The stagecoach bounced along the cobblestone road. A translucent window popped up in her vision.
[System Notification: Lover's Blessing Activated]
Welcome, Blessed One. The Goddess of Fertility has granted you her divine favor. Your body has been modified to better serve your purpose.
New Equipment: Divine Rod of ConquestType: Biological EnhancementEffect: Allows Bondmarking of conquered partnersSpecial: Grows stronger with each conquest
[Oh my god. They're calling it a Divine Rod.]
Aegis snorted. Even in her wildest playthroughs, she'd never unlocked this particular feature. The notification continued scrolling.
Bondmark System:
Mark partners through intimate conquest
Marked individuals provide passive stat bonuses
Deeper bonds = Greater rewards Warning: Marks are permanent
"Holy shit," Aegis whispered, then glanced around the empty carriage. Right. NPCs couldn't see the system windows. To them, she'd just be talking to air like a crazy person.
[Permanent marks? That's... actually kind of hot.]
The carriage jolted to a stop.
"Rosevale City! All students for the academy, this is your stop!"
Aegis grabbed her scholarship letter and hopped down. Gothic spires stabbed into the darkening sky. Students in expensive uniforms crowded the main avenue toward the academy gates.
[Yeah, no. Side quest time.]
She turned left into the old quarter. In the actual Queen of Hearts game, most players would often just run right into the academy, but Aegis knew the golden rule of any game: never skip the tutorial zone's hidden loot.
The pawn shop sat wedged between a fortune teller and a shop advertising "definitely not cursed" crystals. Perfect. Aegis breathed in and pushed through the door. The doorbell screamed like a dying cat.
"We're closed," came a voice from behind towers of junk.
"That's unfortunate." Aegis traced her finger along a dusty display case. "Because I'm here to make you rich."
The owner emerged. Sixty years of bad decisions carved into one bitter face. His eyes took in her academy uniform, her empty hands, her obvious poverty, and he raised a brow so high it must have hurt.
"Academy brats." He spat into a bucket. "Always 'making me rich' with daddy's money. Except you don't even have daddy's money, do you, scholarship?"
[Charisma 100, eh? Let's give this a shot.]
"Bartholomew Finch." Aegis walked around the shop, looking at various items, trying to look casual and bored. He flinched. "Forty years in this shop. Wife left you for a minstrel. Son won't talk to you. Drowning in debt to the Crimson Serpent gang who'll break your kneecaps next week. Tough situation, if I do say so myself."
His face cycled through several shades of purple.
"H-HOW—"
"I know things." She pointed to a tarnished locket in the corner. "Like how that 'worthless' necklace you've been trying to pawn for three years is enchanted. Worth enough to buy your shop ten times over."
"Bullshit."
"Yeah? Let me wear it. Just for a minute." Aegis pressed her palms together. "If I'm wrong, I'll leave. If I'm right, we negotiate."
Bartholomew's laugh sounded like rocks in a meat grinder.
"You think I'm stupid? Let some pretty thing 'test' my merchandise then run off?"
"Where would I run?" Aegis gestured at herself. "Academy uniform, broad daylight. You know exactly where to find me if I do something stupid. Besides..." She lowered her voice. "You're already fucked. The Crimson Serpents don't do payment plans." Another flinch. "But that locket? Worth more than your entire shop. If you know how to activate it."
His fingers drummed the counter. Behind his bloodshot eyes, Aegis could basically see him doing math, trying to calculate every last individual coin he could get for this thing if she was right.
"One minute. I hold your scholarship letter."
She raised an eyebrow.
"What if you take it and run?"
His smirk revealed yellowed teeth.
"You'd know where to find me, wouldn't ya?"
[Touché.]
"Deal." She handed over the envelope.
He tossed her the locket. The metal warmed against her chest immediately. Words bloomed in her vision:
COMMONER'S LOCKET EQUIPPED
Effect: Increased ability to go unnoticed by those of higher social status
[Translation: pretty much an invisibility cloak against the eyes of snobby nobles.] Aegis grinned. [Now to sell the con.]
"See that shimmer?" She held it up. "The metal's reacting to my magical signature. Real enchantments do that. Fakes don't."
"Prove it. Use magic."
[Would if I could, but I don't know how.]
Rather than saying that, though, Aegis kept smiling.
"Lord Bartholomew Finch. Sounds better than Bart the Pawnbroker, doesn't it?"
His spine straightened. For one second, he looked less like a bitter failure and more like someone who'd once had dreams.
[Hook, line, sinker.] Aegis held back a grin. [Overwhelm him with the same hopes and dreams he's in trouble of losing, and maybe that'll make him forget that little demonstration he just asked of me.]
"This locket makes the wearer more... persuasive to noble blood. But also to those who wish they were noble." Complete bullshit, but his eyes were already gleaming. "Tell you what. Given that you had this pretty thing here collecting dust and you didn't even know it was enchanted, I'll give you a better deal. I keep this locket. In exchange, I'll write down the locations of three more artifacts hidden in this district."
"You're lyi-"
Before he could even finish saying that, Aegis started listing off:
"The Merchant's Ring in the old Goldleaf vault. The Courage Pendant in the Warrior's Memorial fountain. The Wisdom Circlet in the abandoned library's secret room." She grabbed a quill and started writing. "All of these objects collecting dust just like this locket were... It would be so easy for some down-on-his-luck merchant to swing by and collect them. Too easy, even."
