The gla.s.s rings with sweet power,
It darkens, clearsː it must have beingǃ
In a delicate form I see appear
A well-behaved little Man behaving.
What can the world ask more, what can we?
Now that this mystery"s visible to each.
Give ear to what this sounds may be,
They make a voiceː they"re forming speech.
-『Faust』 by Albert G.Latham-
The moon quickly darkened as if it was being wrapped by the shadow.
He took a step back in reflex.
A step back. One, two---
As he took his third step, the shadowy figure descended along with a roar.
An Attack.
Although he managed to keep his balance, the earth shook as the mysterious figure landed on the ground, forcing him to retreat even further.
He clicked his tongue in disappointment at himself and turned his gaze towards the opponent in front of him.
----With help from the faint light of the moon, the great bird that was five meters away looked down on crawling prey. Something on the centerpiece of its head was shining vigorously as it watched over from above, it was an eyeball.
It looked grotesque.
If you ignored the size of its eyeball it would be just like a normal bird, and down from its wrist was coated by an armor-like sh.e.l.l. With that, any attack that was aimed at its legs would most likely be repelled.
『The Sky Debris Megalon Evis』
It was tonight"s target.
If you walked in small numbers in the eastern gra.s.sland, it would come and attack--- Up until there, everything has gone according to the information they got.
The boy gasped nervously and unsheathed his sword, 《Scramasax》[1].
Then just as planned---
“Wait, will it be okay!?”
Just as he was about to take a step forward, a voice called over to him. It belonged to his comrade who was hiding within the nearby bushes.
The avoidance from earlier was indeed a close one. It was gratifying that she was worried, but…
“Idiot! Don’t be so loud!”
There was no other choice but to shout back. Sure enough, the great bird had already reacted to the voice of his comrade and kicked the ground.
Although it didn"t fly, it jumped as if it was flying.
Swiftly.
Big, at any rate it was indeed big.
With power appropriate to its big size, it cut off dozens of meters in an instant and came close to its new-found target.
“Uhyaaa!?”
Along with a restless scream, the girl hurriedly jumped out from the bushes.
As if embracing her fluttering blonde hair, she rolled and fell onto the ground.
Aiming at the girl, the great bird swung up its claw.
Although the girl managed to stand up, she had completely lost her chance to escape. In that moment, the claw reflected a sparkling image of her quivering pupils,
The girl was. .h.i.t and blown by the impact and once again tumbled onto the gra.s.s.
The boy who was armed with a sword managed to follow up in time. However, by doing so he was exposed to the claw of the great bird. The boy who charged in to save his comrade should have had no way to escape.
With the rough noise of the wind being sliced, the pole-like claw swung down. The girl couldn"t help but to shut her eyes.
From the looks of it, the boy who was wearing light armor shouldn"t have been able to handle the attack from the giant bird and would have been expelled from this world.
---But even when the impact hit the ground, the boy’s presence (Marker) did not disappear.
When the girl timidly opened her eyes, the boy had managed to retreat creating 5 to 6 meters in an instant. It was truly an unbelievable feat.
Unsurprisingly, the boy raised a sharp cry.
“Get down!”
The great bird’s feet were blown with a flash.
From its large sound, bugs that were resting upon its wings flew off in unison.
As the boy avoided its claw, he detonated the bombs he had prepared earlier.
The staggered bird then spread its wing. If hit by a large-type weapon it would spread it wings― everything was according to the information they got.
In an instant, a rain of arrows started showering towards its wing. Without the need to confirm, it was from the comrades who were hiding within the forest.
As the damage acc.u.mulated, the great bird lowered its back. Furthermore, the damage on its wings would temporarily disable its flying ability.
“I’m counting on you.”
“Y-yes!”
Led by the boy’s voice, the girl from before stabilized her breathing and closed her eyes in a hurry. Then quietly, the sound of a voice soaked through the night along with the wind. It was a cursed song to negate the giant bird-type monster’s 《Voice Curse》. Megalon Evis’s Death Throes Scream was an AOE attack that would cause instant death.
