"I do not know kitty pie's name yet."

"It's Cherry Winter, Captain."

"Hmm~ Cherry huh, that's a fitting name for you."

I cannot help but feel Captain Emily is flirting with me while we are having dinner in their cafeteria.

I messaged my friends that something went unexpected and I am busy with Captain Emily. It is more an explanation of what is currently happening since I see both of them on the other side of the room glancing over us. They understood the situation, so I am not worried about them.

"Captain Emily, I want to learn a skill."

"I'm busy."

This would be the 8th player to come here and failed to get Captain Emily to teach them anything. I feel bad for those players since she has a reputation of being difficult to meet with and I am taking her time in what seems to be the only few times she is available for players.

However, the other party does not seem to mind. Her negative impression on Travellers is probably the reason why she easily rejects these players which is unheard of for NPCs to do in this game.

'I guess this is because of my quest.'

That was my conclusion I came up with. Captain Emily placed herself in a comfortable position and ordered a bottle of wine.

'They have wine in this place?! Is it not kind of irresponsible for the army.'

"So you're a shy one huh, kitty pie?"

"You can just call me Cherry. No, please just call me Cherry. And does Captain really have the time to waste it with me?"

"No worries. They have instructed us to help any Travellers during this time and that is what I am doing right now."

That explains why there is only a certain time of the day when NPC captains are available, but Captain Emily seems to not care about it.

I accompany her through her drinking while we chit and chat through our meal. We were taking our sweet time to the point I messaged Aria if they want to level up without me for a while. Yet, they were going to accompany me the whole way, so I need to find a way to divert the topic towards Estro to not waste time any further.

"How did Captain become captain? As I know, you're one of the only female Knight-captain of Twilight Army. You must be so amazing to accomplish that."

"Oh! You're interested~ Well, it's not really that interesting because I just kicked everyone's asses during recruitment test which gave me a huge boost to help me quickly achieve captain status within 5 years."

"How long does it usually takes before a knight become captain?"

"8 to 10 years. That's why the other captains you might see are oldies."

'Isn't it only 5 years gap at most' is what I want to retort, but I do not want to go into a sensitive topic to a woman. She also looks like she has the same age as me, so I do not know why he called the other captains oldies if they are within the late 20s.

"But why become the captain of the archer squad. Your squadron seems to have the least number."

"It's just their stupid hierarchy. Since they cannot reject my achievements publicly, they gave me this position on the weakest team. I'm sure because they're scared of a young woman jeopardizing their spots."

"So even here there is still some prejudice."

A little information that makes me understand a little bit more about this world.

"You also have it in your world? I guess Traveller's world is not as perfect as they say… Forget that-- I know you want to know about Estro right?"

I want to pry more on what these people think of us players and why they seem to revere us, Travellers. It might be a good hint to understand how to get quests on these NPCs. There should be a background story about how we came into this world if ETHER really aims for a perfect game, but it looks like it will come another time because Captain Emily is straightforward to what I want.

Her face turned serious and her voice loss any hint of friendliness to it. Overall, her atmosphere changed drastically when she mentioned the Estro village.

"You probably saw the book of our village head if you explored that place, so I don't need to reiterate the events that transpired when I was a child. And I hope you didn't bring the book back along with you because it only brings nothing but ill fate."

"Hm."

I nodded weakly afraid that something bad will happen if I did not do it. Good thing that Aria made us place the book back because she thought it would haunt our dreams if we brought it back. Little did she know, she was right.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"The very reason why I have joined the army is to hunt for whatever thing that killed everyone slowly. I am lucky to be outside hunting for food when a mysterious invisible wall trapped everyone inside the village. But I can never forget what I saw when I returned home..."

Clearly, she was frustrated when talking about the past and I can only imagine what she felt during that time. The glass she was holding has some cracks on it due to the pressure she placed.

"As a weak young girl, I can only run away to this city and call for help. However, no one will listen to a young girl shouting a red-skinned monster destroyed her village. That is why I had no choice but to force them to hear me through joining the recruitment test-- But all of that was pointless because in the end, after weeks of trying my hardest to join the army, no one was left to be saved

"No traces?"

"Only the book and strange mark in the village head's house was discovered. They ordered us to avoid touching the book and to never step foot into Estro again. Due to the orders, I can only sneak past once in a while to visit my parents. Even up to this day they won't tell me the reason why they left my home to rot."

Captain Emily shared her frustration with me, who she just met a while ago, which made me wonder why she is sharing all of these. The alcohol must have helped or simply because this is all part of the quest progression.

Nonetheless, she does not seem to be finished with her story and I still do not see any update on my quest window yet.

