“A person only has two arms. To hold something else, they have to give up what they held before. It’s the same for society if it wants to grow. Every civilization can stand tall only on the bodies of many unborn.”
“So...”
“Mom wanted to build a place where no era was left behind—or at least a place where that was possible.”
Once more, the baton swept across the second and third floors.
“The age of warriors and heroes. A world where one can prove their worth by cutting something down.”
Swish.
The baton moved up through the sand like a salmon and touched the tenth floor.
“The age of priests and priestesses. A world where those cut down could find rest.”
The baton paused on the eleventh floor.
“So, while the first to the tenth floors are the Golden Age, then the eleventh to the twentieth are the Silver Age.”
“Silver...” I repeated.
“That’s when you arrived at the Aegim Empire, right? Other realms. Places with no link to you all in any way. Other Towers face different worlds from the eleventh to the twentieth floors. However, since you haven’t reached the fiftieth floor, the worlds you faced weren’t entirely new, but the ones that have already been destroyed once.”
The baton began moving again.
“It’s the age of travelers. A world where you can glimpse the lives these people lived amidst the ruins of fallen kingdoms’ castles.”
The twelfth floor, the thirteenth floor, the fourteenth floor…
“The age of generals, the age of merchants, the age of soldiers…”
The baton, upstreaming the falling sand, finally reached the twentieth floor.
“Starting here is the Steel Age.”
“In our Tower, that was the Great Library of All life, right?”
“Yes, Hamustra was like Zhuge Liang. Mom said that the more she worked him to his bone, the better things became.”
That seemed sad, yet my pity vanished when I pictured Hamustra’s face.
“What about the other Towers?” I asked.
“Many of them also have Hamustra. For others, it’s mostly Mutia or Mahos. At times, Babbit takes charge. That fox hanging around your neck also took on the work once.”
“I almost nitpicked about how Babbit took on the job, but I’ll make the safe choice of just nodding along. My fox god did that. I’ll end it at that.”
“Yes, I’ll also choose not to react.” The princess continued with the explanation. “Those who learned the cost they have to pay to survive during the Golden Age learn how to treat others in the Silver Age. In the Steel Age, they finally welcome the king of their world.”
“King...”
Anastasha’s voice suddenly flashed through my mind, asking if I was ready to become our Tower’s king.
I nodded. “So that’s why only the High Rankers could join the floor expedition from that point on.”
“Yes. If you want to be the king of a world, you first have to represent that world.”
“In that sense, Mr. Sword Emperor is a king, too.”
—Zombie, you just called me the Sword Emperor. Emperor, not king! Repeat what you just said.
“Do you know that there is a hanja that means mad dog? It sounds the same as the hanja for emperor[1]. I didn’t know it either, but I looked it up once and found it.”
—Bravo, you found a hanja that would probably crash and display as ■ in Unicode, just like your head.
“If that’s the case, your name would show up as Sword ■. It sounds like ominous foreshadowing.”
—I so want to hit you until that foreshadowing comes true.
I awkwardly scratched the back of my head.
The princess waited until our talk ended before resuming speaking. “And the thirtieth floor… is the Bronze Age. Here, you guys—”
“We have children.”
The princess smiled. “Yes. Although more Towers see it as having subordinates.’
My head drooped. The Gray Spider came to mind. Anyway, I felt like I understood the structure.
“The Golden Age is about oneself, while the Silver Age is about others. In the Steel Age, you have to look up, but in the Bronze Age, you have to look down,” I summarized.
“Yes, and there’s the Stone Age from the fortieth floor onward. Here, you’re judged. I don’t need to explain this in detail, correct?”
“Yes, we already discussed it during the final vote,” I replied.
“Right. This forms one cycle, from the first to the forty-ninth floor. After that, this cycle repeats but on a deeper level. Mom really loves music.”
Her words echoed those of the Primordial Staff. The princess’s baton swept and pointed to the fiftieth floor.
“But it also becomes more aggressive. The fiftieth floor works not as a haven but as a fort and a base. The sixtieth floor and onward is where you start fighting with other worlds in earnest.”
“Starting from the seventieth floor, we have the underworld… I see. In a way, that counts as looking up again.”
“Yes, you would also know it well by now what the eightieth to eighty-ninth floors signify.”
“I do. I think I finally understand why cleared floors stay, letting others come and go. It’s to stop an era from vanishing.”
“That’s right.”
“Thank you for the interesting explanation, but I still haven’t heard about the most important part. What are the nine keys I should gather?”
“All the clues are in what I’ve said!” The princess spun around with a wide smile. “Scream Sky, look back at the worlds you’ve passed through. Take a look around at what you’ve left behind as you climbed the Tower. Look at the path you’ve walked so far.”
Her eyes, similar to the Tower master’s but different, were violet.
“The keys to the hundredth floor are there.”
I finally understood my task. “I see. From the ninetieth to the ninety-nineth floor, it’s not about climbing...”
“Yes.”
The Mirage-Walking Princess snapped her fingers. The sand falling in the center of the ninetieth floor split in half, revealing a staircase. That staircase led downward, not upward.
“It’s time to go down.”
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1. Gong-Ja is talking about 猘. ☜
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