wasn't my doing either."
"Do you expect me to believe that...!"
"And if you don't, then what? Look, if I wanted to kill you, I could have just slit your throat instead of kicking you just now. Why would I bother talking to you like this?"
"Arrogant human! Who do you think you're killing!"
The Demon erupted in fury.
"Am I wrong? Then tell me. If we keep fighting right now, who do you think is going to die?"
"Urgh...!"
"So let's just talk. Talk."
Whether she liked it or not, she had to admit she was at a disadvantage. She couldn't argue further. The Demon seemed to calm down slightly and spoke.
"What is there to talk about?"
"I told you. I'm not an intruder."
"More nonsense! A human is standing in the territory of Demons. If you aren't an intruder, then what are you?"
So she really was a Demon.
"I shall ask you! What is a human doing in the land of Demons? If you aren't an intruder, then what were you doing here in the Dafriya County?"
I scratched my head and answered. "Well... I'm lost."
"What?"
"I'm a traveler, you see. I wander from place to place, and I got lost. I didn't even know this was the land of Demons."
Let's go with that excuse for now. I knew nothing about the lore of this world. I didn't have any other cover story.
The Demon looked at me as if I were absurd. "...What are you talking about? Do you think that makes any sense?"
"Whether it makes sense or not, it's the truth."
"I have never heard such a stupid story from a human. You crossed into the Demon lands because you got lost?"
I pushed forward shamelessly. "Yes. I have a bit of a bad sense of direction."
"..."
The Demon's mouth hung open. Looking at her expression, it seemed to be working.
"Th-then! What was that about escaping my castle earlier?"
"Oh, that? I just meant I almost got hit by lava while passing by. I saw it pouring out of the windows like a waterfall."
The Demon frowned. "I don't think that's what you said..."
"Don't sweat the small stuff." Whatever, let's just keep pushing. "Anyway, isn't the current situation what matters? Let's look at this logically. Between the two of us, who is stronger? I am, right?"
"...Do not insult me! I have not lost yet!"
Her Ladyship was about to have another fit. I continued calmly.
"Right. I know. You haven't lost yet. But objectively, between the two of us, who is stronger? Be honest, for your own conscience's sake."
"Urgh... I have no intention of denying that you are strong!" She said it with a look of deep frustration.
At least she was willing to admit that much.
"Yes, I'm stronger. And yet, even after I almost lost my life to your ambush, I'm still trying to talk to you, right? Even though I'm fully capable of winning."
Well, I did kill her the first time, but she didn't need to know that.
"If I were the culprit who burned your castle with lava, why would I be having this pointless conversation instead of just killing the owner of the castle? Does it look like I have any ill will toward you?"
The lady fell silent for a moment before shouting. "I suppose... not!"
"Exactly. I am not your enemy. So, you understand that we don't need to fight anymore, right?"
The "soothing a child" tone seemed to be working, so I kept it up. Her Ladyship just stared at me with confused eyes.
"Human, then tell me your name first. If you truly have nothing to hide."
"...My name? It's Kim Seo-hyun."
She tilted her head. "Kim-sseo-hyeo-neu...? Are human names always so strange? What is your family name?"
"My family name is Kim. My given name is Seo-hyun."
"What? Even the family name is strange. Both the name and the family name are odd. And why do you say the family name before the given name?"
Why does she keep calling everything strange? Should I hit her one more time?
"Humans are truly incomprehensible. I am Haylin Dafriya. I am the legitimate heir to the Great Count Dafriya's family."
Telling me that didn't mean anything to me. As I stood there with an "Oh, I see..." expression, Haylin shouted.
"You might not know because you're a human, but my family is a very prestigious one! Human, what is your family? Is this 'Kim' family of yours noble among humans?"
"No."
Well, maybe they were in the distant past. Haylin suddenly took on a haughty expression.
"Is that so? Then you must show me respect. Even if our races are different, I am a noble, and you, human, are not."
Ugh, she was starting to get annoying. I had succeeded in not killing the Demon and moving past our hostile relationship, but I didn't know what to do next.
What now?
"Very well, human. From this moment on, you shall assist me."
"...Assist you? With what?"
"The situation is dire, so you are to serve as my temporary bodyguard."
