Chapter 58 : What The h.e.l.l Is This, Some kind of Event That Starts From Fourteen?

It was the day after the ‘Goblin Army Attack’ event. Since it was still vacation for everyone, all of us agreed to gather together just like yesterday. Hence, after finis.h.i.+ng our respective responsibilities in the real world, all of us entered the game and met up at the city’s outskirts in the afternoon.

Why met up in the outskirts you asked? The main reason for this was due to yesterday’s event. Ever since Yukihime-san and I managed to repel the goblin army, both of us attracted unnecessary attention, especially since both of us appeared in the top five in the leaderboard.

Well it wouldn’t be a problem in Yukihime-san case but, it looked like I overdid it. It seems that yesterday, my total points had become the number one trending topic in the information site. Even though s.h.i.+nji and Midori-san had warned me many times before…….

Though fortunately no one is going to disturb us for now since both of us kept our name secret, but we have decided to leave this city since staying any longer would expose more danger to us.

In addition, I had caused a huge uproar when I entered h.e.l.loWork yesterday. I should refrain from standing out till the situation cooled down somewhat.

「Sorry, everyone. We have to go as far as leaving in secret because of what I did yesterday.」

「Don’t worry about it, Sou-kun. I love the thrill of adventure like this after all.」

Though Aoi-san was trying to look cheerful as she clasped her hand in front of her chest, her smile was as tight as her clasped hands. I couldn’t help but wanted to punch myself to death when I recalled the b.a.s.t.a.r.d who caused her to show such smile.

「I don’t mind too you know. I mean I’m really happy now for being able to join this kind of party.」

Mop-san said, letting out a heartfelt smile of an adult and then patted my loosely dangled shoulders.

Please stop already, your kindness really makes me want to cry you know.

「Well I guess I’m in the same position as Sou-kun as the merry maker. Sorry, Ruu-chan, Mop-san」

However, although Yukihime-san was apologizing alongside me, I knew that she did not really hate to stand out from the ma.s.s. She must have wanted to announce her name, but in the end she did not do so.

She decided to keep it a secret. While this might be just my self-conceited guess, I thought that perhaps I was the reason for her to do so.

After all, if we went by her style, she would have already written about the fun she had with us from yesterday’s event in her blog. However, because she respected my intention to not stand out, she had omitted anything related to us in her blog.

Properly speaking, she had no reason to apologize to us. Although she should have no reason for doing so, she still stood beside me to apologize to the rest of the party member.

「Thank you very much…….. Yukihime-san.」

I don’t know whether she understood the meaning behind my words, but when I raised my head, I saw Yukihime-san kind smile that told me that she could see through everything.

「Well, time to leave the city then. Since it seems that there are a few dungeons in this area, how about we take a look at one of it? 」

Mop-san opened his mouth that was filled with moisture, ready to create a local rain, and suggested us to do some dungeons.

And since no one objected, we went out of the city via the gate that was unpopular.

Along the way,

「U-Uhm！  」

A cute little girl who’s not even 10 years old came to greet us.

「What’s the matter, little missy?」

Squatting down, Yukihime-san then talked to her with a voice that was filled with motherly tone, different from the tone she used normally. And yet, it didn’t feel uncomfortable at all.

The little girl was wearing what you might call as tattered rag, covered in mud and dusk from head to toe. Mud cakes was also forming on her unkempt hair, she didn’t seem like a little girl who lived properly.

Though I didn’t see any people who were looking at this little girl with eyes of prejudice or pity, neither did they try to help out, angering us slightly. Well, since we’ve seen her, we would do our best to help out, and we wouldn’t stop half way and abandon this little girl.

「Uhm…………. Excuse me……….」

Maybe she felt hesitant to say her wish. Or simply just nervous. Uhm how should I say, it’s like she’s the younger version of Aoi-san. Super cute.

When I thought so, Aoi-san had squatted too beside Yukihime-san, smiling kindly at the little girl.

「My name is Blue. And you? 」

When she asked that question, the little girl slowly opened her mouth.

「Kanon……… Desu」

「I see, Kanon-chan right. Is there something you wanted to ask us? 」

「Y………. Yes…….」

When the girl moved her lips, her voice was swelling up. The tears in her eyes were ready to spill down at any moment.

「These onee-chan and her friends are about to have a meal in an eatery, Kanon-chan. Will you come with us? 」

Aoi-san was still smiling gently at the little girl as she told her that while pointing at a certain inn, inviting her to go with them.

「…… Yes.」

Tears started to flow down from the little girl’s eyes. For some reason, my eyes were locked on the figure of Aoi-san who kept wiping the little girl tears with her handkerchief.

