[Party]Guardian: Good work, everyone ^^
<‘Guardian’ has sent you a friend request. Do you want to accept?>
The system window popped up the moment the hunt ended.
As if I’d accept that.
[Party]Guardian: ^^
When I declined, Guardian just gave a clean goodbye and left right away.
Kind of felt like he didn’t want to stay with us any longer than he had to.
So why send a friend request in the first place? Creepy bastard.
[Party]DuckButtHee: I’m gonna head off too
[Party]DuckButtHee: Bye-bye, 『rainfall』~
Duck only said goodbye to 『rainfall』, then ignored me and left.
What a fucking great guild we’ve got here.
I wanted to ask if our guild master had any idea this was what things looked like.
[Party]『rainfall』: Then let’s go clear the quest
[Party]kk1234: Yeah, yeah...
We went back to the princess to complete the quest.
She apparently didn’t have anything better to do.
Saying she had to accuse the chancellor of treason, she gave us another quest.
[Cecil Riphart] One of the pieces of evidence proving Ast’s treason is in the possession of the lord of Triquila.
[Cecil Riphart] Tell the gatekeeper that you were sent by the bard Sylvia, and ask to meet the lord and request the token.
[Hidden Quest: Evidence]
Ask the lord of Triquila [Russell Triquila] for the token that will be used to accuse Ast of treason.
Condition: Talk to NPC [Russell Triquila]
Reward: Experience
[Party]kk1234: This is gonna be a fetch-quest loop, isn’t it
Quests like this were always the same pattern anyway.
No way Triquila just hands it over.
If it was going to be that easy, the princess wouldn’t bother sending us.
Game quests always come mixed with some kind of grind that looks pointless on the surface.
The poor gamer who has to reach the objective just ends up forced to comply with those inefficient demands.
And sure enough, the lord gave us a quest.
[Russell Triquila] Even if it is at that person’s request… this isn’t something I can hand over to just anyone.
[Russell Triquila] I can only give it to someone who has at least the minimum qualifications.
[Russell Triquila] May I test whether you possess those qualifications?
[Hidden Quest: Proof of Qualification]
Prove to the lord of Triquila [Russell Triquila] that you possess sufficient qualifications.
Condition: [Hard Tooth of Blue Ough] ×100
Reward: [Azure] Rune
Big fancy speech, but in the end it was just, “Go beat up some monsters and bring back quest items.”
[Party]kk1234: Guess he really did give us one
[Party]『rainfall』: Better that he does
[Party]『rainfall』: If you have to loop for a bit, it means it’s a good quest
[Party]kk1234: I mean, yeah
You don’t get insane rewards from a quest that ends in two clicks.
Not that a long-ass quest automatically gives good rewards either.
Still, the EXP rewards were nice.
We were leveling at about the same speed, or a bit faster, than the guildies following just the main quest.
I checked the clock.
It was almost six in the evening before I knew it.
[Party]kk1234: You’re gonna go eat, right?
[Party]kk1234: I’ll go eat too then
[Party]『rainfall』: ?
[Party]kk1234: It’s six
[Party]kk1234: You’re not gonna eat?
[Party]『rainfall』: How do you know what time I eat?
Was that him asking how I knew?
The fuck.
[Party]kk1234: Like I wouldn’t know?
[Party]『rainfall』: lol
[Party]『rainfall』: Eating is a pain
[Party]『rainfall』: I’ll grab something quick and we can keep running
[Party]kk1234: ok
Spending the whole day gaming with him today, I realized something:
『rainfall』 actually knew how to pretend to be more normal than I’d thought.
Not that you can call someone who sharpened his blade of revenge for six months and then chased me around for a whole month “normal,” but…
He was, surprisingly, at least someone I could game with.
I wondered what to eat for dinner, then dumped some rice into a big metal bowl, added assorted vegetables and red pepper paste, mixed it up, and went back to my computer.
[Party]『rainfall』: Sorry
I’d just taken a spoonful when 『rainfall』 suddenly apologized out of nowhere.
[Party]kk1234: For what
[Party]『rainfall』: I’m supposed to eat properly at the table
[Party]『rainfall』: Not in front of the computer
[Party]kk1234: lol
So he lives with his parents?
Then yeah, that tracks.
I’m only eating in front of my PC because I’m at my own place.
If I were at my parents’ I’d get smacked upside the head for that.
[Party]kk1234: Got it, go eat
[Party]『rainfall』: I’ll be back at seven
[Party]『rainfall』: Thanks
Needlessly polite bastard.
Standing in some realm of crazy I couldn’t understand, 『rainfall』 disappeared for a bit like that.
From what I’d seen so far, 『rainfall』 played from around eleven in the morning to two or three at night.
Rather than sitting and grinding nonstop, he took breaks here and there.
On top of that, he logged in every weekday, five days straight, and only came on intermittently on weekends.
“Is he on break too?”
Judging from everything, he didn’t seem that much older than me.
Exactly one hour later, 『rainfall』 came back.
Weirdly precise bastard.
*****
We collected all the quest items and went back to the NPC.
Then the guy opened his mouth and said some brain-smashing bullshit.
[Russell Triquila] The evidence lies deep within Arsen’s Spring.
[Russell Triquila] Arsen’s Spring is a dangerous place, but if you two have slain a hundred Blue Oughs, you should be plenty capable of going.
[Hidden Quest: Evidence in the Deep Spring]
You have proven your qualifications to the lord of Triquila [Russell Triquila].
