Charlotte took the front after that battle. Sumbar soldiers surround them, escorting them through the village. Anton, meanwhile, checked the voice chat.
“Anyone hear me?”
‘Ah, you’re back!’
‘How’s Charlotte, is she alright?’
‘Where are you now?’
A series of questions bombarded the two. Charlotte glanced back toward Anton. Anton nodded, urging her to speak. She activated her voice chat.
“We’re alright,” she answered before glancing backward toward Anton. Anton went up to her side.
‘Good to hear. Where are you two now?’ Kayla asked.
“The camp,” Anton answered, scanning his surroundings. The soldiers that surrounded him had tense faces, but they didn’t comment on what he said.
“Kayla, I remembered now. We need to fight with physical weapons,” Anton said, holding his staff. In front of a wooden house, stood an old lady. She wore a dark purple robe, different from the clothing the soldiers and villagers used. She had wrinkles on her face, her black hair tied in a bun. They approached her.
“Are you the humans sent from that human settlement?” she asked in a calm voice.
She acted like that even when he and Kayla set out to defeat her back then. Even in the face of death, she stared at it without flinching. But, at the time, Anton didn’t try negotiations. Only after he completed the mission did he know the secrets of the quest. Had Kayla been here, she would be the one handling peace talks, but now, without her, Anton decided to step up.
“Correct, but we have an inkling that what we heard wasn’t the case. Tell me, why did you attack the human settlement?” Anton asked.
‘Huh… Ah! The quest objective changed!’ Kayla said from the voice chat.
‘Are you two attacked as well?’ Daisy asked. Anton looked at the soldiers and the elder, none of them seemed to react to the voice chat. He took out his virtual screen and typed a quick reply.
‘Wait.’
“Would you like to hear about our side of the story?” the elder asked.
“We would, but my friends would soon arrive. Them joining isn’t an issue, I assume?”
“Of course not. As long as you come with peaceful intentions, we would gladly accept you with open arms.”
“But madam-”
“Yet, I heard you killed a Sumbar soldier. Is that true?”
“He attacked us first,” Anton answered.
“Your soldiers couldn’t stop him,” Anton bit back.
“Is that so?” the elder asked with a slightly surprised expression. Her voice remained calm, however.
“We Sumbars are a peaceful tribe. We won’t attack unless provoked,” the elder continued.
“My friend here was backstabbed by one of them. Your soldiers witness it themselves,” Anton retorted. Charlotte looked toward him, her face communicating that she didn’t want to talk. Anton nodded calmly.
“If you truly want to change, then do it. If you prefer staying the way you are, that too is alright. Your choice,” Anton uttered under his breath.
“...” hearing that, Charlotte stepped forward.
“Yes! One of the swordsmen attacked us first,” she said, summoning all her courage. Anton gave her a nod of approval. The elder looked toward the leader, who hung his head in shame.
“I couldn’t stop him.”
“Who’s the attacker?”
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“I… don’t know,” the soldier answered.
“Very well, then. As long as you have no ill intentions, I shall invite you to my house. Please follow me,” the elder said calmly. Anton and Charlotte followed the lady into a wooden house.
The two went into one of the house’s rooms. They entered what looked to be a living room. A round low table that occupied most of the room, leaving some space around its edges for guests.
“I shall serve you tea in the meantime. How many people will join us?”
“Six.”
“Very well,” the elder walked to the back of the house. Not long after, Kayla and the rest of the group came, escorted by a few soldiers. They all entered, seating down on the floor next to the round table.
“I didn’t remember this being a part of the quest,” Kayla whispered as she sat down beside Anton.
“I think we took a different route,” Anton replied. The elder returned not long after.
“Enjoy,” she set down eight cups on the table. Anton held them in his hands, and after three seconds, a virtual screen appeared in front of him, showing the properties of the tea.
The tea had healing properties, but no buffs or debuffs. After he confirmed that the drink was safe, he nodded.
“Thank you very much,” he said before taking a sip. The rest of the group enjoyed their drink as well.
“This is delicious!” Lea said.
“I know right?” Lucy added. The elder smiled and sat down across Anton.
“So… we’re here for negotiations?” Daisy, still acting as the group leader, asked.
Anton thought about taking a back seat for the negotiations and didn’t say anything. He then realized that the rest of them were looking at him, Kayla included. He remembered that he was the one that knew of the quest, since Kayla probably forgot about it. It had been a while, after all. Had he known that he would be going through the quest again, he would have asked Kayla to remember it. Some quests, including this one, couldn’t be accepted by the same person twice, after all.
Regardless of the outcome, the player couldn’t return and redid the quest, and needed to rely on outside help to replay the quest. Anton thought about the time when he finished his quests, and thought about a proper question.
“Can you tell us about your relationship with the human settlement?” he decided to start from there.
“An interesting question, young lad.”
“We Sumbars had been living in this forest for years. Twenty years ago, we were friends with humans. Our relationship flourished. Humans assisted us in gathering materials, we assisted humans in finding food. We know the forest like the back of our hand, the dangers it posed, the jewels it hid.”
Anton hadn’t run into a forest monster just yet. Fearsome creatures that could tear through low-level players without any difficulty. The combination of their power and the Sumbar soldiers made this quest considered a difficult one. While higher-level players would be offered the quest, lower-level ones would need to come up to an NPC ]and talk to him to start the quest. Anton didn’t know how Charlotte’s friends managed to start this quest despite being under-leveled, but he had no interest in that.
Anton had more interest in the elder’s words. Anton tried to remember what the human elder said back when he first played the quest. His dialogue may change now that he took a different route, it may also remain the same. He wanted to compare the two, trying to find any similarities or differences.
He remembered the human elder saying something about the relationship between them. The roles didn’t change, either. The Sumbars helped the humans in the forest, while the humans helped the Sumbars outside the forest.
“But then, they started invading the forest.”
Anton noted her words. It was the first difference.
“Keen on expanding their territory, they started cutting down the forest.”
On the human side of things, it was the Sumbars that attacked.
“Cutting down the forest itself wasn’t an issue. We, forest people, too occasionally cut down trees in our vicinity for material and expansion. But they did so at such a rapid rate that within weeks, their heavy machines roared in front of our doorsteps. Smoke polluted our skies, noise filled our air.”
“It was the Scumbars! Despite all the help we do for them, they started attacking us! They marched into our streets, killing our people!”
Anton reminded himself of what the village elder said back then. He couldn’t remember the exact words, but that was roughly what he said.
“So, we decided that it is time to protect our homes. We are a peaceful tribe, so we went to their settlements in hopes of finding a solution to this situation-”
“-But then the Scumbars attacked us. The entire group was lost.”
“-But then the humans attacked us. The entire group was lost.”
The words sent a shiver down Kayla’s down her spine. She shook beside Anton. Anton approached her and whispered.
“Are you alright?”
Kayla glanced toward him and nodded. Anton then slid away, returning to his original position.
Two entirely different groups with different versions of the same tragedy. By default, the game didn’t give the player a choice. They will start with the human side of this quest, but the game often did allow players to choose their own ending, Rito being one such example. Anton assumed that based on how the quest went so far, he would eventually be allowed to choose one of the sides of the conflict. He couldn’t pinpoint which side was the right one, however, not with such differing stories.
Anton remembered the flames that rose from the Sumbar’s village when the quest ended. The frightening sight of what used to be homes to hundreds of people being consumed by a large ball of flames. Back then, he couldn’t care, and even now, admittedly, he wouldn’t care, if not for the girl that sat behind her. She became the reason Anton wanted to search for a better solution.
All of this, all for Kayla.