The First Tower Climb (1)
Chatting away like that, we arrived at the gathering spot for the tower assault team on fairly good terms.
There, Uncle Dusik and the rest of the Mokdong assault team had already finished their preparations and were waiting for us.
"Oh, Charlotte, you're here! And those friends next to you seem to have gotten pretty close, huh? So what brings the two of you all the way out here?"
When Uncle Dusik asked after the two beside me, Kang Hyeonseok stepped forward and spoke.
"We came hoping we might be of some help with the tower assault. Would that be all right?"
"Hmm, I don't mind. I'd actually be grateful for the help. Hey—you lot okay with that?"
He turned his head back toward the rest of the party. Answers came back at once: "If the captain's fine with it, so are we," or "They saved us yesterday—we're the ones who should be thanking them."
"There you have it. I feel a little bad racking up another debt like this, but I'd be glad if you helped."
"Not at all. In a world like this, we ought to look out for each other. Are we heading out right away?"
"Well, one's still missing. Ara—the girl you two helped yesterday—hasn't shown up yet. This isn't like her."
At Uncle Dusik's mention of waiting for the still-absent Ara, yesterday's scene flashed through my mind.
She tore out of there in such a hurry... Ah, no way. She didn't gather anyone, so... she went alone?!
The worst possibility rose up, and I was just about to call out to Uncle Dusik when—
"Hey!!! Has anyone seen Ara?!"
—Kang Hancheol came sprinting toward us from right behind.
Just looking at him, I felt certain my guess hadn't been wrong.
"Brother, what are you talking about? You haven't seen Ara?"
Yet the look on Uncle Dusik's face as he asked was pure bewilderment.
He must have reached the same conclusion I had.
The assault team's numbers hadn't dropped, so if she was missing now, it meant she had gone alone to the Falcon Gang's hideout.
Of all times—right when we need to clear the tower—what has she done?
Breathing hard, wiping the sweat from his brow, Uncle Hancheol worked his dry lips.
"Haa... Exactly what you said! Ara's gone!! This morning she still hadn't come out of her room, so I went in—and the clothes and bag she wears when she leaves the settlement were missing. Haa..."
"That girl... How many times did I tell her not to do something like this..."
The other team members overheard the two men and grasped the situation; voices rose, insisting they should go look for her at once.
"Let's stop this and go find Ara already. What good does standing around here do?!"
"The tower can wait, can't it?! What's more important—our kid's missing!"
But Uncle Dusik only looked at them with a grave expression.
"Uncle? What's wrong? Putting the tower off is unavoidable, sure, but right now shouldn't we do what they're saying?"
"Ah, Charlotte. Yes, you're right. But you saw it then, didn't you? The tower's clock will start moving any moment now. If we put it off, with the strength our settlement has right now the damage will be severe. And variables like this might grow even worse next time... But we can't just leave Ara either..."
While I was talking with the troubled-looking uncle, someone suddenly stepped up beside us.
"I have an idea, if you'd hear me out?"
I'd planned to clear it quickly and head back with Yeonseo, but we seemed to have landed in a rather awkward situation.
Ara... that would be Elder Hancheol's daughter from yesterday, right?
Having met Ara and her group yesterday, I had a rough sense of her abilities, so the present situation left a bad taste in my mouth.
If she hadn't taken anyone with her and had headed alone for the gang's base, I honestly couldn't see it ending well.
I was weighing what to do when I overheard Charlotte speaking with the man called Ho Dunsik.
The tower they had been about to assault apparently had little time left on its clock.
Wow. If that's true, this is going to be a genuinely hard choice.
A tower's deadline approaching puts serious pressure on any clear attempt. Leave it alone and the wasteland around the tower simply expands as it is. Fail, and the tower's difficulty doubles while the desolation of the surrounding area spreads even farther.
But ignoring the daughter of the settlement's leader—a girl loved by every resident—was something even less forgivable.
Having reached that conclusion, I started to move so I could voice my opinion—when I felt a hand close around mine.
"Don't. This isn't our business."
"Yeonseo...?"
"I'm fine with following Charlotte to clear the tower. It only appeared recently, so it's good enough for a warm-up. But what you're thinking of doing is honestly too much of a burden for us."
"Haha, you really do know me well. But you know I can't just look the other way. Before I returned to this world, I made a promise—where I was before. I promised her that if there was anyone or any place that needed help, I would give it."
Like a few others, I too was a returner from another world. The only difference was that they had been dragged away while still alive, and I had already been a body that had died once.
"In the second life I was given, there were people I could have saved with my own hands, and I looked away. Then I paid the price for turning my back. So I won't do that again."
At my words Yeonseo let out a long sigh.
"Haa... You really are just a soft-hearted idiot."
"That's my strong point."
I let go of her hand and ran forward.
