Chapter 88: 6F Hidden (2)

First, I stopped time.

—Things are proceeding quite smoothly, just as thou said. Heh heh heh. Why dost thou not strip already?

The Demon King’s mocking voice drifted through my mind.

I ignored her and sank into agonized thought.

‘Tch...’

I was seriously flustered.

No, more than flustered. My head was spinning.

I stared at the princess, frozen in front of me.

Three eyes. Gray skin. Abnormally elongated limbs. A physique utterly unlike that of a human...

‘Oh, hell no.’

Apparently, the alien princess was some kind of deranged pervert.

How could she even feel that kind of desire when our bodies were so different?

Seriously... wasn’t this completely messed up?

It would have been unsettling enough with an ordinary person, let alone an alien.

Ethically, physiologically—every possible way I looked at it, the answer was no.

Even if it was necessary to clear the floor, I had to question whether this was truly the right choice.

And besides, something felt wrong...

The Tower had always been twisted, but was this really how the route was supposed to play out?

Was this truly the path to clearing the floor?

The thought kept nagging at me. Something about the situation felt strangely out of place.

Maybe it was instinct...

Or maybe not. Maybe I simply wanted an excuse to avoid reality.

Either way, no matter how many times I turned it over in my head, the answer remained the same.

Absolutely not.

—Why? Hast thou lost thy nerve? Shall I do it in thy place?

‘Shut up.’

For now, I would try persuading her some other way.

Having made up my mind, I released the time stop.

“Why are you hesitating? If it is my guard who concerns you, pay him no mind,” the princess said.

“Princess, forgive me, but I cannot.”

“...You cannot?”

She rose to her feet and fixed me with an icy stare.

“Are you mocking me?”

“No. I am already a married man. I cannot betray my wife.”

Her expression plainly asked what that had to do with her.

...There was no way that excuse would work, was there?

I was a slave, and she was royalty.

From her perspective, I was probably nothing more than an insolent slave putting on a pathetic display of defiance.

“The truth is—!”

I watched her expression sour by the second and hastily moved on to Plan B.

“That part of my body does not function.”

“...What?”

“It shames me to admit it, but it is the truth. Princess, you have offered me a glorious opportunity. Even if I wished to accept, I am physically incapable...”

Inside my head, the Demon King was laughing herself sick.

...What else was I supposed to do?

Aliens were simply beyond what I could handle.

“If there is anything else you desire, I would gladly—”

“Ha.”

The princess let out a short, humorless laugh.

“Enough. The mood is ruined.”

Oh?

Thank God.

“Remove him from my sight. This lowly slave has dared to humiliate me.”

Not thank God.

The princess was furious.

Shing.

The knight who had been standing silently beside her drew his sword.

Shit...

Of course it had come to this.

I stopped time.

Now what?

—Kill them all. What else?

The Demon King offered the same suggestion as always, apparently never growing tired of it.

But my attempt to persuade the princess had failed, and there truly did not seem to be many options left.

Aside from resolving everything through violence.

Sixth Sense told me that the guard was weaker than I was.

The princess, naturally, was weaker than him.

So first, I would kill the guard, subdue the princess, and take her hostage...

Then I could cause a commotion and demand that all the slaves be freed.

Maybe that was actually the correct answer.

‘All right.’

Let’s try it.

I gathered my thoughts and entered Mental Concentration.

Then I teleported behind the guard.

I stopped time again and reactivated Mental Concentration.

Schwick!

I summoned the Sword of Light and severed the guard’s head before he could react.

“Eeeek...!”

The princess’s scream rang through the room.

I was just about to seize her as a hostage when—

[Failed to clear Floor 6 Hidden, Nightmare difficulty. (1/3)]

[Exiting the Tower.]

The messages appeared before my eyes.

A moment later, I was forcibly expelled from the Tower.

“...Oh, come on.”

Why now?

Had killing the knight triggered the failure condition?

So causing a violent uprising had not been the correct answer after all.

“See? I told you.”

I addressed the Demon King, but she responded with nothing more than a derisive sneer.

Either way, I had only one attempt remaining.

I folded my arms and thought.

