Book 6: Chapter 27
Book 6: Chapter 27
Tafel leaned her head against Vur’s shoulder, not particularly worried about poking him with her horns. His face was tough; even if he was stabbed by a sword, Tafel doubted it’d matter. Her arm was wrapped around Vur’s, her hand resting on his elbow. Ahead of them, Deowi was walking with Gaegukja Yeol. Well, Gaegukja Yeol was walking with purpose while Deowi was following alongside her, talking at her but not receiving any response.
“I feel bad,” Sheryl said from the sunlike rune on Vur’s shoulder. “We ruined the relationship between two siblings.”
“Their relationship is still pretty good,” Tafel said. “Neither of them is hitting the other, and I haven’t heard any threats yet.”
“Mm, but still,” Sheryl said and sighed. “Maybe it’s because they’re made of fire? I don’t know, but it feels like I’m empathizing with them a lot.” The runes on Vur’s armed glowed with a soft light. “You have to treat them well, Vur.”
Vur nodded before glancing at Lindyss’ pocket. She noticed his gaze and patted her dress. “Your food isn’t going anywhere,” she said. “You don’t have to constantly check.”
Vur nodded again, but his gaze remained on Lindyss’ pocket. He had wanted to eat the caterpillar legs right away, but Tafel disagreed. Even with her experience, her skin was too thin to eat the caterpillar’s legs while it watched. As such, Deowi offered to take them to a place where they could eat and chat privately.
“We’re here,” Gaegukja Yeol said, completely ignoring Deowi as she turned around to face Vur’s group. She had stopped in front of a brown, gnarled wall. “This is the entrance tunnel to the residential area.” She raised her left arm, which had a brown, skin-thin bracelet on its wrist. “If you communicate with the tower through the bracelet you were given, you can ask it to open the way to any residence you’ve been given permission to enter.”
The gnarled wall behind Gaegukja Yeol groaned as it split open and rolled part, revealing a spacious, well-lit passage.
“Residential area, huh?” Lindyss asked as she stepped over the threshold into the passage. “For a place where a lot of people should be, it’s awfully empty.”
“We took the explorer route,” Deowi said. “People who’ve climbed beyond the fiftieth floor are given the title of explorer, and along with the title comes some privileges. If you were to enter the residential area as a regular, you’d have to wait in a line.”
“Classism,” Stella said. “I like it.”
“It’s for practical reasons,” Gaegukja Yeol said and walked behind everyone after they all stepped into the tunnel. “Compared to explorers, regular people might as well be made of sand. If Deowi sneezed and accidentally breathed some flames onto a regular person, a terrible tragedy could occur.”
“So, there must not be that many explorers,” Tafel said, taking a look around. As Lindyss had pointed out earlier, for a residential area, it was awfully empty.
“Unless they have a job down here, there aren’t many explorers who’d leave the upper floors,” Deowi said. “Like Yeol said, there are too many regular people down here, and with the rules in the tower preventing people from harming one another, things can get really tiresome.”
“Tiresome?” Tafel asked.
“Yeah,” Deowi said and exhaled. “Explorers are a bit like celebrities.” A dark expression appeared on Deowi’s face. “It’s all because of Geimeo and his stupid set of cards. Random people will come up to us, and if they’re rude, I can’t even deck them in the jaw.”
“How are these tower rules enforced?” Lindyss asked, raising an eyebrow. “Who established the rules, and what are the well-known loopholes?”
Gaegukja Yeol pointed a finger directly towards the ceiling. “The ones on top set the rules,” she said. “The tower then creates missions for people to enforce the rules.”
“And if the hired enforcers can’t deal with the criminals?” Lindyss asked.
“The tower refreshes the mission’s difficulty and reassigns it to people of the appropriate rank,” Gaegukja Yeol said. “If you beat the next enforcers coming after you, then the same thing will happen. Eventually, it’ll issue the mission to someone up there.” She waved her hand vaguely towards the ceiling. “Maybe it’ll even ask the person who created the rule in the first place.”
Lindyss nodded. “I see.”
Gaegukja Yeol waited a bit, but it didn’t seem like the cursed elf had any more questions. The flaming woman gestured again, and the gnarled wooden wall closed. “Brace yourselves,” Gaegukja Yeol said. Before anyone could ask what they had to brace for, the tunnel they were in surged to the side, causing Tafel to nearly lose her balance. Luckily, she was still holding onto Vur. Just as suddenly as the tunnel started, it stopped. Gaegukja Yeol nodded. “And we’re here, the Extreme Heat Clan’s first-floor residence.”
A portion of the side of the tunnel rolled away, groaning as it did. Sunlight fell onto the group, causing Tafel to squint her eyes. When the glare faded, Tafel’s eyes widened. “Are we outside?”
“Yes,” Gaegukja Yeol said. “Technically, we’re outside, but at the same time, we’re inside a dimension captured by the tower.” She walked through the opening that had been created in the tunnel, and waited for everyone else to come out. Once everyone was through, the brown wall rolled back into place. To Vur’s group, it looked like a lone gnarled door with nothing behind or around it. “You can return to the tower by communicating with this tower monument with your bracelet. If you see these gnarled rectangles around, you can interact with them to learn some interesting things.”
“At the present, there’s no one here,” Deowi said.
“What?” Gaegukja Yeol asked, her brow furrowing. “What do you mean there’s no one here?”
Deowi nodded and stroked his chin. “Well, they seemed like they were slacking off on their training, so I sent everyone on a mission while I went to do mine.”
“You mean your mission of recruiting newcomers, the one where I found you sleeping on the job?” Gaegukja Yeol asked, her expression darkening.
“Yes, that one.” Deowi nodded again. “If it was an earlier mission, everyone else would’ve been back by now.”
“Do you ever think ahead?”
“No?” Deowi grinned at his sister. “Isn’t that what you’re for?”