Chapter 8: Not Good, the Friendlist is Empty.◇Offline◇
After the surprise announcement of Mashu, everyone decided to hold the second offline meeting. And that day had come.
In the beginning, I thought the location was the previous one at Ikebukuro……but I was wrong. For some reasons, my house located nearest to the train station. Because of that, everyone decided that "it"s best if everyone just come to the location of Knight-sama!". Why does it turn out like this?
Inside of the train station, it was a place that had a mixture theme of city and tradition.
"Hmm, so this is the town that Knight-sama is living? It"s nearer than I thought."
Hime looked at the scenery around. She was wearing a white one-piece skirt and a big sun hat, totally looked like a highcla.s.s lady arriving at a resort! That was my thought. While still looking around, she said:
"Then, where is your house, Knight-sama?"
"Why are you suddenly asking that!?"
"To come, why else?"
"No thanks!"
"Why?"
『Because he is afraid of you discover stuffs that would bring him troubles.』
Wearing the Gorochu outfit, Shizuku raised her board.
"What are those stuffs?"
『p.o.r.n DVD』
"What…!?"
Hime placed two hands on her blushed cheeks.
"What the heck are you saying!? There"s no way that would happen! No way!"
"Ricotta knows where is the hiding place nya~"
"W……what!?"
Wearing a short skirt, Ricotta said happily while swaying around.
"Because Ricotta is the person who are living with Knigh-sama nya."
"T-then you really are…… now that you remind me, today she shows up along with you?"
Hime shook.
"I told you that is not it! It is because Ricotta is my sister."
After my reply, Hime looked at me with eyes as if she had just discovered a rotting bloated corpse.
"Are you……forcing her calling yourself onii-chan?"
"Uh no……but that is the normal way of calling."
"Anyway……because you see her is cute so you force her to become your sister against her will……"
"Please stop misunderstand me!? She is really my sister!"
"What to do……even though I am the same age as Knight-sama but……I-I also wanted to form some kind of relation such as twin sister……"
Hime was muttering some weird things.
"I-if so, I-I also want to become a sister~"
Wearing a short sleeves shirt, Mashu said.
"Wait a bit!? Mashu, what did you just say!?"
『Onii-chan!』
"Stop!"
Because suddenly appeared three younger sisters so the real younger sister looked like she could not pretend to ignore this.
"This matter is so funny nya……then Ricotta will change from step-sister to real sister at this moment nya."
No, you are my real younger sister from the beginning!
"Then there are four younger sisters~"
When Mashu said so, Hime immediately pointed her finger at Ricotta.
"If so then I am the oldest sister. Hey, you younger sister. Hurry up and show me the direction to Knight-sama"s house, ah no, onii-chan!"
"Understood nya! This way nya!"
For some reason, Ricotta docilely obeyed and began to head home. Other members followed behind in a line.
"Eh, wait a bit!"
Despite me calling, they refused to stop. Furthermore, they walked even faster.
Tsk, it was not that I had a problem with them coming to my house. It was just that there were some problems regarding the road that led there. In order to go to my house, you needed to pa.s.s by the shopping street. But the coffee shop that I worked part time at was located there. Even though I was on an excused break but if Master caught me hanging out with four girls then I would not know how to face her the next time I meet her. I just wanted to avoid that. Because she was a person who liked gossiping.
And so, the group was about to arrive at the troublesome coffee shop. Only ten meters from "RPG Coffee". I hurriedly looked around to see if there was anything that would catch their attentions.
However, the shopping street here looked pretty old. There was nothing that would attract the attention of a young girl. In view were only simple stores. From old books to old DVD, toys, and game that were placed on display but the store looked like those were left-over from the previous century. In front of the store, there was a shelf. On it were old video game cartridges that were on sale. Maybe I can find some surprises mixed in this such as--………………………this!
With eyes shining, I picked up a cartridge from the shelf.
"A-- isn"t this the masterpiece Dragon Quest III? Although I has not finished playing the remake version but when I found "that item", it is as if I am on fire~(mechanic voice)."
"Hmm? What"s wrong, onii-chan?"
"What"s so moe, onii-chan?"
"Is there something nya, onii-chan?"
