The second I was out of sight of Duke Julian, I ran. There was a short distance to the palace elevator for the west wing, but I passed it by. I didn’t want to be trapped in an elevator right now, and I needed to work off the adrenaline that was coursing through my body.

I took the stairs.

My hands were still shaking, and I gripped them in my skirts as I stomped up six flights of stairs.

Thanks to magically improved physical abilities, stairs were no longer my greatest enemy.

The cardio helped, and I slowly felt my heart calm down and the pounding blood in my body subside. From the moment Julian had appeared, I'd felt the rush of panic overtake me– even as I’d managed to pretend otherwise.

Why was the duke even there? He was supposed to be walking around at the festival. He should have been destined to have a useless fateful encounter with Henrietta. In the game, even if she didn't go down his route, they'd met at the Spring Ball.

I could just imagine the scenarios for season two. His mind full of the princess at the ball, and then running into her at the festival and going to see the fireworks together. Or losing at an arm wrestling match. Maybe they'd walk back and Henrietta would find the locket and return it, sealing their fated encounter.

There were so many scenarios I could think up... but Julian hadn't stayed to enjoy the festival.

He’d followed me.

The thought didn’t sit right, and I stopped for a moment to look out a window in the stairwell. I needed fresh air. I needed to stop shaking. The lights of the city, the music and merriment were in full swing. From here, it was a distant hum, but it was still there.

I cursed aloud and kept walking.

It was rare that I got caught treasure hunting. Many of the treasures themselves were in hidden dungeon rooms, or prizes for completing weird side quests.

The Master Cast Crystal had been one of those quests. There was an ogre named Morga who lived in the Dark Enchanted Forest. She had a habit of eating people who annoyed her, but she actually had a sweet tooth and loved fruit. I just needed to get past the dire wolves and guardian unicorns of moondew meadow to pick an enchanted apple. Then, after I gave Morga the apple she gave me leave to pick a gift from her treasure chest.

Of course, the treasure’s in the chest were just the things collected over the years from her victims. Instead of seeing a few items in a pop up list to choose from in the game, I actually got to see everything inside. There was the knife I needed to start the quest, but there was also a nice pair of white spider-silk knee-high socks.

I paid her for the socks.

After that, I went to Servalt and found an old widow. I gave her the knife and told her of the fate of her husband all those years ago. She thanked me and gave me a map.

The map led to a hidden cave in the mountains behind Thistlecrick in the Dark Enchanted Forest. Even if I had played the video game, I never would have found my way without the map. It took three hours to trek up the mountain and even longer to find the cave. I also needed the enchantment on the map to magically open the barrier around the entrance. Inside, there was a letter from the Archwizard Jeffrey, creator of the Crytal Cast Crystals congratulating his successor on figuring out the map. The cave had the Master Crystal, and the theoretical notes on the Crystal Cast System.

I still had the papers in my storage ring, and intended to pass it along to Grand Duchess Calisto when I had the opportunity. She was the only person who was skilled enough to use the knowledge effectively.

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The sixth floor of the tower held three guest rooms. I went inside mine, kicked off my shoes and promptly fell on the bed, screaming into my pillow.

“Why did he have to be so pretty?” I mumbled. His steel grey eyes were so fierce they sent shivers down my spine, and his purple locs pulled back gave him a down to earth air.

Alright, time to pull myself together and figure out a plan.

The sixth and final piece of my treasure quest was in the locket. Either the shard of crystal was a piece of the Valarian Royal set, or the actual item itself.

Did I want to complete the set if it meant stealing the locket from Julian?

There was an obvious route in the game. If Henrietta raised Julian’s favorability to a certain

Level, he would probably just give her the locket as a token of his love.

But I am not Henrietta, I am Gerda. The Bridge Troll.

I sighed, rolling onto my back.

There were three important questions that I had no answer for. One, did I even need to complete the second season scenario and find all of the set pieces? Henrietta probably needed them to fight Necromancer Chloe and the army of undead from the Dark Enchanted Forest… but I didn’t need to fight Chloe.

My goal was to level up World Bridge until it was powerful enough to maybe send me home. Simple and easy. If I could control each bridge that represented the cardinal directions, then I could unlock the power to travel to any bridge I’ve crossed.

I'd told Brownie that I could do something similar, but right now I only counted bridges I connect to. Once I fulfilled the terms, it would include bridges from my past too.

Since I was Gerda and Gerda was me… I had to say I was hoping that meant I could go to a bridge from the before. There was a lovely bridge over my grandmother's pond that I vividly remember. It was a goal I could set to keep me focused.

So did I even need the set?

The only reason I’d bothered was because it was likely to have extra effects when the set was complete, and I could use it on my next bridge quest.

My [Bridge] powers were leveling up exactly as I’d hoped - and my [World Bridge] had special bonus abilities when I captured different bridges.

[Perk: World Bridge: You have the ability to travel between bridges you connect to with World Bridge. All +Troll Magic [Dimension] captured bridges are included.

Bonus Abilities:

If you control all bridges in a domain, 2x experience earned. Current domains: Dark Enchanted Forest. Unlocked

If you control a bridge in all domains, mana cost to travel between domains is halved. Current domains: Dark Enchanted Forest, Drendil, Peldeep, Servalt, North Sumbria, Sumbria.

If you control the furthest bridge at the four corners of Valaria, unlock ability to travel between any bridge ever crossed. Current bridges: South point Faren’s Arch in Sumbria, West point Daffolyn Bridge in Peldeep, and East point Sea-to-Sky Bridge in Servalt.

If you control all bridges in Valaria, unlock Hidden Domain [Valarian Royal Palace]. Unlock Title: Empress of Valaria.]

If I was going to make it to the final bridge… did I need the set? The Untamed Ice Fields were a dangerous place, and I wasn’t sure that I could make it there alone. +3 was great and all, but when the set was complete each of my abilities would have a +5 bonus. Since every time I leveled up I got to put 2 points into my attributes… five points in six different attributes was the equivalent of fifteen levels.

That was hard to pass up.

But that left me with the hardest question. One that I had been ignoring every day for five years… is this even a game to me anymore?

Could I just take Julian’s necklace? He wasn’t pixels on a screen with predetermined lines… even if he did walk into encounters, he was still a person. That was his father’s memento.

Duke Julian’s back story played a huge role in his hidden route in season one. He’d lost his father at such a young age and felt helpless. All this time he was guarding North Sumbria, but he was also hiding himself in the north instead of living with his family.

He loved them, but he didn’t feel like he could love anyone else… and he didn’t feel worthy of their love until he could stand in his father's place.

Stupid Sumbria, if only I’d been reincarnated into the story twenty years ago then maybe I could have done more to help everyone.

Instead, I was here.

And still undecided about everything.