Chapter 51: After The Ending (2)

“You should put some thought into your next move now!” the Black Witch said, playfully hitting my arm with her newspaper. She was obviously so excited that she couldn’t control it.

“My move?”

“Yeah! You’re currently in all of the Five Guilds, but that basically means you aren’t part of anywhere. Since things went perfectly, you could even make a guild of your own.” The Black Witch laughed quietly. “You’re the Rank 3 Hunter, so you should at least be a guild leader. It wouldn’t look right if you stayed an ordinary guild member.”

“Hmm... A guild leader...”

It didn’t feel real. I couldn’t imagine myself becoming a leader of a guild, either. Besides, did I even need to have Hunters working for me? I had an army of skeletons.

“Well.” The Black Witch noticed that I wasn’t enthusiastic and shrugged. She glanced over her shoulder at the Sword Star, who was looking at us. “Solo play might be more your thing like the old man over there. There are a surprising amount of people out there who fantasize about taking on the world on their own. I won’t force you if you aren’t interested.”

“Are you insulting me?” The Sword Star raised an eyebrow.

The Black Witch turned, ignoring the Sword Star. “Anyhow, who are they?”

On the side of the forest road, the army was setting up tents. They weren’t going to attack Preta’s paradise anymore, so they were going to rest for the day and then return home.

I stroked my chin. “Ah, those soldiers are from all across the continent.”

“The whole continent?”

“So what happened is...”

I explained how I fooled the army, excluding the parts about Preta.

The Black Witch and Sword Star listened to me together. They seemed to have mixed feelings about it.

“Death King... You’re pretty good at lying too, aren’t you,” the Black Witch remarked. The Sword Star seemed to be thinking the same thing.

“It’s how I was able to clear the stage without shedding blood.”

“No, I’m not trying to fault you. You did a great job.” The Black Witch’s eyes narrowed like a merchant smelling a business opportunity. “We get to trade with the people here. That means we won’t have to grovel to the old men in the outside world! Bastards! They always try to rip us off for food. We’ll see how long they can get away with that.”

She sounded like she had a lot of grudges.

“Yes, the trade between the Tower and the outside world is imbalanced,” the Sword Star said. “Capital, resources, technology... The outside is wealthier than the Tower in all respects. Yes, the Tower has elixirs and ingredients that can’t be obtained in the outside world, but...”

“Food! Food is always the problem!” The Black Witch stomped the ground in anger.

I used to think she was a cold person, but after the three of us had cleared the twelfth to the nineteenth floors, she freely expressed her emotions in front of us. It was a good indication of how close we had become.

“So, Black Dragon Master, you’re saying you want to trade with the people in this world, right?”

“Hmm? Of course. The outside world ought to get a taste of their own medicine.”

I grinned and pointed at the military camp set. “Then you’ll have to talk to them. But it won’t work at all if you just go up to them and say, ’Let’s trade.’ Hunters and the people here are both alien to each other.”

“You’re right.”

“You can use my name,” I said. “In this world, I’m the herald of the Great First Emperor and the apostle of the goddess, so two of you can act like the apostles too. It’ll help you get the talks started.”

The Black Witch narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. “I’m grateful to hear that. It’ll be really helpful, but I don’t think you’re saying that you’re going to let us use your name for free... What do you want?”

“The twentieth floor.”

“What?”

I looked around. The acacia forest, the small plain, and Estelle’s home. This small world was all there was to the twentieth floor.

“I want the twentieth floor,” I repeated.

It took a while for the Black Witch to continue, “...Wait. The twentieth floor? You want to have the twentieth floor all to yourself?”

“Yes, I want the ownership of the land, to be exact.”

“That’s...”

“In return, I won’t take any spoils from the eleventh through the nineteenth floors. Once you begin with them, you and the others can share the revenue among yourselves.”

The Black Witch closed her mouth. That was a shocking offer. When Hunters cleared a stage, the champions normally divided the loot, from the ownership of items to the resources; however, half of the rights were left unclaimed so that everyone in the Tower could use them. Still, there was no precedent for one person having an entire floor to themself.

“This... isn’t something I can decide on my own,” the Black Witch said with a troubled look. “I need to call the other guild leaders and discuss with them.”

“Well, I have nothing to do for the next twenty-four hours anyway. I’ll wait.”

