Chương 48: “Labrador-atory”

The building next to Celestia's office had been a dying business until yesterday. Now, it became a laboratory overnight. The renovation had been quite easy, and the result was a clean, open workspace fitted with long counters, ventilation hoods, a storage room for ingredients, another room to process them, and a set of magi-tech instruments that had arrived in crates from the Imperial Capital's premier alchemical supplier.

The floors were polished stone, the lighting was provided by high-grade magic stones mounted in adjustable fixtures along the ceiling, and a large worktable dominated the center of the room. A far cry from the converted dormitory closet Anna had been using with a ventilation solution that consisted of opening the window. Anna stood in the middle of the room, turning in a slow circle. Her mouth was open. She had been looking at everything a few times over, completely in disbelief.

They had a sponsorship deal, yes, but Anna could never have imagined it was to this extent.

"This—" She stopped turning and pointed at a glass-doored cabinet along the far wall.

"That's a Solvaire Distillation Array…!" She crossed the room in haste and quickly pressed her face against the glass. She moved to the next station.

"And this…! I've only ever seen one from afar!" Her hands hovered over an instrument without touching it, fingers trembling slightly.

"That stingy old professor from my hometown has one, but he doesn't let anyone use it because he says the replacement parts cost more than his yearly pay." She turned to the next counter and froze.

"Is that a spectrometer?!" From the doorway, Celestia didn't answer while she was looking at the very excited girl running around, her fan resting closed against her shoulder. Anna spun toward her. Her eyes were wide and her cheeks were flushed, and she looked like she might either laugh or cry, possibly both.

"Celestia, this is… some of these machines cost more than my family would earn in their entire lives. Is it really okay to spend this much on someone like me?" Celestia's fan snapped open.

"I've already told you. This is my investment to worry about." She looked at Anna over the top of the fan.

"You just do your job." Anna stared at her. Her lower lip trembled once. Her eyes went glassy. The expression on her face was the same one Sir Ozy made when someone presented him with a plate of freshly seared bacon.

"Stop looking at me like that," Celestia said. Anna wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and nodded rapidly.

"R-right. Yes. I'll do my best. I'll do better than my best. I'll—""Good." Celestia turned and walked out before the girl could finish the sentence. She could hear Anna already opening cabinets behind her, followed by a muffled squeal that Celestia chose to pretend she had not heard. She crossed the short distance between the buildings and entered her office. Martha, who was trailing behind Celestia this entire time, stopped by the door.

"Martha, have Jade come in when he's available."

"Yes, my lady." Celestia sat into her chair and opened the window behind her desk. The afternoon air drifted in, carrying the distant sounds of Summit's commercial district. She looked into the horizon and saw the Tower; she had no intention of entering this weekend. There was too much to prepare, and rushing in after what happened last time would just get her killed. And there was that immediate problem, her party composition. Floors six through nine required groups of four.

Celestia needed three more people to fill the gaps. Ideally, a mage, a tank, and a scout. Though, she had already intended to count Paimon as a future party member for the World floors, it was still an undecided arrangement. She thought about the problem over in her head for a few seconds, and then pushed it for later. There was no point forcing a decision on party composition when she had other matters to address first. The more pressing issue was her own training. Yesterday evening had made that clear enough.

Unless she deviated from the norm like a certain titled climber within the tower, she needed to learn aura. Aura reinforcement was the baseline; it enhanced durability, amplified strikes, and provided a layer of defense that raw physical conditioning could not match. While according to her system there had been a slight increase to her aura when compared to before she entered Summit Academy, she still could not use or feel it. It was just a number on her status that had gone up by a fraction.

'I could use Floor Ten to forcibly awaken it.' The thought had been sitting in the back of her mind since this morning. Floor Ten was the threshold everyone talked about. If Floor Five was the first wall that separated normal people from actual climbers, then Floor Ten was something else entirely. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Floor Ten was less of a wall and more of a staircase with no railings.

The floor's structure rewarded ambition, suffering, and the effort to go through it all. The further you pushed, the greater the returns: higher stat gains and rarer skills. But the difficulty scaled with how much you carried, and there was no safety net. Climbers who overreached ultimately died. There were climbers who reached Floor Ten, having just barely gained anything, came out significantly stronger, or did not come out at all. Knock. Knock. A knock came at the door.

