The Regressor Is Tired (6)
The Regressor Is Tired (6)
"Wait, on Floor 2... you're..."
"...Jun-ho?!"
A human and an angel recognized each other. If you run into an elementary school classmate and one of you doesn't remember the other, it gets awkward fast... but when both recognize each other, delight and joy well up from deep inside.
"Hey, weren't you on Floor 2? What're you doing here, man!"
"Hehe, there's a story behind that!"
The guy grinned from ear to ear, waving around a sign that read: 'We Buy Rare Goods.' The sign swayed, and so did the white hair brushing against it.
"To sum it up, I'm a temp!"
"A temp?"
"Yes! The angel previously in charge of Floor 11 was disciplined over a disgraceful incident, so I was assigned as Floor 11's guide!"
Instinctively, I figured that "disgraceful incident" was deeply connected to Floor 11's current state. Right—if something bad enough happened to get an angel fired, that's why Floor 11 turned out like this. I was about to ask the angel for more details, but...
"Jun-ho!"
"Uh, yeah..."
The Sign Angel set the placard on the ground for a moment, then grabbed both my hands and pulled them close to their chest.
"For the past two months, this is the one thing I've wanted to say! Please, will you hear it?!"
"Uh..."
"Thank you! Thank you for defending me on Floor 2! Thank you for making sure I wasn't punished! I was truly, truly terrified...!"
The Sign Angel met my gaze with sparkling eyes. With both their hands folded over mine and fingers interlaced, they looked almost like they were praying.
"Uh, well... sure."
"Please call me Anael! That's my name!"
"S-sure. Anael."
Honestly, I hadn't thought much of what I'd done, so I felt pretty awkward, but for Anael, it must've been different. Their face was glowing, and they wore a huge smile—the halo above their head was gleaming and radiating light.
"And isn't meeting again like this fate? Actually, when I saw you conversing with the Archangel on Floor 2, I thought, 'This climber is going to be big!' I could tell he had something special! And then my hunch turned out to be right! You've climbed all the way up to Floor 11 so quickly!"
Still not letting go of my hands, Anael chattered on without pause.
"E-eek...!"
Suddenly, the angel leaped back from where they stood, scrambling away. Their face had gone pale, and their gaze was fixed on something behind me—evidently, they had spotted something terrifying.
"What, what is it?"
Startled, I whipped my head around, but nothing was there. Just Choi Ji-won, looking at me as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
"Hey, Ji-won, did you see something?"
"Huh? No? I'm not sure what you mean."
"...Really?"
"Yeah. I was just watching my boyfriend play all buddy-buddy with a pretty angel."
"..."
A chill ran down my spine. That day, I learned for the first time: Choi Ji-won is usually easygoing, and she often comes across as tough and assertive, but... she had a jealous streak I hadn't expected...
**
After things had settled down a bit, I asked Anael to tell me about the "disgraceful incident."
"Actually, I don't really know!"
"...You don't know what happened?"
"No! I meant I don't know if I'm allowed to tell you! If another player had come asking about this, I would have ignored them right away!"
Anael tapped their fingers in the air. They probably had something visible only to themselves, like a player's Status Window. An Angel Window, or something like that.
"It's a bit ambiguous because there's no relevant regulation, but... well, aren't we close! I'll tell you!"
"..."
The military has a saying: "If you're wondering whether you can do it, don't. If you're wondering whether you should do it, do." But I didn't bother to voice that. If it turned out Anael got into real trouble for this, I could just regress.
"Since it happened when the former angel was in charge, I can't be absolutely certain, but I'll tell you what I know!"
I don't know the exact timing, but around when players first entered Floor 11, the dwarves had been favorably disposed toward humans. They'd known from the start that the reason they were brought to the Tower was "to aid the climbers," and they'd resolved to fulfill that role.
"Hey, take a look at the weapon I made before you go! Humans can't even compare to our craftsmanship!"
"People often mistakenly think dwarves only handle ore well, but that's not true. Wood, glass, clay—if you're a true craftsman, you should excel at everything, shouldn't you?"
After the very first player to enter Floor 11 stayed for three days, squeezed out every benefit, and cleared it, the dwarves were left with a deep sense of satisfaction.
As seen in the old stories of Zhiyin, Boya, Zhong Ziqi—a craftsman's joy lies in someone who recognizes his work. A mighty warrior sees a piece's true worth and buys it. How could that not be joy?
"Heh-heh, I sold two of my spears. But your axes haven't sold a single one yet."
"Th-that's... isn't it because the climber just happened to use a spear! Wait till a climber who uses axes comes in—mine will sell like crazy!"
"Oh, three more humans are coming. Let's see who sells more this time."
Not long after that first player cleared, even more players entered Floor 11. The mood was so positive that competition broke out among the dwarves over who could sell more.
"...Robbed?"
"Yukeo's shop was looted. They took the entire safe and all."
More precisely, the mood was positive until one shop was looted.
"Damn it, damn it!"
"Those cheap bastards..."
