Tridente 12

It’s Tuesday!

Small Village Tridente – Chapter 012

 

rawr: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n8908ek/12/

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June, 2XX7

Won’t you live together with us?

 

It was two days after we promised to adventure with the president. Saya and I had been avoiding battles as much as possible because if our level difference became too great, then the party would become unbalanced. While we waited for NW’s exclusive VR set to arrive at the president’s house, we logged in for about 30 minutes a day and passed the time by fishing with fishing rods we’d made or relaxing as we chatted in our home.

 

We were worrying over whether we should prepare items and equipment for the president but, in the end, we decided not to.

If you hand over items to a beginner who’s just started, it feels like you steal away the fun of getting stronger by yourself.

 

During this period, the only villager we met was Seira-san; just her. I wonder if everyone kept their distance because of the uproar with NW.

 

◇

 

The next morning, when I headed to the intersection where I promised to meet Saya, there was another person beside Saya.

 

「Good morning Saya! And good morning to you too, president!」

「Good morning! Mari.」

「Good morning as well. Kanzaki-san.」

 

It seems that the VR set will arrive at the president’s house today; we promised to play together this evening. Since tomorrow is a day off, we can log in for a long time.

 

「Haaa… I’m really looking forward to it. A New World! The Next World! The day when I finally say my goodbyes to Earth!」

「Nope. You can’t say goodbye yet, you know.」

 

The president, who was completely preoccupied with thoughts about her ticket to another world, became so happy that she started to skip. There still isn’t any proof that the things that were said during the interview were real, but I hope that her joy doesn’t become short-lived.

 

「For now, let’s just enjoy the game and not think about immigration or the world’s demise. It’s absolutely fun after all!」

 

I also agree with Saya’s opinion. That interview may have certainly been what got the president interested in NW, however, I want her to feel the enjoyment of just playing NW in the beginning.

 

「That’s right, isn’t it? What the NW Company said was, to play NW, and if only those who have felt the charm of the new world immigrate to it, then that’s fine.」

 

The president as well, she wasn’t just interested in going to another world, but also the game itself. The way to make weapons, or what sort of monsters there are, and so forth; she had zealously gathered information as if preparing for a lesson.

 

「Well, for the time being, let’s meet up at the rooftop during lunch, okay!」

「…I’ll set an alarm. I don’t want to get mad at you for being late to class again.」

 

◇

 

During lunch break, when I went to the usual place, the skies were cloudy and rain was falling.

(Even though the weather forecast said it would be clear…)

I looked at my phone and saw there was a message from Saya. The meeting place had changed; we’re going to eat our lunch in my classroom.

 

◇

 

Even though I’d already gathered enough attention by being with Saya, today, even the president was surrounding my table. Moreover, these two are famously known to have a relationship like that of cats and dogs. And now it was being rumored that I’m the reason this pair was eating their lunch at the same table.

 

「It might not necessarily be untrue that you’re the cause, Kanzaki-san.」

 

The president picked up the surrounding voices, and brought up the topic.

 

「I am…?」

「At that time, if you had not spoken to me, we would not be together like this now, right?」

 

Certainly, at that time, I spoke to her when I mistook her for Saaya and blurted out something about NW, and then the president who saw the interview with NW Company met me and Saya on the roof by chance… or so it went.

 

No, well, it was Saya who spoke to me first when I started playing NW, and that became the trigger for us to go on adventures together… It might be Saya’s fault.

 

「It’s Saya’s fault.」

 

「Wait a sec~! How did it come to that~」

 

「It began when Saya tried to hit on me.」 As I muttered it, the onlookers who were eavesdropping on our conversation became noisy.

 

Darn it… It might have been misunderstood in a weird way.

 

「Hmmm. Well, it’s true… Mari was my partner my first time; it felt like it was fate~」

 

Those words are too easy to misunderstand!

 

「Me too. At last, today will be my first time… I am a bit nervous. Kanzaki-san, please teach me gently.」

「Y-yes. I may be inexperienced but… I’ll do my best!」

 

Hearing that, the onlookers had once again become noisy.

That’s it, I did it. These two, while looking at the reactions from the onlookers, are purposely saying such suggestive words… While thinking of such things, I ate my lunch.

 

This pair’s relationship might seem bad if you look at it from the outside, but Saya is somewhat showing her real self and the president seems to be having a lot of fun. I wonder if this is what they mean by 『getting along so well that you fight』.

 

I don’t really have someone I quarrel with, so I was a little jealous of their relationship. Well, I don’t want to quarrel with Saya, I want to get along with her forever.

