chapter 02
“Unfair… I won’t die… I can’t die.”
“Yeah.”
I muttered nonsense, my mind burning with fever.
But someone beside me kept answering me properly, as if listening.
“…Bastards. I’ll… I’ll get my revenge… They’ll regret abandoning me… I swear…”
“Yeah, got it.”
The voice was somewhat indifferent, but still oddly pleasant to hear.
And so I drifted between life and death—fainting, waking, and fainting again.
I was alive.
That was the first thought that crossed my mind the moment I opened my eyes.
“Ugh…”
I struggled to sit up, and something that had been covering my body slid off with a soft rustle.
It was an unfamiliar outer coat.
I stared blankly at it as it fell across my legs, then slowly gathered my senses and looked around.
“A cave…”
It was a dark, cold cave.
The one who had brought me here and taken care of me was sitting far away, leaning against a wall.
Arms crossed, head bowed, completely motionless—he looked like he had fallen asleep.
I knew his name.
Isael Carlton.
A character destined to become a villain who would one day stand in the protagonist’s way.
Another central figure of this world.
Soon enough, he opened his eyes.
“Oh, you’re awake?”
He greeted me with an awkward smile, and Isael looked at me like I was ridiculous.
“Uh… um, thanks. For stopping the bleeding and taking care of me.”
Around my abdomen, strips of cloth were tightly wrapped.
He had torn a long piece from my skirt and used it to bind a handkerchief over the wound, holding it in place.
Not only had my skirt become shorter, it was also a mess—but given the situation, I had to be grateful even for this level of treatment.
I fiddled with the shortened hem and said,
“Really, thank you. I lost a lot of blood… I think you saved my life.”
“Whatever.”
He replied flatly and fell silent, staring at me.
After a while, he spoke again.
“I know who you are.”
“…Huh?”
“Rosette Grace.”
“…Ah.”
“That’s right?”
“Y-yeah. That’s right.”
I nodded, still dazed.
I had expected him to know me eventually, but I didn’t think he already did.
“I’ve seen you a few times before. In the Imperial Palace.”
Isael continued in a low voice.
“And I saw your name on the sacrifice list.”
…The sacrifice list?
So something like that existed.
As I blankly processed that, he added,
“You know who I am too, don’t you?”
I had told him I knew his younger sister.
And knowing his sister meant knowing who he was.
I quickly nodded.
“Yeah, I do.”
“…I see.”
Silence followed.
Unable to read what he was thinking, I quietly observed him.
After a while, Isael broke the silence.
“Everyone from the Laironess Empire is dead, except for us. Did you know that?”
The Laironess Empire.
It was the country I had lived in before coming to this tower.
And it was Isael’s homeland as well.
“…I guess so. I had a rough idea.”
I answered honestly.
“The last time I saw anyone from Laironess was on the first floor.”
Two empires had unified the two continents of this world.
Camelot and Laironess.
The protagonist Leonard’s country, Camelot, had offered six children as sacrifices.
And Laironess—my homeland and Isael’s—had offered ten.
It was supposed to be nine, but Isael’s arrival made it ten.
‘He jumped into the ritual just to save his sister.’
Isael was the rightful heir and prince of Laironess.
Which meant he was never meant to be a sacrifice in the first place.
The one chosen by the royal family had been Princess Beatrice.
The emperor had intended to spare his own children by raising a distant branch child, Beatrice, as a princess and offering her instead.
But when Isael discovered this, he could not accept it.
He truly loved Beatrice as his real younger sister.
So he tried to stop the sacrificial ritual.
In the end, he embraced Beatrice—and together they burned on the altar, being transported into this tower.
In short, Isael was climbing the tower solely to find his sister.
‘The reason he becomes a villain is also because of Beatrice’s death.’
There was only one reason Isael became the final antagonist who opposed Leonard.
It was tied to the choice Leonard made at the final floor of the tower.
At the last door, a demon asked him a question.
“Choose. The countless lives outside, or the life of the woman in front of you. If you can only save one side, which will you choose?”
Leonard did not hesitate.
“I will save the many.”
“That is the answer I expected. Very well, you may pass.”
After hearing the answer, the demon opened the door, and Leonard left the tower with his companions.
But that choice…
Because of it, one woman was sacrificed instead of countless lives.
That woman was Beatrice—Isael’s younger sister.
And Isael, arriving at the final floor too late, found her corpse there.
Broken and wailing in grief over his sister’s death, Isael heard the demon speak.
“The hero of Camelot, Leonard—the man destined to become a savior—chose to sacrifice this girl and left the tower.”
Then it asked:
“I will grant you the power of revenge. In exchange, offer me your soul. Do you accept?”
Isael answered without even a moment of hesitation.
He sold his soul to the demon and vowed revenge against Leonard.
And he also swore to make his parents and his nation pay for sacrificing Beatrice.
That was how he became a villain.
‘Haa… his life really is just a series of bad luck.’
Anyway, Isael’s conflict with Leonard begins after leaving this tower.
Which meant that Isael surviving the tower was already a fixed future in the novel.
Unlike me, who was just a nameless extra.
Ordinary sacrifices—excluding the main characters—never survived this tower.
We were all destined to die here.
But I wanted to live.
‘Then first…’
I stood up and walked toward Isael.
Perhaps because I suddenly approached him, he looked at me with guarded eyes.
I spoke carefully.
“Why aren’t you asking?”
“…Asking what.”
“About your sister.”
I had expected him to immediately ask where Beatrice was as soon as I regained consciousness.
But contrary to my expectations, he hadn’t brought it up at all.
It was strange.
Wasn’t he helping me in the first place to get information about his sister’s whereabouts?
And if I died before telling him, that would ruin everything—so he should’ve been desperate.
“…You mentioned my sister the moment you saw me.”
“Yeah.”
“How did you know I was looking for her from the beginning?”
Isael looked at me suspiciously.
Even under his gaze, I spoke calmly.
“Alright, I’ll tell you what you’re most curious about first.”
At that, he crossed his arms as if deciding to listen for now.
I met his eyes directly and continued.
“Your sister… the princess—is trapped on the lowest floor of this tower.”
“How do you know tha—”
“Because I saw it with my own eyes.”
“…What?”
Isael’s expression twisted as if he thought I was talking nonsense.
Well, I could understand that.
Before he could dismiss me completely, I laid the groundwork.
“I actually have a bit of a special ability.”
