Ch.222[Chapter 222] Variable Appears

Sir Dominic went down to the first floor guided by Catherine.

According to the testimony of the maids on the second floor, they had apparently seen that strange creature going down to the first floor.

“…Sir Dominic?”

“What is it?”

Sir Dominic wouldn’t stop smiling.

Whether that smile was due to happiness from excessive combat, or joy at being able to avenge those who died at the Vandrich Fortress, Sir Dominic continued to smile.

“By any chance, where is the princess? I remember she was with you.”

“Princess?”

Sir Dominic questioned Catherine’s words.

“Ah.”

Sir Dominic nodded.

He realized that the word “princess” referred to Mary.

“Mary was on the third floor. Since she was in spider form, she avoided falling by sticking to the ceiling… but I don’t know what happened after that because I fell to the second floor.”

Sir Dominic kindly explained the situation to Catherine.

“Was she injured?”

“Well. When I was watching, there was no ceiling collapse or flying debris.”

“Then there’s a high probability she’s fine. That’s fortunate.”

Catherine’s shoulders relaxed slightly as if somewhat relieved.

Sir Dominic stared blankly at Catherine, then asked her as if curious.

“What exactly is Mary’s identity? Why is she in this tower, and why does she seem to be on bad terms with you all?”

“…I see. It seems the princess hasn’t told you everything yet.”

Catherine continued speaking without looking at Sir Dominic.

“I don’t know how much you’ve heard, but first, I’d like you to know that we are favorable toward Princess Mary.”

“Favorable?”

Sir Dominic asked back as if puzzled.

“You seemed to be on bad terms with each other.”

Sir Dominic remembered the tension between Mary and Catherine on the fifth floor.

“Well, that’s because the princess didn’t properly observe etiquette.”

Catherine spoke as if it were obvious.

“Princess Mary may not like us very much, but even so, etiquette must be observed. The law is the law.”

“His Majesty seems to like the princess that way- no, never mind,” Catherine let her words trail off.

“Why is Princess Mary imprisoned?”

Sir Dominic asked Catherine again.

“The princess said she was kidnapped by the Butcher King and imprisoned in this dungeon… this spire.”

“That’s half true.”

Catherine nodded.

“But it’s not something that can be explained so simply. It’s because of a secret agreement between the king of the Merchantide Kingdom and our lord at that time.”

“Secret agreement?”

Sir Dominic asked.

“Do you know this?”

Catherine momentarily stopped walking and looked at Sir Dominic with a serious expression.

“That before Gacharland, countless worlds were created and disappeared.”

Sir Dominic silently looked at Catherine.

Catherine’s eyes contained fear, regret, anger about something, and resignation.

“To be precise, it would be more accurate to say that numerous worlds are still being created even now. They could be Oriental-style, traditional fantasy, or deal with the distant future or alternative history.”

Catherine paused briefly.

And after taking a weak breath, she began speaking again.

“Our world had a JRPG setting. Yes, it was an RPG world that proceeded in turns. A world where everything was determined by the speed of the loading bar next to the character description window. That was our world.”

“Princess Mary was destined to become a trophy wife in that world. Yes, a world with predetermined fate. Some call it a yoke. A fate where when the hero defeats the final boss, she immediately falls in love and is given to the hero as a reward.”

“But two bugs occurred in our world. Very fatal bugs at that.”

“…One was a bug where the hero crashed right before the ending, and the other was a bug where the final boss, the Butcher King, spoke the hero’s lines.”

“But that wasn’t the problem. It was just a bit of… a trigger,” Catherine muttered.

“Do you know the fate of a game that doesn’t sell?”

Catherine stopped there and fell silent.

As if she wouldn’t speak until Sir Dominic answered.

“…I don’t know.”

Sir Dominic shook his head.

The Feralant that Sir Dominic knew wasn’t a game, after all.

At those words, as if she had expected that answer, Catherine said to Sir Dominic:

“It’s forgotten. Its value disappears. In Gacharland terms, it becomes a state of such worthlessness that it cannot escape death.”

