Chapter 356: CH.350 Truth about Nel

With another day became another set of problems. Well, not that many problems. But I did have something that I wanted to pay attention to. That something was called Nel. The short haired variant that I got acquainted with in the Green Dungeon, not some lookalike Princess. 

She had finally appeared in the commoner district again, having exited the same building Endy tracked her to after the Green Dungeon incident. 

Endy was following where Nel was going, and after a few stops at different stores, she ended up at the adventurer’s guild. And with that, I decided that maybe it is time to confront her. She does still owe me for all the monsters I let her absorb, and now that I’ve confirmed that she works for/with the Queen, I know she has the money to pay for what she took.

So I decided to grab Unika and head down to the adventurer’s guild. I could have gone solo, but I wanted to make it look like we were there by happenstance, and not because we were tracking Nel.

I then had Endy locate a nice quiet spot close to the adventurer’s guild, and I beamed both of us down to the ground so that we could go to the adventurer’s guild on foot.

 

---

 

“Oh? Hi Nel. Haven’t seen you in a while.” I got Nel’s attention as she was looking around the guild. She wasn’t at the quest boards, so I’m not really sure what she was after, but that isn’t my problem.

“Eh? B-Brian?” Nel seemed a bit surprised when she saw us. “What are you doing here?”

“... are you asking why an adventurer would be at the adventurer’s guild?”

“No, it is just … I’ve heard that you don’t take that many quests despite your rank.” Nel said.

“Maybe I don’t take that many because of my rank.” I said. “Don’t want to steal them away from lower ranked adventurers. The guild will send me a letter if they have a quest they need someone like me to take care of.” I told her. “But what about you? Haven’t seen you in a while. Have you been doing well?”

“I’ve … been surviving.” Nel answered.

“Well, that’s good. I hope the carrots were useful to you.”

“Y-Yes. I was able to do what I needed with them.”

“Good. I was worried since you haven’t gotten in contact about my payment.”

“I-I just asked the guild to deliver a letter with a meeting request. I can’t just walk into the noble’s district.” Nel reasoned.

“... actually you could. The access isn’t limited to just nobles. Sure they would check you quite closely, but it wouldn’t prevent you from coming in.” I pointed out, but I feel like Nel already knew that. “But I think having the guild deliver a letter is a great idea.” I commended her efforts. “And I’m here now, so do you have some time to share?”

“Aren’t … aren’t you busy? Didn’t you come here for a reason?” Nel asked.

“No. Not really. Unika just wanted some exercise, so we were thinking of taking an easy quest.” I lied.

“... I see. Miss Unika, I hope you have been doing well after the… incident.”

“It has gotten better.” Unika said. “Thank you for your concern.”

Nel then turned to me and asked: “Brian, do you think we could go somewhere more private? Where we can talk about the payment?”

 

---

 

Of course the easiest private place I knew was HomeBase. And it isn’t like Nel hasn’t already visited, so I didn’t mind bringing her back up here.

I then sent Unika to inform her mother and Molly to bring some sweets to one of the parlor rooms I had. At first I was thinking of bringing Nel to my office, but that is a bit much since the Citadel core is in that room. At least I’ll first get to know who exactly Nel is, before I reveal even more secrets to her. Either that or I can always Mind Crush her.

 

“... So… here we are. When do you plan to have my money ready?” I asked.

“... before that, may I ask something?” Nel asked.

“You just did, but I’ll assume you meant something else. I’ll agree to it, but only if you answer a question for every question you expect an answer to.” I made a deal with her.

“... I think I can do that.” Nel agreed. “May I start?”

“Go for it.” I let her go first.

 

“... who are you?” Nel asked.

“Why are you asking a question you know the answer to?” I asked back. “But since you asked, I’ll recap. I am an honorary Baron of Ruiso Kingdom Brian Wood. I am also a System Support Holder, founder of the TinaWood dungeon and the owner of HomeBase.” I told her. Sure calling myself ‘owner of HomeBase’ instead of ‘founder of HomeBase’ is just a bit deceitful, but I was also the owner, so it isn’t a lie. “I think that is all, but admittedly I might have forgotten one or two things.”

“Th-Then what about the Golden Giant!?” Nel asked.

