The place where the light led me was as comforting as the light itself. It looked like a white blanket stretching all the way to the horizon.
Someone was already there. We made eye contact.
The Countess, the MA master who had the most coins in the Tower, stared back at me. With a cheeky grin, she offered a soft chuckle. “Welcome back, Death King. It’s been exactly ten days. No one is more trustworthy than a youngster who keeps his promises.”
The Countess was wearing traditional Indian clothing. Despite being extremely wealthy, she always wore a plain, monochromatic sari. In contrast to her clothes, the pattern of her fan was very flashy.
“Thank you. Um, how are the Sylvans doing?”
The Countess fanned herself, the golden arabesque pattern of her fan sparkling as she swayed it.
“Oh, don’t mention them, please. They became completely shameless while I was away! They had no idea how to manage their money, so I focused on teaching them that. Even though they’re elves, they can’t live by eating only blades of grass, right? But these guys fell in love with hoarding and counting money. Now everything is judged solely on whether it makes them money or not. They’re hopeless!”
The fate of the elves was truly tragic. Before my regression, they had become a bloodthirsty warrior species under the Fire Emperor’s rule, but now they had evolved into misers under the guidance of the Countess. Children really took after their parents.
I shrugged. “I think they just followed your teachings faithfully.”
“What? Who do you take me for? I just happen to view money as water. A loooot of water. It should fall like rain, flow like a river, and engulf everything like an ocean.”
“In short, you would like to shower with money.”
The Countess chuckled from behind her fan. “That’s correct. I can’t act all mysterious around you, can I? Anyway, when are the others going to show up? It seems like they lost their edge after things have gotten a bit better these days.”
“Aren’t you guys on good terms?”
“We’re on okayish terms. In the past, we made a fuss about being best friends or sworn siblings. After the Great Purge, we became quite distant. We became friends again only after you came.”
“Of course, I have always been good friends with some people.”
Sworn siblings... They’ve really been through a lot together.
Although I was confident that I was on good terms with my fellow Hunters, I was still in the dark about their history. I only recently found out about the childhood of Bambolina, the Inquisitor, so it got me thinking.
“Oh, yeah. I heard Miss Paladin is dating someone. Do you know who?” I asked.
“Hmm? Why do you want to know that?”
“I’m a little curious. She wears a helmet almost all the time. I kind of want to know if she wears her helmet when she goes out with whoever she’s dating...”
The Countess laughed. “I highly doubt it. You wouldn’t know about it, but the Paladin takes very special care of her hair. When she takes her helmet off, it looks amazing.”
“Yeah, her hair flutters like sun-soaked wheat. The reason she wears a helmet in the first place—”
The Countess and I turned toward the source of the funny sound. The Mirage-Walking Princess showed up, holding a pillow in her arms. Sweat dripped down her forehead.
“Sorry, sorry! I’m a little late because I was doing something related to the High Tower. Let’s see. Ah, you cleared the thirty-third floor. Are you done chatting?”
“Done chatting? We’re waiting for our colleagues right now,” I answered.
The princess tilted her head. “Huh? What do you mean? The others are waiting for you.”
“Ah... Ah, sorry. I forgot to tell you something, didn’t I? It’s been so long since I’ve been in charge of stages, so I forgot a lot of things. When I fell as a Constellation, my intelligence was nerfed too much. It’s almost like the Zrakua...”
What was she talking about? The Countess and I blinked at her, confused. Eventually, the princess snapped her fingers.
[The Mirage-Walking Princess is now announcing the eliminated champion of the thirty-third floor.]
I looked back at the Countess, who was also staring back at me. Eliminated champion? Didn’t everyone get through this stage without any elimination taking place?
The princess said, “If your species completely gives up on pursuing dominance or declines to the point where they can never aim to be the ruling species again, you will be eliminated. Simple, right? On the thirty-second floor, that was what happened to the Shellmounts, and on the thirty-third floor...”
[The eliminated champion of the thirty-third floor is the Countess.]
My eyes were as wide as saucers while the Countess’ jaw dropped to the floor. The Tower chose to announce once more, as if they were twisting the knife deeper into the wound.
“W-wait a minute! This is ridiculous!” the Countess countered. She was so flustered that her cat ears stuck out from her head. “Why did I get eliminated?”
“Umm, the Sylvans gave up on pursuing dominance. Since they’re your species, you are automatically eliminated. I understand how hard it is to accept this outcome, but I also have to follow the rules... Sorry.”
“This doesn’t make any sense! The Sylvans stayed quiet throughout this stage! They didn’t actively participate in the war nor did they use much of their power, so how can I be eliminated?”
