Chapter 133 - A Solution

“Hmm-hmm-hmm.”

Jetoson, a merchant of the Golden Moon Trading Company, brewed coffee while humming as he always did. He savored its bitter yet fragrant aroma.

“You really do have to live long enough to see what life brings.”

Wasn't there a saying about how misfortune could turn into good fortune?

Back when he ran a small magic shop in Akan, he had tricked a dim-looking dwarf into buying defective merchandise at an exorbitant price. It would have been fine if that had been the end of it, but he was caught—and the dwarf happened to be a princess of Berft.

Naturally, all hell broke loose. He barely escaped with his life, but was expelled from the trading association.

But necessity opened a way, and he managed to find employment here, at the Golden Moon Trading Company.

His life now was actually better than before. Unlike those days when he lived hand to mouth, enormous bonuses rolled in according to his performance.

'Still, what is this trading company really about?'

At first, he had traveled all over the continent buying elf slaves. Once that was done, he began purchasing all manner of ores and minerals: copper, manganese, iron, orichalcum, mithril, even mana stones.

Who knew where the money came from, but the purchases never stopped. No matter how he looked at it, their expenses exceeded their earnings. Yet they seemed to have no intention of selling any of it. It was an odd contradiction.

'Well, as long as I get paid.'

His job was to bargain as hard as possible and drive prices down. Part of the money saved was paid to him as a bonus, so it was a win-win.

KNOCK, KNOCK

“Mr. Jetoson. I've brought today's newspaper.”

“Thank you.”

“You're very welcome.”

The lovely elf smiled, her eyes crinkling. Her freshness brought a smile to his own lips.

She was one of the slaves he had purchased, but so what? She was beautiful, kindhearted, and good at her job, and she had since been freed and become a commoner. Perhaps it was only natural that he harbored some less-than-innocent intentions toward her.

“Let's have a look.”

Jetoson cleared his throat and slowly unfolded the newspaper. Reading the kingdom's daily morning paper was part of his routine.

“Hm?”

He frowned as he opened it. Normally, the newspaper contained a mix of assorted stories, but today it focused heavily on a single piece of news.

【Martin Jespine, Third Prince of the Jespine Empire: “At Last, We Have Found the Tower of Hellfire...”】

【Prince Belof Korzen of the Kingdom of Korzen: “I Am Delighted to Have the Honor of Discovering This Scourge of Humanity...”】

【The Allied Forces of Jespine and Korzen Suffer Enormous Losses, but Finally Find the Tower...】

【The Tower of Hellfire: Its Location, According to the Imperial Prince and Royal Prince...】

【The Tower of Hellfire Everyone Has Wondered About—Not at the Summit After All?】

【Where Is the Great Hero Dafner Philiain? Behind the Glory of Success Lies...】

【The Search Party That Risked Their Lives to Find the Tower—At Its Heart Was Dafner Philiain...】

Page after page, it was the same.

【Watton Collo and His Raiding Party, the Golden Shield, Rescue Gaina's Third Prince. Is the Adamant Tower Following Bitter Cold's Example? Where Was the Third Prince...?】

【The Demon King of Carnal Desire in the Pirate Archipelago—Signs of Collusion with the Pirates?】

Those were about the only other stories he could scrape together.

“The world's going to hell. I know those pirate bastards stop at nothing, but they're actually getting into bed with a Demon King?”

He clicked his tongue and turned his thoughts back to the Demon King of Hellfire.

“... The Tower of Hellfire, huh.”

Not long ago, the Empire had launched a publicity campaign announcing its search for the Tower of Hellfire. Hadn't they vowed to find it by joining forces with three northern countries?

The Korzen search had attracted even more attention when the Empire's Third Prince, Hillen Cargill, and even Dafner Philiain joined it.

The entire continent had been abuzz, and Jetoson had taken an interest too—so he could sell them supplies. He had eventually given up when he heard that the trading companies directly affiliated with the Empire and the respective countries had stepped in.

“But they really succeeded?”

Even as he wondered hopefully whether it was possible, he had kept failure in mind. Two previous attempts to find the Tower of Hellfire had already failed.

But that pattern had now been broken.

“That Demon King of Hellfire, or whatever he's called, is finished now.”

The Empire was itching for revenge. If he wanted to hide, he should have kept himself hidden to the end.

“Well, it's none of my business.”

