Chapter 51. After the Ending (2)
Chapter 51. After the Ending (2)
"Now you need to give some real thought to where you stand too!"
The Witch said.
She kept smacking my forearm with a rolled-up newspaper. Thwack! Thwack! Her whole body radiated the fact that she was too excited to contain herself.
"Where I stand?"
"Yeah. Right now you're signed up with all five of the major guilds. But in practice, you're no different from being unaffiliated. Since things have worked out this well, it wouldn't hurt for you to found a guild of your own."
The Witch chuckled, clearly enjoying herself.
"A hunter who's ranked third in the world ought to at least hold the title of Guild Master. No matter how you look at it, being an ordinary guild member doesn't suit someone who's simultaneously joined all five major guilds."
It didn't feel real.
"Guild Master, huh."
Me, the head of some guild. Not only did it not feel real, I couldn't even picture it. Would I even need to command hunters as subordinates in the first place? I had a skeleton legion.
"Well, sure."
Perhaps reading from my expression that I wasn't thrilled, the Witch shrugged. Beyond her shoulder, the Sword Saint was silently watching us.
"Maybe solo play suits your personality, like that old man over there. There are surprisingly a lot of people who romanticize smashing through everything alone. If you're not interested, I won't push it."
"Ahem, are you talking behind my back right now?"
"Anyway, setting that aside......"
The Witch turned her head, ignoring the Sword Saint.
"What's that over there?"
Beyond the acacia forest path.
On a small plain, soldiers from the continent were building something. Barracks. Having given up on attacking Agwi's paradise, they would rest today and then withdraw.
"Ah."
I stroked my chin.
"Those soldiers are people who came swarming in from all over the continent."
"From all over the continent?"
"Well, to explain......"
My explanation continued. Naturally, I left out everything about Agwi. I only told them how I had deceived the continent's armies.
The Witch and the Sword Saint listened together, and the longer my explanation went on, the stranger their expressions became. A single remark from the Witch spoke for both of them.
"Death King... you've got quite a knack for lying."
"Well, thanks to that, we cleared it without shedding a drop of blood."
"No, I'm not blaming you. Honestly, you did really well."
The Witch's eyes narrowed.
It was the look of a merchant who had just thought up a sinister scheme.
"From now on, we can trade with this continent too. It means we no longer have to grovel to the old men from the outside world. Those bastards! Always gouging us on food prices. Let's see if they can keep that up from now on."
Resentment dripped from her voice.
"Fundamentally, trade between the Tower and the outside world is unfair."
The Sword Saint said.
"Capital, resources, technology. The outside world is richer than the Tower in every respect. Of course, the Tower does have elixirs and materials you can't get in the outside world, but......"
"Food! It's always food that's the problem!"
The Witch kicked the ground.
When I first met her, I thought she was a blunt person. Was it because the three of us had broken through floors 12 to 19 together? In front of us, her emotional expression had become remarkably varied.
That probably meant we had gotten that much closer.
"Black Dragon Master, so you're saying you'll start trading with the people of this continent?"
"Hm? Of course. The outside world needs to taste some bitterness too."
"Then."
I grinned.
Then I pointed at the military camp set up on the plain.
"We'll need to talk to those people from now on. But if we just barge in and say, 'Let's trade,' it won't get us anywhere, right? To the continentals, we're outsiders, and to us, the continentals are people from another world."
"True."
"I'll lend you my name."
I said.
"In this other world, I'm the First Emperor's successor and an apostle of the goddess. If you spin a story about being apostles sent by the goddess as well, it'll at least be useful for getting trade started."
"......."
The Witch's eyes narrowed.
"A generous offer. A valid one, too. But there's no way you're lending your name for free... so what do you want?"
"Floor 20."
"What?"
I looked around.
The acacia forest path. The small plain. Estelle's hometown.
This tiny world was the entirety of Floor 20.
"I want Floor 20."
For a moment, the Witch was at a loss for words.
"...Hold on. Floor 20? Don't tell me you mean you want the entire 20th floor?"
"Yes. To be precise, I'd like all the land on Floor 20 to be mine."
"That's......"
"In exchange, I won't take any compensation for clearing floors 11 through 19. Let the other hunters split the profits from trading with the continent."
The Witch's lips closed again.
It was an unprecedented offer.
Normally, when hunters clear a stage, the participants divide the spoils among themselves. Ownership of items. And further, ownership of resources. But roughly half of the rights are left for all hunters to share.
No one had ever owned [an entire floor] outright.
"This... isn't something I can decide on my own."
The Witch wore a troubled expression.
"I'll need to call the other Guild Masters and discuss it."
"Well, I've got nothing to do for the next 24 hours, so I'll wait."
"...Do you really want this stage?"
The Witch glanced around.
