WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Irevi
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◈ Alone Against the Tower ◈
Chapter 98: Eleanor
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The alliance of the Three Major Powers and the raid preparations proceeded very smoothly.
The Kingdom Army soldiers and the High Elves grumbled fiercely at each other, but only for a while.
After seeing the Serpent Dragon radiating an aura as though it were about to devour the world, along with the lesser creatures appearing around it, they understood the severity of the situation.
This was no time to glare at each other in opposition. If they did not do something about that serpent, the world truly would be destroyed.
Of course, nothing could be done about each individual's feelings, but they no longer seemed likely to fall apart in the face of such a great crisis.
Anyway, there was one hour until the World Boss resumed activity.
Numerous emplacements had been set up a short distance from the fortified Dark Elf village. Weapons were deployed at each one.
There were around eighty Magic Cannons, enhanced to their maximum by pouring every bit of Enhancement Materials and Gold from my inventory into them.
There were around twenty makeshift mana artillery batteries built with High Elf arcane magic.
There were over fifty ballistae, the Dark Elves' weapons of war. Every one of these weapons had been given double elemental enhancements.
On top of that, I enhanced all the equipment and weapons remaining in my inventory to their maximum and distributed them among the troops.
The arms and armor additionally crafted by Erwen and the other blacksmiths were also assigned to the right people, increasing our fighting strength.
Naturally, those weapons were all given double elemental enhancements as well. I also handed out consumable potions to each person.
That left me broke.
Even the enormous amount of resources I had piled up in my inventory had begun to run dry once I committed to arming an army.
All that remained in my inventory now were potions for this battle and a couple of equipment sets for switching.
With the mindset that it would be over if we could not win here, I invested every resource I had.
“Good grief, I can finally rest. If you told me to do that twice, I'd rather die.”
As I inspected the equipment, Erwen groaned. They had been hammering away without rest this entire time.
“Rest now. Whether we win or lose, there won't be a next time.”
“I suppose that's true.”
“Eleanor is going to fight too, right?”
Erwen slowly nodded at my question. Eleanor had barely shown herself while we prepared for the raid.
Of course, that did not mean she had holed herself up alone in the castle. I had seen her from time to time.
She had searched the archives for ancient Dark Elf spells and arcane magic, then passed them on to the Mages.
She had also displayed her leadership on site, directing the raid preparations so they could proceed swiftly.
I had only watched from afar, but Eleanor, moving out of responsibility and duty, truly seemed like a queen.
Still, I had not seen much of the Eleanor I knew. It felt as though her mind was elsewhere.
“So she says. The battle preparations are nearly done anyway. Why don't you go see her?”
Erwen, who had been quietly studying my expression, made the suggestion. After hesitating briefly, I nodded.
Whether the raid failed or succeeded, this would probably be the last time I saw Eleanor.
* * *
When I entered the royal castle, I saw Eleanor looking outside from a shadowed window.
Eleanor stood there with vacant eyes, then sensed my presence and turned her head.
“I came to check whether you were ready.”
For some reason, I said it like I was making an excuse. Eleanor smiled faintly and nodded.
“Hehe, were you worried about me? As you can see, I'm fully prepared. I don't feel like I could lose, no matter who I face.”
Eleanor was fully armed, with a sword and staff at her side and armor and a cloak on her body.
I heard she had brought out all the Dark Elves' treasures, and the aura of mana she gave off was certainly extraordinarily intense.
However, her mana was strangely turbulent. It was similar to the trembling I felt from my own mana when I meditated.
“Is that what you were preparing on your own? Your mana has increased tremendously.”
“Of course. No matter what anyone says, it is an incredible treasure made from a fragment of the World Tree.”
Considering that the World Tree was a colossal parasitic plant that fed on the Star’s Ley Lines, that took some of the shine off it, but that did not matter right now.
“Actually, that isn't all. I was looking through some old records.”
As she spoke, Eleanor took a small book from her chest.
“Reading them now, there were many passages that took on a different meaning.”
Eleanor said that after learning the World Tree's true nature and reading the records left behind by ancient ancestors again, she found meaningful passages within them.
Using those passages as a basis, she had further investigated and studied the World Tree, eventually reaching a new form of magic.
