Hello there! Thanks for checking out this chapter!
I’ve been swamped with work this past week, so chapter 11 got delayed a bit! Regarding the schedule, I’m not sure if I can get it back in order within the week, so sorry about that! Also uploading this chapter before I go to work!
Regardless, enjoy the chapter, and remember to leave some comments!
Chapter 11
Soon, another three years fly by. Emiri had graduated from elementary school last year, when Lemir got to the fourth grade. This year, Lemir is in the fifth grade. The entire time, Lemir had not stopped growing. Right now, Lemir looked as tall as a person in high school, with the height of 1.7m. He was also slowly growing into his old face, albeit with an “easier to approach” look.
On the other hand, Malaixa had not grown much at all. She was still much smaller than the other children her age. Incidentally, she had been in the same class as Lemir for the entire 5 years. Malaixa was still only 1.3m tall.
Similarly, Luke and Arata, who had both become best friends with Lemir, were in the same class as he was for all 5 years. Arata had reached the height of 1.45m, the average for children his age. Luke on the other hand, was 1.5m, slightly taller than average.
It was the second week of school in their fifth grade. While he was able to handle Math a bit better now, Lemir still required the help of his older sisters. Once again, the bell rang for the end of school, and the teacher dismissed everyone before leaving the classroom. As usual, Arata and Luke went to Lemir’s table and started chatting.
Arata [Japanese] : “Man, I almost fell asleep during the lesson. It’s been 2 years but I still can’t get used to afternoon class.”
Lemir [Japanese] : “Isn’t it because you stay up late every night? You need to fix that habit you know.”
Arata [Japanese] : “Eh? But I want to finish the games I have…”
Luke [Japanese] : “I know right? I always want to finish a game I bought quickly. It’s too bad children under the age of 13 are not allowed to use VR machines though.”
Arata [Japanese] : “I know right?! Why would they do that to us kids! It is torture seeing my older brothers playing those VR games while I’m stuck playing on a computer!”
Lemir [Japanese] : “Even so, if you finish a game quickly, won’t you get bored of it?”
This had long become their usual activities when school ended. Occasionally, Mei Lang and Shuai Lang would join in, but they were in a different class from them, and sometimes had to help out in their parents’ shop after school.
Luke [Japanese] : “Nope! Lemir, you will never understand us gamers! You spend most of your time doing martial arts after all!”
Arata [Japanese] : “Exactly! You, who only plays multiplayer games with us, will never understand our way of thinking!”
Both Arata and Luke nodded at the same time while pointing at Lemir. This usually happened when the talk goes into the territory of gaming. Indeed, Lemir only played the multiplayer games with them when he went to their house during his free time.
Lemir [Japanese] : “But don’t your father say that for VR games, you have to move a real body? I think learning martial arts would be a good idea for that.”
Luke [Japanese] : “Don’t worry! Both Arata and I are extremely athletic! So I’m sure we would have no problems with it!”
Arata [Japanese] : “That’s right! It’s just a game after all, so we can definitely figure it out when the time for us to play VR games come!”
Virtual Reality games. In the 4 years that Luke’s father was in Japan, he had managed to make VR games more popular. As a result, a lot of new VR games started popping out. Many were failures, but there were some which ended up becoming popular.
Luke [Japanese] : “Anyway, Arata. You said earlier that your brothers are already playing VR games? What games are they playing?”
Arata [Japanese] : “Well, there were titles like Call of Duty 14, The Elder Scrolls XII and Dynasty Warriors 13, if I’m not wrong.”
Luke [Japanese] : “All of them are single player games… As expected, eh? Looks like VRMMOs are still impossible.”
Indeed, as Luke had said, VRMMOs were still impossible. The reason for this was due to the lack of space on the hardware. Despite the enormous advances in technology, space was still an issue. An ordinary VR game required about 10 Exabyte worth of space. Most of this went to regulating the player’s mind.