 

「President, have you decided on your character name?」

 

When you start NW, the very first thing you do is the Character Customization. I made mine a bit similar to myself in the real world and I also kept my name as it is, Mari. Saya’s character is a beautiful and stylish woman that gives off the impression of a cool female knight and she also changed her real name a little, turning it into Saaya.

Since the character customization reflects your likes and individuality, I was interested in what sort of character the president would make.

 

「The name will be Rin.」

 

Rin… is it a different reading of her family name?

 

「I see~. Suzukawa(鈴川)… Suzu(鈴)… into Rin, is it? How simple.」 (9: 鈴(bell) can be read as both Suzu and Rin.)

 

「I do not want to be told that by you two! And also, why did you call yourself Saaya!? Switch with me!」

 

◇

 

After school ended, we returned home and logged in. Saya and I hurried to where the president was while checking the map. Since we were at the president’s house just a few days before, we had a general idea of where she would be. Her starting point should not be far from here.

We advanced while defeating the enemies we encountered along the way, until we finally saw the president. I became excited thinking about what kind of character the president had made, and as we got closer… she was lying face down on the ground, not even moving a little.

 

She’s dead… while splendidly exposing her jutted behind.

 

「Aaaaah, looks like we didn’t make it in time.」

 

「I-It’s a nice ass isn’t it.」

I didn’t know what to say, so for the time being, I praised her behind.

 

「Nooo! Please do not look! …Wait, is that you, Kanzaki-san, Himemiya-san!? Hu-hurry up and revive me!」

 

The capable woman who can do her work smoothly in the real world, I wonder where Suzukawa Saya has gone? I never thought that the first time I would see her in this world would be like this, in this miserable state.

 

「Ah, sorry. Mari and I haven’t learned any resurrection magic, you see. So, sorry but go back to your last checkpoint. Since you don’t have any items or XP yet, it should be fine.」

 

Even though you were acting like an expert why can’t you even revive me!? or so said the president as she was returned to the checkpoint.

Because she hadn’t made a house or set a home point yet, she seems to have been returned to her starting point several dozens of meters away.

 

The president’s character had black hair in a short ponytail and her height was higher than mine. Her appearance felt similar to her appearance in reality.

 

「I didn’t think a mouse would start attacking me so suddenly! I was even unarmed, you know.」

 

It seems that, like me, the president was attacked by a huge mouse. As long as you have a weapon and medicinal herbs, you can defeat it without any trouble. However, using its poison breath that steals away your vision, it had become quite the killer to the many unarmed beginners it had met.

 

「According to the story I heard, when Kanzaki-san was in trouble, someone appeared gallantly and she was rescued magnificently. So, why is it that when it happened to me-」

 

「Like I said, we didn’t make it in time. You died too quickly.」

 

「If this were the real world, my life would have ended already. This other world… what a dreadful place…」

 

If it actually resulted in 【Death】 when a player’s HP hit 0, then this world would become very risky. It would be like being thrown out into a savanna on Earth without any warning. If you are to live in this world, you first need to become strong enough to protect yourself.

 

「By the way, where did you obtain your weapons? I want Excalibur or Mjölnir.」

 

「It looks like all you have is confidence…」

 

Since it’s impossible to obtain a legendary weapon right at the start, for the time being she had to endure with a tree branch we picked up from the ground.

『Why must I fight with something like a tree branch…』 grumbled the president. She was reluctant to use it, but after Saya randomly said 「That’s a branch from the legendary tree, you know?」, the president easily believed her and started to walk while holding it tenderly.

 

While heading towards our village, the three of us defeated the monsters that spawned. The president leveled up and learned magic as her main.

It seems that she was really taken aback with the fact we hadn’t learned any revival magic, because she was in high spirits when she said “Then, I’ll be using magic!” According to her, if it’s another world, then it has to be magic.

 

As a result, Saya is our tank, I’m the attacker, and the president is an all-purpose rear guard that can use recovery and offensive magic. It became a considerably balanced party. If the three of us act together, then I can look forward to a battle with confidence.

 

◇

 

When we arrived at the village, we invited the president to our home.

 

「Mari and I live together, but, what about you? If you want to live with us, we can expand the house a little.」

 

「Let me think… That proposal is tempting but… I, I want to build my own house. So, for the moment, I’ll decline living together.」

 

Once she’d decided to build her own house, the president immediately dived into construction work. The location was right besides our house and the materials were those we had picked up on our way here. Any extra materials that were needed were supplied from the storehouse managed by the village.

 

Even though tens of houses had already been built, it was sad that it had become something of a ghost town.

From the start of the game, there hasn’t been any NPCs, so if a player doesn’t log in then there is nothing but silence in town.

 

I remember that there were several questions regarding NPCs from NW Company’s interview.

