Deepening Bonds 3
Katie Wellesley’s affection for me, Roland, felt a little out of the blue at first… but after arriving on the 35th floor and turning it over carefully in my mind, it seemed there were perfectly good reasons for it.
The biggest one was probably that she earned the nickname “jammin” for a reason—she wasn’t the type to chase romance or deep feelings with any real intensity. She had that boyish side that loved swords, armor, and rideable golems, but she also carried a girlish heart that could get swept up in something fated, like a mission from the Goddess.
Outwardly she was the picture of a cold, silver-haired, blue-eyed slender beauty, but at her core she was a tomboy through and through—equal parts boyish and girlish. It made sense that she’d feel a fated pull toward a handsome man who had been chosen by the Goddess right alongside her.
A pretty face is its own kind of plot armor, after all—that rule holds true anywhere.
Even in my previous life there’d been that guy who started filming study YouTube videos because he wanted to become a cop, only to end up a model because he was too handsome. This parallel world would have people like that too, and the game world of Heroes Chronicle was no different.
Why was I even thinking about something so random?
“Looks like regular taverns have opened up on the 35th floor too. …Ones that actually just sell drinks and food, not the kind where you grab a girl and mess around.”
“Alcohol inside the Tower… is that really okay?”
“What’s the harm? We’ll be resting until the Magic Tower’s results come in anyway.”
The distance Katie had kept between us had completely vanished.
In this medieval fantasy land, getting someone drunk and collapsing together was apparently common sense for both men and women, so she casually suggested we grab drinks while we rested. Back when she was Kayden she barely even showed up to after-parties—what was going on here?
With her clinging so openly, even Grace, who had been relieved Katie was safe, started picking up on the strange atmosphere. And then someone completely unexpected jumped in and poured oil on the fire.
“Drinks sound wonderful. If you don’t care for drinking at the inn, shall I have Mary fetch a bottle of wine?”
Whether she’d finished her golem research or just dumped the busywork on her assistants, Charlotte Cavendish had come up to the 35th floor to survey the swamp layers, bringing her maid and a whole pack of hired adventurers with her.
This was the woman who hadn’t saved her virginity for a future husband—she’d offered it to me so she could escape the Cavendish family and remain the mage Charlotte. True to her 2★ title of “Ambitious,” she kept making bold moves.
If Grace and Katie were trying to win me over with genuine affection, Charlotte was trying to topple me for pleasure and curiosity. It suited a mage far more than a proper noble lady, but right now it was the last thing I needed.
I hated my past self for looking down on parties that fell apart over love triangles…!
“Wine, huh. Not something I’m used to.”
“Northerners prefer beer over wine, don’t they?”
“Is that so? But Sir Roland is well-versed in capital culture, so I’m sure he’d enjoy wine as well.”
Thanks to lonely noblewomen and dreamy young ladies who fantasized about romances with adventurers, I was familiar enough with women’s bodies—but the kind of conversation you’d only hear in a cult was still beyond me.
Even so, the talk these three were having was clearly… hostile, wasn’t it?
Katie would suggest something to me, Grace would talk her down, Grace’s objection would make Charlotte offer an alternative, and then Katie would look reluctant about Charlotte’s idea. There wasn’t a single harsh atmosphere, yet somehow the cycle of opposing for the sake of opposing had started spinning.
No hostility, no sense of competition—their expressions and moods were gentle as could be, yet every word was pure contradiction or nitpicking. That made it even scarier…!
“Even in the Temple, many priests call wine the Goddess’s grace. Why not learn about it while we have the chance?”
“…Irene unnie really is pure attribute, isn’t she? I never expected a catfight to break out on the 35th floor of all places. I just thought Roland was two-timing the party.”
Irene, completely oblivious and smiling brightly as she offered to teach Grace and Katie about wine, was one thing—but Han Se-ah, standing a step back and watching the whole mess like a trashy drama alongside her viewers, was downright annoying.
We’d set up in the same tent village as last time, and while she pretended to organize her inventory a short distance away, she had her camera pointed straight at us… and under the excuse of inventory management she was crunching away on roasted grains like they were popcorn.
