WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Irevi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Alone Against the Tower ◈
Chapter 87: Star of Libertas
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What I had learned about Epic Quests so far could be summed up as follows.
First, Epic Quests center on multiple Elite Non-Player Characters with highly developed senses of self.
Second, Epic Quests do not differ greatly from their original quests in how they proceed, but their difficulty is extremely high.
Third, the system grants Epic Quest rewards differently depending on how the quest unfolds.
Taken together, those three traits could be summed up in one phrase: a high degree of freedom.
Since the NPCs had stronger senses of self than usual, every one of my actions could produce different reactions and subquests.
In a way, it fit the word “epic” perfectly. It was narrative in the truest sense.
I was personally intervening in the story born from the conflict between the Three Major Powers.
The reason the ninth floor differed so much from what I had seen in the community was probably because I was influencing their story.
And this quest that had appeared before me was likely because my existence was closely tied to Eleanor’s story.
[Epic: Dark Elf's Letter - The Queen's Command]
Description: During the hundred years of war, the Dark Elves have gradually been pushed into a disadvantage.
The human kingdom, whose people learn and grow quickly, has become incomparably stronger than it was a hundred years ago.
Perhaps the Dark Elves who like humans have begun to hesitate in their fights against the Kingdom Army.
On top of that, the arrogant and insolent High Elves have been aggressively attacking them, leaving the Dark Elves no time to rest.
This is even more true for the queen, who commands the war and bears responsibility for everything.
Only you can lighten the burden resting on the queen's shoulders.
Carry out the queen's command and help her.
[Quest Objectives]
1. Complete the queen's command (this will change depending on progress).
It was more straightforward than any quest I had cleared so far. The only objective was to carry out an order.
Of course, the ninth floor's Faction Quest was originally like this. The order simply branched off into various subquests.
But the order Eleanor had given me was, no matter how I looked at it, “sharing a bed.”
Of course, the quest objective did not literally say, “Spend a passionate night with Eleanor.”
Still, given the circumstances and context, that seemed like it would be the completion condition.
“Ah, why are you making such a fuss over this? I really mean we'll just hold hands and sleep!”
“Like I'd believe that!”
“When people sleep holding hands, they can end up grabbing other places too!”
Just as I thought, Eleanor was spouting insane nonsense. Whatever the reward was, I couldn't do this.
Of course, Eleanor was attractive. Most Dark Elves were, but she was the sexiest person I had ever seen.
That was precisely why I couldn't do it. If I gave in to desire and formed a physical relationship with her, there would be no turning back.
Even the slight emotional connection we had shared on the seventh floor had shaken me deeply.
If physical intimacy were added to that, I would never be able to bear it after Eleanor became an empty shell.
“I said just sleeping beside each other is enough!”
I had to somehow change Eleanor's mind.
* * *
First, I needed to find out why Eleanor had suddenly started saying things like this.
Perhaps because we had shared memories and exchanged thoughts once, I could roughly tell what she was feeling just by looking into her eyes.
Something was strange about Eleanor's eyes right now. The starlight that had glittered with longing for freedom had greatly dimmed.
“Lately, it has been very difficult for me to fall asleep.”
Only after struggling with me for quite some time did Eleanor finally begin to speak honestly.
“After you left, I watched the war for a very long time. Those forest folk bastards, and the human kingdom. So many died, and so many were killed.”
“When I broke off my engagement and decided to fight those forest folk bastards, I never imagined things would become like this. I was young.”
“Whenever I close my eyes, I hear the screams of the dead. The voices of my kin who have fallen over the past hundred years never stop, not even for a moment.”
As the former queen had said, Eleanor had suffered terribly through the war.
“It was not a matter of a just fight or justified revenge. This must be the price of trying to repay cruelty with cruelty.”
And she spoke the same words as the former queen.
“Whatever the method, Mother's way of trying to resolve things through dialogue was not wrong.”
Regardless of who was right, from the moment one loosed an arrow, everyone would suffer until they sat down and spoke together.
