[Tower Master] Aphrodite and Freyja — A Meeting with Two Goddesses
"I have a fair idea of what question is coming. You're going to ask why I gave Seongyeon that skill, aren't you?"
She'd already known. I drained the teacup she'd handed me — it was a flavor I liked.
"There's really not much to the reason. I happened to be carrying out the tower's periodic maintenance, surveying each floor as I went, and by pure chance I heard her scream. So I saved her and granted the skill while I was at it."
She was already a woman running half-mad because of me, so my eyes asked why she'd stacked such a pile-on of a condition on top of that.
"You mean the drawback — the endless regression unless her tribute to you is completed?"
Freyja showed no particular displeasure at the jab. She simply swept her white hair back and smiled.
"I'm hardly an unpaid volunteer, you know. I went to the trouble of saving a life — granting a power of that magnitude, no less — so wouldn't it leave a sour taste to receive nothing in return?"
She hadn't even been a tower challenger, after all.
Back then, Seongyeon had been small fry, and I nothing better than a corpse. She'd handed an EX-rank skill over to save a pair like that, so it was only right she ask her price. Looked at that way, I supposed I wasn't in much of a position to complain.
"So you felt nothing else for Seongyeon, then?"
"Well, she did go on to try conquering my tower, so it's not that I feel nothing whatsoever."
"Then?"
"What I mean is, I'm not the type to nurse silly grudges like a fool. She has suffered enough to repent of her sins, and I know she's been quietly agonizing over it inside."
In other words, she claimed to bear no ill will toward Seongyeon whatsoever, and radiated composure while doing it. She was an important goddess — the very one who had granted the regression ability — and a Tower Master besides, yet contrary to everything I'd imagined, she proved surprisingly tolerant.
SLAM!
"Can't you keep your mouth shut!?"
And there was Aphrodite, a goddess in whom tolerance was nearly impossible to find, shrieking at the top of her lungs. The only motherly thing about her was that enormous rack on her chest. Apparently my running interference for Seongyeon displeased her, because she was fussing and fuming.
"It's the truth. Seongyeon has groveled quite thoroughly. Wouldn't it be best to forgive her at this point?"
"Groveled, my foot! She hasn't repented one bit! You heard what she said when she fought the blonde butler the other day! I couldn't believe how brazen she was — it left me speechless!"
......The blonde butler.
Was she talking about Seres? Judging by it, she meant the time the two of them had their catfight and that contract got forced on her.
"The butler picked that fight first. The girl was already teetering on the edge of madness, and she kept provoking her — of course she came out shameless."
"Of course?! She's the perpetrator and the starting point of everything!"
"The starting point, yes — which means the butler knew it all along, didn't she? That without Song Seongyeon, she would never have met him. And yet she dragged you into it and cornered her anyway. That was nothing but the guilty party lashing out to cover herself."
"Then what about the tower? She bypassed my tower twice! I yelled at her good and loud the first time, and I gave her two chances, and she still went and did it!"
"And didn't you say that, too, was a misunderstanding? Weren't the little ones downstairs wearing themselves out hunting for the real culprit?"
"No matter how I turn it over, there's no culprit but her! She bypassed it exactly like last cycle — who else could even manage such a thing!?"
"And that's exactly what he's battling tooth and nail to find out, isn't he? Time is the one thing we have rotting in surplus — surely watching over him with a little grace isn't so very hard?"
Unexpected. Freyja had taken Seongyeon's side with real earnestness. And so Aphrodite, making no effort to hide her irritation, huffed and turned her head away.
"The trouble with you is that you're far too kind! You know perfectly well what the rabble of the lower realm does when you coddle them — they climb right up over you!"
"And the trouble with you, I'd say, is that you carry far too much rage. Why can't you grasp that only by extending tolerance to the children of the lower realm will they, in turn, bear us up?"
Their exchange cut off dead there.
"........."
