Promotion [C56]

'Nothing.

Everything that I should be seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling is now nothing.

What is nothing? I don't know.

How can someone know what being nothing mean? Only upon being nothing can someone learn what nothing means.

But how could nothing feel nothing? Already being nothing would mean nothing to begin with.

But if I can think does this mean that I'm not nothing? I really don't know.'

[Can the User stop fooling around? User cleared the first floor of the Tower of Despair, gaining 5 BS points, but User failed at clearing the second floor of the Tower of Despair, and the loss penalty will be -3 BS points.]

[You now have 115 BS points.]

'Eh?' With the reminder from the system, Shu Himo abruptly opened his eyes and looked toward Phylia who is holding him on her lap in shock.

"Master! Are you fine?" While having a worried look, Phylia immediately noticed that Shu Himo woked up.

"I'm... not dead?" Being sure of having died in the Tower of Despair Shu Himo felt terrible, and abruptly stood up hugging Phylia.

A moment later, feeling something moving in his face, he touched his face with his hand and discovered what it was: the wetness from a tear.

"Am I crying?" Almost laughing at himself, Shu Himo tightened his hands, almost to the point of bleeding due to the fingernails cutting the skin, "How pathetic..."

Raising his hand and looking at it closer he then vowed, 'I will never fear death again and will always act proud of myself, to fight against any hardship that may come in the future, never giving up again.'

Feeling Phylia patting his head trying to comfort him, he felt happy, "Thank you, Phylia."

Standing up once again, he then showed a radiant and confident smile, looking toward Phylia, feeling ready to announce, "Phylia, we now are weak. But we will not be weak forever, so let's work together to make the rest of the world fear upon hearing our names."

Hearing the phrase from Shu Himo, Phylia broke into a smile, "Sure! Master, let's inflict terror on everyone!"

Seeing her, Shu Himo could not help but stroke her head lamenting on how much cute she is while smiling. Contrary to him, anyone else who sees that smile would walk far away from how creepy it seems.

[The User is indeed strange, most would have their courage broken after what happened, but User somehow decided to dominate the world.]

"And you! System! Why did you not tell me I would not die in there? Do you have an idea of how much I was scared?"

[The System believed that hiding that information would have lowered the arrogance of the User after dying, who would have thought that it would increase instead...]

"Tch! Don't act as a victim now!" Hearing the absurdity coming out from the voice of the system, Shu Himo suddenly felt extremely tired, "Phylia, I will sleep for a bit now..."

*Puff*

Falling on top of the bed, Shu Himo collapsed into his sleep.

-----

The next morning.

Slowly waking up, the first thing that greeted Shu Himo is the smile from Phylia, who as usual is holding him in her lap.

"Good morning Phylia."

"Good morning, Master."

After exchanging greetings, Shu Himo prepared himself and went out of his bedroom.

He then had breakfast with his family, informing them that today he would go out and afterward immediately went outside of the palace, with the aim of finding out what those balloons are.

-----

Being disguised to not show his identity, Shu Himo and Phylia reached the usual exit of the kingdom, where the usual guard is working.

The guard, seeing two unknown people completely covered was stupified, is someone really going to try to pass the gate like this?

Quickly walking toward them, the guard furrowed his brows, "Halt! Show your identity."

Knowing that there is no way to resolve this situation, one of the disguised people had to reply, "It's me, thanks for telling me the situation the other day, now I need to go out but I don't want to make known my absence."

The guard was initially perplexed by this phrase, but a moment later started to realize the truth, and stared at the disguised person in shock, "S-S-Shu Himo? Your Highness?"

"Shh, don't say it!" Looking around to be sure that his name was not heard, Shu Himo breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yes! Feel free to go, have a good day!" The guard, knowing the identity of the person, immediately took a subservient attitude, which caused Shu Himo to chuckle.

"Do you want a promotion? I can make you a royal guard."

The guard since from child always looked up toward royal guards, but he felt that he would never be able to become one of them.

Now, having the chance, he opened up his eyes in shock, looking toward Shu Himo as if he were a divinity who came to save him, "Your Highness, is what you are saying true?"

"Yes, but only once I come back from where I'm going." Said that Shu Himo and Phylia resumed walking and went outside the Capital together with Phylia.

"A promotion... I hope His Highness will return quickly..."

-----

Now far from the Kingdom, Shu Himo and Phylia are leisurely walking toward the direction seen from the map.

"Master, why did you promise a position to that guard?"

Looking toward Phylia, Shu Himo then smiled, "Give and take, as that guard gave us a important information earlier I decided to reward him like that."

"I see." Furrowing her brows, Phylia seems to fall deep in thought.

Shu Himo, seeing her reaction just smiled and stroked her head.

The two then proceeded to head toward the area seemingly full of balloons, but abruptly Shu Himo got alerted, as he perceives that someone is tracking him while being hidden.