I Possessed a Game Where I Die If I Don’t Clear the Tower - Chapter 26

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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 26. The Second Conquest
I lay myself down upon a bed stuffed not with straw, but with horsehair, and draped in linen.
The moment I pulled the plush woolen blanket over myself, my body seemed to melt away into blissful comfort.
I burrowed deeper into the blanket, my thoughts drifting lazily.
‘Today… it was fun…’
When the Lord suddenly commanded me to become his knight, my vision had gone dark.
Even the Commander who brought me to the Knight Order Training Grounds seemed displeased.
He sighed heavily, muttering things like “What on earth is the Lord thinking…” and my heart had pounded frantically.
I was terrified that if I made a mistake here, I wouldn’t merely return to being a maid—I’d be cast out entirely.
‘But the Commander… he treated me so incredibly well.’
I received praise simply for running.
It was my first time being complimented for carrying heavy things.
‘The senior knights were all wonderful too…’
They all told me I was a remarkable genius, the kind that appears once a decade.
When I worked as a maid, I heard nothing but insults—idiot, fool, mongrel.
The best part was being able to eat my fill at every meal.
They even gave me meat, and treats with sugar in them.
I had my own private room, and was generously provided with clothes and shoes.
‘The older sisters became so kind too.’
The maids who never even made eye contact with me before now brought me washing water and cleaned my room.
They said I’d receive wages going forward.
They mentioned it was in place of the fiefs other regional knights received, and that housing would be provided as well, but honestly, it was too complicated and I couldn’t understand half of it.
As a maid, I’d never received a single coin, so I didn’t even know what to do with a salary.
‘Oh, now that I think about it… my wages… weren’t they supposed to have existed from the beginning?’
When I asked the senior knights, they said the previous Head Maid had been embezzling the wages of orphan maids like me, which is why I’d never received any money.
The moment the Lord found out, he arrested her and threw her in prison.
Then the senior knights started discussing something difficult for me to understand among themselves.
‘Hard labor instead of burning or hanging? That’s not like the Lord at all.’
‘Right? And the way he’s suddenly been so kind to our Commander too, it’s like he’s become a different person…’
But then the Commander scolded them severely for speaking carelessly about the Lord, and they all scattered.
He told me too that I shouldn’t think unnecessary thoughts—I just needed to listen well to the Lord’s words.
The problem was that even this ‘listening well’ was far too difficult for me.
‘I’m stupid, so I make more mistakes and errors than others…’
What would happen if I committed a serious mistake or crime against the Lord?
Would I end up in prison too?
‘What should I do? I can’t sleep.’
Tomorrow I have to go to The Tower with the Lord.
If I end up dozing off in The Tower, it’ll truly be the end.
This won’t do. I need to take at least one lap around the Training Grounds.
Restless and tossing about, I suddenly sprang up from my bed.
Wearing only a robe, she yanked the door open.
The corridor was empty at this late hour….
“Sir Shumel.”
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
Nol shrieked upon suddenly seeing a Maid in a linen dress calling out to him.
A ghost? Or a demon?
He clenched his fists to strike down whatever it was, but the Maid opened her mouth.
“Sir Shumel, it is I. Aisha Kandisha.”
“Eh… Wh-what? The Lord’s Maid?”
“Yes.”
The Maid answered with an expressionless face and offered out a tray.
Upon accepting it without thinking, he found a mug of warm milk and a plate of cookies studded with dried berries.
“Th-this is…?”
“The Lord sent it. She said that when tension keeps you from sleeping, it is good to fill your stomach a little before bed.”
“…Y-yes, th-thank you?”
It was a kindness he could never have imagined. Stammering in bewilderment, he answered, and Aisha merely nodded once before withdrawing.
Her demeanor was somewhat cold.
But for Nol, who now held the cookies and milk, it mattered not at all.
His heart warmed as much as the heated milk.
‘The L-Lord… perhaps she is a good person after all?’
Come to think of it, the Lord had never once scolded him.
Even when he made foolish mistakes or insisted on fighting more, she had stroked his head, had she not?
‘A little, actually quite a lot… terribly frightening, but no. The Lord is a good person. She must be.’
Clutching the tray, Nol fortified himself with affirmation as he thought.
Perhaps tomorrow’s expedition would bring him closer to the Lord, and he would cease to fear her.
‘Yes, it will surely be so!’
“Go, Nol. You should be able to hunt a Named of the 2nd Floor on your own.”
“…M-me, a-alone?”
“Then who else would you go with? Now fight.”
Cancelled.
The Lord was indeed merciless and pitiless.
There was no other reason she would send Nol alone before a colossal rat nearly two meters tall.
‘U-ugh….’
Nol whimpered as he raised his shield and mace.
The Ratman—a giant rat standing on two legs—was ordinarily terrifying, but the Lord was truly terrifying.
Yet he lacked the courage to strike first.
He could only hesitate and stand his ground.
[Grrrrrrgh!]
Thinking itself underestimated, the giant rat snarled and charged.
A club more akin to a log than a weapon aimed for the crown of Nol’s head.
She reflexively raised her shield to deflect the cudgel, then swung her mace with all her might against the giant rat’s leg bone.
Crack!
[Screeeech!]
A sound like a cannon exploding erupted as the giant rat’s ankle bent at a grotesque angle and it collapsed.
“Ugh…!”
The startled Nol struck the giant rat again with her shield.
Crack!
Another cannon-like blast accompanied the opposite leg shattering. A shriek followed.
[Screech, squeal!]
The rat, realizing the small girl was actually a monster, crawled backward on its haunches in retreat.
