Alright, let’s make a plan.
No matter how good someone’s memory is, it’s impossible to memorize every single detail of a game’s settings. Even the biggest fans rarely know every line of their favorite works by heart.
You can tell from the number of people who don’t translate the lore of their favorite games themselves. Many don’t even bother reading the setting guides out of sheer laziness to learn a foreign language—so how many of them are going to go through the trouble of memorizing every single line?
I was one of those people. No matter how many times I cleared the game to write guides or because I personally liked it, or even pointing out bad translations while comparing the original and the Korean version, I still couldn’t memorize all the lines.
But games aren’t really about “studying and memorizing” like that, to begin with.
Most games, whether 2D or 3D, present backgrounds where you can move characters around, and unless you have serious spatial perception issues or the game company is lazy with level design and the textures are absurdly copy-pasted, you’ll eventually get an idea of what’s where and what events are happening as you explore the map a few times.
At least, I could recall what had happened from start to finish while taking my time in the game.
It helped that this game series had only continued the same world setting without sharing all backgrounds and lore for every title.
The steampunk-style setting has been used since the 14th installment. Aside from the unreleased titles I haven’t played, there were already 14, 15, and 16 out. So I only needed to think of the three settings.
The playtime is long. But most of that time is spent exploring the map, leveling characters, and reading long dialogue scripts. There wasn’t much I actually needed to remember from the guide.
Having walked around the Imperial Capital, the appearance of this world’s city is almost exactly the same as what was shown in the game. Of course, the paths looked quite different. After all, it’s not exactly easy for a company that’s not a huge corporation like Millennium to realistically implement a long path like that.
Wait, even AAA games don’t go that far. Some games claim to have recreated entire regions like Egypt or Greece, but when you check them out, the buildings are only a few hundred meters big, and the map spans just several kilometers. If the map were truly to scale, it could potentially be boring to play through.
Well, it is impressive that they can manage to create regions at least that big.
Anyway, since I jumped into this world and things settled down, I figured that the guide notes I jotted down about “the path” wouldn’t help much. For that part, I decided to focus just on the side quest list.
Though, if an important area does show up in the path, it might be properly implemented.
“Then, next is….”
I flipped through my notebook and pointed at one section.
“Dungeon.”
That’s right. If quests are the flower of an RPG, then the foundation is the ‘dungeon.’ The hero’s party fights the monsters in the dungeon to grow stronger and get rewards. It’s a framework that’s hard to escape from unless it’s an SRPG where the battles could take an entire episode.
Whether it’s set in open spaces, dense forests, bustling urban areas, or even on a spaceship, in the end, there’s always a path, there are obstacles, and in between, there are monsters—so it can’t escape the “dungeon” framework. Otherwise, it becomes the “field,” and in a sense, that field is pretty much an open dungeon too.
So, what about the dungeons in this setting?
Strictly speaking, the path can be seen as a type of dungeon, but since the scale can’t be maintained 1:1, the limitations are clear. There are many places, like an abandoned castle’s underground prison or sewer systems, that could easily be thought of as 1:1 in size.
Especially in this game, there’s always a complex dungeon in the latter half where reality and the spirit world get twisted together. A vast and extensive dungeon provides fun in itself for exploration.
And if that’s the case, that dungeon probably wasn’t implemented at scale, right?
Well, I can’t be 100% sure. Even so, it would seem strange to imagine bizarre creatures piling up in the city sewers.
“…Should I check it out?”
The serious dungeons usually don’t show up until the second chapter of each series. I’m not talking about the second installment of the entire universe, but each individual work within one setting about two chapters in. The prologue and first chapters are typically tutorials to adapt to new systems.
However, there were still quite a few places that could be called “dungeons” left.
Surely, the Imperial Capital’s sewers would be sufficient?
*
Thanks to two people who wake up at an ungodly hour, I got up early this morning.
That said, it wouldn’t look good for Alice to be sleeping in, so I started my day with some espresso that didn’t even suit my taste.
Thanks to that, my Sunday was going to be very long, and even counting my time with Alice, I had plenty of time to explore somewhere.
…Or so I thought at that moment.
Just as I was packing something, Alice casually spoke up.
It wasn’t like Alice and I were always glued to each other. Although we had become much closer than I had expected, it wasn’t like we were always longing for each other. It was just a vague relationship somewhere between sisters and friends.
