8. The Witch of Erkadium

"Hey! What the hell happened?! Master turned into a girl!"

You're telling me. I'd like to know the answer myself.

From the look of it, all those reagents I dumped in at the very end had been the culprit.

"Could it be the effect of the various... trials Miss Elysia conducted...?"

I know how that sounds — like I'm pinning it on someone else. It's a what-if, that's all.

"I-is that so? That pi... Pikachu? Wasn't it that incantation that was off? I'd never heard that chant before in my life."

"That is certainly possible. In any case, she was brought back to life — is that not what matters most?"

Pikachu, for the record, is just a monster from Pokémon... my favorite one, actually.

There's a saying back home: it doesn't matter how crooked the road, so long as it gets you to Seoul. The goal, after all, had been resurrection — and even if you couldn't call the result a success... it had been achieved, hadn't it?

Unbelievable.

I'd read my share of gender-bender novels in my past life, but watching it happen right before my eyes was a different feeling entirely. And not a good one — more like, wait, that gorgeous woman used to be an old man?

It was awkward. Genuinely awkward. Back when I read those stories, I distinctly remember thinking I'd love to meet a woman like that if one ever existed. Now all I felt was sympathy for him.

And what the Detailed Inspection revealed in that moment wasn't limited to Von Arnis's condition.

The tenth floor had returned to normal.

Points earned for repairing facilities or fulfilling certain conditions were nothing to sneeze at. Back before I entered the tower, fixing a whole facility had only netted me around 300, if I remember right.

"Ooh! What's this? The mana's suddenly coming back!"

Beside me, Elysia went hopping up and down, drinking in the change.

"It's going to get even louder around here, isn't it."

"I don't like herrr. She only ever says what she wantsss."

Rhea and Vivi looked utterly deflated, their spirit drained clean out of them.

"Congratulations, Administrator. Two bosses are already capable of activity."

The only one surveying the scene with a cool head was, as ever, my secretary, Sierra.

With Von Arnis — the eighth-floor boss — revived as well, preparations for operating the tower up through the tenth floor had climbed to roughly the seventy-percent mark.

Still... this was fine, right? This whole situation?

Either way, the time had come for us to get ready to actually run this tower.

"The remaining floors should be simpler, right?"

"Yes. Save for the boss floors, the monsters on every other floor will restore themselves on their own once their mana systems are repaired."

That was the most welcome news I'd heard since arriving here.

'On their own.'

No word in any language is sweeter to an administrator's ears.

"Great. Then, first things first..."

My gaze drifted toward Von Arnis.

Clothes seemed like the place to start.

"Heyyy, hey. So how'd you bring Master back to life, anyway?"

Fast. Way ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠faster than before, no question. A moment ago I could at least sense her sprinting even when she was out of sight; now it was practically teleportation.

"There's a method to everything. A method."

Elysia's status window shimmered into view. Just like Rhea's had.

The Witch of Erkadium. Erkadium was presumably the place Elysia belonged to — Von Arnis had been addressed as head of the Erkadium Faction, after all.

Exactly how much havoc does a person have to wreak before the world starts calling her a witch?

A second Management Target.

Which also meant Thought Reading would now work on Elysia.

And presumably, the higher my administrator skills climbed, the more of my Management Targets' lives I would be able to reach into.

There was no reason not to.

YES.

Hers was 99+ too?

Rhea, Elysia — every last one of them blew straight past 99.

I had a very good idea of how that kind of debt gets repaid... I'd seen it with Rhea, after all. Best to tread carefully.

"Stop looking off into space! What, you see something in thin air?"

Elysia seized my cheek and locked my face toward hers.

Being told I keep staring at nothing is a regular occurrence whenever I open a status window. Apparently, from the outside, I just look like I'm zoning out.

But was I the only one curious ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠here? What exactly was going through Elysia's head?

"Anyway... you should talk casual with me too! You go casual with Mosquito Lady but keep it polite with me? That's just weird..."

Ugh. I never should have looked.

Wasn't this one even more of a lunatic than Rhea?

Then Rhea and Vivi came drifting over.

"Administrator? If everything is settled, shall we be going?"