A bodyguard all of a sudden? Is this how the quest progresses?
"What's so dire? You should tell me that first."
Haylin explained. "The reason my castle was consumed by lava is that the magic went berserk. It is a self-destruction magic intended as a last resort when an intruder enters, but it was triggered out of nowhere. If you are not the intruder, then there must be another. An intruder powerful enough to warrant the activation of the self-destruction magic. That is why you must help me."
Ah, so that was the setup.
I asked, "But why don't you know who the intruder is, Miss Haylin? Weren't you in the castle?"
"Address me as Lady Haylin!"
"Yes, Lady Haylin. Anyway."
Haylin spoke with a grim expression. "I have a habit of enjoying solitary night walks. I returned from my walk today to find this had happened. I followed the footprints at the main gate, which led me to you."
"Aha..."
"The intruder surely did this knowing my father was away. How dare they... If only Father were here..."
Haylin trembled with rage. I understood the situation roughly, but I had to ask one last thing.
"But why do I have to help you, Lady Haylin? This has nothing to do with me."
I said it so naturally that it sounded like a given. Haylin snapped back.
"I have not fully cleared you of suspicion yet! If you are innocent, shouldn't you naturally want to help?"
She was just being stubborn.
"Of course, once everything is resolved, I shall grant you a fitting reward. I am the heir of the Dafriya family. I will not do anything to tarnish the honor of Dafriya."
A reward. Could that be the hidden reward?
I nodded. "Alright. I'll help."
It seemed like this was the correct path forward, and I intended to follow it anyway.
"So, what do you plan to do now, Lady Haylin?"
"I shall return to the castle. There may be servants who managed to escape alive; I must check."
Haylin took the lead, and I followed behind her. We retraced the path I had come from. I felt a strange sensation as I thought.
What is this world?
Is it a real world? Is the Demon in front of me a real, living person?
I hadn't thought about it deeply on the 1st floor, but now that I was having natural conversations and the story was progressing like a game, I couldn't help but wonder. Even when I searched for information on other difficulties, there were no cases of meeting people or intelligent beings you could talk to in the Tower.
If so, was this a unique characteristic of the hidden route? It felt too real to be fake, yet it was a world that simply reset every time I left and re-entered the Tower.
"Lady Haylin."
"Yes?"
"Do you know what the Tower is? The one you climb, divided into Easy, Normal, Hard, and Nightmare difficulties..."
"What? What are you talking about?"
Haylin seemed to have no idea what I was saying. As expected, we weren't on the same page there.
I changed my question. "Then what kind of world is this? I mean... what do you call this continent we live on?"
"It is the Panderun Continent, of course. What exactly are you trying to say?"
Haylin looked at me as if I were a weirdo.
Panderun. A world in another dimension? Or just a setting created for the Tower?
"Now that I think about it, I have a question as well. How did you move behind my back like that earlier? I couldn't track your movements at all."
"That? It was just a Teleportation spell."
Haylin looked surprised. "It was magic? You were a mage?"
"Well... I can use magic."
Since it was a magic-type skill, I guess it counted as magic.
Haylin asked, looking puzzled. "But how do you cast magic in such a manner?"
"Pardon?"
"Well, I am not an expert on magic myself... but doesn't magic always require casting time? You cannot move while casting, can you?"
Casting? Was she talking about Mental Focus?
"I have my own methods."
I couldn't explain it, so I just brushed it off. While we shared a brief conversation, we arrived back at the castle.
"Ah..."
Haylin let out a sigh of despair as she saw the castle. The lava must have continued to rise even after I escaped; it was now completely overflowing, to the point where the outer walls were no longer visible.
There was no way there were any survivors. In the first place, I hadn't seen anyone but the Minotaur when I escaped.
"They must all be dead," Haylin muttered, stunned. "I must find traces of the intruder... They couldn't have gone far... No, first, I should go to where Father is...?"
Just then, both Haylin and I turned our heads at the same time.
It was a sensation I had never felt before. Dark, ominous, and making my skin crawl. It was an incredibly powerful presence that was hard to describe in words.
BOOM!
Suddenly, the castle gate and the mounds of hardened lava were blown apart.
Someone walked out from within, draped in the flames of the lava. It was a knight in pitch-black armor.