Nol finally came to her senses.
Or rather, she realized it a step too late.
‘Huh… this is manageable?’
It was somewhat more durable than the knights who shattered with a single strike, but when hit with full force, it broke apart just the same.
[Grrrrrowwwl…]
Even as fear gripped it, the creature did not abandon its killing intent.
But Nol was not particularly frightened.
She knew well what would happen if she struck it a few more times with all her strength.
“L-Lord, um, will we need materials?”
Nol, having regained something resembling composure, asked the Lord cautiously.
Camilia pondered briefly before answering calmly.
“…Training takes priority. For now, do as you wish.”
I had heard that the byproducts left by Named Monsters were extraordinarily rare, yet the Lord was permitting their waste.
‘Perhaps the Lord truly is… frightening but kind?’
Holding onto this surge of joy, Nol resolved to give it her absolute all.
So she gripped her mace with every ounce of strength she possessed.
“I-I-I got it! The rat! D-did I do well!”
Camilia gazed upon the corpse of the Named Monster, now a blood-soaked rag, and thought.
‘Can this really be called catching it…?’
It had been nearly two meters in size, yet now it had shriveled to no larger than a tattered carpet fragment.
Somewhat—in fact, rather excessively—frightened, but Camilia decided to conduct herself as befitted a Lord.
Which meant patting the blood-drenched Nol’s head while offering praise.
“Well done. You faced it with admirable courage.”
“Y-yes, I tried my best!”
Receiving more praise than expected, Nol broke into a radiant smile.
Camilia brushed away the long, pale-gray entrails clinging to her hair, then gestured to Netanel.
The perceptive priest immediately unfurled a miracle of purification, cleanly removing the filth from both their bodies.
“Let us move on.”
“Yes, Lord.”
Rohengreen, who had quickly gathered the only salvageable material—the magic stones—took the lead.
Camilia began explaining to Nol, who had stuck close to her side for protection.
“We are currently heading toward the Staircase. Do you remember what the Staircase is?”
“Y-yes! I remember! It’s the Gate that lets us go to the upper and lower floors, and we call it the ‘Staircase’!”
“Correct.”
Camilia handed over a piece of candy as praise.
Today’s objective was to acclimate the party to floor exploration and combat.
As a bonus, she was also conducting supplementary lessons about The Tower on the fly.
Knowing that trying to teach Nol—whose intelligence was a mere 6—by sitting him down would be largely futile, Camilia had opted for on-site immersion learning tailored to his needs.
“Now, Nol. Let us review once more.”
“Y-yes, ma’am!”
“Entering The Tower is only possible by passing through a Gate, but there are two ways to exit. What are they?”
“Y-you can exit through the Gate at each floor’s entrance, or you can open the ‘temporary Gate’ in the Safe Zones scattered throughout the floor!”
“Precisely. Well answered. Since you got it right consecutively, I shall increase your reward.”
Camilia withdrew two pieces of candy from her inventory and placed them in Nol’s hands.
“If you answer correctly next time, you shall receive four.”
“…!”
Whether the magic of incentive had melted away his fear and dread, Nol’s eyes gleamed with genuine determination.
“I-I’m ready to answer…!”
Camilia posed her question with a stern, solemn expression.
“Very well. Then I ask: how does one activate the ‘temporary Gate’ in the Safe Zone on each floor?”
After having explained it several times, Nol answered without difficulty.
“By paying with mana stones! And—and after using it, w-we have to pay silver coins too. Because all the relics inside The Tower belong to the Lord!”
Camilia readily handed over four pieces of candy.
“In truth, there is one more method to exit The Tower besides those two ways.”
She gestured with her chin toward Rohengreen Ashen, who was walking at the front of the group, as she explained.
“Rohengreen Ashen and Netanel Fragma have already experienced it.”
Rohengreen Ashen, who had been staring intently as if fascinated during their conversation, answered belatedly.
“Pardon? Are you referring to me?”
Rohengreen Ashen, flustered by the sudden question, soon realized what she meant and let out a small exclamation.
He was recalling the day he had entered to close the seal on Floor 1.
When Camilia finished the re-sealing, a Gate remarkably opened in that very spot.
And it was a Gate connected to outside The Tower.
“…A Gate does open inside the Seal Chamber as well.”
“T-the Seal Chamber?”
“It refers to the place where the ‘Evil’ that I sealed away in The Tower long ago lies dormant.”
The First Lord had sealed away all the world’s ‘Evil’ into The Tower to protect humanity.
However, the ‘Evil’ were all extraordinarily powerful entities, and even while sealed, they exerted influence within The Tower.
The monsters that existed on each floor, endlessly regenerating, were also a consequence of this ‘Evil’.
As she conveyed this compressed explanation, fear rose in Nol’s expression.
“B-but even though it’s sealed, it keeps creating monsters… Is s-such a thing even possible?”
“The Tower is this world and yet not this world—that is why such things occur.”
As we exchanged questions and answers one by one, the party finally arrived before the Seal Chamber.
Just as the 1st Floor door bore the marks of re-sealing, thick and unyielding chains wound around the 2nd Floor entrance as well.
Dozens upon dozens of magical circles hovered above it, glowing with a soft luminescence.
“This is… the Seal Chamber.”
Nol swallowed hard and retreated backward.
He had instinctively felt the overwhelming pressure it emanated.
I started to reassure Camilia that it was sealed for now, then hesitated.
【Why is the Lord of Nidst… why is that monster here?】
A wave of thought, transmitted from somewhere, flowed into my mind through the Mind Reading I had kept active as a precaution.
A very sharp and hostile wavelength.

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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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