Current technology was only capable of holding at best 50 Exabyte’s worth of space on a server at the moment. This allowed wars between two different servers on the same game on a PC or console, and it was what was keeping PC and console games alive. However, it was still insufficient for even 2 players to play at the same time.
Luke [Japanese] : “Arata, you don’t have to be too depressed about being unable to play a VR game. It’s all single-player after all. Maybe when we are 13, a VRMMO would miraculously be created!”
Arata [Japanese] : “A VRMMO game!”
Arata’s and Luke’s eyes were shining at this point. Of course, Lemir understood the allure of a VRMMO, and was secretly excited as well. He just didn’t let it show on his face.
Classmate [Japanese] : “Hey, you guys! You should leave the classroom! We need to start cleaning up. Or maybe you want to help us out?”
One of the classmates on cleaning duty today called out to their group, as the three of them didn’t appear to be leaving anytime soon.
Lemir [Japanese] : “Ah, we’ll be leaving soon. Sorry we can’t help out!”
Lemir took the initiative to respond to their asking for help. He could afford to stay for about 5 minutes to chat, but cleaning usually took half an hour at least. So he couldn’t help out.
Lemir [Japanese] : “Come on, let’s go. We shouldn’t disrupt their cleaning.”
Arata [Japanese] : “Yes, yes.”
Luke [Japanese] : “Lemir, you’ll be jogging again, right? Then we’ll see you tomorrow.”
Lemir [Japanese] : “Yeah, see ya!”
Arata & Luke [Japanese] : “Bye!”
Lemir then left the classroom before them, and started heading home first.
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On the way home, Lemir was as usual, thinking out aloud. Similarly, Malaixa’s drone was recording all of it, which Malaixa herself would review when she got home.
Lemir [OWL] : “As expected, even if this child Luke is the same Luke I know, he doesn’t have any memories of his past life at all.”
Lemir had taken 4 years to confirm this. He did not want to make a mistake regarding his current life, and did not want to suddenly talk to Luke about memories of a distant world. Should the current Luke had shown any signs of knowledge about the previous world; he might have spoken about it. However, in the 4 years of being friends, there were no such signs. As a result, Lemir gave up on it.
Stolen novel; please report.
Lemir [OWL] : “But regarding Emiri, I made no progress at all, and I lost my chance last year too.”
Emiri had graduated last year, and had went to a different school from Kiiromi and Kagami. However, the school was not too far away from the one Kiiromi and Kagami went to, so they still occasionally met up. Sometimes, Emiri came to Kiiromi’s house, but Lemir had never gotten a chance to interact with her, as she still continued to avoid him, especially when Lemir’s face started looking a lot like his previous life’s face.
Lemir [OWL] : “And when I get home, there’s two more problems…”
As he said this, he arrived at home.
Lemir [Japanese] : “I’m back.”
As soon as he spoke, two toddlers suddenly rushed out to hug him.
Two Toddlers [Japanese] : “Welcome back, onii-chan!”
Lemir [Japanese] : “Yes, I’m back, Kuromi, Shiromi.”
“The two problems actually rushed at me!”, Lemir thought. As he mentioned, Kuromi and Shiromi were indeed the problems he had to deal with.
Kuromi and Shiromi were the twins that were born soon after he entered the second grade. They would be three years old as of today, which was also their birthday. Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem, but the problem was that they looked like Ilnor and Rionir!
Ilnor and Rionir was a peculiar pair of brother and sister. Ilnor, the elder sister, was interested in females. Rionir, the younger brother, was interested in males. While same-sex relationships were not a taboo in the previous world, Lemir had lived long enough in the current world to know that it was frowned upon. Fortunately, this seemed to be solved in this world.
Kuromi, the elder brother, looked more like Ilnor in his world. Shiromi, the younger sister, looked more like Rionir in his world. At first, the difference was difficult to make out, but as they grew, Lemir was able to tell the difference. “Perhaps this would solve their gender issues back in the previous world.”, Lemir thought.