『I just heard onii-chan said something moe.』
(TN: Keita mentioned moe (燃え), as in when a character is on fire (motivated), but everyone else thought he was saying moe(萌え), meaning cute.)
"N-no…… let"s see, it was just saying that when I found "dangerous bikini", I was as if on fire……but hey, there is nothing wrong, let"s stop talking about it……there"s no benefit to it."
(TN: dangerous bikini – Abunai mizugi (あぶない水着))
"Well it seems pretty interesting but if Knight-sama said so then let"s stop~"
Mashu said so unwillingly. Immediately after, Ricotta spoke up:
"Knight-sama thinks "dangerous bikini" is moe nya~"
"Eh? Ah…uh…m-maybe."
When I saw that this maybe fit to distract their attentions, I muddleheaded replied. Bur for some reasons I discovered the girls muttering something such as "bikini…", "bikini ah…" with a dignified expression.
Taking advantage of this, I must prepare for the second match. Because this matter cannot be dragged on for long. At that time, my eyes looked toward the direction of a multi-tenant building opposite with the electronic store. When I looked at the upper floors, I discovered a karaoke signboard.
"Hey, why don"t we go to a karaoke?"
When I suggested so then,
"Why suddenly want to go to a karaoke?"
Hime asked. Well that also makes sense. There are not many people go karaoke during the day like that. Normally so. During the day people would go play like crazy, not enough, they would keep going at night. But then beside karaoke, where else can we go? When I suddenly realized it, I thought this way was not good. But,
"Maa, if Knight-sama wanted to then I have no reason to refuse?"
"I also agreed~"
"Ricotta will sing "this" song, "that" song, and "that" other song nya~"
"Then, it is decided!"
Surprisingly I succeeded. I pushed the b.u.t.ton to call down the elevator.
After a while, the elevator arrived. When everyone stepped in the elevator, I discovered Shizuku looked a little weird. Standing before the door, she had her head down. Because of her hood, I could not see her expression but it reflected some sort of depressing mood.
"What"s wrong? Are you feeling sick?"
I asked worriedly. Then,
『That place has too much miasma.』
An answer like usual.
"Hai hai."
When she received an answer, she immediately stepped into the elevator.
X X X
We arrived at the right floor. There was the karaoke store that I had decided on. There were singing voices emitted from every room, sounded like the store was still busy even during this time. We came to an empty room with a size appropriated for five people. When stepped inside, Hime began to say "this place cannot be said to be too clean". While saying so, she had preset ten songs, as if this was some sort of Live Show for her.
"Beat and ba.s.s is still not enough."
I reminded when the song was starring.
"But hey, while are there all songs from seiyuu idol?"
"What"s about it, you have a problem?"
"Ah no, I am not a fan of the seiyuus who sing the anime theme song so I don"t know all of the original songs."
"But doesn"t you know all of the original of these songs?"
"Ah no, I……"
These songs……all of them are from my favorite seiyuuuuu! But hey, did she pick those songs because she knew I am a fan!? By the way, every seiyuu is treated as 2D citizen.
"Do you know my hobby?"
"Hah!? W-what are you saying? How can that have happened! No way that would happen."
"Uh right, that"s right. How can you have known?"
"R-right! Then, doesn"t my voice must cuter than the person who sang this song?"
I wish I don"t have to say it! I wish I don"t have to say it! Because this was an important matter so I had repeated it twice.
"Hai hai, cute, very cute."
I emotionlessly replied.
"B-baka! D-don"t say it like it is natural!"
Suddenly Hime"s motivation dissipated everywhere. Finally, she put down the microphone on the sofa. Afterward,
"Then, it"s my turn to sing~♪"
When all of the remaining songs got canceled. Mashu stood up while humming.
Picking up the microphone, she began to sing. The first song was the opening of Gungam SEEP, next was Gungan SEEP Destroy, afterward was Gungam QQ and Gungam Medley, then Home Tutor Typeman Hebborn, Namaridama, Prince of Dodgeball Musical Edition; all were shounen series. One fujoshi remix. Although I was suspicious when I saw she bought a bunch of BL books but I couldn"t believe she turned out to be the real thing.