"H-How could you even know...!?"
"Please," Aegis rolled her eyes. "I knew your whole life story without meeting you. Maybe, just maybe, I know what I'm talking about?" Sweet smile. "Sell those three, pay off the Serpents, retire somewhere nice. Or don't believe me and let them rearrange your skeleton next week. Your choice."
Bartholomew stared. A few seconds passed with both of them staring at each other, like they were waiting for someone to make the first move.
Then he snatched up his own notebook and started copying everything she'd said.
"Get out."
"Pleasure doing business."
Aegis took her envelope from the counter and strolled out, locket warm against her chest. One down.
The street performer worked the corner of Merchant and Third, juggling flaming rats. Actual rats. Actually on fire. A small crowd tossed coins, probably paying him to stop.
"A riddle!" he called. "Answer correctly, win a prize!"
Aegis pushed through the gawkers. In the game, this NPC spawned randomly with one of five riddles. Answer all five in sequence, and he'd fork over something pretty damn good.
"I'll play."
"Excellent!" He caught the rats. They vanished up his sleeves without torching anything. "First riddle: What has roots nobody sees, is taller than trees, up, up it goes, yet never grows?"
"Mountain."
His painted face twitched.
"Correct. Second: Voiceless it cries, wingless flutters, toothless bites, mouthless mutters."
"Wind."
"Third—"
"River. Fourth is fire. Fifth is stars." Aegis held out her hand. "Sorry to ruin the show, but I've heard these before. Many times. Prize, please."
The crowd muttered. The performer's grin stretched until his makeup cracked.
"Clever girl." He pressed a brass earring into her palm.
To everyone else, trash. But the moment it touched her ear, the world exploded with sound.
MAID'S EARRING EQUIPPED
Passive: Hear Conversations within 50 meters
Active: Focus Hearing through Barriers (3 uses/day)
"—told you she was a scholarship—"
"—never seen someone shut down Jesper like—"
"—that ass should be illegal—"
Aegis winced at the audio assault. Two down.
Now, it was time for the main event.
---
The old quarter reeked of piss and rotting garbage. These buildings predated the current kingdom by centuries, and even in a medieval fantasy world, they violated every conceivable safety standard.
Aegis counted doorways. Seven, eight, nine, then ducked between buildings ten and eleven.
Darkness swallowed her. The alley narrowed until her shoulders scraped both walls, then opened into a courtyard. Dead bushes formed a path to a door made of solid shadow.
[There you are.]
Black wood that ate light. No handle. No keyhole. Just darkness and whispers bleeding from its surface.
DISCOVERY: The Whispering DoorWARNING: This encounter may result in permanent character deathProceed? Y/N
"Yes, you dramatic bitch," Aegis muttered. She pressed her palm to the wood.
The world flipped. Up became down, inside became out, and Aegis stood in a void that made her eyeballs ache.
A voice spoke. Two voices, actually. One deep, one high, overlapping:
"FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE SEEKER. FIVE TRUTHS FOR THE WORTHY. SPEAK FALSE AND JOIN THE WHISPERS. SPEAK TRUE AND CLAIM YOUR REWARD."
[No pressure or anything.]
"FIRST QUESTION: WHAT IS THE OLDEST LIE?"
Relief flooded through her. The questions hadn't changed from the game.
See, this test was pure trial and error. Players would approach, answer wrong, die, respawn, try again next playthrough. Question by question. Death by death. Some answers required late-game knowledge, so you literally couldn't complete this without multiple runs.
[But I've done hundreds of runs. I know every damn answer.]
"That power comes from strength," she said. "Power comes from understanding what others want."
This came from the main villain's monologue in Act Three.
Silence. Then:
"SECOND QUESTION: WHERE DO THE LOST STARS FALL?"
"Into the spaces between heartbeats."
The community had taken six months to crack that one. It referenced creation myth lore buried in a single collectible book most players never found.
"THIRD QUESTION: WHAT DOES THE EMPRESS DREAM?"
This one murdered players constantly.
Everyone assumed it meant the Demon Empress, the final boss. They tried everything—world domination, resurrection, monster armies. All wrong.
Because it meant the First Empress. Valdria's founder, who begged history to forget her name after her choices broke her.
Another buried reference from a skippable side quest.
"She dreams of being forgotten."
The void rippled approval.
"FOURTH QUESTION: NAME THE THIRTEENTH DAGGER."
"Mercy."
The game's combat system offered twelve ways to execute a certain villain. The hidden thirteenth option? Don't kill her. Show mercy. She'd take her own life later. Aegis had discovered it during a pacifist run.
"FINAL QUESTION: WHO SPEAKS IN SILVER?"
The last question. The one that made her throw her tablet when she'd finally solved it. Because the answer wasn't lore or mechanics or observation.
It was meta.
[Fucking cheap-ass devs...]
"Speaking in Silver" was an achievement for getting through the entire game without selecting a single "bad" dialogue choice.
The answer could only be...
"Me."
The void shattered.
Aegis gasped, back in the courtyard, holding—
LEGENDARY ITEM ACQUIRED: The Lover's Ring
Effect: Doubles Affection Gains, Doubles Experience Gains
Special: Cannot Be Removed Once Worn
The ring thrummed with power. Just a silver band with a heart-shaped ruby, but this was endgame loot. One of the most valuable items out there.
And now, it was in Aegis's hands.
[Done. Now, time to head into the Academy!]