Chapter 165

Donengarten was in complete chaos.

“What in the world is happening! Not once, but twice our tower’s defenses have been breached! I told you to keep our guard up thoroughly!”

“I-I apologize, Lord.”

“In that case, I will take matters into my own hands—”

“You absolutely must not!”

“But…”

“It’s too dangerous! The guards that were supposed to protect the tower have all collapsed, and those coming to check on them are fainting!”

“Hah…”

The Lord sighed, but his ministers stood firm. Soldiers stationed around the tower were falling unconscious left and right. Even worse, vague pale figures were popping up here and there, circling around the fallen like a bad omen.

There was no way the Lord could be sent near the tower in such a situation.

Meanwhile, watching all of this from a corner, Adelheid asked in a trembling voice.

“This must be the witch’s doing, right?”

“Seems likely, seeing those spirits everywhere,” replied Sophia.

“Can we handle the aftermath?”

“Hmm, probably?”

Adelheid grimaced at Sophia’s vague answer.

“But it’s strange. The witch usually avoids using necromancy in front of others. Why would she do it so openly this time?”

“There could be multiple reasons. She might think that since it’s such a rural area, word wouldn’t spread as much, or she could just bluff this time to protect her own image. Or maybe she just got too competitive and wanted to resolve this despite the risk. But more importantly…”

“What’s important?”

“Being around the Tin Knight could have twisted her sense of right and wrong. Like, ‘Isn’t this okay?’”

“……”

“Oh, please don’t tell her. I wouldn’t mind seeing her deny it passionately at first, then writhing in self-loathing later on.”

Adel nodded blankly.

***

Rapunzel quietly collected her breath.

She recalled the ‘operation’ conveyed through the Bone Mouse in her head.

『I’ll give you one last explanation before we start, so listen closely.』

『The ‘tower’ where you are is a different space from reality. Only those who meet specific conditions can enter, and we don’t have the time or energy to investigate those conditions in detail. But if you get hints from that side, then things change.』

『When the operation starts, swallow the jewel the mouse has. It contains my magical power, and by consuming it, my power will dwell in your body.』

『Leave a strand of your hair at the location the mouse indicates. This way, I can sense my magic within you.』

『However, once you swallow the jewel, we will lose the means to see your status here. You won’t be in a cozy situation to read anything. In other words, we won’t be able to communicate anymore.』

『I won’t say anything like ‘cheer up’ or ‘you can do it.’ We don’t even know each other that well. But this much I’ll say.』

『Do whatever it takes to get it done if you want to leave that place.』

Rapunzel looked down at the ground.

A Bone Mouse, whose presence had significantly weakened after handing over its jewel to Rapunzel, wrote with its half-erased tail like chalk.

『Let’s get started.』

“Hup.”

Rapunzel swallowed the jewel she held in her hand.

Any concerns about whether it was okay since it belonged to an undead creature were pointless.

Whether she starved to death, flew into a rage, or ended up in a more pitiful state, a bleak future awaited her anyway, so a little discomfort didn’t matter.

When she first placed it in her mouth, the jewel was hard, but by the time it reached her throat, it melted away like water.

At that moment, vitality surged within Rapunzel’s body.

Having gone days without proper food, she felt more invigorated than usual—no, even beyond her usual self.

With all her might, she kicked the door open.

Bang!

The iron door that had kept Rapunzel trapped crashed to the ground, and on top of it, the now short-tailed Bone Mouse leaped.

Rapunzel started running after the bone mouse.

Spinning!

The Bone Mouse spun around on a certain spot on the floor, and Rapunzel clenched the ends of her long hair, wrapping her hand in magical power.

As her hair was cut down to a length she could grip, she tossed it into the center of the circle created by the Bone Mouse.

Upon confirming this, the Bone Mouse dashed towards the staircase, and Rapunzel followed close behind.

The shape of each floor was jumbled.

One moment she’d think she was climbing to a place with four doors, only to find eight doors at the next level, and then later she’d find three popping up after moving up even when she had just gone down the stairs.

The spots designated by the Bone Mouse varied wildly as well—there were nothing but walls, between the stairs, and tightly locked door crevices—so Rapunzel had to scatter her hair while running around in true disarray.

Unsure whether things were going well or not, she had no means left to communicate with the mysterious ‘witch’.

Above all, the circumstances offered no room for Rapunzel to luxuriate in her worries.

Clang. Clang. Clang!

As the footsteps approached faster and faster, ‘they’ revealed themselves.

Armored figures with a mix of metal and leather, armed with spears.

They looked just like the guards you could find anywhere in Donengarten, but the problem was what they consisted of.

Where features like nose, eyes, or mouth should’ve been, there was nothing but unblemished skin, like black rubber.

It was clear they resembled humans only from a distance, and they chased after Rapunzel with a terrifying intensity.

Rapunzel couldn’t suppress her tension.

Those black guards weren’t particularly fast or strong.

During her first escape attempt, there had been a time when she took down one of them in a 1v1 battle!

However, they just kept coming in endless waves.

No matter how many she took down, new ones kept appearing from who-knows-where, and the longer her escape took, the more frequently they showed up.

‘They’ve never sent multiple ones out from the start!’

Rapunzel soon found herself cornered.

She’d already failed in the past when focusing solely on fleeing, and adding the restriction of having to head to fixed points as guided by the mouse only made it a foregone conclusion.

The Bone Mouse had dodged the soldiers initially, using its small size to its advantage, but when the soldiers began to throw themselves at Rapunzel instead of using their spears, its legs stopped moving.

