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Chapter 371: The Story After. (3). [Side Story 3]

[How have you been all this time?]

“It’s been a very pleasant time.”

Ketal smiled brightly.

“I’ve been to the sacred land of the Fairies, and even visited the phantom realms that lie beyond the continent. Couldn’t have asked for a more fulfilling time.”

[…I see.]

Ketal looked truly happy right now.

But how long would that happiness last?

Suppressing his unease, the Tower Master spoke.

[Then, we should get to work.]

“Understood.”

Ketal lifted his gaze and looked at the ground, then whistled.

“What a wreck.”

The terrain there was completely ruined.

From one end of the horizon to the other, the land was shattered and broken, making it difficult to even take a step.

It wasn’t always like this.

It used to be a vast plain connecting the Eastern and Southern continents, a highway for countless supplies and travelers.

But the aftermath of the war had completely destroyed it.

Restoring this place to its original state.

That was Ketal and the Tower Master’s task.

“For now, let’s start with what’s right in front of us.”

[Let’s begin, then.]

The Tower Master snapped his fingers.

The shattered earth rippled, rising and stretching outward. Ketal stomped his foot.

The broken, ruined land collapsed further—only to return to its original form.

Ketal was strong.

Calling him the strongest living being on earth was no exaggeration.

The Tower Master wasn’t weak either.

Compared to Ketal his stature might pale, but he was still one of the very strongest.

Yet, even with both of them working together, restoring the ruined land took a very long time. They worked through an entire day, and still there remained dozens of times more land to recover.

Ketal muttered,

“This will take quite a while.”

[Repair is always many times harder than destruction. The very foundation is broken, so we’ll just have to restore it slowly.]

The Tower Master replied calmly.

But Ketal stroked his chin.

After thinking for a moment, he smiled faintly.

“Tower Master. I have a suggestion.”

[…This feels ominous.]

“It’s nothing strange. Will you hear me out?”

Though uneasy, the Tower Master nodded.

A few hours later.

The Tower Master returned from wandering the ruined land.

[I’ve wrapped the whole area together with a barrier, as you suggested.]

“Oh, thank you.”

[I don’t know what you’re planning, though. Care to explain?]

Ketal had asked him:

Could he bind the broken land, along with its foundations, in a magical barrier?

For the Tower Master, it wasn’t particularly difficult, so he agreed—but he still didn’t understand Ketal’s intent.

Ketal murmured,

“It’s nothing grand. Just a simple method.”

[Simple?]

Instead of answering, Ketal moved to the central part of the devastated land.

There, he took a deep breath.

“Hoo…”

He gathered power.

His physical strength, his aura, pooled into his feet.

His body strengthened, his force magnified.

“Tower Master. Make sure that barrier holds. I’ll try to keep control, but I can’t make promises.”

[…Wait!]

Realizing Ketal’s intent at last, the Tower Master hurriedly reinforced the barrier.

Then—Ketal’s aura-empowered foot came down, pressing the earth.

KUUUUUUNG!

The land rippled, waves rolling through the ground.

The broken earth surged, sweeping outward.

Ketal lifted his foot again and stomped down once more.

KUUUUUUNG!

[Khhhhh!]

The Tower Master groaned.

Without his barrier, an area several times larger than the ruined land itself would have been devastated.

Such was the crushing force pressing down on the ground.

CRACK! CRRRK-CRACK!

Under that tremendous pressure, the earth itself slowly began to sink downward.

[This is… impossible…]

Had he a face, it would have been frozen in sheer shock.

[This… can’t be real…]

The vast plain connecting the Eastern and Southern continents was completely destroyed by the war.

It wasn’t just the surface; the very foundation had collapsed, and the ground had to be re-compacted.

There were only two solutions.

One: a hero-class powerhouse like the Tower Master could painstakingly compress the foundation little by little.

The other: leave it to nature.

Over the eons, the planet’s forces would move the earth.

Tectonic plates would collide and fuse.

Eventually, the broken foundation would be restored.

But that would take far too long—hundreds, no, thousands of years.

That was why a powerful being like the Tower Master was needed to gradually fix it.

But what Ketal was doing now far exceeded that.

[You’re… crushing the entire landmass itself?]

He was forcibly stabilizing the broken foundation by stomping it down with sheer strength.

A task that would take the power of the stars thousands of years—

One human was accomplishing it.

Even the Tower Master, the one who had built the great Tower itself, could not fathom such power.

‘…If that strength were ever turned to destruction—’

The thought made the Tower Master shiver.

KUGUNG… KUGUGUGUNG…

The trembling land began to settle.

The collapsed foundations, crushed and compressed, were forcibly stabilized.

Moments later, Ketal raised his head with a refreshed expression.

