Chapter 36
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Neglect of Duty - Complete
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Even though I took care of five slimes and collected all the proof of subjugation, the progress of the quest Sua had accepted remained at zero.
For Sua, who could hurl fireballs as effortlessly as breathing, slimes were lightweight monsters.
It wouldn't have been strange if she had burned down the entire forest.
"Not just one...?"
"I'm living pretty well in my own way. Maybe even better than before entering the tower."
My daily life wasn't as burdensome as she seemed to worry.
In a way, it felt like being eternally trapped in the tower, but now I had no desire to escape.
The people in this village were far more precious than the bad ties outside the tower—ones I neither remembered nor cared to recall.
"Let's pretend today's events never happened and head back. Being a guild master isn't a position where you can vanish without a word whenever you please, right?"
There was no need for her to feel guilty over something unrelated.
She wouldn't have even imagined I was a regressor.
Naturally, Amelia wasn't a regressor.
She couldn't make mistakes or blunders vanish as if they never happened, and the responsibility for any action she took followed her relentlessly.
The higher the floor, the higher the position, the more true that was.
If returning to the past were possible for her, she would have fixed her mistake with me first.
No matter how much she regretted it, she couldn't turn it back.
I didn't judge her mistake negatively.
As a guild master, it had been the best call.
In the tower, building power meant recruiting the strong to your side or uncovering how they grew strong.
She had simply strained to recruit me for Crimson Flame Guild and tried to figure out what I ate on the first floor, what I did, and who I talked to.
Unfortunately, nothing went as she planned.
I showed no sign of joining a guild, and even after investigating and logging my entire routine, they found nothing special.
In the end, all those efforts returned as frustration—and a touch of inferiority.
She had climbed the tower surviving deadly crises, yet it must have been hard to accept that some adventurer nicknamed Earthbound Spirit, who lived peacefully with villagers on the first floor, was stronger than her, the guild master.
She didn't show it outwardly, but after learning my combat skills, her attitude toward me shifted noticeably.
Every moment we conversed, I could plainly sense her suspicion that I was hiding first-floor secrets unknown even to rankers.
"I know. If I don't head back in a few days, the vice guild master will probably blow up and come hunting for me."
"If they send guild members across the entire tower, they'll pinpoint your location in a day."
"It's the guild I built—of course they would."
Seeing my reaction brush off her past mistakes without much fuss, Sua seemed to relax.
The confident Sua, a little intoxicated with herself, suited her far better than her crumpled state.
Before Sua could make some irreversible blunder, I gave her a nudge back to her proper place.
"A guild master should handle guild master duties. Not slime hunting."
"...Yeah. No time to waste like this."
By now, the vice guild master was probably mentally fraying over the guild master's failure to return.
Piles of urgent matters awaited resolution, yet the one holding final say on all guild affairs had vanished without a trace.
"I'll be back soon."
"Back? Weren't you done trying to recruit me?"
"You said it yourself. There are multiple ways to live in the tower."
Sua flashed a bright smile, quoting me verbatim.
"By any chance, do you hate me so much you never want to see my face again?"
"No way."
Seeing her crack jokes, she really seemed fine now.
I still didn't grasp the meaning behind that smile, but at least I felt relieved.
All requests came with time limits.
Difficult ones naturally had longer limits, but the tutorial held none such.
The slime extermination request's limit was under a full day.
Basically until 8 p.m. that day, though it flexed if Ellie clocked out late.
In any case, after a day passed, Ellie's requests auto-failed.
The quest vanished, and no reward came.
Who would fail such a simple request? Yet the top-ranked guild master pulled it off.
She crossed the gate and left the first floor without catching a single slime.
"Hmmm. Hm."
Returning later than usual, Ellie's eyes bulged even rounder.
She stormed to the door fuming, but I was the only adventurer arriving at the request office.
When I relayed that Sua had already left, Ellie's tense expression melted away as if it had never been, complete with humming.
"So why'd she even come? What's the point of ditching the request?"
"Sua heard everything."
"Heard what?"
I informed her that on the night I'd shared my past with Ellie, Sua had overheard the whole thing.
"Ehhh─?!"
"It's surprising... yeah. Hm."
Still too early for that level of shock.
More remained to tell.
That most guilds, Crimson Flame included, had snuck into the village to dig up dirt on me—and that most residents naturally hadn't noticed.
Ellie had been one of those residents.