“Not so fast. It is my turn to ask.” I reminded Nel.

“Ah. Sorry. … go ahead and ask.”

 

“What is your relationship with Queen Nelliel and Princess Nevelle?” I just went ahead and asked.

“H-how did you..?”

“It wasn’t that difficult to figure out. You look identical to Princess Nevelle. Well, other than your hair length. It threw me off first and I thought you were a body double at most, but you really shouldn’t have been in the Queen’s manor’s yard the day I visited her.”

“... you saw me?”

“Magie did, yes.” I lied. In truth, Magie hadn’t noticed Nel spying on her. The one that spotted her was Endy on HomeBase.

“... I … should have not done that.”

“Spy on me? Yeah, perhaps not. Let me give you a hint. The best way to spy on me is to be overly obvious about it. I think Ula could give you a lesson on that.” And that was an honest truth. When someone just hangs around me, I give away the most secrets, because for me, my secrets aren’t secrets. They are just daily life.

“... who is Ula?” 

“A cat-folk girl that has acted as my tour guide when I’ve visited the Hero’s country. Though in truth she is some sort of an intelligence operative.”

“The Hero’s country? … when did you have the time to go there?”

“Nope. Answer my question first. What is your relationship with Queen Nelliel and Princess Nevelle?” I repeated my previous question, as I still haven’t gotten an answer to it.

 

“... Before I answer, may I ask one more question?” Nel asked.

“Depends on the question, so go ahead.” I gave her permission.

“Why did you lie to the Queen? When she asked about HomeBase?” Nel asked.

“Simple. Because she shouldn’t know of it. I was trying to find out how she knew of it, but of course she knew of it because you revealed it to her, right?” I answered. “And let me guess. The carrots you got from the Green Dungeon. They were used for some sort of vision enhancing potion, like a potion of far sight, and either Princess Nevelle or Her Majesty used that in combination with a vision skill to see HomeBase and attempted to use Appraisal on HomeBase?”

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“Y-You knew that as well?” Nel asked in a slight panic.

“I wasn’t 100% sure that was the case, so thanks for confirming. But did you really think I wouldn’t defend HomeBase from attacks like that? You saw the magic circles outside. What did you think they were doing?”

“... I wasn’t sure. Maybe they were just to make this place float. And to keep it invisible.”

“Both are true, but those only take up two of the eight. That still leaves six others to be used for other things.”

“... I … I really just…”

“You don’t need to understand how it works. Admittedly, I'm not sure on all the details either, as I’m not that good at magic. Thankfully I have access to people who are, so I don’t have to worry about it.” I admitted. “But how about finally answering my question? What is your relationship with Queen Nelliel and Princess Nevelle?” Third time will have to be the charm, right?

“... I … I am Nevelle.” Nel answered. “... at least a part of her.”

 

---

 

“I have a skill that lets me split my body apart into near perfect copies of each other. That way, I can be in multiple places at the same time.” Nel explained. “I often split myself into two, Nel and Vele, leaving Vele to take care of my Princess duties while I do what we want to do.”

“... that’s quite a skill. It has to be a unique skill, right?” I confirmed.

“... yes. I got it when I was quite young. I didn’t really have anyone to play with, so I imagined playing with myself. Eventually I just … split apart.”

“How many times can you split?” I asked.

“... I can have four of myself. … but anything more than two isn’t worth it. When I split, I split my skills between my two selves. So if I split to more than two, I’ll have barely any skills for each body.” Nel explained. “... and as you realized, when I split, my hair length is also divided between my bodies. That is why when I’m combined it is so long. I want to have enough available for my split bodies.”

“And enough where it won’t be obvious to people watching that Nevelle went from very long hair to just kind of long hair.” I guessed. “That amount of hair loss is easy-ish to hide with a hairstyle change.”

“... that as well.” Nel admitted.

 

“Okay. … but why?” I asked.

“... Why what?”

“Why go adventuring like that? I mean, you are a Princess, so … why?”

“Because I wanted to.”

“... and your mother didn’t stop it?”

“No. She actually encouraged it. She was an adventurer herself once.”

“Wasn’t your mother an Earl’s daughter? Why would she be an adventurer?” I knew a bit about the Queen’s past from Cressida, but I didn’t know that she was an adventurer at some point.