The problem is, unlike me, who finished studying before time rewound, Alice always returns with her situations and memories to her initial motivations.
They say a swan floats gracefully on the surface but is paddling furiously under the water, right?
In reality, swans can stay afloat pretty easily because of their body structure, and with their long legs, they can just gently paddle to move forward, but the issue is that “people around” often don’t perceive it that way.
From my perspective, Alice’s skills were always top-notch, but to meet those expectations from people around her, Alice always studied hard and trained diligently. Not in the same way as Leo and Claire.
And for Alice, those golden weekends were precisely that—golden. Time is something you can’t buy with money. Studying and training during that precious time would significantly help improve her skills.
…And for Alice, the best study and training partner was none other than me.
As I was getting my bag ready in my room, there was a knock knock at the door, and Alice walked in, carrying a pile of books and widened her eyes to ask.
“Where are you getting ready to go like that?”
“Ah, that is—”
“…Could it be because of your father?”
“……”
That’s right. I had already met Alice in the morning and dumped all the blame for my fatigue on the Emperor.
I thought that later, if Leo and Claire found out, I could just brush it off by saying, “It’s all part of the Emperor’s grand strategy.” They’d probably understand it well enough. Claire didn’t exactly disagree either.
In truth, this time, I simply had no words left to say, but it seemed Alice took it a bit differently.
“I want to go too.”
I unconsciously slapped my forehead.
“…Huh?”
“Ah.”
Here we go again.
*
I barely managed to stop myself from slapping my forehead. “No, why?” almost slipped out of my mouth, but even that I managed to hold back. If I can control myself like that, maybe I have another pretty darn amazing ability, right?
“…I don’t mind seeing that expression.”
What expression are you even talking about?
Of course, I couldn’t outright ask. Alice could read my expressions without much thought anyway.
Just because she could read my expressions doesn’t mean she could see my thoughts clearly like looking through transparent water. A person might make a worried face and think they’re in pain, or they might look terrified.
“It’s not a place for the Crown Princess to go.”
“Aren’t you the princess?”
“…I’m different from the Crown Princess.”
When I said this, one eyebrow of Alice lifted slightly. It was clear she found my words quite distasteful.
“The Crown Princess is destined to become the Emperor of this nation.”
“Do you think there’s anywhere the Emperor can’t go?”
Well, no matter what…
…Huh, thinking again, it seems the Emperor wouldn’t care where they were, be it the Imperial Palace or the sewers. If it could help them or wield power, they wouldn’t give a hoot.
If there’s something to be done, they would do it without a second thought. And they’d proudly say they have no shame whatsoever.
“And.”
Alice pointed a finger at me and said.
“I think you’re the most difficult being to control in this Empire. You don’t tell me what you’re thinking, yet you expect me to become the Emperor. Frankly, I don’t even know what you want from me becoming the Emperor, so shouldn’t I keep an eye on you properly?”
“……”
Well, she isn’t wrong at all.
That said, from this world’s perspective, I was indeed a very mysterious entity. And that mystery was something I had deliberately created. Looking back, it was like the barbs on a hedgehog’s back. A warning like, “Don’t touch that!”
The problem is… that warning works precisely because no one around can truly know my intentions.
I solely want to see Alice shake off all her insecurities and confidently rise to the throne. Because it’s Alice.
Whether Alice is the rightful heir, or the Emperor’s only child with royal blood mixed correctly, none of that matters to me. As long as Alice maintains her current self and personality, I would dare to wish for Alice to become the Emperor, even if the settings change a bit.
Because, that’s how it goes in the game.
At the end of Chapter 16, Alice becomes Emperor. Alice is a character whom Claire would sacrifice her life to save, which means she isn’t a “possible death character” just yet. True, even heroines who die can come back through various means in sequels. And there’s a few clues I’ve gained since I arrived here… but I’ll think about that later.
The original Emperor caused the world to plunge into chaos only to be defeated by the protagonists.
…Of course, there were still two scheduled works after that, so it’s possible that the Emperor’s death is a fake or that someone would resurrect the Emperor.
“…Understood.”
In the end, that’s what I told Alice.
Well, sewers are, in this world… no, even more so because it’s this world, a place that’s avoided. I thought that just reaching the entrance would make Alice freak out and scream about going back. After all, she hated it in the game.
“…I don’t particularly like your expression, but fine.”
At least, I think she understood what my expression was this time.
It was most likely “annoyance.”
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