Note: please be as cryptic as possible regarding any specific actions your character takes when discussing them in the game channel to avoid influencing everyone else!
[ftr, the goblins are dissolving into particles of light as they speak! he looks down at his leg, then back at the goblins]
Mm, I can heal this much. This place should still have enough spatial resources for it. But I thought we might need them to fight, so I didn't want to spend them all yet.
Ah, that must be for the Tree of Life festivities... Since the tree became like this, they've been holding a party every night before a rest day.
[are you coming back? If you are, you'll be able to see a key lying on the floor where the goblin's body used to be! It's glowing in a light blue color.]
I went once or twice, but it felt wrong to be there. My duty is here, and besides... they don't like me very much. If I'd come back with Alice, maybe...
She was my childhood friend, and the Village Elder's daughter. One day when we were children, we went to the End Mountains to get some ice, and she fell down... Her hand crossed the border and touched the Dark Territory, which is prohibited by the Taboo Index.
The following day, an Integrity Knight came to take her away, never to be seen by her family or friends again.
I left the village to look for her. Kirito and I found her years after, but she was... changed. She didn't remember me at all. That's what they do to all Integrity Knights-- they change their memories to ensure loyalty to the Church.
So in the end, I couldn't save her. The Alice I knew was gone forever. I hope the person she became as an Integrity Knight is still alive and well, but there's no way I'd know.
The Gigas Cedar was an enemy of the village that everyone wanted gone. What you see here is a demon tree just like the Gigas Cedar, but it's what is keeping me and everyone here "alive" now, as long as I fight and betray everyone I care about over and over again.
That's why I have to cut off most of the branches. It's not ideal, but it's all I can do.
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Mm, I can heal this much. This place should still have enough spatial resources for it. But I thought we might need them to fight, so I didn't want to spend them all yet.
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[brb, running back to try and find... the food from before, sob]
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Anyway, Eugeo watches from afar... ???]
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H-Here! I'm sorry! I can bring more cider in a second!
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Eh? What's all this?
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[are you coming back? If you are, you'll be able to see a key lying on the floor where the goblin's body used to be! It's glowing in a light blue color.]
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picking that up first, tho]
And you never go to the parties?
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I went once or twice, but it felt wrong to be there. My duty is here, and besides... they don't like me very much. If I'd come back with Alice, maybe...
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Who is Alice?
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The following day, an Integrity Knight came to take her away, never to be seen by her family or friends again.
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Where is she now?
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So in the end, I couldn't save her. The Alice I knew was gone forever. I hope the person she became as an Integrity Knight is still alive and well, but there's no way I'd know.
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—But none of that was your fault!
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If I'd defied the Taboo Index on my own, who knows... But I didn't think that was possible before Kirito helped me fell the original Gigas Cedar.
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glancing at the tree over there, like, ?????]
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That's the Tree of Life. It's not really the Gigas Cedar, same as I'm not really alive, you know?
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That's why I have to cut off most of the branches. It's not ideal, but it's all I can do.
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It's fine if you don't get it... I can't really make it clearer than that.
[here, have some water!]
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What are you talking about?! Who are you betraying or fighting?! That's just wrong!
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