Chapter 35
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: Neglect of Duty - 5
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As usual, Guard Koon was stationed at the entrance to the damp forest.
Delion was supposed to stand guard at the forest entrance for half the day, but since no adventurers visited the forest from late night until morning, it was always Koon whom he ran into.
One might expect his body to stiffen after standing in the same spot for hours, yet he remained as motionless as a stone statue.
Thanks to the disappearance of adventurers he had to confront, the dark circles under his eyes and his hoarse voice from before were gone, leaving no trace of fatigue.
"What is it?"
"Why?"
"No, I mean... the person behind you."
The countless commissions he'd handled.
Through the many days of entering the forest entrance, it was always Koon who dealt with this one adventurer.
He must have been certain that today would be no different, that I would come to this forest.
He probably didn't expect any other adventurers to show up.
And I hadn't expected to be traveling with someone either.
"Do you think I wouldn't recognize the most famous adventurer in the tower?"
"You do recognize her? How do you know?"
"It's not just any guild—how could I not know the leader of the Crimson Flame Guild?"
Rankers spend most of their time on the relatively higher floors where is in progress.
As such, the residents of the first floor have few opportunities to familiarize themselves with the rankers' faces.
Even Ellie, who had seen Sua using magic during sparring, hadn't recognized her face.
They couldn't even get smooth access to information on who the rankers were, relying only on rumors from beginners who had seen them outside the tower and come in.
Moreover, during the guild-versus-guild sparring a few days ago, Koon had been on guard duty and hadn't even watched the event.
Among the townsfolk, Koon was the one who had seen rankers the least.
Yet this guard was reacting as if it was only natural that he recognized Amelia.
"Well... I have a lot of interest in this kind of thing. And even just standing here, the adventurers' chatter reaches my ears on its own."
"People babbling is one thing, but isn't this the first time you've seen her face?"
Koon rattled off descriptions of the publicly known "Amelia."
"Red and black attire mixed together, the staff used by mages. Her gender matches coincidentally as female, and all the physical traits like hair color align perfectly."
"She could just be a member of the Crimson Flame Guild, right? Plenty of people dress in similar designs."
"I'm not as knowledgeable about equipment as you are, sir, but even to my eyes, the gear she's wearing isn't for slimes or trash mobs. There's no way a non-guild master would be decked out in such high-end equipment at a glance."
Whening the 61st floor, she would surely be equipped with even more items than this.
Even her current outfit, dressed lightly for protection and to embody her public persona, consisted of top-tier gear that beginners couldn't even dream of touching.
Of course, "top-tier" was based on the perceptions of adventurers who haded up to the 60th floor.
"The leaders at the forefront of tower climbing are generally adventurers who entered around the same time as you, Earthbound Spirit."
"How do you know that?"
"Excluding the adventurers from the same batch you spent a few weeks with, you wouldn't have any acquaintances, so your companion must be a ranker—and thus one of your cohort adventurers."
"That sounds subtly dismissive."
This went beyond just picking up a word or two about rankers.
He'd pieced together miscellaneous info to identify Amelia, and Koon was dead serious.
"She could be a new adventurer like Rien from this holy season, but as I said before, she doesn't look like a beginner."
"What are you, a detective? Making deductions in that short time."
Pathetic for not leaving the first floor.
A wish to see how the adventurers who passed through the first floor lived.
"If I were an adventurer instead of a guard, I too would have... gone with them."
Koon had never joked.
"Unfortunately, I don't remember, but Lady Amelia must have been one of the many adventurers who passed me by. The only glimpse allowed is her novice days, clumsy even at catching a single slime."
The guard decided not to take up any more of the adventurer's time.
He stepped one pace aside, clearing the path into the forest.
"As both of you are experts and veterans, I won't bore you with needless warnings."
"......"
"Hunt safely."
Whatever he desired, the tower had granted him only the role of "guard."
That was his duty, his job.
Inside the forest, slimes were overflowing.
It was close enough that even Koon at the entrance could hear if I shouted.
Slimes were visible right from the start, so there was no need to search for monsters to exterminate.
I pop one—pop!
"Not hunting?"
"Huh? Oh. Yeah."
Sua seemed fine earlier, exchanging a few words, but now she's back to her odd state.