"Why don't Mosquito Lady and her little sibling just head on down? Rowun's still got things left to do here with me, doesn't he~?"

For the record, I was never the type women flocked to. And it certainly wasn't my looks holding me back — whenever I got out of the shower and caught my reflection, I'd say I cleared the top ten percent, easy.

I simply never had the time to meet women. Too busy, always.

I'm serious. I'm telling you, serious.

And yet, ever since I came to this tower, I've been drowning in attention. Turns out a life of being popular with women isn't the blessing people imagine.

"Fufu. Do behave, you two. The Administrator is a very busy man, you see?"

Crimson mana gathered in Rhea's hand.

"Oh? I'd say Rowun would rather stay right here."

A strange magic circle flared open in Elysia's left hand; in her right, she held up a vial of green reagent.

"You bitcheee! How dare you be so rude to Lady Rheaaa!"

Vivi beat her wings and growled low in her throat.

Rhea struck first, and Elysia instantly counterattacked, chanting some bizarre incantation — and why, exactly, was Vivi joining the brawl over there?

KWA-BOOM! KWA-BOOM!

"Administrator. Might I suggest we descend from here, repairing each floor as we go?"

Sierra spoke up, leaving the battle raging behind her.

"That would certainly be convenient."

"Mmmngh... I appear to have been having a nightmare."

Perhaps stirred by all the racket, Von Arnis groaned and pushed himself upright.

"It's no nightmare... you really did become a woman..."

I walked the newly risen Von Arnis through everything that had happened.

"That damned woman again..."

The fact that damned was the first word out of his mouth told me he'd been put through the wringer by her.

"Looks like this sort of thing happened a lot."

Von Arnis shook his head slowly and began to unload.

"Haa... how shall I put it. Elysia was, you might say, ungovernable. She is not ill-natured, mind you... or is she?"

She seemed flat-out insane to me.

"Well, even so—"

KWA-BOOM! KWAA-BOOOM!

My words kept being swallowed by the blasts.

I whipped around at the ongoing mayhem.

"HEY!!! QUIET!! Take it outside!"

At this point they didn't feel like bosses anymore — just a pair of high school girls brawling in front of the homeroom teacher.

Rhea and Elysia froze mid-swing and turned to stare at me.

"Did you... just raise your voice at me...?"

"S-sorry! Don't be mad!"

I swore then and there never to peek into their heads again. I felt like I'd go insane right along with them.

"Ms. Sierra, let's just the two of us head down."

"As you wish."

"Administrator? What you just witnessed was merely a conversation between two old friends..."

"Take me with you!! We won't fight anymore, promise."

"I'm sorryyy..."

It was plain as day that things would only get louder from here on out...

...but I had a feeling that, at the very least, it wouldn't be boring.

With everyone gone, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Von Arnis sat rooted to the spot, still dumbfounded. He, too, had entered the tower in days past and crossed paths with any number of bosses. Every last one of them had been unhinged, and every last one had been monstrously strong. The vampire over there, Elysia — it made no difference. They were all cut from the same cloth.

Did those children... always tear into people like that?

Long ago, before it was bound to the tower, Erkadium had been a school that drew ceaseless condemnation. Its crime was daring to lay hands on dark magic for no reason beyond the pursuit of knowledge. Dark magic is not evil magic, you understand... The world had simply branded it wicked — but it was one school of magic among many, differing only in the domain it touched.

And Elysia had been called a witch. The reason was simple: she was the strongest. In their world, knowledge was power itself, and there was nothing Elysia did not know. So everyone had set out to erase Erkadium — and the end result was that Elysia erased every faction except Erkadium.

"Master... I'm not the one who's wrong... am I? It's the people trying to kill us who are the bad ones..."

From that day forward, Elysia leaned on no one. Not even on me, her own master. And she thought of nothing but the most efficient ways to end a human life. Everyone is a threat to Erkadium — so she would say.

To see the girl who once said such things now trailing after someone with that smile on her face...

'Master! Someday I'll become the greatest alchemist of them all!'

He remembered the day he had first taken Elysia in as his disciple.

"What a relief, that is."

Von Arnis felt a pang of loneliness — and yet, beneath it, a quiet warmth.

All the same, though... would somebody please bring him some clothes...