“So, how has he done?” Ashley asked, stepping into her office and looking at the terminal on the wall. Immediately, a silver-skinned woman appeared on it, smiling at Ashley. Ashley had kept her attention off of Galahan during this duration, not wanting to spoil herself on the story that he was creating for their up and coming game.
“Galahan has made great strides to fulfill your request. In these twenty years, he has released sixteen movies, all said to be a part of the same, greater universe. He has named this universe the Night Verse. Each movie seems to focus on an entirely different world and main character, with some movies featuring an interstellar civilization and others planetbound. Additionally, there have been three single-player games released, focusing on three different movies within this franchise.””
“The setting has met all of the criteria that you asked for, and I have monitored the process every step of the way. There should be no problems with turning this into the setting for your next release.”
Hearing that caused Ashley to let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks. Have the setting file sent to the Admin Room, so my team can apply the NPC template to it.”
“Understood, Ashley.” The digital spirit nodded her head. “Do you have any other instructions for me to pass to Galahan, in that case?”
Ashley thought about it for a moment, before shaking his head. “Let’s see if there are any problems with the setting that he created first, and then we will plan our next step.”
In truth, Ashley hadn’t even finished the coding for the new game. Most of the settings involved were things that they had already purchased or developed themselves, but there were some aspects that they needed to purchase from the system, like the respawn settings. Additionally, she wanted to make sure not to get too deep into creating the game until after she had seen Galahan’s work, that way she did not introduce or leave out a system that might contradict the ‘canon’ story that they were establishing.
After Lena left Olympus to work on her new, long-term assignment, I turned to face Tsubaki. “What are your thoughts on Lena? Personally, I mean.”
Tsubaki blinked at the question, falling deep into thought. “I believe that she has the potential to be the most powerful combatant at our disposal, due to her being able to take on the abilities and skill levels of others. As for her abilities as a spy, that was self-evident as even the cautious Dana was tricked by her impersonating Lifre.”
“I mean, do you think that she can be trusted?” I asked, and Tsubaki looked at me in confusion. “Yes, as a Keeper I can see her surface thoughts, just like anyone else’s. However, given her skill level of impersonating others, I have to believe that she would be able to disguise her own surface thoughts. That’s why I want to ask your opinion. The two of you have a similar origin, and you have spent time alone with her. In your opinion, do you believe that she can be trusted?”
Tsubaki paused, needing a bit more time to think for this question. “As she herself has said, the environment that we grew up in was very different from one another. In my day, I was prepared to be an efficient killer and servant to my chosen lord. Any sense of self-worth was cast aside in favor of being the best Servant that I could be. As a result, it was not unusual for a Servant to be willing to kill themselves for the slightest infraction upon their lord. In fact, I almost did so myself on multiple occasions, such as when you began to teach me about Perfection.”
“I… remember that.” I said with a long sigh, with Tsubaki soon continuing her explanation.
“On the other hand, Lena has grown up in an environment where the elders have nurtured her. Despite her training to take on the persona of another person, she does not seem to have lost her sense of self-worth. If you ordered her to die, I think that she would refuse you, unless given a compelling reason.”
“In light of this, I believe that her coming under your wing is a calculated move on her part, seeking to break away from the ninjas as a whole. She has repeatedly emphasized that I am her senior, and that she wishes to learn from me. It is highly likely that either she felt that she would have a better life in your service, or that she was not safe in her previous occupation. Either way, so long as you do not order her to do something suicidal, I believe that she can be trusted.”
“Given the fact that she would willingly undertake such a difficult, long-term assignment, I am inclined to believe that it is the latter. There may be people within the ninja organization who see her as a threat for what she can do, and were silently trying to eliminate her during missions.”
I gave a small nod at that. “Didn’t she say that coming to me like this was an assignment from the elders themselves, however? She didn’t appear to be lying when she said that.”
“You’re correct, my Keeper.” Tsubaki smiled slightly, before shaking her head. “However, this could mean that there are varying opinions on this. Perhaps someone who wanted to keep Lena safe gave her this assignment as a way to protect her from the other elders.”
“That is a possibility that can’t be overlooked…” I closed my eyes, thinking it over. “Tsubaki… before you start working on your own Trial of Shadows, I’d like you to do something for me.”
Tsubaki’s eyes widened, and she immediately knelt down. “Of course, my Keeper. You may ask anything you wish of me.”
“Go to the Admin Room, and ask for Terra’s help. I want you to look through Lena’s past. First, confirm whether or not Lena can be trusted. After that, look for the ones trying to hurt her, if any. If they were willing to sabotage missions to kill off their golden girl, they may be willing to try to attack her even after she has started working for me. Especially now that she is not in Olympus.”
Tsubaki nodded her head, rising to her feet. “I will complete your order right away. Would it not be faster to simply ask Terra to look into this herself, however?”
I couldn’t help but give Tsubaki a smile in response. “I could, and she could probably give me the answer within minutes, at most. However, if I have you look into it, you can find inspiration for your new trial. This is as much an investigation into Lena as it is a learning experience for you.”
