I Possessed a Game Where I Die If I Don’t Clear the Tower - Chapter 25

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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 25. Preparation for Strategy
Nol opened her eyes in less than three turns—less than three minutes.
“Did I… did I lose consciousness? Did I lose?”
Camilia moistened her throat with honey tea that Aisha, her maid, offered her before answering.
“You did.”
I thought she would feel relieved that there was no need to fight further, but Nol’s reaction was the complete opposite of what I expected.
The flushed girl clenched and unclenched her fists repeatedly as if to suppress her anger, then spoke defiantly.
“C-can’t we just try one more time?”
‘Oh?’
When Rohengreen was going on about the heart of a beast and such, I thought she should be kept at a moderate level, but she had more guts and competitive spirit than I’d anticipated.
Camilia quickly signaled to Netanel.
The half-elf priest exhaled a long sigh, examined Nol’s body in various places, and determined there was nothing wrong.
The moment those words left his mouth, Nol sprang to her feet, picked up her axe, and climbed onto the Duel Arena.
Rohengreen glanced at Camilia’s expression before approaching Nol.
The way he whispered seemed as though he were imparting combat tips against sorcerers.
Finding it amusing, Netanel also whispered into Camilia’s ear.
“It seems the Knight Order commander is breaking the rules?”
“How pathetic.”
Camilia, befitting a wicked sorcerer lord, made such a remark before climbing onto the Duel Arena herself.
Nol took a deep breath and assumed her stance.
Rohengreen must have given her good instruction—she was now much closer than before.
Close enough that a swing of her arm would let the axe graze my body.
Her body was already bent forward, as if she intended to charge the moment we began.
‘So she’s planning to use her mobility to land the first strike. How adorable.’
Better than before, but her moves were still transparent.
She’d already been defeated once, yet she insisted on a direct confrontation?
‘Well, I suppose she’ll have to take another hit.’
Camilia gestured to Rohengreen.
The knight cleared his throat and raised his hand.
“I will count to three, and then we shall begin. One, two… three!”
The moment his declaration fell, Nol charged forward.
An ordinary mage would certainly have taken at least one hit.
But as I mentioned before, the Sorcerer’s spell-casting speed is the fastest among all casters.
‘Enchant.’
Among them, I chose ‘Enchant’—the fastest of all.
Unlike ‘Dominate’, which requires issuing a command after casting, ‘Enchant’ is an instant-cast skill.
Upon casting, affection for the caster blooms within the target, rendering them unable to attack.
Nol, who had charged straight ahead and taken the spell head-on, froze without even managing to swing her axe.
“M-my lord, y-you’re so incredibly beautiful.”
She continued to murmur dreamily, not forgetting to express her admiration.
“Thank you, Shusu.”
Camilia smiled and answered her praise, then lightly touched her cheek.
“Would you strike your own head with your axe handle for me?”
“Huh, yes, yes! I will!”
Shusu didn’t hesitate and brought her axe handle down hard against her own head.
Crack!
The sound of a firecracker echoed once more.
The result was equally predictable.
“I, I want to try again! I want to fight again!”
True to form, Shusu awoke after three minutes, her face and neck flushed crimson as she bounced with determination.
‘She’s just like my youngest sibling.’
My youngest brother, who had pursued elite athletics, would cry his heart out every time he lost a match.
His spirits were so high that he’d bounce around for an entire month afterward—it was exhausting just watching him.
But his coach and our parents didn’t mind. They said an athlete without competitive spirit was as good as dead.
‘Or perhaps Shusu is even more remarkable than my youngest.’
Unlike my brother, who had walked the path of elite athletics with every support imaginable, Shusu had lived her entire life under oppression, pushed around and trampled.
Submission had become not merely expected but a virtue.
Yet to see her competitive spirit not just surviving but thriving meant her innate nature was extraordinary.
Perhaps the beast’s heart that Rohengreen spoke of was real after all.
“Fighting again isn’t difficult, but if you don’t know the countermeasure, you’ll lose again.”
