Whatever, Just Go Climb the Tower
The crackle of firewood burning quietly in the hearth, and the warmth of flames thawing my chilled body.
The musty smell of old books, and the faint fragrance of white lisianthus drifting from a cracked vase on the windowsill.
This was the place within the seal where I had spent the past thousand years, under an eternal night.
"It was a dream......?"
I thought I'd given up on returning to the modern world long ago, but maybe that hadn't actually been the case. And where had the wolf gone this time?
"Don't worry. It wasn't a dream. If anything, the place you're looking at right now is the one closer to a dream."
At the sweet voice that came out of nowhere, I turned my head — and there stood the familiar pink-haired doll.
Waves of divinity flowing down from the tips of her long hair, and a faint golden veil draped over her pure white dress. She stood at the very center of a cascading galaxy of cherry-blossom light, and the tiny star within her ocean-colored eyes was shining brilliantly.
She was my sole confidante, someone who now felt more familiar to me than anyone else. The goddess of Arcadia — Airenia.
"Goddess."
"Yes, it's me. It's been a while, hasn't it?"
"......Has it?"
"Oh my, look at me. I forgot to account for the time difference."
With a light wave of the goddess's hand, a familiar tea table materialized at the center of the seal.
"Well then, shall we start with a cup of tea? It's only been a moment for you, but with the two worlds connected again, I've learned quite a lot."
"Mm."
The teapot floated up gently and, settling before the two of us, poured out a crimson liquid with a familiar fragrance. A cup of flower petals, dried lemon, and Eastern tea leaves crushed together and steeped in dew from the World Tree. The goddess's special blend, tailored entirely to my tastes. As I breathed in the warm steam, I could feel the stuffiness in my chest loosening just a little.
"To get straight to the point — the 「Hero」 and the 「Wizard」 you met were both themselves. The bodies they once used still remain in our world, but changing vessels isn't such an astonishing thing, you know? It might be easier to think of it as a kind of avatar."
"You mean those meat puppets you used to use when you went down to play on the surface?"
"'Meat puppets' is a rather unfortunate way to put it, but yes. Think of it as a kind of relief force, rushing over in response to a distress signal sent by the survival instinct of our world."
"......And why are you telling me this?"
"Hmm...... It's still in the realm of instinct, but from where I stand, the reason you were summoned there doesn't seem all that different."
Having left those cryptic words behind, the goddess rested her chin on the table and smiled brightly.
"By the way, why do you still call me 'Goddess'? I told you, didn't I? We're practically family now. You called me by name just fine last time — did you forget after only a little while apart?"
"Airenia."
"Mm-hmm. Not that one. Something shorter, and more affectionate."
"Irene."
"Mmm, that sounds lovely after so long. It's healing. Aahh. Hardly anyone prays to me these days, so it really does get lonely, you know. I suppose that's why they say having lots of juniors isn't always a good thing."
At some point the goddess had moved right beside me. She leaned into me like a child sulking for attention, buried her head against my chest, and began nuzzling. Given how she'd always kept a certain distance, it was unlike her, and I was a little flustered — but somehow, I couldn't turn away from the oddly sorrowful look in her eyes.
After all, whatever anyone said, she and I had been together for nearly a thousand years.
"Mmm...... There we go. Fully recharged. It's about time you woke up."
"Mm."
"Say hello to Valberg for me."
"......Valberg?"
"Oh, come now. The 「Wolf」. What am I going to do with you, forgetting his name? That poor boy will be hurt."
"Ah. Right."
"Take care of yourself, and eat your meals on time. I mean it."
"Yeah."
"Oh, one more thing — I almost forgot the most important part. Once you start climbing the 「Tower」, everything will become a clue——"
With those final words, the scent of flowers thickened and swept over everything around me — and I woke up on the wolf's...... on Valberg's back.
......Vanishing like that — what am I supposed to do about the rest?
[Grrr.]
"That's right. I went to see the goddess...... I went to see Irene. She told me to climb the Tower."
[Yip yip.]
"I'm not hiding anything. More likely she doesn't know it herself. It wasn't exactly groundbreaking intel, but at least I've got a handle on what to do next."
Come to think of it, it's infuriating. If you're going to hand over information, don't give me one-tenth of it ten times — give me half of it twice.
......Granted, it wasn't her fault that she hadn't uncovered the whole story, but this kind of setup had always grated on me.
"......Still. What I have to do right now is decided."
