Welcome to the tower

The two then passed through the city gate, and on the way to the elevator to the shelter, Welli said, "What about that girl?"

Rohan said, "Hm? Who are you talking about?"

"The one who was fighting with you earlier."

"Mai? What about her?"

"Is there something going on?"

"What? Are you crazy? The only thing going on is her anger at me."

"Well, that's good too. You have to start somewhere."

"What? I don't understand what you're talking about."

"Hm, how can I explain? Ah, maybe you'll understand if I use a phrase that a friend of mine always says."

"What phrase?"

"There are many paths to love, and hate is one of the shortest."

"Was I supposed to understand something from that?"

"Rohan, a pretty girl like her is sure to be full of suitors."

"Yes, I agree."

"So, how many compliments do you think she's heard?"

"More than I can imagine."

"Exactly. In that case, the best way for you to get her attention is to do the opposite."

"By insulting her?"

"That's ... no. I meant annoying her."

"By annoying her?"

"Yes, because that way, you'll be able to make an impression on her, and even if that impression is negative at the time, you can always change it later with effort. A lot of effort in her case."

"I see, but I'm not worried about that at the moment. I'm more focused on getting home."

"All right, but it doesn't hurt to plant some seeds."

"... If you say so."

The two arrived at the elevator tower, but as they entered it, they saw something unexpected. Mai was standing there, seemingly waiting for someone.

Seeing this, Rohan thought, 'What is she doing here? Did she forget to complain about something and stand here waiting for me?'

Mai stared at them from inside the elevator without saying anything, and then Rohan said, "Do you want to say something?"

Mai was silent when she heard this, and after a while, she said, "... I forgot."

Rohan said, "Did you forget what you were going to say?"

"No, you idiot! I forgot which brick opens the elevator entrance."

"Oh, I see. That's why you're waiting here."

"Exactly, now if you can open the entrance."

"I can't."

"Is that how it's going to be? You want war?!"

"No. That's not what I meant. I can't because I don't remember either."

"..."

"... Do you remember Welli?"

Welli said, "No, but I'll go and ask Hes." Then he left the tower.

As soon as Welli left the tower, Rohan and Mai were utterly silent. This went on for a while until Rohan said, "Hey... I'm sorry about that. You warned me that you don't like being called Mei, and yet I called you that several times."

"Don't worry, I was hot-headed. I accept your apology."

"Are you serious?"

"Of course ... not! Do you really think apologizing would solve anything?! Just hope I don't run into you in the forest because I'm going to make sure you don't get any runes!"

After that, the two fell silent, and Rohan thought, 'Well, at least I know she won't forget the impression I made on her anytime soon.'

Some time passed, and Welli returned to the tower. While he was away, Rohan and Mai didn't exchange another word.

Welli said, "Sorry for the delay. It was hard to find Hes."

Mai said, "No problem. Just open the door, please."

"Okay."

Welli walked over to the wall, started counting some bricks, and then pressed one of them, which caused the door to the elevator to open. The three of them then got into the elevator, and it went down with them.

As soon as they arrived at the shelter, Mai quickly exited the elevator without paying any attention to Rohan or Welli.

Seeing this, Welli said, "So, how was the conversation?"

Rohan said, "... Well, you were right to a certain extent. It looks like the impression I made on her won't let her forget me anytime soon."

"Hahaha, I told you. From your face, the impression is clearly negative, but don't worry, little by little, we'll change that."

"Well, I'm more worried about what she intends to do."

"She shouldn't do anything. She must have just said it out of the blue."

"I also thought that might be the case, but after talking to her, I realized that she is quite serious."

"Well, as a last resort, you can always ask me for help, whatever happens."

"Thanks. If I need to, I'll ask."

The two of them then went to their rooms to sleep.

...

A week passed, and many things happened. During this time, several other green runes appeared, causing people to scramble to get them. Unfortunately, Rohan didn't manage to get any of them, but Welli got two more, and Mai got two more.

During this time, a river was also found, and they realized that inside the river were some blue runes. Upon seeing this, dozens of people jumped into the river to get the runes, and each of them came back with two or three blue runes. Some of them even got four or five runes.

Everyone was very envious of these people, but as soon as they returned to the shelter that day, this envy disappeared. The people who had gone into the river to get the blue runes were completely soaked, and Uson, who was guarding the gate that day, said that they couldn't rent rooms like that and would have to buy new clothes.

At first, this caused a stir among the people who had taken the runes, but after seeing that complaining wouldn't change anything, they paid for new clothes. Each new pair of clothes cost twenty white runes, an exorbitant amount. Obviously, none of them had the money, so they had to exchange their blue runes for white runes.

Uson showed them the conversion table, and when they saw that each blue rune was worth five white runes, many of them became desperate. After all, most of them had only taken two or three blue runes, and now they found out that this wasn't even enough to pay for a new change of clothes. Because of this, most of them were thinking of not entering the shelter to avoid having to pay, but Uson advised them against it, explaining that if they got sick, they would be disqualified from the mission until they recovered.

This caused most of them to change their minds and return to the forest to look for the missing white runes to buy a new set of clothes. The few who insisted on not paying kept their runes, but the next day, they woke up with the flu, which disqualified them from the test.

By this point, everyone had noticed a pattern in the runes: the white runes were scattered across the forest floor, the blue runes were in rivers and lakes, and the green runes were always on some kind of mountain.

This meant that most people always went towards mountains when they started looking for the runes. Some of them also went towards lakes and rivers. After all, unlike the green and white runes, the blue runes were always found in groups with several of them, so if there was no one else to fight over the runes with, it was always worth getting into the water, even if you had to pay for another change of clothes afterward.

Because so many people were heading towards the site of the green and blue runes, the white runes were considerably easier to catch. After all, the competition was much smaller, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case for Rohan.

He was one of the people who decided to keep getting white runes, realizing that the competition for them would be much less, but it was then that he understood how Mai intended to get back at him.

The day after his discussion with her, nothing happened, which made him think that Welli was right and that she had said all that out of the blue because she was angry at the moment. But after a few days of peace, all hell broke loose.

One day, after Rohan entered the forest to look for runes, he noticed that a group of four men were following him. He ignored them at first. After all, it was pretty standard for people to follow each other for a while after entering the forest. However, after a while, he realized that they were still following him.

Rohan was confused by this and was about to ask what they were doing when suddenly he saw a white rune in the distance. He then decided to leave the question for later and started running towards the rune. 

After a while, he approached the rune and was about to reach it, but then one of the men who were following him ran past him and grabbed the rune in front of him.

Initially, he planned to complain, but since this had happened to him on several previous occasions, he decided to let it go and move on. However, when the same situation occurred a few more times, he decided to confront them. 

After all, what they were doing made no sense. Even if they wanted to get in his way, it was also highly inefficient to them.

Rohan said, "Why are you guys doing this?! Can't you see that we only stand to lose from it?!"

Then one of them said, "That's what you get for annoying Mai. As long as we're here, you won't get any white runes."