"This might not concern Travellers like you, but this city has given up on recovering any of it. Well, they did not even care about us, to begin with. They also desperately try to hide what transpired ten years ago, so be careful of sharing what I have told you because I don't want my Cherrypie to be in trouble because of me. "

"But they won't have any problem if we restore it?"

"You did say want to bring back Estro a while ago. Since you're Travellers, I doubt the higher-ups will do something about it especially a place they care little about."

"How about you? You have no problems with it?"

"No matter how horrible memories I have in that place, it is still my home. I want it to see lively again. Just don't have it for the wrong purpose."

[Guild Territory Quest Complete]

Estro has become Gold Paradise's territory

Gold Paradise members may set Estro as their spawn point

+2 Reputation to all Gold Paradise members

+5 Reputation to the leader of Gold Paradise

+2500 Guild Experience points

[Captain Emily has become your friend. Reputation +5]

'Oh, been a long time since I saw Reputation.'

A notification rang on our guild chat indicating the completion of the quest.

Naturally, messages in our guild chat were sent after another when that was announced. Richest Asian was able to calm down all of the ruckuses, but he also messaged me privately.

I am not able to read it yet because it would look disrespectful in front of Captain Emily who was still not done with her drink. The quest is already complete, and she should be finishing her story although it looks like she has more to say.

As I think about that, I cannot help but notice Aria and Michelle in the corner of my eye doing a celebration while Captain Emily is emptying the bottle. And by the way, I only filled my cup once since the wine was tasteless anyway.

When the last drop of the wine went into her mouth, she began talking again after gasping like an old man.

"Kitty Pie is a Traveller, right? So we can ask anything, and you will solve it."

'A sudden 180-degree turnaround in her attitude!'

Her serious face was gone after having my attention away for a second. It was now back to the seductive appearance once again. However this time, the alcohol seems to have hit her hard that is why she is acting this way.

"Is it okay for a Captain to be drunk at this time of the day?"

I supported her on my shoulder trying to bring her back to her responsibility.

"I'm not drunk! I just want to sleep for a while."

"That's very bad isn't it!"

"Why are you so noisy? Where did my shy kitty pie go?"

'This is hopeless'

I was going to message my friends that I needed help to escape the situation, but before that, a hand sneak up under my shirt while she moves extremely close to my face.

"Hey~ That's not allowed~"

"Hide this page and don't let anyone see it... It might be a selfish request, but I hope you can help kill the Devil."

"?"

Her actions really have caught me off guard. I thought the alcohol was letting her do some things that would turn this game into an R-18 game, but it turns out, she was giving me a piece of paper.

This piece of paper that she secretly gave to me seems to hold something that the other NPC should also never see. After making sure that I have a good angle to hide it, I noticed that this piece of paper seems to be one of the pages ripped on the said curse book left behind Estro. Reading the content, a sharp sound rang in my head.

[Unwelcomed Intruder: Kill Seraph]

Difficulty: Hidden Quest

"Summoned by a foolish mortal, the Devil, Seraph, is left roaming Astrea. Remove him from this realm before it brings chaos in this world."

Requirement: Kill Devil Seraph

Rewards: ???

Quest Duration: 2189:59:45

"!!! Are you sure I am allowed to know this, Captain Emily?"

I said as quietly as I can to avoid anyone eavesdropping. Reading the content of the paper has given me a quest that is beyond our current levels. Not only that, there seems to be a repercussion if we fail to complete this quest within 3 months. And from the looks of it, I cannot reject it.

'Did I trigger something that I shouldn't have?'

Fortunately, there was no reaction on the system when this quest popped up. The magnitude of this discovery made me anticipate an announcement of a maintenance anytime soon.

I want to ask Captain Emily about this, but she pass out before she can hear anything I will say.

Asking for the nearest NPC for help, I told her that Captain Emily is sleeping and needed to be fixed. I also told her to give my thanks when she woke up.

This was the hint for Aria and Michelle that everything was done, and they can meet up with me. I am also dying to meet with them since I have a lot to share with them. I cannot handle this all alone and I need someone to share the burden of a game-changing quest.

But first, I told them that we need to go to a place where little can hear us because I do not want them reacting very loudly on a confidential topic.

So we decided to go to our guild base although before that, I need to check and reply on what Richest Asian just messaged me.

[Let's meet in the guild base.]

'Oh, how convenient. I guess sharing with him won't hurt since I'm going to need every help I can find.'

I see two maids dragging the knocked out Captain back to her room before we left the barracks and I must say, she is a unique NPC just like what I felt towards Luna.

"What took you so long, Cherry."

"Obviously, it's because she probably has to choose the skills she had missed learning from her."

"Eh…"

"What's wrong? You forgot something?"

"I FORGOT TO ASK HER TO TEACH ME!!!"