Chapter 127
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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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Chapter 127
8. The Circumstances of the Strongest
The Tower Master carefully concealed himself behind the maze wall.
This place contained abandoned experimental magical beasts, so he had to move with extreme caution.
Thus, several days had already passed since entering the Grand Temple's maze, yet he still hadn't managed to penetrate deeper into the temple itself.
'The closer I get to the center, the more treacherous it becomes.'
The Tower Master let out a stifled groan as he activated a concealment scroll.
The concealment scroll was one of many he had personally crafted—never commercialized for the masses. Without it, he would never have made it this far.
'Aran, my daughter.... She must be inside.'
The Tower Master's eyes darkened as he thought of his daughter.
And his granddaughter weighed just as heavily on his heart.
'I couldn't even call myself her grandfather, couldn't shower her with all the affection I wished to give.... I've been so cruel to my own blood again....'
His granddaughter Namia Loapi—a girl he'd met as if by fate.
He'd never lifted her high in his arms, never given her a piggyback ride on his shoulders.
If only Aran had let slip even a single hint that she had a granddaughter....
He would have brought her to the Magic Tower at once and raised her without her feet ever touching the ground.
'And all I could offer my own granddaughter was a position as minister of some useless department....'
The Tower Master sighed deeply, his heart heavy with regret.
'Will I be able to see you one more time before I die, Namia Loapi?'
He wanted to reunite her with the father she longed for so desperately. To do that, he had to go inside.
That meant he too would have to stake his life.
'I will bring your father before your eyes, no matter what it takes.'
The Tower Master glanced up at the sky once and exhaled slowly.
'And I will keep your existence hidden for the rest of my life. You must remain blissfully unaware and live happily to the very end.'
Then he began moving his weary feet forward once more.
* * *
I entered the inner sanctum of the temple with almost absurd ease.
I stood in the center of a vast maze.
An enormous labyrinth designed to prevent unqualified intruders from approaching the temple.
Ancient script covered every wall of the maze densely. And I was exceptionally fluent in ancient languages.
'I became a minister precisely because I mastered ancient languages so thoroughly.'
I stared blankly at the ancient script written before me.
Prove your worthiness before the gods. If you seek the Thread of Aurodeuke, go right. If you seek the Cloth of Arastine, go left.
I had no idea what the Thread of Aurodeuke or the Cloth of Arastine were.
So I....
"Activate!"
It was a firecracker scroll. I hurled it beyond the maze wall and activated it—with a thunderous boom, several sections of the maze wall crumbled instantly.
Whether one understood ancient script or not, the result was identical. Brute force solved everything.
'My destination is the temple anyway. I just need to destroy everything as I head toward the center.'
The strongest had no need to navigate mazes. They simply destroyed them.
As I watched the maze walls crumble around me, a twinge of conscience stirred in my chest.
'These are ancient ruins, steeped in countless ages of history... Ancestors, I beg your forgiveness.'
But truthfully, the Emperor would arrive soon enough and demolish this entire place anyway.
I had witnessed Jayden manifest his special ability during the banquet. In the original narrative, Jayden's special ability was 'Imperial Servants' Healing'.
That's why, even when the High Priest's trap nearly killed me in the cave, he was able to heal himself and escape alive.
'Either way, the Emperor must have been healed by Jayden.'
No matter how severe Crown Prince Kiaros's Dark Age was, if the Emperor remained unharmed, the Gaejo Faction wouldn't be able to run rampant like they did in the original timeline.
'No, not the original story... just the future before I changed it. The book was merely a form to perceive the future, after all.'
The High Priest had been captured.
So the Emperor would soon manifest as a dragon and begin demolishing the Temple first.
I remembered how, fifteen years ago, the Emperor had instantly laid waste to all the monster habitats in the Southern Region.
According to the townspeople's rumors, an entire mountain had been blown away.
'Then the Grand Temple will be his first target. Whether it's the Tower Master hiding in secret or my father trapped as an experimental subject, they'll all die.'
So before that happened, I had to at least see their faces and, if possible, save them.
