What Do People Live For?
They speak like people, act like people, and look like people. So, they're just people.
The dark elves in this village were all ordinary NPCs. No, they weren't. Even though I knew that, I hid behind excuses one more time. I knew my words had hurt Rizmel, but I still put up the convenient shield of "NPC anyway."
"I'm, uh, gonna head out."
I shot up from my seat. Erwen looked at me with a pleased expression and waved lightly.
"Alright, good kid. Be careful not to trip."
Considering the age gap was thousands of years, it was natural, but in front of Erwen, I was no different from a child. By now, she would've told me where Rizmel might be, and I bolted straight there. If I had to pick the fastest I'd ever run in my life, it'd definitely be today.
I arrived at full sprint. It was a makeshift shelter on the outskirts of the dark elf village. There were swings and seesaws made of wood and vines—like an apartment playground reimagined in elf style. More than anywhere else, this place felt steeped in the passage of time.
Rizmel sat on a bench in the corner of the shelter.
"Rizmel."
I approached her as she hung her head and called her name. Come to think of it, this was the first time I'd properly said her name. I'd never told the dark elves mine, and I'd never called theirs either. Looking back, that had been the last line in my mind—the boundary to keep thinking of them as non-people, as NPCs. I didn't want to share my name and build a connection, or call theirs and do the same. They were just NPCs anyway, dolls that'd loop the same lines after the quests ended.
"……"
Rizmel lifted her head silently. I closed my eyes for a moment. I was scared to see what expression she had.
The swordsmanship training quest with Rizmel had already been fully completed. That meant there was a chance she'd turned into a canned puppet like the shepherd girl on Floor 2. Though considering how the Floor 7 faction quest carried over to other floors and elite NPC traits, maybe not. It was fifty-fifty.
What kind of face would Rizmel make? I hoped it would show her complicated feelings plainly.
"What the hell... I told you not to come find me. How'd you even know to come here?"
"Erwen told me. Said you'd probably be here."
"Auntie? Not even Elenoir—how'd she know I'd be here...?"
And fortunately, Rizmel wore a deeply conflicted, poignant expression. One no non-human could make.
"So why'd you come? We're done, right? I don't wanna hang with humans."
Her tone was cold, but her voice still trembled. I mulled over my words for a long time.
I'm a fucking idiot. Weak-willed, shitty social skills, all I know how to say is curses and excuses—a total fucking idiot. That's why I had to pick my words even harder. One slip, and I'd hurt her worse.
But no matter how much I racked my brain, nothing came easily. Because that's who I was. Someone who'd lived screwing up too much, defined by fuck-ups, nothing but mistakes. I had no clue what was right anymore.
But one thing I knew. Even a fuck-up like me had one way to get better.
Instead of lamenting what I lacked and doing nothing, take a clumsy, inadequate step forward. Like grinding goblins to level up, or job-changing to a basic warrior to clear Floor 1.
Do my clumsy best at the simplest thing even I could think of.
"Sorry."
And Rizmel smiled.
We sat there for a while, having a real, deep talk with Rizmel. Every exchange made me realize how immature and lacking I was at dealing with people.
In that sense, Rizmel being a dark elf was a huge stroke of luck. Dark elves all adored humans. Enough to forgive my clumsy, awkward apology right away.
Dealing with people, building relationships—it's a brutal path. One wrong step and you fall flat. But the road in a dark elf's heart was safe enough for my fumbling steps not to trip me up. Erwen's words—"Be careful not to trip"—hit different now.
"This is why I hate humans. So fragile, die young, but can't just ignore 'em, so hard to deal with."
"Not all humans are like that. I'm just the weird one."
"Even if you say that, I haven't met many humans, so I wouldn't know how weird you are."
Hearing that Rizmel had barely interacted with humans, I tried explaining what they were usually like. But the more I thought, the more I realized even I, a human, didn't know humans well. No guarantee this world's humans were like the ones I knew anyway.
"Then just see for yourself. Night elves were in charge of pioneering forests, right?"
"Hanging with Elenoir's got you saying the same crap."
"Haven't hung out much, but anyway. Meet some other humans besides me."
Rizmel shook her head. From what she explained, the current queen's decree forbade free contact with humans.
"Deep down, I'd like to meet more humans... no, wait, it's not like I particularly like them?"
Come to think of it, the queen was distancing from human factions to ally with high elves. Something about the soul cycle granting elves immortality, obsession with the world tree and great forest.
"Ah, now I get it."
Why Erwen figured I was Elenoir's guest. "Just that kid," she'd said? Only a princess like Elenoir could've broken taboo to bring a human. And she'd brought me to break off her engagement with the high elf prince. If that fell through and high elf peace talks collapsed, the human contact ban would lift too.
Elenoir had said she wasn't the only one uneasy about high elf alliance. Rizmel and the human-loving dark elves probably felt the same, even if they didn't show it.
"Then I'll make it so you can meet other humans."
One more reason to help Elenoir's plan.
The next day, I headed to the training grounds for sword practice with Rizmel as usual. She was drilling alone against shadow puppets and widened her eyes in surprise when she saw me.
"What're you doing here?"
"What else? Gotta learn swordsmanship."
We'd already made up, so I figured training would resume. Was there a problem?
Rizmel looked a bit troubled at my question.
"I really meant it when I said there's nothing more to teach."
The quest completing wasn't her changing her mind. I'd actually finished all the training.
But I saw it differently. I still didn't know how she'd sensed the crystal spider's light beam beforehand. That wasn't possible with just my sensory enhancement. There had to be a higher technique.
"Sure, but... that's not something I can teach. It's more in the realm of magic."
"Realm of magic?"
"Yeah. I'm a sword specialist; can't teach that. And it's not like you can just learn it by hearing anyway."
So, separate from yesterday, sword training with Rizmel ended here. Sure, I had other martial skills besides swordsmanship, so sparring with her for practice was possible. But scouting with the patrol and hunting field monsters would help more.
I'd apologized to Rizmel, but my mindset hadn't changed much. I still didn't want to see myself wasting time leisurely on personal whims. Sure, it sucked a bit, but no plans for inefficient bonding with her.
"If you wanna learn that, ask Elenoir, not me."
"Huh? Why her?"
"Told you, magic realm. She's the best at shadow magic."
Rizmel added under her breath, "Not recommending you hang too much with that pervert girl, though."
Elenoir had casually blocked an elf knight's wild attacks with shadow magic. It was a dark elf racial trait, and since my class was warrior anyway, I'd glossed over it. But yeah, she'd heard about my training with Rizmel and said something like that. Too soon, but someday she'd teach me something good.
"Aha."
This must be it.