“Please let me come with you.”
“I knew you were going to say that.”
That woman already had a history of entering the Boss Room with me on floor 60.
She had not lingered near me, but she had stood in one corner of the Boss Room and screamed whenever I was in danger, which was distracting.
There had been a few occasions when she spotted the boss teleporting behind me and screamed, which actually helped…….
But those occasions were extremely rare.
‘If I could have stopped her by force, I would have done it long ago.’
I had to prepare to fight the boss, so physically restraining her was effectively impossible.
I did not even have anything like rope in my Inventory, so I could not tie her up.
“When the boss killed me, how did you get out of the Boss Room? Tell me.”
“…….”
The woman went pale, shut her mouth, and avoided my gaze.
Judging by that reaction, the boss had killed her too.
“Dying and coming back to life feels horrible every single time, does it not?”
Whether a monster killed me, a trap killed me, or I died screaming without even understanding why.
Dying and coming back to life was something I could never grow accustomed to.
Even now, whenever I revived, I felt like vomiting despite my empty stomach and clawing at wounds that were no longer there.
“B-But…….”
“Being killed by a person would feel even worse. Would it not?”
Neither she nor I had ever been killed by something that looked human, but it would probably feel as though a person had killed us.
That was likely exactly what those things had been designed to evoke.
“…….”
“Even being killed by a stranger would make you wonder why you had to die. Imagine how pleasant it would feel to die while looking at a familiar face. Right?”
“But if you kill the boss…….”
“Haah…….”
Why was this woman being so stubborn?
She had already seen what happened after a boss died.
Why was she acting like this?
“When the boss dies, both doors to the Boss Room open. You saw that last time.”
“That is true, but…….”
“And you still want to come inside with me?”
Why?
Why insist on putting herself in danger with me?
She could not fight, and she was not even useful during a fight.
“I will be grateful if you merely stay out of the way.”
The previous boss had obviously looked like a monster, so she had only screamed when I was in danger.
This time, she would undoubtedly scream even when the boss was the one in danger.
After all, it looked human.
Worse, it would probably look like someone she knew.
“Anyway, no.”
I already knew that people who refused to listen would not listen no matter how much I tried to stop them.
The only reason I bothered with this annoying argument at all was so I could later say, ‘I clearly warned you.’
‘I warned you, and you refused to listen. So everything is your fault.’
Someone even more shameless might ask why I had not tried harder to stop them, but this woman was not the kind of character who would go that far.
She would probably keep quiet and blame herself.
Or, ideally, she would do what I wanted in the first place and stay out of the Boss Room.
‘But she will not.’
If one or two warnings and one or two deaths were enough to break her stubbornness, she would already have given up after the previous Boss Room.
I took the key from my Inventory, and the door and key responded by glowing gold.
As the door opened with an even more grotesque noise than before, I took out my shield and spear and stared into the room.
“As expected…….”
Bosses tended to match the theme of the monsters on their respective floors.
Floor 50 had been unusual because all I had to do was stand still and wait, but even that boss had resembled the monsters from its floor.
“Is that a king?”
There was good reason to think so.
The inside of the Boss Room had been decorated like an audience chamber from a medieval fantasy, and the boss sat at the far end upon a throne, eyes closed, its chin resting on one hand.
It looked completely at ease.
It wore no crown, but the extravagance of its clothing made its high status obvious at a glance.
Not the status of the boss itself, of course, but of the person it was imitating.
“B……Brother…….”
Now that she mentioned it, did it resemble her……?
Like hell I could tell.
I could barely see its face from here. How did she recognize it?
I could tell even at this distance that it had the same blond hair as her, though.
“Are you sure? You did not mistake him for someone else?”
“Th-Those clothes…… are what my brother was wearing the last time we parted. I could never, never mistake them!”
“I see.”
All I could tell was that the colors were vivid.
How good were her eyes?
‘So the floor 70 boss is fixed in that form.’
The clothes looked remarkably clean and intact for something he had supposedly been wearing when she last saw him.
I would chalk that up to game convenience.
“But why is my brother there……?”
After everything she had seen so far, she should have understood immediately.
Perhaps she simply did not want to accept the truth, because she acted as though she could not comprehend it at all.
No matter how much she denied reality, the floor 70 boss would probably continue appearing as a Doppelgänger of ‘Exia von Grenesian’ from now on.
“Brother…….”
Had she believed he was still alive merely because his writing had appeared on a mural?
Or did she know better and simply choose to believe what she wanted?
“Haah…….”
I had barely sighed in frustration when the creature on the throne slowly opened its eyes.
Then it stared directly at us with vivid blue eyes.
[Are you those who would challenge the throne?]
“…….”
As expected, it looked human, but that voice was absolutely not a human voice.
I glanced at the woman.
She had gone rigid, visibly shaken.
[Or are you intruders who have disturbed my slumber?]
“Probably intruders.”
When I answered the boss, the woman went white and practically shrieked.
“W-Why would you say something like that?!”
Perhaps it had become a habit because the old shopkeeper and bosses were the only things I could talk to.
I could at least hold something resembling a conversation with the old man, but talking to a boss was little different from talking to a wall.
There was no point explaining that to the woman. She would only understand it even less, so I simply kept quiet.
[Is that so.]
Did it just respond to what I said?
Or was that merely part of some scripted exchange with itself?
The boss straightened its back and casually waved the hand that had been supporting its chin.
TING!
I reflexively raised my shield and, by sheer luck, blocked the incoming attack.
“Aah!”
I pushed the shield forward and charged toward the boss.
The moment I rushed down the carpet laid out as though to welcome visitors, the boss calmly waved its hand again and summoned a violent gust.