Tsubaki wasn’t aware of this, but I knew that Chelsea had personally vouched for Lena. Chelsea is too cautious of a person, and wouldn’t vouch for someone like that without thoroughly making sure that they were trustworthy. However, at the same time, Chelsea herself was not an elder for the ninjas, and couldn’t have been the one to personally give Lena the assignment to come to me. She could have made a suggestion, but her words were ultimately that.
Thus, it was still important to have a final background check. Also, what I said wasn’t wrong. Since Tsubaki already wanted to create her own Trial of Shadows, then this would give her a chance to look at how the trial was conducted currently, and use that for inspiration. Otherwise, it was likely that she would misinterpret the trial and either make its difficulty level all but impossible, or turn it into a combat mission rather than a stealth one.
“I understand, my Keeper.” Tsubaki said with a nod, before turning around and walking out the door in a hurry.
After leaving the Keeper’s office, Tsubaki kept a firm expression on her face, despite her happily wagging tails. The Keeper is doing this to help me, so I can’t fail him. Although she was unaware of Chelsea’s involvement, she knew that the Keeper had already largely decided to trust Lena. Otherwise, he would never have given her a mission in the first place.
Therefore, she knew that the main objective behind sending her to the Admin Room right now was to educate her on the current ninja training program. After she left the office, she closed her eyes and focused, having to stand still for thirty seconds in order to travel to the Admin Room.
When she arrived, she saw Terra sitting on the couch, an amused smile on her face. “I assume that you are already aware of the reason for my visit?” Tsubaki asked, to which Terra nodded her head and patted the couch next to her.
“Come have a seat. It looks like it’s movie night for us.” She said with a light laugh. “It’s been a little while since Dale asked for any immediate help, and I haven’t had anyone else to bring into the new program lately. So this came at just the right time.”
Tsubaki smiled, moving over to sit next to the felyn goddess. At first, she was going to keep a respectable distance, but then thought about it again, choosing to sit immediately next to Terra instead. Unlike the others, Terra wasn’t able to fully inhabit her incarnations, and could only have a thin connection with them, or send orders down. She could only exert real control in small doses, so she was bound to be lonely. Putting even a respectful distance in cases like this would likely drive that point home further, so she thought that it was better to sit right next to her.
Terra herself seemed surprised that Tsubaki had made that decision, her smile softening. Indeed, they were close enough that they could easily lean on one another if they wanted. “So, we’re looking into Lena’s past, right? Do you want to start from the immediate timeframe, or from before she joined Olympus?”
Tsubaki hesitated for a brief moment. “Immediate timeframe, please. It would be best to know whether or not she has made contact with anyone else since joining the Keeper’s service, as that could be significant information.”
Terra seemingly understood that result, snapping her fingers as the screen showed a frozen image of Lena walking down the street. “In that case, let’s play it back from here. This is from right before she returned to report to the Keeper and you just now.”
Tsubaki gave a firm nod, watching the scene play in reverse. Her eyes briefly widened when she saw Lena become Dana, using the Absurdity of Fate to cut off a man’s arms. “Can you place a marker on him, please? After we do our initial check, I want to look into him.”
“You want to see who it was that asked for him specifically to respond to this call, right?” Terra asked, to which Tsubaki returned an affirmative nod. “I’ll place the marker, and we can watch it together.”
The scene continued to rewind, soon showing Lena talking to a contact from the ninjas. Tsubaki could easily tell that Lena was trying to distance herself from this conversation alone, which further supported the idea that there was someone in the organization that Lena was trying to avoid.
When the scene rewound past the Keeper’s return to Olympus, the speed of the video began to increase. “It’s mostly just the same stuff here.” Terra assured, and they watched highlights of Lena and Lifre playing together in Fyor, Lena having occasionally turned into a second Lifre.
Now, Tsubaki understood why Lena had wanted to secure Lifre’s assistance in the mission, as the two appeared to genuinely be friends. Even with the speed accelerated and only showing highlights, it took several minutes to get through the scenes of them playing together. When it returned to a normal speed, Tsubaki’s eyes widened.
This appeared to be the scene where Lena, the Golden Shadow, received her final mission. There were two people giving her the mission. Or, more accurately, one elder and a guest. The elder was an old ursa with a wrinkled face and a hunched back. The guest was none other than Chelsea.
“…Another marker for the elder, please.” Tsubaki asked, and Terra nodded her head. The video kept replaying scenes, and Tsubaki began to put together a pattern.
Across several of Lena’s missions, there appeared to either be critical details missing, the mission itself was tantamount to suicide, or an outside force ‘coincidentally’ intervened. A key example of the second was when she was given the trial to steal from Elisae, as no sane person would do such a thing.
However, there were also missions where she was told to infiltrate a noble’s house to observe them, not being informed that this noble was a deity with connections to the church. Or one where a simple delivery mission would go awry because a battle between local forces just happened to erupt as she was passing through an area in disguise. Each of these situations could have easily turned fatal for her, had she not carefully navigated them.
Naturally, Lena herself was aware that she was being targeted, but there was not a direct connection as to who. At least, not until a scene where she used her mask, turning into each one of the elders in turn. When she turned into an elderly felyn woman, her face contorted in rage and she stopped her investigation. “Another one on her…” Tsubaki sighed. It looked like ‘movie night’ was going to last longer than she thought.
