There was not much to talk about what happened afterward. I was now a Pillar, but I didn’t start working right away. Even I had to take a break every now and then. I felt a little bad for those souls who had waited for me to get to the hundredth floor, but I hoped they could wait a little longer. I wanted to meet the people who were still alive and waiting for me first.
The Primordial Staff laughed dryly in disbelief about how I was slacking off on the first day of becoming a Pillar. I jokingly asked how she was going to endure eternity with me if she was already dumbstruck by what I was doing. She just sighed.
I parted ways with the Sword Emperor, who received permission to leave the Tower. Surprisingly, this leave applied to all the realms where a Tower was built. It meant that he could head not only to the Ten Thousand Sword Realm, where he had been born, but also to my modern-day Earth, outside the Tower of the Gray Spider’s world, and even the world where the Tower master had been born.
The Sword Emperor had mentioned that he had started seeing me as a rival after what had happened on the tenth floor. When we parted ways, he said he would eventually go to the Tower master’s world to challenge the Absolute Sword Duchess, the strongest swordswoman across all realms, according to what the Mirage-Walking Princess had told the Sword Star.
It looked like it would take a long time before the Sword Emperor could put the plan into action. After being stuck on the ninety-ninth floor for so long, the Sword Emperor had a lot of things to take care of.
First, he was going to visit his homeland to meet the people he had left behind. After that, he would come to Babylon, the first floor of my Tower, to meet the Sword Star and drink with him. If there were others he had been watching over, he would drink with them, too. Once he was done with all that, he would come to my flower garden to meet the Gray Spider.
Only then would he start his trip to the Tower master’s world. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t envious of how free the Sword Emperor was. But just as he made his choice, I made mine, so I had the duty to live my life.
I talked with my friends. Okay, I should be more honest. I never imagined I would be cursed so much in my life. Well… actually, I had expected it. I deserved all the curses for making them wait so long and worrying them. This was also part of the duty that came with living my life.
Still, hearing all those curses almost broke my spirit a little, but I calmed down after touching the fluffy fur of my fox god, who had quietly shown up. Though I would rather not talk about how my fox god had also almost bitten my finger off.
While talking with my friends, I shared what I had been through. They also told me what had happened to them while I was gone. Because we had seen and lived so much while I had been climbing the ninetieth floor and onward, things were sorted out sooner than we thought.
Snakey, brought out by my fox god, seemed to have gained more divinity while I was away, growing big enough to be an anaconda. Regardless of everything, my fox god seemed to have helped Snakey by sharing some of the secrets that only they knew. I was grateful for how things turned out.
Once things were sorted out and the topic of what we should do was brought up, a press conference was planned, following Anastasha’s suggestion. I agreed to follow the advice of my friend, who was wiser than me.
“That is all.”
I addressed most of what had happened to the reporters watching me beyond the projector screen. I hid and omitted what had to be concealed and cut out, but I still had talked for quite some time. The reporters would probably have no shortage of news to cover for a while. Whether that was a joy or a burden for them, I couldn’t tell. Still, if it was the former, they could act happier about it. I was willing to answer all the questions that were brought up during the conference.
—What do you plan to do now?
I looked up and saw the reporters looking at me. Their cameras were on me, and I looked straight at them, thinking of the many people who were watching me.
“What will I do now?”
First, I planned to enjoy life by spending time with Raviel. That was my plan for the future, without a single trace of falsehood. However, I didn’t say that. Beyond those cameras, there was surely someone sitting in a small room, just as I had once done.
Someone would be watching me on TV and looking at me with the same face I used to gaze at the Fire Emperor on the screen. There were things I wished the Fire Emperor had said to me back then. Of course, the Fire Emperor from that time had never said such things in any interview.
Now, I knew it wasn’t something to hate him over. The Fire Emperor had lived like the Fire Emperor and spoke in a way that fit him. If there was something I wanted to hear, I should say it myself.
“Hmm.”
The words that my thirty-three-year-old self had wanted to hear, the words I wished my idol had told me…
“I’m going to live through today.”
That, too, was my plan for the future, without a single trace of falsehood.
—The end of SSS Class Revival Hunter—
✦ ✦ ✦
Namu
Wow, it always feels super weird after ending a novel.
What… should I say…
SSS is the novel that made me experience and think a lot. A lot more than before.
Like a typical shy, bookworm kid that can be commonly seen in school, I secretly wished to be the protagonist of my own life, but life has a way of telling people that a protagonist is fictional and I’m just one of the leaves floating on a river.
It sometimes felt very overwhelming, and I just wanted to sink deep into that river. Still, life shows me that some people are willing to dive into the river, fish me out, and dry me under the sunlight. Is that you, Amethyst?
When I see that, the life of a leaf bookmark may not be so bad, and it’s worth waking up the next day and making an effort.
No amount of fancy words will be enough to express my gratitude to you all.
I hope that this novel has also been a chance to let you know that it’s okay to be just a leaf.
Until next time.
✦ ✦ ✦
Murasak
I didn’t edit this novel from the very beginning, but the story and the characters grew on me nonetheless. I did feel like I crashed Gong-Ja and Raviel’s wedding when I joined the team, though.
At times I was so hooked with the story that I briefly forgot I wasn’t here just to read all the chapters in advance, lol. It feels weird to say goodbye, but I think this is a good spot to end things. I’m also a big fan of the round number (exactly 400 chapters in total. Impressive!).
The novel may be over, but I hope these characters will stay with you like they stayed with me. You know what they say, the hardest part of ending is starting again. Onward to the next novel!