[And the fact that you knew about the door from the very beginning is suspicious in itself.]
“…….”
Had the question I asked to obtain information been the problem?
I carefully went back over everything I had asked him, but I could not figure out what might have given me away.
[Of course, it is possible that woman told you various things in an attempt to win your favor…….]
The old man had known about the door too, so merely knowing that it existed should not have been suspicious……
[But someone who struggled so desperately not to relinquish what she possessed would hardly have revealed something that important so readily.]
……Was knowing about the door itself the problem?
Then how had the old man known about it?
He was also the one who told me there were other doors besides the one on floor 100.
Why was knowing about the door suspicious?
Could that old man have come from the same country as the woman?
Or was he perhaps the author of the book she had mentioned?
No matter how curious I was, I had already reached floor 90. It was not something I could ask during this Run.
[Which means there must be something about you that made her willing to tell you about that door.]
“Who knows.”
It seemed more like I was simply the only person she could ask for help, so she had clung to me.
What his words brought to mind instead was the boss waiting on floor 100.
That bastard had acted as though he could obtain something from me even though there was absolutely nothing for him to gain.
[Did you perhaps promise that woman a future together?]
“Are you insane?”
My face twisted immediately at his ridiculous suggestion.
My reaction seemed to catch even him off guard.
[Ah, well……. My apologies.]
“Fine, as long as you understand.”
He coughed awkwardly and changed the subject.
[Judging by your questions about the door, I assume you intend to use the ‘Door of the Will.’ Why do you want to use it?]
“To go home.”
[Home?]
“The place where I originally lived.”
He stared at me as though he could not understand, then asked,
[You are not from the Empire?]
“I am from South Korea. Why?”
[…….]
He stared at me with a look that plainly asked where that was, then sighed and shook his head.
[Very well. Even if I assume all of that is true…….]
“You do not have to assume. It is true.”
[……In any case. Even if you return to your homeland, now that you know the door exists, what guarantee is there that you intend to use it only to return home?]
“If I use the door to go home, I will never be able to use it again. What does it matter what else I might want to use it for?”
There was no way an identical door existed on Earth.
And even if something like that did exist, the government would probably manage it or restrict access or something, so I would never be allowed anywhere near it.
[Even if that is true, you might suddenly change your mind and use it for something other than returning home.]
“No……. Haah…….”
There was no point insisting otherwise.
He could not fully trust what I said either.
I had not destroyed his head this time like I had in Normal Mode, but I had smashed everything except his head so he could no longer attack me.
He knew that too.
All either of us could do was laugh.
We both laughed.
[Very well. You and I both have something to gain from the other, yet our mutual distrust prevents either of us from making a choice, and time merely passes without progress……. Perhaps we need something binding to make that choice trustworthy.]
Did he actually have a method?
I stared at him silently.
He raised one of the few fingers he still had and began drawing something on the floor.
“What is that?”
A brown liquid leaking steadily from his body traced the path of his finger.
[It is a Magical Pact.]
After saying only that, he concentrated on drawing.
He made a circle around himself, another circle of equal size opposite him, then a much larger circle surrounding both so that the two smaller circles sat near its edges……
What he eventually completed looked like a Magic Circle.
Even if it did not look like one, he had called it a Magical Pact, so it was probably a Magic Circle.
[Whew. You only need to enter the empty circle over there.]
“…….”
I stared at him, silently telling him to explain further.
Apparently mistaking my look for suspicion, he frowned and began rambling.
[Are you afraid I set some kind of trap? Well, you seem almost completely ignorant of Magic, so I suppose that is understandable. Would you believe me if I swore upon the King's name?]
“It is not that I do not believe you.”
Even if I had distrusted him, I could generally believe what these creatures said when they swore upon the King's name, as well as anything directly concerning the King.
Every boss I had encountered seemed reluctant to lie while invoking the King's name.
The same probably applied to Magic, since the King was supposedly its origin.
[Then why are you standing there?]
“You need to explain it. I know almost nothing about Magic.”
[Ah.]
He looked at me as though he desperately wanted to sigh.
[You can use Magic, can you not?]
“I only know the Magic I know. So explain exactly what this is.”
Everything I knew had been learned through Skills in the first place.
He stared at me as though I had said something bizarre.
[Should the name alone not give you a general idea of what kind of Magic it is?]
“I still want a proper explanation.”
[……Whew.]
He was probably thinking, ‘I cannot believe I have to explain something this obvious.’
“You should always read the instructions before using something.”
Of course, lingering distrust of him was also part of why I had not entered the circle yet.
[Yes. That is fair.]
He sighed once more and tapped the floor.
[A Magical Pact is Magic used when two parties wish to exchange something they desire from one another. Much like our present situation.]
I wanted information on how to use the door.
He wanted me to bring the woman within his reach and hand her over.
[Each side provides what was promised, and if either fails to uphold their promise, a predetermined Penalty is imposed immediately.]
He had made it sound grand by calling it a pact, but it was basically a magical contract.
A contract that used a Magic Circle and spoken words instead of paper and writing.
[Moreover, because the Magic is formed through mutual consent, it cannot be established if even one of the people who would be bound by it refuses.]
“Could we not just write a contract on paper?”
[Paper can be burned, soaked in water, or torn apart. Magic is more reliable because it can never be destroyed.]
“Magic disappears when the person who cast it dies.”
At my words, his face twisted into a mocking expression.
