A Fork in the Road

Irina was already dead?!

Blaidd apologized to me, looking downcast. "I'm sorry, Zero. By the time I got here, this girl was already like this."

"I-it's all right." I stared at the scene before me, dazed.

Just as in the game, Irina lay curled up in a pool of blood beside the road.

A bloodstained black cleaver stood beside her, as though proudly flaunting its handiwork and the master behind it.

But why?

First of all, it wasn't easy for a player to kill Irina. She could use a move called Rejection to repel any attack.

Second, I hadn't triggered any part of the Frenzied Flame questline yet, but Irina was still dead? Her blood had already darkened. She had probably been dead for almost an entire day.

In the game, even if I reached the Altus Plateau or the snowy mountains late in the game, I could still come back and find Irina sitting here, waiting, as long as I hadn't started her quest... Ah, no. This wasn't a game world anymore.

Events wouldn't wait for me to arrive before they began.

Irina, who was also blind, might have been ambushed, with no chance to fight back.

-The fire is beginning to burn.

I suddenly remembered what Melina had said last night.

Could Irina have already been... back then?

In a real world, once I missed the right moment, events would keep unfolding on their own.

They could even reach a point of no return without my knowing, just as they had with Irina.

A chill settled deep inside me.

Suddenly, Blaidd patted my shoulder and comforted me. "Don't be too upset, Zero... If you're willing, I'll help you find the killer."

Uh, with that mournful look in his eyes, had my wolf buddy misunderstood something when he saw me staring blankly?

I was only thinking about whose questline might be in as much danger as Irina's.

But before I could reply, my wolf buddy had already begun investigating. "It looks like she's been dead for some time. There aren't any suspicious scents left in the air... As for this weapon, I think it belongs to the Misbegotten."

The Misbegotten were another kind of creature unique to the Lands Between.

They looked exceptionally strange, as though several different creatures had been mixed together: birds' feet, beasts' legs, human torsos, and wings growing from their backs. Their faces resembled frogs, with eyes set too far apart and mouths too wide, leaving them looking as though they couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry.

Perhaps because of their appearance, the Misbegotten weren't well liked by the people of the Lands Between. They were generally treated as servants consigned to hard labor.

And now, in Castle Morne on the Weeping Peninsula, the Misbegotten had suddenly risen in revolt. Edgar, the castellan, had been forced to part with his daughter Irina to defend the castle. The fleeing troops had then been caught by the Misbegotten, resulting in the tragedy before us.

"Hm? Something's not right, Zero." Blaidd suddenly noticed something.

"What is it?"

"Look at the wounds on this girl's body."

Following Blaidd's directions, I examined Irina carefully.

Her death had been gruesome. The cleaver had left a massive wound across her back, which was probably what had killed her, and there were numerous other wounds of varying sizes all over her body.

Perhaps noticing that I hadn't spotted anything unusual, Blaidd pointed to a wound on her arm and explained, "Look. A fine cut like this clearly couldn't have been made by one of those crudely fashioned cleavers the Misbegotten use... And there's more than one such wound on her. Her arms, shoulders, chest, legs... They cover almost her entire body."

Wait, wounds like these... A similar condition suddenly came to mind. "Blood loss?!"

"That's right. Blood loss could very well have caused them." Blaidd agreed with my guess. "Examining her with that in mind, it's easy to see that the other, rougher wounds were added afterward."

"So someone wanted to mislead us into thinking Irina had been killed by a Misbegotten with a cleaver!"

Blaidd nodded.

I sucked in a sharp breath.

-This was an interpretation that hadn't existed in Elden Ring at all!

-After all, Elden Ring wasn't like The Witcher 3, where a witcher needed to inspect wounds to advance the story. That old bastard Miyazaki had simply told players it was already too late.

A heavy sense of conspiracy weighed on my heart.

And my wolf buddy soon made another discovery.

"What's this?" He pointed at the curb stone against which Irina's head rested. There was actually a silk handkerchief pinned beneath a rock.

I picked it up and saw a few crooked characters written in blood inside.

"This should be Irina's letter urging her father to abandon Castle Morne and flee with her... But why is it here?" As I spoke, I looked at the curb stone, and an idea formed.

-More importantly, someone had pinned this handkerchief beneath a rock. They clearly wanted someone to pick it up.

-...Someone who knew the plot of Elden Ring!?

The instant that thought entered my mind, a chill shot up my spine and straight into my brain, making my whole body shudder.

Anyone who would leave a clue like this naturally knew the plot of Elden Ring too.

Then could there be someone else reincarnated into this world besides me? Who was he? Where was he now? Why had he killed Irina? What exactly was he after? And if I really found him, what should I do?

Questions surged in one after another like an unending tide, threatening to swallow me whole.

Only when Blaidd patted my shoulder did I come back to my senses. "Zero, what's wrong? You look pale."

"N-nothing." I forced myself to calm down and tucked Irina's handkerchief inside my clothes.

Whatever the case, since the other person was determined for me to find this handkerchief, perhaps he was waiting for me in Castle Morne.

No matter what his intentions were, I needed to meet him and get to the bottom of this.

-If things went badly, I'd just make a run for it. Since I had Torrent, he might not be able to catch me anyway.

Having made up my mind, I said to Blaidd, "Wolf buddy, could you do me a favor?"

"What is it?"

"I'd like to give Irina a simple burial. Leaving her lying on the ground like this is just too sad."

"A burial? Oh, you mean a rite of returning to the Erdtree, right?"

"Uh, we just need to dig a hole and lay her inside." I picked up the bloodstained cleaver and began using it as a shovel to dig out the earth.

Still, returning to the earth could count as a kind of return to the tree. After all, once a body decomposed, it became nourishment for trees and plants.

...Holy crap! My wolf buddy dug so fast, and with such enthusiasm! A true canine.

Once we were finished, I took the initiative to say goodbye.

After all, if there really was someone else who knew the plot of Elden Ring, and I had no idea what he might do, he could end up threatening Ranni.

That was the last thing I wanted.

"Let's part ways here, wolf buddy. Thank you so much for tonight."

"Are you going to Castle Morne?" Blaidd had seen through my intentions. "I can help you."

I answered him frankly. "No. I'm worried it would expose your identity, as well as the princess behind you. After all, the Two Fingers have eyes and ears everywhere in the Lands Between, don't they?"

"But..."

"Hahaha, don't worry. We'll definitely meet again." With that, I mounted Torrent and followed the road toward Castle Morne, at the southernmost tip of the Lands Between.