(TN: guess the references :v )
"Haa haa……Singing all of these makes my head a little crazy~"
Although I thought "dizzy" was a more appropriate word but whatever. Because her head was crazy, Mashu put down the microphone.
"Ok nya, Ricotta will sing next nya."
Waited all this time, Ricotta stood up while saying so.
I had never seen my sister sing anything yet. Had also never seen her hum. Because of that, I suddenly became a little interested. And the song began.
"Dottoutou~♪ dottoutou~♪ dettetettete~♪"
She began to sing the first verse.
"Guro♪ guro♪ guro♪ Now we disect~♪ The intestine spilled out ke—ro♪"
T…this…isn"t the opening song of Geroro Gunso!? He was a mad scientist coming to destroy Earth from s.p.a.ce. She likes Gororo even when she is still so young……
(TN: Dororo Gunso)
She kept singing the opening song of Geroro Gunson all seven times. In total, she had sung eleven songs. The last song was the opening of Di Su Charat, a series where the main character was a girl a.s.sa.s.sin with cat ear coming from the plant De Su. An entire encore where the main character were all aliens.
(TN: De Su Charat (デ・ス･キャラット) -De Gi Charat (デ・ジ･キャラット))
She said she was an alien from planet Nyanya right? Is this because of that?
"A-- so refreshing nya~"
Ricotta said so and dropped down the microphone. At that time, I subconsciously caught it.
Even though the only one who had not sang were Shizuku and I but……she was staring intensely at her childhood friend, the white board. Looked like she didn"t want to sing. Because on the board was written:
『Pa.s.s.』
Now that I think about it, I have not yet find out, why she doesn"t want to talk? Maa~ in this case, I need to sing then.
"What song should I sing…?"
I thought while looking at the selection tablet. However, I was not familiar with the current J-POP. I only knew anime songs. But like you have seen, everyone was as if just sang their favorites so I didn"t have to worry about it too much.
When I had just decided to choose a simple song then…
"Knight-sama, let"s sing a duet with Ricotta nya~"
Ricotta, who just finished singing, spoke up.
"Duet eh?? I don"t know whether I know of any song…"
Although I was racking my brain to find one but Ricotta was faster. A song that was unknowingly preset began to play.
"Any song is fine as long as I get to sing a duet with you nya."
"I-is that so?"
Although I feel like this is not good, but never mind. Furthermore fortunately, this is the melody of an anime song that I know about.
However, when I began to sing, some unknown emotion began to emerge inside of me. From beginning to end, I sang in enthusiasm.
It has been a long time…ah no, maybe this is the first time that I can hang out with my sister like this. Five songs unknowingly had pa.s.sed.
"A-- my throat is dry……"
"S-so fun nya~ One more song…"
"More!?"
Despite me being surprise, Ricotta extended her hand to the selection tablet. And so, I had to continue singing with Ricotta for three more songs. After finished, this time I had to sing together with Mashu, four more songs. I thought everything till here had ended but Hime then raised her hand…
Feeling like I began to fall into a bottomless abyss, I thought "I will probably die right here!". I dropped the microphone and leaned back on the sofa. Although Hime blown up her cheeks in opposition, but she gave up after a while and began to sing alone.
Fuu…I have escaped death.
Heaving a deep sigh, I raised a cup of oolong tea to my mouth and began to enjoy.
Aaa~ so refreshing.
I drunk it all in one gulp. When my throat and body began to calm down, I suddenly realized there was something different in the room.
Uh? Where is Shizuku?
I still saw she was here when I began to sing the duet, but now she has disappeared somewhere. Or did she go to the restroom?
I felt a little worry so I secretly slipped out of the room.
I did not see Shizuku"s figure at both the restroom or in the hallway. Surely, she has not went home without telling me……where did she go? I decided to look inside the rooms along the hallway.
Because the door of every room was made out of gla.s.s so I could see clearly everything inside. Every room had a group of people singing merrily but Shizuku was not in there.
Ma, maybe she has returned to the room? I thought so while returning.
Suddenly a room floated into my view. Inside was a group of students about my age, singing karaoke happily. That group of 5-6 people expressed a thick atmosphere of a world that I could not exist in.
There was a girl with brown drill-hair in the group. And I suddenly recognized her.