Even if he wanted to supply them, the Empire left no room for foreign trading companies to get involved in its hero's journey.

Jetoson shrugged.

“This Demon King caused quite a stir at first, but now he's just going to disappear.”

He turned to the next page.

“Damn it. All that business, and I can't touch it.”

But from beginning to end, the paper contained nothing but stories about the Demon King of Hellfire and Dafner Philiain. Irritated, he crumpled it up and tossed it into the trash.

* * *

“... What kind of nonsense is that?”

Berge gave an incredulous laugh.

For the first time since his regression and his descent into Arain, he had unleashed everything he had. He had wrung out even the power that dimensional interference did not permit him to use, producing tremendous destructive force—but an equally tremendous shock had struck him in return.

That backlash had knocked him unconscious.

Just before he passed out, he had entrusted Ernyan with a request: make certain Dafner Philiain died.

When he woke, she said she had fulfilled that request. Dafner Philiain was dead.

So he had felt relieved. Then why...

“Am I hearing this fucking bullshit about the tower's location being exposed?”

『“... It couldn't be helped.”』

『“Before you killed Dafner Philiain, he had already handed a recording orb containing the tower's location to Korzen's prince. All his close aides had seen it too.”』

『“I couldn't ask them to bury it at that point, and I couldn't exactly kill them all, could I?”』

It was an obvious point. Once he started killing to silence them, he would have to wipe out the entire Kingdom of Korzen. Even if he could do that, how would the world view it if only the imperial troops returned alive afterward?

But things looked different when you were the one suffering the unfair consequences of that perfectly reasonable logic.

After everything he had done to hide the tower. After all the effort he had put in.

Berge summoned Ernyan.

“Didn't you say you'd taken care of it perfectly?”

“... I thought I had.”

After burying the Demon King in the snow, she had immediately infused the steam with magical power. Then she had found Dafner Philiain.

There had been people near him as he wandered through it, but she had kept him from meeting them. Until she found Hillen Cargill and brought him over, Dafner had wandered alone, time after time—dozens upon dozens of times.

That was why she had thought it was perfect.

Yet he had recorded the tower's location and handed it to Korzen's prince before she intervened. Who could have imagined it?

All in that brief interval while Ernyan buried Berge and began to act.

“... I'm sorry.”

“... No, forget it. As you said, you did your best.”

Anger surged through him. But worry outweighed it.

'What do I do now?'

The Empire would soon descend upon him. And would it stop at the Empire? Hilderan had been biding its time for ages.

The dizzying sight of a hero's journey numbering in the thousands attacking his tower rose before his eyes. Stars including Balaf Dislord, Roselle Charnt, Ralph Schmitz, and Gillian Aint entered the tower at the forefront.

'Fire!'

'Wipe them all out! Keh-heh-heh-heh!'

The dwarf's cries echoed like an auditory hallucination. Hundreds of mana cannons spewed fire.

But Ralph Schmitz's shield held firm. Balaf Dislord's sword crushed everything in its path. The hero's journey suffered heavy losses from the surprise attack, but Berge simply could not picture those heroes being wiped out by mere mana cannons.

The cannons were intended to eliminate large numbers, after all, not a powerful few.

'Behold this mighty golem made of orichalcum!'

Next, the golems appeared, and another brawl ensued. The result, naturally, was defeat.

The heroes who broke through the first floor climbed to the second. The chimera legion created by Lavinia Akan greeted them.

'Your Highness?'

'Hm?'

'What are you doing?!'

'... Making things?'

'Good heavens. You're helping the Demon King.'

'A deal.'

'Deal, my ass. Right now... Haah.'

He pictured that exchange between the vacant-looking Lavinia and Roselle Charnt.

The heroes were furious that a princess was helping a Demon King, but Roselle Charnt's defense of her and her status as Akan's princess barely saved her life.

Then came the third floor. It would be empty. Having Elena and Kaede fight alongside the elves on the fourth floor offered slightly better odds than leaving either of them alone on the third.

And then, the fourth floor.

'Welcome to the Demon King's tower, everyone. I am the Dark Spirit Summoner, one of the Four Heavenly Kings who serve my lord.'

Hilderan's princess would keep smiling even in that crisis.

'... I am the Dark Knight, a knight in my lord's service.'

At Ernyan's urging, Kaede would also play the part of a Heavenly King. Having sworn her loyalty, she would fight hard, at least, given her disposition.