Unfortunately, Lemir was still unable to confirm whether or not they kept their memories. The 3 of them did kill demons together until the both of them died together to the fourth demonic general. Rionir had lost his left arm to the skeleton mage during Emily’s death after all, and Ilnor was continuously trying to cover for him.
To regrow Rionir’s left arm would require powerful healers, but their best healer had already died. The kingdom’s healers were unable to provide aid as well, as the rulers did not allow them to leave the castle due to selfish reasons.
Looking at Kuromi and Shiromi now, who seemed to have their faces, Lemir let out a small, bitter smile, and patted their head. Both Kuromi and Shiromi seemed to be very attached to him, and were always trying to get him to play with them during his free time. Incidentally, his older sisters expressed their jealousy at this.
Lemir [Japanese] : “Alright, onii-chan will play with you later, so go play by yourselves at the dojo first, okay?”
Twins [Japanese] : “Okay!”
The twins ran off, freeing Lemir. He passed by the kitchen and spotted his mother. She gave him a thumb up, as it was discussed beforehand that he would be the one to distract the twins as the family prepared their birthday party. He returned the signal, and took a quick shower first.
Lemir [OWL] : “Well, it shouldn’t matter. This is a peaceful country, and I don’t need to know whether they are the people I used to know or not. Let’s just live out this life peacefully.”
With such thoughts, he finished his shower. He then started looking for the twins in the dojo, knowing that they’ve already started playing “hide and seek” with him the moment he was done with his shower.
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After playing for about an hour, he read some books in the dojo to the twins. His mother dropped by to give them some refreshments, before heading back to the kitchen to continue the preparations. Soon, it was time for the birthday party.
Lemir [Japanese] : “Okay, let’s go back to the house.”
Twins [Japanese] : “Okay!”
As soon as they entered the house, party poppers were opened. While the twins were a little shocked and scared, Lemir had expected this.
Everyone [Japanese] : “Happy Birthday, Kuromi-chan and Shiromi-chan!”
Hearing this, the twins had a big smile on their faces. Of course, it naturally spread to everyone, and the mood became happier. That night, just like every other day with anyone’s birthday, anyone who could drink was drinking. This included Akami, who had entered university. She even brought her boyfriend, whom Lemir noticed had looked a lot like Arata’s eldest brother. Of course, everyone got drunk that night, while those who couldn’t drink were either cleaning up or out of energy. Lemir and Aomi were the ones cleaning up.
Aomi [Japanese] : “Seriously… Mom and Dad went too far. Even ji-chan and nee-chan with her boyfriend… “
Aomi let out a sigh, and Lemir assumed it was for the drunken people. Aomi was instead thinking, “Why don’t I have a boyfriend…”, but Lemir would never find out about Aomi’s worries.
Lemir [Japanese] : “Don’t worry, I’ll help clean up.”
Aomi [Japanese] : “You’re a good kid, Lemir. Don’t let your future girlfriend down. Ah, if only I could meet a guy like you…”
Lemir could not hear the second half, but he nodded in response to the first half. Soon, most of the mess made by the party was cleaned up, and Lemir carried both Kuromi and Shiromi to sleep in their bedroom. Aomi helped Kiiromi to her bedroom, and both of them decided to leave the rest of the adults alone, as they probably couldn’t move them all of them with their strength.
In his room, Lemir resumed thinking about the thoughts that he stopped earlier for his younger brother and sister.
Lemir [OWL] : “So I might have Ilnor and Rionir as my younger siblings. What about Mi’er? Luke, Emily, Ilnor and Rionir seemed to have appeared in this world. The possibility that the Gods are messing with me is not zero, so Mi’er should also be in this world…”
Little did Lemir know that the Gods were not the ones messing with him, but a High Being who happened to be bored, and was extremely similar to Acedia.
Lemir [OWL] : “I’ll question Acedia in three years. When I’m 14 years old, he should appear in my dreams again on my birthday.”
With this, he turned off the lights, and proceeded to sleep.
End Chapter 11