Chapter 87
87. Star of Libertas
This is a summary of what I've figured out about Epic Quests so far.
First, Epic Quests revolve around multiple elite NPCs with advanced self-awareness.
Second, while Epic Quests largely follow the same structure as the original quest they're based on, their difficulty is extremely high.
Third, the rewards in an Epic Quest are distributed differently by the system depending on how the quest progresses.
If I were to sum up those three traits in one line, I'd say they offer a high degree of freedom.
Because the NPCs' sense of self is stronger than normal, every little thing I do produces different reactions and side quests.
In a way, that makes the word epic a perfect fit. It really is, literally, epic.
A story born from the conflict among the three great factions, one in which I directly take part.
The fact that the scene on the 9th floor differs in many ways from what I saw on the community boards is probably because I'm influencing their story.
And the quest that has now appeared before me is probably because my existence is closely tied to Eleanor's story.
[Epic : The Dark Elf's Tale - Queen's Command]
Description: After a hundred years of war, the dark elves have gradually been pushed into a disadvantageous position.
That's because the human kingdom, which learns and grows quickly, has become incomparably stronger than it was a hundred years ago.
Perhaps it's because the dark elves who are fond of humans have become reluctant to fight the kingdom's army.
And on top of that, the arrogant, insolent high elves keep attacking as well, so the dark elves have no time to rest.
That is all the more true for the queen, who commands the war and bears responsibility for everything.
You are the only one who can ease the burden laid upon the queen's shoulders.
Carry out the queen's command, and aid her.
[Quest Objective]
1. Carry out the queen's command (subject to change depending on progress).
It was the most straightforward quest I'd ever come across. The objective was just to carry out the command.
Of course, that's what a floor-nine faction quest normally looks like. It's just that the command branches into various sub-quests.
But Eleanor's command to me was, no matter how you looked at it, to sleep together.
Of course, the quest objective doesn't actually say something like 'spend a hot night with Eleanor.'
But looking at the circumstances and context, that seemed like the completion condition.
“Ah, why are you making such a fuss over this! I'm really telling you, we'll just hold hands and sleep!”
“As if!”
“You know, once you sleep holding hands, you can end up grabbing other places too!”
Sure enough, Eleanor was spouting insane nonsense. No matter what the reward is, this is impossible.
Of course Eleanor is attractive. Like most dark elves, she's the sexiest person I've ever seen.
So that's exactly why I can't. If I can't suppress my lust and end up sleeping with her, there'd be no going back.
Just sharing a bit of mental communion with her on the 7th floor already shook me badly.
If physical communion gets added on top of that, I won't be able to endure what comes after Eleanor becomes an empty shell.
“I'm telling you, just sleeping side by side is enough!”
I had to somehow change Eleanor's mind.
**
First, I had to find out why Eleanor was suddenly saying this.
Since we'd once shared memories and exchanged thoughts, I can get a rough sense of Eleanor's feelings just by looking into her eyes.
Right now, Eleanor's eyes were strange. The starlight that had been sparkling with a longing for freedom had dimmed greatly.
“It's been very hard to fall asleep lately.”
After a long back-and-forth with me, Eleanor finally began to tell me how she really felt.
“After you left, I watched the war for a very long time. Those forest-dweller bastards and the human kingdom—there was so much killing and dying.”
“When I thought about breaking off the engagement and fighting the forest elves, I never imagined things would turn out like this. I was young.”
“Whenever I close my eyes, I hear the screams of the dead—the voices of our kin who have fallen over the past hundred years never stop for a moment.”
As the former queen had said, Eleanor was suffering terribly from the war.
“It wasn't a matter of a just fight or just revenge. This was probably the price of trying to repay cruelty with cruelty.”
And she was voicing the very same words the former queen had spoken.
“Whatever the method, Mother's way of trying to settle things through conversation wasn't wrong.”
Regardless of what's right, the moment you let go of the bowstring, everyone only suffers until they sit down and talk.
