“Alright… I’m here now. It’s getting dark, though. Do I stop by the dorm before going home?” It should be fine to head straight home. Hecate doesn’t really trust me yet, and she can be a little scary… It’s a shame, but I think I’ll sleep better if I don’t run into her. “Sigh…” Isn’t there anything I can do to improve my relationship with her and the others? Maybe they’re just not interested in that. They’re happy as long as I learn how to pull my own weight, isn’t that right?I have Ririna now, so I put those worries to the side and headed home.

“Carol?!” As soon as I exited the forest, I heard Narumi’s voice. “Wait, Iroha!?”

“Good timing, Iroha. Did you run into Carol? Have you seen her at all since this morning?” Katja was accompanying Narumi and immediately barraged me with questions.

“Uhmm… No, I haven’t seen her at all. Why do you ask? Did something happen to her?” Katja and Narumi are both agitated. They aren’t panicking—not on the surface, at least—but they look like they’re in a hurry.

Narumi spewed out words so fast that it made it hard to understand what she was trying to say. “We looked for her in the forest earlier and we couldn’t find her, she went there in the morning maybe, I saw her, Shinji and Hecate are already there, we… That’s too confusing… Let me start from the beginning. What happened first? I saw… Carol was…”

“I’ll explain. Carol is missing. Narumi saw her going into the forest this morning, and she hasn’t come back.” That’s not good. Given that it’s pretty much nighttime already, it makes sense to start worrying about her. “We tried looking for her, but we didn’t find anything, so now we have to look for her deeper in the forest. Shinji and Hecate have gone on ahead in one of the pickup trucks, so we're going to search a different area. It doesn’t seem like we’re gonna find her, though.” They’re not gonna find her in the deeper areas? How do they know that? If that’s true… Hmm…

“Can I help? I can double check the areas closer to the dorm and spot her if she ends up coming back.” I have a feeling I may know where Carol is… If they didn’t find her near the dorm and they’re not having any luck deeper into the forest, there’s a big chance she may have stumbled upon the portal somehow… That’s seriously bad… Weren’t the portals a secret among them? If she did find the portal and got to the other world, things are gonna get messy. The others won’t be able to find her, so I have to look for her. I wasn’t expecting something like this to happen, so I’ll have to go back to the portal and see if I missed any signs of her there.

“That would be helpful, I think… Is it fine for her to help us, Katja?”

“It’s fine as long as she doesn’t also go missing. Take this flashlight, Iroha. Don’t go too far from the places you’re familiar with.” Katja cleared up Narumi’s worries and handed me a flashlight. “We need to get moving, so we don’t have time to talk. Send me a message if you find anything.”

I nodded back to Katja, and the two of them entered another pickup truck that was parked nearby. Narumi was going to take the driver’s seat, but Katja stopped her and took it for herself. Soon enough, the truck drove off into the forest. Wait, that’s illegal! Katja’s not old enough to be driving! Is that one of the privileges of being part of a special force of sorts? Or is it because this is technically private property? Either way, she drove off without any issue despite the bumpy terrain, so this isn’t her first time.

They’re off to work, and I’m alone again. I guess it’s time for me to pull my own weight. I turned on the flashlight and went back to the portal. The forest was harder to navigate in the dark, but I still didn’t get lost. With how much I’ve been coming here, that’s to be expected. I looked around the portal, but I didn’t find anything. Was I wrong? Maybe Carol didn’t come here after all… Just to make sure, I went through the portal to look around on the other side.

“Footsteps!” Are these mine? “No… They’re smaller…” I knew it. Carol’s here. She found the portal and stumbled into the game world. Was it intentional? Didn’t they believe the portals would kill them just by getting close? At least, if there are footsteps here, it means she didn’t die because of the portal. This confirms that their idea that portals are dangerous is a lie. It’s not that the VISS Driver is protecting me against the danger—there is no danger.

The footsteps are going in the opposite direction of the town. This isn’t good. Carol must have been confused when she got here and went in the wrong direction at random. Was it an accident after all? But why wouldn’t she just go back? She must have seen that the portal was still here. Did she decide to explore? For what? What was she trying to find? I had to find Carol before something bad happened, so I pointed my flashlight at the footsteps and followed them. “This is a bad idea…” I’ve never gone in this direction before. Even with a flashlight, I can’t see anything. What other choice do I have? I can’t abandon Carol! Katja, Hecate, and Narumi all care about Carol a lot, so I don’t want to let them down!

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“Carol! Can you hear me?!” Nothing… What am I gonna do? Her footsteps are becoming hard to follow. I can’t do this… If only I knew this place better. The forest is starting to look weird. I need someone who can… “Ah!” That’s right! Ririna said they’d stay at the Gathering of Flowers. If I hurry, I might still find them there! Maybe I can get them to help!

I ran back into town and headed straight into the Gathering of Flowers. “Iroha? What are you doing back here? Did you forget something?” The three of them were still there, and Sarasa was the one to call out to me. I’m so glad they haven’t gone home yet.

“That’s not it. I… I have a problem on my hands right now. I- I think I need your help.” This is so awkward… Coming back out of nowhere and suddenly asking them for help is so uncomfortable. Carol might be in danger, so I can’t let that stop me.

