Chapter 56: Momentary Thoughts Part 4 Part 1
Chapter 56: Momentary Thoughts Part 4 Part 1
Do you know about bards? In your typical fantasy settings, they are wandering warriors that are skilled in music, poetry and magic to some small extent.
Some of them can fight on the frontlines, some of them can be masters of seduction, while others can be master mages, specializing in casting both buffs and debuffs. But what’s important here is the setting.
Same here. When telling a fantastic story, what is important is just how far you can stretch the truth without making it sound too unrealistic. Go too far with it and no one’s going to believe you and proclaim the story to be nothing more but a fake…… That is why it is fairly important to be able to know the difference between “utterly impossible to pull off” and “Extremely unlikely but doable”.
On the other hand, sometimes the truth was not the thing that people were looking for. So it was also important to be able to tweak it a little bit, make it more colorful, more romantic and more epic than it was in reality. I had one advantage here: Weissash was an NPC, and not widely known at that. So even if our plan regarding the Gravekeeper was somehow leaked, it wouldn’t cause us much harm to begin with.
「…… It’s not that I think that we can win. I’m doing this because I KNOW that we can win this.」
「Hoo?」
「As I said before, I am merely assisting this time around…… It is an acquaintance of mine that is taking the spotlight for this.」
First of all, I needed to explain my standing in this whole situation. I needed to make it crystal clear that this whole escapade was not my selfish idea, but rather a sign of goodwill to help a friend in need.
「Do you have any idea what the Gravekeeper really is?」
「Not really. It’s been ages since I last saw him.」
「Nowadays he’s revered like…… a sort of deity for some shady group of murderers, I think? I wonder why would they ever do something like that?」
Instead of saying PK, I told it in such a way so that he could understand. I wonder if it would have been better to compare it to something else? …… Nah, let’s leave it at that.
「The one who proposed this quest to me is actually one of those murderers. He is serious about taking the guy down and won’t stop at anything in order to achieve that.」
Otherwise we wouldn’t jump on this bandwagon to begin with. At least the “strategy” that he came up with was so sound that we stored it on our mobile devices and got it perfectly memorized. If it turns out to be a failure, I’m gonna cut all ties with him.
「We are going to do our very best there, but still…… Our chances of winning are still only about forty… No, thirty percent at best?」
「Isn’t that a little bit too reckless? I know that the Vorpal Soul inside of you must be boiling for a challenge, but still……」
「We must believe in our success. That’s the best course of action. But my friends…… No, I don’t believe we could lose to anyone.」
This is it. It’s like a movie. The scale of things is grand. The narration is dramatic and the language is romantic. Challenge the limits of explaining things and see just how far you can take them. Just like with adding topping after topping on your pizza.
「Me too, I want to do my best…… So I’ll lend my power to that person…… so that we can emerge victorious. It’s not even about the fact that we can resurrect upon death. This is more because he said that it will be the one and the only chance for us to do this, so I want us to win!」
「I, I see…… I once tried my chances with him, but because I was so weak I was almost destroyed at that time.」
There it is! There it is! ––––––––– This is great…… A very good flow of the conversation!
「But…… You still accept the fact that you are weak, right? So in that case…… what will you do?」
「We have about two weeks’ time before we are going to challenge the Gravekeeper. It may not be enough to prepare ourselves, but we are sure to do our very best until that appointed time. We are going to make it. Right now I may be weak…… but I will change into a strong warrior that won’t back away from any challenge that presents itself to me!」
For me it was the first time that I actually tried my hand at roleplaying, but I think I was doing a pretty good job at it? Of course, there was absolutely no reason for me to have this conversation, but I wanted to maintain relatively favorable relations with Rabbitz, so raising a perfect flag in here was a must for my plan.
The only thing is, I didn’t quite understand the background of Weissash here. The only clue I had was that he seemed to be tied to the Unique Monsters in some convoluted way? Without properly understanding this, a proper friendship may not really be possible. In that case, I would like to at least maintain a neutral relationship with them.
「…… I think I get what it is that you are trying to say.」
「!!!」
「When I first heard your story I thought that you might have misunderstood what the Vorpal Soul is all about….. But I see that I was wrong. I can now see that it is burning brightly inside of you.」
Right about now, the ball was in their court. I could only keep silent and wait. What would the verdict be? What would it be?
「Since my child also wanted us to help you in your endeavor, we are going to do everything that is in our power to help you out.」
If it was a cartoon of some sorts, there would be a ball of confetti breaking in half right now, revealing the banner with the words “Congratulations!” inside it, accompanied by victory fanfare.
See that “Sh*t Chronicles Online”!? Watch and learn! Unlike you, where you needed to contribute actual items to raise the favorability meter of certain characters, the developers of this game clearly knew of the fact that a silver tongue can open up any kind of door!
「Thank you so much!」
I got a feeling that I might have forgotten about something, but for now I am going to bask in the warm afterglow of the successful attempt at persuasion. After all, I managed to successfully raise a flag here.
Just then, Weissash stood up and started going somewhere. He also waved his hand at me, so he wanted to follow him?
「Just so you know, this guy can be really clumsy at times.」
This guy……? Ah, he must have meant the Gravekeeper. The key to unlocking this kind of information was the proper way to handle a conversation with various NPCs from all over the world. As Weissash begins to monologue, I turn all ears in hopes of getting as much information out of him as humanly possible.