Elena was grateful to Berge too, so she would do her best.

But the disparity in strength was overwhelming. They would lose in the end, and the heroes would capture the princesses and return them to their respective countries.

'... Your Highness? Good heavens.'

'... Right now, I am the Dark Spirit Summoner.'

'Why are you helping the Demon King?!'

'Everyone has their own circumstances.'

And their transgressions would be quietly buried, for the honor of their countries.

Berge wondered whether he should be on the fourth floor or at the top in that situation. But it made little difference. He could not picture a victory either way.

The tower he had designed was still incomplete to begin with. Its effectiveness depended on introducing variables the humans would not anticipate. Against overwhelming forces capable of crushing all of them, everything became meaningless.

'... ...'

His mind went blank. No suitable alternative came to him.

“... Lord.”

“... My lord.”

“... My lord, are you all right?”

Ah.

Ernyan's voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

“... What did you say?”

The connection was still open, and Martin was waiting for an answer.

『“For now, since we're in the same boat, I'll try to delay the Empire's hero's journey as long as possible.”』

『“Can you stop Hilderan in the meantime?”』

Facing the Empire and Hilderan separately would certainly be much easier than facing them together.

“Do you have a way?”

『“The only thing that comes to mind immediately is my injuries, but with some thought, there should be other options.”』

Finding the tower did not mean a hero's journey would begin immediately. It was possible to delay the preparations and impose restrictions.

“Then I'll leave it to you.”

The connection ended. Berge summoned everyone in the tower to the fifth floor.

“What do you think we should do?”

“I'll blast every last one of them to pieces with the mana cannons!”

The firepower fanatic answered as he always did.

“If the Third Prince holds the Empire back, that leaves Hilderan.”

“Yes.”

Jespine could wait. First, they had to stop Hilderan.

“As Hilderan's Crown Princess, how do you think Hilderan will respond?”

“They'll give it everything they have.”

Hilderan's pride had suffered far too deep a wound. Its crown princess had been kidnapped, and even the hero's journey sent to rescue her had failed.

While the kingdom was still brooding over that failure, even its thirteenth princess had been kidnapped.

Hilderan's king had not forgotten that humiliation.

And above all...

“Father will do everything he can to rescue me.”

His excessive obsession with Ernyan had never cooled. He would try to rescue her by any means, at any cost.

“Then it will be more powerful than Hillen Cargill's hero's journey.”

“Yes. Since there was already a failure, he'll want to make even more certain this time.”

If there was any good news, it was that Hillen Cargill was one of Hilderan's most dependable assets.

“What if Hillen Cargill betrays them midway?”

Hillen would inevitably be a central figure in Hilderan's hero's journey. What if he deliberately led the expedition into a trap and annihilated it?

“That would be unwise.”

Gordon objected.

“Hillen Cargill is extremely important to your plans at present, my lord. We've narrowly avoided exposing our relationship so far, but if everyone except him dies, he will inevitably come under suspicion.”

Only one survivor? No matter how strong Hillen Cargill was, he could not escape suspicion.

Yet leaving several others alive alongside him would create a high risk of his betrayal being exposed.

Of course, protecting the tower mattered more than Hillen, but...

“We could only defeat them that way once or twice. And they certainly won't give up after one or two failures.”

“... No, they won't.”

Ultimately, a hero's journey had two central objectives: rescue the kidnapped royals and kill the Demon King.

Of the two, the former naturally took priority. Especially for Hilderan, whose crown princess had been kidnapped, there was no question.

'Wait a moment...'

Berge tilted his head.

“... Couldn't we just resolve the underlying problem that would bring Hilderan to the tower?”

“The underlying problem?”

“Yes. If we eliminate their reason for coming to the tower, Hilderan will no longer have to risk lives pursuing it so desperately.”

Wouldn't they naturally drop out?

“But if you mean their underlying reason...”

Ernyan's expression stiffened, as though she had realized something.

“Yes.”

“... You don't mean that, do you?”

“I probably mean exactly what you're thinking.”

Berge confirmed her suspicion.

“Ernyan Hilderan, Crown Princess of the Kingdom of Hilderan. It's time for you to return to your kingdom.”

“... You're...”

Ernyan's eyes trembled.

“Sending me back to the kingdom?”

Her voice turned cold.