“Phew! I think that should do it. Spreading the power so widely was quite the task!”

Ketal grinned.

“Then, Tower Master. I’ll leave the cleanup to you! I’m going to look around a bit more!”

[…Understood.]

The Tower Master forced a reply.

* * *

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Kugugugung!

The Tower Master stabilized the foundations and cleared away the remaining rubble.

Ketal had already moved on to check another area.

As he worked through the debris, the Tower Master’s mind grew complicated.

‘I already knew, but… it’s still astounding.’

If that power were ever used for destruction, what would happen?

There was no need to ponder.

It wasn’t an exaggeration—half the continent could collapse in less than a day.

Dark thoughts kept creeping up.

The Tower Master even began wondering whether he ought to devise something to keep Ketal from growing bored.

Kugugugung.

Just as he was thinking this, the cleanup was finished.

The Tower Master moved to look for Ketal.

After a short while, he found him.

Ketal was standing in a forest some distance away, watching something intently.

The Tower Master, puzzled, approached.

[What are you look—]

“Shh.”

Ketal raised a finger to his lips.

The Tower Master fell silent.

Only then did he realize that Ketal was concealing his presence.

The Tower Master cloaked his own presence as well and turned his gaze to where Ketal was looking.

[…]

It was a pregnant boar.

Collapsed on the ground, panting for breath—it looked ready to give birth at any moment.

Ketal held his breath, eyes glinting as he watched.

“Queeeh!”

The boar cried out loudly, and soon piglets began to emerge one by one.

“Queeh. Queh…”

The mother licked the blood from them with her tongue, then gathered them into her embrace.

It wasn’t anything miraculous.

The birth of new life was as natural as breathing.

Surprising and moving, yes, but not something to marvel at to such an extent.

Yet Ketal let out a gasp of wonder.

“Oh, ooooh…”

[…Is that truly so astonishing to you?]

“Of course. This is the birth of life.”

Not just any life—this was the birth of a mystical creature in a fantasy world, witnessed with his very own eyes.

What joy could compare to that?

Seeing him, the Tower Master realized belatedly.

[…You… truly love this world itself.]

It wasn’t grand mysteries, majestic spectacles, or dazzling relics that mattered to him.

It was the smallest things.

The blossoming of flowers, the changing of seasons, the birth of life.

He rejoiced in such things with genuine delight.

Only then did the Tower Master realize how needless his worries had been.

Later, as they made their way back, the Tower Master confessed his earlier concerns.

Ketal burst out laughing.

“You worry too much.”

[Indeed. It was a pointless worry.]

“I understand your feelings. From your position, it’s natural to be anxious. But I love this world.”

Not only the grand, but also the small and ordinary.

He loved it all.

Ketal said cheerfully,

“At the very least, until the day your name is forgotten, I won’t grow tired of this world.”

[That’s a story for a far, far-off future.]

Perhaps out of relief, the Tower Master chuckled.

He extended a hand made of bone.

[Let’s continue to work well together, outsider who became a native.]

“And let’s continue together, native of mystery.”

Ketal beamed as he shook his hand.

* * *

Half a year passed after that.

One by one, the world’s various problems were resolved, and at last a measure of leisure returned.

With that leisure, the Tower Master and Ketal began several experiments.

“Then, let’s begin.”

[Understood.]

The Tower Master replied tensely.

Before them was a coil of iron wound around a rotating ring.

Magnets stood at either side, and at the end was a small light bulb.

Ketal exhaled shortly and set the device spinning.

The coil began to rotate rapidly.

Pajik. Pajijik.

And soon, the bulb flickered to life.

The Tower Master cried out in excitement.

[It worked!]

“…So it did.”

Unlike the Tower Master, Ketal wore a slightly uneasy expression.

The reason the Tower Master was so thrilled by something as trivial as lighting a bulb was simple.

At that moment, Ketal was using his authority to erase the concepts of fantasy and overlay the concepts of the world he had once lived in.

The Tower Master asked in wonder.

[So it truly works… you really are using that authority now?]

“I’m struggling to keep it restricted to the bulb alone. Honestly, I’d rather just let it loose.”

[…I’d prefer you didn’t.]

Ketal had said there were no such beings as liches in his world.

If his authority expanded, his very existence could be erased.

The Tower Master recoiled and begged him not to.

[Hmmm. I think I’m starting to understand.]

Together, the Tower Master and Ketal conducted many experiments with this power that overlaid worlds.

From generating electricity, to the falling of objects, to tests of unseen forces.

Gradually, the outline became clearer.

The Tower Master nodded.

[Good. Then let’s organize our findings.]

There was only one reason for these experiments.

[To compare your world… and this one.]

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