"At a glance, it's land that doesn't seem to have much value. The acacia flower path... is pretty, but there's little land fit for farming. The stage itself is cramped too."
"Mm."
"Speaking from experience, Death King. In situations like this, you'd profit far more by just taking your share of the rewards for clearing floors 11 through 20. You could make an enormous amount of money."
I smiled.
"I prefer real estate over money. Land is the best."
"......."
"Deal?"
The Witch sighed.
"I'll gather the Guild Masters. Let's discuss it on Floor 1."
"Let's do that."
"Yeah, you need to show your face to people at least once anyway. But......"
The Witch slowly turned her gaze.
"There's been something I've wanted to ask for a while now."
"Yes."
"...What's that over there?"
I looked in the direction the Witch was pointing.
"F-fuck... ngh... you bastard. Stop this, just...! I said stop! Is that such a hard thing to ask, fuck! What grudge do you have against me? What did I do wrong......!"
There, the Tower's greatest dancer was showing off his skills.
The dancer's sweat and tears streamed down miserably, soaking the acacia forest path.
Beautiful.
"Black Dragon Master."
I beamed.
"Black Dragon Master saw nothing."
"Huh?"
"You saw nothing. Understood?"
"......."
The Witch wore an odd expression.
It was the face of a biologist confronted with the mystery of a lifetime.
"Sure. The world has all kinds of people. I'll understand."
"But..." the Witch muttered.
"You really aren't in your right mind either......"
That, too, was a minority opinion.
2
I dismissed the summons of Agwi and the Flame Emperor, then teleported to Floor 1 with the hunters.
"Is it all right if we use the same coffee shop as last time for the meeting?"
"Yes, anywhere is fine with me."
Babylon, the city on Floor 1, which I had returned to after a truly long time.
To others, it might look like I had come back after only five days, but not to me.
I had returned to the city after what was, quite literally, hundreds of days—years.
"Hah."
"What's wrong?"
"No, it just finally feels real that I cleared the stage."
The Witch let out a small laugh.
"Well, you'll probably feel it even more soon."
"Pardon?"
"I told you. Right now, people in the Tower talk about nothing but you. Prepare yourself."
There was no need to ask what kind of preparation she meant.
"Huh?"
"Is that......"
Not long after stepping onto the Floor 1 teleport stone, the surroundings began to buzz.
Passersby walking the streets. Merchants who had set up stalls along the roadside. Hunters who had been preparing to head out to hunting grounds began murmuring one by one.
"That's the Witch and the Sword Saint."
"Then that person is......"
"It's the Death King!"
Someone shouted.
That was the trigger.
"The Death King has appeared!"
A customer who had been carefully examining used weapons at a stall turned his head. Men and women enjoying coffee at an outdoor café stood up. A merchant selling rare flowers, hunters chatting with companions—dozens, hundreds of people all looked this way at once.
In an instant, a crowd surged toward us.
"Whoa, wow......"
"Is it true that you cleared Floor 20 alone?!"
"Look this way, please! Just a moment! Over here!"
The crowd buzzed.
There wasn't even time to figure out how to respond. I just blinked once, and people had surrounded our group. It didn't end there. By the time I blinked twice, the encirclement had doubled in thickness.
"Uh......"
"Don't say a word."
The Witch whispered in a low voice meant only for me.
"You've never dealt with the press before, right?"
"Yes, well. Obviously."
"Mysterious persona? Or popular star?"
"Pardon?"
"Your concept, I mean. Do you want to go with a mysterious persona, or a popular star persona?"
Even as the Witch whispered, the crowd swelled to three times its size. Our group's walking speed seemed to slow by about thirty times. Click! Click! With every step, phone cameras went off noisily.
Good lord.
I was completely overwhelmed!
"Once you pick a concept, it's hard to change it. Answer me now."
"Uh, I get the mysterious persona, but what's a popular star?"
"It's similar to being a movie star."
The Witch said.
"First, you'd open a new SNS account. You'd have a separate secretary for image management and another for handling the press. Of course, you'd also need to hire someone to take care of your appearance and fashion. Ah, don't worry about the money. The Black Dragon will cover it."
My already-scattered mind scattered further.
Beside us, the Sword Saint was frowning.
He muttered under his breath.
"He goes around alone because he hates doing that shit himself."
That sounded like a most reasonable statement.
"Let's go with the mysterious persona......"
"Are you sure? People change when they receive professional management. Obviously, you'd become far better-looking than you are now, and you'd also come to see how to deal with other people in a somewhat new light. The Heretic Questioner, for instance, appears in magazine spreads and does solo photoshoots too, you know?"
I knew that well.
Before regressing 4,000 days, hadn't my hobby been exactly that—clipping and collecting those magazines and photoshoots? Even the Black Witch right in front of me was a regular cover model for magazines.
