The Dreaded Special Quests (1)

As for Laura's situation..

Here's the summary.

She did get into contact with the Regressor, but the reply was brief, curt and probably even hurtful. He never replied to the messages she sent that followed after.

When Laura said that the Regressor 'is not picking up', it was after her message had been ignored the nth time. She tried calling just to have it denied over and over.

What kind of guy is that Regressor anyways? Was it because he couldn't believe this was the Laura from his first life, or that he felt guilty or that he thinks it's a trap..?

In any case, Laura had already done the preparations to come visit Erudite kingdom. And due to her position as a high elf, more so, part of elf royalty that is-- she had no choice but to visit Erudite under the guise of 'being an ambassador wishing to meet the heroes'.

That said.. I didn't get the part where she escaped from the elven escorts and was now staying at some inn somewhere. I'm pretty sure being an ambassador was unnecessary if that was the case right? What would happen to those pitiful elf escorts then?

Asides that.. there were many other ways we could help Laura to contact the Regressor such as spamming him from my side, or attaching [Bleu's Blessing] to his title and telling him to think of the Goddess of Comfort.

Else.. it would be to remove Moirae from the game altogether-- that's if Bleu was willing to pull her back to Heaven's realm.. or whatever that place was called. Of course, Bleu rejected despite being begged by Laura… which again brings up the question of why Bleu needed to say she had that authority to do so in the first place. That's being a black woman.

With the random gibberish and night snacks over, we woke up to a new morning.

And it was the Monday of a new week. Which meant..

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Special Quest:

Ride on a dragon boat. 300P

RULES: Liliath, Nine and Prune cannot find out about the specifics of the task. If found out, the quest will be terminated. Special quests cannot be removed and will be refreshed weekly. Special Quests completed before the week ends will only be refreshed the following week..

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Yes, our special quests.

"I have it too.. and nobody can know what it is.." Nine said.

"Um.. this quest is rather, difficult," Prune said.

"We need more tea," Liliath announced.

We were having a short morning discussion after light exercise and a bath. Breakfast.. Miss Margrett told us that she wanted to prepare our share so we had some time to spare.

What exactly is a dragon boat? I wanted to ask but I was pretty sure my quest was going to be found the instant I did that.

This special quest function is both interesting and shitty. Interesting because it kinda gives us a challenge and provides the juicy points, shitty because one wrong move and you can make others think you're some kind of lunatic. I remember that time I misunderstood Liliath's special quest. I thought she needed to suffocate me between her chest but.. in actuality, all she needed to do was to pull out one strand of my hair.

Okay, I'd be lying if I didn't wish for it to be the former..

Speaking of which, about the separated wallet function and internet widget that Prune requested, the wallet function was limited only for the special quests. Which meant that the daily quest rewards would enter the shared pool while the rewards of the special quests would be ours to keep. He said something about not making things too complicated.

As for the internet widget, it was a no-go.

Damn it. He created a widget that allows us to tamper with the stats of other people but can't even provide internet? What the hell is the wifi charge.. not to mention, it was paid weekly?! Tell us how to cancel the subscription oi…

Anyways. We went down for breakfast after deciding our plans for the day. It was a simple meal of bread, grilled fish pieces, and salad with some exotic dressing and cheesy stew. I guess this is what the normal food of this world is like? I feel like bread dipped in stew is a staple here.

Nine and Prune would drop off Jennifer-chan to the education guild before moving to the orphanage while Liliath and I would go adventuring.

I forgot why we established this habit of going outside to hunt in alternation… oh, it's for Nine and I to get used to fighting monsters. Right.. but then that means..

"Liliath, are you tired? Like, you're the one always protecting me and Nine whenever we go hunting," on the way to the adventurer's guild, I asked.

"It's alright. It's cheap in comparison the happiness I feel to be of use," Liliath smiled wryly, "Thank you for you worry Noel. I'm fine."

"If you say so.."

I'm not just gonna let this slide. I'll talk to Nine about switching with Liliath tomorrow. Since I'm getting the hang of using the magic casting related widgets at my disposal. We'd be alright ourselves.

"Noel, is it alright if we bought some of the tea from the place you last went? It's for this week's special quest."

"No problem.. it's a little far.. you know what? Let's go on an actual date in the afternoon after a quick hunt," that's it. I'll use this chance to complete my special quest today.

Liliath looked at me a little funny.

"Come on," I grabbed her wrist with a smile and quicked our pace.

I should at least do this much for my fiance. It's been a while since we've been alone together.