I could not dare measure the scale of that suffering. A hundred years. I would have to devote my entire life just to barely comprehend it.
The time it took for Eleanor, who had always acted according to her desires and followed her heart, to become like this.
The time I had simply passed through in a single step had dimmed the starlight in Eleanor's eyes.
“Of course, that does not mean I think I should have married that unpleasant prince.”
“Why? I thought you regretted it.”
“If I had been bound to that bastard, I would not have been able to meet you again and talk with you like this.”
Eleanor slowly met my eyes. Some of the starlight that had faded returned.
“For the past hundred and twenty years, the time I spend with you has always been special. It is not a feeling that is easily explained.”
“If I had to compare it to something, perhaps I would say that it makes me feel alive.”
“Whenever you were absent, I always felt as though I were dead. Whenever I was with you, I felt as though I had come back to life.”
The moment I heard those words from Eleanor, goosebumps rose all over my body.
“Hehe, was that too strange?”
Thinking back, Eleanor had been like that from the very beginning. It was a vague memory.
‘What are you staring at so blankly?’
In that mixed bath, Eleanor had recognized that I was looking at the quest window.
* * *
Ordinary NPCs could not recognize system windows even when someone was openly looking at one right in front of them.
They did not even realize the person was looking at something. They simply thought the person was spacing out alone.
But Eleanor clearly recognized that I was looking at something.
That was not all. Eleanor had looked into my memories using the Night Elf Secret Art.
Through that, she had indirectly glimpsed the existence of the Tower of Trials and recognized that I was taking on some kind of trial.
This was absolutely not normal.
Even when I used the inventory to fight in ways that defied common sense, NPCs treated it as some kind of spatial magic.
Even if someone who could not even handle mana pulled weapons out of thin air and swung them around, they did not find it strange.
When I fought Mercedes, I had already awakened Mana Manipulation, so it would not have been strange for her to assume it was spatial magic.
But when I first fought that High Elf knight whose name I could no longer remember, he should have had reason to question it.
Instead, he had only rambled on about how many weapons I could handle.
Only someone like Erwen, who knew nothing about Mana Manipulation or magic, had simply assumed it was an “Item Box.”
‘Epic Quests center around multiple Elite NPCs with highly developed senses of self.’
The traits of Epic Quests I had organized might have been wrong. No, they were definitely wrong.
It was Erwen who had begun the Epic Quest on the eighth floor.
Rizmel was one thing, but Erwen was absolutely not an Elite NPC.
Erwen was merely an ordinary blacksmith NPC, yet possessed a sense of self greater than that of an Elite NPC.
And once an Epic Quest was completed, they would all lose their senses of self and become empty shells, just as in the original.
In other words, I should assume that Epic Quests granted highly developed senses of self to all NPCs.
Then what happened to Top-tier Elite Non-Player Characters, who originally possessed qualities closer to humans?
Even after the quest was completed, Eleanor had shown somewhat less mechanical reactions, the sort that fell into the uncanny valley.
What if Eleanor's awareness of the system was the result of gaining an even stronger sense of self through the Epic Quest?
“My dear, what is wrong?”
I did not know what that meant. If an empty shell merely became a little less empty, nothing would really change.
But if Eleanor was somewhat free of the system's influence, then perhaps I could tell her.
The reason I had been unable to talk about the system was not merely psychological.
NPCs could not hear me even if I tried to tell them. It had been the same in the Open Community.
[Just think of it as roleplaying when you talk to quest NPCs.]
You should not casually talk about the Tower of Trials to NPCs who reacted like people.
Due to some kind of safeguard in the system, every NPC who heard about the tower reacted the same way.
They either could not hear it, interpreted it as a concept they could understand, or tried to change the subject.
But if the conversation continued to the point where it could not be brushed aside that way, the NPC's settings would reset.
I did not know the exact scope of what was reset, but it could not be something insignificant.
I looked at Eleanor. Eleanor looked at me. Our eyes met.
“I don't know if this is right.”
Glancing lightly at the quest window, I spoke.
“We're really just going to hold hands and sleep.”
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