When I posed this as a test, Shusu, her face still flushed, pondered for a long moment before asking.
“A, a countermeasure? If I know that, can I beat you, my lord?”
Camilia smiled faintly and spoke with certainty.
“No. At your current level, you couldn’t defeat me even if you died and came back.”
“….”
Shusu’s face fell, but reality doesn’t change even with tears.
If a level-three Sorcerer Knight couldn’t beat someone with just raw stats and nothing else, I should quit the game.
“An employer who teases children so cruelly is rather harsh, don’t you think?”
Unable to watch a veteran mercilessly crush a novice any longer, Netanel interjected.
“Sixteen hardly qualifies as a child.”
Netanel smiled wryly and joked.
“At my age or yours, sixteen is definitely a child. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Though Netanel appeared boyish in form, as a half-elf his actual age was seventy. There was nothing strange about calling Shusu a child.
Camilia was about to brush off the joke in kind when Shusu murmured and spoke again.
“Even if I think I’ll lose… couldn’t I try one more time…?”
Her eyes glistened with tears and she seemed somewhat subdued, yet there was no trace of fear in her demeanor.
‘She’s truly full of surprises.’
I wanted to argue with the designer who wrote her character description. How could someone like this be called an ordinary girl?
Camilia reached out and gently brushed through Shusu’s disheveled hair as she spoke.
“Are you not afraid of me?”
Shusu tilted her head in confusion, apparently unaware that the lord was patting her on the head, and asked back.
“Y-yes?”
“I used magic to control you, yet you weren’t frightened or afraid?”
At her words, Shusu cocked her head and opened her mouth slightly.
“S-should I have been scared…?”
Then she added under her breath, “Well, the lord is scary enough just as she is…”
She seemed startled by her own words and immediately clapped her hand over her mouth.
Camilia smiled gently once more at the girl nervously watching for her reaction.
‘I suspected as much, but she really isn’t frightened.’
Most humanoid races show resistance when confronted with mind magic.
The few exceptions that fall outside of ‘most’ are these.
Evil entities, those with mental problems, or alternatively, those with both Intelligence and Wisdom stats of 10 or below.
One could accept the first two cases.
As for the last case… I’ll let the developers’ answer from the community Q&A board speak for itself: “If Intelligence and Wisdom are both 10 or below, why doesn’t mind magic work? Is it because they’re stupid?”
└ oh, You really hit the nail on the head! 🙂
‘Our Shusu isn’t stupid—she’s courageous. She has potential for growth. Right.’
In any case, wasn’t it a good thing that she wasn’t afraid?
How rare was a companion character who witnessed mind magic, even experienced it firsthand, yet didn’t lose loyalty? Why would I nitpick about such things?
Camilia smiled warmly and patted the girl’s head.
“If you wish to learn how to fight Casters, I’ll spar with you often from now on. The Castle has no shortage of mages worth fighting besides me. It will be helpful.”
Shusu, who had been watching nervously, carefully lowered the hand covering her mouth when it became clear Camilia had no intention of scolding her, and asked.
“Then… w-won’t we be fighting anymore today, my lord?”
“That’s right.”
Camilia added for the disappointed Shusu.
“However, we will conduct training in preparation for entering The Tower.”
“T-training?”
When she explained that they would learn to fight in formation with someone playing the role of a monster, Shusu’s eyes lit up with excitement.
“B-but who will play the monster?”
“Aren’t there those here who owe the High Priest a great debt?”
She meant to mobilize the knights.
Netanel Fragma grumbled that he had done the work, so why should the lord benefit, but he didn’t object.
Rohengreen Ashen was the same. If anything, he seemed pleased.
I had vaguely thought this from the moment I started pitting Shusu and the knights against each other, but I was a superior who drove her subordinates mercilessly.
“Since there seem to be no objections, I shall summon the knights at once. Aisha.”
“Yes, my lord. I shall obey.”
Of course, Camilia was hardly one to talk about such things.

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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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