That was…my cla.s.smate, Kudou Misaki. If I looked closely then the other girls were also the group of people often hanging around with Misaki-san. Then about those flamboyant boys, I felt like I had seen them from somewhere before. Maybe a group of students from another cla.s.s in school. And then, for some reason but I suddenly discovered she was sitting inside along with them.
That was right, it was Shizuku.
"Why is this girl in there?"
However, there was something strange. Shizuku was being surrounded by that group, hand was holding a microphone… I meant, looked like she was holding. Her hood, the thing that was very difficult to take off of her head, was put down, exposing a head of black hair.
That was all I had seen. A girl was holding an object and waving it around in front of Shizuku. That was the familiar white board.
Feeling the atmosphere was unusual, I immediately opened the door.
Immediately, a voice from the inside appeared.
"Ayahane-san, too slow. What"s wrong? Hurry up and sing~"
I heard the voice of the girl who was holding the board. I was a little curious on why she would know the real name of Shizuku. However, my attention had moved toward the guy who was standing in front of me.
"What do you want?"
That sounded like a jianghu voice. I didn"t want to think that he would attend the same school as me. Because I was a useless guy so I could only response in a peaceful way.
"A…umm……"
Shizuku looked like she was confused by my appearance.
When I didn"t know how to explain, I heard the surprise voice of Misaki-san.
"S-sagimiya-kun? Why are you here??"
Is that a surprise reaction or a happy reaction?
"What? Are you familiar with him?"
The guy with a jianghu voice asked back after having heard Misaki-san.
"Uh…umm……is a cla.s.smate……"
She looked a little nervous, didn"t know how to explain. At that time, another girl interfered.
"C"mon, just say it out? A cla.s.smate with us, Digust-sagi, a lolicon."
Don"t say lolicon like it is my nickname.
"Then, is there a problem?"
Although the previous situation was pretty tense, but I couldn"t imagine it would turned out this way.
"Ah, no…I was only curious of why Shizuku…ah no, Ayahane is inside this room……"
"Hm? Hm? What? Looked like you don"t know anything. We coincidently met each other so we only invited her who was a cla.s.smate but has not met for a while to sing together."
"C-cla.s.smate ah!?"
I felt like I had just heard some very incredible thing. And that guy looked at me with a face "Why is this guy suddenly this surprise?"
"Ayahane Shizuku. My cla.s.smate, next to your cla.s.s? Maa~ from the beginning of the school term, she has hidden inside her house so it is natural that you didn"t know. Hihihi."
Everyone around had also laugh along with his stupid laugh. It made me feel a little bit irritate.
"Now, sit down. She is about to sing~"
He pushed my shoulder down on a sofa.
"Disgust-sagi, you are pretty lucky. You will now witness something pretty interesting."
After I had sat down, a girl that I didn"t know the name of spoke.
What"s interesting? While I was thinking so, everyone around began to call Shizuku"s name.
"Shizuku♪ Shizuku♪ Shizuku♪ Shizuku♪"
Everyone was yelling and clapping. But it looked like only Misaki-san did not have any interest. She only showed a fake smile when following everyone.
Facing that situation, Shizuku was still standing still and holding the microphone uncomfortably. Because he white board was stolen so she could not talk, and I did not understand what she wanted to say.
"Shizuku…?"
When heard me calling, she suddenly displayed a surprising expression of determination and nodded at me.
She wants to say "Let"s do this" right?
If she did not sing right now then it looked like the group would not let her go. Shizuku chose a song with all her concentration.
After the act *swish*, all the noises disappeared.
The beginning melody began right after. That was a dignified melody, majestic, and also epic.
"What song is this?"
"Who know?"
Although everyone around was curious, but I knew this song!
The theme song of [Kenjou Daiguider], the eighth series was considered to be the masterpiece out of the Kenjou series, described the way of the super robot army, the [Kenjou Bakutan]!
Shizuku adjusted the microphone with her small white fingers and raised it closer to her pink lips.
My throat escaped a gulping sound in antic.i.p.ation. Because this was the first time I hear her real voice.
The beginning melody had finished, the most antic.i.p.ated moment had arrived.
When Shizuku gathered her breath, I saw her chest expanded.
