Chapter 383: The Nine Keys (1)

Chapter 383: The Nine Keys (1)

Snip.

Just like before, the scissors crossed in midair.

“So, are you heading straight to the hundredth floor?”

“Yes,” I replied, my reflection clear in the large glass window.

Over my shoulder, my orphanage director sighed, scissors in hand. “You could have rested longer before resuming your journey.”

“You sound like Hamustra. Or is it the other way around?”

“It’s true either way. When you spend so much time with someone else, you end up influencing each other.”

Hamustra, Kim Yul, and the director had spent plenty of time together in Cafe Planetarium. In time, it was inevitable that they would affect each other. Hamustra was no exception. It was the same for me and the Guardian. While I got my haircut, the Guardian waited beside me.

“Yes, I’m heading up straight away.”

“Alright.”

The director focused on my haircut.

“You’re a director again.”

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

The director frowned and coldly[1] replied, “Don’t say that because I manage the garden now. I don’t want to learn that the child I cared for has grown that way.”

I shrugged. “I wanted to help stop global warming[2].”

“This isn’t Earth, you know. About one hundred fifty years ago, a reporter asked a mountaineer a question.

Why do you want to climb Everest?

It’s easy to guess why the reporter asked that question. It was probably similar to why reporters rushed to ask Mr. Carlenbery why he wanted to enter the Tower just a few years ago.”

The director tilted his head.

“Why would someone who could live well for the rest of his life give up that kind of stability? Were you promised something for climbing it? What drives you to take on such a challenge? We just want to know. Tell us.

The climber simply answered that ‘Because it’s there.’”

“

Ah

, I’ve heard that story, too.”

“Yes. When I was your age, almost everyone knew it. There were many parodies of it, too. ‘I bought the game because it was there,’ or ‘I ordered the chicken because it was there.’ I remember many bad jokes that were going around.”

“I guess the Earth was already pretty hot back then.”

“It was around the time that global warming was in its full force.” The director snipped away the hair with his scissors. The loose strands scattered in the breeze.

“You’re telling me this now because you want to ask me why I aim for the hundredth floor, right?”

“No, Gong-Ja. I don’t want to ask that.” With his usual slight frown, the director quietly added, “It’s because you can afford to give away what you have.”

That remark was unexpected.

“Me?”

“You have such a fine home, don’t you?”

Like the director said, we were at my home. It wasn’t the Garden of Withered Flowers, but the mansion where I usually lived on the twentieth floor. It was one floor below the Garden of Withered Flowers, connected by my building’s stairs, physically speaking, but it was sixty floors below the holy ground within the Tower.

“You also have such a beautiful garden.”

There was a reason I chose to cut my hair at home and not in the holy ground. I intended to leave no soil, water, or anything that the flowers didn’t need in the garden. Thus, my cut hair mingled with dandelion seeds in my mansion yard, not the garden.

“Having a home means you have to protect it for yourself and your family. Having a flower garden means you can care for others beyond yourself and your family. If you take this challenge, you must have a good reason and something you can afford to spare.”

“Something I can afford to spare?”

“Only those who can afford to share can take on challenges.” The director’s voice blended with the sound of the scissors. “You wouldn’t call it a challenge when someone lost in the desert finally drinks from an oasis. No one would call it a challenge when a starving child eats a loaf of bread found on the road. It’s just struggling against whatever trial comes your way.”

“You’re right.”

“Only those with the luxury of letting go of what they have can prepare for something new. When people can accept themselves as they are, only then can they embrace others wholly. Only when people have everything ready can they truly take on a challenge. I don’t question someone who wants to take on more challenges.”

Snip.

“I question those who can’t do that.”

Snip.

“Why did that person end up wandering in the desert? Why was that child starving? Why?”

Why?

“So I don’t ask why Marcus Carlenbery or Shawn McCallister gave up everything to enter the Tower. Likewise, I don’t wonder why the Scream-Gathering Sky aims for the hundredth floor. I just wonder...” The director sighed. “... Why did the twenty-year-old Kim Gong-Ja enter the Tower? That’s the only question I keep asking myself.”

I turned my head to check my hair. “Because the Tower is here... How is that for an answer?”

“That climber ultimately failed to reach the top.”

Snip.

The feeling of the cold scissors touching my scalp made the hairs on the back of my neck rise.

“He stepped outside the tent during a blizzard and vanished. Not even his body was found, so his friends and family held a funeral with an empty coffin. It wasn’t until nearly a century later that his body was found.”

“... I’ve never heard that before.”

“It’s always the words of a person that spread farther and last longer than the person themselves.”

Snip.

The director shrugged, staring at my reflection in the mirror. “Gong-Ja, why did you enter the Tower? Was it truly because the Tower is here?”

***

At the crossroad that led to my holy ground and the ninetieth floor, the Primordial Staff greeted me.

“Welcome, Death King. You’re dressed well.”

“Yes,” I answered.

“But you don’t look so good. What’s wrong?”

After her defeat, the mage’s gloomy look had become her default look, but she was still asking me these things. I guessed my face was like an open book to her.

