Tower Faith (1)
Tower Faith (1)
I lifted my palm, blinking at the ticklish sensation.
On my palm, a blue blob like a lump of dough squirmed around as if it had found a bed.
A lower water spirit—the newborn Professor Liana had just brought over in a rush.
"It's a baby spirit."
"A spirit that was just born now."
Professor Liana stared at my palm with a dazed look.
"I never thought I'd see a spirit born right before my eyes in my lifetime. I've experienced so many wondrous things while spending time with you, little one."
Spirits are born from nature's attribute power.
It's common knowledge, but firsthand accounts of witnessing their birth are rare.
Partly because places with such dense, pure attribute power are uncommon, and partly because it's difficult to be there at the exact moment a spirit emerges.
'I've observed it quite a few times, though.'
When you spend enough time wandering and observing, all sorts of things end up in your perception.
I had already known from observation this time too.
So a spirit's birth isn't something to be astonished about. Witnessing it may be rare, but it's possible.
"To think a spirit would be born here of all places."
The surprising part was that a spirit had been born in the Reverse Side.
I nodded at Professor Liana's muttered words, still laced with shock.
'I didn't expect it to be born this quickly either.'
Spirits are occasionally born in dungeons too.
But until just moments ago, the Reverse Side hadn't merely lacked any particular attribute power—it was an outright uncomfortable space for spirits.
Sometimes fragments of reality and dungeons are absorbed into the Reverse Side. That was how Senior Daera fell into it.
During that process, the absorbed energies mixed together to form the mana of the Reverse Side.
Some had even taken up residence here to exploit that very characteristic, but...
At any rate, while the mana density might be high, the energy is far too turbid and chaotic for a spirit to possibly be born.
Yet one was just born.
Inside the space I had cultivated.
"Looks like I'm building it well."
As if it never tired, the baby spirit rubbed its body against my palm.
I grinned and gently tickled it with my finger. It rubbed against me harder, delighted.
"'Well' is an understatement... It's practically being recognized as a whole world in itself."
"I intended to make it that way."
Not a mere construct, but a connected part of the world. I didn't carefully set up the earth veins and water veins for nothing.
- Poof!
[Ah, another one was just born.]
An ocher-colored bead of light popped out of the ground.
A lower earth spirit.
It merely flickered in place, seemingly bewildered. I chuckled and reached out.
[Little one? Come here~]
- Hmm...?
Responding to the will-thought emitted by my fairy wings, the spirit drifted over and settled onto my hand.
I gently cupped my hands and used my thumb to softly stroke the spirit.
[There you go, what a good child. Nice to meet you.]
- Hmm... Mmhmm...!
After a few strokes, the spirit shone brightly. I smiled back at its will-thought brimming with pure joy.
Even as I did so, spirits kept being born one by one.
Before I knew it, the lower spirits that had gravitated to me, following my mana and innate talent, numbered close to a hundred.
The most numerous were the earth spirits.
Next came the water spirits, followed by the wind spirits and fire spirits. The fewest were the lightning spirits.
I could guess the reason.
It was because the land from which earth spirits could be born was the most abundant.
Of course, by that logic there should be more wind spirits than water spirits, but that discrepancy was probably because of innate talent.
'Because I don't have the Gale or Heavenly Thunder yet.'
It was the Azure Sea innate talent that cultivated the water source. If I had created an ocean, far more water spirits would likely have been born.
In contrast, the sky and wind hadn't yet been supplemented by other attribute abilities.
That was why lightning spirits were the fewest. There was no Heavenly Thunder innate talent, nor a place where pure lightning energy could gather.
'Later, if I cultivate an environment for each attribute, will lots of spirits be born there?'
The plan to create zones for each attribute had been in my mind for a long time.
- Really, my King!? You're going to make us a new home!?
The upper fire spirit's eyes gleamed. It had overheard my will-thought.
[Of course I am. The land is this vast, so how could I not make a space for the spirit children?]
My spirits already have plenty of places to stay, but I plan to create one more here in the Reverse Side while I'm at it.
- You're the best, my King!
[Ahaha, your happiness makes me happy too. I'll make it a nice place, so look forward to it.]
At that, the spirit beamed and hugged me. Buried snugly in its warm embrace, I smiled too and stroked the spirit's hair.
"......"
"......?"
It was around then, after I'd been tending to the spirits for a while.
Suddenly, I felt a gaze fixed sharply on my head.
The source of the gaze was Professor Liana. Along with Ellia and Lee Ha-sol.
They had all been petting spirits that had approached out of curiosity, but now their pointed stares were pressing firmly on my head.
[......]
It wasn't difficult to read the meaning behind those gazes.
I quietly slipped out of the upper water spirit's embrace and discreetly approached.
Professor Liana smiled gently.
"What's the matter? You could have stayed in the other children's arms."
