Chapter 487 - A Sudden Invitation
“—Let’s go to the sea.”
It was seven in the morning, the day after the event.
At the first words uttered by the ‘Princess’ who had visited my room so early, my thoughts came to a grinding halt, and I froze for a full five seconds.
While my eyes were seared by a beauty so dazzling I hadn’t seen it in what felt like four days, my sleep-addled brain tried to process the meaning of the words formed by her sweet voice.
I’d gone to bed immediately after Nia left yesterday, so I’d gotten a solid eight hours of sleep. But since I’d only woken up five minutes ago, my brain was having a hard time getting to work.
I was probably still feeling the fatigue of what had been one hour but felt like four days and three nights. After desperately trying to get my sluggish thoughts—a far cry from how I wake up in the virtual world—to turn, I finally managed to speak.
“…………Sorry, I have thalassophobia.”
What came out of my mouth was, truly, a sleep-talking response.
◇◆◇◆◇
“—My, a villa.”
“Yes, on the coast just outside of town. It has a private beach.”
“Um… I’m not really a fan of the ocean, or water in general.”
“It’s not truly hot yet, so the water won’t be warm enough to swim comfortably anyway. You can just think of it as a trip.”
“Oh, well, if that’s the case—that’s not the point.”
This was just too sudden, without any warning whatsoever.
I had anticipated that after the first world event, I’d be summoned by Ashe or Goldow right away. There were mountains of things to discuss, from sharing information about the event to the matter of expanding the teleportation system that we’d put on hold.
So, I wasn’t surprised that she had visited first thing in the morning, but her completely unexpected opening line had made me freeze up magnificently.
She herself seemed perfectly at ease, enjoying the coffee I’d served her, but my mind was a chaotic mess of confusion and question marks.
“Wh-why? What’s with the sudden invitation?”
“I think any invitation to go on a trip would be ‘sudden,’ no matter when I asked.”
“That’s true—no, that’s not what I mean. In many ways, is this really the time for something like that…? Wait, wait, don’t look so down. I’m not saying I don’t want to go.”
It’s nothing new that while her expressions are muted, she is by no means emotionless.
Sensing that Ashe was starting to look just the tiniest bit sad at my constant questioning and avoidance of a yes, I quickly threw in a follow-up to reassure her.
She may have fewer facial expressions than most, but this princess is, in fact, one of the most emotionally expressive people I know.
“It’s just so sudden that my brain can’t keep up. Don’t worry, I’ll listen with an open mind, so just explain the why and all that, one thing at a time. Okay?”
“…Mm, okay.”
Ever since I’ve been able to read her expressions to some degree, I feel like I’ve only gotten weaker to her, rather than gaining an advantage.
Every single one of them, these girls are infinitely crafty.
“Alright, then, let’s start with… the ‘why.’ I’ll repeat myself, but what’s this all of a sudden?”
I’ll start with a jab—or so I thought. By starting with “why,” I had to admit I was still half-asleep.
“I’m envious of Nia.”
“Ngh, gack…”
“I want to have a sleepover with you, too.”
If my head had been working as usual, even for a second, I should have been able to predict the fastball of a straight answer she hurled at me.
This was no time to be leisurely sipping coffee.
“Cough… Didn’t you say you weren’t jealous?”
“I never said that. I simply said, ‘If it’s Nia, then it’s fine,’ and held my complaints. I was envious, and I was jealous.”
“I-I see…”
If this were Sora or Nia, you could say her expressionless face was a magnificent pout. It was already a given that every word from this fatally honest bombshell was true, but when you added her expression to the mix, the destructive power was immense.
The world praises her with phrases like ‘a serenity like glass’ or ‘a beauty like thin ice,’ but the more time I spend with her, the more those images fade from my mind.
This girl is, really, just plain adorable—that’s all she is.
Of course, my reverence for the [Sword Queen] as someone cool, beautiful, and amazing is endless… but that’s one thing, and this is another.
“L-let’s move on… Um, about whether we have time for something like this.”
If I kept trying to face this pure nuke head-on, I’d just evaporate. Sometimes, it’s crucial to parry in order to keep facing her, so I smoothly brushed it aside and moved on to the next question.
Let’s just ignore the fact that I didn’t parry it at all, and that even a glancing blow took a huge chunk out of me.
“We have time. Or rather, time was made. Specifically, the raid on the next Colored Monster—the one against Green Connect—has been postponed for three months.”
“Oh?”
This was likely a shift to a more serious topic. As I recomposed myself and faced her, Ashe also switched to her role as the representative of Sotalm and laid out the key points.
First off. The ‘Tamed Beasts’ unlocked in the recent event have an extremely high probability of bringing a revolutionary advantage to the Green Connect raid. Therefore, it was decided that it would be better to take time to secure and raise useful Stardust Beasts.
When I asked when and where that conclusion was reached, she said it was at the Sotalm leadership meeting held early this morning. Apparently, they gathered at five a.m.