“1,200 copies. That’s how many sold. In fact, 1,000 of those were bundled and distributed as free supplements,” Catherine said.

“Fortunately, the Unborn President was one of the few who happened to like our world. We were lucky. To catch the eye of such a great person.”

“In the end, part of our world was able to survive in the form of an Easter egg. That’s the beginning of this dungeon.”

Catherine caressed the vintage wallpaper with her hand.

“His Majesty is quite clumsy. He’s awkward in expressing love. The way he chose to protect the person he loves was to kidnap her, then stand at the entrance of the spire to eliminate intruders, all while setting up his quarters in the farthest place because he was afraid to directly see that the princess hated him…”

Catherine stopped walking in front of a door.

And she turned elegantly to look at Sir Dominic.

“Yes. If you ask why the princess is imprisoned in the spire, you could say it’s because of His Majesty’s clumsy love.”

Catherine opened the door.

It was a space with portraits of both a tall man in armor and Princess Mary, with well-maintained baby shoes and colorful traditional jackets displayed here and there.

“This is my room. Yes, the boss room. But we don’t have to fight. I’ve already admitted defeat. The reason I came here is because this is the only way to the first floor.”

Catherine blurted out her words like a machine gun, afraid that Sir Dominic might attack.

Fortunately, Sir Dominic had other questions arising from Catherine’s words, so he had no intention of attacking her.

“Then why does everyone… have such distorted appearances?”

Sir Dominic asked Catherine.

“I’ve seen Mary’s original form.”

“On the third floor?”

“Yes. On the third floor.”

Catherine nodded at Sir Dominic’s words.

“As you say, we weren’t monsters from the beginning. Before Chef Andre transformed into Entrée and Entry, he was a chef with a generous impression who, though lacking, had excellent cooking skills. The siblings John Doe and Jane Doe were actually a single actor who played the twins John and Jane in the royal theater troupe. Even I, though I have this body now-“

As Catherine slightly lifted her long skirt, there was a pointed, thorn-shaped metal prosthetic leg.

Sharp daggers and stilettos hung from holders attached to the prosthetic, and cylinders and gears could be glimpsed through the splits in the prosthetic.

“I too was originally an ordinary nanny. An aging nanny at that.”

Catherine lowered her skirt again.

“Everything originated from down there, from the cursed hourglass.”

“Cursed hourglass?”

“Also called the sword with reversed handle and blade.”

Catherine manipulated something and then tapped the floor a couple of times.

Then the carpet on the floor was pulled back, revealing a door leading to the first floor.

“It was one of the artifacts possessed by the hero. Its original name is Save and Load. Also known as Regression.”

Sir Dominic’s eyes widened.

If it was regression, wasn’t that exactly what he had experienced recently?

Could such a tremendous power be hidden in the basement of this dungeon?

“If you ask why it’s called an hourglass, it’s because the sword transforms into an hourglass shape when using that power. If you ask why it’s called a sword with reversed handle and blade, it’s because that’s its usual form.”

Catherine looked at Sir Dominic.

And with a bright smile, she shared an interesting fact with Sir Dominic.

“But interestingly, although that power has been used by many people, it has never been used even once.”

Sir Dominic offered his own answer to Catherine’s words.

“…You mean it’s fake?”

“No. It activated properly. And they succeeded in changing the past. But paradoxically, this power has never been used even once.”

Sir Dominic felt his already confused mind becoming even more chaotic.

Whether knowing Sir Dominic’s feelings or not, Catherine smiled brightly and said to him:

“Well then, let’s go down to the first floor now. According to the maids, that… Slaton Vex you mentioned seems to be down there.”

Sir Dominic looked at the stairs leading down to the first floor at Catherine’s words.

Although complicated thoughts were swirling in Sir Dominic’s mind, in an instant, he shook off all those distracting thoughts and focused on just one thing.

That single purpose was to defeat Slaton Vex.