My personal goal was to locate the 「Saintess」. If those two from yesterday really were who they claimed to be, then she too had to exist somewhere on this Earth. I'd go find her first, and...... what was I supposed to do when I found her? Whatever — I could decide that when I got there. Moving on.
The grand objective, meanwhile, was to follow Irene's advice, climb the Tower, and hunt for clues. ......Part of me wondered if I really had to, but ignoring it would obviously breed complications, so I had no choice.
[Yip yip.]
"I know. If you've taken the bait, you've got to work it loose one way or another."
It's not a hook I cast myself, so why am I the one reeling it in? — I'd better not say that out loud.
Let's just be satisfied with having learned one thing: my identity was not that of an interdimensional stray. Whoever had dragged me here, whatever kind of spiteful character they were, they'd show up before me in person eventually.
"Valberg."
[Hnng?]
"Yes. I'm calling you."
[Yip yip yip!]
"......You thought I'd forgotten? What do you take me for? It's just that your name is annoyingly hard to pronounce, that's all."
At nothing more than hearing his name spoken once, the beast went wild and started licking me all over. Since he was made of my own mana, it wasn't that sticky, but it tickled.
"Stop it, stop."
[Waff. Arf!]
"Stop, I said!"
Only after grabbing hold of his snout as it tried to burrow into somewhere entirely inappropriate did I manage to escape the tickle hell.
Frankly, my feelings toward the Hero Party were still complicated, and the desire to make them mine again did linger. But with the goddess's acknowledgment behind me, I couldn't deny that a faint hesitation had crept in. I didn't know how I'd act if I met them again, so I decided to avoid contact for the time being.
Of course, the 「Saintess」 was the exception.
"......This is so annoying."
Something that even the goddess hadn't uncovered yet lay inside the Tower. Which left exactly one conclusion. For now — climb the Tower. ......But how?
Thanks to Mayday, I knew this world had Towers and Gates, but could you just walk up to the Tower? According to Mayday's analogy, it was closer to a dungeon with set stages. And if it was a dungeon, it had to have an entrance, didn't it?
"Mayday."
So in the end, I had no choice but to lean on this idiotic voice.
"I want to climb the Tower. Where's the entrance?"
"Is there really no way to do this without going through this Bureau of yours?"
An idiot with zero flexibility. You'd think a person who lived as an assassin could be forgiven for bending a law or two, wouldn't you?
"Fine, I'll handle it my own way — so just tell me where the Tower's entrance is."
Useless tin can. I'd have to think of another way.
"......I've got it."
Couldn't I just find the entrance first and worry about how to get in later? Whether it was infiltration or brute force — in a world where a Hero that weakened counted as a nation's supreme military asset, was there really anything that could actually stop me?
"What do you think, Wolf?"
[AWOOOOOO!]
Seeing as he'd once been called the wolf that heralded calamity, he seemed to be quite fond of this kind of crude, straightforward plan as well. So all that strength piling up for no reason at all — was it all for a moment like this?
Then, first things first: information gathering. Squeezing intel out of people while wearing a battle uniform and torn tights would be awkward at best, so I'd better change into something slightly less suspicious.
"Wolf. Dark space."
[Arf.]
I dug out the academy uniform I'd worn on my thirteenth 「outing」 and put it on. I hadn't been fond of it — the emperor of that place had tacked on an absurd number of conditions — but looking back now, the three years I'd spent beside my charge had been fairly comfortable. After all, my job was to trail the imperial family, so the food had been excellent.
It was a bit trying that names I knew personally kept showing up as subjects of legend and history, but the facilities were clean and the lessons were somewhat useful. Plenty of people would strike up conversations with me for no reason, which was a nuisance — but since today's lemon-jelly-flavored potions were developed back then, at least the time hadn't been wasted.
"Wolf."
[Awoo?]
"Get in there. Stay put until I call you, and keep quiet."
[Whine......]
"......Tch. Do you want to be scolded?"
After physically shoving the wolf into the dark space, I set finding the Tower's entrance as my first objective. I had no identity papers, but the gold and jewels I carried could, quite literally, be piled into mountains. No one hates money — with a treasure hoard like this, no matter how hard they haggled, I'd find a way. All right, then. Off we go.
"......Where on earth is this, though."
I told you to take me somewhere sunny. So why did you drop a person on top of a mountain?
......No wonder the air felt crisp and the wind so cool.