Now, attack [Arsen’s Spring] to find the token [Cecil Riphart] requested.
Condition: Clear [Arsen’s Spring] together with ‘『rainfall』’
Reward: Lloyd’s Dagger
[Party]kk1234: Fuck
[Party]kk1234: Just send us there right away, man
Of course the evidence wasn’t something he was actually holding; this was classic fetch-quest bullshit where he made us run around first.
There weren’t many people at [Arsen’s Spring], the dungeon in the middle of Lapir Great Forest.
Just in case, I searched the dungeon name on the general board.
The place was infamous for having filthy patterns compared to the loot and EXP.
I figured that just meant they were all trash and swaggered in feeling good about myself, but…
[Party]kk1234: Fuck, this dungeon is nasty
We were maybe a bit underleveled, so getting hit did hurt,
but the bigger problem was how disgusting the dungeon gimmick was.
There were hourglasses all over the dungeon, and when all of them ran out, a bunch of platforms appeared.
If you didn’t step on the glowing-colored platforms at the same time, a poison fog came out.
Actually stepping on the platforms wasn’t hard.
The problem was that 『rainfall』’s pathing and mine kept getting tangled.
The platforms spawned all over the place, so it was hard to agree where to go in advance,
and on top of that, monsters kept respawning, so we had to draw aggro and kill them….
It was chaos.
I could really feel the limits of just using chat.
After we almost cleared it twice and died at the exact same spot both times, anger flared up in me that this wasn’t going to work.
[Party]kk1234: Hey
[Party]kk1234: Wanna hop on Discord?
[Party]『rainfall』: No
[Party]kk1234: Then how about in-game voice?
I wondered if he just didn’t want to give out his Discord ID, so I asked.
Aurora supports in-game voice chat, so we didn’t need to add each other on Discord to talk.
『rainfall』 didn’t answer my suggestion for a while.
[Party]kk1234: If it’s awkward, I’ll just talk on my end
[Party]『rainfall』: No, I was looking for my headset
[Party]『rainfall』: Let’s do it, I’ll find it and come back
…Honestly, I thought he’d recoil and refuse.
But 『rainfall』 accepted surprisingly easily.
I put on the headset I had next to me.
“Can you hear me?”
『rainfall』’s answer came much later than mine.
He must’ve spent the time digging up his headset, but….
…That voice was not what I expected.
『rainfall』’s voice sounded like someone around my age.
Not too high, not too low.
It had this slightly gentle, friendly lilt that was kind of embarrassing,
but not in a way that felt off—just a soft voice that fit.
I mean, sure, it’s a prejudice, but I had a picture in my head because of his personality.
I was expecting something more uptight and stiff,
or like some gloomy chuunibyou shut-in otaku.
Right?
This is a guy who held a grudge over something from six months ago and went as far as stalking me to get revenge.
If you glue that background together with this voice, they really don’t match….
“No… I hear you fine.”
I scrambled to answer 『rainfall』.
Why the hell was I so tense over another guy’s voice?
Reminding myself again that the person on the other end was 『rainfall』,
the one who’d obsessively beat the crap out of me, helped calm my nerves down.
Unlike me, 『rainfall』 didn’t sound shaken at all as he calmly explained.
“Okay.”
“Yeah.”
I couldn’t afford to trip up because I got charmed by some guy who’s the same gender as me.
I snapped myself into focus.
It was like he was reading a book out loud, not playing a game.
He sounded kind of laid-back,
but his calls were quick and precise, so there was no room to screw up.
Thanks to that, we cleared the gimmick we’d been floundering in all at once.
“Voice chat?”
“Sure, whatever.”
Since he said he’d keep it on, I figured he’d make small talk or something,
but 『rainfall』 didn’t really say much and just played.
And from there on, there weren’t any sections hard enough to need callouts,
so an extended stretch of silence followed.
When we were fighting the boss, 『rainfall』 opened his mouth for the first time.
We were only missing it once because it was our first time, and he says that.
I shot back immediately.
“I am doing it properly.”
“Hey, just do your damage.”
I saw 『rainfall』’s character stand still for a moment and yelled at him right away.
Then he went silent again beyond the headset.
And a storm of damage followed.
With him pouring on that kind of firepower, the boss collapsed in no time.
[System] You have obtained the quest item [Lloyd’s Dagger].
“Phew.”
As I was catching my breath for a second, 『rainfall』 said that one line,
then immediately turned off voice chat.
I followed him and turned mine off, then put my hands back on the keyboard.
[Party]kk1234: You cut it off sharp, huh
[Party]『rainfall』: Was there anything left to say?
[Party]kk1234: Nah
[Party]『rainfall』: You’ve got a nice voice, by the way
Out of nowhere, 『rainfall』 complimented me.
I blurted out nonsense because I never expected to hear that from him.
[Party]kk1234: Yours is nice too
[Party]『rainfall』: Thanks
What the hell is this, a blind date chat?
I only had time to feel awkward for a moment before 『rainfall』 said goodbye.
[Party]『rainfall』: Anyway, we got the quest item, so I’m gonna head off
[Party]kk1234: Already?
It was only ten at night.
Originally, 『rainfall』’s playtime overlapped almost perfectly with mine.
We usually played until two or three in the morning,
so this was prime gaming time….
Wait. No way.
[Party]『rainfall』: I’ve been matching my schedule to yours this whole time. Now I should go back to my normal routine.
You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.
[Party]『rainfall』: See you tomorrow
And with that, 『rainfall』 instantly logged off.
I was seriously pissed off, this bastard.