“What’s wrong, Iroha? Are you alright?” Ririna got up from her seat and ran up to my side.

“Why don’t you start by telling us what the problem is? We’ll try our best to help you if we can.” The three of them focused their attention on me. Ririna nodded along to Flanne’s words, and Sarasa perked up her ears despite remaining somewhat relaxed.

“I need to find someone, and I need to hurry! I’m afraid she might end up getting hurt…”

“You need to find someone? Is that a missing person job or what? Did someone important force you to accept an impossible deadline?”

“No no no, it’s not a job, Sarasa. It’s somebody I know. She wandered off on her own, and I think she’s gotten lost. No one can find her now. I really have to find her—before something bad happens to her.”

“No one can find her? Are there other people looking for this pers-” I screwed up and said too much, and Flanne picked up on it, but Ririna interrupted before she finished her question.

“Wait. Is this girl someone who’s important to you? Is she your family? What’s your relationship with her?” Ririna’s questions weren’t that important, but the expression on her face was so pressing that I felt compelled to answer.

“Well… How should I put it? I know her, and I’ve spoken to her… We work together, in a way, but we don’t get along too well… We may not be exactly friends, but she’s a friend. Does that make sense?”

“Huh… So you’re just friends. Someone closer to an acquaintance than a friend. Alright! If it’s that important that you find her, we’ll help out, right?” The sense of urgency on her face was replaced with a caring smile. Ririna agreed to help me and turned to the other two for confirmation. Sarasa nodded back with an amused grin.

“It’s my duty as a soldier to help the people, so of course I’ll help. Tell us what you know.” I told Flanne and the others about the footsteps near the portal and told them in which direction they were heading. Then I described Carol to them, her appearance, and her abilities. I managed to defeat her once, but Carol’s no pushover. She’s not going to lose to just any monster.

“That chick is crazy! She wandered into the Forest of Illusion? It’s in that direction, right?”

“Forest of Illusion?” That sounds familiar… It appears in the game, doesn’t it? Since humans came to the continent from the floating city in the ocean to the right, their presence is much denser near the coast. Because of this, the left part of the continent holds a lot of unexplored forests. The Forest of Illusion is one of the few forests named on the map, and it’s easily the biggest one. In the game, it’s mostly used for side quests. Since the level was higher there than in the rest of the human territory, I ended up leaving without exploring it too much.

“She went into the Forest of Illusion. No doubt about that. It’s unlikely she’s gonna find a way out on her own.” Flanne quickly arrived at a conclusion.

“Are you saying we can’t save her?”

“That’s not what I said. It’s easy to get lost in there, to the point where it’s impossible for anyone who doesn’t know the forest very well to leave. I’m somewhat familiar with the place, so I can assure you we’ll be able to find her, but… *sigh…* I wish I didn’t have to go there again, but I can’t just leave someone to die…”

“So you’ll help? That’s a relief… Thanks, Flanne. C- can we go get her now?” I know it’s almost the middle of the night, but still…

“Now’s probably not a good idea. It’s dangerous for us to head out there now.”

“Ririna’s right. It’s better if we go tomorrow morning. From what you’ve told me, it’s unlikely that she’s gonna struggle against any weaker monster, so she’ll be safe if she’s inside the Forest of Illusion. The milder monsters there are not particularly violent, and the worst ones are the type that like to play with their food. Either way, it’s unlikely that she will be dead.”

“But…” Is it really safe to leave Carol there overnight? She’s probably gonna be fine… I know she’s not gonna go down easily, but… it still worries me.

“It’s fine, Iroha. We’re gonna find her, don’t worry.” Ririna tapped my shoulder, and I was able to relax a bit.

“Thanks…”

“Ehhh? Are we really going to have to wake up early? What a pain…” The four of us got up from the table and got ready to leave.

“Sorry, Sarasa…”

“It’s fine. I owe you one, and I haven’t seen Flanne outside yet, so I’m gonna finally see her in action. That’s gonna be fun.”

“Just what are you expecting of me? I’m just a regular soldier. Adventurers like you pull off crazier stuff than me every day.”

“Is that so…? We’ll see, we’ll see…”

Seeing Flanne struggle with Sarasa’s expectations made me and Ririna smile. We left the gathering of flowers, and we each went our own way. Next morning, the first thing we’ll do is head out to search for Carol. It was already very late, so I decided to spend the night in this world. I have some money now, and inns are cheap, so I rented one for the night. I’m a little nervous… I’ve never slept here before… What if I can’t go back to my world if I spend a night here? The room looks good enough, at least. It’s spacious, it has all the furniture you’d expect to see in a room, and it even comes with a bathroom. It’s clean, or rather, it sees very little use, so it doesn’t get dirty. A bit of dust here and there, but it’s nothing too major.

Before going to sleep, I tried to send Katja a message saying that I’m alright. To my surprise, the message went through. What the hell? My phone still works even though I’m in this world? What? What about Carol, then? Doesn’t she have her phone? Did she leave it behind, or did something happen to it? Well… I guess I’ll find out tomorrow… This back and forth between the two worlds today really tired me out, and I fell asleep without any issue. Where’s Carol right now? Has she found a place to sleep? I really hope she’s alright… She may not think much of me, but she’s not a bad girl. She doesn’t deserve anything bad…