They shot each other a glance, then sighed in unison. Judging by how they glared at each other like a pair of stubborn walls, this was a topic they'd traded blows over more times than either could count.
"So what do we do now?"
"...What do you mean, what now? You tried to make the 50th floor the cruelest difficulty humanity had ever faced, and you failed. And it failed not because they slipped past or got clever, but through your own doing. So I believe the proper course is to grant them their rightful reward and open the gate."
"But the 50th floor! The one floor tailor-made for punishing them, and they broke through it this easily! They may as well have cleared it with an exploit, no!?"
"That was your blunder. Not a burden for the humans of the lower realm to shoulder. Pinning it on the challengers because they cleared it too easily — isn't that a double standard of the worst kind?"
"Ghhk~!?"
When it came to a war of words, Freyja reigned supreme. I'd only met this goddess today, but somehow I felt a fan club forming.
"Fortunately, the one you despise is Song Seongyeon, not the hero. So the least you can do is hear him out."
"Hear him out? And what, pray tell, would there be to hear?"
"From what I can see, the lower-realm children have been quite busy with all manner of things in your tower. How about a discussion on that?"
"Oh, you mean how the little ones on the lower floors are joining hands with the humans to build communities?"
She'd known all along, then. Well, naturally — what kind of Tower Master wouldn't know which way her own tower was developing?
"You're not going to stand in the way of that, are you?"
No sooner had I asked than she spread her palm and let out a dismissive snort.
"Not~ in the slightest? If you're offering to help my tower of your own accord, isn't that rather something to celebrate?"
An unexpected answer.
"Why?"
"Why make that astonished face? Is it because you believe you understand why we tour the other worlds, drive towers into them, and invade?"
"........."
"You think it's for amusement?"
"Somewhat?"
"That's not wholly wrong. But the true purpose lies elsewhere."
"Which is?"
"Every tower has its own reason, but I invaded so that our children could obtain the vital energy they need to live. Flip the perspective, and it's 'merely a reason that small.' If your cooperation let everyone gorge themselves full of that energy, then I, as the one in overall command, would welcome it with open arms — so why on earth would I interfere?"
This, truly, I had not expected.
"I assumed you'd at least raise hell out of sheer boredom."
"What an insolent thing to say. I know aaaall too well how I must look from your side of the fence."
"...Did you imagine I'd have anything courteous to say to a goddess who did that to my own girlfriend?"
"Oh, would you just shut up already~!"
Beneath the tea table she gave Freyja's shin a brisk kick, then flashed me a sly little smile. For all her calling me insolent, she wasn't truly angry.
"Well, you seem to be striving along as ever. Not entirely solo, but you've earned yourself the face of a hero who's all but single-handedly punched through to the 50th floor."
"Am I to take that as a compliment on how much I've grown?"
"By all means. I so rarely praise a man — do consider yourself honored."
Coming from someone bearing the name Aphrodite, praise didn't exactly thrill me. That name alone carried the image of a woman who spreads her legs the moment she spots a handsome man or a hero.
"...I know precisely what you're thinking. But despite appearances, I observe chastity on my end? Comparing me to the bitch of your mythology is rather uncalled for, you know?"
"Is that a fact?"
"But of course. My eye for men is exacting to the last degree. What do you take me for — some loose, easy woman?"
In place of the trilling ohohoho from Aphrodite, Freyja jabbed me in the ribs.
"Be careful, now. She's been in a temper lately, with no man to her liking. The way she needles Seongyeon might well be jealousy of what the two of you share."
"Every single word out of your mouth grates on my rawest nerve~!?"
"It's not as though a word of it is untrue, so do be gracious — lofty title of Tower Master notwithstanding, she is, in reality, a poor woman who has spent the last thousand years recruiting for a boyfriend."
"Hey!!"
The shin came out swinging again, but this time Freyja slid her leg clear. These two goddesses were, to all appearances, close. Like oil and water they refused to mix, yet they bobbed along in the same pot just fine.
