51. Let's Do a Side Quest for a While
So I brought them to a café.
Of my own free will.
It bothered me a little that the Chairman had apparently been waiting for this and used some kind of perception-blocking magic to make them invisible to other users.
It felt like I was dancing in the palm of his hand.
But I was probably just being too sensitive.
“This is a place from my memories. I've been here before in my false memories. I've never seen this café before, though. I wonder if the nest that I'm supposed to have made is still here.”
“I used to live here when there was a mountain in this place. A shiny little one came and gave me good alcohol, asking me to flip the mountain over, so I flipped it over. Of course! That's only what my memories say~!”
Seeing Aien's dumbfounded expression as she listened beside me, I subtly moved my body to block her from Dorfin.
The moment Dorfin realized that my companions could see her, she'd already caused quite a commotion by talking to them nonstop.
Perhaps there was some kind of setting that gave her voice power despite her slow way of speaking.
The longer I listened to her, the more my mind became hazy too.
If I wanted to stay sane, I had to completely take control of the conversation and never let go.
Otherwise, Dorfin would literally take control of the Flow.
“So! The reason I brought you two all the way here today is…! There is no particular reason!”
“Waaaah~ I knew I could trust you~!”
“You seem to rely too much on luck. I don't know what kind of life you've lived until now, but in front of someone with overwhelming power, your plans that depend on your incredible luck will be shattered to pieces. Be careful.”
Putting aside her depression and helplessness, she seemed to simply be someone who naturally liked interfering in other people's affairs and worried about them a lot.
As someone who had once held an authoritative position in the field of helplessness, her behavior looked anything but helpless to me.
It looked more like an active appeal saying,
"Aww, I care so much about other people's problems, so I wish someone would care about me too~."
“Um, mister. Don't you think it's about time you introduced us too?”
“That's right, Ingwang. Those people seem to be just as strong as the Great Hero, so it's scary having them simply standing beside us.”
Just as strong as the Great Hero, huh…
If they saw Dorfin's true form even once, they wouldn't say something like that.
I couldn't even process it properly in my head, so I literally couldn't explain it.
She was a gigantic monster sheep whose head alone was so enormous that I couldn't take it all in at a glance.
She had even casually lifted chunks of land with her hand and swung them around like a child playing with fireflies.
Just how much content had this game prepared to create an NPC with such ridiculous power?
I had no idea what kind of purpose there was behind making even stronger boss monsters.
I was worried that the scale might become unbelievably huge while the actual boss battle itself turned out to be boring as hell.
Maybe the final boss would be something like everyone's wills gathering together and becoming an energy blast that pierced the boss.
Or perhaps the users would just circle around outside while the NPC, who was supposedly the strongest character according to the lore, actually fought the boss.
Then, after the users spent some time waiting, the boss would already be dead.
If this was going to be the finale, I wanted the final battle to have an ending worthy of a finale.
If the long-awaited final boss died through some empty and disappointing performance, it would ruin the entire game.
“This is Dorfin, and this one… I haven't heard her name yet either.”
“Mister, I think you should at least develop the habit of introducing yourself when you meet people.”
Well, what could I say?
I'd missed the right timing.
I knew I should have asked, but somehow I'd never found the right moment.
“Geu-jajiki Jin. I am an ancient Battle Dragon who was called the Severer. It is merely a false name, so there is no need for you to remember it.”
“You'll hear that kind of thing from her a lot. Just think of it as a habit of speech.”
“It displeases me.”
“Is that feeling false too?”
“…Is it?”
She looked genuinely shocked.
Her expression was like someone who had never thought about that possibility before.
Ironically, that shocked me even more.
I had been certain she would deny it.
But instead, she immediately went, "Huh? Is that so?"
She really had no backbone.
“Battle Dragon. I've heard of them. They are extremely aggressive dragons who love fighting and prefer physical combat over magic. That's what I've heard.”
“That doesn't mean I don't use magic. I simply enjoy martial combat more than magic. Do not assume that I will never use magic simply because I prefer fighting with my body. Many people have died because they believed otherwise. They died to the fists of the true Battle Dragon I imitated.”
“I will remember that. I shall engrave the concerned words of a noble being into my heart.”
“…Why don't you learn some humility like this old man, little one? Even if your humility is an act, who dislikes hearing pleasant words? Child, what is your name?”
“Call me Chief.”
“…You're an even worse child than him.”
Why was she nitpicking like that?
Was it because she kept grumbling that everything was false, but there were certain things her personality simply couldn't let slide?
Judging from this alone, she didn't seem to be in quite as desperate a state as I had thought.
