86. A Dream-Like Situation
Dark elves are basically friendly toward humans by nature, but things change a bit on Floor 9. With the all-out war between the three major factions underway, they'd already clashed with humans several times by now. They still had that fondness for humans, that "aww, so cute" vibe, but they were fully aware that humans were the enemy.
That's why they were over the moon when a human who was definitely not an enemy showed up.
"Oh my god, oh my god, is that really you, Ani? Where the hell have you been all this time? Finally showing up now?"
"Watch it, we don't even know if it's really him yet! Humans only live about a hundred years!"
"Pfft, there could be humans who live a little longer than that. That's probably it."
Half the dark elves were just thrilled to see me, while the other half eyed me suspiciously. And even those suspicious ones were inching closer bit by bit. They were a race that loved humans to an almost weird degree, no matter how you sliced it. God knows what it felt like fighting a war against them.
"You vanished without a trace for a hundred years, so we figured you were dead."
Rizmel, who'd led me inside the fortress, let out a hollow chuckle as she said it.
"It's not that weird that you're still alive, but normal humans are usually all wrinkly and old by now, right?"
I'd been agonizing over how to explain that part myself, but I still hadn't come up with anything solid. If this tower had been full of those canned NPCs like the others, I wouldn't even have to worry about it. Why did I have to feel like some kind of time traveler?
I wondered if the first-gen challengers had felt the same climbing their towers, or if this tower was just special.
"Usually, yeah."
I gave Rizmel a vague answer to her question and scattered some mana to scan the fortress interior. It had looked impregnable from the outside, but up close, it was insane. No way anything short of a dragon was breaking through this. Wasn't this a bit overkill?
"Hmph, you're clearly no ordinary punk. Bet you spent the last hundred years doing nothing but the most dangerous shit possible, huh."
Rizmel didn't seem too fazed by my unchanged appearance. Not a day older.
"That sketchy swordsmanship and mana control of yours? Hasn't changed a bit. No fake could mimic that."
"Wouldn't staying exactly the same for a hundred years be more suspicious?"
"Sometimes the heart doesn't change even after a thousand years. Especially for someone who's lost their way—their wandering doesn't stop easily."
Rizmel said that, then suddenly stepped close and placed her hand on my chest.
"Thanks to you... I got to meet a lot of humans. And after that, I realized just how unusual you are."
Come to think of it, back on Floor 7, I'd had that talk with her. Promised I'd let her meet other humans. It ended up sparking a war, but it was a promise I'd kept while helping Elenoir's plan.
"Me? Nah, I don't really like humans—or anyone like you, for that matter... But I hope that side of you turns out okay."
Rizmel, who'd dealt with tons of humans over the past 120 years, hadn't forgotten my broken parts. She'd probably been preparing those words for a long time.
"I might not be enough for you, but Elenoir could manage it. You're in love, after all."
But that love-at-first-sight bullshit? All a lie. She'd believed it for 120 years. This was Elenoir's fault, not mine.
* * *
Anyway, now that I was inside the fortress, I decided to blast through the quest as fast as possible. I brushed off the endless handshake requests from the dark elves and headed straight for Elenoir. Rizmel had planned to take me to her from the start, so we saved a ton of time.
With the entire dark elf village—Ruel's Stump—fortified into a massive stronghold, the royal quarters had expanded hugely too. Back then, it was all just identical wooden apartments, but now there was a proper castle.
The castle had its own guards, but I passed through smoothly and came face-to-face with Elenoir.
"Am I still dreaming?"
Elenoir blurted that out the second she saw me. I was just as shocked. I remembered her coughing her lungs out on Floor 8 as queen, but given the Floor 9 questline, I'd assumed she'd recovered.
The crown—symbol of the dark elf queen, granting power over the World Tree—sat atop her head.
"A dream this vivid is a first... Illusion magic?"
"Not an illusion."
"My god, now it's even talking. Can I touch it?"
Elenoir kept mumbling nonsense as she rose and approached me. Her soft hand brushed my cheek. I let it slide, and it trailed down my neck to my chest. Then slower still, to my thigh, inching inward—
This bitch has lost it.
—No way was I letting that happen. A hundred years or not, she hadn't changed a bit.
"Wha—it's really you?"
I slapped her hand away, and only then did she seem to register that this was real.
"But it's been a hundred years—how are you, a human, still...? Is it really you? Have you come back?"
Dealing with Elenoir, who shook my heart more than anyone, was always awkward. I could've spat out some explanation, but I just stood there silently, letting her calm down on her own.
* * *
The audience chamber where Queen Elenoir held court was ridiculously spacious. Made sense for a castle and a queen, but it felt like a massive waste of space. No attendants or anything—just the throne and a huge conference table. The room was comically empty.
But Elenoir had no intention of using it efficiently.
"Let go a bit."
"No."
Instead of calming down, she'd latched onto me like a cicada, refusing to let go. The other dark elves had crowded around too, but this was excessive.
"I can't believe it's real unless I'm touching you like this. That you're really here by my side."
I scowled down at Elenoir's face, still glued to me. She looked off—her eyes reminded me of the previous queen, dry and withered like dead wood. The old queen's words came back unbidden.
Elenoir will change once she goes through war.
"You showed up when I needed an excuse to break off my engagement, let me end it on my terms, then vanished."
"You appeared when war loomed and we were on edge, helped us massively, then vanished again."
"And now, at my darkest, most painful moment, you've shown up looking exactly the same."
Elenoir's arms around my shoulders trembled faintly.
"Twice could be coincidence, but three times? Of course I can't believe my eyes."
Fair enough, I supposed. I was just following the questline. It wasn't me showing up at her pivotal moments—the system had placed the Tower's trials at those exact points in Elenoir's life.
"Yeah, I get it."
From an NPC's perspective, challengers must seem utterly mysterious, otherworldly, awe-inspiring. Maybe even Elenoir's strong affection for me was scripted by the system.
"Heh, and you even look exactly like my ideal type. What a person you are."
How much of this was system-scripted? How much was backstory? At least the glimpses I'd seen of Elenoir's past, the years etched into Rizmel's swordsmanship...
"No idea how that's possible."
They felt too real to be fabricated backstory.
* * *
Elenoir clung for a good while longer until I finally pried her off by force.
"You're so mean! I still have a hundred years' worth of catching up to do!"
"So you're gonna stick to me for the next hundred years?"
"Duh. My fiancé disappears for a hundred years, leaves me all lonely?"
Elenoir grinned slyly, patting her lower belly. Here we go again.
I ignored it like always and asked if there was anything I could help with to progress the epic quest. In a war, my role was obvious—the standard questline. Get a mission from the faction leader you'd chosen, head to the front lines like on Floor 8, and rack up achievements.
"Ah, of course there is. Something only you can do."
Elenoir was an NPC existing for the quest, after all. This was inevitable. No more pointless clinging—this time, smash the quest fast and grab the rewards.
But what came out of Elenoir's mouth wasn't the expected quest.
"Will you sleep with me?"
That was fine on its own. The problem was the system message floating before my eyes.
Epic: Dark Elf's Oath - Queen's Decree
"What the...?"
What kind of bullshit was this?