Chapter 229: Sixty-First Floor, The Ice Castle’s Princess (3)
Logically speaking, giving Natalie the restriction would be the most optimal choice.
Considering that I needed to escort her out of the castle, it would be inefficient if I, as the strongest combatant, burdened myself with restrictions.
I could endure pain, but who knew to what extent the paralysis would affect me? If I lost my mobility, responding to perilous situations would become significantly harder.
Of course, the idea of forcing a young girl to endure pain or paralysis didn’t exactly sit right with me, but it wasn’t as if she would die from it. I could simply carry her on my back and rush through the floor as quickly as possible.
We had the power to decide who would suffer, though. There had to be a reason the tower had set it up this way.
I recalled the message that had appeared earlier.
[A restriction, either pain or paralysis, will be applied each time a door in the Ice Castle is opened.]
The fact that it was applied each time a door was opened stuck out to me. This wasn’t a one-time occurrence. It meant we would be faced with this choice repeatedly.
Trying to balance the burden between Natalie and me had been my second thought, but that still didn’t sit right with me.
Before we left the room earlier, Natalie had presented me with a choice: either play with her or immediately leave the room.
It was entirely possible that she had simply wanted to play, and there wasn’t a deeper meaning.
Maybe I would have thought that if the tower hadn’t liked to hide hints in even the most trivial details. Assigning significance to the first choice, I could interpret it as a test of who I prioritized: Natalie or myself.