The whole time I walked the staggering Erman back to his room, I looked for someone to help. I thought we might at least run into a soldier or a servant who could support him.
But that hope soon wilted.
Strangely, it was only along our route that nobody was around. The path was as clean as if someone had swept it in advance.
In the end, without running into a single person, I hauled Erman along by myself with great effort, and only after reaching the bedchamber where I'd first met him could I finally catch my breath.
Erman sat leaning against a high pillow. Like this, his already small frame looked even punier.
Why did Calhog hit Erman? More to the point, why did Erman?
"Why did you do that?"
A thirty-two-year-old man using a twelve-year-old kid as a shield. I could get cursed out until I choked on it and I'd still have nothing to say.
And yet Erman, with his swollen cheek, didn't even say it hurt. He only said this instead.
"You are what His Majesty gave me, so I must treasure you."
"That didn't matter. Anyway, I."
I can set my pain sensitivity, you bastard. Even if I'd been hit harder than that, it wouldn't have hurt one bit. And are you the same as me? You're only twelve.
Those words rose to the very top of my throat and only barely went back down.
"......Don't do that next time. You don't have to go that far."
"If there is a next time, I can't promise."
"So why are you doing that?!"
"Well."
Erman smiled along with a sigh.
"Because you're the first friend I've ever had."
What kind of nonsense is this?
"Friend?"
When I asked back, he turned his head away for a moment. Toward the window. Toward the shutters where dim light still leaked in, thick with dust because no one ever wiped them.
"This is the first time I've met someone my own age inside the castle."
"......"
"I can't carelessly grow close to the attendants of the court, and His Majesty's courtiers don't come near me. Until now, I haven't had many people to talk to."
"......"
"So when you came, I truly thanked His Majesty. I learned for the first time that just asking someone's name and birthplace could make me tremble like that."
"You've never had a single friend until now? Not even one? With this many people around? I'm sure when I was cleaning the corridor, there were kids about the same age—"
"The people in this castle."
Erman firmly cut me off.
"They don't wish to mingle with me carelessly."
It was too much certainty for a child to have.
But I couldn't readily deny what Erman said. What I'd overheard, looked up and felt so far was already enough. If even I could feel it, having been here so short a time, it meant Erman had already known.
Is that only natural, since he's the one living it?
Personal attendants, and not one assigned to him.
Empty corridors.
Wooden shutters thick with dust.
Careless guards.
The eyes that avoided us as we crossed the inner court.
Even the way the attendants, who never turned their backs on Calhog or Cadwin when leaving, strode out first in front of Erman.
Quiet connivance. The temperature at which they treated a person who existed only for political reasons between Calhog and Cadwin.
In the middle of all that, Erman must have been alone for a long time. Time spent as Calhog's illegitimate child and half a prince, with no friend and no adult to open his heart to.
I didn't know when he'd come into Loegria's royal castle, but it must have taken quite a while for a child to see his own situation objectively.
And then he'd met his first friend his own age, and he was just so glad.
So glad that he hadn't even shrunk from overstepping before Calhog.
When I didn't so much as budge, Erman hurriedly added.
"We haven't known each other long, so it must sound strange to you. I'm sorry if it was a burden. You needn't mind this, since I stepped in of my own accord......"
"Erman."
I grabbed the child's loosely resting hand. A lukewarm, small hand. A touch I could feel thanks to the electrode patches.
"Let's be friends."
"Albion?"
Erman's blue eyes went wide.
His hand twitched, but I paid it no mind and held on as tightly as I could.
"I'm saying let's be friends. You and me, friends. So quit talking like you forced some burden on me."
"Albion."
"At least as far as I know, stepping up for a friend is the bravest and most loyal thing there is."
Not content with making a kid this small live under everyone's sidelong glares, they shamelessly go around hitting him? With everyone pretending not to know and turning a blind eye?
Is this a country? Is it? This is child abuse, you bastards. Did the game developers throw their ethics in a shit bucket?
Looking into Erman's eyes, I spat it out clearly, one word at a time.
"I'll be your friend. So from now on, you're not alone."
"......Really?"
"Yeah. I'm not going anywhere. Never."
Ah, fuck it. They said I can't leave this country until the story or tutorial or whatever is over anyway. Then I'll just do quests at Erman's side.
Erman looked back and forth between my hand and my face in confusion, then realized I was serious, and a bright light slowly began to spread across his face.
Until a moment ago, the Prince of Loegria had been so solemn and dignified that he couldn't possibly pass for a child. Seeing him disarmed and smiling like this was a first for me too.
"Thank you. ......Albion."
A small, shy child's voice. Gripping Erman's hand tight, I made up my mind.
