39 – Red Witch
The water spirits were even more eager to respond than usual, knowing the nature of my request.
"Hm? What is this presence…?" Yuga spoke to himself just before it happened.
Suddenly his barrier broke apart and the Shinsoo surged around me like an angry vortex.
"Woah!"
"What's happening?!"
The other Regulars cried out in surprise.
The water stone absorbed the Shinsoo just as before, leaving the room in silence.
All the Regulars on the other side had a look of awe. Even Laure had stood up wide awake behind us and was staring at me warily.
"Mr. Axion…it seems you are even more special than I had imagined. Lero Ro was incorrect in his description," said Yuga.
"Wow! So you really do have a hidden talent, Mr. Axion!" Baam said loudly.
"You did not simply break the barrier and absorb the Shinsoo from it. You took control of the Shinsoo from me. But it should not be possible to manipulate the Shinsoo that is actively under the control of somebody else, even if it's still in a raw form," said Yuga. "This is not a technique. It is simply impossible. Nobody can do it. Not Rankers, High Rankers, even Zahard or the Ten Great Warriors…but there is one exception..."
"The Floor Administrators," said Laure.
"Correct. Our ability to control Shinsoo is derived from the contract with the Floor Administrators. Therefore, they have the absolute authority to control Shinsoo, and can reclaim control from us at any time," said Yuga.
"So what does this mean?" I asked.
"I can only think of one way this can be possible," said Yuga.
"And that is…?" I tensed for a battle and quickly recalled Agate from the Fisherman class.
I readied the spell for planeshifting in my mind in case I needed to make a break for it. It'd have to be a random shift to be faster.
"The Floor Administrator gave you the ability by contract, which allows you to seize control of Shinsoo in the same way they do, as an extension of their authority," said Yuga. "I cannot fathom why they would do such a thing for a fresh Regular, considering that even Rulers of the Floors do not have this privilege, but it is indeed possible to form special contracts with the Administrators. It is not unheard of for Floor Administrators to sometimes give unique rewards to worthy Regulars, but it is extremely rare. As this is a matter between yourself and the Floor Administrators, if you do not wish to speak of it, I shall not enquire further," said Yuga.
I relaxed with his explanation. "I see. It's true that I have a special contract with an Administrator, but I didn't know that the contract included such a privilege. I'm just as surprised as you, instructor Yuga, that my contract would include something like this."
"Then that is one mystery solved! All in a day's work. Alright Regulars, let's head back to the classroom," said Yuga.
What a close call. But was that really the end of it?
On the way back, Yuga spoke to me quietly again. "You are very special indeed, Mr. Axion. I am sure that the 2nd Floor Administrator would not have given any reward prior to completing the tests on this Floor, so it must have been Headon who contracted with you, am I correct?"
"Yes, you are very wise, Instructor Yuga."
He laughed. "Not at all, it was a simple deduction to reach. Headon is the one who selects all the Regulars, after judging if they are worthy, therefore, to have gained his recognition is no small feat. I shall watch your climb up the Tower with great interest."
That did not bode well for me, but it couldn't be helped. Still, I wondered how accurate his theory was. Somehow, I doubted that Headon was so kind as to give me such a power, but it was starting to look like he had predicted this might happen and covered for me in advance.
When the class was over, Hwaryun silently led me to her room.
"You have questions," she said with a tilt of her head, sitting down on her bed, legs dangling.
"Is it safe?" I asked, taking the seat beside the desk.
"Safe enough."
"Why didn't he suspect me of being an Irregular?"
"Other Irregulars can't do that. If they could, Enryu's victory over the Administrator on the 43rd Floor wouldn't be so impressive. Even if Irregulars don't need permission from the Administrators to use Shinsoo, they can't forcibly take control of it from somebody else either," said Hwaryun.
"So why can I do it? Was Yuga right? A special ability given by Headon's contract?"
"No. Don't you already know why you can do it?" asked Hwaryun with a raised eyebrow.
"I have suspicions, but I won't pretend to understand how Shinsoo really works."
She nodded then lay on her back, staring upwards at the ceiling.
There was a moment of silence while I didn't know if she was planning to continue the conversation or not. Was she waiting for me to explain my suspicions? But I didn't really want to talk about the water stone, unless she already knew about it.
"You don't trust me," she said finally.
"I don't know you," I said.
"You don't trust anyone," she said.
"I trust myself," I said.
"I can't Guide you if you won't let me," she said.
"How do I know if the path you lead me down is one that will go where I want?"
"How do you know if the path you lead yourself down is one that will go where you want?"
"And what about you? Don't you have any desires of your own? Or are you content to just Guide other people?"
She turned silent again.
Even though I knew her from the story, I didn't understand her motivations at all. There had been hardly any background given on her. Even though she would start calling Baam her "God" just like the rest of FUG did, she did so using a tone and wording in the original source text that was playful in nature, unlike the rest who took it seriously.
Without understanding what motivated somebody, it was impossible to trust them, besides my own distrust of people in general. Even for a business transaction, a deal without any loyalty, it was difficult to deal with those you had no understanding of.