I didn't step into the trap.
Shaking my head vigorously, I burrowed into her embrace.
As expected, her two arms didn't block me.
Rather, she spread her arms and opened her embrace. When I buried my face and snuggled against her full chest, Professor Liana's expression fortunately relaxed.
"When you take care of the lower ones, you're so unbelievably tender, but with the upper ones, you go all goofy and let them hold you like a child. Hmm?"
"I've never done that..."
"Oh, you definitely have. I should've realized it the moment I saw every single one of those upper spirits was a voluptuous female figure."
Instead of Professor Liana, Ellia and Lee Ha-sol teased me relentlessly from both sides.
Amid the teasing, a mix of slander and truth, I raised my head to ask for help, but Professor Liana merely shrugged and smiled.
.
.
.
It was only after I'd been teased for quite a while that their mischief ceased.
"Anyway, construction paused once the spirits started being born. Are you planning to call it a day here?"
Lee Ha-sol, who by then had pulled me into her arms, asked while stroking my hair.
[I'll leave the environmental cultivation at this and move on to something else.]
"Something else?"
[Hmph, there is something.]
I pouted my lips slightly and buried my face against her chest. Lee Ha-sol, who had shrugged her shoulders because it tickled, rounded her eyes.
Soon her eyes curved into crescent moons.
"Ha-yul... don't tell me you're sulking?"
[I am not doing that.]
[Sulking— Ubebebebebt.]
Crackle! When I poured mana into it forcefully, the necklace clicked. Ellia let out a laugh at the sight.
"Teehee, what do you think you're doing, picking on a poor, innocent necklace?"
- It's definitely guilty.
It has more than enough sins.
Consider how many unseemly and embarrassing remarks this necklace has made.
"Aren't those all just Ha-yul's true feelings being output? In the old days, whenever I put you to sleep, you'd go on about how amazingly big my chest was, and then you'd just..."
"Gyaaa— mphb."
"Oh my, really?"
I let out a shriek, but it was too late. Lee Ha-sol, who had pressed my head and buried me against her chest, covered her mouth with her hand in astonishment.
"Mphb, mmphmph...!"
"It's true, I'm telling you. Back then Ha-yul was very shy, but the fondness for chests was the same, so when I put him to sleep, his inner thoughts would come out as—"
"Pff-ha...! Let's do something else! Other work!"
I forced my face out from between the large breasts and cut Ellia off mid-sentence.
I took a deep breath of the air I'd been deprived of, and before any more old stories could spill out, I shook my body back and forth to hurry her along.
[The Tower! You told me before that there's a Tower in the Reverse Side! Let's go see it!]
"...Ah, right. That was a thing."
"Huh?"
Ellia let out an exclamation as if she'd completely forgotten. Professor Liana had a similar expression. But Lee Ha-sol looked left and right, blinking.
"What... you're saying there's something here?"
[A Tower. It's exactly the kind of Tower people talk about.]
"Wha...?"
In her wide-open, pale-green eyes, bewilderment and confusion mingled.
"Had we not told Ha-sol yet?"
"I haven't heard a single word about it, you know?! There's another Tower here...?"
Lee Ha-sol's flustered voice grew louder. Now that I thought about it, I hadn't told Lee Ha-sol about the Tower I'd seen in the Reverse Side.
[It's probably a Tower that could be connected to you, Miss Lee Ha-sol.]
"I have absolutely no idea what you mean by that..."
At the additional information, Lee Ha-sol's expression turned grim. She shook her head back and forth, then wordlessly tightened her arms around me.
* * *
The Unconquered Tower discovered within the Reverse Side.
I had worried that some sort of problem might arise from it triggering a rampage in the Reverse Side, but when I visited to check later, there was fortunately no issue.
The Tower was still in its place.
"It's really a Tower..."
Lee Ha-sol tilted her head back in a daze.
A long Tower stretching up far into that sky. One could tell immediately that it wasn't just a plausible-looking architectural structure.
The aura flowing over its pale green surface sent a creeping chill down my spine.
Even as she rubbed her arm, Lee Ha-sol admired the Tower with glowing eyes.
"Wow..."
It wasn't as though she had never seen a Tower before.
She had seen the Tower of Growth at Siyoram, and seen the Tower of Harmonization and the Tower of Space when visiting the Association. In the process of helping Lee Ha-yul, she had seen the Tower of Knowledge on the Floating Island and the Tower of the Dead, one of the Otherworld Towers. Even setting aside the Tower of Observation whose location is kept secret, she had seen five Towers with her own eyes. But she had never in her life seen a masterless Tower.
"An Unconquered Tower... How thoroughly fascinating."
When it is one day conquered, a master will be born to it. Thinking that, she felt a truly wondrous sensation. Lee Ha-sol placed her hand over her chest.
- Thump thump...!
