Leave a comment

Hijiri quickly patted Kou’s back and gave her a glass of water to drink, which managed to dislodge the piece of pizza from her throat. After that Kou had to take a deep breath before complaining.

“Hmm… Do I really have to change?”
“Well, want it or not you’ll eventually have to learn how to behave in business settings, so it’s best if you get used to it now.”

Saying that, Sora still commented that at least it was not as bad as in the past, since nowadays most things could be done through messages online.

“Wait, you didn’t really have any issues adjusting to roleplaying as your Demon Lord character in the game, did you?”
“I mean, that’s just when controlling my avatar in-game. Doing the same while I’m in my real body is a bit different…”

Subaru raised a valid point, but Kou shut it down immediately.

Acting while controlling an avatar in-game and actually changing one’s real behavior were completely different things. For instance, if she attempted to speak like her in-game persona, a loli with antiquated speech, she would instantly feel like curling into a ball and remaining in bed for more than three days.

That applied to adjusting her speech to sound more feminine as well, as she explained to everyone at the table…

“My apologies, Hijiri, but as we both know, this girl is incapable of going against you, so would you mind amending her faults as best as you can? Even if there’s less than a week before she attends school.”
“Wha- Mom?! Using Hijiri like that isn’t fair!”
“Of course, Auntie Amari. I’ll make sure it’s done!”

Amari instantly used Kou’s biggest weakness against her, and seeing that Hijiri was raring to do it, Kou had no choice but to give in to her fate…

◇◇◇

Below the Starting City Wyndham, amongst underground ruins…

“… What on earth is that?” A young man, under the player name of Suzaku, was hiding behind some rubble, peeking out to examine the enemy in front of him.

That feline monster likely once had a magnificent coat, but now it looked matted and covered in an ominous mark that looked like ivy constricting it. Its eyes looked cloudy and bloodshot, its slackened jaw streaming down drool like a rabid dog. And all of its stats were a mystery. The only certainty was that this type of monster was far too powerful to spawn in the starting city.

At the same time, the icon designating it as a quest target was blinking on top of its head. In other words, that was the monster Suzaku was tasked with defeating.

This is quite a bind.

After the lengthy wait, Suzaku had finally been able to register in Destiny Unchain Online, and it felt like his days there passed by in the blink of an eye. He was still going through the initial stages of the game, exploring the first city, enhancing his Skills, completing random quests, when he found a strange quest that would change everything.

There were plenty of red flags on the listing alone, but he was expecting to get a good reward from it, so he was curious about it.

Even the receptionist handling the general quests looked confused by it, commenting that she did not remember putting such a weird quest up. But Suzaku accepted it, and followed the quest marker to reach those underground ruins, which seemed to be the remains of some ancient sewers. There he came face to face with that clearly overpowered monster.

That convinced Suzaku that this was no regular quest, but he was also too weak to fight such an enemy, so he was starting to feel like he had no option but to cancel the quest.

“…You there, come here.” But then he felt something warm and soft touching his hand. Turning around in shock, he saw a strange person covered with a hood.

“…That monster is way too dangerous for you, come with me.” Saying that, the person pulled on Suzaku’s hand.

With no other option left, he decided to turn around and follow her to see where things would go.

Maybe this is all a scripted event?

Wondering that, she eventually led him to a small room, likely a storage locker of some sort. There were no enemies around there, so the mysterious person finally felt at ease and pulled back her hood.

Is she an NPC then?

Suzaku was still trying to figure out what was happening, but then his thoughts froze, as an unbelievably beautiful girl was revealed from within the hood’s shadow. It was obvious at first glance that she was not human.

After all, there were vines and flowers intertwined around her body and hair, which was colored a gradient that went from red to yellow, like leaves in autumn.

“I’ll let you borrow this…please use it.”
“…A sword?”

Out of nowhere, the girl offered him a sword. Curious, he pulled the blade a few inches out of its scabbard, revealing a beautiful longsword made of a reddish metal, and with very elaborate engravings.

“…I can use it?”
“Yes…”
“But who are you?”
“…I’m not sure. I couldn’t remember anything when I came to.”

She has amnesia then?

Suzaku still had plenty of questions left. He had only been playing the game for a few days, so it made no sense for him to receive such a rare weapon, even if it was borrowed.

“Ever since I woke up…I’ve used this sword to fend off monsters, desperately trying to stay alive. But now… I’m not sure what it is, but something tells me that I must give it to you.”

That did very little to clear up Suzaku’s questions. He could not remember doing anything that could have tripped a flag for such a quest. But he also knew that he had no other way to break out of this situation.

“…Alright, I’ll use it then. What’s your name though? Can you remember that at least?”
“Yes… I remember, somehow.”

She held the scabbard with both hands, offering it to Suzaku, as she introduced herself. “I’m… Da’at Criferd.”

At this time, Suzaku…or Hikami Suzaku, as his full name in real life was, had no idea that this single encounter would change his whole life as he knew it.