That was the case for Headon and Yu Han Sung too, and I didn't feel comfortable relying on them even if I had no better options at the moment.
Between the three of them, Hwaryun was the least dangerous, given her relative lack of direct firepower, and the most easily accessible, due to her proximity to me during the tests.
So I wanted to have a good working relationship with her even if I couldn't trust her fully.
This time, it was me who broke the silence.
"The path I lead myself down…I don't know where it will lead. But that's what makes it interesting. If I knew my own fate, then life would be boring. As I said before to Yu Han Sung, it is not the destination, but the journey that matters. There are plenty of things I want…but achieving them wouldn't make me satisfied. I don't want to be satisfied. Rachel says she wants to see the stars. But do you know what I would do if I saw them?"
"Yes," she said suddenly.
I was momentarily taken aback as she actually answered my rhetorical question.
"Really? What would I do?"
"He shall build a Tower to reach them, and pluck them from the sky," she said, holding up one hand as if mimicking the action. "And when they grow dim in his hands, he shall fly into the dark, to leave the story of the Tower, and a dream of stars behind."
There was another long silence as I digested the words.
"…is that a prophecy?"
"It's just an old story," she said, sitting up straight again.
"Of whoever built this Tower?"
"Who knows…we have a terrible, selfish, irresponsible god if it's true," She said, shrugging. "But don't you think it sounds like something you would do?"
"I suppose I might, if I had that kind of power. But I'm no god," I said. "I'm just an adventurer."
"Is it true? What Urek Mazino says about the Outside?" Hwaryun asked suddenly.
"Who is that? And what does he say?"
"The most recent known Irregular that has gone up the Tower. A High Ranker, number 4, just below Zahard. He says that…outside the Tower, there exists a vast world…rolling skies that stretch endlessly, and countless stars that illuminate the darkness. A place a billion times wider and freer than the Tower," she said, while getting up and walking towards the balcony. "It's the goal of his organization, Wolhaiksong, to find a way to return Outside."
"Have you asked Rachel that question?"
"Although she's an Irregular…I don't think she's from the Outside that Urek was talking about…and neither is Baam. Rachel wants to see the stars, and entered the Tower to reach for them, yet the Outside Urek describes would already have had them. As for Baam...he doesn't seem to know much of anything," said Hwaryun. Then she glanced back at me. "But you're different, aren't you?"
"What makes you say that?"
"Because you took my story seriously. You really thought somebody, not necessarily even a god, built this Tower, as if it were just a physical structure. We call it a Tower because there are many floors, but it is the whole of our reality, our universe. The Tower has always been there. From the beginning of the story." said Hwaryun. "Everyone knows that. Even Irregulars, even Urek Mazino, who's from the Outside. But not you."
"The beginning of the story? Don't you mean the world?"
"To a real god…like the one who built the Tower…isn't this world just a story he left behind?"
This conversation had gone in a very strange direction. I never thought somebody in a plane I visited would think of themselves as being in a story, even if it was true from my perspective.
It was fatalistic, perhaps, but also fascinating.
"Maybe you're right," I said, standing up and walking beside her to look out the balcony into the fake sky. "It's true that I'm a little different. I don't know what sort of Outside Urek came from, but I have seen the rolling skies and stars shining in the dark."
As we were at an impasse earlier, and I wanted Hwaryun's knowledge and abilities on my side, I decided to share a little bit about myself, and answer her question regarding the Outside. In any other plane, such knowledge might have been dangerous to share, but here in the Tower, I was not the only traveler from beyond the known universe, just one of many Irregulars who had found their way into the Tower.
"I don't agree with him, though. A billion times wider and freer? I never built a Tower, nor did I pluck the stars from the sky, but I did fly into the dark space above the heavens where the stars lie…it truly was a vast, endless space. But it was empty. Empty of life, empty of joy or sadness, it was just…a void. Did I feel free, having escaped the world that caged me? No...I left the pain and the suffering, but also the joy and the wonder. That world might have just been a story…but it was one full of life and meaning, of triumph and tragedy, of love and loss, and it was beautiful."
My escape from Worm hadn't quite gone like that, but this sounded much more dramatic.
"So then, did you go back?"
"I did, for a short time. But I couldn't stay. As beautiful as it was, it was not my home, and it was still a cage. That was not the first time I had left a world behind. A long time ago, I obtained the power to slide into other stories. The first time I used it, it got me trapped in that world. Once I was free of the cage, I used that power again...but I never once found my way back to home. Perhaps, that is what Urek truly desires. Not simply the Outside, but the memories of home. And now I'm just a traveler without a world to call home, interfering in stories that were never my own, for my own selfish indulgence. Although it may seem as if I am merely trading one cage for another each time, until I find the exit...I've learned to value the journey itself...the story...more than achieving the goal."
Again, I altered my history a bit, implying that I couldn't freely travel to different worlds without finding some sort of exit before I could use my power.