Her expression is dazed, as if her soul has fled, and her responses are several seconds late even when spoken to.
This is how people look when deep in thought.
I pop the second slime.
Sua still hasn't caught a single one.
"Something to say?"
"Ah, no. I was just about to."
If I wanted, I could take out five in one stroke.
Normally, she would have done so without hesitation, and the time Ellie remembers is surely based on her usual hunting speed.
I'm dragging it out deliberately, giving Sua a chance to speak first.
She didn't follow me just for a measly 200 EXP.
Third stab, fourth stab, and finally picking up the cores rolling on the ground after the last one.
Sua still hasn't caught a single one.
Instead, she opened her mouth.
"The tower really doesn't end at 100 floors?"
"......"
"That there's 700 floors, even beyond that..."
This wasn't probing.
She was reconfirming what she definitely knew.
I'd only ever told Ellie about my trait.
"I... actually heard."
"Heard what?"
"Everything you talked about with that receptionist."
"......"
Now two people knew about my trait.
"Sorry."
"No. The problem was me blabbing without checking if anyone was around."
"For eavesdropping, and for everything I've done up to now..."
Sua's actions started making sense.
She had realized many things.
Why I don't climb the tower.
Why I firmly refused recruitment offers.
Once she understood the whole story, all her past actions turned into guilt for her.
The goal of seeing the tower's end was now utterly loathsome.
Climbing the tower for such a purpose was the most horrific thing.
These emotions had been evident in my words while explaining my past to Ellie, and Sua, who overheard, felt them too.
She felt sorry because she realized her invitations to join her guild and climb together had poked at wounds one by one.
No need to explain suspecting I was hogging some hidden piece on the first floor.
"How many times have you died so far?"
At some point, counting became meaningless, so I don't remember how many.
In this regard, should I say Sua has good empathy?
Or that she immerses well?
The memories of the countless regressions where I died are just words from my mouth.
She hasn't experienced them.
She hasn't seen body parts explode with her own eyes, nor heard death rattles with her ears.
She hasn't smelled blood or felt it splatter on her arms.
Yet Sua understood my exhaustion and my apathy.
"I didn't know you... challenged as much as you could. For you, that was the result of giving your all."
I have no intention of blaming her either.
I was the one who explained nothing, and it was clearly confusing for Sua and the adventurer alliance.
It was just a few weeks of tutorial memories and a handful of camaraderie that brought her to me.
"I didn't know you'd been through that, and here I was suspecting you were monopolizing something on the first floor."
Sua was an unusual case.
There were plenty of adventurers I'd talked to on the first floor besides her, but they only came down once or twice to check on the alliance deserter who wouldn't go to the second floor.
That period was indeed suitable for building bonds among new faces, but bonds don't excuse inefficiency.
Like me back then, they wanted to see the tower's end and had entered for climbing.
There was no reason to spend time and energy convincing one person.
Besides, I on the first floor hadn't shown anything particularly useful.
"Sua. I'm not blaming you for anything."
"What...?"
"Not for pestering me to join your guild endlessly. Not for sending people to investigate how I spend my days on the first floor. Nothing."
That's what any adventurer would do.
For, they'd do anything—and I was the same.
If anything, the guilds' current actions were cute in comparison.
Thinking back to the methods from back then, especially with the Sword Saint...
Hm, no need for examples.
It'd be too cruel to say in this atmosphere.
"If anything, I'm grateful in a way that you keep coming back every time I leave without a word. Sure, it's annoying every time we meet, and it's pretty infuriating that rumors about me are spreading among the major guilds."
"Ugh."
What I wanted to say to Sua now—
"There isn't just one way to live in the tower."
In the alliances I led, the goal was fixed as one.
Climb the tower. Climb and climb until we see the end.
It was the typical goal for adventurers, but back then, the alliance was completely consumed by that pipe dream.
It was less living than surviving.
Even in a space where you couldn't die even if you wanted to, we walked on two feet toward even more dangerous floors, risking our lives.
I gave up climbing, but I didn't give up living in the tower.
The tower now has diverse purposes.
The Sword Saint lives climbing solo to prove his superiority.
Rien lives to defeat that Sword Saint.
Crimson Flame Guild Master Amelia leads countless guild members,s the tower, and enjoys celebrity-like popularity.
I.
Live in the tutorial village.
That's all.