Chapter 40 – The Tower Entrance

We arrived at the Rootbeer Tower. It’s quite tall when you see it up close. Not only that, but it’s also quite massive in width.

“It’s amazing when you see it up close!”

“Yeah. In addition to being large, the blue color looks even more beautiful when you look at it up close. What did they use to make these things?”

Remi muttered in admiration as she looked at the tower.

Indeed, there’s certainly nothing lacking in the blue color of the tower.

“Then let’s get inside.”

Approaching the door of the tower. I picked up the handle of the door and tried to open it. The door won’t open. It seems to be locked. Oh, I remembered someone in town saying that the door was locked because of magic or something.

There’s something written on the door. Let’s read it.

“Let’s see… Those who enter and reach the top will be given the wisdom of the sage. In order to open this door, you will need the password. Somewhere in the ruins of the Bielsa Desert, at the north from this place, there is a book with the password written on it. You must find it… It says.”

“Ruins in the Desert… isn’t the Bielsa Desert, one of the largest deserts on the continent?”

“Sounds like a hassle… would be faster to just skip it and kick the door over.”

As I approached the door and tried to kick it open.

“P-Please wait!”

Aisha suddenly stopped me by saying so.

“What’s the matter?”

“Look at the bottom of the door!”

Aisha points to the bottom of the door. There’s something written at it.

“Let’s see… I believe there are no such people, but I would not teach anything to the unmannerly fools who come kicking down the door. Nor will I teach those who fly through the air and suddenly come to the top. I will only impart my wisdom to those who properly find the password and open the door.”

“Seems like you can’t just break-in.”

“Hmm… but there’s a letter I got from Barathea, right? If I show this, even if I break it to get in, it will be okay.”

“D-Do you think so?”

“It might be okay, but there is a risk that you will never be able to get him to tell you again. I know the desert is a big place, but wouldn’t Perez-dono be able to find it easier than expected?”

That’s what Remi said to me.

“Hmm… you’re right…”

I think Remi has a point. Finding the ruin in the desert was a tedious task, but it’s not impossible.

But I have a feeling a letter would do the trick…

I was a little lost in thought.

“Nothing we can do about it. Let’s go find the password.”

That’s what I decided.

I should avoid making choices that might upset the Sage as much as possible, and if I use a large summoning spell to summon a large number of minions to search the desert, it won’t take much time to find it.

I don’t know the exact location of the Bielsa Desert so I decided to head back to town and returned to Rowyn.

○

Having returned to Rowyn, I asked around for the exact location of the desert.

And just as we were about to head out into the desert…

“Hey, you guys…”

An old man spoke to us. He had a head of gray hair and a long beard. He was wearing a navy blue robe and holding a rather expensive-looking staff in his hand. An old magician. I don’t know his gender. It’s even harder to tell the gender of an old man. He had a long beard, so I guessed he was probably an old man.

“What is it?”

“The only place in this direction is the Bielsa Desert. Are you planning to go there?

“Yeah.”

“For what purpose?”

“I learned that in order to get into the Rootbeer Tower, you have to find the password in the Bielsa Desert, so we’re going to find it.”

“Hoh…”

The old man looked at us as if he was trying to measure us.

“I see… You guys seem to be pretty strong. Especially you, your strength is bottomless.”

“Well, you can say I’m strong.”

You can tell that just by looking? It made me wonder. Well, there was a time when I used to be able to gauge the strength of others just by looking at them. Not anymore, though.

“To tell you the truth, I also want to climb the Rootbeer Tower. I know the location of the ruins where the password can be found, but I can’t get through because of the large number of powerful magical creatures inside the ruins. So why don’t we find the password and climb the Rootbeer Tower together?”

That’s what he suggested.

The old man seemed to know the location of the ruins. There was no reason to refuse. If he’s willing to tell us where it is, there would be a good thing for me. I don’t see any particular problem with him following me.

“Fine by me.”

“Oh, that would be great! I’ll show you around, so follow me. Oh, I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name is Grace Barbalard. Please take care of me.”

“I’m Perez Gantor.”

After introducing ourselves, thinking that we had luckily spared ourselves the trouble of looking for it, we followed Grace.

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