The residents of the Tower had no concept of what the Outside was like, or of the multiverse. Each floor was practically a world of its own. So to them, the Tower was their world, and the Irregulars came from outside that world, whether by some kind of power or luck. So simply being able to cross worlds wasn't that special or different from other Irregulars, without any further context.
But one fact was certain-nobody could leave the Tower. Just because an Irregular had the ability to enter the Tower did not mean they could exit. Urek Mazino was known to have entered the Tower deliberately to track down Phantaminum, but he was trapped like everyone else. Any method to leave would be highly coveted.
The point here was that there was no need to give any hint that I had the power to leave the Tower myself. Nor was I even certain of that, because I hadn't tested the spell here yet.
"So you obtained a power belonging to the gods. The power to edit what has already been written."
"That makes me sound far more powerful than I am. I'm not that different from you. I can't change the past. I can only try to change the future, just like any other mortal."
"Guides don't fight fate, nor can we."
I turned to look at her again. "Aren't you fighting it already? By talking to me?"
She turned to me as well. "Am I? Or is this just a script of your revision?"
I took off my visor, revealing my eyes that stared directly into her own, to add emphasis and a show of sincerity. "If this were my script, you'd be the heroine, and I'd be your secret love interest. Am I?"
"…" She smiled lightly without breaking eye contact. "If it's a secret, then I'd be breaking script if I told you now." Then she turned back towards the balcony. "You should leave before Miss Androssi comes by, Mr. Axion."
"Thanks for the warning, and the interesting conversation, Miss Hwaryun," I said, turning away as well, putting my visor back on.
I was no closer to understanding her motivations, but it had been a thought-provoking discussion, and I at least learned a little about her worldview.
Just when my hand reached the doorknob, Hwaryun's voice stopped me again.
"That thing inside you…it has a power like that of an Administrator's. It's insignificant compared to the Administrators, but its nature is fundamentally similar."
I turned around to look at her, but she was still looking out the balcony, facing away from me.
My mind immediately went to the water stone and the spirits within. They were the ones that absorbed the Shinsoo after all.
Before I could ruminate further, she continued. "By the way, when you confess to a girl, at least bring her a rose. I want a flower of Zygaena though."
"I see. Thank you, Hwaryun. I'll keep that in mind if I see one," I said.
The flower of Zygaena was something rare that only grew on a specific Floor that I couldn't recall but which the Yeon family, one of the Ten Great Families, tightly controlled. It was extremely difficult to acquire, and was involved in one of the floor tests Baam would participate in years down the line.
Did she actually want the flower, or was that a hint for me to interfere in that test, or another one that may involve the flower? The details behind that test escaped me, so for now, I couldn't determine what relevance it might have for me.
Putting it in the back of my mind, I returned to my own room while the hall was still empty.
Only after I sat down to meditate again did I realize that Hwaryun had actually answered my question from earlier. By professing a desire for the flower of Zygaena, she was implying that she did have her own desires, and was not content to just Guide other people.
O O O
A/N: Yuga's such a helpful teacher. And Hwaryun's comments might lead to interesting things farther down the line. Unfortunately I won't be able to continue the pace of updates over the last half year or so. Things have gotten a lot busier IRL and I've run out of buffer drafts as the next part has been harder to write. On that topic I'd like to ask...after the tests of floor 2 are done (still have a couple more to go), should the story continue in ToG and show some more floors (which would have to be original content), or use timeskips and/or move to another world until we get back to a plot-relevant floor later down the line? Time passes very slowly in ToG, there's something like a 20 year gap between Season 1 and 2, and the canon skipped a lot of floors. I might even make time pass differently here.
Frescko: The 43rd floor will definitely be very interesting for the MC, for many reasons. There could be a lot of exciting interactions. He can't suck up all the Shinsoo though, that isn't really how the process works. The water spirits aren't limited by the Administrators, they're limited by their own capacity/willingness to take in more Shinsoo. As for collecting samples, he'll be doing that whenever he can.
Theorist01: It's separate from him. He carries around a copy in an actual portable computing device, but it's networked with his AR visor systems.
Frescko: He might be able to, but he'd never willingly do that except in exceptional circumstances. As far as I know, Demi-Servants are usually controlled by the Servant spirit, or at least they can exert significant influence/fight for control. I would say that MHA biological powers would be overpowered if they were purely biological. It would be excessive to get hundreds of powers by taking some of their DNA and bringing it to Amelia. So if we do go there, I would have to introduce some other limitations to keep it reasonable (and manageable so I don't need to keep track of a hundred powers).
Darkest Creed: Well said.
Guest: Thanks. He might go there. Or a similar world. I definitely want to do an "Isekai" game world setting at some point.
cengland: I did do quite a bit of research before I came up with those numbers. I didn't find anything to suggest that nuclear bombs have become a lot more efficient with regards to radiation and light vs. heat and pressure waves since the original ones, and I used online tools to calculate the area that the 5kt bomb would cover in terms of the direct fireball, light, and shockwaves that reached the main continent. I guess it could still be wrong, but if it is, it's far from readily available information on the internet.
