A Place Full of Stars 2
When I came to my senses, I found we'd been given an entire mansion for the party to use. According to the princess, some noble who'd romanticized the adventuring life had presented it to her as a tribute… well, whether that was true or not hardly mattered.
Apparently, the system had the royal family handing out the Floor 40 rewards rather than the Magic Tower. Nothing else could explain the princess's almost overwhelming generosity.
A mansion the player could use as a base, magical tools, a necklace that aided stamina and mana recovery, a royal token acknowledging us as heroes, and every intangible benefit that came with the protection of both the Crown and the Temple.
At this point, even the Giving Tree would be embarrassed enough to change its name.
"…Is that everything? So it was just a reward ceremony. Kind of underwhelming, honestly."
And so the meeting with yet another natural-born 6★ character passed without incident.
No matter how much of a natural 6★ she was, I couldn't exactly ask a princess to join a hero's party — and even if I harbored my own suspicions, there was no way I was going to refuse the Floor 40 clear rewards and just sit there.
We were treated to ultra-luxurious cuisine that looked like something out of a top-tier Western restaurant, sipped a sweet-yet-potent wine that supposedly matched the atmosphere, chatted about topics suited to our tastes, and as we parted ways, received the Floor 40 clear rewards as "royal gifts" under the pretense of respecting the Goddess's will…
Is that what people call making acquaintances?
"The princess was so beautiful…."
"Now I understand why the nobles make such a fuss. You can't help but fall for her."
"She's like a blessing the Goddess herself bestowed upon the royal family."
In the carriage ride home after the evening banquet, while Han Se-ah chatted with her viewers, the rest of the party swapped stories about the princess. Having been thoroughly charmed according to their individual tastes, the praise was, of course, unanimous. If Roland's brokenness lay in his indestructible body, then Bradamante's brokenness might as well have been her silver tongue.
Watching them gush about the princess with flushed cheeks — like fans who'd just been hugged by their lifelong celebrity crush, or young girls suffering the fever of first love — I had to admit my suspicions might have some merit.
Of course, I'd already received everything on offer, and I'd been thoroughly won over by the special magical tools said to have been dedicated to the princess. Air-purifying tools, laundry and drying tools, armor and clothing care tools… they were magical tools in name only — essentially a full suite of the highest-grade white goods from my previous life.
"So are we heading straight back to the city now?"
"Hmm? Hanna, you must not have caught that part of the conversation. She invited us to stay another night at the villa, and said she'd provide a carriage tomorrow morning."
It seemed like a consideration for the player's comfort, and Han Se-ah was reaping the benefits. Those kinds of household amenities — you don't miss them until you have them, and then you wonder how you ever lived without them.
Truth be told, Roland's body was so sturdy and healthy that air conditioning or air purifiers were hardly necessary — but a person's mood was a different matter entirely. Enjoying a thick comforter under a blasting AC while web surfing wasn't about health. It was about feeling good.
And so, after an evening banquet where we'd given nothing and received everything, we returned to the Adventurer's City.
After one more round of lavish hospitality from the maids, of course.
Whether this was meant to showcase the royal family's administrative prowess or simply the princess's formidable influence…
"This mansion is ours? Wow, it's about the size of my family's villa. Just handing something like this over without a second thought — Her Highness really is remarkable in every way."
"Good heavens, th-this is a bit much, isn't it?"
The moment we returned to the city in a royal carriage, we found ourselves the owners of a house in the Adventurer's City. A massive two-story mansion of the sort you'd call a guild house in an RPG — the kind of place that looked unmanageable without a gardener and a full staff of maids.
I'd assumed the carriage would drop us off somewhere reasonable on the street, so when it stopped right in front of the iron gates of a sprawling estate, it took me a moment to process the situation.
And just like that, we became the masters of a mansion managed by Sebastian, a 2★ "Steadfast" butler with a memorable Pringles-mustache, and Emma, a 1★ "Intellectual" brown-haired maid. The carriage we'd arrived in was thrown in as a bonus.
…These two NPCs were characters who joined the player in the story, so were they included as a kind of homage?
"Having a private carriage will make getting around for quests a lot more convenient."
"Sebastian says that if we want, he'll hire a coachman for us. That'll definitely make things easier."
Our quality of life had skyrocketed, but the party had no intention of lounging around. After checking out of our old lodgings and claiming rooms in the mansion one by one, the girls naturally began preparing to re-enter the Tower.
Around our necks hung the royal-gift necklaces added to our Magic Tower gear — treasures reserved for high-ranking nobles that boosted natural stamina and mana recovery just by wearing them. We'd been about to run stamina tests in the mansion garden… until a teary-eyed Sebastian intervened, and we redirected to the guild training grounds instead.