It was just as I was carefully crossing the collapsed maze.
"Grrrrrrrrgh...."
"Kyaaaah! Kack!"
I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly dry.
Massive monsters were slowly approaching me.
'What is this... did those Gaejo Faction bastards really release monsters into the sacred Temple maze?'
This was my first time seeing monsters this enormous and grotesquely shaped up close.
If these were Southern Region monsters, the Emperor surely eliminated them all back then....
Then these monsters had to be experimental subjects the Gaejo Faction had secured.
'S-so terrifying!'
I was absolutely petrified. This was a terror no fragile soul like mine could endure.
I wasn't built for combat—I was a desk person!
My hands trembling violently, I cried out in the weakest voice imaginable.
"A-activate!"
The strongest didn't need to be mentally tough.
Just obliterate the scary things quickly and be done with it.
In an instant, the attack scroll I activated rose suspended in the air.
"Kyaaaaaaah, I'm so scared!"
As my scream echoed, the monsters began to collapse.
The moment the magic circle activated, the monsters didn't even squeak before crumpling to the ground.
'My goodness....'
Was this what it felt like to be an Imperial Servant?
That sensation of the world being easy, of being able to destroy anything!
A feeling ordinary, fragile humans could never experience!
'Wow.'
I gazed at the heaped corpses of monsters and thought to myself.
If the real Imperial Servants saw me like this, they'd kill me on the spot.
If I had been a truly wicked villain, this world would have been beyond salvation.
Still, I need to find the Tower Master first. The experimental subject—my father—must be in the deepest part of this place.
If I keep destroying everything as I go, I'll run into them somewhere.
I'd never felt so unprepared before. But being unprepared didn't matter.
Walls can be destroyed, and monsters can be killed.
I habitually examined the corpses of the fallen monsters around me.
My body was that of the strongest, but my mind was still that of a bureaucrat. It was instinct to conduct a final review before submitting a report.
That was when I was meticulously checking through the pile of corpses.
'Hmm?'
Something felt off.
'What?'
Among the stacked monster corpses, I spotted something that didn't belong.
A large, furry creature lying quietly in a blind spot just beyond my line of sight.
It looked like an ordinary dog, except its size was enormous—like a hippopotamus.
'What is this? This familiar feeling of lacking strength and overthinking things?'
I furrowed my brow and approached it.
The eyelashes of the large dog, which had been playing dead with its eyes closed among the corpses, trembled slightly.
'Good heavens, this shameless creature, only looking out for itself while barely breathing!'
I approached the large white dog as if entranced.
'It's just like Namia Loapi used to be!'
The dog desperately continued to play dead even as I drew near.
If I hadn't examined the monster corpses, I would never have noticed it.
I observed the dog carefully. It lacked the scales or protruding fangs that characterized monsters.
'This isn't a monster—it's a real dog.'
It was simply large enough that I could ride on it.
Not a monster, yet this large, intelligent enough to play dead, and here of all places...
"You... you're an experimental subject."
These people conduct experiments on humans and monsters alike—there's no way they'd skip testing on dogs.
As I muttered, the tip of the dog's nose twitched slightly.
"Hey."
I stood before the dog and spoke.
"Since you're caught, get up."
At my gentle tone, the dog's eyelids fluttered.
"...Woof..."
Finally, the White Dog struggled to its feet. Its gentle eyes and cute features were striking, contrasted sharply by its massive size.
"If you want to live, serve me as your master from now on. Understood?"
"...Woof."
"Listen to what I say from now on. Try not to talk back if you can help it."
"Woof woof."
"Even if you have to put on a sullen face, just try anyway—even if it seems impossible."
"Woof, woof."
"All right then, let's get to work."
I rummaged through my bag and pulled out several scrolls. They were all things the Tower Master had given me.
"Take a whiff."
Most dogs had exceptionally keen senses of smell, or so I'd heard.
The Tower Master was likely somewhere within this maze.
I held the pile of scrolls up to the White Dog's nose.
"Now find him."
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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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