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Crim’s meeting with the GMs came to an end so she returned to her guild house in Nebel. There she found many bags with takeout food from restaurants, which were part of their celebration party for getting second place.

“Here Crim, say ahhhh~”
“U-um, Lycoris? I can eat by myse…mgugh?!”

Lycoris approached her from the side with a piece of fried potato, which Crim was unable to escape from and was shoved into her mouth.

“Ah, that’s not fair! It’s my turn now, say ahhh~!”
“Wait no, Hinagiku, please…mghuh.”

Then from the other side came a spoon with a chunk of a dessert that was made of a mix of soft ice cream and cookie crumble, which was once again shoved into her mouth.

Hinagiku and Lycoris had always been the youngest of the bunch, but now Crim had shrunk even smaller than them, so they finally had someone they could take care of, leading to them wanting to spoil Crim by feeding her everything.

But Crim looked slightly bothered by it all, so soon Freya came as a lifeboat.

“Ahahah…now you two, try to give Crim a little space to breathe, alright?”
“But you were hoarding her all to yourself earlier, we don’t want to hear that from you.”
“It’s our turn…now.”
“…Okay.”

Both of them glared intently at Freya, who became pale and retreated back to the couch where she had been sitting earlier. The lifeboat was sunk almost immediately.

“Nuu…Hinagiku and Lycoris are so meannn…I’m sorry I’m such a selfish girl…”
“There there…”

The way the two girls had treated Freya had left her spirit in shambles, so she went to cry to Frey, who tried to comfort her even though he looked absolutely done with it.

God is dead and I’m completely helpless.

Crim was left with no recourse but to continue being treated like the youngest by Hinagiku and Lycoris, who were elated to finally feel like they were older than someone, not paying any attention to Crim’s dead eyes.

“…Are you okay?”
“Yeah… Though I feel like such a horrible person for being pampered by girls younger than me…”

As the night went on, the youngest of the bunch logged out to go to sleep. Frey sounded worried about Crim, as she looked exhausted beyond belief after the two girls left, but at least she somehow managed to reply properly.

“And so…about that notification about a Demon Lord or something…”
“Ah, I’ve been wondering that too! Also, do you want some milk with it?”
“Yeah, thanks.”

Freya had made something for Crim to drink, and as she received the cup and took a sip to wet her tongue, Crim told the twins about her meeting with the GMs earlier.

“I see, I get it now…and we got a raid dungeon in our hands…” Frey had looked pensive as he heard the story, but only spoke after Crim finished retelling the encounter. “You told the other two to keep this secret, right?”

“Of course.” Crim nodded vehemently as she replied to Frey.

It was not the time to announce publicly that there was a raid dungeon inside the old castle. There were no other player-occupied territories nearby so Nebel was still peaceful, but if news broke about the dungeon then they would soon be embroiled in territorial wars.

Crim was well aware of that, so right after the meeting she formed an alliance with the other two Demon Lords and pleaded for them to keep the dungeon’s existence secret.

“Sorleon looks like he actually wants to experience the dungeon together with us for the first time, so I don’t think he’ll spill the beans.”
“So the problem is the other one, Shao from Lan Canglong…”
“Yeah…I don’t think I can really trust him with secrets. Though I don’t think he’d be the type to willingly give up an advantage.”

While Crim had no concrete evidence of it, and as much as she distrusted him, at least she felt like it was safe to assume that Shao would not give up an advantage like that.

At the very least adhering to the alliance would let him work alongside his biggest rival in Nord Glacier, instead of having to compete for advantages.

“Anyway, considering how much we’ll have to prepare, it’ll take more than a month before we actually go check it out. Does that work for you?”
“Yeah, got it.”

Saying that, Frey drank the last bits of coffee from his cup and stood up.

“Alright…I think I’ll be heading off to bed now. Freya, try to watch the time if you’re going to let Crim drink your blood, alright? It could get late.”
“Ah, r-right, yeah…”

Freya averted her eyes hearing that, her cheeks reddening as she nervously began to fidget with her hair, twirling it around her finger. Frey looked at her with an entertained grin, and then turned to face Crim.