Should I praise the Southern Faction for their high motivation, or see our Eastern Faction as lax for having no prior arrangements or post-event summons…? In any case, that’s how it is.
As expected, the world event, [Starry Paradise], has been made a semi-permanent feature, albeit an irregular one. I assume all players received an additional notification upon logging out, but the gist is that the ‘Alv Nykuro (Mirror-World of the Sky)’ will now open at a mostly fixed interval.
That crucial interval is roughly every two months. Whether to be surprised at how frequent that is or not is debatable… but based on this, our group probably rushed things too much.
I bet the original design was for players to progress through the stages over the course of several events. Just a guess, though.
Anyway, for those reasons, the judgment was that we should wait for the second event in two months—at the beginning of August. It’s a directive set forth in the Southern Faction’s meeting hall, led by that ‘Queen.’ I’m sure all the other factions will agree without question.
And, if we’re talking about the beginning of August—
“The next Four Pillar War is after that, so we won’t be able to make a move until September.”
“Exactly. I’m looking forward to my revenge.”
Yeah, but I didn’t win, you know…
“This isn’t me being pessimistic, just a calm assessment, but… if you had come at me full-force, all-out, and at max tension from the start, I think my chances of winning would have been zero.”
“Hehe.”
“Hey, don’t ‘hehe’ me… oh, whatever.”
For now, I’ll set aside the terrifying ‘revenge’ of the future. The point is, we now have about two months of free time… though I’m not sure if I can call it that.
“I mostly get it. I still think I should be focusing on my own training, but… well, if that’s the case, I guess going out for a bit is fine.”
“Yes. We can be away from the virtual world for about a week without any problem.”
“You plan on going for a whole week???”
She returned my retort with a slight smile, but whether she was joking or not remained unclear. It’s not like it’s inconvenient for me—oh wait, yes it is. I’m a current university student.
“Um, Ashe-san. I have university, so I can’t really be gone for that long…”
“If you’re a ranker in Arcadia, you should be able to get plenty of accommodations for your attendance.”
“Hey, wait a minute, are you planning to just brute-force this?”
Considering the university’s past actions… or rather, Chairman Kunori-san’s responses, what Ashe was saying was probably true, which was its own kind of terrifying darkness.
I mean, if you consider a ranker to be equivalent to or even more significant than a professional athlete, maybe that’s just ‘how it is,’ but to me, this is still a ‘game for fun’…
Besides, if we’re going on a trip, it’s literally just for fun. There’s no pretext or anything; it would be a completely and utterly inexcusable case of playing hooky.
“…Being serious is a very good thing. You’re admirable.”
“I don’t think I’m admirable… I’ve been skipping a lot as it is, and I’m not keeping up with my studies at all…”
What’s scary is the thought that I might just coast along and graduate like this. If that was all I wanted, I wouldn’t have chosen to stay in university in the first place.
“Then, let’s do this.”
Not that I had any intention of refusing. I was planning to propose and negotiate for a shorter trip over the weekend.
But perhaps she thought my response would be negative… or maybe she just really wanted a more leisurely schedule—
“During the trip, I will become your temporary tutor and teach you.”
“Huh?”
At the unexpected ‘let’s do this’ that came from Ashe’s mouth, I let out a dumbfounded sound, but the Princess’s expression was dead serious.
“If you’re not keeping up with your studies, then there’s no point in just casually attending university.”
“Guh…!”
And just like that, a direct blow pierced my chest, inflicting a mortal wound. The punch of sound logic from the very person trying to drag me down this non-academic path was so heavy it stunned me.
“So, you can think of it as a training camp to catch up and get back on track.”
“No, no, no, hold on. You’re saying some plausible things, but the idea of you teaching me in the first place is…”
I was about to say ‘is that even possible,’ but the next moment, I thought, ‘it probably is, isn’t it?’ and was surprised at myself once again. I mean, I have no basis for it, other than knowing she’s exceptionally smart, but such a ridiculous idea—
“I don’t have a teaching license, but I think teaching a first-year university student should be no problem. At the very least, as long as it’s not a highly specialized field, I have a grasp of what a typical university student learns by graduation in most subjects.”
Other than, knowing, she’s exceptionally, smart…………
“Um… excuse me, but how old are you again?”
“Nineteen.”
“I’m eighteen and a first-year university student, you know…”
“I know. But I graduated from university four years ago.”
“…, …”
What age did she enter to do that, what university did she graduate from, which country was that university even in—I swallowed the flood of questions I wanted to ask but was also afraid to ask, and for now—
—About ten minutes later.
“……………I’ll… uh, consider it very, very positively, if that’s okay?”
“Mm. I’ll be waiting for a favorable reply.”
As Ashe flawlessly and meticulously explained every question from the notebook I’d pulled out of my university bag at a glance, all I could do was stare at her with pure awe.
Who was the idiot who called her ‘just plain adorable’?
Show some respect, you fool. Address her as Professor Alicia White and revere her.