“...Do you really want this stage?” The Black Witch quickly looked around her. “From what I’ve seen, the land doesn’t look valuable. This path... is pretty, but it’s small. There’s not much land for farming.”

I nodded.

“Death King, I’m speaking from experience: you’ll get much more from your share of the loot. You’ll get multiple fortunes.”

I smiled. “I prefer real estate to money. Having land of your own is the best.”

She gave me a look.

“Do we have a deal?” I asked.

The Black Witch sighed. “I’ll set up a meeting with the guild leaders. Let’s discuss it on the first floor.”

“Okay.”

“Yeah, you need to show yourself to people anyway. But...” The Black Witch slowly met my eyes. “...there is a question I’ve been wanting to ask.”

“Go on.”

“...Who is that?”

I followed the Black Witch’s finger.

“F...uck...

Sob

... You shithead. Stop...! Stop this...! Is that so damn difficult to do?! Fuck! What do you have against me? What did I do...!”

The Tower’s best dancer was flaunting his skill, his sweat and desperate tears decorating the forest like the morning dew. It was beautiful.

“Black Dragon Master.” I beamed. “You saw nothing.”

“Huh?”

“You saw nothing.”

The Black Witch looked like a biologist who’d just run into the biggest mystery of her life.

“Yeah, there are all kinds of people out there. I’ll try to understand,” the Black Witch muttered. “But I see. You aren’t sane either...”

That was still just one woman’s opinion.

***

After unsummoning Preta and the Fire Emperor, I headed to the first floor with the other Hunters.

“Do you mind if we meet at the cafe we were in last time?” the Black Witch asked.

“No, I don’t mind. Anywhere is fine for me.”

It really had been a while since I was last in Babylon, the first-floor city. In other people’s eyes, it would look like I was back after five days, but that wasn’t true for me. It had taken years for me to get back to the city.

I sighed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. It’s just that I finally feel that I cleared the stages.”

The Black Witch chuckled. “It might be too early for that.”

“Hmm?”

“I told you. You’re all people are talking about in the Tower. Brace yourself.”

I didn’t even need to ask. Pedestrians, street merchants, and Hunters who were about to leave for the hunting grounds began to chatter almost immediately after I set foot on the first-floor teleportation stone.

“Huh?”

“Is that...”

“It’s the Black Witch and the Sword Star.”

“Then that person is...”

“It’s the Death King! The Death King is here!” someone shouted.

That set them off. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of people, turned to look. Customers had been studying second-hand weapons on the stands, couples had been enjoying their coffee at the outdoor cafe, a merchant had been selling rare flowers, and a Hunter had been chatting with her colleague. However, all of them either stood up or turned their heads.

“Wow... Oh...”

“There’s a rumor that you cleared the twentieth floor on your own! Is that true?”

“Please look over here! Wait! Over here!”

There wasn’t any time to do something about it. In a blink of the eye, the crowd surrounded me and the others. With one more blink, the human siege had doubled.

“Ummm...” I wasn’t sure what to do.

“Don’t say anything,” the Black Witch whispered so only I could hear it. “You have no experience dealing with the media yet, do you?”

“Yeah, I don’t, of course.”

“Mystery or top star?”

“Say what?” I asked.

“I’m asking about your media image. Do you want to go mysterious? Or do you want to be a top star?”

The crowd had tripled in size by now, and the other Hunters and I seemed to walk thirty times slower.

Camera flashes went off at every step. Oh, my god. I couldn’t even think!

“I need your answer right now, but once you decide what your image is going to be, it’s difficult to change it.”

“Uhhh... I understand going for mysterious, but what do you mean by becoming a top star?”

“It’s like a movie star,” the Black Witch said. “You’ll need a new SNS account and two separate secretaries. One for your image, and another for handling the media for you. You also need a stylist to be in charge of your looks and fashion. Ah, don’t worry about the money. The Black Dragon will help you with that.”

It was already hectic, but this felt even worse.

The Sword Star frowned. “I work alone because I don’t want to deal with all of that nonsense,” he spat.

It sounded absolutely reasonable.

“Mysterious guy, please...” I mumbled, my voice already strained by fatigue.

“Are you sure about that? With the right management, people change. You’ll definitely become more handsome, and you’re going to be able to interact with other people from a new perspective. The Inquisitor models for magazines and has his own photo book, you know.”

I knew that very well. As a fanboy, I used to cut those photos out of magazines before I had regressed over four thousand days. That was how I knew that the Black Witch was also frequently featured on magazine covers.

