Chapter 12

This wasn't something Delphina needed to let sink in; it was something she'd guessed quite early on after all. Any family as supposedly old and long-running as the Four Great Families would have literal bodies, let alone skeletons hidden away in their closets.

"Wait, what year is it?"

[2848MA]

"Not going to take a question off of me?"

[No, providing the date and time is standard according to the Administration's rules]

"Well, would you look at that. Very convenient, I appreciate that… Following on from what I was saying. Wait, what was I saying?"

Delphina had lost her train of thought; her brain was now beginning to overflow with the recent information. And finding out just how long ago 'The Darkening' might have been threw her off. "It's been at least around 800 years, so that's what, four generations of Sword Masters? A lot can happen in that amount of time."

"Uh, so. The de Velasques did whatever they had to do to protect their Family. The Emperor and Empress ritually offered themselves after they thought Mareveil would be safe. But that didn't work."

"Because, from what I can tell, despite Mana being eradicated, there were too many 'Life Energy' based skills and techniques that ended up concentrated in the Four Great Families, and most likely these were pretty common in the general populace too."

"There is also the fact that Past Livers still keep cropping up even now, some 800 years later. So, both Life and Mana must be eradicated for The Gates to stop accessing here. Which is completely unrealistic."

"That explains why 'Bad Endings' in the Game were to do with the World ending, because this Continent is one large Gate Flash- or whatever they're called. From total wipe out…"

"Also, despite Mareveil essentially becoming a sink for anything and everything powerful. There has to be somewhere all that energy ended up going. I mean, the Lovers of Mareveil Game exists, the Administration exists, which pretty much confirms that there are at least two more planes of existence above Mareveil itself."

[( ﾟヮﾟ)]

[This system does not have the authority to confirm or deny that last statement.]

"Yeah, yeah, it's fine. Don't worry, it's a relatively common trope, especially in Xianxia, that Martial Artists ascend to the Heavenly realm after some godawful trial. Or that the system is a God manipulating *cough* I mean communicating with a lower being for whatever reason."

[This system does not have the authority to confirm or deny that last statement.]

"No.69, I doubt any decent God would allow themselves to be given that numeration, plus you work for an administration. I'm just joking with you!"

Delphina narrowed her eyes and let out a soft chuckle. Not all tropes she sniffed out would ring entirely true, but the suspicion was undoubtedly there. The screen was gently quivering after all.

[(^̮^)]

[Haha, as a system, I sometimes don't understand human jokes! Thank you for clarifying that was one!]

[(✿´‿`)]

"No problems. Right, let's round this up now."

"So Emperor and Empress go bye-bye, only for it to kill everything off apart from this Continent, that's relatively simple. The Dragons protected them. But didn't give a crap or more likely couldn't properly care about elsewhere and keep Mareveil safe at the same time."

"Dragons protect their hoards to the death, and they were enamoured with the Imperial Family. There's no way the Emperor and Empress didn't leave any grown Crown Princes or Princesses behind at the time. The Dragons would have protected them for sure."

"And the declination of the Imperial Family is obvious, no more Mana, no more Dragon skills or protection from the Dragons. And to be fair, most of the World dying off because of their decision is also a massive cock-up."

"Therefore, I can conclude, 'The Darkening' was caused by a series of terrible coincidences. It was ultimately driven by human greed at the end of the day. And 'The Darkening' itself is just a reference to most of the World 'Going Dark' all at the same time."

"What do you think?"

"Wait, before I forget, because I'm now so done with this. Pietro is, in fact, also a Sword Master. He's not a Magic Swordsman; that was just the game's description. Because there seem to be large logic gaps between the Game and this World, magic cannot exist here."

[The above statements seem plausible and fit with known information from the database. The drawn conclusions without the complete information are cohesive]

[Quest: Investigate the Darkening is currently at 90% completion]

[Quest: Who Me? is currently at 20% completion]

[Investigate the Darkening can be marked as complete if confirmed. Do you wish to confirm?]

"Before I confirm that, what exactly do the different completion rates give me rewards-wise?"

[4/20 questions now available]

[The User can force complete a Quest once it reaches above 50% completion. A score below 50% will be considered a fail if the Quest is in a situation where it can no longer be completed]

[50-70% Quest completion reduces your reward quality by 25%. 75-95% reduces your reward quality by 5%. 100% is the goal to aim for as always.]

"Okay, just use up my questions. I don't care at this point, I'm too hungry, quite frankly. But that's a sharp jump from 25 to 5%? Consider that a follow-up question by the way."

[I thought you just said you don't care. My apologies, Delphina, I will work on reading into sarcasm better]

[The significant jump is due to the difficulty level of this World, which is…

"Yes, yes, I know, I know. It's SSS, I got it."

"By the way, my last four questions. I want to reserve them for another time. Or when something important comes up. How do I let you know about that?"

[…]

[Yes, I will now refrain from answering questions in that way. Just let me know at any time- I want to use my X amount of questions. You can always ask typical day-to-day questions from now on. But if it is Quest-related, I will have to use the questions up. Unless you earn any other reward.]

"Speaking of rewards, I'd like to confirm my Quest completed for The Darkening."

[Quest confirmed completed and submitted at 90%. Congratulations Delphina! Your reward is 15% of Delphina's memories! Please stand by for download.]

"No, wait, please! How long will this take, and when is dinner going to be from now?!"

[No problems, Delphina. Download and sync will take at most 5 minutes for disorientation to subside, and the automaton will be guiding you to dinner in less than 15 minutes]

[Please stand by…]