Promising a Next Time
A roar echoed, shaking the very sky of the beastkin.
Listening to that sound, I watched the situation unfold from a distance.
The fierce cries of the beastkin calling out for the princess reached my ears.
No matter what anyone said, the one who had played the greatest role in this battle was the princess.
That was why the beastkin were shouting her name in unison.
Of course, even if it was all a self-directed play orchestrated by my puppets,
there was no way the beastkin could possibly know that.
Above all, the princess worked hard.
Although I had diligently operated the puppets to ensure not a single beastkin died,
this operation succeeded primarily because of the princess's own efforts.
The beastkin now believed they owed their lives to her.
Quite apart from the sacred duel, the princess had earned the genuine respect of her people.
This side is sorted, but the problem is the internal situation.
I had already gathered the general gist of what was happening inside through the tiny puppets I had planted beforehand.
Grotan, was it?
The representative warrior of the beastkin.
I had intentionally avoided attaching an invisible puppet to him.
Partly because I figured someone as strong as him wouldn't easily fall to the beasts,
but also because his senses were on an entirely different level compared to the other warriors.
For Grotan, it was much better to attach a puppet that looked like a tiny, visible bug rather than an invisible one.
Even then, I kept a safe distance just in case.
If it's the spider's invisibility, it might be fine, but...
I instinctively felt that my other puppets wouldn't be able to slip past his notice.
Currently, Grotan had harbored a deep resentment toward the High Priest.
For the princess and me, this was incredibly welcome news.
However, the High Priest he was opposing was the real issue.
The High Priest will never allow the princess to challenge the trial again.
All he wanted was his own dictatorship.
Even now.
Behind the scenes, he was already plotting to have Grotan killed at this opportune moment.
I slowly tapped my crossed arms.
Though corrupt to the core, the High Priest still held the trust of the beastkin. If he openly opposed the princess, those who followed him would reject her as well.
"Spider."
It couldn't be helped.
Because the beastkin felt so human, I wanted to interfere with them as little as possible.
But looking toward the future, it was better to take some precautions.
* * *
While Grotan and the warriors let out their roars of victory,
High Priest Barkan was busy issuing orders to his subordinates.
Grotan was a warrior Barkan had raised his entire life.
But even if you raised a dog from birth, you had to put it down if it dared to bite its master's hand.
If Grotan had begun to question his will, there was no other choice. He would eliminate him and appoint a new warrior.
"He will be at his weakest, exhausted from fighting the beasts. Strike when he eats."
He had already poisoned the food.
A few other warriors dining alongside Grotan would likely die as well, but Barkan didn't care in the slightest.
There were plenty of other warriors to replace them anyway.
"Go."
The moment his command fell, the assassins vanished into the shadows.
As of today, the title of the strongest warrior would change hands.
Having finished his business, the High Priest turned around. He planned to rest in his chambers until he received news of Grotan's decapitation.
Coincidentally, a new child chosen as the god's vessel had just arrived. Toying with his new plaything would pass the time quickly enough.
"Heh, a fool who defies the Father's will must pay the price."
Immediately after those words,
the High Priest's heart was pierced by something.
It happened in a fraction of a second.
"Cough!?"
Vomiting a mouthful of blood, the High Priest's eyes shook violently.
Beneath his feet,
the claw of a spider puppet, having deactivated its invisibility, was driven straight through his heart.
When did it get in?
Before the High Priest could even process the question, something erupted from the floorboards.
It was an countless army of ants.
They swarmed up the walls and covered the ceiling in an instant, plunging the room into absolute darkness.
Trapped in the pitch-black void, the High Priest could see nothing.
He hurriedly swung his staff.
The engravings carved into the staff flared with light, blasting away the spider's leg embedded in his chest.
In the hollow space where his heart had been,
a dark, pitch-black energy rushed in to fill the void.
He had forcefully channeled his divine power to keep himself alive. If the flow of power stopped, his life would end, but he had no other choice.
"Urgh, who is it?! Who dares commit such a treacherous act against the Father's representative?!"
With a furious roar, the High Priest unleashed his divine power.
Crimson claws erupted from his body, instantly shattering the wall of ant puppets.
The red claws lashed out in all directions, completely destroying the room.
Spotting a cracked wall beyond the ruined puppets, he swung his staff with all his might.
Crash!
The staff, infused with divine power, pulverized the wall, and the High Priest threw himself outside.
However, his body failed to escape.
A dense web of spider silk, tightly woven inside the wall, tangled around him and bound him tight.
"Urgh!"
He immediately summoned his claws to tear at them, but the silk kept pouring out endlessly, regardless of how much he cut.
Ultimately, the High Priest was left completely wrapped in a cocoon of webbing, unable to budge an inch.