It felt like even a small shock might be enough to restore her motivation.
The problem was that I still had absolutely no idea how to give her that small shock.
Dorfin had regained her motivation after seeing someone like me whom she thought would be fun to tease.
Maybe I needed to trigger some kind of event that stimulated Jin's desires in a similar way.
She was a Battle Dragon and supposedly very aggressive.
So maybe I should create an event that would bring that side of her out.
But how?
Should I call the old man?
“That's a good idea! Let's go see the Great Hero!”
“Why?”
“You're not even surprised anymore, are you? Think about it! If she's a Great Hero, she must be extremely experienced at fighting and beating people up! She's supposed to be the strongest!”
“Did you immediately think of that after hearing that I was a Battle Dragon? It's commendable, but the idea doesn't particularly appeal to me.”
“Who said you have to fight? I'll fight! You just watch! You're terrible at fighting anyway!”
There was a human right here who had just told a Battle Dragon that she was bad at fighting.
A dragon.
A creature that, in fantasy settings, normally possessed top-tier combat power.
The moment I said those words, it felt as though time itself stopped for everyone.
All it took was one breath from me for that woman, who could probably be torn apart and crushed like paper in a typhoon if she annoyed me, to disappear.
I had never felt the weight of silence pressing against my skin as strongly as I did at that moment.
It was so heavy that I felt like I was being crushed.
The one who finally broke the silence was Dorfin.
She had been desperately holding back her laughter ever since hearing what I'd said, but eventually she couldn't hold it anymore.
“Nahahaha! Right~ Right! You really~ can't~ fight~ at~ all~! Nahahaha! Can you do anything better than this?!”
“What do you mean, ‘this’?! Hey! Stop poking my cheek!”
“…”
There wasn't much change in her expression right now.
But the woman who had been talking so much had suddenly become silent.
She was obviously suppressing a deep anger rising from within.
What a ridiculous person.
Even though everything was supposedly false from her perspective, there was a very real me standing right in front of her.
She kept spouting nonsense about how nothing had any meaning, but the moment someone touched a nerve, she immediately became angry.
What exactly did she want?
Go ahead and keep holding it in if you can.
Someone as aggressive as you, someone who had literally been given the name Battle Dragon, couldn't possibly endure it for very long.
“But mister, the Great Hero isn't someone you can just meet whenever you want because you feel like seeing her.”
“But you said someone had been assigned to contact us before, didn't you? Won't they come out soon? Isn't it about time they threw us a quest?”
“There it is~!”
As if she'd been waiting for that moment, something seemed to fall from the sky.
Dorfin quickly snatched it out of the air.
It felt like a scroll.
Apparently, the person we'd been talking about had thrown it down and left.
However, there wasn't anyone else around besides our group.
So they really weren't going to show their face.
How cold.
Of course, it was a reasonable response.
I was connected to that power of madness that everyone was so uneasy about.
They had to be careful.
What if they kept appearing in front of me to deliver messages and chatting with me like we were friends, only to become infected by the madness?
“Is this it? Oh my~ Look at how pretty the handwriting is! If we copy this and use it to teach children how to write, it'll be perfect!”
“Forget the useless chatter for later and give it here. Let me see it too.”
“Say ‘please’~!”
“Please!”
I had no idea why she enjoyed treating me like a child so much.
She kept pinching my cheeks too.
Why was she doing this?
Anyway.
I wondered where the Great Hero had chosen as the stage for our little performance.
If possible, I wanted it to be somewhere exciting.
[Emergency Quest Activated! The Abandoned Children of the Back Alley - Recently orphaned children seem to be disappearing one after another! We don't know what despicable person is behind this, but it is suspected that someone with considerable power is involved! Even the Great Hero cannot recklessly intervene in this case! Rescue the children, uncover the person behind everything, and secure solid evidence!!!]
[Quest Reward - The Trust of the Great Hero AEAR to Grand National.]
Uh…
Hmm…
I had expected something like this might happen, but the content was considerably darker and more depressing than I'd imagined.
This was troublesome…
I'd been expecting something more exciting.
Something that would make Jin's body itch to fight and send her rampaging around.
Something where things got smashed, blood flew everywhere, and bones broke.
Well, there was no reason to refuse, so let's get started.
The quest message itself was more excited than I'd ever seen it before, so this had to be an urgent matter.
“You're not planning to make me handle nothing but these kinds of social injustices from now on, are you?”
“What else would the Great Hero ask you to do? If it were something that could be solved with force, she could just do it herself.”
