Spending my retirement in a game

chapter 66

"Now comes the last test, Eisen. The first one was to test your body. The second one was to test your skill. And this last one is to test you. Your dedication, your personality, and how far you are willing to go." Ailren explained and slowly stepped forward through the room waving at Eisen to follow him, who quickly did so after commanding the Automaton to follow him.

"And what would that kind of test look like?" Eisen asked curiously, looking at the back of the Ancient Dragon in human form while looking behind himself every once in a while to make sure the Automaton was following properly.

It took a while, but they soon found themselves in front of the mist-filled room directly in front of the entrance to the treasury.

"Walk inside. Your test is waiting for you." Ailren said with a calm voice, his fingers interlocked behind his back.

Eisen nodded slowly and excitedly walked into the mist, leaving Caria with the Automaton next to Ailren, since he didn't know what would wait inside. After walking a few dozen steps forward, Eisen saw something through the mist, that was unusually thick right now.

It was bright pink hair, bound into two twintails. Or rather, one full twintail while the other was hanging rather loosely down the side of the girl's face. Shocked at this unexpected sight, Eisen ran forward to get a closer look, and found exactly who he thought to be there.

It was Bree. She was kneeling on the ground, with her arms and feet tied together behind her back and her mouth gagged. Tears were streaming down the side of her face, while she was trying to yell at Eisen, asking him to help her.

Immediately, he stepped forward, trying to tie her loose, but before he could, Ailren's voice echoed through the hall. "Do not do that, Eisen. What do you think your test is?" The Dragon asked, his voice coming from everywhere around Eisen, but at the same time from nowhere exactly. It was truly as if dozens of Ailrens were suddenly all around him, talking at the same time while moving around randomly.

Eisen hesitated slightly, this alone already nearly breaking his heart. Seeing his friend and companion down there on the ground like that was just horrible, even if this was simply a game! To Eisen, this would probably be the world he will spend most of the rest of his life in, so it would turn just as real to him as it was for the original inhabitants of this world. While kneeling down in front of Bree, the old man asked with a calm face.

"What the hell are you talking about? What kind of test is this supposed to be?"

Suddenly, Ailren's voices began to laugh in a sinister way. "How I said, this is to test you. Your dedication to our cause. Your dedication to me and my brothers and sisters, and to our king Trygan."

Eisen continued trying to untie the ropes that bound Bree, but whatever he did, they only seemed to become tighter instead of loosening up. "Again, what are you talking about?" He asked in a voice even calmer than before, as anger started to well up inside of him, wanting to explode outward the moment he heard the Dragon's answer coupled with sinister laughter from multiple sources at once.

"Kill her." Some of the voices said in unison while the others simply continued laughing, until they suddenly stopped. No sound was coming from anywhere, and they stopped as suddenly as if someone simply paused a soundtrack. A few seconds of complete silence later, a devilish voice spoke out. It was Ailren's, but at the same time, it wasn't.

"You're simpler than I thought, Eisen. I thought it would be easy to figure out. This is your companion, isn't she? The friend that has been accompanying you for most of your adventures, as far as you can remember, right? So what would be a better way for you to prove your dedication?"

Once more, laughter broke out around Eisen and Bree, and one after another some of them began to talk, each one saying only one sentence and then continuing their routine of horrid comedy.