The wild singing voice lightly echoed through the hunter’s meadow. The girl’s hair shone faintly and she timidly opened her eyes to check whatever the song came into effect or not.
The boy’s body emitted light as he approached the enemy that was now lying on the ground. The drawn sword was then swung under the moonlight.
“---Got you!!”
The great bird’s eye was taken down in one swing.
CRITICAL HIT!!
The blood sprayed up into the air like the trace of a sonorous singing voice. The shreds of blood then formed a few clear words above the air and the moon changed color to crimson red as if it was stained by it.
Prologue『Cradle to the Glaive』, otherwise commonly known as 『CtG』, was in general a very realistic online role playing game. Set in a virtual world that was played by a large number of players.
The place where the boy and his comrades fought the great bird Megalon Evis was called the“Dragons’ Glaive”. It was one of 10 world spheres that consisted within 『CtG』, and as a RPG, 『CtG』 was a very standard “World of Magic and Sword”.
The moon in Dragon’s Glaive changes color each night.
The moon that day was blue. If one looked at the vast gra.s.sland they could see an eye-catching sight of transparent b.u.t.terflies casually flying by. And in midst of such peacefulness...
“Are you a dung beetle?"
It was when the boy had sat down on a big rock and opened up the menu screen that he got called that. The game menu that was displayed on the air hardly had any differences when compared from traditional role playing games.
The boy then closed the menu by switching his gaze. There was no need to search for the owner of the voice. The face of a girl appeared in front of him. It was the girl who got blown off from earlier. The girl then kneeled down to look at the boy"s face.
The boy was unconsciously(been)taken aback and was. .h.i.t by the rock beside his head. Even though the pain was reduced while in game, the shock from it had shaken his vision ― and within this vision, the girl appeared to be laughing.
They were discussing about the distribution of the quest reward from before, and what made it surprising was that the girl turned out to be quite pretty. She was like some kind of idol wearing a stage costume, and so fluffy dresses seemed to suit her well.
Even though she fell on the ground twice, her clothes hardly had any traces of soil or dirt on it. Ultimately(,)because this was contained within a game, what was in front of them was just an illusion perceived through electronic signals shown to the brain.
But that was not important right now.
The boy then stood up, cleared his throat and asked the girl.
“Do I look like a bug to you?”
“But doesn’t your second name tag say 《Clamp of Scarabaeus》 on it?”
The boy then switched to expansion mode to look at it. Indeed, there was a string attached to a floating placard saying 《Clamp of Scarabaeus》 around his shoulder. It was a yellow tag that was attached by other players. The boy—Clamp, let out a small sigh.
“Please don’t give it any attention. It was just a thing those people gave me without permission….it’s something like a nickname.”
He was referring to those people that had given them a.s.sistance through bows and arrows from before. 【Labyrinth Troupe】 is a small but long-established guild. Clamp was not a member but he often went together with them to finish quests. The girl in front of him seemed to be a guest too, just like him, but it was the first time he had ever met her.
“Is that so?” replied the girl.
“When I look up the dictionary service, a scarab turned out to be a kind of dung beetle. Quite a weird nickname, I say.
Aaa, do you know? There’s no dung beetle in j.a.pan. Surprising, isn’t it?. It’s a famous insect. I’d have expected it to be somewhere in place such as nearby park.”
And naturally the conversation continued. But it was too fast-paced and really abrupt. Clamp was someone who was bad with conversations and couldn’t help but to be confused in this situation, however it did not leave a bad impression on the girl.
“Hmm…. I see.”
“Ah, you don’t have to be polite. It doesn’t seem we are that far off in terms of age.”
Just like what the girl had said, Clamp and the girl did not seem to have that wide a gap in age.
That meant that the ages of both players were close to each other.
In 『CtG』, players control their in-game avatar through their brain’s nerves system. Therefore, the player’s gender, physique, and physical age couldn’t be that far from their real self, otherwise they wouldn’t able to operate it.