Erman, I'm going to make you a success, no matter what.
「Albion Story Quest:
The Power of Ogham (In Progress)
The power of Ogham is boundless. Use this power in the right place. Use the Ogham skill to grant a target a buff. (0/1)」
***
"......Jae-won, the veins in your eyes have all burst. You weren't up all night playing that game, were you? Are you okay?"
"Mind your own business. Nobody comes to the IT/Games News Team office anyway. Nobody says a thing if I catch some sleep there."
"Even if you got demoted, is it okay to go off the rails like this? Did I put too much on you for nothing? Should I talk to the chief again?"
"Forget it. Why do you act exactly like that NPC? It's gross."
"NPC? What NPC? That admirable NPC you mentioned before? That one's like me?"
"No, I said. Go away, I said. Don't stick to me! Get lost!"
Friday, the smoking area just before lunchtime.
I'd aimed for when it was emptiest, with everyone off eating or out at lunch meetings. Hwang Hyeon-seok came the moment I sent him a message, and this was what I got.
Pushing away the forehead of the guy trying to peer closely into my eyes, I snapped at him.
"I'll handle it myself, okay! More importantly, about the tip, who gave it to you? What route did it take? Did it come to the desk? Or to the tip-line email? Do you have the tipster's contact info? If you do, give it here. Contact info or whatever."
"Ah, that."
The guy backed off a little and frowned as if it was awkward.
"I don't really know much either."
"......You don't know? It's not an official route?"
"I don't think so. I heard in passing it was from an acquaintance of an acquaintance of someone at the company, or something like that. I don't know the details myself. All I did was get that USB from the chief."
"So you don't know the tipster's identity either?"
"Anonymity is the rule, after all. Just in case, I'll casually ask the chief. But you're going to contact the tipster?"
"Yeah. I looked at what's on the USB, and there's way too little information. The missing people's info turns up with just a little digging, and the only thing the tipster actually passed on is that there's a common factor called 'Brigantes Chronicle.'"
Put bluntly, that meant even someone totally uninvolved like me could make up a tip like that. There was too little information to call it a tip, so contacting the tipster was a must.
"So, whether the tipster is a family member of the missing, or whether they were personally harmed by Goldrish Games. I'm going to figure out things like that first. There's a limit to me blindly playing the game alone. Shouldn't we at least see what kind of people the missing are and what they have in common?"
"That's true. Then I should look into it too."
"By this evening, if you can. I only have time on the weekend. I can't go out on assignment during work hours like I used to without getting looks."
"Got it. Anyway, have you found anything out about the game? Like it makes you want to throw up, or it seems bad for your health?"
A serious abnormality, huh.
I thought for a moment, then answered seriously.
"Wearing the connected lenses for long stretches has made my dry eye worse. If that's a bad effect, I guess it's a bad effect."
"......Looks like you're still healthy. That's a relief. Just in case, take it easy. You could get addicted to the game, like those missing people."
"If I get addicted to a trash game like that, I'll boil soy sauce on the palm of my hand."
When I answered wearily, Hwang Hyeon-seok patted my shoulder a couple of times and went back inside ahead of me.
Game addiction, huh. ......This had better not be just an ordinary case of game addicts meeting online, plotting together and running away from home. Please.
***
After work.
I was making do with dinner alone in my home, messy with convenience store lunch boxes, when my phone rang. It was a number I hadn't saved, but the text alone told me who it was.
[Jae-won. It's Dad. Are you doing well? Your stepmother is having surgery this time, so even just to show your face once...]
Ah. That put me in a filthy mood. I should just block the number outright.
I flipped the phone over and shut it off. Sticking on the electrodes and putting in the lenses came naturally by now, and the familiar darkness bore down on me.
And the moment my vision brightened,
<-Albion! You're late!>
"Why are you so flustered? Is this the first time I've been late?"
The faintly glowing fairy fluttered frantically in front of my face. What's all this fuss the second I log in?
When I twisted my head this way and that as if dodging a gnat, Titania grabbed my face with both hands and shouted.
<While you were sleeping, Erman got summoned by Cadwin!>
What?
These bastards, again?
VR games like Brigantes Chronicle generally adopt a self-developing system with AI applied.
In other words, whether a player logs in or not, the NPCs in the game are always running a certain amount of self-directed thought computation.
And as with every game, the flow of time differs from reality. Two hours of reality are about six to eight hours here. During logout, a separate time-acceleration multiplier applies.
What does that mean, you ask?
It means that during the 21 hours I'm not in the game, Erman, left alone, is defenseless.
<This way, Albion!>
Chasing after the flying Titania, I gritted my teeth.
Cadwin, what on earth are you trying to do, taking Erman away?!