Chapter 191 - [Tower Master] Aphrodite and Freyja, a Meeting with the Two Goddesses

Without warning, light swallowed me whole and dragged me somewhere else.

The pitch-black Demon King's castle was gone; in its place stretched a bright expanse and a colossal gate.

The gates I'd faced until now had all been big and tall, but this one wasn't even in the same league. It pierced the clouds like a Tower of Babel, and I was staring up at it through the window of some royal palace.

'Ah, shit. Seriously.'

Confronted with such a majestic sight, I absurdly felt nothing remotely like awe. My mind held exactly one thought.

'Just let me come in peace, you bastards. At this rate my dick is going to burst.'

Let's review what on earth had happened to me today.

— Group date with my lovers at a motel. Up to that point, all good.

— We were happily mid-foursome when my skill decided to level up out of nowhere and knocked Seongyeon unconscious.

— Which meant stopping mid-sex and stepping outside in the most awkward mood imaginable.

— Meeting Nayami aside, I came to the tower, followed Ian, and went after his mother.

— One thing led to another and I ended up bedding that mother — only for yet another anomaly to strike, and I couldn't even finish.

………

…I was interrupted from sex twice in a single day.

I'm not a particularly lustful man. I'm a grown adult who knows how to keep himself in check. But getting interrupted twice in one day — wasn't that crossing the line? Even a dog bares its teeth if you touch its food while it eats. And this was in the middle of the act... Ah, for fuck's sake.

I bit down my irritation, hauled my pants up, and straightened out my clothes. Yeah, of course it's like this. I'd anticipated being greeted by the Tower Master, so I wasn't flustered — this far, at least.

But the next notification to pop up made me knit my brow. Alongside a name I didn't know came the name of a goddess everyone on Earth knows from popular media. 'There was supposed to be only one Tower Master, wasn't there?'

Sensing someone's presence, I turned around. There they were, at the center of a room so vast it bordered on excessive — wide open, not a stick of furniture in sight. 'So that's the Tower Master and Freyja?'

The only furniture this place had to offer was a table set for tea. Lounging in the sunlight pouring down from outside as they enjoyed their cups, they looked — annoyingly — perfectly at home.

"Rather than standing there like a fence post, why don't you come join us?"

The white-haired goddess jabbed a finger my way. And just like that, the scene changed. I, who'd been standing at the window a moment ago, was simply gone from there — as though the space itself had folded, I was now seated at their table.

'……….'

No fear. No bewilderment, either. They were practically gods, after all; this much was only to be expected.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lady Freyja."

"My, you don't seem surprised?"

"I've seen every strange thing this tower has to offer. These days I'm too worn out to be surprised by anything."

I took in the woman who ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had addressed me first.

— This one was probably Freyja.

— White hair spilling down in soft streams.

— Unlike Ian's costume-party look, a white witch of far more authentic pedigree.

— Playful blue eyes that looked capable of beguiling any man, with eyebrows white to match.

— And the figure hinted at beneath her robe was a first-class beauty, worthy of claiming the name 'Freyja' for herself.

I did wonder why a woman like her was dressed as a witch, but this was hardly the moment to ask.

"It's been quite the ordeal, Lady Aphrodite."

I shifted my gaze to the blonde goddess right beside her and gave a short bow of the head.

— This side was Aphrodite in the purest sense of the name, the spitting image of everything it conjured.

— Blonde hair and insolent blue eyes went without saying; so did the chiton of classical tradition.

— Compared to Freyja beside her, a woman whose body was obscene in its abundance.

— Our Seongyeon had a body that might as well have been a cow's, but this one gave nothing away either.

"How curious that you aren't the least bit flustered at the sight of me. That's really..."

True to her word, I felt no pressure or fear from her. Whether my own nerve had simply thickened or she was extending me some courtesy, the Tower Master herself looked more bewildered than I did.

"What reason could you have for summoning me to a place like this?"

"Straight to business, are we? You're all riled up — do calm yourself, child. I didn't call you here this time to toy with you or your girl."

"Is that so?"

Come to think of it, barging straight into business had been rather rude of me. Perhaps some of the excitement from pouncing on Lee Soyeon still lingered; I took a moment to steady my breathing.

"Since this is our first meeting in the flesh, let's start with introductions. I am Aphrodite, master of the Tower of Lust. And this vixen beside me is Freyja, master of the Tower of Witches."

"It seems we meet for the second time, dear hero... fufu..."

'...Second?'

That was an odd thing to say, and I shot her a questioning look. Freyja merely smiled, meaningfully.

'Here we go again.'

I was just about to sulk at another round of their you-wouldn't-understand talk when Aphrodite cut in.

"She's the one who breathed the power of regression into that deranged masochist you keep around — Song Seongyeon."

"...This person did?"

When she'd said Tower of Witches, I hadn't understood whose side she belonged to — but with that answer, I knew at once which tower's master she was. The place where I'd died in my first cycle through Song Seongyeon's mistake was none other than the Tower of Silver. The place that answered her desperate scream by bestowing the power of regression. It was also the very tower Ian and Lee Soyeon had conquered this time around.

"That's right. In a sense, she's both the root of it all and your benefactor."

"And the goddess who granted an SSS-rank skill to the former number one and an SS-rank skill to the current one... that would also be me."

She offered a light account of herself.

"So that's why you said this was our second meeting?"

"Yes. Though back then, you were a corpse."

A witch with a way of speaking that kept tying my brain in knots. But more than that, the situation itself now felt alien. I'd been abruptly reunited with a Tower Master — and on top of that, I'd met the very goddess who had granted Seongyeon her regression skill.

