NOVEL NEXT chapter 34
34 – The Grand and Beautiful Tower (7)
There was no feeling of resistance or traps being triggered.
I slowly pushed the door and entered inside.
“It’s just… a cabin?”
Liana glanced around and commented briefly.
As she said, this place looked like an ordinary human’s dwelling.
Soft sunlight streamed in through rectangular windows, illuminating the wooden floor.
The dust floating in the sunlight was serene, and on a slightly tilted table with a quaint tablecloth, there was a small cup placed.
Who lives here?
Could it be the owner of the tower?
But I don’t see that ‘ferocious dog’ anywhere…
“Hmm. However, a forest and a cabin inside a tower. It’s really strange. It’s definitely not an ordinary tower.”
“That’s right. Maybe it’s a magical tower or something like that.”
Liana entered completely and closed the door.
Suddenly, the inside of the cabin became dark.
It was because the sunlight that was coming in through the window had disappeared.
“What’s going on?!”
Liana screamed and clung tightly to my back.
“Don’t move away from my side, Liana.”
“Okay…”
I slowly walked towards the window and looked outside.
“Oh no.”
“Why? What’s happening?”
Liana came out from behind me and approached the window.
“Oh…! What happened…?”
The scenery outside the window was no longer the serene forest from before.
An endless expanse of barren wasteland stretched out, like a volcanic region.
“What’s going on…? What happened…?”
Thinking that some kind of illusion magic was cast on the window, I reached out my hand, but then I heard a loud noise from behind.
“Don’t open it!”
I turned around and saw a brown mass leaping down the stairs that connected to this floor.
I pulled Liana behind me and blocked the way.
“Stop!”
“Don’t open the window!”
A woman in a brown robe came running towards us, screeching, but she tripped over her robe and fell.
“Ugh… Don’t… open the window…”
“Step back.”
The woman crawled on all fours and slowly moved backward.
But her eyes remained fixed on the window.
“Who are you…? Are you the owner here?”
Liana, leaning her head forward from behind, asked.
“The owner? I wish I could find the owner too.”
The woman with short blue hair continued to glance at the window as she replied.
“Then who are you?”
“And who are you, saying that?”
I interjected and answered instead.
“We are travelers who received a request to retrieve the artifact inside this tower that suddenly appeared.”
“Travelers? A tower that suddenly appeared?”
The woman scratched her head, alternating between me, Liana, and the window.
She looked normal, but seemed to be lacking a bit in the head.
“Where did you appear from?”
“The Goda Viscountcy of the Tarda Kingdom.”
“The Tarda Kingdom? The Goda Viscountcy?”
As she continued to ask these strange questions, it seemed impossible to make progress in the conversation.
“Sorry, but it feels like we’re going in circles. Let’s start with proper introductions.”
“Introductions? Ah, yes.”
“I am Erga. This is Liana. As I mentioned earlier, we are travelers. We received a request and came into this tower.”
The woman who had been sitting on the floor stood up hesitantly.
“I am Kaita. I am a magician and came to investigate this tower, but I got trapped.”
“A magician? Trapped while investigating the tower?”
Oh no. I unintentionally imitated her way of speaking.
But I couldn’t help but ask without further questioning.
“For now… let’s make sure. We have no intention of harming you. And what about you?”
“Me neither. It’s just strange to meet people after a while.”
“Alright. Then let’s calmly have a conversation now.”
We sat at the table.
Meanwhile, Kaita kept glancing outside the window.
“I think I’ve told you everything about our side. If you don’t have any more questions, please tell us about your side.”
“I have one question. How did you manage to come in here?”
“I entered through the entrance of the tower and followed the dark corridor. When I came out of the corridor, I found a cabin in the woods and came in.”
Kaita wrinkled her nose and shook her head.
She seems agitated.
“That’s strange… There must have been trap magic in the corridor, so how did you manage to get past it?”
“Are you referring to the dimensional portal on the floor? I deactivated it.”
“You deactivated it…? Are you also a magician?! I couldn’t do it no matter what, so I just used levitation magic to get past.”
“No, I’m not. I just know how to use simple magic. And that trap magic was quite amateurish.”
Kaita’s ears turned red.
Riana poked my side.
“Eruga-nim… It would be embarrassing if I said I solved it easily when you couldn’t solve it.”
“Is that so? But it was really sloppy.”
Kaita rubbed his ears and said.
