Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 190

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 190. The Tower — The Princess of the Spire Tower (7)

I’d gathered rather interesting information from the Demon-kin I’d freed.
This fortress held vast quantities of military supplies in preparation for war against the humans.
This territory had once belonged to humans before the Demon-kin seized it.
In other words, it was a border region—the frontlines, actually—making it a poor choice for storing massive quantities of strategic materials.
If they lost this fortress, those enormous supplies would fall directly into human hands.
Yet the fact that vast quantities of military supplies were here *now* meant two things.
First, the Demon-kin had already finished war preparations with the humans and were lulling them into complacency, planning to surge forward so rapidly that this fortress would become their rear lines.
Soldiers could move quickly over short distances, but heavy materials could not—so strategically, supplies had been quietly accumulated here over time, anticipating this place would serve as their rear position.
Second, the Demon-kin had never intended to kidnap the princess.
If this abduction had been premeditated, they would never have brought her to a location where strategic materials were stockpiled.
The princess arriving at this fortress would have been awkward and bewildering from the Demon-kin’s perspective.
So why was the princess here at all?
The answer to that question could solve the mystery I’d felt before entering this fortress.
Why hadn’t the Demon-kin simply assassinated the princess instead of kidnapping her?
Assassination would’ve been far simpler.
From these two questions, I reached a single conclusion.
“If my reasoning is correct, this is absolutely ridiculous and utterly absurd.”
The princess hadn’t been kidnapped.
The princess had run away from home.
And with the very Demon-kin I’d just set free, no less.
Of course, my conclusion could be wrong.
By any rational standard, my theory should’ve been mistaken.
But there’s one truth I’ve learned from studying history: the thing most easily betrayed in this world is common sense itself.

* * *

Phelibroulea, the princess confined in a solitary cell at the apex of Spire Tower, gazed up at the sky through a window so narrow that barely a head could fit, and sighed.
“God, have I truly sinned so grievously?”
Phelibroulea had grown up surrounded by considerable affection since childhood.
Before she’d even learned to read, back when she was a runny-nosed child, she felt no doubt about that love.
She simply received love so naturally from those around her that they felt as constant as the air itself.
Even as she moved through her early years and received strict yet loving education, she noticed nothing amiss.
But as she grew older and began interacting with other children her age through social gatherings, she realized that the education she received was something different.
While other noble daughters learned courtly dances for social purposes and cultivated general refinement, the lovely Princess Phelibroulea was learning something entirely different.
It was clearly strange.
Once she recognized that strangeness, questions bloomed from every direction.
She learned martial arts that girls her age didn’t study—yet not for the purpose of becoming a knight or general like boys her age, but purely to keep her body healthy and strong.
In mathematics, languages, etiquette, and everything else, she was required not merely to understand, but to master the methods of teaching others as well.
And most of all, once her height had nearly reached an adult man’s waist, she began learning childcare—the art of raising infants.
How to soothe a crying baby, how to change diapers, how to bottle-feed, how to sing lullabies.
She felt as though she’d been born for the singular purpose of becoming a mother.
Not long after recognizing that strangeness, she learned of a Divine Oracle that had come down around the time of her birth.
“Phelibroulea is designated to be the Mother of the Hero.”
That revelation filled her with bitter betrayal and revulsion.
All the love she’d received had never been meant for her.
It was merely love directed at the child she would bear in the future.
Every bit of attention shown to her was never truly for her own sake.
She came to understand that no one saw her as an individual—they saw her as nothing more than a vessel, a cradle destined to bear a blessed child.
Once she perceived it that way, this world became intensely repugnant to her.
That was when she began slipping out secretly, deceiving everyone’s eyes.
Phelibroulea, designated as the Mother of the Hero, had received the finest education, supported by all the Human Kingdoms through the Holy Temple, transcending even Lamberton Kingdom.
Though that education focused heavily on methods of becoming someone’s mother, the finest education remained education nonetheless.
Over short periods, it wasn’t difficult to evade everyone’s notice; as she grew older, her secret outings became more frequent.
Then one day, during a routine secret excursion, she met a certain man.
Whenever she spoke with him, her heart grew lighter.
Because he didn’t know her true identity, he saw her for who she was—more genuinely than anyone else, even more than her own parents.
Perhaps that was why she could not help but fall in love with him.
As she carefully nurtured that pure love and continued their tender meetings, she made a small mistake.
An utterly ridiculous mistake that drew her into a dangerous accident, and the man who loved her revealed a secret he had wanted to hide from her alone—to protect her.
That he himself was Demon-kin.
Learning this truth, Phelibroulea felt betrayed, but she soon realized that even her sense of betrayal stemmed from the anti-Demon-kin ideology instilled by her parents and those around her, and she reached out to pull back the lover who was trying to distance himself.
Thus the two who loved each other fled in search of love, but this time it was the Demon-kin man’s identity that posed a problem.
Phelibroulea’s lover, Crobans, was a prince of the Demon-kin nation.
The more important one’s standing among the Demon-kin, the more one had to prove oneself worthy of a higher rank.
It was the same reason why princes in certain nations were required to complete mandatory military service or achieve distinguished deeds.
Naturally, the Demon-kin also had to take precautions for Crobans’s safety as their prince undertook a dangerous infiltration mission before the coming war, so they periodically confirmed his location through tracking magic without his knowledge.
Because of this, the Demon-kin prince Crobans, who had attempted to flee in search of love, was captured along with Phelibroulea, the human princess.
The Human Kingdoms too had worried whether Phelibroulea, who would one day become the Mother of the Hero, might be kidnapped.
So they had arranged to track her location the moment she left the capital, and it did not take long to discover that Phelibroulea had been taken by the Demon-kin.
“Please, let him be safe…”
Phelibroulea prayed for Crobans, her lover imprisoned because of her.