The inn of this world was merely a rental of huge room. As there’s a little meaning in sleeping inside the virtual world, the number of people who choose to sleep in the game was so little. That’s why most of the inn in the city became something akin to a meeting place, or a rendezvous place.

That’s why the reason we were going to one right now was to prevent someone else eavesdropping our business.

That little girl was currently bathed by Yukihime-san and Aoi-san. We’ve arrived in the current situation since the girls camp decided to calm her down first, although I felt that she got a special circ.u.mstances with her.

「Mop-san, the sound of someone taking a shower in the room is……….. Nice right?」

「Yeah.  But I prefer the sound of lashes myself. Ah, should I add the dripping candle too? [TL : SM play, kids don’t do this at home!] 」

s.h.i.+t, I spoke to the wrong person. What a mess. Or rather, the second part of his statement didn’t even have anything to do with sound.

――Yosh, let’s pretend that I never heard about it.

「Mop-san. That child is an NPC, right? 」

「Y-Yeah！　I feel the same way.」

Mop-san replied with slightly flushed cheeks when I was trying to change the course of the conversation. It seemed that he treated my attempt as ignore play. This person masochism was through the roof.

Oops. Now is the time to think about that child. Just ignore this person.

First, there should be no child of that age walking alone in this world. Since the game was overly realistic, for a child with age below 12 years old, they’d be only allowed to come to this place with various restrictions imposed, such as always being by their parents side.

Moreover, it’s impossible to put a real little girl in that kind of situation. If that girl was a player, I would recommend her to apply for an Oscar award immediately.

「Should we try to find out what kind of an event is this? 」

It smelled like a special event, or maybe a quest in this game. Though the management side never made clear the trigger condition for those events, to be honest I don’t think that we did anything remarkable during our previous action.

We merely left an excellent record during the previous emergency quest. So I expected that some sort of following event would be prepared for those players instead.

Moreover, though Mop-san and Yukihime-san didn’t know about it, in fact it were Aoi-san and I who took the first kill of Okinawa area boss. So it’s better to say that those factors might be the trigger for this event too.

「I don’t think that’s possible. Well, I mean the NPC of this world is made too perfect by the management side in fear that they’re going to go out of control.」

Eh, there’s no such possibility?　But then each of the NPC in this world were independent being who had their own AI. While so far, the NPC themselves wasn’t aware of the fact that they’re NPC, and they never went into a quarrel beyond trifling argument in the shop, I still thought such possibilities exist. But, with this――

When I was pondering over that kind of spiraling train of thought, I heard erotic voices coming from the side. Was it just my imagination?　My original train of thought was interrupted and I could only wonder what was happening on the other side.

「Kanon-chan became so cu~te.」

「T-Thank you. Yuki-oneechan.」

「U~hm, Kanon-chan is too adorable.」

「Y-Yukihime-san, please don’t embrace her any tighter than that.」

I wonder what did they do to her since a while ago beyond that piece of door. I sharpened my sense of hearing to revive the utopia inside my mind. What? Situation?　It had been decided. Everythi~――

「Ah, please don’t move yet since I’m going to comb your hair.」

A cute little girl who wore an adorable western-style clothes appeared from the other side of the door. Behind her was the steep face of Yukihime-san as she combed Kanon-chan hair. She seemed to be happy, And a bit further from her.

「Thank you for waiting, Sou-kun.」

The Aoi-san who appeared from inside, she didn’t wear her usual pale blue j.a.panese clothes set but light blue skirt and white blouse. Faint clear steam rose up from her body.

Yup, I was shot down. She shot through my heart.

What was this adorable creature. By now, I could understand the feeling of those adolescent boys who always got excited in seeing the girl they liked wearing plain clothes just coming out from the bath in the first night of the excursion trip. This cuteness was really a cheat.

「N-No, I just came  too. 」

「Eh…….? 」

Oh c.r.a.p, I ended up saying one of the eight lines I wanted to say the most to my girlfriend. Though Aoi-san seemed dumbfounded, Yukihime-san was looking at us with profound smile as if she understood something from our exchange just now.

「Now that everyone is here. Let sit first and wet our throat for now. The talk comes later isn’t it? 」

So this is the composure of an adult huh. Mop-san was going right into the main problem without even batting his eyes.

The little girl who was urged by Aoi-san and Yukihime-san to sit down, timidly did that, and then stretched her hands toward the warm milk tea.

「……… Delicious.」

Her stiff expression loosened a little. After that, the little girl suddenly turned to look at us as she pled for our help.

「Please…… Save my sister.」