Her heart pounded. As she stared at the Tower, a peculiar feeling tickled her mind.
"...So, what do you mean when you say it could be connected to me?"
[Don't you feel the wind?]
"Well... I do. Why do you ask?"
After rolling her eyes, Lee Ha-sol glanced back at the Tower.
The Tower exuded an uncommon aura. Around it, she could sense an incredibly dense wind energy whipping into a frenzy.
[That is a wind-attribute Tower.]
"...Is that so?"
[I've heard that you don't conquer a Tower just by climbing it aimlessly. You have to have the proper qualifications and aptitude to become a Tower Master.]
"......."
At that point, it was impossible not to grasp the implication.
Her mouth hanging open blankly, Lee Ha-sol turned her head with a creak.
"Don't tell me... uh... no, right?"
[What you're thinking is probably right, but...]
"Oh, my. You're saying you want to install me as a Tower Master?"
The flabbergasted Lee Ha-sol covered her involuntarily gaping mouth with a hand.
Bewilderment was written all over the eyes she hadn't managed to cover.
[I was just thinking about it as a possibility.]
[Of course, I absolutely won't push you into it, Miss Lee Ha-sol.]
[There is absolutely, positively, not the slightest need for you to feel any burden.]
"No, I... I was just taken aback because it came out of nowhere, so it's fine. There's no need to fidget over it."
Lee Ha-yul hurriedly shook his head.
[I really mean it.]
[There's no need for any burden.]
[I was just asking, that's all. If it has no master, then I could enter it myself, after all.]
"Alright, I promise I'm not taking it badly... There, there, such a good boy. Let's calm down for a second..."
I flustered about, afraid that Lee Ha-sol might feel pressured.
Having conversely calmed down, she pulled my head and buried it against her chest.
[Squishy.]
[Soft and fluffy.]
"There you go, good boy..."
The best method of soothing, exclusive to Lee Ha-yul.
As expected, holding me tight calmed me down at once.
Since this was the very embrace my physical body had constantly been held in when young, the stabilizing effect was immense.
Oblivious to the sharpening gazes of Liana and Ellia beside us, I nuzzled my face against Lee Ha-sol's chest, relieved.
"It truly was just because it was so sudden."
[...Yeah, I did bring it up rather suddenly...]
"There's also that, but... I may not look it, but I am a follower of the Tower Faith, you know?"
With an awkward laugh, Lee Ha-sol stroked my hair.
"Nominally, I'm a member of a religion that serves the Tower and its Tower Master as gods. So when you suddenly tell me to try becoming one of those gods I serve, of course I'd be flustered."
[Ah...]
Come to think of it, she belonged to the Tower Faith.
As she felt my warmth in her arms, Lee Ha-sol glanced sidelong at the Tower in her field of vision.
No matter how nominal it was, she was a member of the Tower Faith. While she held no blind faith, she did empathize with the notion that a Tower was a being so great as to be considered a god.
'Though these days it's been noisy internally because of the existence of the otherworldly Tower Master...'
Conquer that Tower and become its master? Truth be told, she couldn't even imagine it.
Lee Ha-sol pictured that hypothetical future with an enigmatic expression.
"Umm... to be honest, I'm not really sure yet. It's too dizzying a notion..."
[I was just showing it to you since we were already here in the Reverse Side. I wasn't asking you to give me an answer.]
"Yes, yes, I know your heart well, Ha-yul, so don't worry."
This time for good, Lee Ha-sol tucked me, who was about to fret again, deep into her chest.
As if it didn't even suffocate me, I immediately became docile and wrapped my arms tightly around her waist. Lee Ha-sol grinned and gently stroked my pure white hair.
- Ding.
It was then that Lee Ha-sol's smartwatch sounded an alert.
Lee Ha-sol, who had called up the hologram without much thought, suddenly flinched.
'...Huh? How did the alert ring here?'
It was a question that arose because she didn't know that I, nestled in her arms, had begun handling the Authority of Harmonization.
Before she could ask that question, the delivered message entered her field of vision.
The sentences were quite long. The sender was Lee Ha-sol's aide, who belonged to the Tower Faith.
Her eyes calmly moved across the text, and as she scanned the contents, Lee Ha-sol's expression hardened.
[Miss Lee Ha-sol?]
Though my face was buried deep against her chest, I had confirmed the shift in her expression through observation and stirred slightly.
Her stiffly hardened face looked considerably serious.
I stealthily observed the hologram I had previously censored out of respect for her privacy.
[Contact: Aide]
▶ Aide: Emergency report
▶ Aide: Grade 1 Dungeon emergence confirmed in the vicinity of the headquarters
▶ Aide: Observation team analysis has detected wavelengths equivalent to a 2nd Rank inside the dungeon; an emergency summons has been issued
▶ Aide: Please confirm receipt and reply