I wiped my forehead and said, “It’s nothing. I was just thinking about the past.”

“You speak like an old man, but you shouldn’t do that. You’re still young and even have a bright future ahead,” the Primordial Staff said, sucking on her staff. “Or should I say you only have days left to die? Which one do you think is right?”

“If possible, I’d rather hear that I only have happy days left.”

“That’s good, but I’m not the one who should be telling you that.”

That was true.

“Let’s go.”

With a snort, the Primordial Staff led the way. I climbed the spiral staircases. Around my neck was my fox god, like always, and I had my Snakey bracelet on my wrist. Beside me, the Sword Emperor was afloat, following me. Only my belt, where my holy sword used to be, felt empty.

Mr. Sword Emperor.

—What?

“What lies ahead?” I asked both out loud and in thought.

The Primordial Staff didn’t turn to look at me, nor did the Sword Emperor, but their replies reached my ears.

“The Tower master is an artist.”

—

I’m a fighter.

“You’ve seen her past, so you would know that. She was a warlord, a politician, and an aristocrat, but she was also a gladiator, an actress, and an architect.”

—

You’ve watched me all this time, so you would know that. Holding myself back and waiting for the right moment isn’t what I do. My taste sometimes clashes with the world’s, but my taste becomes the world’s in the end.

“She was also the kingdom’s best musician.”

—

Anyone who tried to force their tastes on me ended up with a cracked skull.

With each step up the staircase, the sky drew closer.

“In a way, you could say she’s similar to you.”

—To be honest, didn’t you climb the Tower like me?

“The Tower master is free. No one can keep her under a leash, but her freedom has clear bounds.”

—

The requiem was unexpected, but when you defeated the Demon King of Autumn Rain, I realized I’ve never seen an unstoppable wacko like you. But yes. If you have a problem with the given quest, defeat the one who gave it. When you don’t like the rules, then beat the one who made them until you like the guy.

Around me, things changed step by step, but it felt unreal. It was like walking on a treadmill as everything around me sank slowly. The stories went on, and I just listened.

“The Tower master especially loves fugues[3].”

—

This Tower is the same, Gong-Ja.

“She likes connecting the start and the end while weaving notes and beats together to form a tune. Paths with different starting points having the same end are to her liking, too.”

—

Some nasty people play with memories, but if they had done that while I was climbing the Tower, I would have crushed their heads and defeated them, just like you did. Don’t you think so too?

“So.”

—So.

They spoke simultaneously, as if they had planned it.

“Everything beyond this point is an extension of what you have witnessed so far.”

—Nothing new exists beyond this.

The world began to unravel. Like mixing many colors of rubber clay, the land far below melted first, followed by the sky. Crumbling, the sky soon turned into many grains of sand, falling like rain.

“Perhaps you can reach the hundredth floor.”

—

I heard Gray only made it to the ninety-fourth floor.

No, it wasn’t rain.

“If someone made it from the first to the nintieth floor, there’s no reason they can’t climb higher.”

—

She began from the fiftieth floor, so climbing higher would be hard.

It was a giant hourglass, which also looked like Mutia’s holy ground. A wide, endless waste lay ahead. What used to be the sky looked hazy under the bright sun because of a very thick layer of glass. From the center of the hourglass, sand fell like blood from a snake’s heart.

Within the hourglass, a familiar voice greeted me there.

“Welcome, Death King! Or should I call you Scream Sky now?”

All I could do was stare. “Princess?”

“Yes, it’s me! Long time no see!”

The Mirage-Walking Princess walked toward me, greeting me as she hopped over. She was as vibrant as ever.

“It doesn’t really feel like a long time has passed... Are you here to guide me?”

“Yes, that’s right!” The princess smiled brightly, twirled once, and waved her hand toward the Primordial Staff. “Thank you for your hard work, Auntie. I’ll take over from here.”

“Very well. This has-been will get going.”

“Yes, if you have time, go help Mia.”

The Primordial Staff shrugged. “She doesn’t like help.”

“Auntie... that is why you should help her.”

“You’re really...”

The Primordial Staff left frowning yet wearing a small smile. It looked like she had just found a good way to relieve her stress.

I tilted my head. “

Hmm

, Advisor River Eternal really has it rough.”

“It’s a job that suffers by nature. Doesn’t your advisor suffer a lot, too?”

“Perhaps. But I technically suffered more because of her.”

“Yes. When Liu Bei used Zhuge Liang, he probably worked him to the bone with that mindset.”

After casually making a remark that would divide the Shu Han fandom, the princess pulled out a small stone tablet.

“That’s...”

The princess held the tablet with both hands and lifted it with all her strength. “Yes, Scream Sky. I’ll tell you what you have to do from now on.”

Nine small holes could be seen in the center of the tablet.

“Gather nine keys!” the Mirage-Walking Princess declared.

1. The typical response to a bad joke in Korea is 썰렁하다 (It's cold/boring.) ☜

2. Gong-Ja is probably pouting because the director replied coldly to his joke. ☜

3. A music composition technique. ☜