Chapter 60
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 60
Chapter Title: The Hidden Ailment - End
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"Don't interfere, what kind of quest is this─!"
Quests could be found anytime, anywhere inside the tower.
Without fail, whether hunting special monsters or taking on requests from residents.
Quests related to conquering each floor seemed meticulously prepared, but there were plenty that weren't.
There were one-time quests that spawned to fit the situation.
For example, "Request Office Daily Part-time" or "Honorary Guard."
But this quest clearly felt like the tower's deliberate action.
The name itself was alien.
The objective was an impossible challenge that could never be completed.
The reward held no benefit for me—just a warning meant to pressure me.
It didn't care about the quest's structure at all.
"Heh, excessive manipulation?"
It showed extreme hostility toward reviving Harman's memories, using words like "unnecessary approach" and "restricted information."
While rambling about predetermined roles, it forced Harman—who knew nothing—to craft equipment needed for the first floor.
"Urk─!"
"Harman! Are you coming to?"
"......Ugh, my head. I'm seriously losing it."
Harman, who had been sitting in his chair, collapsed to the floor from an intense headache.
He seemed to have lost all strength in his body, unable to even attempt standing.
He could barely prop himself up by clutching the table leg.
Paradoxically, his limp state made it easy to lift him back into the chair.
Harman spent the next few minutes in a daze.
"How long was I out?"
"Just a moment. No more than ten minutes at most. Is your head okay now?"
"Feels fine now. It was like a huge rock smashed into my skull a second ago, but it's all good."
......No major issues, then?
It must have been the tower's simple show of force—a warning that this was just a taste, and any further meddling would bring harsher measures on Harman.
It was letting me know that was my last chance.
"About what we were talking about earlier......"
I had to stop first.
Pushing further would put Harman in danger.
"S-So, where were we?"
"It's fine, Harman. We can stop here─."
"Right, you said you needed more training swords?"
"......When did I say that?"
Harman acted like he hadn't heard me.
His strength had returned to his legs, and he headed straight into the workshop.
"Three should be enough, right?"
"......"
"Not paying? Even regulars can't get that for free. How am I supposed to eat?"
What was this?
When did I say I was buying these swords?
Why was he acting like he knew nothing?
As if he couldn't even remember the conversation we'd just had.
"Fine. Three isn't a big loss anyway. We'll call it even for the occasional help around here."
The three swords thrust into my hands clinked together.
Did three swords ever feel this heavy?
"Business done. Now get going."
"No, Harman....... This is."
"Not leaving? Planning to mooch off us? This place isn't big enough for three people. Barely any rooms as it is."
What are you saying, Harman?
We were just talking about Mariel.
You remembered your children were Lynette and Theo.
That Captain Karelus came after hearing of Mariel's talents.
That she left for Portam to join the subjugation of the sealed demon.
And that it wasn't a subjugation—it was an experiment.
Why are you handing me these crude swords?
Why are you pushing me out of the forge?
- Clunk!
"Oh, was just about to knock. Door's open?"
"Rien......?"
"Senior! Knew you'd be here!"
Had I been away too long?
Rien, who should have been sipping tea with Ellie at the request office, stood facing me as she opened the forge door.
Unlike her confident guess that I'd be here, her hair was damp with sweat, as if she'd been rushing around the village.
"You weren't coming, so I came myself."
"No need. I was just about to head back."
"Something wrong? Why the long faces......?"
Rien glanced back and forth between me and Harman.
My expression wasn't particularly off, and Harman's looked perfectly normal—yet she saw something amiss.
"Rien, get out for now."
"Huh?"
"I'll explain, so just─ outside!"
A weapon hung at Rien's waist.
A nameless sword. Mariel's sword. A sword enchanted by Mariel.
Its blade faintly glimmered as proof.
We had used this sword to awaken Harman's memories.
And now, this sword was once again before his eyes.
To the tower, this was interference. Excessive manipulation.
Another attempt to revive Harman's memories.
What would follow was surely the tower's additional measures.
I tried to get it away before he noticed, but it was too late.
His eyes were fixed on the gleaming blade.
"Nice sword."
"R-Right?"
"Don't know who made it, but they've got real skill."
"Huh? What do you......?"
The worst-case scenario I imagined didn't happen.
But this was hardly better.
Harman showed no strong reaction to the sword.
