Chapter 210 - Cheat (3)

"My name is Kim Gongja," I said, suppressing the pounding of my heart. "And I am the person you gave the name Death King."

"..."

"Allow me to say it once more. It is a pleasure to meet you formally, Tower Master."

Violet eyes stared straight through me.

"Hmm."

The Tower Master was holding my chin. Our faces were close enough for our breaths to mingle, though her breathing was so quiet I could barely hear it.

"You have introduced yourself. It would be rude of me not to respond in kind."

The Tower Master clicked her tongue softly.

"Very well. As you said, I am the Tower Master. My epithet is the Master of All Life, my first name is Ja Sujeong, and my second name is Kaleidoscope. I wear many other names, but there is no need to tell you those as well."

"I would appreciate it if you did, though."

"You truly are shameless."

"I resorted to all this because I wanted to know about you. Solely to meet you. Isn't that admirable?"

The Tower Master scoffed.

"Such glib words and ingratiating looks, just as I heard. I am well aware that Hamustra fell hook, line, and sinker for your flattery. But if you mean to wear me down with words, give up. That happens to be my specialty."

"... Seducing people is your specialty?"

"Yes. Count yourself fortunate that I have no interest in pursuing married men, Death King. Married women might be another matter."

TAP.

The Tower Master released my chin.

[The Master of All Life withdraws her Dragon Pressure.]

Only then did I regain a sense of my body's outline. Until now, all I had been able to feel in this darkness were my face, mouth, and heart. But once the Tower Master let go of my chin, sensation returned clearly to my arms and legs.

My head felt much clearer.

"Mm."

I was all right.

My heart was still pounding, but not so much that I couldn't control it.

"Tower Master, you must know why I summoned you. I intend to look into your past in accordance with my skill."

"..."

"You may be omniscient and omnipotent within this Tower. But you are also an administrator who makes every effort to be fair and impartial. I have merely used my skill legitimately, so you have no choice but to grant my request."

"Damn it."

The Tower Master furrowed her brow.

Looking at her now, she really was different from the Ja Sujeong of the [side story].

The Ja Sujeong living in the side story never showed any expression. There was barely any inflection in her voice, either. But though the Tower Master grimacing before me possessed the same beautiful appearance, she frowned, clicked her tongue, and sighed.

She was a living person.

"Death King."

"Yes."

"I sincerely advise against experiencing my past, especially if you intend to single out only the traumas. It is dangerous. Diving into a volcano on the verge of eruption with dynamite strapped around your waist would be a little safer."

The Tower Master shook her head.

"Please give up if you don't want to be shattered."

"I want to know about you."

"Death King, do you know who the saddest being in the myth of Icarus is? The Minotaur, imprisoned in an eternal labyrinth from the moment he was born? Icarus, who could fly and merely wanted to fly a little farther? Daedalus, who made wings for his son? No. It is the sun, which has no choice but to burn those who approach it and send them plummeting into the blue sea. Please do not make me sad."

"..."

"Your access clearance is B-rank, isn't it?"

The Tower Master snapped her fingers.

Purple letters appeared in the darkness.

+

Realm of Hell.

Realm of Hungry Ghosts.

Animal Realm.

Asura Realm.

Human Realm.

Heavenly Realm.

+

"The depth of All Life you will experience is the Animal Realm. You have already visited the Heaven-Slaying Star's trauma, so you know that from the Animal Realm onward, you are no longer [seeing] the trauma. You are [living] it. If your rank were C or lower, I might have considered it..."

The Tower Master looked me straight in the eye.

"No."

"..."

"Give up unless you want to fucking die without leaving so much as bone broth behind."

The Tower Master had a surprisingly foul mouth.

"... You know my skill in considerable detail. I didn't even know what came after the Animal Realm."

"Naturally."

She said it casually.

"It was originally my ability."

"What?"

That was something I had never imagined hearing.

The Tower Master sighed and swept back her blond hair with her right hand.