The culprit had already bought a Passage Stone and cleared Floor 11. To a craftsman, selling an item for money meant more than just economic activity. The value of the item was the value of the craftsman. The reason a high price was set was because it contained an even greater amount of sweat and passion. And to steal it?
"...So the humans from the other world are no different."
"Fuck, I thought they'd be different, being chosen climbers..."
A radical opinion arose among some dwarves—that climbers were just as despicable as anyone else—but it was only some.
"Drink. Drink and forget."
"Aye. There are bastards worth drowning in a keg of beer everywhere you go, aren't there. Climbers are no different."
"Indeed. You shouldn't condemn the whole because of a few."
The majority of the dwarves took the stance that these things could happen.
Of course, it was shocking that a player had stolen, but for a craftsman, being robbed is often just part of the experience... So they'd planned to just chug some beer, tear into a load of meat, and move past it as a minor incident.
"Gelbin hasn't come back?"
"No way..."
And the next night, a dwarf was found brutally murdered in the forest. The culprit was obvious. A group of players had been throwing money around all day and had cleared Floor 11 immediately afterward.
"Those rotten sons of bitches..."
"Damn it, damn it..."
They'd sold the works they'd made with blood and sweat, and this was how they were repaid. No matter how generous and broad-minded a dwarf was, this had crossed the line by a mile.
"...Not all climbers are like that."
"Right. There are definitely decent climbers too."
Still, a shred of reason remained. Just because a few players had committed crimes, it'd be wrong to condemn them all. Though fury and contempt were rising in their throats, the dwarves held back.
The next day at noon. Three dwarves were found as horribly mutilated corpses. The culprit had cleared Floor 11 early that morning.
"You fucking bastards!!!"
"I'll drown you in the furnace!!!"
In the end, the dwarves exploded. The refrain of "not all climbers" had long since vanished, swept away by hot-blooded rage. The dwarves, weapons in hand, were moments from falling upon the sleeping climbers.
"Wait, wait. Hold on."
The fortress elder stopped the enraged dwarves.
"What do you intend to do now?"
"We'll kill the lot of them!"
"...Even with a surprise attack, can you kill them?"
"..."
The dwarves were fine craftsmen and excellent warriors, but the opponents were among the strongest players humanity could muster. The matchup was not in their favor.
Could they win an all-out war against them? Against those blessed by God?
Even if they did win, climbers would keep coming. Could they keep fighting this endless war against all of them? Would the Archangel just sit back and watch?
The boiling blood cooled, and reason slowly returned. It was true that the climbers were despicable, and true that they needed to be avenged... but the method must not be physical conflict.
"Don't sell them the goods. And block the way."
"Block? What?"
"Block their exit from Floor 11."
The root reason the climbers committed these evil acts was one thing: because they could just flee Floor 11 before the crime was exposed. If you cut off their escape, the current tide would stop at once.
"But... didn't the angel say we must sell the Passage Stones?"
"We can sell them. For, say, a billion gold."
This, too, was a fairly impulsive decision that could bring about all sorts of side effects, but...
"Those shitty bastards..."
The dwarves were not the kind to simply take abuse without giving it back.
**
"That's everything!"
"..."
"..."
Anael's story had ended, but neither I nor Choi Ji-won could say a word. From our perspective, it felt deeply unjust to be persecuted for things we hadn't done, but we understood the dwarves' perspective too.
To put it bluntly, if two murders happened in a row in Korea and both suspects were from the same foreign country... hostility toward that country would skyrocket. We were in no position to curse the dwarves for discriminating against us.
"What do we do about this."
Earning trust is hard. But harder than earning trust is regaining it after it's been shattered. Floor 11 was in a tangled mess. The criminals had long since escaped, leaving only the unlucky victims to glare at one another.
No question—this was the kind of major incident that could get an angel fired.
"So the former angel was fired for failing to prevent this situation?"
"No!"
"...Then?"
"My predecessor tried to quell the overheated conflict and immediately reported it up to the Archangel to ask how to respond!"
"...Huh?"
To me, that sounded like the most textbook handling possible. Diffuse the situation, then ask a superior for direction. The response was borderline worthy of applause, so why had the former angel been fired?
Anael's answer to my question was quite shocking.
"My predecessor was fired 'for the crime of reporting such useless nonsense'!"
"..."
"The Archangel apparently said: Why make such a fuss over something that was bound to happen?!"
Setting aside the fact that the Archangel overseeing Floors 11 through 15 was apparently extremely touchy... my expectation had been completely off the mark.
Anael's predecessor wasn't fired for sitting back and letting Floor 11 fall apart. The angel was fired because a totally predictable thing happened and someone was making a huge fuss out of every little detail. The point of view had been fundamentally different from the start.
"...I think I'm getting the gist of this floor's concept."
Floor 11 had been ruined by human selfishness. Ruined by evil people who, rather than making an honest effort, preferred to exploit and murder other sapient beings.
It was all probably exactly as the Archangel intended.