Ch.90The Great Blood Tower (Interlude)

“What do you think?”

“About what?”

“You beat me.”

After returning to the office, I had come to her room under the pretext of having a chat with Eterna.

While drinking the tea that the secretary had served and looking around at the magically open space, Eterna called out to me.

What do I think…

“Well… I’m not sure.”

Since I had entered the fight assuming I would win anyway, I didn’t have much to say when asked what I thought about it.

I’m not the type to get excited about something that was expected.

“For someone who just defeated the strongest person in the Magical Kingdom, you look awfully calm.”

She doesn’t seem to know what I’m really thinking.

“Well… I’ve already defeated the Demon King who was going to destroy the world, so this isn’t much.”

I gave her a different answer.

She might get hurt otherwise.

“So you’ve decided not to hide it anymore.”

I nodded at Eterna’s question.

“Actually, you already knew about me anyway.”

At first, I had concealed my identity.

Even to Eterna, I had introduced myself not as Count Vladimir but as someone like his successor, thinking that would be sufficient.

But that wasn’t the case…

“How could I not know? From the moment you became a Transcendent, all Transcendents became aware of your arrival.”

“…So you knew that I, Count Vladimir, had become this body.”

“That’s right.”

Eterna rested her chin on her hand while lying on the bed and chuckled.

“Well… that’s quite something.”

*sip*

“So? Are you enjoying life as a young girl?”

*PFFFT!*

“Wha-what… *cough* *cough*… What are you saying?!”

“Count Vladimir… you were originally a man, weren’t you?”

I was left speechless at her words as she giggled.

It was true.

I was originally a man.

I just became a woman when I became a Transcendent.

“How did you figure that out too…”

“Like I said earlier, when someone becomes a Transcendent, we all know who became one… so I could tell that Count Vladimir, whom I respected, had become a Transcendent.”

“…”

So that’s how it happened.

I let out a sigh.

“I don’t know much about living as a girl. As soon as I transformed, I became the Magic Tower Master and focused on revitalizing the Blood Magic Tower.”

“That’s a shame. For someone who claims that, you seem to be quite popular.”

I glanced away as she chuckled.

As she said, my popularity was tremendous.

Especially in the Blood Magic Tower.

I had seen various things being posted, but I avoided looking at the extreme stuff because I might lose my affection for the Blood Magic Tower if I did.

Though I hadn’t seen it directly, wasn’t there even a book circulating somewhere depicting me doing… certain things?

I don’t know why anyone would draw such things about this frail body, but at the time I figured it was fine as long as it brought money to the Blood Magic Tower.

I even told the Iron Tower they could sell as much as they wanted…

They were delighted with my permission and sold even more enthusiastically.

“Well… it is my body, but it doesn’t really feel like mine.”

This body is definitely mine.

I’m the one moving it right now, aren’t I?

It’s just that I didn’t live in this body for a thousand years—I just woke up one day with a changed body, so it feels a bit confusing.

Even that confusion has mostly faded since I’ve been living in this body for quite some time now.

“Still haven’t opened the Transcendent Forum?”

“I haven’t found a way to open it.”

‘I thought it would be in the status window, but it’s not there…’

Naturally, I first looked for the status window since these things are usually found there.

But when I actually opened the status window, there was nothing.

Most things were still unrecognizable, and nothing had particularly changed, so I eventually gave up searching.

“I still think it must be somewhere in there…”

Unlike me, who was expecting it not to be there, Eterna seemed to think otherwise and told me to look more carefully.

Even if she says that, how am I supposed to find it?

I opened the status window again with a sulky expression.

The game UI appeared.

A place I hadn’t checked…

‘…What’s this?’

There it is.

There was something like an event window or announcement board in the corner that I hadn’t noticed before.

Notice board? I could tell it was related to announcements from the megaphone icon.

‘Could this be it…?’

Honestly, there wasn’t anything else.

But I couldn’t help but be skeptical.

The Transcendent Forum, of all things?