Currently, there aren’t any NPCs in NW. However, in the future, they will introduce a system that will allow players to exchange the genetic data of their player characters to create the new 【Next Children】; it is the NC System.

Put simply, it’s the same as making a child. However, the life that is born doesn’t go through infancy. Instead, by inheriting both player character’s information they are born as an NPC with their own ego… or rather, as artificial intelligence… A.I., might be better to call it.

Because they inherit the knowledge necessary for living to some extent, the typical child rearing and the like are not necessary. You can say that it’s one of the conveniences of the cyber world.

 

「Mari, what’s the matter?」

 

Since Saya spoke to me while I was pondering about NPCs, I talked to her about the NC system.

 

「A child, huh… It’s still too soon for us… but if Mari wants to, then I’m okay doing it whenever.」

 

Hmm? If I want to? Okay whenever?

Not understanding what she meant, I asked her to explain.

 

「Uhmm, okay to what?」

 

「Eh? Since you went out of your way to talk to me about NC, I thought that you wanted to have a child with me.」

 

「Wha… what are you talking about!? Indecent! Pervert!」

 

Saya seems to have interpreted it as me courting her, so she had an outrageous misunderstanding.

Noticing the unusual… or rather, the first time that I had raised my voice, the president who had been crafting by herself, stopped her work and approached us as she asked 「What happened?」

 

「Saya suddenly said something similar to sexual harassment…」

「Eeh!? You were the one who brought it up, right!?」

「Ah, that reminds me, Saya was looking at perverted sites and got a virus, right!?」

 

The president, upon hearing that, gave Saya a look of disdain.

 

「Wait a minute! It’s not like that at all, okay!? Mari, did you lose your memory again!?」

 

The president, after hearing about the situation, said 「Originally, I thought that the two of you never quarreled, but in actuality, you do have lovers’ quarrels, huh?」. While amazed at the both of us, she returned to her crafting work. Saya and I shouted 「It’s not like that, okay!?」, and chased after her to help with her work.

 

◇

 

「Isn’t it way too close?」

 

Saya suddenly muttered as we were working. That’s right, the distance between the president’s house and our house is obviously very small. They are so close that there isn’t even enough space for a person to go through.

 

「Not at all… This much is normal.」

「No way, no matter how you think about it… …You, by any chance, are you lonely?」

 

Come to think of it, the president’s parents are so busy with work, that there are a lot of times when they don’t come home…

 

「U-uhm. President, would you like to live with us after all? If we all live together, then it will be more fun and lively, you know.」

 

「W-well… If you really want me to, then I can’t help but to agree to live together.」

 

I feel like I heard something similar a few days ago. Saya and I shouted at the same time,

 

「We really do!」

 

The president nodded and shyly said 「It can’t be helped.」

 

「Then, should we connect the houses?」

「Is such a thing even possible?」

 

Saya demolished the adjacent walls and covered the gap between the houses; the two houses were quickly attached to each other, becoming one.

 

「This is amazing. To be able to renovate it so easily.」

「It’s a privilege unique to the world of data after all.」

 

The house was completed without any problems. As the three of us discussed what to do from now on, Seira-san logged in.

Since it was the first time the president and Seira-san had met, we introduced her to Seira-san and then the four of us decided to level up together.

 

◇

 

「A rumour… is it?」

 

During the middle of our hunt, Seira-san brought up a rumour that had become a popular topic on the boards.

 

「That’s right. A player that closes in silently, and when they find a player that’s enjoying NW, without a word, they start to PK… And then, any player who loses that battle will never be able to log in again.」

 

A PKer… We haven’t really expanded our area of activities past the village very much, but I wonder if we will meet one someday if we continue our adventures.

 

「To not be able to log in again, isn’t it just someone making excuses because their account got suspended?」

 

「Who knows, right~. It’s a rumour that was spread through SNS three days ago.」

 

If that PKer does exist, then wouldn’t the culprit be one of NW Company’s employees? I can’t think of it being anything other than an administrator making a show of suspending accounts…

Saya seems to have thought the same as me, but the president went 『That’s an interesting rumour. Tell me more.』 With a serious expression, she was completely invested in Seira-san’s story. Just like her desire to be transferred to another world, the president seems to be the type of person who searches for such stimulus.

 

「Well, if you think about it normally, then an administrator is the culprit. However, the players that were killed are saying that they were just playing normally. In addition, if you inquire about it, the administration replies with generic answers. “There is no such thing” they say.」

 

『And also, I heard that the rumoured PKer leaves behind a special sign.』

 

――Red shining cuts in the shape of a cross.

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Chapter 12 END

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Goddess bless