Entering the rather busy guild, the first thing we went to was the quest board for the lower ranks. Let's see.. if there aren't any good quests, then we'll just go subjugate some random snakeweed or Hoppins.

"Hey you," some random adventurer called out.

"Hm?" Liliath turned around before I did. "How can I help you?"

"What happened to that locket quest yesterday?" this imposing adult glared at her as he asked. My instincts were telling me that I should be wary of this guy. Behind him was his party members as they looked at us with a similar hostile gaze.

"It was completed," Liliath answered.

"You and those kids completed it?"

"If that's how you interpret it, then yes. We found the locket, are you satisfied with this answer?"

"Bitc…"

He dropped dead on the ground.. just kidding. I put him to sleep. He was just about to punch Liliath there.. what an ass.

Putting up an act, I held Liliath's arm and staggered backwards with her. The other adventurers who saw us were likewise dumbfounded.

"Noel?"

"What's wrong with him.."

"Did he lose a string?"

"Adventurers stress. I didn't know you could just faint like that."

"What a show. He almost hit the girl."

"OI! WHat dId yOu do To HIM?!" one of his party members yelled.

"Is he alright?" I asked.

"Don't fuck with me.." she placed her hands on the pommel of her sword.

"NO FIGHTING IN THE GUILD!!" a loud yell resounded.

"Instructor, what the hell did they do.." the girl turned to the guy who yelled. Huh, he's the person we stole [Magick Sword] from. Too bad it's something you can't use unless you have a good grasp of magic.. but that's not important in this situation.

"Be honest with me, what did you do?" The instructor glared at us.

Huh, what are we going to do with this?

"What do you think?" Liliath sneered.

"He's not dead.." the girl bent down and checked on his breathing.

"So he's asleep, no poison or anything like that?"

"I can't be sure.."

"..."

A moment of awkward silence. A weight bore down my shoulders. The gaze from the surrounding adventurers didn't help either.

"Tell me honestly, what did you do?"

I sighed.

"What do you think I did?" I croaked.

"That was magic wasn't it?"

"No," I lied.

"Don't lie. I can tell from a mile away. Who exactly are you trying to fool?"

"Grill-dono, stop it. It wasn't his magic," a person nearby with a hood said.

For a moment Grill-dono, the instructure was silent.

"Don't think I forgot what you did last time," with a frown he said before turning away to assist the sleeping beauty.

Without anything being done to us beside the sudden trifle, the crowd, together with the instructor and opposing party dispersed. All the while, Liliath and I just stood there.

'Annoying. But at least we got out of that alright.'

'Good work Noel.'

'That's the last thing I'd want to hear..'

'Why?'

'It's hard to put into words..'

I was angry, yes, but I'm glad Liliath didn't have to raise her hand this time around. It's a weird mix of pride and guilt.

Anyways, we picked a random quest to harvest some of this red berry and left after having it confirmed by Avice. She asked about the situation but I didn't really say much about it.

'Noel, he's following us.'

'Again?'

Sulking while we headed over to the main gate, Liliath sent a message.

'It's the person who stopped the conflict.'

'What do you mean?'

So basically.. it's that guy that told off Grill-dono. I think he lied about the fact that [Absolute End] didn't produce any magic trace? Wait.. do system magic produce magic signatures? I thought 3rd party casting-- the kind of casting that doesn't require my mana to be the intermediary wouldn't create any sort of trace?

No, rather. It's more like the trace appeared from mid air isn't it? If I used the autocasting widget, a mana trace would appear mid air-- but normally the mana should come from the individual before the spell manifests. I guess that's the suspicious part? But I swear something like that shouldn't have been felt though because of the efficiency which causes less mana to radiate to the surroundings… the guy following us wasn't some crazy good mage from the look of his stats either.

So what gave us off?

Maybe he's just suspicious of us?

'Just leave him be I guess? If we drop him here then he'll become suspicious of us.'

'Is that so? It brings me to those days where we were being stalked. I suppose it's alright~' Liliath ended her message with a laughing emoji.

Ugh.. yeah. We were being stalked the entire time at school weren't we? Like honestly.. do 4th year infiltration class students need to stalk people for the majority of the year? No way right?

Whatever it is.. since this guy wants to stalk us..

I held Liliath's hand.

"Hm?"

"You know the drill," I smiled.

"How sly," Liliath said and leaned closer to me, our shoulders now touching.

Well. Good luck with that mister stalker. As someone who has experience with the likes of you— we'll do our very best to provide you with a 'wonderful' experience filled with excessive sugar.