“Well, you see, what actually happened is... Hmm... I’m too tired for this! See for yourself.”
A video started playing in the air. Did the Constellation decide on the funky sound effects? I could only describe that as crazy.
The video displayed several Sylvans having a meeting. Their long ears flopped around as they talked in shushed voices.
—Terras became monsters.
—I heard the legends, but I never thought they’re actual monsters.
—I thought the general lied because he didn’t want to take responsibility, but that wasn’t the case.
—Oh my god. Did you plant a spy in the expeditionary force? Traitor.
—Don’t call me a traitor. Only a fool wouldn’t have done that. What if the general on the expedition suddenly goes crazy and points his sword at us? I know you all planted spies of your own too. Don’t act innocent.
—We can’t trust others just because they’re also elves. Our faith is too expensive, and our existence too precious for that.
—Thanks to you freaking cuties, the spies had fun in our barracks instead of listening to their commanders. It’s only natural that the holy expedition failed.
I had once imagined how elves would elegantly talk among themselves. This was far from it...
—What should we do? The money spent so far to organize the allied forces has gone to waste.
—I thought about getting our money’s worth by using the Shellmounts as slaves.
—This isn’t the time to get our money’s worth. Terras becoming the ruling species is a problem. We’ve spent hundreds of years taking control of the Fingills, but some random bastards showed up out of nowhere and made a mess. It’s time to revise our grand plan.
Bewildered, I looked at the Countess. “MA Master... don’t tell me that...”
Obviously I didn’t think there was any way a multi-species alliance could be born from thin air. Still...
The Countess was just as embarrassed as me. “I-I just taught them one or two things about the economy.”
“And now they’re trying to manipulate the other species with money. What in the world did you teach them that made them end up as the masterminds behind the curtain...?”
“I didn’t mean for this to happen! I told you they became... strange. Come to think of it, this is their secret! Why are you showing this to the Death King?” the Countess asked, now directing her anger toward the princess.
Unbelievable. While I was raising the Terras with a pure heart, the Countess aimed for an economic victory behind the curtains. If I hadn’t seen this video, I wouldn’t have known about it until I cleared the fortieth floor.
Wow, now that I think about it, I also took the MA Master’s advice.
When the Terras were clashing with the multi-species alliance, the Countess advised me to negotiate in a way that was beneficial to all the seven species. I followed that advice and entered Uburka’s dream. In other words...
“MA Master, you tried to go for an easy victory using money... How did the Sylvans take over the Fingills in the first place? The general public doesn’t know this, I assume?”
“Damn. They didn’t take over the Fingills. They just teamed up. The Fingills live in water, so it’s difficult for them to build ships, but the Sylvans live in forests and are masters of woodcraft...”
“Oh my god. The ships that the Fingills used to trade are made by the Sylvans?”
The Countess groaned. “To be exact, the Sylvans lend them to the Fingills. The Sylvans own all the trade ships that the Fingills row. They pay a ship tax after every trade. And all ships rented from the Sylvans are required to dock only at ports managed by the Sylvans...”
“Eh, how is that possible?”
“If they dock at a Sylvan port, they get a thirty percent discount on ship tax. As a bonus, a free repair service is provided...”
“And the Fingills can swim endlessly in water, but they can’t actually supply salt to villages or cities on land. Therefore, the Sylvans are in charge of this.”
“If they take a Sylvan ship and use a Sylvan port, they will, of course, use a Sylvan wagon. After the Fingills work hard to make salt and deliver it to the ports... I’m guessing the Sylvans have fun with the distribution margins, right? The harder the Fingills work, the more money the Sylvans make, right?”
My mouth was left agape. This was a very evil business strategy. “MA Master.. You’re really... really... a real deal...”
The Countess huffed and puffed. “To make a lot of money, you have to dominate the distribution circle! I just taught my children the absolute truth. More than anything, I don’t want you to give me the stink eye ever again. You trained your Terras to become savage muscle pigs!”
“No, I just raised my children strong so that they wouldn’t get beaten up when they go out in the world. I did it out of the kindness of my pure heart.”
“Your pure heart? Your innocence shriveled up and died long ago! I just taught my children a little bit of the truth about the world so that they won’t have to work their bones off for the rest of their lives!”
“A child needs to know a little struggle to grow up properly!”
“And are my kids not struggling? Cut the bullshit!”
“Children these days are narrow-minded because of parents like you, MA Master!”
“Children these days have corrupted hearts because of parents like you, Death King!”
“Ah, you’re really stingy.”
“You really live up to your name.”
“What’s wrong with my name?”