"Is anyone there?! Help!"
No matter how loudly he cried out for aid, no one answered.
For the High Priest, it was a despairing situation.
Flutter—
At that moment, something drifted down.
It was a moth with a single mouth sitting right in the center of its body.
"I'm sorry. I don't really hold any ill will toward you either."
A bizarre voice, sounding as if it were generated by a mechanical device, echoed from the moth's mouth.
It was a voice that felt chillingly eerie.
Instinctively, the High Priest could tell the owner of the voice was very young.
"But don't worry. I won't kill you. If you disappear, the beastkin will lose their central pillar, so I'll let you live."
The voice sounded as if it were granting mercy.
Yet, the more it spoke, the more terrified the High Priest became.
She had already pierced his heart, yet she claimed she would let him live?
The contradiction was absurd. Hearing such words from a child made it feel all the more horrific.
Rumble—
Just then, something rolled toward him.
Stopping at his feet was a pill bug.
But it wasn't an ordinary insect. This, too, was a puppet whose insides were wired with all sorts of mechanical parts.
"If you put that child inside your heart, you won't die."
The High Priest's eyes trembled wildly.
He understood exactly what those words meant.
"...Are you telling me to become your puppet?"
To trade his life to become a slave to that voice.
Hearing this, the High Priest let out a hollow laugh.
Then, his eyes flashed with resolve.
"I would rather die than become a mere puppet."
Without hesitation, he released his divine power.
The heart he had been keeping together with raw energy split open once more, and blood began to stain the spider silk red.
Corrupt as he was, the High Priest still had his pride. He was a man who would rather throw away his life than see his convictions trampled upon.
"May the beastkin reign forever!"
Though he was the very culprit leading the beastkin to ruin, he closed his eyes in self-satisfaction, crying out for the glory of his race.
"Ah, what a shame. I guess I'll just have to revive you as a puppet then."
Until he heard that voice, completely indifferent to his death.
If you die, I can just bring you back as a puppet anyway.
The moment he heard those dry, emotionless words carrying that exact meaning, his consciousness snapped back from the brink of death.
"I—I accept!"
If the death he chose for his pride was rendered utterly meaningless, then there was no point to it at all.
* * *
Thanks to the pill bug puppet that now served as the High Priest's heart, Barkan canceled all plans to assassinate Grotan and warmly welcomed the returning warriors.
At the same time, with a complete turnaround in attitude, he acknowledged the princess's achievements and took the unprecedented step of declaring her a hero of the beastkin.
Grotan naturally harbored doubts about this sudden shift,
but the High Priest handled it with quick-witted tact.
"After reflecting on your words, I realized I have clung too rigidly to the Father's teachings. The Father ultimately wished for our survival. I was foolish."
The High Priest's acting was the very picture of a reformed, devout believer.
Grotan found it strange, but he didn't press any further. He hadn't wanted to fight the High Priest in the first place.
All's well that ends well.
Thus, the princess successfully established her position as the hero of the beastkin.
And with that...
Clear conditions for the 10th Floor have been met.
The 10th Floor Nightmare difficulty will end shortly.
You are the first to clear the 10th Floor Nightmare difficulty.
The 10th Floor was successfully cleared.
Now, the rest was up to the princess. There was nothing more I could do to intervene.
Standing among my puppets, I looked toward the fortress.
Even while surrounded by the beastkin, the princess was looking out past the fortress walls, her eyes filled with a desperate longing.
I hadn't even been able to say goodbye to her.
It was an even more sudden parting than the last time.
But I decided not to force a farewell.
Princess, you are my puppet. Wherever I am, you will be able to sense my existence.
My exact thoughts wouldn't carry over.
But the intent would reach her. Because she was a princess reborn as my puppet.
The princess raised her head.
A deep, swelling emotion welled in her eyes.
It was a look that seemed to promise a next time to an old friend.
She opened her mouth. Naturally, her voice couldn't reach me.
Let's meet again.
Yet, that was exactly what she seemed to say.
I didn't know when the next time would be.
Time inside the Tower and time in reality seemed to flow differently.
Above all, to meet the princess again, I would have to climb much higher than I had now.
Hoping that she would become the hero who saved her world by then, I finished the 10th Floor.
The world returned to reality.
The school infirmary was bathed in the warm glow of the setting sun, marking the end of the day.
I plopped down on the bed and stared blankly at the sinking sun.
The princess wasn't here.
I had vaguely expected this, but she was indeed an existence that belonged only inside the Tower.
And she would be someone I could only meet inside the Tower in the future.
Vaguely,
I felt like I had realized what kind of path my skill would lead me down through this experience.
For some reason, I felt a bit sentimental.
I quietly realized that I, too, was just a fifteen-year-old girl going through puberty.