They overdid the NPCs. I know it is all about realism, all about true feelings, but there can be a bit of too much realism. When you see the blood, when you see their eyes when they die, when you see them suffering, you cannot treat them as NPCs but as persons.

As Ayra said, you look at me as if I would be a lesser human? Yes! You are a damn NPC? AI … or… whatever….

OK, OK, OK.

I put my hands over my face and blew air repeatedly in them. I am going to hyperventilate.

Take a deep breath, Dolores. Inhale… now exhale. Cool. I am Cala. Inhale, exhale. Take your time. Yes, it helps. Cala is a strong and determined girl. Cala has damn years-long experience. Cala has seen a lot of dying, a lot of suffering.

Inhale, exhale.

I was feeling somewhat better.

Now this job was not one of my finest. I should have thought about it and the consequences before taking it, not after. Now it is done, what can I do?

Let me see Spartacius; where was that tavern he wanted us to meet? What was the name? Something with a boar? As I walked through the town, I saw Alice running towards me. Now what?

“What happened?”

“A catastrophe happened, Lady Cala; this man you brought with is insane!”

Uh? Another catastrophe?

“Insane? What happened?”

The whole town was in turmoil, guards running back and forth. Now, this is probably due to my action at a particular residence. I did not expect immediate danger, as I had been wearing a mask during my 'visit' to the Hollybrun place, but you never know. It would be good to lie low for a while. So what did he do now?

Alice gave me her report:

“After the raid, he went to the tavern with Noviel and some people from the raid group. They drank, someone started a fight, and when the guards came in to restore the order, he ordered her to kill them. He ordered her to shoot the guards!”

I sighed.

“Is he crazy? This would...”

…totally ruin our reputation – I wanted to say, but somehow I thought it better not to express it in this form. Instead, I said flatly:

“it’s not allowed.”

Then I remembered about him planning to test Noviel.

Oh shit, he must have read on some blog about the ultimate NPC guards test: if it is ready to kill without asking questions the trusted symbols of power in the town she lives, completely trusting your judgment and decision, this is the apogee of trust.

But you do not get there by simply making the contract, and you cannot test and retest. This is not your casual Mephi game but the hardcore game. The culmination, the only active hardcore game. I trust Alice would do this for me, but testing it this way is too expensive. Oh well.

Alice corrected me in a very unusual way:

“Not allowed? It's simply criminal. And it is coming even worse, Lady Cala, as Noviel didn’t want to kill the guards, but as she swore to follow his commands, she committed suicide to avoid disobeying him.”

“What? Is she dead?”

What a waste, he paid the money, my money, and now he is left without the support rogue.

She looked expectantly at me:

“She is not dead yet; she used the poisoned ritual dagger that kills slowly: the punishment for breaking the contract. Only a miracle can save her. It is a slow-killing poison without antidote except...”

What? Is she asking me to waste one of my precious epic poison-healing potions for Noviel, an almost unknown rogue? Even worse, knowing magic is not well received here? I looked into her eyes: her face was transfigured, looking back with those clear blue eyes, and I thought I could see a tear, a little pearl shining, that she wiped angrily.

Don't fool me with emotions; you're an NPC! I mumbled:

“Noviel would not want you to save her.”

She answered:

“That I know...” - then, whilst her face became even more imploring, she added - “but she will have to accept it. I am her elder; she has no other relatives; they are all dead. I know her well Noviel is my niece; I recommended her...”

OK, not wholly unknown rogue. A relative? Niece? Do NPCs build dynasties here in this game? Does this mean Alice has a sister? Had because she said: the only relative.

I sighed. Maybe I should not have left Spartacius alone with Alice to choose a rogue. Blackmailed by my merc with those big round blue puppy eyes. Damn, I could not resist it. I searched in my inventory box. Does this pay for my sins? I thought about Thiara… no way, no. But it at least saves one NPC from certain death.

“Take this healing potion and give it to her. Dilute it with this blue mana potion. That will delay the effect but anyhow, you know what this means? They'll get suspicious of us that we deal with devil's tools. Will she accept it? You still want to try?”

She answered with a defiant look:

“She already passed out, and I am her warden, so I get to decide for her. I understand what this means for us! I humbly thank you!”

The way how she looked back at me said much more. She knew magic is tabu here, and she was grateful I did this for her. These idiots, with their fear of magic, with their 'only by virtue of nature' healing, with herbs and prayers, this does not work well in a magical world. Yes, it is true, miracles happen too, but I guess that is also a kind of magic. And yes, they accept holy priests heal, that is holy... and unreachable for most. None of the local priests can do it; the archbishop needs to send in somebody, so even if I wanted to do it their way, the girl would be long dead before they even decide to move their asses to help.

Why do I do it? Alice's loyalty towards me was at maximum, I could not increase it further, and still, I could not resist her begging eyes.

Fuck, she is an NPC, not a real person! The second NPC that tricks my good heart today, but this was a four hundred gold value, not four as was the case for Ayra. Are these NPCs linked somehow in the background and place bets on who can extort more money from me? Is this payback for Thiara? I just lost almost all the money I made… OK, this is only money.

I gripped her hand before she left me:

“Where is he? Spartacius? Is he ok?”

He is a low-level character. Did the guards know what he was trying to do? In this case, the guards might kill him.

Here in hardcore Mephi, characters die for good. True, you can be revived a short time after death by qualified high-level classes, that is a couple of minutes, five minutes at the most. Angels can resurrect you too if you have prepared for it, but only two times a year; that's practically nothing in such a game. It is too costly and challenging for low-level characters, and I am sure he has no such 'insurance policy'.

If he dies, I need to immediately take his body out of town, organize a high-level player to be ported here, and find out it was too late.

Does he not know this?

Her answer confirmed my worries:

“The guards took him to jail!”

“In jail?”

"In the tower!"

Drats, I need to do something. I saw her imploring face and did not keep her any longer:

“Run now with the potion; we'll meet later!”

She answered and left running:

“Thank you, lady Cala.”

Shit. This little emotional thing may cost me not only money but also some of my reputation with this faction. Even if Alice heals the rogue, my reputation will only get worse. Hopefully, she manages to administer the healing potion without many witnesses, and they hide somehow the fast recovery. Even with the delay, her situation from dying to 'flying' in two days is highly suspicious. I might try to bribe a monk to pray for her? Yeah, I need to talk with Alice about this. We could say it was the monk's prayers that saved her. A miracle happened! The monk does not even need to know we use him as a decoy.

First the Golden Empire story, now this. Today is reputation catastrophe day. I might lose a lot of my free movement if this continues. It is a pain in the ass to be harassed and fight various guards and soldiers in addition to monsters, not to be able to visit a shop or buy a meal without making threats, and then check for poison... This is what happens when you have a bad reputation in an area. Oh well. Hopefully, all this can be fixed. It is only a question of money.

On one side, I was surprised to see my merc displaying feelings; on the other side, this may be some kind of a quest. It was said that they introduced quests that should seamlessly integrate with your day-to-day activities.

Instinctively I tried again to check my visual interface for quests, but it failed again to activate.

Ow, the damn bug! No way to activate it, no way to see my reputation level either. Hopefully, nobody found out who freed the slaves, and the Empire still counts me as friendly.

OK, I'll check this later. First, let me help this noob out of jail. To do this, I'll first need to assess the situation.