Chapter 26 Win-Win
Is it going to help?
Whether it was the truth or a random remark, she managed to spark his interest. Yoon-seok stared at Ragna, thinking that he should hear about this once, at least once.
Gulp.
Ragna swallowed back saliva, too nervous about speaking. If it didn’t get his attention, he would’ve immediately knocked her out again, without wasting any more time so that he could get back to training.
“Let me introduce myself first. Ragna Hambledon, Count Hambledon of the Levant Neutral States, is my father. He runs one of the top merchant houses on the continent.”
After saying that, Ragna glanced at Yoon-seok. His eyes were already bored as if to say, ‘So what?’ Her pride felt a sting even though she’d expected it. Aside from the fact that her family’s prestige didn’t work on interesting him, how could he look so bored in front of a young, pretty woman?
‘Do you like training that much…?’
Ragna used to feel somewhat exhausted from all the attention she gained wherever she went. Well, even though she was in one piece still because of a guy like him…
“Levant Neutral?”
It was courtesy to say your name when someone introduced themselves first, but Yoon-seok only replied with a question. Thanking the gods for even the slightest touch of interest, Ragna kindly explained.
“It’s one of the seven countries of Seheranbad. The Levant Neutral is a maritime country in the Heffron Ocean, with a total of 4,819 islands…”
Ragna suddenly stopped talking. Yoon-seok’s expression was no good. It was a look that told her to get to the point.
‘Sure, it’s not like I haven’t seen this type of person before!’
Count Hambledon was a merchant family. Due to a shortage in staff, Ragna, who was born as the next in line, helped with the work from an early age. She had negotiated several times with aristocrats much more arrogant than Yoon-seok. There was no reason to pick a fight, just do what they want, and they would stop.
Ragna gave a quicker summary.
“I can give you information about the Tower.”
“…?”
Yoon-seok tilted his head at Ragna’s confident expression. As far as Yoon-seok knew, all the challengers were those who were kidnapped by the Tower. That meant they were all in the same boat. Yet she was going to give him information about that?
Were there secrets that weren’t shared in the chat room? With growing expectations, Yoon-seok waited for her to continue. The words that followed were shocking.
“This isn’t the first time that a Tower has opened. It was opened five hundred years ago in three dimensions.”
“How do you know that?”
“My ancestor was a challenger. He warned his posterity many times that the Tower would open again someday. ‘This story should never be recorded in the written word, but it must be passed down to next-in-line descendants.’ That was his last will.”
It didn’t matter if the story of her ancestor was true. The next-in-line descendants of the Hambledons grew up listening to their ancestors’ stories since childhood. They respected the ancestor who established the family with their bare hands and passed on the blood of the aristocracy.
Of course, she didn’t believe the story. It felt like hearing a mysterious and old story that had nothing to do with her.
Ragna thought so until she arrived at the Tower.
“The will is a little strange. It would’ve been better if he had just recorded everything down without twisting the facts.”
“Truth is…it’s not that he didn’t record it, it’s that he couldn’t. If someone tried to record his story elsewhere, something strange would happen, and the records would be ruined. Suddenly a fire breaks out, or the books were completely soaked due to a leak springing from the roof…”
Suddenly, Yoon-seok’s eyes deepened. The story was too detailed to be fake.
Was it true then? He couldn’t give up his doubts.
“You said three dimensions earlier, aren’t you mistaken?”
“No, Killian, Seheranbad, and Moorim. It’s three dimensions. Five hundred years ago, there were no challengers from Earth.”
“…”
Yoon-seok closed his mouth. It was five hundred years ago, so there was nothing more he could say. Whether it was the truth or not, he listened attentively.
Ragna relaxed at his look of interest.
“You’re from Earth, aren’t you?”
“…Yes.”
“Do you plan to climb up the Tower?”
“…I haven’t thought about that.”
Ragna was surprised at Yoon-seok’s honest answer. While watching him train so hard and how he saved her life, she was under the impression that he was a born warrior. And most of all…
“Twice…no, if we win one more time, we can return, right? But you haven’t thought about it?”
A fully irreversible C-rank ticket. The price was 200,000 AP. But before he knew it, Yoon-seok had reached the part where that seemingly huge figure was just one step away. 128,000 APs for this match and 256,000 APs for the next.
If he won the next match, Yoon-seok could return to Earth. But…
“The plan was to go back, but now I’m not sure.”
Going back alive. This proposition had been the biggest priority since Yoon-seok was brought to the Tower. However, that goal started to blur somewhere in the process.
The Tower made Yoon-seok grow. He was able to break up the bad relationships he was bound to and finally found freedom because of the Tower. That alone took away his negative perception of this place. Even more so after meeting the Heavenly Devil and seeing what real martial arts were.
To build himself up and be strong, facing an enemy with one’s life on the edge of a sword. It would be pointless to deny it now. Even when he was nervous while predicting the odds, Yoon-seok found himself enjoying the process. If he decided to return to Earth completely, he would never feel this joy ever again.
Because that was what Earth was.
He could be better and more talented than anyone here but spend his life somewhere on Earth as a failure.
