Chapter 7 · 10 min
Chapter 7
Affection
Two middle-aged men were talking in the presidential residence.
“Hmm... So they haven't revealed who they are at all?”
“Yes, but given the personalities of otherworlders, it's only a matter of time before they're revealed—”
Ding-dong.
[The Floor 2 rankings have been updated]
“M-Mr. President! Floor 2 was just updated too!”
“Yes, it appeared in front of me as well. It seems they aren't Iron aptitude, judging by how they're climbing day after day.”
“Yes, we believe they're at least Bronze aptitude! Even on the Unranked Floors, you need at least Bronze aptitude to climb every day without suffering aftereffects.”
The Association President even searched records from other countries. As expected, seven seconds was the shortest time in the world.
Unfortunately, however, this person wasn't affiliated with the Association. They even asked the otherworlders for their cooperation, but that only gave them more headaches.
Because each of them insisted without a doubt that the summoned creature had to be from their own race.
Even among beastfolk, different races were essentially people from different countries, so arguments even broke out among them.
The Association employees had another hard time breaking those fights up.
Watching that, the Association President thought it was extremely fortunate that he'd decided against asking the elf Vice Commander for advice.
Afterward, the Association President also gave instructions to the employees monitoring the Gallery.
Surely someone who had set a record like this would be tempted to post proof on the Gallery, but even after the employees searched through the night, they couldn't find any posts that offered much of a clue.
Of course, there were a few suspicious individuals. The day before the Floor 1 record, several people had posted proof that they'd awakened as Summoners.
The most suspicious among them was the Gallery username WheelchairHunter.
According to the employee, he'd posted the same recurring post every single day for hundreds of days. And it was quite a peculiar post at that. Asking whether the status window had a second page.
If it was him, there was one issue. Given the kind of personality that constantly posted strange things like that, he should have been bragging about making the rankings by now, yet instead he'd posted something denying it. That meant he intended to hide his identity.
“What do you think, Association President?”
“We need to recruit them immediately! If this otherworlder is this exceptional, I imagine they must be demanding a great deal from their Summoner. It would probably be difficult for an individual to meet those demands.”
“You're saying we should make the Summoner give up their summoned creature?”
“Yes, unless their affection level is Affection, it should be possible. There's no way they could have built that kind of relationship with an otherworlder in only three days.”
“They may already have promised their summoned creature a great reward from the Floor 5 clear reward.”
“Yes, our offer should be welcome to the Summoner as well.”
If this summoned creature was someone with exceptionally great potential, then although they were only Unranked level right now, as an otherworlder who didn't suffer aftereffects, they would quickly reach the higher floors.
“Then let's make an announcement with this for now, Association President.”
“Yes! Understood.”
____________
{Anon: Holy shit! Floor 2 is 7 seconds too}{23}
{Anon: Lucky seven seconds}{8}
{Anon: Are they going to keep setting new Korean floor records?}{12}
{Anon: Who are you, please reveal yourself}{8}
{Anon: Recruiting people to protest if another country steals them from us again}{1}
{Anon: Since otherworlders only know Korean
There's a little less risk of losing them, yeah
Anon: AI advanced way too fast. Phones can do real-time simultaneous translation so easily now. We almost didn't have to worry about losing them
└Anon: Still, we didn't lose the elf Vice Commander
└Anon: We barely managed to keep that one elf
{Anon: The Association's official announcement is out
One-line summary
They're definitely an Association Hunter and unless the person themselves wants otherwise they'll continue to keep their identity private, and they'll keep everything top secret while providing benefits appropriate to their ability so they don't naturalize in another country, and if they have any further demands they're willing to meet virtually any request as much as possible}
Anon: Does this bastard not know what “one line” means?
└Anon: It's one line on my computer. I wrote it in Notepad without pressing Enter and copy-pasted it
└Anon: Are you fucking insane
{Anon: Ha, please don't lose them this time
Protect them properly!}
Anon:???: Want to know why we're the land of a trillion dollars?
└Anon: Aaaagh! Don't abandon your country just for moneyyyy
└Anon: “Just” money (It was far too much money to refuse sticker)
└Anon: Fuck lol
{Anon: Still, they didn't reveal someone who registered anonymously like last time, right?
If the Association keeps the anonymous registration top secret, it'll probably be hard to figure out who it is unless the person reveals themselves directly?
Only a few insiders would know, so it'd be difficult for other countries to contact them too}
Anon: Look at the articles from America and Japan, and China's too
└Anon: Yeah?
└Anon: Ah fuck
└Anon: What the fuck do you mean give up Dokdo, you bastard! It's ours to begin with! And what does China mean?
└Anon: It's basically the same thing as America. That only they will truly recognize your worth
【President of the United States: If the Summoner is looking for a country with the best conditions for climbing, there is no country better than the United States.】
【Prime Minister of Japan: If they naturalize and continue setting records on the latest floors, we are willing to hand over Dokdo.】
【President of China: Fine horses always exist, but those like Bole who can recognize them are rare.】
___________
After clearing Floor 2, Clara and I returned home.
“Clara, this animation is my favorite. Want to watch it?”
“Okay!”
