Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! SOMETHING THAT HAS A CRYPTIC RELATION TO THE STORY OR RELEASE TIME! (Generic for the win!)
ANYWAY, a bit more of serious talks occurring this chapter but also some fairly silly comedy as always! And, a person that some of you wanted to see for some time also appears briefly!
ALSO, the reason for the lack of updates yesterday is simply for the fact that: One, I was really lazy, and Two, I REALLY wanted to write something Wuxia(Xianxia?)-ish, which I did and ended up eating most of yesterday’s writing time. Didn’t post it anywhere, though, so no need to search around like mad.
ALSO(2), if by any reason I miss a few updates, it’s probably because of that. You see, the problem of working on only a couple of works is that if you have too much ideas, some of them simply won’t enter the story, and I end up needing to write something else to dump all ‘useless’ inspiration.
Have a good read!
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The time it took for us to reach Eldor was much, much shorter than the time it took us to reach the small village. The reason for that was because of the nature walking skill. Of course, the sheer speed bonus is a great improvement, but the really seller of this was the auto-tracking it offered. Running through the uneven ground of the forest through the shortest path available meant that we were pretty much getting a permanent shortcut of some kind.
Anyway, the thing is, we cut through the terrain at a frightening speed and quickly reached the river that we crossed on the way to the village. As before, I had Aura freeze the ground so that we could pass through it with ease, but since the group was much smaller this time, she didn’t need to keep it up for as long as the first time, spending a lot less time recovering her stamina than the first time.
Meanwhile, Rio and Crys easily kept up with us.
As soon as Aura had recovered herself, we once again set out at maximum speed. The reason for my hasty run back is because I wanted to spend the least amount of time to reach the girls when they logged in, that way we could start our travels immediately.
Besides, since I would need to log out, I’d rather do it in a city and leave Lieutenant and Rio with someone I trust instead of simply leaving them alone on the forest.
Even with the speed boost, however, we needed to stop for a lunch during the run, during which Crys suddenly stopped to look towards me.
“It looks like the girls already finished preparing everything.” She said briefly. “Yuu wants to know if you need some help in here.”
“Well… We are pretty much only trying to get to the city, so there isn’t much for them to do, I guess?” I said with a shrug. “At most they would need to get ready for a long time travel, I guess?”
Crys nodded satisfied before turning her attention back to cooking, but a short moment later, she turned to me and said.
“Oh, They also said that Red will arrive in two hours of in-game time.” She told me briefly, making me blink surprised for a moment.
She quickly finished preparing the food and I ate it at light speed before forcing a faster march towards Eldor. But even running as fast we could, with Rio sometimes even flying in front of us playfully, showing how easily she can surpass us in speed, we still ended up being two hours away from the city by the time that Crys warned me that Red was at the girl’s apartment.
Sighing loudly, I stopped to think for a moment. Aura and Crys I didn’t have much problem with logging out, since they also despawned with me, but Rioreia and Lieutenant had chosen to stay around while I was away. Looking at the two who were causing us some problem, I finally sighed before turning to Lieutenant.
“Lieutenant General Whiskers McBallofur Maximilliamus Von Scratchy the Third.” I said while putting my arms behind my body and putting on my best general tone. Lieutenant turned to me and made a salute. “I’ll give you a mission right here and now of utmost importance. Are you ready for this?”
“Nya!” He answered me.
“I DID NOT HEAR YOU SOLDIER!” I shouted.
“NYAAAA!” He shouted back.
“Good.” I said while nodding and walking from one side to the other. Aura and Crys, who were already used to the scene simply watched with a small smile in their faces, while Rio looked curious at our exchange. “From now on, I will entrust you to Operation: Princess carry. Your mission shall consist of escorting Lady Rioreia to the great fortress known as Eldor. Once there, you shall look for either commander Sol or Commander Melinda and report to them, besides proving any kind of support that they need. Is that understood?”
“Nya!” He said with a salute. “Nyaa-na, Nyyy-aaa nanyaa nyyynynaanyaa?”
“No, your top priority shall be serve and help lady Rioreia in whatever kind of situation may arise. After that you may manage your information network. Also, you will need to get ready to depart immediately once we get back, and we will stay away for some time, so you might want to leave some orders ready, okay?”
“Nya!” He said with a nod.
“Good. Dismissed.” I said and he nodded before turning to Rio.
“Hmmm?” Rioreia looked at me and Lieutenant confused, smiling a bit awkwardly at her before making a signal for her to come closer. She nodded briefly before quickly flying towards me and landing on my extended arm.
“Look, Rio.” I said briefly to her. “I wanted to take you to the city first, but it seems that I will need to leave a bit sooner than expected.” I said to her.
