A Background Character’s Path to Power

"W-Woah!"

I gasped out loud as I read the achievement. It had not one, not two, but three effects. But... What’s wrong with its name?

Merchant Queen’s Heart?

...Is that really what I think it is?

Does she... like me? Or is it just in a trust and deep platonic admiration kind of way?

My mind raced, trying to reconcile the implications.

Besides, wasn’t it a bit too soon for something like that? I mean to fall in love?

I acknowledge that my understanding of love and relationships comes mainly from numerous stories, fragmented memories, and observing my friends’ lives.

And I myself was a complete newbie, a blank slate when it came to having any real experience. Yeah, I was that kind of guy who would advise everyone while not having a clue about his own life.

But I wasn’t dense. Not about my own feelings or the others’. Or so I thought.

And it might be true that we might have developed feelings a little, maybe even a crush, but... this seemed to escalate things rather quickly.

Did it even really constitute love? Or was it just the intensity of what we’d shared creating an illusion of deeper feelings?