It felt a little awkward to stay alone together in my room, so we came out to the living room and turned on the TV.
The world of the otherworlders wasn't very different from modern Earth. Animation was already a familiar form of media to them.
Click.
‘It's fun from the very first episode because some pathetic villain appears and you look forward to seeing how badly they get destroyed.’
Seeing Clara watch my favorite animation with such fascination made me feel proud too. I quietly turned off the living-room lights so the glare wouldn't bother her.
I wonder what kind of reactions came up? Should I take a look?
Huh? Since when did I become an Association Hunter?
{Anon: What kind of requests does the Association mean when they say they'll accommodate anything from now on?
Judging by the Floor 1 clear time, they're at least S-rank material, right?
Money alone probably won't be enough?}
Anon:???: There's a reason the land of a trillion dollars is the land of a trillion dollars~~~
└Anon: Shut the fuck up
Anon: They're saying they'll offer the Summoner an appropriate amount. They only need to make the summoned creature belong to the Association
└Anon: How much is the Summoner going to try to milk them for?
└Anon: Aren't they going to naturalize?
└Anon: Why bother?
└Anon: The US, China, and Japan are contacting them?
└Anon: They'll probably go there, get their summon stolen, and be tossed aside lol
Ah.
I think I understood why the Association had made an announcement like that.
They were probably telling me to name a price for my summoned creature, like with other Summoners. Most Summoners gave up on climbing the tower and did that instead. So they're after Clara now?
That pisses me off.
“Clara, is there anything you want as compensation for climbing the tower?”
Most otherworlders wanted to summon their king, or simply wanted to raise their own level.
Yet Clara had never said anything like that. She'd never asked for any compensation or made any demands.
“What my husband wants is what I want!”
To be honest, I was becoming a little greedy. I'd already explained to Clara that I was climbing the tower to cure my lower-body paralysis, but I was starting to want to keep climbing even after Floor 5.
And there was one particular reason that desire had grown.
“Clara, you're level 5, but you have stats equal to or greater than level 11. You're also a mid-ranking ability user, which normally isn't possible until level 11.”
“I don't really understand levels. Is that a good thing?”
“When you reach level 49, you become a high-ranking ability user.”
“A high-ranking ability user!? Then you can use Wishes like a wildfire!”
Like a wildfire? Was that what the famous elf Vice Commander's Wish was like?
Well, high-ranking Wishes weren't very well known.
“Since Clara has more than twice the stats she should at level 5, my guess is that at level 25, you'll have stats equal to at least level 49.”
“Then if I clear Floor 24, I can become a high-ranking ability user too?”
“Yes, that's what I want to confirm. Originally, I was only planning to clear up to Floor 5, but I want to see what happens after that. I think we'll know once we see how much your stats increase when you reach level 6.”
“I agree too!”
“And... There's something else I'm curious about.”
“Ask me anything! I'll tell you anything!”
It was a little embarrassing.
It wasn't much different from asking, Tell me how you feel about me.
I was talking about affection level.
A Summoner could see the affection level of their summoned creature. After explaining that, I asked Clara for permission.
“Of course it's eternal love!”
There wasn't an affection level like that... Though maybe Clara was different?
There were seven known affection levels so far.
Hostility, Dislike, Wariness, Indifference, Favor, Trust, Affection.
Of these, Affection was known to be extremely difficult to achieve.
Only wealthy people who happened to summon exceptionally good-natured creatures were capable of reaching it.
The general opinion was that even reaching Favor meant you'd done well.
Knight's Retainer from the Gallery, who'd advised me about summoned creatures before, was a good example.
If his summon wouldn't even allow him to become a retainer, they were probably at Indifference, right? Maybe even lower?
“Anyway, then it's okay if I look, right?”
“That's right!”
“System window. Show me Clara's affection level.”
Ding~!
[Affection Level: Life — Clara is willing to die for you]
?
“Mm! That's accurate! I would gladly die for my husband!”
...Die?
Something from my dream suddenly flashed through my mind. In that dream, someone, someone had died, hadn't they?
My heart pounded violently.
Grab.
Overwhelmed by an emotion so suffocating it made my throat tighten, I grabbed Clara by the shoulders, turned her toward me, and spoke.
“Don't ever say something like that again. You absolutely cannot die. You can't die for me.”
Why was the word “die” bothering me this much?
“Okay!”
Clara leaned against the hands holding her shoulders.
“We're going to keep staying together like this, right?”
“Y-yes?”
Beam.
“Um... Th-then should we go back to watching the anime?”
Plop.
“Sounds good~”
I let go of her shoulders, but Clara rested her head against my shoulder.
The atmosphere suddenly became warm and fuzzy.
And so I sat there completely unable to move, doing nothing but watching animation with Clara for ages.
What was I supposed to do with this warm and fuzzy atmosphere? Even if I went to my room, she'd probably follow me.
‘The room would be even more dangerous...’
Beep. Beedle-deedle~
Click.
At that moment, I heard someone touch a key card to the front door and open it.
“Wh-what?”
Someone stopped halfway inside and stood frozen in surprise by the entrance.
It was my legal-family-member, who had returned home from the dormitory now that it was Saturday.