"Come in," Celestia said. Martha opened the door, and two figures entered. Jade came first, his tall frame filling the doorway before he stepped aside to let Paimon through behind him. The girl slipped in quietly and stood near the wall, hands clasped in front of her, while Jade took the chair across from Celestia's desk.

"You wanted to see me, Lady Celestia?" Jade said.

"I did." Celestia set her fan on the desk.

"Let's start with the current status of the recruits." The conversation that followed covered the expected ground. Jade reported on the progress of the group he had been training, their conditioning and the timeline for when they would be prepared to enter the Tower. Celestia listened, asked the necessary questions, and gave more instructions. When they finished, Jade stood and gave a short bow before leaving. The door closed behind him.

However, for some reason, Paimon, who wasn't called, had come in with Jade and remained in the room, standing by the wall where she had been throughout the entire conversation. Celestia raised an eyebrow.

"Is there something you need?"

"I-I want to enter the Tower." The response came out fast, and her eyes were fixed on Celestia without wavering. Celestia leaned back in her chair.

"There's no need to rush. You've barely started your training with Jade."

"I know." Paimon's voice dropped slightly.

"But I saw what happened to you when you came back from the Tower." She stopped, and she looked down at the floor for a brief second before forcing her eyes back up.

"I-if you die, I don't know what to..." Paimon closed her mouth, a bit hesitant in stringing the next words together.

'Oh?' Celestia studied the girl's face.

'Had she already grown this attached?' It had only been a short time since Celestia had purchased Paimon from the underground auction. And since then, she had been fed, clothed, educated, and trained under Martha and Jade. Everyone had even treated her well in spite of her blood. But Paimon's fixation wasn't on lifestyle. She looked at the beautiful woman in front of her, wanting to know more.

"Paimon," Celestia said with a tone that gave no emotion.

"If anything were to happen to me, you would be taken care of. I've already given Martha detailed instructions. You would receive enough resources to live a simple, comfortable life. That arrangement is already in place and has been since the day I hired you." Paimon was quiet for several seconds.

"... Still," she uttered out.

"I want to enter the Tower." Celestia sighed. For some reason, the girl was in a hurry. But was this a decision Celestia had the right to make for her? Paimon's future had already deviated from whatever it was supposed to be. Everything about Paimon's current life, the training, education, and the position at Celestia's side, was a consequence of Celestia's interference. Celestia understood that this was Paimon's decision, but it was one made due to a limited subset of choices.

She looked at Paimon for a long moment. The girl stood still, still waiting for Celestia's answer.

"Fine," Celestia said.

"Under one condition." Paimon's eyes widened.

"You're still required to receive Jade's approval before you set foot in the Tower. If he tells you that you are not ready, you wait. His word is final on this." Paimon nodded once. Then the corners of her mouth moved upward.

"Thank you," Paimon said. She bowed and turned for the door, closing it behind her. Celestia sat in the quiet, thinking about how much of a hypocrite she was, while also thinking she forgot about something related to Paimon. Since it wasn't urgent, it couldn't have been important, right? She then turned her chair toward the window. The Tower was visible from here. The black tower extended vertically into the sky, its surface featureless, its peak lost somewhere above the clouds.

The late afternoon sun was dropping behind the rooftops, and the Tower's shadow stretched long across the city.

"The first arc should be finishing soon," Celestia murmured. She didn't have an exact schedule. The original novel had been vague about specific timelines. But based on when Arthur had entered the Tower and the pacing of Summit Academy's lessons, the first arc's conclusion was likely within the next day or two. Arthur had gone in with Serena Flamesy, Liana, and a fourth member: a female elf who had been randomly assigned to their party through the Tower's matching system.

In the original story, the elf had served as their ranged support before finally parting ways somewhere along the line, and then eventually reuniting as a student at Summit Academy's 2nd semester. The sun dropped lower and the office darkened by a shade. Martha knocked and entered to light the desk lamp, then left without a word. Celestia remained at the window until the last of the daylight faded and the Tower became a black line against a darker sky. She didn't know why, but she went to bed late that day.

And then, the next morning, when the sun had not yet risen, Celestia's eyes snapped open. A sound blared inside her skull, forcing her awake. [Arc 1 Completed.] [Story Relevance Minimum Requirement: 0 → 15.] Celestia stared at the dark wall in front of her and pulled up her status. Story Relevance: 29/100 Celestia closed the status window and laid back in the dark, staring at the ceiling.

'A fucking great way to start my morning.'