Meanwhile, far away in Mycorgloom…
"Huh? Did someone trigger the memory rewriting system?"
The man paused what he was doing and raised his head thoughtfully.
"Did something happen, Martin?"
"Oh, no, it's okay, Vraen. I'm almost finished here."
He completed the signal he was drawing on the rock, made a notch in it, and laid down an item in the notch.
Soon after, the two left the place.
:::
"How did Aenoth become a vampire? What happened?"
The news would normally have made Cecilia nervous, but, coming so soon after the earlier shock, it wasn't that impactful.
"I don't know the details. Before that, she was a knight captain here in the capital and was living a normal life. It was too sudden, and I think that she left because she managed to use the last threads of consciousness to avoid killing more people."
Cecilia was making an effort to act normal, in fear that another event would trigger.
Aelindra, meanwhile, didn't even notice that something happened. To her, she was just talking to her mother, who had just come back from a long journey.
Her memories of the reasons for Cecilia to take five hundred years to come back were changed, and everything related to the 'lag' during the Closing of the Servers had been taken out of her consciousness.
"I see… I will go there as well, then. But, as she isn't posing a threat to the rest of the world, I will leave her for last. First, I need to go to my base in Mycorgloom, catch up with Mina, and check that everything is in order over there."
Aelindra's expression saddened hearing that.
"Are you leaving already, Mother?"
She looked at Cecilia like a puppy, making her mother's heart falter.
"Don't worry Aelindra… I'll stay here in the capital for a few days before leaving, and I'll also set up one of my teleport runes to come back immediately. I won't simply run away, I promise. I'll never leave you again."
((She now thinks that I abandoned her, so it's understandable that she feels that way. I would feel the same if I were in her shoes. So let's ease her heart first. It's the least I can do as her mother. The rest is secondary.))
"Will you come live at your house again?"
"I have rented a room in an inn, but it was because I didn't know the state of things. If you want, I can go back to living there."
"Great!! Your room is still there, you know? I never let any maid change anything in it. It's perfectly like it was five hundred years ago."
((I'll be living with my family…))
It was Cecilia's time to tear up, and the two hugged each other.
Yet, that moment was swiftly interrupted by an officer who just entered the dining room.
"Excuse me, Your Majesty. There's a commotion happening in the capital. It seems that someone claiming to be a player is on a rampage in the merchant's quarter."
"A player? Is he powerful?"
Cecilia asked faster than Aelindra could say anything.
"Yes, he is holding an entire brigade of the city guard at bay all by himself. Nobody has been killed yet, but there are some severely injured guards."
"Are you thinking of going, Mother?"
"Of course. This is a player's matter. I shall talk some sense into him, or, worst-case scenario, beat some sense into him."
"Okay, Mother. I trust your power, but take care. It's time I go back to my duties as well. I have to write up guidelines for dealing with those returning players. They seem to be very confused."
Cecilia looked at her daughter for a moment, pondering.
((She somehow still 'knows' that those players are 'returning' and are very confused for some reason. Does her subconscious still remember our earlier conversation? What is the extent of that memory alteration thing?))
Despite her desire to uncover that mystery, she shook her head and focused on the present.
"Take care as well. Those guidelines will be good. I'm going."
"Right, I'll ask Elowen to accompany you outside."
"There's no need. Have you forgotten who I am? Just point me in the direction of the merchant's quarter."
"Oh, right."
Aelindra took her to the balcony on the southern side of the room and pointed to a place outside the old city's limits.
"There. That neighborhood."
"I see. Yeah, there seems to be a fight ongoing down there. See you later."
"See you. I'll let the guards in our home know that you're coming later."
Cecilia nodded and jumped from the balcony. The tower was on the northern side of the castle, and her goal was in the south, but she casually jumped over to a roof of the keep, then to another, as if it were the most natural thing to do.
A reminder to everyone present of how much outside common sense were the entities known as players.
:::
Jules was just a normal guy.
He went to school like every other person their age. Then, some days he would go to the gym. Other days he would go out with his girlfriend. And from time to time he would spend some hours in that game everyone had been talking about, Hyperborea.
He wasn't a dedicated player but liked the world and was happy having his little house in Drakenhof, under the wings of the most powerful guild of the game. He wasn't part of the guild but was protected as a citizen of their nation.
Until one day he blacked out while in the game, farming for materials right outside the city. When he woke up, he was in a completely different place. It was the middle of the street of a bustling and unfamiliar medieval city.
"I am inside the game. I know that I am, because I can still see the system. So please, just call an administrator or something!"
((Why are they acting so surprised? They are NPCs, they should have some sort of access… shouldn't they?))
His posture was belligerent, which made some guards act hastily, and a battle ensued. Yet, he held back enough to not cause any fatalities.
((They are NPCs, but if I kill them, the player who owns the place might get furious.))
"Please, calm down, sir."
The voice of a woman sounded nearby. He looked around him but saw no one.
"Up here."
He finally looked up and saw a gorgeous dark elf woman on top of a nearby building.
"Are you a player? Can you please notify the devs about this bug? I wanna log out and return to my normal life!"
The woman jumped out from the building, which was over ten meters tall, and landed safely and gracefully right in front of him.
"The answer to the first question is yes, and the one to the second question is no. I'm as lost as you are, yet you won't see me picking a fight with the guards. They are just normal people doing their jobs."
Despite his question being shouted for everyone to hear, the woman answered him in a low voice, almost a whisper.
Yet, no normal person would jump like that from so high and land unscathed. The guy had also been shouting about players for some time, putting their minds on that track. So it didn't matter if she said it loudly or not, every witness to the scene just assumed that she was a player.