“Then, besides the corridor, was there anything else on the way here?”
“There was nothing.”
“I see… So, that means there are only you and me in this tower…”
The magician nodded his head from side to side again.
“If you have no more questions, please tell us about that side. We’re really curious about what this tower is.”
“Alright. I’ll tell you.”
* * * * *
Kaita is said to have come from a remote region called Leihis, which is very far northeast of the Tartha Kingdom.
It’s not his hometown, but it’s where this tower was originally built.
“If it’s a remote region, isn’t it the northernmost part of the continent? So, the tower was there? But now it’s landed in the Tartha Kingdom?”
Kaita nodded in response to Riana’s question.
“When I first entered the tower, it was Leihis, and when you all entered the tower, it was the Tartha Kingdom, so that must be right.”
“So, the tower really moved… But why did Kaita-san enter the tower?”
“For various research purposes. While doing that, I discovered this strange-looking tower and stepped inside out of curiosity.”
When there’s a perfectly smooth white tower standing in a land covered in snow, anyone would want to go inside and see.
Moreover, there were ancient characters written on the outer wall, so anyone who had an interest in this place would have entered without hesitation.
“There was a warning about a fierce dog on the outer wall. Is there a dog?”
“What?!?! It said that?”
“You didn’t know?”
“When I first discovered this tower, it was covered in snow, so I couldn’t see it…”
With that, Kaita’s eyes turned to the window again.
“I’m sorry, but why have you been looking at the window so much? And why has the view outside the window changed? Did you find something out?”
“To be honest, I’m just as clueless as you all. I followed a long corridor, found a cabin, and came in. And… I got trapped.”
“Trapped, huh…”
As soon as Liana closed the door earlier, the scenery outside the window changed.
“Does the outside change every time you open and close the door?”
“Yes! How did you know?!”
“Well… we closed the door when we came in too.”
“Oh, right.”
Although human wizards are known to be sharp, it doesn’t seem to be the case for everyone.
“Anyway, I have a question. Looking at the outside now, it seems to be some volcanic area. Is the tower moving, or is only this house moving? Or is it just the outside scenery that’s moving?”
“I don’t know. The only thing I’m certain of is that what’s outside is not an illusion from the window. If we go out now, we can go to that volcanic area.”
“Then, if one of us goes outside and closes the door, will we be permanently separated?”
“I don’t know. When I accidentally closed the door from the outside at first, I was able to come in properly. But how can I know if that cabin was really that cabin?”
That’s true.
It could be that the cabin before leaving has not changed into a cabin with the door closed, but with the same appearance.
If it’s the latter, then if I close the door from the outside now, I could completely separate from Kaita and Rihanna.
So, the most important thing for now is that the three of us must move together no matter what.
If any one of us accidentally closes the door while being separated, I don’t know what will happen.
“But Kaita, what was the scenery outside the window before we came in earlier?”
“It was a damp swampy area.”
“Really? So, when we first entered this cabin, it was a forest, right? There was a pond next to it, and deer drinking water.”
“That’s right.”
I see.
Whoever enters the cabin must pass through that forest without fail.
But the moment you enter the cabin, you enter a space separate from the forest.
But it was said that there was no welcoming magic on the window.
“Both of you stay here. I’ll just take a quick look and come back.”
“Erga-nim! Where are you going? What if the door closes?”
“I’m just going to open it from the inside.”
“Please be really careful!”
I walked towards the door, opened it slightly, and stuck my head out.
A dry wind accompanied by ash dust blew in.
“Hmm…”
Outside the door, there was only black sand and a few scattered volcanoes on the horizon.
The black corridor I saw in the forest was nowhere to be seen.
As expected, the entrance is that forest.
The cabin is also there.
But once someone enters the cabin, they start wandering through random places.
As soon as she closed the door, Liana screamed.
Looking out the window, a snow-covered mountain range spread out before her.
From the looks of the peaks far below, it seemed like the cabin was precariously perched on the highest peak.
“Miss Kaita. Is this where Rahees, who entered for the first time, is?”
“No. That place was a plain.”
“Then, has this landscape changed while you’ve been here?”
“I’m seeing it for the first time now.”
After thinking for a moment, she asked.
“How many times have you opened and closed the door since coming in?”
“Maybe… at least a hundred times?”
“Were all hundred times in different places?”
“Yes. Oh, and!”
Kaita exclaimed with a squeak.