The spears of the black soldiers pressed down on Rapunzel, covering some of her golden hair with what the mouse had just marked.

In that very moment…

Swish!

Without any warning, Rapunzel was surrounded by five soldiers, and their heads soon fell to the ground.

“Huh?”

Rapunzel didn’t quite grasp what had happened.

As she sat there dazed and looked around, the Bone Mouse flew over to her face and slapped her cheek.

“Eek!”

Smack!

“Hey, wait, there’s no need to hit me! …Let’s go together!!”

***

While Rapunzel was dashing around in the ‘tower of Donengarten’ in that alternate space.

Dorothea was busy supplying her power through the ‘tower of Donengarten’ in reality.

“Third floor! 11 o’clock!”

《Third floor, 11 o’clock! Third floor, 11 o’clock!》

With both hands gripping her staff, Dorothea plunged its end into the ground, her eyes were tightly shut.

Her gaze was not filled with the darkness beneath her eyelids but rather staring down the bizarre magic surrounding the entire tower.

It possessed a mass created from shadows. It was as if water was being held without a container. It was a rounded square without any edges. The weight of a cat’s steps.

If a typical wizard from the Empire was here, they would have been quaking in disbelief or lamenting that this was no magic at all.

It was only natural.

The magic they were accustomed to consisted of intricate formulas, precise diagrams, and logical propositions.

Since it was incredibly regular and rational, magic had become a ‘technology’ they could comprehend.

So it’d be like throwing them a paper scribbled on by a child and saying, ‘Interpret this,’ which would only infuriate them further.

However, Dorothea was different.

She was a Necromancer.

Plus, she was a witch.

Not a female wizard, but a witch carrying the heritage of witchcraft.

When magic hadn’t yet become a craft—back when it was still a mystic phenomenon.

Just like the witches in fairy tales who performed simple miracles in response to a weeping girl’s call, she unraveled the mysterious powers plaguing the tower.

“Second floor! 4 o’clock!”

《Second floor, 4 o’clock! Second floor, 4 o’clock!》

Each time Dorothea shouted, the skull at her feet mimicked her voice.

That very sound was likely echoed by the skull held by the Tin Knight as well.

As expected, from above her, a thunderous booming resonated endlessly.

If Dorothea hadn’t taken care to put everyone in the tower to sleep with her minions beforehand, there would’ve been absolute chaos.

“Fifth floor! 2 o’clock!”

《Fifth floor, 2 o’clock! Fifth floor, 2 o’clock!》

This was their work.

Dorothea interpreted Rapunzel’s ‘signal’ to give a rough direction, while the Tin Knight pierced through that point with his sword, and Dorothea’s magic flowed into that ‘gap’ like a wedge.

It was no easy task.

Correctly gauging the moment when two towers would connect and then inserting magic into the space after splitting it physically was something that ordinary people couldn’t even dream of.

Yet, for Dorothea and the Tin Knight, it was entirely possible.

Rumble!

The tower began to tremble.

They could feel the sorcerer’s disarray.

As the wedge expanded, the interwoven space began to right itself bit by bit.

The tower in reality and the tower in that alternate space gradually overlapped.

If things kept going like this, there’d be a potential for them to exert physical influence on each other.

As if to prevent that, the walls and ceiling of the first floor where Dorothea was shook.

Something like a black sludge began to ooze out, morphing into a soldier in armor, who charged towards Dorothea with a spear raised high.

Dorothea didn’t open her eyes.

Clang!

All that transpired was her staff glowing a green hue.

As if to declare, ‘I won’t allow anyone to lay a finger on my master,’ it cast a translucent barrier with a low hum.

The black soldiers multiplied, attacking Dorothea feverishly, but the staff greedily absorbed her magical power, enhancing the strength of the barrier even more.

The staff Dorothea had prepared to confront Alingd possessed the power to convert the user’s magic itself into defense.

Due to Dorothea’s sheer amount of magic, it didn’t reach complete conversion, but even the mere threshold of defensive power was enough to scoff at any ordinary castle wall.

Even if she wasn’t aware of it, the staff itself was growing, and that threshold was slowly rising as well.

Perhaps the sorcerer deemed that even decent attacks would be insufficient to defeat Dorothea, as he unleashed the strongest soldier yet, imbued with magic that matched the total power of all the soldiers combined.

A black soldier resembling a knight swung his sword—

Before he could even finish that sentence, the Tin Knight had unexpectedly appeared on the first floor, decapitating the black soldier.

The black soldier attempted to transform into mud to regenerate, but the Tin Knight was quicker, striking down with his sword from above.

Boom!

The attack was a clean cut, but the resultant explosion felt like it had taken a direct hit from a blast.

As the Tin Knight struck down his enemy, the sword wave swirled like a tempest, ripping through the interior.

It was a technique he seldom used against humans since it could terrify an apprentice (and even witches would frown at it if they didn’t pretend otherwise), but it was just perfect for dealing with a regeneration monster like this.

Lady, watching quietly from the side, swallowed hard, but the Tin Knight never even glanced in her direction.

[‘Tin Knight’ reports he briefly saw the form of a kid he had seen in a reflection!]

[‘Tin Knight’ says he cut them all down because he felt something strange might grab him!]

“If we can exert physical influence at this rate, it won’t be long—Hey! 5th floor! 5th floor! Move faster!”

[‘Tin Knight’ points out that as much as he understands even the shoddy commands perfectly, they have to tell him which way to go!]

“Straight! Go up the central staircase right away!”

[‘Tin Knight’ nods and takes off!]

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