Elden Ring: Atai vows to have a perfect ending

“…Hmm? Um. Oh—”

After I handed the pure golden needle to the sage Gwei at the gate of Selia Town, the old guy held the golden needle tremblingly, leaned on the chair, and excitedly made a 45-degree angle with the wall of the dilapidated house, making people think he was Michael Jackson.

His voice was trembling with emotion, and I was afraid that his next sentence would be "Sparasi!" (Superb!).

"This, this is so wonderful, so wonderful! Such exquisiteness, such ingenuity! Just like our life, delicate and fearless! It is worthy of being made by the master craftsman of the Pure Land! It is really eye-opening!" Gewei praised it as if no one else was around.

Our white and black special forces team looked at each other with embarrassment written all over their faces.

"Well, that... Mr. Gwei?" I interrupted him carefully. "This golden needle has been broken into two pieces. You should be able to repair it, right?"

"Hmm? Oh, of course, of course!" Gwei came back to his senses. "After all, no matter how good a needle is, it will be useless if it is broken into two pieces... Pollyanna, she didn't cause any trouble, did she?"

Pollyanna quickly glared at me.

After all, everyone could hear what Gwei meant: she couldn't have broken the needle.

"Hahaha." I laughed dryly a few times, deliberately not asking directly, "Why would the sage ask that?"

"Alas, my youngest daughter is very competitive by nature. She often causes trouble for me, so I am very worried about her." Old Gwei shook his head with a wry smile.

"It did cause me a lot of trouble, ah!" Before I could finish my words, Pollyanna stamped her foot hard, so I had to quickly change my words, "No, but the golden needle was not caused by her. It was broken into two pieces when I got it from O'Neill."

"I see." Old Gwei nodded, stood up and said, "Then please wait for a moment. I will go and repair the golden needle. After that, I will trouble you to go to the back mountain of Ceria... There is a church there. My lovely daughter, Millicent, is suffering from the 'corruption disease' there. Please be sure to give her the golden needle to help suppress the disease."

“······In that case, why don’t you bring her back yourself and take good care of your health?” As expected of Brother Wolf, he saw the clue at once.

Gwei sighed again: "My daughter has been suffering from illness for a long time, and even her memory has become confused and she doesn't remember this family... Those hateful and ignorant bad guys! But they treat her suffering as God's grace and treat her as a favor! They are self-righteous and attentive, and don't let others get close to them... I, I am really powerless."

My eyelids trembled.

——Lao Deng is quite good at pretending. If I hadn’t been waiting for you to repair the golden needle, I would have been ready to chop you down long ago.

But when Ishutopia heard this, he was immediately filled with righteous indignation: "Old Sage, don't worry! We will definitely bring the golden needle to your daughter, and we will also let her come back here safely!"

"Then I would like to thank you all in advance." Gwei bowed and walked towards another shabby house next door.

I saw Pollyanna also walking out of the house silently, but she didn't follow Gwei, so I walked up to her curiously.

Pollyanna walked straight towards the corrupt bully dog ​​guarding outside the dilapidated house. The beast naturally sensed my approach and immediately turned its head, baring its teeth and showing a ferocious look: "Woo——"

"Hahaha, good dog, bite him!" After Pollyanna glanced at me, she gave orders to the bully dog ​​with a wicked smile.

I quickly pulled out my hound's tusk, set up my brass shield, and got ready before asking, "Are you serious?"

"Hmph, I'm just trying to scare you. Be a good dog and don't fight with a weak and useless guy who can only talk nonsense." Pollyanna touched the neck of the bully dog ​​and actually calmed her down.

I tried to strike up a conversation and asked, "Where are your sisters?"

"As usual, the eldest sister should be out patrolling nearby. The second sister follows her around every day and does everything she says. As for the third sister, I guess she hid in the room where we rested as soon as she came back." Pollyanna responded directly without any concern, "Why are you asking these questions?"

"I didn't do anything, I just felt curious." I told the truth.

"Curious? What's there to be curious about?"

"... For example, your birth, and Millicent, who was called 'the lovely daughter' by the sage, is she your sister?"

As soon as I said the word "Millicent," Pollyanna gave me a nasty look.

"What...what happened? Isn't it?"

"Don't mention her to me! That girl is simply a monster."

"Hmm?" I raised my eyebrows slightly. Could it be that there was some kind of rift between Millicent and the four sisters?