"Every skill has an original model. Developing something based on what already exists is much easier than creating something that doesn't exist in this world. Your [penalty of seeing trauma] was originally one of the abilities of a certain Dragon Emperor... In any case, someone who could be considered my ancestor. I call it All Life."

Uh.

"Then could your epithet, [the Master of All Life], also be...?"

"Yes. That is where it came from."

Good God.

Did that mean I shared an ability similar to the Tower Master's?

"This is an unexpected honor. I mean, what an incredible coincidence..."

"Honor, my ass. This fucking ability sent my life straight into the abyss."

I stood corrected.

The Tower Master's mouth was far fouler than I had expected.

"It isn't even a coincidence. It is a penalty attached to [Regressor's Clockwork Watch]. You've already heard who created the skill, haven't you?"

"Ah, yes. I heard that [The Princess Who Walks Through Mirages] made it..."

"That child is my daughter."

My jaw dropped.

"Whaaat?"

"I said she is my daughter."

The Tower Master sighed and held out her left hand.

"Here."

"Wh-what is it?"

"Smell it."

That was a deeply awkward request.

"Uh, well. Tower Master. I, um, am already taken..."

"Are you insane? Do you want to die? Didn't I tell you earlier that I'm not interested in men? I have something to explain, so just stick your nose against the back of my hand and smell it. I'll turn your fucking nostrils inside out and swap your nose hair with the hair on your head."

"..."

Faced with an insult unlike any I had heard in my life, I obediently pressed my nose to the back of her hand and sniffed.

"Ugh."

A dizzying fragrance surged into my skull.

My vision reeled.

I reflexively lifted my head and pulled away.

"... Peaches?"

"Yes. My natural scent."

"That's insane."

"I think so, too."

The Tower Master looked as if she'd bitten into something foul.

"Now picture the pillow my daughter always carries around."

I pictured [The Princess Who Walks Through Mirages].

Just as the Tower Master said, the Princess always carried a pillow clasped snugly in her arms.

And the design on that pillow was...

"A peach..."

"That child is a hopeless mama's girl. At her age, she still won't sleep unless my scent is nearby. The aggravating part is that she won't sleep, not that she can't."

My mind went blank.

"I had hoped meeting you would let me learn a few secrets, but..."

"You never imagined you would learn a secret like this? I know. I understand. There are no secrets in this world to begin with, and if you insist on uncovering them, all that awaits you afterward is endless responsibility. Damn it."

The Tower Master's favorite phrase was "Damn it."

"I am no different. Do not try to learn my secrets. Do not try to dig them up. If you can handle them once you have uncovered and unearthed them, all the better, but the only relics you can find at the bottom of me are rotten screams."

"... What will you do if I still wish to see?"

"I can offer you a different reward."

The Tower Master looked at me.

Her face was expressionless as she did.

At that moment alone, she seemed identical in every way to the Ja Sujeong in the [side story].

"Tell me what skill you want. I will accommodate you. Tell me what authority you want. I will consider it. In exchange, tear up [Regressor's Clockwork Watch], so that the trauma penalty cannot occur."

"..."

"If you are worried about losing your ability to regress, there is no need. I will remove only the trauma penalty and give you the same... No, an even better skill."

"I see."

I nodded.

"You cannot stop me by force, can you?"

The Tower Master sighed.

"... No."

"All you can do is persuade me. Even now, you have appeared to persuade me. Stopping the penalty from activating according to the skill would be an [abuse of authority]. You have the power to stop me. You could even change the world so that this situation never happened at all, but you don't."

Because you are someone bound by the rules you established yourself.

"No matter how much you want to stop me, if I insist on pressing ahead, you have no choice but to let it proceed. Am I right?"

"Death King."

"I have absolutely no intention of tearing up [Regressor's Clockwork Watch]."

"Please, I beg you. You will be torn apart."

"If I back down here, I will remain ignorant of you forever, even if I reach the ninety-ninth floor, even if I reach the hundredth. I don't want that. I want to live your life with you, even if only for a single day."