Right afterward--
"Dadada, dadada, daiguider! Dadada, dadada, daiguider!"
Without suspicion, this was the lyric of the song [Kenjou Bakutan]!
However, everyone around all looked at her with eyes filled with surprise. Not surprise because of the lyric of the anime song. But surprise because of her voice.
Even I was not an exception.
How to say this, I could not imagine with her sickly figure--
Her-voice-sounded-like-anime-voice
If I had to compare her with other seiyuu then her level is not lower than the Fourth Empress Miracle Loli Voice. Initially, I thought that was the sound coming from the speaker itself. Because inside ZX, she had used the voice changing function to made her voice deeper, so the difference between reality and virtual was huge. I could say it like that.
No need to listen anymore, that was enough to know, that was a very beautiful voice.
While I was still recovering from my surprise, a wave of voices exploded.
"Gyahahahahahahahahahaha!! No way!! Hikhikhi!"
"Fuhahahaha! Ahahahahahahaha! Truly is Ayahane, so funny!"
"Kukuku, where is that voice come from? Ahaha, oi… my stomach hurts! Fuhihihihi!"
"Guhu, l-look like my funny level has exceeded Max level!?"
Beside Misaki-san and I, everyone was laughing all over the sofa. Of course, those were responses to the singing voice of Shizuku. At this time, there were only laughing sounds mixed with the melody, the singing sound had disappeared. When I looked clearly, Shizuku stood frozen like a rock, hand still holding the microphone.
"Shizu……ku?"
I saw her being unusual. The microphone in her hand was shaking, similar as her lips. The cheeks flushed, eyes looked a little wet.
That figure, that face, that sight, I had never see Shizuku looked like that before. Scare, embarra.s.s, regret, sadness, a lot of emotions were showing on her. Right now, to me she looked like a very weak creature.
"I… oh not good~ I will die~ my stomach hurts so much hi hi--"
Everyone was laughing around Shizuku enough to showed tears. Looking at that scene caused me to feel unhappy, very hard to describe, liked my heart was being affected. As if a fire had just burned inside me.
Something was urging me to slowly stand up.
"……over the line?"
"……eh?"
Everyone around looked like they had heard my voice, I repeated one more time.
"Doesn"t that stepping over the line?"
"Hah? What did you just say……?"
They looked at me with faces as if I was a rare creature. It made me furious.
"I SAID "DOESN"T THAT STEP OVER THE LINE?", ARE YOU GUY DEAFED!?"
Finally, I yelled out. When everyone realized that the atmosphere was abnormal, they all became silenced. Shizuku looked at me with a puzzled expression.
"W-what? Why are you suddenly yell out like that…"
The girls looked at me with uncomfortable eyes. Not able to endure this atmosphere, the flashy guy back then spoke up.
"What"s wrong with you?"
He looked at me with fl.u.s.tered eyes.
Looked like previously I had lost control over my mood so I had yelled out like that. Now I had calmed down and talked normally.
"What I want to say it, how could you make fun of somebody like that? Can you guys sing like that attractive voice? Isn"t it very good? Isn"t that a talent? Who know maybe she will become a seiyuu. A wonderful talent. Then why are you laughing at a talent like that? Are you guys jealous?"
"Uh no…the reason is……"
He fluttery answered.
"Then stop this stupid act right now."
"……eh?"
After saying so, I pulled back the white board from the hand of a girl that I did not know the name of. They were still bewildered with the face （゜Д゜）, only Misaki-san looked at me worriedly, but I did not care about anything else at the moment.
Walking toward Shizuku, I said a quick sentence.
"Let"s go."
Although she was still out of it but I held her fragile hand and pulled her outside.
X X X
At the bench on the shopping district. Shizuku and I were sitting there. We had left the building and the karaoke store.
"Don"t those words I has said previously pretty epic?"
I talked about the matter a few minutes ago, but there was no answer. But that was natural. Because the white board was in my hand. Furthermore, I suddenly realized I was still holding her hand even now. I quickly released her hand.
"O-oi!? Ah ah r-right, this belongs to you."
I handed her the white board. First, she put her hood on her head, then began to write something.
『A girl"s kidnapping and locked up incident.』
"Oi! When did I lock you up!? And besides, I do not have that intention!!"