“Why?” The little wyvern asked me while tilting her head. I smiled at her cute reaction and petted her a little.
“Well, I have some things I need to do in the other place I go.” I told her briefly. “And meanwhile, I will leave you and Lieutenant here, but instead of waiting in a forest like this, I will send you to the city.”
“A city?” She asked in a mix of surprise and happiness. “Is it bigger than the one we were in?” She asked.
“Much bigger. That one is as big as a mountain itself!” I said while making an exaggerated motion, to which she widened her eyes in shock. “It’s so big, that even you would lose yourself. That’s why, you should follow Lieutenant closely, okay?”
“I have to obey mister cat?” She asked tilting her head. “Okay!”
“Hmm. Good.” I said while petting her. “Once there, Lieutenant will present you to either an elf called Sol, or a Garuda named Melinda. Make sure to obey them so that people don’t get angry at you like they did at the village, okay?”
“Okay!” She said nodding once again.
“Then you two can go ahead. I should be back in one day or two, okay?” I said, and the two nodded before Lieutenant quickly ordered Rio to grab him with her claws.
With that, both Lieutenant and Rio departed for Eldor, which led to the strange sight of seeing a wyvern carrying a cat dressed as a soldier. And staying true to his race, Lieutenant flew in a superman pose, with one of his front paws extended ahead while humming an adventure sound.
Smiling at the scene, I turned my attention back to the large blue fox who was rubbing her head into my leg this whole time. Sighing loudly, I crouched down to her eye level and started petting her to her hearts content.
“She says that you should stay longer.” Crys said solemnly at my side. “Or if you could take her with you.”
“That’s… A bit difficult.” I said with a heavy heart. “I don’t think I would be able to take you with me to my world.” I said with a sigh, and I didn’t even need Crys’ translation to understand that her eyes were pleading me to find a way. Feeling a bit distraught by that, I turned my eyes to Crys in search for help.
“I could…” She said briefly for a moment before looking clearly conflicted. “Just… Just a second.” She told me after looking around the forest as if to see if there was anyone nearby before finally sighing.
In the blink of an eye, her body changed from the small doll-like body to the full-sized crystal golem one she used on the login screen. Me and Aura blinked surprised at the scene before she turned to an open area and snapped her fingers.
Now, what appeared before us was none other than…
S2daddylovescygS2…
SERIOUSLY! IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE TO TAKE THAT NAME SERIOUS?
While holding back my laugher, Vlad blinked surprised as he looked around. He had his crossbow ready to fire, with an arrow nocked and all while he crouched as if to take a better aim. However, that position looked strangely out of place in the calm forest we were at the moment.
“What…?” he asked while looking around.
“I froze the area where you were, so no need to worry. I’ll send you back once I’m done.” Cygnas said from besides him.
Vlad looked at her for a moment until it finally clicked in. His face immediately contorted into a silly smile as he threw the crossbow away and jumped towards Cyg with his arms wide open.
“MY DEAR DAUGHTWAGOOH!”
If anyone is wondering, the strange sound was what he said once Cyg Window-sticked his head into the ground.
Classy stuff.
Anyway, Vlad quickly recovered himself and once again tried to do a tackle hug on Cyg, but she simply blinked out of the way while hiding herself behind me.
“Stop that, father!” She said angrily. “This is serious!” Cyg scolded him.
“But… It’s been so long since we last met!” Vlad said while crying tears of blood. Almost literally. “You even stopped appearing at my login area, leaving me with some boring windows!”
I wonder why that happened? Must have been an accident. Or he tried to hug her too much and got this result, which is three thousand times more probable.
“You know why I did that.” Cyg said with an angry tone before taking a deep breath. “Calm down, Cyg. Do not blow away your dad… No need to kill him repeatedly until he’s level one again with the pain sensors set to 100%…”
Hey! Those are some scary words right there, lady!
“Okay, okay.” Vlad said while raising himself from the ground and looking around, noticing me for the first time. “Oh, Wargon, long time no see!” He said with a brief nod. “Thanks for letting Cyg follow you. We have been receiving some interesting data!” He said briefly, before his face contorting into one of annoyance. “I wish that I could be the one who little C would follow around…” He said while clicking his tongue.
“Anyway dad…” Cyg said interrupting him. “I need to ask you something.” Cygnas said with a serious voice, which immediately made him fix his foolish temperament. “Could I take her with me to the upped levels?” She asked while looking at Aura.
“Oh?” Vlad asked surprised while staring at Aura, before finally frowning for a second. “Do you think she would be able to take it?” He asked with a frown.