What taste could there possibly be in chewing raw preservation grains meant for soup and stew? Even if chewing plain rice long enough brings out sweetness, nobody eats instant rice as dessert. The exaggerated way she was munching those grains was pure performance for the viewers.
“But still, watching something like this without popcorn would be a sin, right? Honestly I’d make 3D glasses out of red and blue cellophane if I could.”
On top of everything, I could hear every word she was bantering with her viewers. That made her even more annoying.
After the endless debate we grabbed some market-street skewers to tide us over, then moved on to the information report. We told the Temple, the Magic Tower, and the Adventurer’s Guild everything that had happened to us on the 40th floor. With a gate open now, we could drink outside the Tower anyway.
The first thing we had to talk about was, of course, Manash’s existence.
“A Naga who fell to the Demon King yet returned to the light through sheer will…! I must inform my brothers and warn everyone heading to the 40th floor!”
A Temple knight built like the living embodiment of machismo—broad-shouldered and massive—trembled with emotion. He looked like the type who believed grit and willpower could solve every problem in the world, and Manash’s story of reclaiming his mind had clearly moved him.
Well, if someone medically declared dead suddenly sat up shouting hallelujah, every theologian who believed in God would probably rejoice too.
“Thank you for submitting the specimen, Sir Roland. Scales dyed black… were there any other distinctive features?”
And of course the Magic Tower was pure academic curiosity.
Was the blackening a form of undeath? It hadn’t rotted, though. What commonality between humans and Naga allowed cloning? Why did plant-type monsters sprout lumps of flesh, and if those formed underground cavities and the dirt-choked subterranean space was bright because of tree roots, then new plants or magical phenomena—? The way he muttered nonstop was downright terrifying.
Thanks to Charlotte Cavendish I already knew how obsessive the Magic Tower’s questions could get. Faced with a scrawny mage who looked ready to start an interrogation if left alone, I cut him off with a short “Ask Charlotte” and left no room for follow-ups. That left only the person from the Adventurer’s Guild.
Beside the muscle-bound Temple knight murmuring scripture in awe and the skinny mage answering his own unanswered questions under his breath, a beautiful woman with brown permed hair was shrinking into herself.
“Um, Sir Roland? This is a letter Elise unnie asked me to deliver.”
“Elise?”
“Yes. She said to read it right away.”
She looked familiar—probably one of the guild clerks Elise kept around. I vaguely remembered catching glimpses of her when macarons or whatever were being passed around the office.
Whether Elise trusted her enough to send her, or she was just the junior stuck with the errand of climbing all the way to the 35th floor, her hands trembled as she held out the letter. The moment I took it she squeaked a tiny “Eek!” and bolted like she was fleeing.
She vanished so abruptly it was almost rude, as if delivering the letter was literally her only job. Well, I wasn’t a noble and this wasn’t a noble estate, so I didn’t particularly mind.
“Ah, this is no time to linger! I shall inform my brothers at once, Sir Roland! May the Goddess’s blessing go with you!”
“I-is Lady Charlotte Cavendish conducting research on the 35th floor? …Yes, thank you.”
The sight of the guild clerk fleeing seemed to snap the Temple knight and the mage out of their private worlds; they both hurried off as well, and I was only grateful.
I gave them a brief bow as they left, then looked down at the envelope in my hand. Pale yellow paper sealed with wax stamped with a sword and shield. The wax was high-quality enough that it came free smoothly; I crumpled it and tossed it aside before unfolding the letter.
To Upper-grade Adventurer Roland, from the Adventurer’s Guild
The formal phrasing made it clear this wasn’t a personal note from Elise. Unlike the flowery letters nobles exchanged, adventurers were mostly commoners, so the message stayed short and clean—just one page. I liked that.
In short: the Temple and Magic Tower were likely to set up temporary branches on the 35th floor, so the Adventurer’s Guild would establish one there as well.
They planned to split the work—requests from beginner to intermediate rank, up through the 30th floor, would stay with the city guilds, while intermediate-and-above requests starting from the 31st floor would be handled at the 35th-floor safe-zone branch. Looking at how things were shaping up, once the climb higher up started stalling they might even punch gates through every five floors.