“Why do you keep saying things that make perfect sense? And what's the point of hiring someone? Because she can't do it herself? Sure, that's part of it. But she also does it because she wants things to be convenient for herself! So the Great Hero, who has such an amazing spirit of self-sacrifice, is actually going around solving the difficult and unpleasant problems that she doesn't want to deal with herself? That's really admirable!”
“Mister, you've finally understood her!”
“Damn it!”
It wasn't worth living cautiously while maintaining something close to an enemy relationship with someone I had absolutely no reason to dislike.
Anyway, let's go do the job.
I had no idea where to start or how to approach the problem, but I'd probably figure something out once I got moving.
But why were there orphans in a place like this?
Even if this was a world overflowing with monsters, the Great Hero lived in the capital.
Why were enough orphans being created here for it to become a serious problem?
And how could people bold enough to commit such evil acts even exist?
Was having a Great Hero and having good public security two separate things?
But even without the Great Hero, there was the training center I'd visited briefly not long ago.
When something happened in Jageun Village, they had immediately sent support.
They weren't exactly people who were indifferent to the lives of their citizens.
Then did that mean there were people with enough power—or enough ability—to ignore all of those things?
And those people were kidnapping orphans?
But why would they make themselves so noticeable to the Great Hero?
This was bad.
The more I thought about this quest, the less sense it made.
Could this be a quest that had been created solely to generate content within the game, even if it caused a complete collapse of the setting?
“Strange request. At first glance, this place has good public security, yet something like this is happening?”
“The Great Hero wouldn't have lied!”
I thought so too.
Even just logically speaking, there was no benefit for someone like the Great Hero to give me a false request.
“A child who became a Great Hero wouldn't lie~ But is that child who gave us this request really the Great Hero's child~?”
“…That does make sense. But if that's the case, why would they lie like this? Wouldn't there be no benefit?”
“If there is a group that can gain some special benefit by harming the child, then you can't say there is no benefit. That child has traces of madness deep inside. Perhaps they intend to make use of it.”
“Mhm, that's probably it~ Anyway, foolish hu~mans~! Maybe I should just eat them all!”
Her eyes shone as she quietly smiled.
It was frightening.
There was no way she was simply saying that casually.
“Since ancient times, those who possessed the power of madness have been both feared and revered. Many people have also repeatedly tried to make such beings their own for various purposes. That is one of the major reasons why, while all the other demons openly rampaged throughout the world, the Demon of Madness remained behind the scenes instead of revealing itself to the world.”
“Just being part of an organization gives it symbolic power~ It makes lots of humans gather around without even realizing it. The true power of madness is its influence!”
“Those who try to drag a child into a dark place like this are most likely human traffickers. If they cut the child up and sell the parts, the price would be enormous.”
“There'll probably be someone powerful behind them too~ From the Empire's point of view, they'd want to hide everything about our Ingwang no matter what! So if there's a human-trafficking organization that knows about him, it probably isn't an ordinary-sized group~.”
“These kinds of organizations are structured so that even if one head is cut off, another head elsewhere takes control. Rather than immediately going after the person in charge, it would be better to gather reliable information first and then eliminate all the people who hold leadership positions at once.”
“My recommendation is simple~ Just drag them out into an official setting! Then~ the powerful person behind them will have no choice but to cut ties with the organization. The guys who spend their days taking drugs in back alleys aren't exactly overflowing with loyalty either~ So we'll probably be able to find clues about the person behind them too.”
So this was the old woman's treasure chest of wisdom.
Her experience and skill accumulated over countless years couldn't be ignored.
Just look at how she listed information without hesitation in response to a single question.
It was genuinely impressive.
“Or maybe all of this really is true. Fine, then. Shall we make a plan?”
I had been completely lost about what to do, but it seemed we'd more or less decided on our course of action.
Right.
In this game, where quests always left me staring into darkness because I had no idea what to do, I'd once again found a path thanks to their help.
To be honest, the main quest the Chairman had given me—to solve Dorfin and Jin's problems—was too troublesome to handle.
I'd practically run away from it and ended up accepting this side quest instead.
But it looked like this might become more interesting than I expected.
[Q-Quest has been changed! The Great Hero's Suspicious Request! - There are many suspicious points for this to be considered a request directly issued by the Great Hero! Of course! So find the suspicious people and discover the answer to the request given to the Adventurer!!!]
[Quest Reward - Ring of Suspicion. Increased trust from companions. Reward money according to contribution.]
The message window displayed text filled with confusion that I'd never seen before.
For some reason, that put me in a pretty good mood as I began discussing the matter with my companions.
Before I even started using my brain, I'd seen something incredibly cute.
It looked like I could spend the rest of the day feeling refreshed.