“Ugh.”
I was wearing iron armor and carrying an iron shield, and even my weapon was made entirely of iron.
Despite how heavy I was, the boss's attack sent me flying as though I weighed nothing.
[You shall never reach me with so little.]
Not if I could not get through that wind.
But it was not impossible.
“Inventory.”
For some reason, no shop had appeared on this floor, so I had been unable to sort out any of my items.
It had annoyed me at the time, but I never expected it to turn into a blessing in disguise.
I rapidly scanned the contents of my Inventory and pulled out anything that looked particularly heavy.
Excluding the Cursed Items.
[Such efforts are futile.]
It looked about the same age as the woman beside me, yet it spoke like the ancestor of someone's grandfather.
I put on every piece of metal jewelry I could wear and even donned a helmet that I normally avoided because it narrowed my field of vision.
If I could have, I would have carried multiple shields and weapons too, but with my abilities, I could only hold one thing in each hand, so I gave up on that.
[Struggle as you might, it is beyond your ability.]
The moment the boss spoke those words, I suddenly felt my body become buoyant.
At another gesture from its hand, the wind surged, and just as before, my body was helplessly swept along with the current.
“Fuck.”
A Curse?
If so, it was probably a Curse that reduced my body's weight.
A sudden drastic change in weight made it difficult to move properly.
Loading myself down with all those items had already been a gamble from my perspective, but now, no matter how cumbersome they became, I absolutely could not take them off.
If I removed too much by mistake, something as simple as stomping my foot might send me flying hard enough to plant my feet against the ceiling.
[You who dared awaken the King from his slumber. For your sin, you shall never reach this place.]
Its tone seemed slightly different from before.
Was I imagining it?
“Sin, my ass.”
The other bosses had also declared that I would never defeat them.
In the end, every last one of them had fallen to me.
Once I defeated them a single time, perhaps they were too embarrassed to keep saying such things, because they never used lines like that again.
“You are the one blocking my path.”
At that, the boss narrowed its eyes at me, then slowly raised one corner of its mouth in a sneer.
[Is that what you believe?]
Did it just ask me a question?
Something that had never happened before caught me off guard for a moment.
“Yes.”
In truth, I did not particularly care what the boss said.
After all, once these things died once, they tended to become much quieter.
[It was by your own will that you entered this place.]
That might be true for the man it was imitating and for the woman sniffling behind me.
“Not me.”
What kind of nonsense was that to say to a victim who had been sleeping peacefully before being dragged here?
Why not tell people summoned as otherworldly heroes that becoming heroes was their own choice while you were at it?
[Were you not the ones who made a wish to the Will that had slumbered for ages?]
“Hhk…….”
“Ah! You startled me.”
When had she gotten this close again?
She seemed to have been caught in the gusts too, so why did the wind have to toss us near each other instead of leaving us apart?
[You were also the ones who deceived the long-slumbering Will and made it accomplish what was nearly impossible.]
“Th-That is…….”
[And you were the ones who betrayed the Will that granted such a wish.]
At those words, the woman began gasping, unable even to breathe properly.
I had assumed she had been placed here for some reason, but I had not expected her to react this violently to the boss's provocation.
Her response was so intense that I almost wondered whether the reason she had insisted on entering the Boss Room was specifically so the Player could witness it.
‘Obvious enough.’
So the door had probably been created by this ‘Will’ after humans betrayed it, and all the monsters appearing throughout the world had probably been its doing too.
But the result of the wish it granted had been too tempting to abandon, so people had descended into the dungeon because they wanted that result, only to be wiped out except for this woman.
That was probably the background story of this game.
“So you brought all of this upon yourselves.”
Then was the Final Boss on the last floor this ‘betrayed Will’ the boss was talking about?
If the people of this world betrayed it, they could have dealt with their own mess among themselves.
Why drag an innocent third party into it and make him suffer through all of this?
[Even the power you wield now is a favor granted by the Will…….]
The boss, which had done nothing but sit there and flick its hand around, finally rose from the throne.
I had thought summoning wind with its hands was the only thing it could do.
[Those who repay favor with betrayal shall never defeat me.]
Its tone was as absolute as when it had cast the Curse earlier, so I tensed.
But no matter how much time passed, nothing changed.
The only difference was that the woman beside me had fainted and finally become quiet.
“What?”
Apparently, the boss also found it strange that I was still standing perfectly fine.
It spread both arms and shouted again.
[Those who know nothing but betrayal shall never defeat me!]
“…….”
[…….]
The creature froze with a baffled expression.
Was this my chance?
My altered weight and all the things strapped to my body still made it difficult to move, so instead of trying to close the distance, I hurled my spear.
Naturally, the boss knocked it aside with the wind.
[Who…… are you?]
The creature was so shaken that it dropped its pompous act entirely and pointed a finger at me.
“You said I was someone who knew nothing but betrayal.”
You even said it twice, so it must have been important.
[You are not.]
“You only realized that now?”
I had come from an entirely different world.
I had absolutely nothing to do with the grudges and debts of this place.
That was probably why its Conditional Curse did not work on me.
Was this why people were always summoning Heroes and the like to solve their problems?
From the perspective of the person dragged into it, the injustice was enough to drive anyone mad, but from the perspective of the people exploiting them, there probably was no faster or easier solution.
[Who are you, that you would side with those ungrateful traitors?]
Side with them, my ass.
This was simply the only path leading downward.
If there was another route, it was welcome to tell me.
“A victim who was dragged here against his will.”
Then I swung the new sword I had drawn at the boss, which was still standing there with a stupid look on its face.