“Gong-Ja sounds like a boomer name!”
The princess chimed in, “You guys are kind of funny. You two remind me of my mom...”
While the Countess and I were debating the philosophy of children’s education, the hologram video went on smoothly in the background.
—Shall we make the allied forces point their swords at the Terras now?
—No, that’s not worth the cost. The Shellmount had the Holy Land at least, but what do the Terras have anyway? Their settlement has nothing but mud, so what’s the point of conquering it?
—I heard that mud is good for your skin...
—Go all for it, beautiful. I’m not interested in that.
—We should surrender.
The Sylvan elders blinked. The Countess and I also stopped arguing.
—Let’s surrender. We can’t win by fighting or get anything from winning. There is nothing good to gain even after spending money. No matter what we do, our business will go bankrupt. We need a cheap way to close it down.
—Have you gone nuts? You want to close down the entire business?
—I’m only suggesting a new beginning. We offer our country to the Terras so that it will become their vassal state. In return, we ask for their protection.
—All the ships and ports we own will fall under the Terras’ control. The entire continent is scared of the Terras. If we sail and trade under their flag, we will be much safer than we are now. The Terras will be happy to have another species volunteer to be their vassal, and as long as they’re happy, they’ll trust us. We can use the reputation and power of the Terras almost for free.
The elders pondered the suggestion.
—So you’re saying we should give up.
—If we have to anyway, it’s more effective to do it as soon as possible.
—My pride hurts a bit.
—Use it to gain more money. It doesn’t really matter what we do as long as we can make money, right?
—We’ll pay a tribute to the Terras every year. If we tell them that we’ll give ten percent of our profits, they’ll be happy.
—Ten percent? Isn’t that too much?
—We can just give them one percent and lie that it’s ten percent. It’s okay. We don’t have an idiot in our species who can’t handle a double ledger.
I had never heard of elves using double ledgers in my life, but it seemed very natural to them. The elders quickly reached a consensus.
—Yeah, let’s surrender.
—All we have to do is become a vassal state.
—What do Terras like? Soil? Would they like it if we offered them soil mixed with gold powder?
—Under what justification would it look legitimate to surrender?
—The spies say that Terras are very savage and ignorant. We can just say that we love watching them flex their awesome muscles. If we pitifully add “Look. We have some money but got no muscle,” that should be good enough to work.
—Really? Do you think they’re that stupid?
—It’s amazing that such an idiotic species exists, but the more idiotic the Terras are, the easier it will be for us to mooch off them. Let’s just thank the heavens.
—Thank you, Great Cat.
—Even today, we mooch off idiots under your care, Great Cat.
—Please let us earn easy money tomorrow just like today, and let us mooch off our workers for as long as we can. Ship taxes, land taxes, logistics taxes, distribution taxes, warehouse taxes—let us continue to rake in all the easy money. Thank you.
The elders made a symbol in the air, seemingly the Sylvans’ holy cross. Seeing them bow made the sight seem quite sacred.
I was silent, and so was the Countess. Actually, she had no other choice but to stay quiet.
The princess flashed a bright smile. “Yup, this is how they surrendered. They really have no interest in hegemony, and they’re happy as long as they make money. From the bottom of their hearts, they want to leech off the Terras forever so they can live easy lives. Hmm, since they voluntarily gave up fighting for hegemony, they’re automatically eliminated. Do you have any other questions?”
“I have an objection!” the Countess screamed.
“Sorry, I don’t take objections.”
[The Countess has failed to clear the stage.]
[The Countess has been eliminated from the stage!]
The Countess became blurry, probably because she was getting teleported to the first floor.
“This isn’t fair! It doesn’t make any sense! I just taught them how to live easy lives, so why did they give up on hegemony? Power is the final destination of wealth, so why?”
“Sylvans aren’t greedy by nature. They learned the joy of making money early on, so they don’t need anything else, I guess. Like you said, they just want to live easy lives.”
The Countess extended her hand to me. “D-Death King, help me! Take my side. I can't accept being eliminated !”
“I’m sorry, MA Master. Honestly, I think you brought this upon yourself. I’m definitely not sulking after you called me a boomer. These are my honest thoughts...”
“Noooooo!” the Countess screamed before disappearing into a bright light. Her scream echoed for a while.
The next moment, the Sword Star, Black Witch, Viper, and the Paladin were summoned.
The Black Witch looked around. “I had to wait a bit this time too. Death King, did something happen?”
I shook my head. “Nothing really. Let’s move on to the next stage.”
I won’t forget the ridiculous reason for your elimination, MA Master. May a lot of coins be with you.