——······Then, if I can find a way to resolve this rift, can I also avoid their future fights?

With this in mind, I carefully asked, "Monster? Did her corruption disease... hurt your eyes?"

"Huh? Just her? She wants to hurt me?" Pollyanna couldn't help but sneer and responded to me with a series of three taunts. "Since she came, that guy has been half dead. How can she hurt me at all?"

"If that's the case, then what's so good about monsters?" I added fuel to the fire. "Aren't so-called monsters the objects you are afraid of? You are so powerful, why are you afraid of someone who can't hurt you?"

Pollyanna puffed up her cheeks slightly, looking like someone who wanted to say something but was too angry to do so.

"What, was I wrong? I thought you were only afraid of your elder sister." I added fuel to the fire, "Well~ Never mind, having someone to be afraid of is not a big deal, I am also afraid of many things, such as..."

"Wrong! Totally wrong! Absolutely wrong!" She was furious. "I'm not afraid of her at all! I, I... Isn't it that she is too cunning?"

"cunning?"

"That's right!" Pollyanna couldn't help but complain, "We are also daddy's daughters, why is it that Millicent is always favored by daddy! Daddy loves her so much! Every move she makes has tied daddy's heart to her! I am obviously the most powerful one! Why do people favor that useless Millicent?!"

"Big, everyone?"

"That's right!" Pollyanna glared at him again. "Didn't you? You risked your life to run into the poison pool, just to help Millicent get the pure gold needle?"

“······” It seems impossible to deny it.

"See, it's true!"

"That's because she suffers from a corruption disease. If she's not suppressed with the golden needles, she might die."

"Then I also have corruption disease, why don't you care about me?" Pollyanna took off her blindfold angrily.

Her obscured eye was completely covered by crimson scales like butterfly wings. Just like Marlennia, she was enduring the erosion of scarlet corruption.

I couldn't help but be stunned.

...Perhaps Pollyanna herself became shy, so she turned her head away and tied her eyes again.

"What...when did it happen? Does it still hurt?" I asked subconsciously.

"I've gotten used to it. My eldest and third sisters are in worse condition than me." Pollyanna raised her head and looked towards the center of Ionia. "... Perhaps, in your eyes, we sisters are also monsters. Born in that scarlet swamp, we have an innate corruption disease that makes most people afraid to approach us. Even the wild dogs and crows on this land give way to us... In my memory, only my father was so happy that he seemed to cry when he saw us. It's really funny."

"...but I don't know since when, Dad always stared blankly at the swamp, and at the most beautiful Ionian flower on the top of the maze. Until...until the day he brought back Millicent, I knew that the love that originally belonged to me would be taken away." Pollyanna closed her eyes and sighed helplessly with the corner of her mouth.

I don't quite know how to start a conversation.

——Just like in a family with many children, parents will always unconsciously spoil the youngest one.

——And old man Gwei must have given up on the others because the corrupt power contained in Pollyanna and others was far inferior to that of Millicent. In order to summon the scarlet goddess of corruption and make Ionia, which was as beautiful as death, bloom again, he could only choose Millicent.

——Pollyanna, being a girl who always wanted to be competitive in everything, would naturally transfer this disgust to Millicent.

“Well…” I swallowed, and when Pollyanna looked at me, I said, “Actually, I was also very happy when I saw you… Although at that time, I might have been happier because I was saved…”

"Humph." Pollyanna couldn't help laughing, "What are you talking about? Is this considered comfort?"

I scratched my head in embarrassment, trying to think of another way to put it.

But at this moment, Ishutopia called me: "Brother Zero."

——They seemed to have something important to discuss with me.

I turned around and glanced at Pollyanna.

Instead, she gave me a light kick on the butt: "I don't need your comfort, get away from me!"

"...By the way, your combat skills 'Broken Steps' and 'Worm Silk' Prayer are quite powerful." I turned around and asked, "I also have a monster to challenge, so can you teach me?"

——After all, it is better to learn skills from Pollyanna than from Lao Deng. Maybe I can get more contact with her.

"······Do you think you can learn it?" Pollyanna laughed.

“You won’t know until you try.”

"Go find your accomplice quickly. I have the final say on whether I want to teach you or not!"

——Isn’t it you who has the final say?

I sighed, turned around and ran towards Ishtopia and the others.