Irene headed for the Temple as a matter of course. Grace and Han Se-ah peeled off toward the market, saying they'd need alchemy. Katie and I made for the guild grounds to test the stamina recovery. The party split up naturally, each going their own way.
Han Se-ah's camera, it seemed, had been dragged along to the alchemy workshop — more things to film over there.
"It helps with stamina recovery, huh? Well, it came from the princess, so there should be a meaningful difference, right?"
"Meaningful difference?"
"Sometimes you get mages who try to scam clueless nobles. They claim something 'aids stamina recovery,' but the efficiency is so low it's basically the equivalent of sleeping ten extra minutes. Or they say it 'helps gather mana' when it actually just makes the process harder so you feel a sense of accomplishment."
So even in this world, there were people who preyed on the ignorant.
Apparently the local equivalent of those guys who sold radio-wave-blocking stickers and "super ion" drinks to rural grandpas were mages. Katie giggled as she told me about how some of them had come up north once, gotten a thorough thrashing with clubs, and been chased out into the snowfields. Then she drew her sword.
At the same time, her aura dropped the temperature of the training grounds by several degrees. It was something I thought every time I saw it — ice-attribute characters always seemed to break the balance somehow.
"Alright then — shall we burn through everything first to test the recovery effect?"
"Sure. Come at me."
I raised my shield, and Katie charged me without hesitation. Pale blue aura rippled as she cut through the chilled air. Of course, since the reward gear was recovery-focused, I couldn't claim she was dramatically more powerful than a few days ago.
I deflected her sharply thrusting blade with a measured amount of aura in my shield and felt the reflection damage passive fail to trigger. Since it only activated on a hit, looking at it the other way — this was actually good practice for shield deflection training.
Katie practiced distributing her stamina and mana for prolonged combat while pouring out aura, and I practiced flowing aura through my shield. Given how much of my life had been spent tanking things with my body, even with a level gap, there was always something technical to pick up.
"Haaah — seriously! How are you deflecting all of this?"
"If you punched through me already, my adventuring career would look pretty pathetic."
A sword of that ambiguous length — a bit long for a one-hander, a bit short for a two-hander. The blade, wreathed in beautiful aura, flexed gracefully one moment and shot forward fiercely the next, painting the air with elegant arcs as it sought my neck and thighs around the shield.
Unfamiliar weapon or not, blocking it was no problem. Roland's body might have various stats tacked on that let him deal damage, but at his core he was a pure natural-born 6★ tank.
A sharply flying blade simply carved empty air. A sly, snake-like curved slash meant for the throat scraped harmlessly across the solid face of the shield and was shoved aside. As every slash that came in a breathless flurry was dismantled one after another, Katie's face flushed red.
"Haaah, hwaaah — okay, it definitely, works, but—!!"
"Recovering in real time?"
"Hup — yes! I'm less, tired, than usual, ehh!"
What was truly surprising was how effective the Floor 40 reward necklace turned out to be. Not just out-of-combat recovery — it restored naturally even during combat, while she was swinging her sword to the point of exhaustion.
Had she been pushing herself this hard because she trusted it?
She was swinging her sword with her lips pressed tight, to the point where "breathless DPS" was the only fitting description. Part of me wanted to just take a hit for her, but this was a spar with live steel — doing that would get someone seriously hurt.
And the one who'd get hurt wouldn't be me. It would be Katie. Trusting a stamina-recovery accessory and swinging wildly while reflection damage kicked in would be dangerous. She had levels, so she wouldn't die instantly like a goblin, but serious injury was a guarantee.
"——Hwaaaaah! Ah, hwaa…."
"So, how does it feel?"
"Hoo…. It's ridiculous. The stuff the knight order used feels like a child's toy by comparison. Even now, if I just catch my breath a little, I feel like I could fight again."
"Not bad."
She'd held her breath and swung her sword like a madwoman until her muscles were about to burst — and all she needed was a moment to catch her breath before she could go again. Half joy, half worry tangled in my head at how good the Floor 40 rewards turned out to be.
Even the Floor 40 boss had been a vicious thing — legion-scale minion summons plus an invincibility gimmick. As a dark mage and researcher who kept manufacturing soldiers, it had a time-attack element too.
Which meant the Floor 50 boss we hadn't reached yet was probably packing something even more vicious or disgusting. I'd rather face some simple-minded brute with absurd raw stats. At least with that kind of enemy, I could just tank it with my body.
"Roland? Roland, are you here!?"
"Huh? What is it?"
As I was thinking that, Elise came sprinting into the training grounds in a panic. Her usually neat blonde hair was disheveled from how urgently she'd run, and she thrust a document at me like she was throwing it.
Floor 41 had started changing as well.
The difficulty was, holy shit, for real.