Small Village Tridente Chapter 12

It's Tuesday!

Small Village Tridente – Chapter 012

rawr:

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 pa.s.sed the time by fis.h.i.+ng with fis.h.i.+ng 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 Seirsan; 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 cla.s.s 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 cla.s.sroom.

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 relations.h.i.+p 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.

These two's relations.h.i.+p might look odd if you see it outside but, somewhat Saya is showing her real self  and the President looks like she is enjoying it. I wonder if this is what they call 『They are so close that they fight』.

I don't really have someone I quarrel against with, so I was a bit jealous of their relations.h.i.+p.  Well, I don't want to quarrel with Saya, I want to be always on good terms forever.

「President have you decided on your character name?」

When starting NW, the first thing you would do is the character customization. I made mine a bit similar to myself in the real world. Saya gave the image of a female knight that was a cool and beautiful character, and made her name a bit longer into Saaya.

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

「The name will be Rin.」

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

「I see~. Suzukawa(鈴川)… suzu(鈴bell)… into Rin is it? How simple.」(9: bell can also be read as rin according to jisho)

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

School had ended and we returned home to log in. Saya and I hurried to where the President is while checking the map. Since we went to the president's house last time, we kinda have a general gist of where it is. The start point is here, so it shouldn't be that far.

We advance while we defeating the enemies along the way, and finally saw the President. Being excited to what kind of character the President has made, as we get closer… she was on the ground, and not moving even a little bit.

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

「Aaaaah, looks we didn't make it time.」

「I-It's a good a.s.s isn't it.」

I don't know what to say, so for now I praised her behind.

「Nooo! Do not look! …Wait a minute, is it Kanzaki-san and Himemiysan!? H-hurry up and revive me!」

A capable woman who can do her job smoothly in the real world, I wonder where Suzukawa Saya had gone. I didn't think that I would see her like this for the first time in this world, this miserable appearance.

「Ah, sorry. Mari and I haven't learned any resurrection magic. I'm sorry but go back to your last checkpoint. Since you still don't have any items or experience it should be fine.」

The president's character was had black hair in ponytail and her height is taller than mine. Her appearance felt similar to her appearance in reality.

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

It seems that the President, like me, was attacked by a huge mouse. As long as you have a weapon and medicinal herbs, you can defeat it without any trouble but with the poison breath steals your vision and etc, it had become the beginner killer to the beginners that met it without anything.

「From what I heard, during Kanzaki-san's pinch, someone gallantly appeared and she was successfully rescued. Why is it that when it happened to me-」

「That's why I told you we didn't make it. You died too quickly.」

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

If it actually becomes【death】when a player's HP turns 0, then that would makes this world a very risky one. If it was Earth, then it would like being thrown out into the Savanna suddenly. If you are to live in this world, then you would likely first need to have the strength to protect yourself.

「By the way, where do you get your weapons? I want excalibur or mjolnir.」

「It looks like all you have is confidence…」

Since it's impossible to have a legendary weapons from the start, all she got for now was a tree branch we picked from the ground and endure with that.

『Why do I have to fight with something like a tree branch…』 she said. She was hesitating but Saya said 「That's the legendary tree branch you know」 randomly and the president easily believed her and held it tenderly.

While the 3 of us defeated the sp.a.w.ning monsters as we headed towards our Village, the president, who leveled up, learned Magic as her main.

It seems that she was really taken aback from the fact we didn't really have revive magic, so she said “Then I'll be using magic!” in high spirits. From what the president said, if it's the other world then it just has to be magic.

In the end, Saya is the tank, I'm the attacker, and the president is a healer, magic attacker or all-rounder rear guard. The PT has gotten pretty balanced when the 3 of us act together; looks like I can look forward to a battle with confidence.

When we arrived at the town, we invited the President to our house.

「Me and Mari 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 make my own house, so for now, I'll decline living together.」

Once The president decided to make her own house, she immediately dived into construction work. The place was right beside our house, the materials were picked up on our way here. The extra material was supplied from the administration storehouse of the village.