[You need not worry about that with a Magical Pact. It was designed with that possibility in mind. Once completed, it remains in effect regardless of whether the Caster or the Target ceases to exist. And once the pact is formed, neither party can later decide to pretend it never happened.]
Was that why he had suggested this Magic?
So the contract would remain in force even if he died?
[Now, I have explained everything about the Magical Pact…….]
Apparently dissatisfied that I still had not entered the circle, he glanced between me and the empty circle.
“Before that, should we not decide exactly what we are agreeing to through this Magical Pact—or Pact Magic, whatever it is?”
[……It is a Magical Pact. And as I just explained, the pact cannot be completed without mutual consent.]
“Better to make sure. I told you, I know nothing about Magic. There was no Magic where I used to live, so I am not even certain whether I should trust everything you say about it.”
[You came from a place without Magic?]
He immediately looked me up and down as though I were lying.
[You claim to come from a place without Magic, yet you possess Mana and use Magic…….]
“Yeah. I came here and suddenly I could.”
Maybe this place had given me Magic to make things fair when everything I met used it.
Or maybe it was because I had become a game character.
I did not know.
He stared at me suspiciously for a while before speaking with a sigh.
[Very well. Let us assume that is true.]
“Then we can decide the terms here first, right?”
[……Whew. Do as you please. And it is a pact, not a contract.]
Was that distinction really so important?
“Fine. A pact.”
[What I shall give you is everything I know about the ‘Door of the Will.’ Naturally, only insofar as it pertains to the questions you ask.]
“Everything you know about the door?”
That was far more than what he had originally offered.
I certainly did not dislike it, but since he was the one offering more without being asked, I immediately wondered what he was planning.
Seeing my suspicious look, he gave a dry laugh.
[What? Are you wondering what I am plotting?]
“…….”
[It is simple. Once I use this Magic, I doubt I will be able to use it again. Since you have continued asking questions related to the door, I merely assumed that anything else you wished to ask would concern the door as well.]
There were things besides the door that I wanted to ask him about.
The King, for example……
But I doubted he would agree to bind himself with a pact over that.
[Therefore, I thought it would be better to combine everything into a single pact.]
He made it sound as though he were doing this entirely for his own convenience, but those terms were actually much better for me.
[In exchange, you will bring that woman within the range where I can affect her, and no matter what I do to her, you will not interfere.]
“…….”
He did not remember what had happened in Normal Mode, so apparently he thought I might interfere with his revenge after handing the woman over.
He was not entirely wrong.
The thought of watching what happened in Normal Mode happen again right in front of me……
[Even if you truly have no relationship with that woman, surely you have received something from her. It would be difficult to simply stand by while something unpleasant happens to her. That is why I offered everything I know about the door from the beginning.]
Received something from her?
All I had received was plenty of useless worldbuilding explanations, along with an incredible amount of interference that got me injured and killed repeatedly.
[You may believe the terms are insufficient because you know little about the ‘Door of the Will,’ but once you learn more about it, you will realize they are actually extremely favorable to you.]
Even now, I thought he was offering more than enough.
But the certainty in his voice that there was something I did not know stirred my curiosity.
“Really?”
[As the name suggests, the ‘Door of the Will’ is a door created through the power of the ‘Will.’]
The ‘Will’ again.
Every time I almost forgot about it, that ‘Will’ appeared again.
It seemed extremely important.
At the same time, I had a strong feeling that digging into it more deeply than necessary would become incredibly troublesome.
[Well?]
It was suspicious that he was treating me this favorably without any order from the King.
Still, there was no reason to refuse something freely offered.
At worst, the only thing he could take from me was my life, which had already lost much of its scarcity thanks to this endless Regression.
“Fine. We have decided what each of us wants. Now we choose the punishment?”
[Punishment? Ah. You mean the Penalty imposed if the pact is broken.]
“Yes. If we choose our own, someone could deliberately pick something they would not mind suffering.”
[That could simply be entrusted to the ‘Will’…….]
“To the ‘Will’?”
What, was it some kind of random punishment box?
But he ignored my question completely.
[Very well. We can do it that way.]
“Then should I choose yours first?”
[The Penalty I would receive.]
When I nodded, he tilted his head as though inviting me to speak.
Making him wager his life would be meaningless.
He was already dying now, for one thing.
And I could meet him again on floor 99.
If I died and came back to life, he would revive too.
Even aside from that, he had apparently wished for a way not to die from the King, so there was a high chance he possessed some other method of survival.
And even if he truly died permanently, he seemed satisfied merely by having been able to use his abilities.
Risking his life might not make him feel compelled to keep the agreement.
‘What kind of Penalty should I choose?’
When I took too long thinking, he urged me on.
[Did you not already have something in mind when you suggested this?]
“I have an idea. I am just wondering whether it is acceptable.”
When I deliberately sounded hesitant, curiosity entered his eye.
[Say it first.]
“If you give me false information or deliberately fail to explain something properly, everything living in this dungeon dies forever.”
He frowned for a moment.
Unexpectedly, however, he nodded without much resistance.
Did he simply not care because once this deal ended, his own objective would already be accomplished?
[Very well. I do not understand why you would choose a Penalty that does not affect me directly, but…….]
Because I did not know what he personally valued.
But there was one thing I did know.
“Ah. Naturally, that includes that King of yours too. You understand that, right?”
The King mattered to him, even if not as much as he mattered to the others.
[What?! You dare involve the King in a pact between the two of us?!]
Got one.
I grinned and asked,
“Why? Were you planning not to keep your promise?”