Eleanor smiled faintly, showing confidence in the raid, but her eyes still lacked their starlight. Yet something about them was subtly different.
Then Eleanor suddenly lowered her voice and spoke with a serious expression.
“And I learned that, unexpectedly, there is another path.”
The turbulence in her mana intensified. Eleanor approached me and held out her hand.
“My dear, will you leave with me?”
A faint starlight shone once more in her hazy eyes.
* * *
The starlight in Eleanor's eyes had grown fainter by the day, the light of the dreaming eyes she had possessed since childhood.
“That serpent's goal is to devour the World Tree and use the lives of others as fuel to leave for another star. Its goal is not necessarily destruction.”
That light shone brightly as she looked somewhere far away. Eleanor continued speaking.
“And I have made preparations of my own. That thing will probably destroy ninety percent of this world, but I have prepared to live on the remaining ten percent.”
“Shadow-based teleportation is my greatest specialty. If we fly to the other side of the star, we can avoid the aftermath of the battle.”
“We'll live there together. We can build even a small house... Ah, of course, there will be many inconveniences.”
“But overcoming such things is what love is. We have magic, so we'll manage somehow. I'm confident.”
“Of course, you are human, so you will walk through time differently from an elf. At most, you only have a hundred years left to live.”
“But that is all right. In a world where the Star’s Ley Lines have dried up and the World Tree has left, even elves will not live all that long.”
“Of course, I will live several hundred years longer than you, but if I can dwell on the hundred years I spent with you, I will not be lonely.”
“And even if you leave, Half-Elves tend to live long. If I become pregnant within a hundred years...”
I raised my hand and cut Eleanor off there.
“Hey, wait. What are you talking about?”
It was beyond bewildering. It was frightening.
Eleanor was a queen who mourned the deaths of her people. A queen who led her subjects with responsibility. At least on this ninth floor.
If she were someone who could suggest abandoning the fight and running away, she would have done so a hundred years ago.
“What about this place? If we leave that serpent alone, everyone will die. What will happen to your people?”
I deliberately spoke more calmly, doing my best not to show how shaken I was.
“Ah, the people?”
But after Eleanor's answer, I could no longer remain calm.
“Who cares about that crap?”
Those were not words that could come from Eleanor.
* * *
I decided quickly. I immediately drew my sword and aimed it at Eleanor's throat.
“You aren't Eleanor, are you?”
“Ah, of course not.”
“What are you?”
Then Eleanor laughed. She did not seem bothered in the slightest by the sword at her throat.
“Of course I am not Eleanor. Those elves over there are not my people, and this castle is not mine.”
The starlight faded from Eleanor's eyes again as she laughed madly.
“How could soulless tin dolls possibly be my people?”
Her resounding voice echoed through the castle.
“What?”
I could no longer keep my sword raised. My thoughts would not work properly.
After a brief silence, Eleanor brushed aside the tip of my sword with her hand and stepped closer.
“It seems the Night Elf Secret Art was more powerful than I thought. Otherwise, there is no explanation for what happened.”
“Through dreams, I glimpsed beyond your memories and mental images.”
“I saw the world you lived in, and the model world called the Tower of Trials.”
At those words, I remembered how Eleanor's condition had worsened day by day after she began sleeping with me.
“I saw what you were like before entering the Tower. I even saw you after losing your mother, when you ran wild, possessed by ghostly energy.”
“I saw us after we completed the quest and became like dolls, bringing you fear and pain. I saw all of it.”
“And I looked back at my own past anew. When I thought about it, all my memories were vague, like an illusion.”
And every day I slept with Eleanor, I occasionally had grotesque dreams involving dolls.
“I spent my entire life yearning for freedom and dreaming of moving toward a distant world, yet I was a slave and a doll.”
The starlight that had dwelled in Eleanor's eyes had come from the desire born of the Night Elf instincts she inherited.
It was an intense curiosity that wished to venture beyond the forest and see a wider world.
It was also the flame in her heart that wished to escape the status and position she had been born into as a princess, and live freely.
“Always, always...”
Eleanor's dry eyes, having lost all of that, looked very much like mine.
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