But it was a different story if I had to do it.

“No. Mysterious! Please let me go mysterious!”

“Why? Do you not want to do photoshoots?” the Black Witch asked.

I would rather get shot in the head!

“I would be embarrassed to death!”

“Everyone is like that at first. Wait, the Inquisitor wasn’t... but he’s an exception. Death King, if we have to talk about embarrassing, what you shouted on the ramparts is way more—”

“I’ll leave the Five Guilds if you don’t let me go mysterious,” I said from the bottom of my heart.

The Black Witch laughed quietly. “Yeah, you would. You seem like the type.”

“What should I do if I want to stay mysterious?”

“It’s simple. Make a very good poker face.”

It was my first time hearing such advice.

“Any activities on SNS are forbidden. Never accept an interview from magazines. It’s the same for personal streamers or other media. Doing an interview once or twice a year is okay. If you want, I’ll send you the reporters I’ve screened in advance. “

“...Is that all?”

“You don’t know how difficult this is.” The Black Witch laughed playfully. “Attention is a drug. The most addicting one of all.”

“It’s also the drug that ruins people in every way possible,” the Sword Star added.

“Yes, people can be happy with just ten people’s attention. And you’ve reached a place where millions of people will react to every word you say. Not many people can resist that kind of high.”

The crowd grew in size again. It felt like everyone from the city was here.

“It’s all pointless,” the Sword Star commented.

“But it feels good,” the Black Witch said. “Perhaps celebrities should learn to enjoy it. They hang on a little longer until they get sick of the drug or of their other celebrities who are on the same drug. What is your choice, Death King?”

I looked around at the wall of people. There was no escape. Camera flashes went off incessantly, so I had to squint, which made the flashes look like a mirage. The wall of people just seemed like a shadow.

“...Not many people care what other people think about themselves as much as I do,” I answered. “I want recognition. I don’t know it very well... but I think receiving attention and recognition is a little different.”

I remembered the Fire Emperor, the absolute center of attention in the Tower before I had regressed.

“I’m fine without millions of people’s attention. The attention I get from the people around me is enough. It doesn’t matter if it’s from hundreds of thousands of people or millions of people... What I want from people... is recognition, not attention.”

“Okay.” The Black Witch smiled. “I personally believe they aren’t completely different, but I respect your answer.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s good that you are who you are,” she commented.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

I remembered that she had said something similar before.

“So how do you do a good poker face?” I asked.

“I’ll tell you my trick.”

I could hear the crowd from all directions. My group’s speed decreased to ten centimeters per second.

“Remember a really bad memory.”

“A bad memory.”

“Yes, for me, it’s a memory from when I was seven years old. When I was in the outside world, my father died during the civil war,” the Black Witch calmly said, “I was running away with my parents at the time. I think the soldiers were chasing after us. Father stayed behind and yelled, ’Run! Don’t look back!’ But...”

The Black Witch led the way through the crowd. “...I really ran without looking back. Even though I heard gunshots, I didn’t turn back. I kept running.”

The cameras kept flashing.

“You were young,” I quietly said.

“I was young,” the Black Witch repeated. “I’m not saying I hate the fact that I ran away. I was a child. But why didn’t I even look back? It would have been easy to at least look behind me.”

I didn’t say anything.

“That’s the memory I think of when I need a poker face. Whenever I recall the way my chest hurt back then, I can make a great poker face. It’s my little trick.” The Black Witch looked at me. “I’m sure that you have a couple of memories like that too.”

I actually had one. I recalled the time the Fire Emperor had grabbed me by the head and burned me to death in the dark alley.

“Yeah, I do.”

Even without looking in the mirror, I could tell that I was wearing a perfect poker face right now.

“Look over here for a moment, please!”

“Can you give us any comments?”

“Black Dragon Master, when will we hear your official announcement?”

“What is the relationship between you two!”

“Mr. Sword Star! What do you think about the Death King?”

When I looked around again, I could see my surroundings better. This was my first time being surrounded by a crowd this size and being dazzled by camera flashes like this, but I was getting used to it. It didn’t feel hectic like earlier. I felt calm like I usually did.

“It works great.”

The corners of the Witch’s mouth rose. “You’re a quick learner. You’ll get used to it pretty quick.”

The world was certainly different after five days, but not different enough to change me.