“Alright then, the third wheel is leaving now, so enjoy your time, you two.”
“Wha- That’s not it at all!”

Crim’s face went beet red in an instant, and just as she began to protest, Frey’s avatar vanished as he logged out.

“Seriously, I can’t believe him…”
“Well, umm…should we start then?”
“Ah…y-yeah…”

Somehow things felt slightly weird between the two. Crim’s heart was pounding hard, and she had to repeat “This is food, this is food…” to herself as she slowly pushed Freya back onto the couch.

…
……

“Hahh…hahh…was that…enough for you?”
“Y-Yeah…thanks…”

Freya turned her head, her cheeks flushed red and eyes dim as she looked at Crim from the couch. Seeing her like that made Crim feel oddly flustered, so she gave a slightly more curt reply than she had wanted.

Oh man, I ended up drinking a lot more than I thought, I really couldn’t stop myself.

Freya’s HP gauge had been drained past the yellow zone and had already encroached onto red, showing Crim just how mindlessly and for how long she had been drinking blood. As the realization hit her, Crim covered her mouth as her cheeks reddened.

That was delicious.

Crim realized that saying that could end up sounding too vulgar, so she somehow kept it to herself.

“Phew…this is getting dangerous, it felt even better than last time…”
“…Hm? What did you say, Hijiri?”
“Ah, it-it was nothing!!”

Crim was a bit confused seeing how desperately Freya tried to gloss things over, but she decided it was not important, and instead began amending her clothes, which had become messy as her body grew.

As she did that, she realized there was a notification telling she had received a message.

“…Ah, it’s a message from dad. He says the school’s entrance ceremony is tomorrow, if I can make it and if I forget about it…”

Spring break was ending that day, and everyone would be starting a new school year the next morning. The older three were starting high school, while Lycoris and Hinagiku were starting middle school, something they had been rather excited about.

“Are you going to be fine? You’ll still be online while that happens…”
“Yeah, I’ll be alright.”

Freya was also fixing her clothes, buttoning up her chest that had gotten rather exposed while smiling happily. As she did that, she seemed to recall something and she pointed at her neck while she spoke to Crim.

“Oh yeah, Mr. Sora also gave me a device for my NLD to transmit audio and video, and it’s paired with yours, so I’ll become your eyes tomorrow.”
“Mhm, thanks.”

Since Crim was unable to move her body in real life, her father had given Freya a device that would let her transmit audio and video to Crim’s NLD. That way their NLDs would be paired together, and everything Freya saw and heard would be transmitted through the internet to Crim, letting her attend school virtually.

While that was a rather futuristic way to attend school remotely, the school also offered various other materials meant for students with disabilities or who could not make it to class, so Crim would also have those available if she needed.

“Still…I never thought I’d start high school like this.”

In reality, the NLD had originally been developed as an aid for paralyzed people who could not get up for themselves, or for people who lost their vision for one reason or another and wanted to experience seeing again, though now it had become an ubiquitous part of daily life.

So in a way, Crim was finally using her NLD for the reason it came to exist in the first place.

“…I really wish we could already go to school together on the other side…”
“Yeah… Also, you should sleep soon, Hijiri.”
“Oh, yeah…good night.”

With one last smile, Freya’s avatar vanished. Crim remained staring at the couch, eventually lying down on the spot where Freya had been and closing her eyes.

…But after some time…

“…I can’t sleep.” Crim muttered to herself as she lay there, in the room with the lights turned off and shrouded by the darkness of night.

Resting like that only made her retrace her memories, recalling the feeling of her teeth digging into smooth skin, the warmth of fresh blood flowing into her mouth, and the sweet taste that seemed to melt her brain.

She could almost feel those heavy breaths that tickled her ear, coming from right next to her… All of those thoughts made her heart beat faster, which kept her awake.

And so it took a while longer before Crim could fully fall asleep.