The regressor and I met again in my office on the lowest floor of Symphonia. In his clothes that heightened up his disguise to a max, he had appeared to converse with me at my call.
There wasn't much need for it, though. Since the people who could be keeping an eye on us were going to be too busy.
"Sit," I told the regressor, pulling away the curtains at my back just slightly. The sky was ashen and cloudy, even the fake sky inside the tower was gloomy, just like the regressor's visage.
The regressor took a seat and sighed. "Sir, why did you have to do this in such a roundabout manner? I almost had a heart attack. I went home and checked, I had a 300 pulse rate."
Insane.
"If that was truly the case then you would have died long back."
"It truly was."
I could only hope he was exaggerating. He could have died and spent that day once more for all I knew. I hoped that he was better than that, though. I had made him see enough bullshit for him to not lose his mind after just some normal conversations.
"Whatever," I said. "Next time you better act properly."
"Was it that bad, sir?"
This guy calling me sir all the time was already bad enough.
"At least we got what we wanted."
Thinking of it that way, it wasn't all that bad. After the regressor had presented the situation and the lines from the novel that I had forced him to, all the others could do was laugh.
That was my cue to take over the situation.
I began by citing the state of the tower and how people will be faced with starvation in not that long from now. The people and governments outside were helping us for now, even though they couldn't get anything from the tower to themselves, just the abilities that the tower gave out and the mysteries it held were enough to make them consider it a worthy investment.
But what about when they get all they want, and we were still stuck on the fifth floor?
We would be thrown away by them too.
Of course, I wasn't the only one who thought that way. Everyone there except the Blade of Darkness and the Regressor were people responsible for many lives. This consideration was natural for them.
When I had presented these things, they knew and agreed as well.
The wizard did ask, though.
[Why do you care about others so much, Ativan von Carley? The only reason I have even left you alive is because your dirt hasn't landed under my eyes yet.]
It was a fair question.
I did wonder what Ativan would say.
But to that, I had answered.
[If there is no one left, then who will I rule over?]
It was fitting enough.
The meeting had come to an end with all of them agreeing to participate in the raids forward and pitting their resources together. Instead of a disorganized tower with many different rulers, we had decided to keep the status quo while also maintaining a strong relationship with each other.
And as proof of that and as proof of our intent to advance.
The seven people in that cafe were to become the people taking the forefront of the climb. A united guild of sorts.
"Pfft."
The regressor chuckled.
"What?" I asked.
"N-no-nothing…"
"You're laughing at what I said."
The regressor turned his eyes away.
"Nooooo…"
This little bastard.
"Meeeow!"
The damned cat was laughing too.
Goddamn, it.
"Regardless. We will be leaving together tomorrow."
The regressor nodded.
"I still don't like this, but if I want to live, I have to, right?"
"You have no other choice. If we don't stick together and leash everyone here, we will be the first ones to get bitten to death."
Quite literally bitten.
"Listen well," I placed my hand on the table and remembered all the information from the novel I had arranged in my head. It was unfortunate that the language I knew wasn't unknown to them. "The tower is a fairly unique space, every set of five floors follows a different theme all the way to the fiftieth floor."
The Regressor leaned back.
"How many floors are there?"
"I do not know. I believe it should be about a hundred. Regardless, what is more, important is what's in front of us."
The Regressor had gotten fairly more amicable. It was true, sleep on stones long enough and it becomes as comfortable as a mattress.
"Just like these five floors followed the theme of tutorial to get you adjusted to the tower. The next five will be the most important in keeping our lives in the tower secure."
The next theme of the tower.
"Resources."