Accessing it this way…

‘Hmm…’

It would have been more normal if simply thinking about wanting to access the Transcendent Forum would grant entry.

But you never know.

In fact, I was starting to wonder why I hadn’t tried clicking this before.

‘It was tucked away in a corner, so it’s understandable that I missed it…’

Usually, announcements appear prominently when you first start a game, but after that, they’re hard to find unless you dig deep into the settings.

It’s not something easily found, like the saying “it’s darkest under the lamp.”

I was glad to have found it now, at least.

If opening this would really allow me to enter the Transcendent Forum…

‘Should I click it…’

It was impossible to resist such temptation…

I pressed the megaphone icon.

Then,

“Oh…”

A UI event window appeared before my eyes.

As the announcement and event window popped up, I made an expression that said “I knew it.”

“I knew it wouldn’t be anywhere else…”

Eterna’s smile deepened as I spoke as if I had expected this all along.

“Do you really think so?”

“Of course… what else am I supposed to click here?”

“I wouldn’t know. Unlike you, I can’t see it directly.”

At Eterna’s words, I frowned slightly and fell into thought.

I had already searched everywhere else.

I had tried various methods to open the forum and actually implemented them, but nothing worked.

At this point, this announcement board full of notices was the only option left.

If I couldn’t find it here, I might never find a way to access the Transcendent Forum.

‘Is it really somewhere in here?’

I had no choice.

I’d just have to click through everything.

As I was about to do that…

‘This is…’

The second item was a window describing a space where users could communicate with each other.

In games, this would typically be a portal to something like a fan cafe.

It was common in gacha games.

‘Could it be…’

Is this it?

As soon as I had that thought, I clicked on the window.

[Transcendent Forum]

I successfully accessed the Transcendent Forum.

‘Huh?’

Really? This is it?

“I-I did it…”

“Hmm?”

“The Transcendent Forum… I successfully got in…!”

Finally.

After becoming a Transcendent months ago, I finally accessed the forum that only Transcendents could use…

If I had known I could access it this way, I would have done so much earlier. I was too focused on looking elsewhere when I could have found it with just a bit more effort.

Eterna doesn’t have a game system, so she accessed it differently, while for me with a game system, this method was more natural.

“I wonder what the Transcendent Forum is like…”

When you think of Transcendents, they’re mostly beings who have transcended biological limitations.

One might think there would be constructive and good conversations… but…

‘Just looking at Eterna, I can tell that won’t be the case…’

Considering Eterna’s mischievous nature, I was certain that normal posts wouldn’t be the norm.

“Phew…”

After briefly looking around, I was relieved to find that it wasn’t much different from reality, as I had expected.

If, contrary to my expectations, the discussions here had been constructive and respectful, I would have been too shocked to sleep.

This is what a forum should be, this is what a community should be.

I believed in the forum users…

“You seem… familiar with this kind of thing.”

“I got used to it through TowerInside.”

“Hehe… that makes me happy.”

TowerInside… I really think it was well-made.

Although it might not seem like a serious program on the surface, it was no exaggeration to say it was one of the core elements of the Magical Kingdom.

As someone familiar with forums, I explored the Transcendent Forum, which was surprisingly similar to the forums I knew, clicking my tongue in amazement.

That’s when I saw it.

[Uwung, today is really an exciting day-sio!]

“…”

This speech pattern…

It seems familiar, like I’ve seen it somewhere before.

Looking around a bit more, I could tell it was someone from the mage faction.

[Meteor is indeed an ice magic-o…]

[If you disagree, I’ll send a Meteor your way-ae-o!]

I silently turned to look at Eterna.

Eterna tilted her head.

She had a somewhat blank, mysterious appearance.

It doesn’t match at all.

‘That can’t be right.’

I must be thinking incorrectly.

Surely that’s the case.

Surely…

‘Why do my eyes keep going back to it?’

Is it just my imagination that my gaze keeps returning to it?

I want to believe it’s not her.

Hmm.