"No. Mysterious persona! Please, mysterious persona."
But when the person in question was me, it was a different story.
"Why? You don't want to do a photoshoot?"
Had I been shot in the head?!
"I'd die of embarrassment!"
"Everyone's embarrassed at first. Well, except the Heretic Questioner never knew embarrassment from the start... but he's the exception. Death King. Honestly, when it comes to embarrassing things, what you did when you climbed the Aegim Empire pavilion and shouted was far more......"
"Mysterious persona, or I'm withdrawing from all five major guilds."
I meant it with all my heart.
The Witch laughed softly.
"Fine, I figured as much. You seem like that type."
"What do I have to do for the mysterious persona?"
"It's simple. Maintain a good blank expression."
For the first time in my life, I received advice like "maintain a good blank expression."
"SNS activity is absolutely forbidden. No magazine or broadcast appearances. Refuse interview requests from personal streamers or media outlets. It's fine to do about two interviews a year, but I'll only send reporters I've vetted in advance."
Hm.
"...Is that all?"
"You don't yet know how hard that is."
The Witch giggled.
"Attention is a drug. The most addictive drug there is."
The Sword Saint picked up where she left off.
"It's also the drug that destroys a person most thoroughly."
"Right. Even if just ten people pay attention to you, you'll feel happy. But once you reach this position, just a few words will get tens or hundreds of thousands—millions—of people reacting. There are truly very few people who can resist that kind of drug."
The crowd pressed in even more.
It was as if the entire population of the city had gathered here.
"It's all an illusion."
So said the Sword Saint.
"Yeah, but it's a pleasant illusion."
So said the Witch.
"Maybe knowing how to enjoy this drug is part of the refinement of someone who's become famous. You endure a little, until you grow sick of the drug. Or until you become disillusioned with the colleagues who guzzle the same drug. What will you do, Death King?"
"......."
I looked around.
A wall of people.
People were packed in without a single gap. Camera flashes went off endlessly, forcing me to squint. The procession of flashes seen through narrowed eyes looked like a mirage, and the wall of people looked almost like shadows.
"...There's probably no one as desperate for other people as I am."
I spoke.
"But what I want is recognition. And even if I don't fully understand it... I think receiving attention and receiving recognition are a little different."
I thought of the Flame Emperor.
The absolute being who had monopolized all the Tower's attention before I regressed 4,000 times.
"I'm fine without the attention of millions. The attention of the people around me is plenty. Whether it's hundreds of thousands or millions, what I want from the people of this world... isn't attention. It's recognition."
"I see."
The Witch smiled.
"I'm of the opinion that the two can never be entirely separate, but if that's your answer, I'll respect it."
"Yes."
"I'm glad you're that kind of person."
That was something I had heard once before, long ago.
"So how do I maintain a good blank expression?"
"I'll tell you the secret."
The roar of the crowd erupted from all sides.
Our group's speed gradually dropped to about 10 centimeters per second.
"Recall a truly bad memory."
"A bad memory?"
"Yes. In my case, when I was in the outside world, my father died in a civil war."
The Witch spoke calmly.
"I was seven. I was fleeing with my parents, and I think soldiers were chasing us. My father stayed behind, and at that moment, he shouted, 'Don't look back, just go.' But......"
The Witch pushed through the crowd, leading the way.
"I really did run without looking back. I heard gunshots, but I didn't turn around. I just kept running."
Click! Click!
The camera flashes didn't stop.
"You were young."
"I was young."
The Witch murmured.
"It's not that I hate the fact that I ran away. I was a child. But why didn't I even look back? It would have been easy. Just to look, at least."
"......."
"When I need to put on a blank expression, I remember that moment. When I recall the memory of my heart pounding so hard I was breathless, the blank expression comes very easily. It's my own little magic."
The Witch looked at me.
"You have a memory or two like that too, don't you?"
I did.
A dark alley.
I recalled the memory of the Flame Emperor grabbing my head and burning my whole body.
"I suppose so."
I could tell without looking in a mirror.
That I was now wearing a perfect blank expression.
"Please look this way for just a moment!"
"Please say anything!"
"Black Dragon Master, when can we hear an official announcement......"
"What's the relationship between you two?!"
"Sword Saint! What do you think of the Death King?!"
When I looked around again, my eyes had already grown accustomed to the camera flashes, and I could see my surroundings clearly. It was the first time I had been surrounded by such a large crowd. It was also the first time I had been showered with flashes like this.
But.
"That works instantly, huh?"
I wasn't overwhelmed like before.
My mind simply settled into calm, as usual.
The Witch raised the corner of her mouth slightly.
"You learn fast. You'll get used to it in no time."
The world had certainly changed in five days.
But it hadn't changed so much that I needed to change.