"From where I stand, my girlfriend is all but serving a suspended sentence, so there's nothing I'd dare bring up."
"Eh? Where's this coming from? You don't want a reward?"
"I don't need one badly enough to prod the Tower Master's temper. And if this left you with a grudge, the ones who'd suffer for it would be Seongyeon and me, wouldn't they?"
"Ha! Do I look like the sort of woman who'd hold a grudge over a trifle like this!?"
"........."
"...Hey."
"Oh, honestly. Don't give me that look. Even I know that would be pushing it."
In fairness, a goddess self-aware enough to know her own temperament wasn't entirely impossible to reason with. And as she herself might put it, equating her outright with the Aphrodite of Greek myth would be rude.
"In any case, a reward you shall have if you want one — we'll settle the particulars later. So? What is it you're after? Like Freyja said, is there something you wish to discuss with me?"
The Tower Master had taken the stance that her tower mingling with the surface world was no bother at all. That much alone was welcome news — the kind Ian and the others would cheer to hear. Which made my next topic a foregone conclusion.
"There is that. But since the occasion has presented itself, I'd like to talk about Seongyeon."
"Oh? You mean to bring her up, of all things, right in front of me~?"
"I know it will earn me your scorn, but some things must be said. You're well aware I slogged my way up to the 50th floor for exactly this."
"You really are insufferable. She and I both called that woman a rabid beast of a foe, but you — her own boyfriend — are a worse bastard than your girlfriend."
I was honestly baffled.
"Harsh, aren't we? Compared to what Seongyeon did with her regressions, I haven't done anything at all."
At that, she barked out a laugh.
"So you truly don't know how many souls have fastened themselves to that body of yours? It's karma far beyond what any one person could shoulder, and you carry all of it without even knowing. What a pitiful man."
"Is that so?"
"That... I sympathize with as well. Which is precisely why I wish to free Seongyeon swiftly — and with her, to free you from that burden."
Aphrodite, naturally — and Freyja right along with her — were both gazing upon me with pity. What was with those eyes, that tone of voice? It was the look one gives a pig in its pen, days from the butcher's block. Was I about to die, perhaps?
"Enough. What use is there in telling a human such things? At any rate — you are a challenger, and I am the Tower Master. I have a duty to hear what you have to say."
Having declared this, she made her distaste abundantly plain and asked:
"Talking about her is one thing. You're not so reckless as to actually beg me for forgiveness, are you?"
"Can't I?"
"As Freyja says, I've heard that a separate true culprit was behind this cycle's bypass. I know. But that is your speculation, not something I have any means of knowing, is it? From where I stand, no one but your damned girlfriend could have slipped past my tower like that."
Well, of course — short of regression, there was no road to that information. So I, too, yielded a step and made my request.
"Just one word from you will do. Tell me that once I've found the culprit and delivered them to you, this whole circus ends. That much, I need confirmed."
"My, my. That's the voice of a man quite confident he can find them."
"As it happens, I'm already standing quite close to the answer. All I need from you is the verdict."
"........."
She did not concede at once, yet neither did she wear the face of refusal. After all, when a man offers to deliver the true culprit into your lap, what grounds remain for a no?
"Is that a no?"
"Utterly insufferable. I knew full well you'd end up on the subject of her, and I invited you here regardless — so I suppose that, too, is my own fault."
Fortunately, she assented with a grudging "very well, for now."
"So that's an OK, then?"
"Enough of that. Let us speak of the surface instead, since the matter has come up — I shall listen and form my own picture of things."
With that, she beckoned to a knight who had appeared from goodness knew where and had a fresh round of desserts brought out. The goddesses seemed to have less to occupy them than I'd imagined, and looked thoroughly at their leisure. Had I not come straight from a sex-fight mere moments before, I could have enjoyed the repose myself — a pity, and nothing more.