"Well, a certain someone will probably like that about you..."
Yeonseo seemed to say something after that, but unfortunately I couldn't catch it clearly.
No doubt it was just "idiot," "moron," "sucker," or something of the sort.
"So your idea is that the three of you—including Charlotte—will clear the tower yourselves?"
"Yes."
Uncle Dusik looked at Kang Hyeonseok, who had suddenly stepped forward, as if he couldn't believe his ears.
Well, honestly, showing up out of nowhere and saying the three of you will handle it is pretty outrageous.
"I know you three are stronger than me and everyone here. But that doesn't mean you have to go that far! Clearing a tower isn't a game—having power doesn't mean you throw your lives away!"
"Haha, please calm down. You already seem to know, so I'll say it again: Yeonseo and I have both the experience and the skill from clearing towers many times. We've even cleared them just the two of us. And with Charlotte along, won't that make us even more reliable? You yourself acknowledged her strength, didn't you?"
Kang Hyeonseok suddenly glanced at me with a soft smile as he spoke to Uncle Dusik, and heat rose in my face again.
Hey, you can't just say things like that out of nowhere...
But a cool sensation at the back of my neck made my shoulders twitch.
"Eek! What was that?!"
I clapped a hand over the nape of my neck and spun around. Yeonseo stood there holding a small shard of ice, wearing a sly grin.
"Did our little fox get all fluttery hearing she was 'reliable'?"
She whispered it right against my ear.
"What?! Of course not! It's only because you brought it up so suddenly!"
"Hmm~ Fine, we'll go with that. So what do you think?"
"About what? Going just the three of us? Honestly I don't mind. But Uncle has a point too. I've never cleared a tower before, so I might just hold you two back."
"Don't worry about that. If this tower really is as new as they say, the three of us will finish it in no time."
While I was talking with Yeonseo, I felt a presence behind us.
"Charlotte. Are you truly all right with this?"
"Yes, I'm fine. You know—I'm pretty strong."
"It'll be fine. The three of us will have no problem. And no matter what happens, I'll protect Charlotte, so please don't worry."
At Kang Hyeonseok's sudden words a ticklish feeling stirred low in my belly. I was still on my period, so the pain was there—yet this sensation wasn't entirely bad.
I didn't know why.
"All right. I understand. But if things get hard or anything goes wrong, use this."
Uncle Dusik drew a feather-shaped brooch from his coat and held it out to me.
"Uncle? What is this?"
"It's a kind of artifact. When I received it as a reward, the description said it transports you to a place you picture in your mind. Only places you've been before, of course. There are about two uses left—use one of them this time. Best if you never need it, but think of it as a good-luck charm."
"What? You don't need to give something like this to me—to us..."
Uncle Dusik only smiled warmly.
"Sending kids who feel like daughters of my own into danger—this much is nothing."
Yet that smile was, in its own way, a rather sad one.
"Yes, I understand. I'll try my best not to use it."
"Good. Then I'll go talk things over with Brother Hancheol. You three get ready."
Not long after he left, the two uncles came back to us.
They looked as if they meant to say something, so I waited for them to speak—only for Uncle Hancheol to suddenly drop to his knees with a heavy thud and bow his head. I was quite startled.
"Thank you! Truly...!"
"Please, Elder, get up. The other residents are watching. We suggested this because we thought it was the best course. We know how to clear towers, but we don't know the local geography—so it's better if the Mokdong people, who know the area and have the numbers, handle the search."
"All right. At the very least I'll give you every bit of support I can."
With eyes full of steely resolve, Uncle Hancheol supplied us with as many necessary goods as possible. And so we split: our group to clear the tower, and a search team centered on Uncle Dusik to find Ara.
We passed through the Mokdong Settlement and headed for the tower once more.
It wasn't the plan we'd originally made, but well—this too was a kind of fate.
"So for a tower that only appeared recently like this one, it's goblins again? Weak stuff like that?"
I asked the two who had experience clearing towers.
"Yep. Usually those pathetic little things show up. Our little fox could handle them all by herself."
Yeonseo spoke as if it were nothing special. Kang Hyeonseok, by contrast, sounded more cautious.
"But we heard it from Ara before, and just now from Uncle Dusik too—a Giant Orc appeared, right? Better stay careful just in case. The wasteland already around the tower means there are more of them outside as well."
"Hmm~ You're being pretty careful compared to what you've shown so far."
I teased him lightly.
"Well, I promised Uncle Dusik, didn't I? That I'd keep you safe, Charlotte. So of course I have to be careful. Though more than that, the fact that a Giant Orc showed up is what bothers me."
Kang Hyeonseok said the Giant Orc was what really weighed on him—but after the part about protecting me, I didn't hear anything else.
I simply lowered my head and quickened my pace.