After excusing herself, Cecilia walked away.
((There's little doubt now. Wise Queen Aelindra is, in fact, my 'daughter,' who I created as an NPC because I thought it would be fun.))
She wandered around the familiar streets, with her mind far away reminiscing about Aelindra and the interactions they had.
As an NPC, they weren't real, actual mother-daughter interactions. But NPCs in Hyperborea had a lot more capabilities than in any other game that came before.
They weren't just one AI per character, but a cluster of them.
A nucleus controlled needs, desires, duties, and goals. It had to weigh personal goals like 'eat' and social goals like when they received an order to 'harvest fruit,' for example. They would have needs like any character in colony simulation games.
Then there was the emotional center. It would process the experiences and add tags and intensities of emotions to those experiences. Those emotions would weigh on the decision-making processes of the nucleus.
Then there was the memory center, which would store all that the character had experienced and learned. It was an AI of sorts that would prioritize and handle the experiences according to the emotions associated and the personality of the character.
Then there was the action center. Having selected a goal, the action center would use Goal Oriented Action Planning to create a set of tasks that would accomplish that goal. For example, for 'eat,' it would have to go to the kitchen's door, open the door, etc.
Finally, there was the communication center. It used state-of-the-art generative AI to put all of the data in the character's personality, goal, task, memory, etc., to allow for free-form unscripted conversation without losing context.
The AI was one of the selling points of the game, and some people even actually fell in love with NPCs, literally marrying in the game world and 'living' in it instead of the 'real' life outside.
NPCs were the backbone of Hyperborea's industry. While the players directed and also created the highest peaks of quality, no paying user would be satisfied to spend the day inside a quarry mining stone. Those tasks were left to the NPCs.
Cecilia had created five 'follower' NPCs, but only one of them was created with the tag 'daughter,' Aelindra. Because of the tag and flavor text, she didn't treat Cecilia with the same subservience as the others.
Not that she adored Cecilia less. It was just that the behavior was more familiar than that of servitude, and that made Cecilia very happy. So she often spent time just sightseeing around the world with Aelindra in tow.
The others also had traveled often, but it was different. While the level of the player put a ceiling on what the follower could achieve, the followers had to be leveled up normally, through doing stuff repeatedly, the same way as the players.
But trips with Aelindra were a lot more than just about leveling up. She became a part of Cecilia's life.
Of course, being AI, it still had its limitations, quirks, and bugs. So Cecilia would never mistake an NPC for a real person in the game.
She knew, for example, that there were certain trigger expressions that would elicit certain answers or behaviors. Some people often posted videos of new exploits that could be unlocked by conversation with NPCs, and she was very up-to-date with them.
She never used those exploits, of course. But it was a nice reminder for her that the game was the game and reality was reality.
"It's not like I know which one is which anymore…"
She had stopped at a fork on the street and looked at the building in front of her. It was a very familiar house, one that she often visited.
"And of course I would come here… I hope I can meet her again, though I think it's really improbable."
The house was a lavish three-story building with four chimneys towering over it. Those chimneys were for the smelting furnaces in the basement and used to be constantly spewing fumes.
Yet, at this moment, no smoke came out from them. The garden was well tended, from what she could see through the steel bars of the gate. Which meant there were people living there.
"It's no use asking… If Helen were back, there's no way in hell she wouldn't be smelting something."
She wiped away a bit of moisture that was on her eyes, turned around, and went back in the direction she had come from.
"I need to find a way to meet Aelindra. I wonder if she will recognize me after all that time. She was still a teenager back then. Five hundred years… she must be a fully grown woman by now.
If we factor in the aging rate for dark elves, she would be equivalent to a twenty-five-year-old human woman. So, even by that standard, she's older than me."
Cecilia's mind went off on a tangent again as her feet brought her towards Obsidian Keep.
To her surprise, there was a flux of people coming in and out of the building without being bothered by the guards. Most of them seemed like civil servants, but some looked like common people.
She decided to ask one of the guards nearby.
"Good afternoon, Sir. Is it allowed for common citizens to enter?"
"Good afternoon. Yes, if you have a reason for it. The keep houses most of the ministries, so people just enter. I take it you aren't from Drakestadt?"
((Again with assuming I'm not from here… Well, I asked questions a clueless tourist would, after all. And it's not like I can just say that I 'time traveled.'))
She didn't use the technique again, as the atmosphere here was relaxed and she saw no need to force things through just to get tourist-level information.
"Yeah, I arrived today at the capital. Hm… Is it too difficult to arrange an audience with Queen Aelindra?"
"It depends on your motive for it. It's easy to apply for an audience, but it doesn't mean you'll get it right away, unless you are someone important or the matter you bring is very important."
"I see, and where do I go to apply for it?"
"Right at the first hall, on the left wall, there is a door. 'Royal Audiences' is written above it, so there's no missing it. But it might be better to go through the foreign ministry first if it's something concerning international trade."
"Oh, no, no. It's something that only Aelindra herself can solve. Thank you very much."
((The guards in this city are a very decent folk, huh? It's a far cry from how things were in the 'real' world. Well, at least from what I read in the news and heard from other people.))
The Obsidian Keep was in the middle of the lake, and the only way to reach it was by walking one of the eight bridges that connected it to the shores.
After crossing the bridge, she arrived at the main gate. There was a decent amount of movement there, but not enough to call it crowded.
Passing the gate, the first hall was exactly like she remembered. Well, almost. Some of the tapestries Martin hung on the walls were still there, but the center had a statue that wasn't there in the game.
It was a statue of Martin, in a royal pose, complete with a crown on his head and a scepter in his hand.
She looked around and quickly found the door the guard talked about.
((Well, my daughter seems like a very approachable ruler. I like that. To think that there would be a booth for applying for an audience that was accessible to any citizen…))
She took a deep breath and entered it.
The room was very similar to any office room on Earth. Two tired clerks were writing some documents, each at one desk, with two chairs in front of each desk. Behind them, several archives were neatly organized.
"Good afternoon. How can I be of assistance?"
The clerk who talked to her was a high elf woman who looked like the perfect definition of an office worker. She wore glasses and seemed to be a bit on the older side - which, for a high elf, would mean that she was already an adult in her prime five centuries ago.
"Oh, good afternoon. I wanted to request an audience with Queen Aelindra."
The woman smiled and gestured for the empty seats in front of her. Cecilia sat down, and the woman took a form and started writing down.
"Your name and reason for the request."
Aelindra took a ring from her inventory, which was an exclusive reward from the last event she participated in. The effect of the ring was purely cosmetic and not that interesting, but there was only one in Hyperborea, and Aelindra was familiar with it.
She put the ring on the table, looking at the woman behind the desk.
"If you just show this to her, she will know."