Dead Nerds Society: What Do You Mean My Guild Was Also Isekaid? Chapter 18: She Will Know

After excusing herself, Cecilia walked away.

((There’s little doubt now. Wise Queen Aelindra is, in fact, my ’daughter,’ who I created as an NPC because I thought it would be fun.))

She wandered around the familiar streets, with her mind far away reminiscing about Aelindra and the interactions they had.

As an NPC, they weren’t real, actual mother-daughter interactions. But NPCs in Hyperborea had a lot more capabilities than in any other ga that ca before.

They weren’t just one AI per character, but a cluster of them.

A nucleus controlled needs, desires, duties, and goals. It had to weigh personal goals like ’eat’ and social goals like when they received an order to ’harvest fruit,’ for example. They would have needs like any character in colony simulation gas.

Then there was the emotional center. It would process the experiences and add tags and intensities of emotions to those experiences. Those emotions would weigh on the decision-making processes of the nucleus.

Then there was the mory center, which would store all that the character had experienced and learned. It was an AI of sorts that would prioritize and handle the experiences according to the emotions associated and the personality of the character.

Then there was the action center. Having selected a goal, the action center would use Goal Oriented Action Planning to create a set of tasks that would accomplish that goal. For example, for ’eat,’ it would have to go to the kitchen’s door, open the door, etc.

Finally, there was the communication center. It used state-of-the-art generative AI to put all of the data in the character’s personality, goal, task, mory, etc., to allow for free-form unscripted conversation without losing context.

The AI was one of the selling points of the ga, and so people even actually fell in love with NPCs, literally marrying in the ga world and ’living’ in it instead of the ’real’ life outside.

NPCs were the backbone of Hyperborea’s industry. While the players directed and also created the highest peaks of quality, no paying user would be satisfied to spend the day inside a quarry mining stone. Those tasks were left to the NPCs.

Cecilia had created five ’follower’ NPCs, but only one of them was created with the tag ’daughter,’ Aelindra. Because of the tag and flavor text, she didn’t treat Cecilia with the sa subservience as the others.

Not that she adored Cecilia less. It was just that the behavior was more familiar than that of servitude, and that made Cecilia very happy. So she often spent ti just sightseeing around the world with Aelindra in tow.

The others also had traveled often, but it was different. While the level of the player put a ceiling on what the follower could achieve, the followers had to be leveled up normally, through doing stuff repeatedly, the sa way as the players.

But trips with Aelindra were a lot more than just about leveling up. She beca a part of Cecilia’s life.

Of course, being AI, it still had its limitations, quirks, and bugs. So Cecilia would never mistake an NPC for a real person in the ga.

She knew, for example, that there were certain trigger expressions that would elicit certain answers or behaviors. So people often posted videos of new exploits that could be unlocked by conversation with NPCs, and she was very up-to-date with them.

She never used those exploits, of course. But it was a nice reminder for her that the ga was the ga and reality was reality.

"It’s not like I know which one is which anymore..."

She had stopped at a fork on the street and looked at the building in front of her. It was a very familiar house, one that she often visited.

"And of course I would co here... I hope I can et her again, though I think it’s really improbable."

The house was a lavish three-story building with four chimneys towering over it. Those chimneys were for the slting furnaces in the basent and used to be constantly spewing fus.

Yet, at this mont, no smoke ca out from them. The garden was well tended, from what she could see through the steel bars of the gate. Which ant there were people living there.

"It’s no use asking... If Helen were back, there’s no way in hell she wouldn’t be slting sothing."

She wiped away a bit of moisture that was on her eyes, turned around, and went back in the direction she had co from.

"I need to find a way to et Aelindra. I wonder if she will recognize after all that ti. She was still a teenager back then. Five hundred years... she must be a fully grown woman by now.

If we factor in the aging rate for dark elves, she would be equivalent to a twenty-five-year-old human woman. So, even by that standard, she’s older than ."

Cecilia’s mind went off on a tangent again as her feet brought her towards Obsidian Keep.

To her surprise, there was a flux of people coming in and out of the building without being bothered by the guards. Most of them seed like civil servants, but so looked like common people.

She decided to ask one of the guards nearby.

"Good afternoon, Sir. Is it allowed for common citizens to enter?"

"Good afternoon. Yes, if you have a reason for it. The keep houses most of the ministries, so people just enter. I take it you aren’t from Drakestadt?"

((Again with assuming I’m not from here... Well, I asked questions a clueless tourist would, after all. And it’s not like I can just say that I ’ti traveled.’))

She didn’t use the technique again, as the atmosphere here was relaxed and she saw no need to force things through just to get tourist-level information.

"Yeah, I arrived today at the capital. Hm... Is it too difficult to arrange an audience with Queen Aelindra?"

"It depends on your motive for it. It’s easy to apply for an audience, but it doesn’t an you’ll get it right away, unless you are soone important or the matter you bring is very important."

"I see, and where do I go to apply for it?"

"Right at the first hall, on the left wall, there is a door. ’Royal Audiences’ is written above it, so there’s no missing it. But it might be better to go through the foreign ministry first if it’s sothing concerning international trade."

"Oh, no, no. It’s sothing that only Aelindra herself can solve. Thank you very much."

((The guards in this city are a very decent folk, huh? It’s a far cry from how things were in the ’real’ world. Well, at least from what I read in the news and heard from other people.))

The Obsidian Keep was in the middle of the lake, and the only way to reach it was by walking one of the eight bridges that connected it to the shores.

After crossing the bridge, she arrived at the main gate. There was a decent amount of movent there, but not enough to call it crowded.

Passing the gate, the first hall was exactly like she rembered. Well, almost. So of the tapestries Martin hung on the walls were still there, but the center had a statue that wasn’t there in the ga.

It was a statue of Martin, in a royal pose, complete with a crown on his head and a scepter in his hand.

She looked around and quickly found the door the guard talked about.

((Well, my daughter seems like a very approachable ruler. I like that. To think that there would be a booth for applying for an audience that was accessible to any citizen...))

She took a deep breath and entered it.

The room was very similar to any office room on Earth. Two tired clerks were writing so docunts, each at one desk, with two chairs in front of each desk. Behind them, several archives were neatly organized.

"Good afternoon. How can I be of assistance?"

The clerk who talked to her was a high elf woman who looked like the perfect definition of an office worker. She wore glasses and seed to be a bit on the older side - which, for a high elf, would an that she was already an adult in her pri five centuries ago.

"Oh, good afternoon. I wanted to request an audience with Queen Aelindra."

The woman smiled and gestured for the empty seats in front of her. Cecilia sat down, and the woman took a form and started writing down.

"Your na and reason for the request."

Aelindra took a ring from her inventory, which was an exclusive reward from the last event she participated in. The effect of the ring was purely costic and not that interesting, but there was only one in Hyperborea, and Aelindra was familiar with it.

She put the ring on the table, looking at the woman behind the desk.

"If you just show this to her, she will know."