"No way!"
"No one's doing it anymore, so it's fine. The other guilds lost interest ages ago, and I talked Sua around and sent her packing this time─."
"It was my secret alone! Eavesdropping like that! Bad person!"
"Your anger point feels a bit off?"
Ellie had apparently felt special as the sole keeper of my trait secret.
Regrettably, that exclusivity shattered right away.
"Still, I'll forgive her. Only I get to sit alone at the same table with Earthbound Spirit, sipping tea."
"This is delicious."
"Right? The aroma is amazing too."
Was there tea that tasted like this?
I grew curious about its ingredients.
The tower's floors were fully segregated, and the village had no outside exchange.
Products shouldn't change, so had someone researched new tea leaves?
"Ellie. Where's this tea from?"
"The store's stocked up on unfamiliar stuff lately. New tea varieties have spiked too."
Ellie had bought it herself, so she didn't know the ingredients either.
Normally products disclosed main ingredients, but common sense didn't bridge inside and outside the tower.
"It's a plant the owner's trying for the first time, so no name yet... Great aroma, should sell well. He'll name it soon."
No one died in the tutorial village.
Even poison was just a matter of treatment, so unknown plants made fine tea leaves without qualms.
Good taste and aroma alone sufficed for commercialization.
Surprising that new plants still lingered in such a small village.
"You drained it already. Another cup?"
"That's three already. I'll take more tomorrow."
Grateful I could savor this aroma again tomorrow.
Was my gratitude yesterday insufficient?
Or perhaps too much?
The request office arrived as usual today.
My body froze at the sight right upon opening the door.
I hadn't realized Sua's "soon" meant a mere day.
"Hello."
"You, you. Why are you here again?"
That wasn't the only issue to call out.
Where had she stashed her flashy high-end gear? Sua's outfit screamed total novice.
Basic first-floor gear, same kind I wore.
Had the mage pawned her staff? She awkwardly sported a lone sword.
Even the weapon was crude, bought here—Harman-made.
"What about the guild letting you come down here? And the clothes?"
"I'm not guild master anymore."
"...Huh?"
"Handed the seat to the vice guild master and came."
What nonsense was this?
"I want to try that other life you told me about, just once."
"You, really. Ha..."
Words failed me.
Having forsaken climbing myself to root on the first floor, outright grilling her choice felt awkward.
Even so, quitting guild master over one sentence yesterday? Unbelievable.
"Earthbound Spirit, sir..."
Ellie's gaze chilled further from last time.
For some reason, I missed yesterday's tea warmth more than ever.
"I'm more flustered than you, so don't ask anything."
"Y-yes... Understood."
Koon cleared the path today too.
How did a guard view a ranker in novice garb?
- Slash!
Sua hunted slimes without a scrap of magic.
Gripping the unfamiliar sword, she swung with full might to cleave them.
"After your words yesterday, this thought hit me."
"Let's hear it."
"Even a regressor twisted their whole body conquering the tower—how long for me to hit the 700th floor?"
Sometimes absurd numbers crushed motivation.
"More than that, even a regressor never saw the end—is it remotely feasible for me to conquer it? Does it even mean anything?"
"Meaning isn't found there. You know it best, broadcasting your climbs as the tower's most famous adventurer."
"Couldn't hack celebrity life for years. Climbing means decades, centuries more."
Today, Sua cleared five while I nabbed zero.
"Thinking back, my first-floor days felt the most fun. Most hopeful, exciting. Teasing you struggling with slimes was a blast."
"Now we both know we're not that weak anymore."
Sua scooped the fallen slime core.
Habitually reaching for telekinesis, she caught herself late and flailed her arm.
Then bent to grab it barehanded.
"Hurry and finish hunting, or I'll go solo?"
"...Now even I don't know."
For Sua, the first-floor era might be a vividly remembered, surprisingly recent past.
Due to endlessly repeated rounds, most of my first-floor memories had washed away—now blurry save a few instants.
Like training under Tiana, or right before leaving the first floor.
Or making memories together before the cameras.
"Still not done? Hurry or I'll go alone?"
"W-wait just a sec. Almost got 'em!"
"Kidding. I'll wait—take your time."
Or struggling because slimes were too slippery.
Maybe I enjoyed the first floor in my own way too.
As Sua said, anticipating future adventures, hopeful and thrilled.
- Neglect of Duty - Complete