“She was just a second daughter, so her father didn’t really care. But my mother made records and got famous for being the fastest to get to the B-rank of her generation. And after she got to A-rank, she was invited to a lot of parties by nobles. Eventually she met His Majesty at one of them. This was back when His Majesty was still just the crown Prince, mind you. The two of them kind of got together, but since His Majesty already had a fiancé, my mother would never be anything more than a concubine. But since His Majesty gave mom a lot of money, she wasn’t overly disappointed. … that was until I came along.” Nel said, seeming down. “Mom really didn’t have a good time during her pregnancy, at least from what I’ve been told. She hated it so much. It changed her a lot, and in a way, she blamed me for it. She still loves me, don’t get me wrong, it is just … I took away her freedom in a way.

“Then Her Majesty the First Queen got sick and died. And she chose my Mother to be the next Queen. Mom no longer had the time for me, because she had to quickly study to take the seat of the Queen. And because I was now the child of the Queen, not of some concubine, I wasn’t that popular with most children. For lower ranking nobles, I was the daughter of the Queen, so I could end their family if I wanted to. But for the higher ranking ones, I was a bastard child born before Mother became the Queen, so I really had no one.”

 

“... so you became an adventurer so you wouldn’t have to be lonely?” I asked.

“... yes. It was… something that I thought would get me friends. A party. I would leave Vele to be the Princess, while I, Nel, would go on adventurers. It is always difficult, because Vele doesn’t really want to stay behind either, but we don’t really have a choice.”

“... aren’t you two the same?”

“We are, but we also aren’t. When we are Nevelle, we are one, but now we are separate, both with our own aspirations. When we split, we separate from each other based on what skills each of us carries. That includes our personalities to a point.” Nel explained. “We do our best to split the skills in a way that it hurts Vele as little as possible, but still, we both want to go, but only one of us can go.”

“... I see. But why risk your life? Actually, do you even know what will happen if one of you dies?” I asked.

“We’ve never died, but the skill says that we will lose all the skills that that body was holding.” Nel answered. “But we would still live. I guess the other half of us would live.”

“Ah. Alright. So not terrible, but not good either.”

“... but if I died once, I don’t think Mother would allow this any more.” Nel said. “Realistically, my other half couldn’t do it either.”

“So she knows?”

“Of course. Kind of difficult for her not to know. A lot of the servants at mom’s manor know. That is why I stay there, not at the castle. There I can be more free.”

“... alright.”

 

…

…

…

“... so, is it my turn to ask a question again?” Nel eventually asked.

“... I mean, if you have something to ask, go for it. But honestly speaking, we can end this ‘game’. I’ve learned what I wanted, so just ask away. But do note that I might still have things I don’t want to tell you, even though you are a Princess.”

“T-then. The Golden Giant? Can you tell me about it?” Nel asked.

“Exodia? Sure, I don’t mind.”

 

---

 

The two of us ended up talking for quite a while, to the point where Nel joined me for lunch, and for my training session after that. She was quite impressed by the variety of teachers I have, and even admitted to being jealous that I could train with experts like these.

And after the training, Nel went to enjoy the spa area of HomeBase, since she hadn’t done so last time. And when the evening got closer, I returned her to the city, near the little hidey-house she excited from. I now knew it was an access point for some secret tunnels that ran under the capital. It linked to a few places, like the Royal castle, a few high ranking noble’s manors, and of course the Queen’s manor. From that, Nel could return home without having to go through any of the checkpoints. Sure I could have dropped her off in the yard of the Queen’s manor, but that might not be the best idea. Oh, and I forgave her debt to me. I don’t really need money, so I let her off without having to pay for the monsters she absorbed in the Green Dungeon.

 

I also wrote a letter to the Queen, apologizing for keeping HomeBase from her. It was nothing much, but I did feel a bit bad for it. But considering what Nel kept from me, I don’t think lying about HomeBase was that bad. But now that I think I can trust the Queen, she can know the truth. Well she already did, but I’ll admit to it on paper.

 

I quickly returned back to HomeBase and got together with Lua. Alice was still away on her mission, so we jumped into the Factory so we could get in contact with her. Then I told the two what I’d learned that day.

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