There was no trace of the fury he'd felt while forging it, nor the awe when it was complete.
Harman didn't remember Mariel upon seeing the sword.
He didn't even realize it was the blade he'd so desperately yearned for, merely admiring it as a fine piece of work.
"A-Ah. I'll head out first! Come on soon, Senior!"
By now, even Rien sensed the awkward atmosphere.
I'd have to explain Harman's current state later, but she at least knew this wasn't normal.
"I'll go then."
"Yeah. Gotta prep food for when Sylvia wakes. Girl sleeps through meals with those naps."
"I'll come back later."
I doubted I'd visit the forge for a while.
No confidence I could hold back.
Sylvia was still nestled in her warm blankets, lost in dreams.
Alone in the workshop, Harman murmured.
"Now, this should be enough, right."
No one was there to hear, yet he spoke as if addressing someone.
Harman didn't want to stop here either.
The vivid dreams every day, the past leaking out bit by bit.
He had no desire to give up.
But the tower didn't want him recovering his memories.
If he did, he would no longer be a blacksmith fit for the first floor.
He had already recovered many memories, but decided not to dig further into the past.
He didn't want to forget Mariel's face again, now that it had finally surfaced.
[Quest - Live as 'Blacksmith Harman' 《COMMON》]
· Objective - You are a blacksmith. Remain on the 1st floor and craft permitted items. (0/1)
· Reward - Please refrain from unnecessary approaches to adventurers. Providing restricted items is also inappropriate.
※ Everyone has a predetermined role. If excessive manipulation continues, additional measures may be taken.
The tower's "additional measures" were obvious.
It would turn him back into a mindless puppet with no memories.
Harman chose to halt rather than risk collapsing entirely.
Pretending to forget everything, pushing away the adventurer who had helped him.
In the future, his visits would only be occasional—to run errands for Tiana or check on his well-being.
In exchange, he could now remember Mariel's face, as well as Lynette's and Theo's.
"Damn it."
After the sealed demon rampaged, only a handful of great archmages in the world could enter Portam's interior.
They weren't there for rescues.
They merely checked the experiment's status in Portam, rehearsing as if adventurers had arrived.
He recalled the conversation with the captain.
"Captain Karelus! You promised—once the subjugation was done, Mariel would return from Portam!"
"Mr. Harman. I know it's confusing, but this is practically the foundation of salvation."
"Salvation? You're insane. Portam's about to vanish from the map entirely!"
"Portam for now, but given time, we can fit the entire world into the tower."
He had no interest in their grand schemes.
Couldn't comprehend them anyway.
He just wanted to live happily with the person he wanted to make happy.
"The tower? What meaning is there in trapping it in that damn thing!"
"No aging, infinite resources—the tower is practically paradise."
"Karelus...... Is this the paradise you spoke of?"
Towers existed in Harman's world too.
He had seen people enter one with his own eyes.
Just as there were many worlds, there were many towers.
Another world, built by stacking fragments of others layer by layer.
For Harman, a world with Mariel was enough for a full life.
He had never even considered the tower's existence in his life, yet lost his happiness to its schemes—and ironically, became a cornerstone of it himself.
"Circulation, dilemmas, isolation. We've roughly figured the criteria for the tower's selection. Now we just need to gather them one by one."
"What the......?"
"Without Lady Mariel, we couldn't have driven the demon to rampage like that. Truly grateful."
Portam was a massive fortress city, able to survive on internal resources alone.
The demon that hadn't fully perished became an enemy that had to be eradicated by its very existence.
The demon's rampage severed it from the outside world.
"By now, those inside Portam probably think they've become part of the tower. They'll end up that way eventually if we wait."
Of course, Harman was personally proving their criteria weren't entirely accurate.
Luden, with no interference whatsoever, had become a tower before Portam—the one that had even induced a demon rampage to force it.
"In the end, Portam became a tower too."
Mariel could spot swords made by Harman at a glance.
Likely because she'd received so many as gifts from him.
Conversely, Harman could recognize gear infused with her power instantly.
Because she always enchanted the swords he gifted her.
"Mariel......"
It was only natural to identify the magic on Rien's sword as Mariel's, even in the fleeting seconds it passed by.
He had vowed a lifetime with Mariel.
After long years together, each woven into the other's life.
"You're here too."
It was only natural to recognize her trace at once.
- ｢The Hidden Ailment - End｣