Of course, there were cases of kids making themselves look grown up or adults intentionally making themselves look young… Well, such news were spreading through the internet, and Clamp could only nod and sigh.
The girl’s smile in response was charming to say the least, and went without saying that it was truly powerful and bore its own weight. There’s no sane man who would go against that smile.
“My name is Mifa. Thank you for saving me earlier. I forgot to say thanks so I came here. I’ve only played 『CtG』 for a month, so I’m still a beginner. I hope we get well together, Scarabaeus-kun”
“My name is Mifa. Thank you for saving me earlier. I forgot to say thanks so I came here. I’ve only played 『CtG』 for a month, so I’m still a beginner. I hope we get well together, Scarabaeus-kun”
Along with a powerful smile, the girl, Mifa held out her hand.
Clamp somehow felt defeated. He couldn’t win. That’s why(,) rather than shaking her hand as he should have, he took her hand as if giving up.
“Aaa, my regards Mifa. But that name is a bit…”
In that moment, above their connected hands, a pair of arcs appeared.
The semi-circular arcs of light didn’t feel realistic at all. Both were flashing a red and blue color, resembling b.u.t.terflies playing with each other.
“……What is this?”
Muttered Mifa absentmindedly. Clamp was a little bit more composed. Or maybe he was just simply too surprised to react properly.
“This is an event…”
He had heard about this before. This was a special event that only occurred when certain conditions were met between two players. When semicircular arcs of red and blue lights are displayed it means ―
“This is the signal for 『《Marriage》 Available』!!”
“Haaa…?” Shouted Mifa loudly.
“What the heck is that? We’ve only met today right?”
“I don’t know… but the requirements for this event is for 『Both players’ personality, apt.i.tude, behavior logs to perfectly fit with each other and their compatibility level has to be at its maximum』… That’s what was written on the official guide. It can only occur when the personality data of both are perfectly matched, and since the compatibility data"s are completely unknown, there are only very few pairs who have received this event. They number less than two digits within over one hundred fifty ten thousand players in this game.
This is truly THE ULTRA RARE! A mystical event!”
“Y-you sure know a lot…”
Noticing that Mifa pulled back after hearing his overly pa.s.sionate talk, Clamp quickly averted his eyes.
“….Well, there’s a reason for it actually. Because I’ve decided to 『Experience every Event』 in this game as a goal.”
Hearing that, Mifa’s eyes widened.
“To experience everything… are you serious? But I"ve heard that there are over 3000 events in the 10 spheres? And they are steadily increasing.”
“I don’t mind if it’s increasing. However, though I understand that it will be difficult, no matter how much time it will take, this year I’ll clear every released event… I must do it, or it’ll be no good.”
“Hmm…”
While being illuminated by red and blue lights, Mifa let out her voice as if being impressed. And while reflecting the lights, she directed her gaze at Clamp.
“Best compatibility…. huh.”
After rubbing her dazzling small lips with her finger, she said,
“Then… should we try it out?”
It was so sudden that Clamp blinked in panic.
“《Marriage》, I meant! If we let this go now, I wonder when it would appear again?”
“But… is it okay with such light feelings…”
“But, well…”
Mifa, who was unsure what to say, suddenly burst out laughing lightheartedly.
“This is just inside a game after all.”
If you think about it, it was exactly like she said.
After that, both of them checked the online manual just in case 《Marriage》 had some kind of demerit, but from what they had read(,) there was none.
Both of them closed their online manual screen and stared at each other.
“W-well then… let’s… do it”
Clamp proposed quite frivolously .
“Yeah, since we have gone this far.”
Replied Mifa plainly as they proceeded.
Both of them then held hands below the flying arcs of light. As they did that, the arcs stopped moving and slowly descended while approaching their hands, forming a circle. Then, it started circling both of their hands.
*CLING*
It made a metallic sound as if turning a lock.
And so, their wedding was completed as simply as heating up a cup of ramen.
―Just a few seconds after the 《Marriage》, the boy returned from the illusionary gra.s.sland to reality.