………

…How exactly am I supposed to take this?

I wasn't scared, just ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hopelessly bewildered.

"There's no need to be quite so flustered. I'm every bit as bewildered as you are, you know."

"You, Lady Aphrodite?"

"Yes. How could anyone not be, with all this?"

She took a long sip, flipped her long blonde hair back with a flick, and let her grievances pour out.

"I expected you to make it to the 50th floor. That's why I went to great pains to brainwash the number one and planned to present you all with a grand trial. But what is this~? Out of nowhere, her own daughter orders her to bed her mother — and then you actually do it, and the woman comes back to her senses! Under normal circumstances, that should have ended not with anyone's sanity returning, but with the lot of you killing each other! I simply cannot understand how it came to this!?"

BANG! Her palm came down on the table.

Out of nowhere she raised her voice, and the reckless, slamming force of it was nothing to scoff at. Even so, it wasn't a reaction I couldn't understand. Even I, the one who'd cleared the floor, found the situation bewildering — imagine how it looked from her side.

"Aphrodite, dear — the reason you were brought here is that your group was on the verge of clearing the 50th floor. She wanted the two of us to watch it together, you see."

"Oh, is that so?"

"Yes. Apparently to observe for herself whether you might die, and whether or not Song Seongyeon would go and kill herself again..."

'What a wonderfully fucked-up hobby you two keep.'

My expression must have soured, because Aphrodite fired back with even more heat.

"That face ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of yours is my face right now! I agonized over how to stop you — handpicked every last detail! I have no idea why things keep veering off like this! I even suspected you might have regressed again and found yourself a workaround, but—"

"—There's no way that happened. Our Seongyeon didn't die this time around. She's flat on a hotel bed, fast asleep, as we speak."

"That's exactly what I'm saying!"

BANG!

"No regression! No window to detour! And yet the girl I brainwashed with my own hands slipped free of my authority and came back to her senses! Do you have any idea why!?"

"Why would that be?"

"The [Mark of Female Misfortune] I laid on that cock of yours! The skill attached to [Nectar] is one of my own authorities — that's why!!"

BANG!

I'd lost count of how many times she'd hammered that table; clearly she felt deeply wronged. As for me, I had no idea what any of this meant, and could only turn to Freyja.

"To put it simply: two of Aphrodite's authorities collided head-on, and the weaker one was annihilated. The brainwashing she wove over Lee Soyeon was a special binding, forged with a Tower Master's authority — but the thing dangling from your lower half happened to be every bit as special."

"So it wasn't supposed to end this way?"

"That's right. As designed, it was a brainwashing no drug or skill in existence could hope to break. I imagine she felt you'd been clearing the gates far too easily and wanted to stage a tableau of mother and daughter slaughtering each other as your trial. But as you can see, it all came apart in the most farcical way imaginable. Fufu."

'So at the end of the day, it's my dick that's at fault here...?'

"I follow the mechanics, but I still can't make myself accept it. You knew I was going to storm that gate, Lady Aphrodite. And you're telling me you never anticipated anything like this?"

She denied it instantly.

"Of course I knew! I even took countermeasures against that cock of yours! So under normal circumstances, there was no way she would have come back to her senses just from taking it!"

"And yet she did. Was there some other factor?"

"But of course there was! That Lee Soyeon — she was a woman you cherished ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in a previous cycle!"

"She was... my woman?"

"She was one of the lovers you kept!!"

'Hold on — she's a married woman. Did I seriously have a cycle where I took Lee Soyeon — someone else's mother — as my lover!?'

"That woman wasn't cured by the 'status ailment recovery' ability hanging off your cock! She ended up that way because of the ability that 'brings souls to climax'!"

"What... exactly does that mean?"

"Grrk~! Do you seriously not get it!? You pounded into her and her soul hit its peak! And the memories of 'being your woman' from a previous cycle awakened, soul and all! She's clawing them back even though I never once granted them to her!"

'...Ah. Aaaaaaahhh.'

'So Lee Soyeon just took one look at me and fell head over heels! And she'd even forgotten her own husband!?'

………

…And here I thought she'd simply forgotten him for a moment, drenched in pleasure as she was!!

"Brought low by the very curse she cast... in a state like that, there's nowhere left for her to take her complaints... fufufu..."

Leaving Freyja to her amused chuckling, I stared at Aphrodite with something close to pity.

"Huaaah~! The 50th floor was supposed to be a more special, more meaningful gate — why did it have to turn out like thiiis~~!?"

Even with her shrieking at the top of her lungs, I still felt nothing like intimidation or divinity from her. She huffed and puffed, whining all by herself, and showed no intention whatsoever of admitting fault — so I decided to leave her to it for a while.

'So now I knew why the floor had fallen so easily. I'd also learned more about Lee Soyeon than I ever wanted to know. But neither of those was what mattered right now.'

— I'd met the master of the Tower of Lust, and on top of that, the witch who had granted Seongyeon her 'regression skill.'

— With Aphrodite, at least, there would be other chances, since she's our own Tower Master. But Freyja was a woman I might never cross paths with again if I put a foot wrong.

When I forced myself to ignore the wailing beside us, she favored me with a bright smile. Unlike Aphrodite, this pure-white witch savored her tea with perfect composure. She, who truly wore the word 'goddess' well, asked:

"Are things going well between you and Seongyeon?"

"...Yes."

"I see. That's a relief to hear."

I had no idea what she meant by asking after Seongyeon's wellbeing. Which meant every word from here on had to be chosen with care. Nothing that could ruffle her mood. Nothing that might make an enemy of her. Praying this cycle would end in a happy ending, I moistened my lips.