‘...Do I really have to go along with what the princess wants?’

Was that truly the answer?

Something still felt wrong.

Hmm...

I needed to think this through carefully.

First, the clear condition was almost certainly to keep both tribes alive.

If I was wrong about even that, then there was no chance of clearing the floor on my final attempt anyway.

So I had no choice but to treat it as a given.

Was there any route besides the princess’s?

“...”

Come to think of it, the prince had been considering what to do before asking for the princess’s opinion.

The decision over whether to spare the slaves had originally belonged to him.

So all I needed was to make the prince reach a firm decision on his own before he could defer to the princess.

Wouldn’t that be enough?

Asking for a different reward in place of citizenship had already worked once.

If I handled the conversation more skillfully this time, the plan did not seem impossible.

[Enter Floor 6, Nightmare difficulty?]

I had to try.

I entered the floor for my final attempt.

[...Match over! An overwhelming victory for Number 199!]

Once again, I went through the same sequence of events.

The final match ended with my victory, and the prince stepped forward.

“I, Patoum, Third Prince of the Kalundi Empire, commend your victory. Number 199, what is your name?”

“Tu-ro.”

He proceeded to speak at length about my reward.

“As champion, is there anything you wish to say?”

I gave him the same answer as before.

“Could I receive a different reward in place of citizenship?”

“A different reward? What is it you desire?”

“I ask that mercy be granted to the people of the opposing side so that they may live as well. That is the reward I desire in place of citizenship.”

“...You wish for the opposing tribe to survive as well?”

The prince stroked his chin, looking just as conflicted as he had before.

“Compared to citizenship, it is a trifling reward. Yet it contradicts the fundamental premise of these games—that only one tribe may survive... Hmm.”

This was the moment.

Before the prince could turn to the princess and ask for her opinion, I spoke again.

“In that case, Prince, what if I fight one more match?”

“...?”

“My previous opponent was too weak. The crowd appears disappointed that the final ended so anticlimactically. Allow me to fight again, this time against a stronger opponent.”

Oooooooh...!

At my declaration, the spectators erupted into excited cheers.

The prince raised one hand, and silence swiftly returned to the arena.

“You wish to fight again? Against a stronger opponent?”

“Yes.”

“Amusing. But where would we find such an opponent? You and the other finalist defeated every slave who stood before you.”

I swept my gaze across the stands before answering.

“My opponent need not be human.”

“...?”

“I will fight a Kalundi warrior. I ask that the prince choose my opponent personally.”

The entire arena fell silent.

The atmosphere shifted.

“Kahahahahaha...!”

The prince’s thunderous laughter shattered the silence.

“You claim you will fight a Kalundi warrior? You, a human slave?”

He looked as though he might die from amusement.

In this world, the Kalundi had conquered and dominated everything through overwhelming strength.

On average, they were vastly more powerful than humans.

Naturally, when a human slave declared that he would challenge a Kalundi warrior, such a reaction was inevitable.

But I had my reasons for being confident.

‘If the princess’s guard was around that level...’

I doubted they would send anyone dramatically stronger than him.

The prince eventually stopped laughing and nodded.

“Insolent, but spirited. Are you truly confident?”

“I will give it everything I have.”

“Very well. As you wish, another match shall be held.”

Cheers exploded from the stands.

The prince said something to the attendant beside him, and the man hurried away.

Whoosh!

After a brief wait, a new portal appeared inside the arena.

Several knights emerged from it, retrieved the man from the opposing tribe, and carried him back through the portal.

One knight remained behind.

His presence was distinctly different from that of the others.

“He shall be your opponent,” the prince announced. “An elite knight of the Imperial Direct Strike Force.”

He looked down at me from above.

“If you win, Tu-ro, not only will every slave be spared, but you shall also be granted citizenship. Anyone capable of defeating an elite Kalundi knight has earned that right.”

The prince’s eyes turned cold.

“But if you lose, every slave shall die. That is the price for flaunting your pride before me, Patoum. Now prove that your confidence is justified.”

Clank. Clank.

The opposing knight began removing his armor.

When he had finished, he stood before me unarmored, just as I was, carrying only a single sword.