And soon after that, “Emm… Then, dismiss?” said both of them fuzzily as a form of farewell and logged out from the game. It was not like some kind of chain event(s), and tomorrow both of them would head to their own schools and lead their ordinary lives.
They were barely conscious about their wedding in a virtual world event, and it just pa.s.sed as if nothing happened. It was truly an unfulfilling experience.
Immediately after logging out, he felt an uncomfortable sensation as if his body and mind was out of sync.
『CtG』 worked very similarly to real life and the operational mechanism barely had any differences (to it) . When controlling the body with low precision, it would feel very unreliable and naturally hard to control.
Kasugai Yuu, who was still trying to shake off the sensation of being “Clamp”, took off the transparent visor on his head. That visor was called the Râmîêl[2] and was the exclusive wearable gear for 『CtG』 used to dive into the game.
What was seen after taking off the Ramiel was a dark living room. No one was there. It was completely dark, and only the traces of faint lights could be seen throughout the house.
In the middle of the room was a needlessly big sofa. That was his recent comfortable spot. He used this TV watching-exclusive spot to connect to 『CtG』, and it was the most comfortable place to wake up on.
Within the faint darkness, *tick* *tock*. The sound of an a.n.a.log clock that hung on the wall filled the quietness of the room. Yuu looked at the clock, and both of its needles pointed at 12. Those needles might have been the only animated object in the room…
―And suddenly he felt a chill run down his spine.
Along with that sensation, he could feel the movement of his own blood pulse. As if some kind of otherworldly being had returned to this world.
“….I’m alive”
He unconsciously talked to himself as he reached out his hand to grab the mineral water on the table. Then a smile from a photo displayed on a frame on the table caught his eyes. As if being taken over, Yuu opened his mouth and said―
“Mom…. I married (with) someone in a game”
Kasugai Yuu, he is a boy who turned sixteen today. It has been half a year since his mother pa.s.sed away. And from that day on, he had been living all alone in this large house―
At…
least…
supposed…
to…
“DAAaaaaaaaaddy~~~”
*BAM*
Alongside a ruthless cry, Kasugai Yuu got pushed onto his “special seat” above the sofa by a little kid who jumped at him like a cannonball.
“Welcome home!!”
That kid was a girl. Her appearance was that of a little girl at the age of eight years old. She was very adorable and cute.
Her dazzling smile was so bright that it could illuminate the entire living room.
“Oi….”
Yuu suddenly let out a strict voice towards the girl, but that was not because he got hurt from what she did.
“It’s not good you know. Look, you’re drenching wet.”
The girl’s body was dripping hot water and she must have taken a bath after being drenched by the heavy rain outside.
Her long hair that was usually soft and fluffy was now sticking on her shoulder and back.
Yuu held both of the girl"s hands and pulled her to stand in front of the sofa.
After clearing his throat, he looked straight into the girl’s eyes.
“Remember to wipe yourself immediately after coming out of the bath. Even though it’s summer, you will catch a cold like that.”
“Eeeee―....?”
The girl who came out from the dressing room, only wearing a piece of panties showed no effort of covering herself at all.
“But, but, if I wipe myself, Rasupu-chan will begin!”
How will you take responsibility for making me miss it? Said the girl through her eyes, and in response, Yuu looked at the clock hanging on the wall. It was almost seven p.m. That was the time for the anime 『Revive! Mystical Priest Girl Rasupu-chan 5』 that was popular amongst girls.
“But you can watch it anytime, right?”
TV shows these days could be recorded immediately after the broadcast, so it could be viewed anytime.
But the girl only puffed her cheeks upon hearing that.
“No! It must be watched at the right time!”
“But there will be CM[3] running midway.”
“But I won’t able to cheer if I don’t watch it at the right time―!”
“O-Oh, is... that so.”
Somehow within her head watching at the broadcast time = live air. Breaking a child’s innocence was not an option so he could only give up. It was then that a voice coming from the bathroom could be heard.
“I’ll wipe her up, please bring the towel here.”
“No, no way! What are you saying!?”