There were already dozens of houses, but it was still like a ghost town, that is sad.

From the start of the game there were no NPC, so if a player doesn't log in, there was nothing but silence in the town.

From the interview of the NW company, I remembered the questions regarding NPCs.

Right now there no NPC in NW, but soon a system where between players' characters they can exchange dna and make the new【Next Children】, aka NC system, will be introduced.

To simplify, it's the same as making a child, but when they are born they don't start from infancy. Rather, they are born by inheriting the 2 players' information and will become an NPC with their own self… or rather, artificial Intelligence… A.I. might be better to call it.

Since they inherit knowledge necessary for living, they said that the usual child rearing is not necessary. Because it's the cyber world, you can say that it's convenient.

「Mari, what's the matter?」

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

「So a child… It's still fast for us but… if Mari wants one then, I'm ok to do it whenever.」

Hmm? If i want to? Ok whenever?

Not understanding what she meant, I asked her.

「Ummm, ok to what?」

「Eh? Since you suggestively talked about NC to me, I thought you wanted a kid between you and me.」

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

Saya, it seems like she saw it as me courting her, and had an outrageous misunderstanding.

Unusual… or rather noticing me getting riled-up for the first time, the president, who was crafting alone, stopped her work, approached, and asked「What happened?」

「Saya suddenly said something similar to s.e.xual hara.s.sment…」

「Eeh? The one who brought it up was you, right!?」

「Ah, now that I think about it, Saya was looking at perverted sites and got a virus, right!?」

The president, upon hearing that, gave a scorning look to Saya.

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

The president who heard the situation said 「Originally I thought that you two won't ever quarrel, but in actuality, what you two have is a lover's quarrel」 as she was taken aback and went back to her crafting work. Me and Saya shouted 「It's not like that okay!」, and chased after the president and helped her with her work.

「Isn't this way too close?」

When we were working, Saya suddenly muttered. That's right, the president's house and ours are obviously really close. So close that it doesn't even have a crevice a person can fit through.

「It's not like that at all… This much is normal.」

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

Now that I think about it, the president's parents are so busy that there are a lot of times they don't come home…

「U-umm. Once again, President, won't you live with us? If everyone lives together, then it would be more lively and fun you know.」

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

I feel like I heard those words a few days ago. Thus Saya and I shouted at the same time.

「We really do!」

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

「Then, should we connect the houses?」

「Can we even do that?」

Saya destroyed the adjoining walls and covered the gap between the houses; thus the two houses were quickly attached to each other.

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

「It's a privilege of the world of data after all.」

The house was safely completed and as the three of us discuss what to do from now on, Seirsan logged in.

Since it's the first time the president and Seirsan meet, we introduced Seirsan to the president and the four of us went leveling together.

「A rumour… is it?」

During the hunt, Seirsan brought up the topic that has been around the board.

「That's right, that player silently approaches and finds a player that is enjoying NW. Without saying anything, they start to PK… and then, the player who lost that fight won't be able to ever log in again.」

PK is it… We still haven't expanded our area of action but I wonder if we continue our adventure we will someday meet it.

「By not being able to log in, that is just someone making an excuse when their account got suspended right?」

「I don't really know~. It's a rumour that was scattered in the SNS three days ago.」

If this PK is real, then is the culprit the NW company's employee?  All I can think is it's just a show of the GM suspending an account…

Saya also thought the same as me it seems, but the president went『that's an interesting rumour. tell me more』. She had serious look as she had gotten invested in the rumour that Seirsan told us. Like the desire for to be transferred to the other world, the president is the type that searches for such stimulus.

「Well, if you think about it normally then the GMs are the culprit, but the players that were killed are saying that they were just playing normally. In addition, if you inquired the GMs, they would say “there is no such thing”. They would respond with such generic comments.」

「And also, I heard that  the rumoured PK will leave a special sign.」

――a s.h.i.+ning red cross cut

Chapter 12 END

G.o.ddess bless