“I plan on a limitation to her settings, that way she shouldn’t be burdened. Besides…” Cyg glanced slightly towards Aura. “I’m almost sure she would be able to hold herself for a few minutes.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Even thought I was lost on their words, Vlad seemed to be satisfied as he nodded in accordance. But he still seemed a bit doubtful about what Cyg was about to do, as he kept frowning the whole time.
“And why would you want to do that?” He asked the goddess.
“Well…” Cyg said while looking at Aura for a moment. “I know I promised to not start giving preferential treatment to Gon and all, but… I really want to help Aura this time.” She said before bowing deeply. “Please, father.”
Vlad looked at Cyg and then at me for a moment, smiling awkwardly.
“Geez, it’s the first time she asked something like that from us, you know?” He said to me, getting me by surprise. “Fine, we could use it to expand on the App’s pet system later on, anyway.” Vlad said while turning to Cyg, who widened her eyes surprised.
“THANK YOU!” She said while jumping and hugging him.
S2daddylovescygS2 stood frozen for a moment due to the unexpected reaction of Cyg, before finally opening into a wide smile. I didn’t miss the fact that he took a screenshot right before Cyg let go, though.
“Anyway, I’ll leave the programming to you, okay?”
“Okay!” Cyg said cheerfully before waving her hand and sending her creator away. Looking at her confused, she simply smiled at me and said. “You’ll see!”
I looked at her confused for some time longer before finally sighing and nodding. Quickly I opened the menu and chose the log out button, and after a brief countdown to zero, the world around me went off.
Feeling a bit weird as I slowly felt myself going back to my real body I laid on my bed for some time, letting the feeling spread down to my limbs. Once everything was okay, I quickly took out the glasses-like apparel and sat down on my bed, taking a quick look at my room around me until my gaze landed on a certain detail.
“Don’t tell me that you tried to wake me up a la sleeping beauty mode?” I said jokingly.
“Shi-Shishou!”
“No. But I did think about thinking of taking an incriminatory photo to use as a blackmail.”
“Ma-Maya-san!”
“Well, I did try to convince Yuu, but she wasn’t as innocent as I expected.”
“Ma-Mary-chan!”
So, as you may have guessed, Yuu, Maya and Mary had all gathered in my room, all of them wearing some fairly fashionable clothes.
Yuu was wearing a clothing similar to the one from earlier, with a slightly frilly white blouse and jeans pants that easily outlined her body, but not to the point of looking too improper. She had her hair tied in a ponytail that gave her a more tomboyish look than earlier.
Maya still wore the same black blouse and jeans, a fairly discreet clothing, but now she had a large bag slung over her shoulder to carry on stuff.
“I should feel annoyed that you took my bag without permission…” I said while frowning, but she simply shrugged.
Lastly, Mary used a simple light blue sundress and let her hair free, making her look even younger and cuter.
“So, like what you see?” Maya asked me with a raised eyebrow.
“Quite a pleasing sight, to tell the truth.” I said briefly. Altough she didn’t react much, Yuu and Mary blushed slightly while looking away. “So, how long have you been here?” I asked while putting myself up.
“We actually entered right when you took off the D-lute.” Mary said. “Also, you forgot to lock the door, before you ask.”
I frowned a bit before shrugging. I was too tired to bother with it anyway. I’ll be a bit more careful next time, though. Well, if the girls are here, this probably means that Barbara is also nearby.
Sighing loudly I decided that taking too long would only work against me, so I quickly walked to the bathroom to wash my face before taking and putting on my jacket. Lastly, since this was a long term leave, I took another one of my bags and threw it over my shoulder.
Made of leather or some other thick fabric, with a long strap hat you can pass over your head so that it holds on your shoulder and hangs around your waist. I usually use such bags around as it makes easier to carry things around, besides being much more practical than a backpack.
Besides, it simply feels weird when I leave my home without something like a bag or a backpack, so even if it ends up being empty during all the trip I won’t be bothered too much. Getting back, I found the girls on my living room while talking with Barbara and Paul about our old guild.
Kicking the chair that Paul was on, I quickly informed then that it was time to go.
“NYA!” He said as he almost fell to the ground. “WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?”
“Why the hell I wouldn’t?” I said back. He stopped for a moment to think.
“Fair enough. I’ll drive.” He said while raising himself from the chair.
“What, no one is going to comment that he just nyaed here?” Mary asked confused.
“Cat-boy? I could live with that.” Maya said with a nod.
“That’s not what I meant!” Mary said annoyed at the maid, who simply smiled at her.
“You get used to this with some time.” Barbara said with a tired sigh. “Let’s get going, shall we?”