* * *

I was moving through the fortress using the Concealment technique I had diligently learned in the Galactic Martial Arts World when a tremendous boom echoed through the air.
Boom—!!
The explosion that followed the roar was so violent that even from this distance, the ground trembled as if shaken by an earthquake.
A High-Level Magic attack that appeared to reach Class 5 or so shredded the entire Security Magic protecting the city wall, and portions of it even collapsed.
But it seemed insufficient to bring down the wall entirely.
Could that magical power just now be Rachel?
Sure enough, a warning from Rachel came through the party chat.

-Rachel: I’m going to bombard it continuously from here on. Ji-woo, if you’re anywhere near the wall, get away.

After the warning, a series of explosions rang out roughly a minute later.
It seemed her calculation was that the first spell wouldn’t penetrate.
I thought she should have given the warning before the first attack, but thinking about it, Rachel had sent the attack and warning with the possibility in mind that I might be in combat.
An impact like this would force a temporary lull even during active fighting.
If she contacted me during that lull, fine—but if my attention were drawn to a message while I was supposed to be focusing on combat, I could be in danger.
But that magical power was far beyond what a mere one million Credits could produce.

-Lee Su-young: Wow, Rachel, that’s amazing. You got the prince to sign a Magic Contract and you’re absolutely bleeding him dry.
-Rachel: There’s no need to mention things like that.

Ah, so it was paid magic.
Just like Rachel.
The Magic Contract was an additional ability Rachel had received from The Tower, much like Fortune of Money.
Just as my Multidimensional Avatar came with additional abilities like Reincarnation, Three-Dimensional Avatar, and Avatar Customization.
Somehow, Rachel was already speaking casually to Lee Su-young.
I didn’t know if I’d forgotten because I’d been spending time in another world, or if they’d grown comfortable during conversations while I was gone.
We weren’t constantly together as a party either, and with Lee Su-young’s insane affability, it would be strange if she didn’t grow close to anyone who wasn’t utterly antisocial.
Still, drawing attention definitely seemed assured.
I could see Demon-kin soldiers moving urgently toward the wall.
“Let’s see, is it here?”
I headed toward the location I’d confirmed with Mage’s Eye.
Mage’s Eye was such a useful reconnaissance spell that few alternatives could replace it, but like a Class 1 spell, it had numerous drawbacks.
When operating multiple Mage’s Eyes, I had to adjust the movement of each eye individually, and their movement wasn’t particularly fast, which was frustrating.
Fortunately, the calculations and operation themselves weren’t difficult, and there was auxiliary magic for multi-operation, so there was no real problem.
But being such a simple spell, it was vulnerable to jamming in various ways.
Based on testimony from the Demon-kin I’d freed from the prison, I had deployed a total of one hundred Mage’s Eyes.
Forty of them disappeared into the Security Magic layered throughout the fortress.
Of the forty that vanished, fifteen of the Mage’s Eyes had been sent skyward to observe the entire fortress.
They seemed to have been caught by the magic meant to block external reconnaissance spells as they rose too high.
Twelve of the remaining twenty-five were caught by Security Magic while attempting to scan the fortress’s upper echelons, and seven were discovered and disabled by Demon-kin mages as I moved through the fortress.
Naturally, the Demon-kin mages who detected my Mage’s Eyes were alarmed and frantically began searching for me.
The last six had been caught by Security Magic as they approached a specific chamber, which was likely where the Demon-kin man had said the Military Supplies were stored.
I began methodically going through the nearest storerooms, one by one.
As befitted a critical facility, everything was locked, but I used my Sword Aura to slice through the weak points in the security magic—the spell shattered, and the door came apart.
“Wow, jackpot.”
Jackpot on the very first room.
Though the chamber wasn’t sprawling, it was packed with armor and weapons forged from Eternal Cold Iron, along with ingots for future refinement and even the world-specific Eternal Steel Refinement Mage Tools.
I drew out my Subspace Cube and grinned wide.
“A fool demon-kin who sold his kingdom for love. I love you.”
The demon-kin man I’d released must have told me about this critical cache precisely because he wanted me to wreak havoc here properly.
To steal these vital military supplies, I’d have to breach the security magic, and once it fell, the fortress’s upper ranks would be notified immediately.
He probably never imagined I’d have multiple Subspace Cubes—each so vast I could empty this entire room.
He likely thought I could manage only two or three Eternal Cold Iron blades at most.
Two or three Eternal Cold Iron swords would’ve been more than fair compensation for the distraction and the attention I’d draw.
The trouble is, I’m not the type of person to settle for so little.
Let me be clear: I may not be righteous, but I believe myself to be good.
Humans and demon-kin are at war right now.
If I leave these supplies untouched, the demon-kin will wage war on a far grander scale, and countless lives will be lost—human and demon-kin alike, without distinction.
As a good person, I cannot simply stand by and watch.
“So, Lord. Please grant me the blessing to be a righteous thief once more today.”
This is justified thievery in service of a noble cause—preventing war.
It has nothing to do with greed.
Though I’m a man, it’s time for me to become a righteous angel girl.

(To be continued in the next part)

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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