The scale of that suffering was beyond what I could even begin to measure. A hundred years—I'd only barely be able to grasp it if I devoted my whole life to it.
The amount of time it took for Eleanor, who always acted according to whatever her desires and heart dictated, to become like this.
The time I had simply stepped past in a single stride had dimmed the starlight in Eleanor's eyes.
“Of course, that doesn't mean I think she should've married that damn prince.”
“What, you didn't regret it?”
“If I had ended up with that bastard, I wouldn't be here talking with you again like this, would I?”
Eleanor slowly met my gaze. Some of the dimmed starlight had returned.
“For the past 120 years, the time I've spent with you has always been special. It's not a feeling I can easily explain, though.”
“If I had to compare it to something, I'd say it feels like being alive.”
“When you're gone, I always feel as if I'm dead, and when I'm with you, I feel like I've come back to life.”
The moment I heard Eleanor say that, goosebumps rose all over me.
“Heh, is that such a strange thing to say?”
Come to think of it, Eleanor had always been like that from the start. It's a hazy memory.
'You, what are you staring at so blankly?'
In that mixed bathhouse, Eleanor had noticed that I was looking at the quest window.
**
Ordinary NPCs can't tell even if you blatantly look at a system window right in front of them.
They don't even realize that you're looking at something, and just think you're spacing out by yourself.
But Eleanor clearly recognized that I was looking at something.
Not only that, Eleanor used a Night Elf secret art to peer into my memories.
In doing so, she indirectly glimpsed the existence of the Tower of Trials, and even realized that I was taking on some sort of trial.
This is absolutely not normal.
Even if I use the inventory to fight in ways that defy common sense, wouldn't NPCs just think it's spatial magic?
They wouldn't think it strange even if some guy who can't even use mana kept yanking weapons out of thin air and swinging them around.
In my fight with Mercedes, I'd already figured out mana control, so it wouldn't have been strange to think it was spatial magic.
But when I first fought that High Elf knight whose name I can't even remember anymore, there would've been reason to question it.
At the very least, all he did was babble about how many weapons I was handling.
Only Erwen, who knew nothing about mana control or magic, had brushed it off as 'probably an item box.'
‘Epic Quests revolve around multiple elite NPCs with advanced self-awareness.’
My summary of Epic Quests might have been wrong. No, it was definitely wrong.
Erwen was the one who kicked off the Epic Quest on the 8th floor.
Leaving Lizmel aside, Erwen is definitely not an elite NPC.
Erwen was just a run-of-the-mill blacksmith NPC, yet had a stronger sense of self than an elite NPC.
And once the Epic Quest is completed, they all lose that sense of self and become empty shells, just like the original.
In other words, Epic Quests should be understood as giving all NPCs an advanced sense of self.
Then what happens to top-tier elite NPCs who already have human-like aspects to begin with?
Eleanor, even after the quest was completed, still showed reactions that were a little less mechanical—at the level of the uncanny valley.
What if Eleanor's stronger sense of self, gained through the Epic Quest, is what the system is recognizing?
“You there, why are you doing that?”
I didn't know what that meant. Simply being a little less of a husk shouldn't change anything.
But if Eleanor is, to some extent, free from the system's influence, then maybe I could confide in her.
The reason I hadn't been able to confide in anyone about the system all this time wasn't just psychological.
After all, even if I tried to confide in them, NPCs couldn't hear me. That had been true on the open community boards too.
[Just think of it as roleplaying when talking to quest NPCs]
You can't just bring up the Tower of Trials with an NPC who shows such human-like reactions.
Because of some sort of blocking measure built into the system, any NPC who hears about the tower reacts the same way.
They either can't hear it, hear it as something they can understand, or try to change the subject.
But if you keep the conversation going long enough that it can't be brushed off that way, the NPC's settings reset.
I don't know the exact scope of the reset, but it's definitely not something you can ignore.
I looked at Eleanor. Eleanor looked back at me. Our eyes met.
“I'm not sure this is right.”
After giving the quest window a quick glance, I said.
“We're really just going to sleep holding hands.”