...So it would be a fair fight?

Yet the contempt in his eyes was unmistakable as he looked me over.

Before the match began, I addressed the prince.

“There is something I wish to ask you, Prince.”

“What is it?”

“Am I permitted to use abilities other than swordsmanship?”

The prince smirked.

“Use whatever means are available to you. Fight with your full strength.”

“Then I have one more question.”

“What is it?”

“Am I permitted to kill my opponent?”

At that, the opposing knight scoffed and glared at me.

The prince sounded equally incredulous.

“If you are capable of it, then by all means.”

The destroyed Nexus on the opposing side regenerated, signaling that the match was about to begin.

The announcer’s voice boomed throughout the arena.

[...And now, the final showdown begins! Slave warrior Number 199, Tu-ro! His opponent is Sir Kadatop, elite knight of the Imperial Direct Strike Force! The rules remain unchanged: the first warrior to destroy the opposing Nexus shall be declared the winner!]

Waaaaaaah!

The cheers of the crowd thundered through the stands.

“Sir Kadatop, don’t finish him too quickly!”

“Show that insolent slave the difference between your stations!”

Not a single person in the audience appeared to believe I had any chance of victory.

The knight named Kadatop casually leveled his sword at me.

“Go on. Struggle to your heart’s content.”

The Demon King spoke inside my head.

—Canst thou win? Surrender thy body to me, and I shall grind him into dust.

Sixth Sense gave me its assessment.

He was unquestionably strong.

Probably a little stronger than I was...

Still, one clean hit from Destruction Ray would end the fight instantly.

The problem was that I could not simply fire it at random.

Back in the Floor 4 Hidden, the workshop ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) master’s guard had managed to evade my Destruction Ray even while airborne.

This man might be capable of doing the same.

He certainly felt strong enough.

But he knew nothing about my abilities.

And that meant I had a way to land Destruction Ray cleanly, leaving him no opportunity to evade it.

I extended my sword toward him and beckoned him forward.

“I’ll let you make the first move.”

The knight’s face twisted in anger at the provocation.

“How dare a slave...”

He strode toward me.

Once he had closed enough of the distance, he kicked off the ground and lunged.

He was incredibly fast.

‘...Diul!’

I instantly deployed Pitch-Black Fog.

Whoooosh!

Absolute darkness swallowed both the knight and me.

“...!”

In the middle of his charge, the knight abruptly lost all his senses and crashed to the ground.

I stopped time.

Then I cast Destruction Ray with Full Charging.

The ray struck the knight head-on.

It was over.

His body was vaporized on the spot.

That was the Unblockable—an attack that even an opponent stronger than me could not evade.

It had worked perfectly.

—Tch. What bizarre little tricks thou employest.

The Demon King clicked her tongue in disappointment.

The fog dispersed.

The cheers from the stands gradually faded.

The knight had disappeared without a trace, leaving me standing alone in the arena.

I walked over to the opposing Nexus and began striking it, with no one left to defend it.

Before long, the Nexus shattered.

The match was over.

“...”

Silence filled the arena.

Only then did the announcer’s bewildered voice break through.

[...Number 199 has destroyed the opposing Nexus. Uh... what exactly just happened? Where did Sir Kadatop go?]

I looked up at the prince.

He was staring down at me in shock.

“The victory is mine, Prince.”

“...What became of your opponent?”

“He’s dead.”

Murmurs swept through the stands.

After a brief silence, the prince let out a dry laugh and began to applaud. ℴ

“...Splendid. The victory is yours, Tu-ro.”

“As promised, every slave shall be spared, and I shall grant you Second-Class Citizenship.”

As the prince continued applauding, the sound spread through the stands until the entire arena was filled with applause.

[Floor 6 Hidden, Nightmare difficulty, cleared successfully.]

The message appeared before my eyes.

Phew.

So I had cleared it after all.

I reflexively glanced toward the princess.

She was looking down at me while slowly licking her lips.

‘That lunatic...’

Let’s never meet again.

[Absorbing the floor’s power completely.]

[Level up.]

[Level up.]

[Level up.]

[Level up.]

[Level up.]

[Moving to the Reward Room.]