『A girl"s kidnapping incident.』
"There is no difference even if you erase a word like that!? But never mind…that"s enough……"
If only she opens herself up a little to the hero like in Shounen manga, it would be better, but in this case…… However, this is the usual Shizuku. Looked like she had calmed down with a flushed face.
"But it was truly a surprise. That was the first time I hear the voice of Shizuku."
She embarra.s.singly looked at the ground.
"With a voice like that, you should have spoken out more?"
『Compressor.』
"Compressor, what"s about it?"
『Complete.』
"Is that likes "Aha, I did it. I had finished collecting all the trading cards!" right?"
『Conflict.』
"All difficulty to understand explanations! Or normally said "Complex"!"
By the way, conflict = a fall out between parties.
(TN: The previous words that Shizuku wrote were in English and he was just explained it in j.a.panese.)
『Teehee』
"Showing emotions by words……but hey, you don"t have to draw a tongue to describe it!"
Haa…so tired.
"Maa, please stop writing these nonsensical things? Ok ok, I said something out of bound. Sorry."
Surprise, a silence covered us. I could only hear the noise of the busy street.
After a while, Shizuku"s hand began to move.
『You are "always" like that.』
"……always……like what?"
Shizuku continued to write one more sentence beneath and raised it up.
『The day the guild was form. Do you still remember?』
"Ah, of course I remember."
After I had just answered, I immediately though "oh d.a.m.n". But right now it was too late to regret.
Of course I still remembered the day the guild was formed. But that was nothing significant.
However, that was the memory of "Riel". Knight-sama that I was right now completely didn"t know about that matter.
X X X
When I first logged into ZX, I was alone.
But then is there important about it? Which gamer is not alone when they first started out. However, while playing the game, I will get invited into a party, then when the interactions are fun, we will add each other into the friend list. Initially, I had followed that way. All those time I had always thought about "My friend list should be full~". But reality was different from dream. I did not realize that whether in the real world or in the virtual world, to make friends, one"s social skills were all required things. That was also my blind spot!
Although it was natural that I did not have any friends in the real world that were girls, but now that I think about it, the number of guy friends that I had was also zero! Because of that annoying symptom that I abandoned my dream of becoming a riajuu and buried myself in the virtual world. Anyway, my goal was to become a "virtuajuu", although that too was not optimistic.
(TN: A juxtaposition with "reajuu", real world Riajuu. A virtuajuu is a riajuu of the virtual world.)
Everyday, after I logged into ZX, all I did was stood frozen on the town square. I did not have the courage to greet anyone. Of course, I stood there truly was to wait for a party invitation. And my Priest occupation was really important. The healing ability was a very essential to a party, because no one went hunting alone when first started out. Then isn"t Priest a very needed occupation?
They only need to join a party, once the number of party members is enough, then they can go out hunting. Although my mission was only to heal but the XP points I received were pretty plenty. However, at those moments, there was no conversation in the party. Because the thing that was called party was only a tool to level up.
In those parties, sometimes there would be people who greet. But most of the time, the male players all thought I was a girl in real life so they kept following me. Once I accepted one person into my friend list and thought there would be no problem, then from that day, I received a bunch of scam messages, continuously, causing me to delete them until my arms hurt. But once I thought if I confess "Actually, I am a guy" then would I be able to make friend. It usually took sometimes for me to erase my guilt once I deceived someone.
Because of that reason, my friend list was always empty. And every day I had nothing to do except to standing on the town square. I slowly lost my interest in the game. Should I give up this game? That was the first time I thought so.
I always stood at the same place to wait for party invitation. Standing next to a memorial liked a wall of stone, I saw at the opposite of the memorial, there was a girl avatar standing waiting for something like me. But that was not the first time I saw her. I saw her every day I had been standing here.
What is she waiting for? How long has she been standing there? Hasn"t she fallen asleep? I thought of many things.
A day later after I had logged in, she was still standing there with the same posture as yesterday like usual. A simply strange girl.
While I was curiously looking at the figure underneath the shadow of a column, her eyes suddenly turned this way. Then she has not fallen asleep. If she has been standing there every day then she should already have realized my existence.