What came turned out to be a panicked voice then followed by the sound of hurried footsteps.
“I’ll wipe her! Kasugai-kun, can just stay still there.”
“Well if so then I will leave it to…. YOU!?”
The one who appeared was―― a girl with an amazing look holding a towel, coming out from the bathroom.
Even though she was a girl, she was definitely not a little girl, absolutely not.
“Aaa… look, the carpet is all wet…”
Just like Yuu, she was sixteen years old. A pale steam from the bath could be seen above her semi-long hair as she wiped it with a towel. She was dressed very lightly with a simple shirt and knee-length pants. The girl then went on both knees and gently brushed the little girl’s hair.
That was not important, really. She appeared to be in a hurry and had forgotten to wipe herself properly, and as a result her shirt was sticking to her body and her skin was visible.
From where Yuu was, he could only see her back, but the nape of her neck and her shoulder let out a nice fragrance. As a boy of his age, seeing that wonderful sight was a pleasant experience. If he bent his body a little he might be able to see more of it.
“There, raise your hand and do a banzai. Say banzai!”
“Uuu, I won’t be able to watch Rasupu-chan”
And while they were doing that― by the time they knew it, the anime opening theme song (1 minute 30 seconds) had nearly ended― and Yuu only noticed that after he finished watching the scene of a girl wiping the body of a little girl.
After collecting himself, Yuu opened his mouth.
“W-Well, Kugimiya-san…”
“Nn? What is it?”
The girl― Kugimiya Miharu replied without averting her attention from wiping the body of the child.
Even though he was haunted with bad feeling, he had no choice but to say it.
“Kugimiya-san too… I mean… I suggest you to wipe yourself too, I think…”
“Ee?”
*Cliiiink*…. somehow the sound of Miharu’s neck turning can be heard.
While staying where she was, Miharu looked down at her awkward appearance, then turned around. Her face remained expressionless but she was clearly trembling.
“Why… are you still here?”
Didn’t you tell me to stay still? Was the answer that floated above his head.
While desperately averting his eyes, he replied with fast tongue.
“I get it, but Kugimiya-san, you should hurry up and take off your clothes or you will get cold. You came here in that outfit in a hurry right? I won’t think of anything that would break your heart or violate your body, but I cannot avoid this situation, as I’m trying to explain this is, you know.... An accident.”
Without any warning, Miharu took the towel on her hand and *Slam* wrapped Yuu’s head with it to cover up his vision. The wet towel did not cause much pain though.
“If it’s an accident then please don’t look even further. Go out!”
Although it was clearly an unreasonable request, when he peeked through the towel, he saw Miharu’s eyes trembling as it let out tears. There was no way he could protest against that.
Okay okay... He said while leaving the living room after accepting the compromise.
“Wait.”
But he was stopped by Miharu.
When he fearfully turned around, the settled voice appeared to be coming out from the head that was hiding behind the sofa.
“Well, Kasugai-kun. That was, I mean…. I was wrong. I’m sorry. Let’s be careful and don’t repeat it again”
And then while watching their “daughter” whose eyes were glued to the TV screen, she continued.
“I’m her mother and Kasugai-kun is her father. But, you and I are…. not like that, not at all”
“……I know.”
They had been repeating this conversation over and over, he knew that.
He understood, but...
The current situation they were in was hard to explain, what Miharu wanted to say was that it lied in the nature of the problem.
While deeply thinking about that, Yuu finally left the living room to the hallway.
It was just a week ago that this place was still filled with nothing but darkness. But now,
“Eh? Mom, where is dad? Let’s watch this with all of us together”
“We will call him after I have calmed down.”
From the living room he had just left, the voice of a mother and her daughter can be heard.
They were probably the strangest pair of mother and daughter in the world. That girl is definitely her daughter. But that mother... is pretty much a stranger.
That’s right.
Everything began from the night of that spring. Two months ago, ever since his unbelievably reckless 《Marriage》 with Mifa in 『Cradle to the Glaive』…
“My life… became bugged.