"..."

Suddenly, the Tower Master's eyes lowered.

"Very well."

She was lamenting.

"I prepared myself for this day to come eventually. Those who wield a blade must know that they, too, will be torn apart by one. Over the course of countless eons, a child who speaks my words, my logic, and my convictions was bound to appear."

The Tower Master reached out with both hands and held my head.

"Please stay strong."

Then she pressed her forehead to mine.

[The Master of All Life blesses you.]

Her violet eyes reflected mine.

"I am always by your side."

The moment her voice whispered those words...

[Your current hunter rank is B.]

[Warning.]

[Recreating the trauma of the enemy who killed you.]

The hands of the clock, which had stood still, began to move.

[Penalty depth: High.]

[Animal Realm.]

Eyes.

My eyes had formed in the middle of a world dyed purple.

Within those eyes, violet eyes appeared again.

Within the violet eyes, my eyes appeared once more...

My consciousness fell into a labyrinth of mirrors.

* * *

That year, the rumors never ceased.

In the Barony of New Moonstone, a stone rolled of its own accord without anyone touching it. The people whispered that it was an ill omen for a pebble to wander at will through a land of bedrock.

In the great river, the water boiled every night for no reason. Frogs leaped from every waterway, then smashed their heads against the ground and died.

In the royal capital, lightning struck from a clear sky twenty-six times in a single day. "Thirteen stacked atop thirteen makes twenty-six. It is an ill omen," babbled a fortune-teller at the north gate.

Presuming to divine the nation's fortunes was a grave crime. The capital guard dragged the fortune-teller out and cut off his head. That day, though the rainy season had yet to arrive, the river flooded mightily, blocking every road leading into the capital.

"The kingdom is a crippled patient beyond recovery."

The nobles openly lamented.

Failed harvests followed failed harvests. Plagues came one after another. The years were like a rotting spine, pus collecting in every successive joint. The people's corpses drifted down the overflowing river.

An age of ruin.

One December, in the heart of the crumbling kingdom, a girl was born.

Into the baronial House of Crystal.

Born with unusual eyes, she was Ja Sujeong, the baron's daughter.

The young lady was beautiful, as though she had bloomed by absorbing every last nutrient of the rotting kingdom.

"Violet eyes."

One noble praised those eyes as [difficult to forget once seen]. Others, however, harshly judged that [aside from being born with an uncommon eye color, there is little worth noting about her].

Her delicately brushed hair slipped softly downward whenever its owner turned her head.

"Her hair is platinum, divine in its beauty. It steals your gaze at first sight. But even that is a luxury permitted only from afar."

There were also admirers who praised her excessively.

"When you draw near, your hand is drawn to her before your gaze, and you find yourself reaching out without thinking. In the brief moment I extend my arm, time willingly stops. She turns to look at me. Clearly. So very clearly. And then I realize that I have taken hold of her wrist."

Lady Ja Sujeong was expressionless.

"She says so little that at first glance she seems a half-wit."

Had she lacked expression from birth?

Her long brows were smooth, as though she had never once furrowed them.

"Just an attention whore."

"She never gets nervous."

"A born performer."

The year the young lady turned seventeen.

That year, the rumors never ceased. Stones rolled about untouched, river water boiled without cause, and lightning struck the royal capital from a clear sky twenty-six times. Drought came in spring, and rebellion in autumn.

There was a rumor about the little lady, too.

"As members of high society are already whispering—"

That year, the young lady inherited the position of head of the house in place of her dead father.

"It is practically an open secret that the baron's daughter killed her own father."

And before the nobles spreading such rumors, Lady Ja Sujeong smiled brightly. Because she was ordinarily expressionless, it was like a radiant flower blooming, and the members of high society watching her could not contain their admiration. From her angelic lips flowed a voice that almost became a melody.

"—You're all making asses of yourselves. Fuck."

Baroness Ja Sujeong.

The girl was the greatest lunatic in the kingdom's two-thousand-year history.