PMEVBO 81

I was deep in thought about the main quest.

“If Chepony Castle is actually outside the prison, that means I have to break out right now…”

It was then.

Ding!

────【 Sub Quest 】─────

Praise ‘???’!

(0/3)

D-0 (12h)

Reward: Vaccine generation rate ?%

────────────────────

“…What?”

Why did another quest pop up?

Up until now, quests arrived one by one. A new quest had never appeared while an existing one was still active. I tried to stay calm and checked the time limits for both. While the main quest had nine days left, the sub-quest had barely twelve hours.

“The sub-quest appeared later, but the deadline is much tighter.”

…Does this mean I should finish the sub-quest first?

As if it could read my mind, a help icon appeared on one side of the main quest window. I pressed it immediately.

─────────【 Help 】─────────

Complete 3 sub quests as a prerequisite.

If sub quests aren’t finished, the main quest’s success won’t be recognized.

────────────────────

It looked like my hunch was right.

I went back to the sub-quest window. The target for the praise hadn’t been decided yet. However, experience gave me a good guess. If I was right, the target this time was…

Praise ‘???’!

Praise ‘Iser Hayut’!

Yeah, I knew it would be Iser.

“Haa…”

…Why are you doing this to me?

I let out a long sigh and buried my face in my palms. I stayed like that for a while before groaning and lowering my hands.

“If the target is Iser, I just have to wait for the medicine delivery.”

I needed to pull myself together and think about the main quest.

Chepony Castle. I repeated that unfamiliar name several times. I had to at least know where it was to plan an escape.

Suddenly, a good idea occurred to me. The Wisdom skill. The cooldown was almost over. I quickly opened my inventory and checked the skill’s status.

D-0 (0h 0m 2s)

D-0 (0h 0m 1s)

D-0 (0h 0m 0s)

───────【 Wisdom 】────────

Ask anything.

Tell me about ‘ | ’.

────────────────────

I felt this when I checked the cooldown ten days ago, but the screen looked strangely familiar. Maybe it was because [visit our site]it felt like a portal’s search bar? I could get any information easily with the Wisdom skill. However, if I used it manually instead of letting it trigger automatically, I had to pay with HP.

“Iser will think it’s weird if my HP suddenly drops.”

…But I have no choice.

After a moment of hesitation, I typed the search term where the cursor blinked.

Tell me about ‘Chepony Castle’.

A moment later, a new window opened and text began to appear.

──────【 Wisdom 】────────

Requested Info: [Chepony Castle]

Result:

Located on the outskirts of the Holy City, Saracepon.

The royal castle of the fallen Kingdom of Chepony.

Currently only open during the ‘Night Banquet.’

All priests gather at Chepony Castle during the ‘Night Banquet.’

────────────────────

What?

“…The Night Banquet?”

The moment I saw those words, I froze.

I kept my eyes on the status window and fumbled around the floor until I felt a paper envelope. It was as if someone predicted this; I hadn’t hidden the red envelope that arrived this morning behind the bricks yet. I tore the envelope open, and it contained three cigarettes.

“The banquet must start the day after tomorrow.”

The Night Banquet was the biggest annual event in Saracepon. It was so big that the entire Holy City came to a standstill for the week it lasted. Not just the priests, but even the commoners living in the city usually got a vacation. The guards were no different, so only a skeleton crew stayed in the prison during that week.

On the 9th floor, where I was the visit our siteonly prisoner, there was only one duty guard during the banquet week.

In the last six years, the meal delivery guard who brought the red envelopes had never been picked for that spot.

“Yeah, he probably wants to rest during the banquet week, too.”

But Cardinal Bechard was a total madman. He calculated that and started sending cigarettes in advance four days before the opening. A day like today, with three cigarettes, meant it was D-2 until the start.

“The main quest period overlaps too much with the banquet.”

I don’t know how seven out of the nine days of the quest limit could be during the banquet. I couldn’t time it like that even if I tried.

“Once the banquet starts, the priests will swarm Cephony Castle.”

I wanted to finish all the sub-quests before the banquet started if possible. That way, I could hunt monsters when fewer people were at the castle. Actually, even without that reason, I wanted the sub-quests done before then.

In the original story, Isabelle was the one on duty during the banquet week. But right now, Iser was the one here in Hell, not Isabelle.

“…I bet Iser is the one on duty this time.”

If a praise quest popped up while I was stuck alone with Iser for a week…

I gave up on thinking any further, grabbed the back of my neck with both hands, and lowered my head.

***

Palet sat at a desk in the 9th-floor office, flipping through documents.

Just then, a guard from the 1st floor, whom he only knew by sight, walked in. She hesitated before approaching the desk across from Palet. She then carefully tapped the shoulder of the man who was sitting straight and writing.

“Um, you’re… Eve, right?”

Only then did the rookie guard, Eve, look at the visitor. The 1st-floor guard stared at his face blankly before speaking in a trembling voice.

“I was wondering… what’s your schedule for the banquet week? If you’re free, would you like to… with me…”

“I’m sorry.”

“Oh…”

She couldn’t say anything else and left the office with her head visit our site down. Soon after, the sound of a scratching pen came from Eve’s desk again.

This scene was routine for Palet now. Since being assigned to the 9th floor, Eve received date requests from female guards several times a day. And every time, he rejected them instantly. At first, Palet felt jealous and annoyed, but now he was just amazed.

The only places to meet guards from other floors were the cafeteria and the dorms. But Palet had never seen Eve in the cafeteria. Even in the dorms, he always stayed cooped up in his room.

“How do people from other floors even find out about him?”

Palet found Eve mysterious. Eve spent a lot of time on medicine duties, but his work speed was beyond imagination. Palet figured the secret was his lack of eating and sleeping. Even Palet, who was on the same floor and was his roommate, couldn’t tell when Eve ate or slept.

“Now that I think about it, he said he volunteered for the 9th-floor duty during the banquet week.”

Whether you were a prisoner or a guard, suffering through labor without seeing sunlight wasn’t much different. In a way, the prisoners seemed better off. Special cases like prisoner number 1004 didn’t even have to work.

However, the banquet week was a time when the situations of prisoners and guards differed greatly. Guards got a chance to escape the stuffy dungeon and the hard labor.

“To give up that chance on purpose…”

Palet had no idea how hard he was trying to succeed as a guard.

…Maybe his family went bankrupt or something?

Just then, the door opened, and the apothecary walked in. Her curly hair, usually tied back tightly, was let down. She was even wearing light makeup for once.

“Um, Eve.”

The apothecary smiled awkwardly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

“I heard you’re taking the duty for the banquet week. Is that right?”

“It is.”

“Then… could I stay with you?”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think that’s possible.”

An uncomfortable silence fell over the office.

“I’m sorry for asking for too much.”

With that, the apothecary quickly ran out of the office. At that moment, Palet saw the tip of her n​stolen content​ose was red as she passed by.

Palet looked back at Eve. Unless he stuck a “No Confessions” sign on that brilliant face, tragedies like this would probably keep happening.