What should I do? I thought. Thinking this was some sort of destiny, I focus all of my courage to greet her.
"Good afternoon. I have been paying attention. You always appear here at this time, right?"
"Don"t talk to me so familiar. Because I am not free."
A cold gaze penetrated through me. I had tried my best by she treated me that way. I regretted having started a conversation with her.
"However I look, you still seem pretty free?"
I didn"t know what else to do besides replying to her.
Immediately after, she slowly stepped forward from under the shadow of the column.
"Retract that sentence immediately. Aren"t you also standing here every day on the same place?"
"Then we are the same regarding this matter! But in my case, I am waiting for a party invitation. But you, you are only standing, right? I have not seen you move for the past days."
"Hmm, thinking about what you have just said then……truly shameless. You thought that your occupation is useful so sooner or later there will be a party to invite you, right. So pity for choosing this occupation with a healing skill just for that goal."
"G-grrrr……"
"I was right on the mark right."
"Umm, so what"s about it? But it"s still better than…"
"Are you about to say better than no invitation? This is called pot calling a kettle black."
"Um…that metaphor also insulted you!"
"Hmm, so we are just the same type of people. I am just surveying the people around here."
"Did you forget what you have just said!? But, what? Survey??"
"Right, isn"t human a type of organism most likely to expose their true self in a world with a more definite goal than the real world? So I stand here to survey. People who only know to bury their heads in game"s goal or only form relationship with people they can take advantage of etc… I have all rejected."
"Sounds good, but to the end that just means you don"t have any friends, right?"
A moment of silence.
"The degree of accuracy and fairness of my surveillance will decrease if I have a friend."
"Even if you said so but that is still the truth."
"Therefore I did not want to converse politely with a person like you…"
"Haa? Are you still talking like that?"
"Aren"t you mistaken about something?"
And so, the argument began, I struggled to keep this going. When she was declared the winner, the sky had begun to brighten in the real world.
From that day forward, every time I logged in, I went to the memorial stage. And every time, I always argued with her, to the degree that there was a rumor "There are two people performing kakeaimanzai on the stage!" around the sever.
(TN: kakeaimanzai - a type of skit where two people talking fast to each other.)
If there were a guild house, we would not bring so much attention to the people around. Thinking so, our two people contributed money to buy a small guild house. Of course, the requirement to buy was "The buyer must be the guild creator", and so our guild was formed at that time. Of course she was the guild head. And so our guild began with two members.
『You are "always" like that.』
Returning to the line from before. But there was one more line beneath it.
『You are "always" like that. Always get dragged into my troubles.』
I did not response. Right now, how could I have known about those things. She continued to write one more line.
And this time--that line caused me to open wide my eyes.
『The guild that I have right now, all was because of the normal Riel.』
I looked at Shizuku"s face right above the white board. She immediately moved her embarra.s.sed gazes away. Immediately, I felt something heavy on my shoulder.
Shizuku had tilted her head on my shoulder.
I was so surprise that I forgot my symptom.
But the thing that still shocked me was the word "Riel" in the sentence.
When saw it, I did not know what to say…
"How…how do you know that I…am Riel?"
When I was asking slowly, although embarra.s.sed but she still tried to turn her round eyes toward me. Her eyes looked down on the center location--
Just like that, I felt my heart began to beat really fast. Silky hair slightly shaking, white skin on a flushed face, lips red like an apple. My figure was reflected inside her black pupils, causing me to feel disappear into them. And then at that time--
"Everyone knows that."
"……eh?"
Suddenly I heard a voice coming from behind. Surprised before that reply, I hurriedly turned around.
That was the voice of Hime.
Standing next to her were the remaining members. Everyone had their hands on their hips, eyes staring at me. For that reason, Shizuku and I hurriedly separated from each other and fixed our postures.
"Truly, causing us to look for so long. You guys suddenly disappeared without us noticing."
"S-sorry……but hey? About Riel……everyone knew? Eh…eh??"
While I was bewildered, every member placed their hands on my shoulder and spoke up at the same time.
"""Maa~ calm down, Riel."""
"W-what……………IS THIS ABOUT!?"
Discovering a horrifying truth, I yelled out with a voice that sounded truly stupid.