For some reason that neither Paul, Yuu nor me understood, Maya and Mary looked at the red-haired girl in pity. Looking at each other in search for an explanation, we noticed that we were all confused, so we simply shrugged it off before making our way out of the apartment.
It didn’t take much longer for us to reach Paul’s car beneath the apartment, and just as he unlocked it using his keys, I made my way to the trunk, but…
“Where are you going, Shishou?” Yuu asked me, a heavenly gentle smile in her face.
“To the trunk, of course!” I said the obvious.
“Where are you going, Shishou?” She asked me again as she slowly approached me.
“Err… To the trunk?” I said as I felt some goosebumps going down my spine as she kept her smile.
“Shishou.” She said briefly. “We are taking a taxi.”
“But we would need to pay for that, so it’s not all that…”
“We are taking a taxi.” She repeated once again as she stepped closer, making me take a step back nervous.
“But I don’t mind it. Really!” I said while holding myself back so that I wouldn’t run away.
Seriously, What the hell is with this pressure? What happened to the innocent Yuu I knew? Is this what it feels to cross a battlefield? Is this what Hattori felt when I called Yuu? SORRY HATTORI-DONO!
“Shishou might not mind it, but I do.” Yuu said while quickly grabbing my hand and dragging me away. “I shall pay for it, but I do not want to see Shishou riding in the Trunk anymore.” She said in a scolding tone.
“But… We…”
“No buts, Shishou!” She said angrily.
Like the good and obedient master I was, I nodded weakly, walking with my heads down while letting my disciple drag me around. I threw a helpless glance towards the others, but they all smiled at me, with Mary even waving goodbye to me. The maid gave me a thumbs up with a proud face.
Probably thanks to the fact that we took a taxi on our way here from the airport, Yuu easily found the taxi stop near my house, taking me with her so that we could enter through the back doors. Once in, she glared at me until I told the driver to take us to the mall.
He laughed a bit at my situation while Yuu pouted angrily (and cutely) besides me. Laughing dryly, I looked through the window seeing as Paul’s car started off, before going into the traffic. However, he ended up getting a closed crossing, so we quickly started to get ahead of them.
Hmm, now that I stopped to think about it, aren’t me and Yuu alone right now? Taking a quick glance at her, I saw that Yuu was in the line between trying to look indifferently angry and wanting to look at the streets of a foreign city.
When she noticed my gaze, she quickly looked at me, going back to her pouting face, but that only made me smile even more.
And only after a few seconds like that that it finally sunk in for her.
She quickly looked around and after not finding anyone else in the car besides us and the driver, her demeanor quickly grew fidgety as she got nervous. I laughed at her reaction which reminded me of a cute animal, this made her once again pout, but it was nowhere near as angry as before.
To make her feel a bit more at ease, I looked away through the window, watching as the buildings that I was so used to seeing ran through the window one after the other.
“So, this is Shishou’s city…” Yuu said distractedly while looking at the same window as me.
“Yup. That right there is the school that my father and mother met.” I said while pointing to a passing large building.
“Looks old.” Yuu commented.
“Yeah. Probably as old as the park in front of it.” I said while pointing forward. “That place right there, on the other side of the park is the old forum from the city. It was moved to one closer to the river a few years ago, though.” I said while pointing one of the few things I actually knew about my city.
What? Why do I know so little? What part of me saying that I’m an antisocial shut-in did you miss?
Thinking about it, I turned to Yuu.
“Say, aren’t you disappointed that I’m too different from how I’m in-game?” I asked Yuu, who looked at me confused for a moment.
“Wat do you mean?” She asked me after some time.
“I mean… Being a lot more antisocial and whiny… Besides the appearance, of course.”
“Hmm…” She stopped to think for a moment. “No. That does not bother me.”
“Really?” I asked surprised, and she nodded.
“Hmm, what matters is who Shishou is at heart.” She said to me with a heavenly smile. “You see, when I discovered that Shishou was only fooling with me at the airport, I was actually really happy.” She told me as I stared at her surprised. “You see, I… Was really scared that after we met, the way that Shishou treats me would change too much. That we would not be able to have this kind of conversation anymore. All because of who I am.”
“But Shishou first appeared while joking with me. That is something that only the Shishou I met in the game would do, and at that moment I knew that the one who was wearing the suspicious sunglasses was actually the same person as the one who made that silly rock’n roll joke when we first met, no matter how different they were from each other.”
I looked at her in shock and surprise during her speech, and when she finished she gave me an angelic smile that blew away any doubt I could have about her simply trying to appease me. I smiled a bit awkwardly at her as I extended my hand to her head.
Seriously, if I’m not careful, I might really fall heads over heels for the girl who was sitting right beside me. As I thought that to myself, Yuu simply closed her eyes in pleasure.