“I see…”
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Ragna looked at Yoon-seok with pity. There were such men among the soldiers she had seen, crazy warriors who were addicted to the thrill of risking their lives. They eventually ended up looking for blood even after the war and found themselves in the cold ground, not in a warm bed.
Ragna judged that Yoon-seok was one of those types. Of course, she didn’t plan to have a debate about this.
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“Then it wouldn’t be so bad for you to listen to my stories and decide. You don’t know much about this place, do you?”
“…”
Yoon-seok nodded quietly.
‘If what you say is true, so be it; I won’t comment further.’
It was a matter that he could decide on after listening to everything she said.
“You know there are four trials in the Tower, right?”
“I’m guessing. I don’t remember, but I know there wasn’t only one.”
“Adventure, exploration, mission, duel. The Tower chooses one of the four trials for the challengers. My forefather was a challenger who took the adventure trial, so there’s relatively little information about the trials of the duel.”
“Then why did you choose this place?”
Ragna smiled sadly at Yoon-seok’s reasonable question.
“The numbers were small, but all duel challengers were like monsters. They’ll see the end of the tower and are a much-needed presence, was what my ancestor said. Well, I thought it was a dream, so the biggest reason was cause I touched whatever statue I felt like at the time….”
Ragna continued. The most difficult of all four trials with the fewest survivors was the duel. The adventure was the easiest, followed by exploration, mission, and duel.
“So what does the Tower want?”
“That, I don’t know. If you go upstairs, there is a place where you can meet other challengers from the other trial themes. Just before reaching the final floor, there was a war happening there. My ancestor said they didn’t know what happened after returning to his original world amid the chaos.”
“…”
In the end, Yoon-seok didn’t respond because he didn’t know anymore. Should he say that this sounded more credible? If it were fake, then he would just make a fool out of himself.
“Instead, there’s a part of my ancestor’s story that he was torn over whether the Tower wanted to give challengers the power to protect the world.”
“The power to protect the world…?”
“Yes, a year after my ancestors became a challenger, strange monsters appeared in the world. No magic or sword could go against them. Only the challengers could kill them.”
However, the monsters disappeared into thin air soon after Ragna’s ancestors returned. As a result, it was written in the history book named Cataclysm, but the contents were groundless, as the records were lost during the war. Thus, it was taken as a pile of half-truths.
“My ancestors were worried that history would repeat itself. So he built a merchant family, wanting to help future challengers if the Tower appears again. He would say that they shouldn’t bleed alone.”
Did the conversation make them close? Or was it a merchant’s trick to make him feel that way?
“But now I’ve become a challenger myself,” Ragna joked.
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“The fact that monsters appeared is it common to your universe?”
“No, the monsters also appeared in Moorim and Killian. I don’t know if they disappeared at the same time…”
“The story was worth it.”
Saying so, Yoon-seok pulled the sword from his waist. At the same time, Ragna was dumbstruck.
“Uh, why, why? I told you the truth! Don’t knock me out! Just kill me!” she shouted obscenely.
Yoon-seok gave an awkward smile as if to say it was a misunderstanding. “I’m not trying to knock you out. It’s just that the story is a little too long…”
“So what?”
“Isn’t it be possible to listen while training?”
“…”
Ragna could feel her jaw drop. He was a crazy person she could never understand.
Hu-ung! Hu-ung!
While Yoon-seok was doing a sword dance, she sat with her back against the wall, telling him all the stories she knew. Yoon-seok completely abandoned his doubts about Ragna. It was a realistic story that felt both probable and coherent.
“I have no means to attack you. So just let me stay like this. I’m not even a threat to you.”
Yoon-seok, who had kept knocking her out just in case, also agreed with her. So even after the talk, Ragna was able to watch him train from afar. However, she kept talking to him because she was a little bored.
“How’s the Earth? Are they all like you?”
“Come to think of it; I don’t even know your name. What’s your name?”
“Even if I’m thirsty and hungry, I’m going crazy trying to stay like this all day. No?”
“Who was your first opponent?”
Having obtained several helpful pieces of information from Ragna, Yoon-seok answered her burning questions while training. He had nothing to hide anyway. Of course, he didn’t talk about his abilities at all, but since he answered them one by one, he had told her everything about Earth by now.
“I can’t believe you met an Orc in the first duel and won! Were you always that good at fighting?”
“Devil 666! I know that nickname. It was a total disaster. What is that human doing now?”
“So there are people like Yoon-seok who were bullied since youth…Earth is a scary place.”
“That’s it? That’s your revenge? What kind of person does that? You must have gained strength; you should’ve destroyed him! Torn him into pieces!”
When he told the story about Kang Hyung-woo, Yoon-seok smiled bitterly at Ragna, who clenched her fist as if the story was hers. Watching her react dramatically to each story, why did it remind him of his mother when she was watching dramas on TV?
Since then, her questions hadn’t stopped and eventually flowed to his match against the Heavenly Devil and his previous duel with Lee Chang-hoon. It was at that point when Ragna, who was listening with a curious face, changed.
“What are you doing here?! Why don’t you go back to Earth right now and protect your family?”
Blaming Yoon-seok’s complacency, Ragna was genuinely furious.