kscans

Chapter 38 - The Sister

Three days after the battle against the Demon Summoning Research Association, Hayato was relaxing in his room, lost in thought.

The past three days had been quite peaceful.

He held a victory celebration where he asked Esha and Ren what sweets they wanted as thanks for their efforts in the Clan War, and gave them the highest quality versions. It had consumed a large amount of materials, but Hayato considered it a small price to pay and had been quite generous. They were very popular, and the two were in high spirits. That was one reason for the peace.

Another reason was likely that the Demon Summoning Research Association had not filed any complaints of cheating.

That Esha could defeat a boss character from a large-scale battle, and that Mist the vampire could revive during a Clan War, were both possible within the game’s mechanics. However, Hayato had thought it wouldn't be surprising if it were seen as cheating under normal circumstances. Yet no investigators had been dispatched from the Clan Management Committee.

He considered various reasons. Perhaps, contrary to their name, they were a gentlemanly clan that could accept defeat, or perhaps they thought summoning a duke-class demon was itself a grey area. In any case, Hayato was relieved that it hadn't turned into a hassle.

So Hayato was thinking about something else. The current rankings.

There were three matches left. If they didn’t place within the top five in those three matches, they wouldn’t receive any prize money. Even a high rank was meaningless if it didn’t come with a reward.

The rankings were based on a point system. Defeating a higher-ranked clan awarded a significant number of points, but beating a lower-ranked one yielded few.

Even if they won all their remaining matches, depending on the ranks of their opponents, they might not make it into the top five. They would probably have to fight and win against a high-ranking clan at least once.

Even so, matchmaking was random, and even by adjusting the clan’s shared funds, fighting a top clan was a matter of luck. There was the option of targeting a clan with a betting match, but at the moment, no top clans were participating in such matches.

What should I do? The top clans probably have good bases, so I doubt they’d bite even if we wagered this place. If only we had something they wanted.

It was right after a Clan War. Their next opponent wouldn’t be decided for about three more weeks. With some time to spare, Hayato decided to gather information on the top clans.

Just as he thought that, Esha entered the room. As usual, without any hesitation.

"Master, you have a visitor."

"This might be difficult, but could you try knocking first?"

"That would be difficult. I wish to see your surprised face. I cannot miss the chance."

"So you’re doing it on purpose. Oh well. Um, what kind of visitor?"

"Someone from the church. A young sister who says she wants to talk to you. I think it would be better to turn yourself in sooner rather than later. I will visit you, so please continue to employ me during that time."

"The guards didn’t come, so why would I turn myself in. I haven’t done anything criminal."

That said, he couldn’t understand why a sister would have business with him. Hayato decided to meet her.

Hayato went down to the first-floor dining hall with Esha. The sister seemed to have been waiting while standing.

She looked older than Ren, perhaps in her late teens. Her habit was a blue base with modest gold patterns. It was probably the church’s crest. She was wearing a veil, but he could see her light blue hair.

"Hello, Hayato-kun. I wanted to meet you."

The sister said with a smile.

Hayato was a little suspicious at being called "-kun" by a girl who seemed younger than him. She appeared to know him, but he had no memory of her at all.

"Have we met somewhere before?"

"Ah, my apologies. Come to think of it, this is our first time meeting. I have known of you for some time, so I skipped a few things. In times like these, I should introduce myself, should I not?"

"Normally, yes."

"I see. Then I shall introduce myself. My name is Diite. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Hayato-kun."

"Um, Diite-chan, do you have some business with me?"

"Diite-chan, is it. Quite refreshing. As for my business, it is to meet and talk with you. I do not usually go outside, but I found myself curious about you and came all this way."

Hayato was at a loss for words. He didn’t know how to react. It didn’t feel like goodwill, more like simple curiosity.

He took a closer look at Diite. Her name was displayed correctly, and there was nothing out of the ordinary about her. If anything, her name was yellow, indicating she was an NPC. That was all he knew.

As Hayato wondered what to do, Diite spoke.

"Hayato-kun’s clan is quite strong."

"I suppose that’s thanks to my clan members. Um, did you really just come here to talk?"

"That is correct, but are you busy? If I am disturbing you, I shall come back another time."

"I’m not that busy right now, but I don’t understand why you want to talk to me. You may know me, but I don’t know anything about you."

"I believe I just introduced myself."

"Basically, all I know is your name. From your clothes, I assume you’re from the church, but you didn’t come here on church business, did you?"

After all, Hayato had never had any dealings with the church. He thought of it as a place to learn Holy Magic or register as a resurrection point when defeated, and that was about it.

"I thought knowing my name would be sufficient, but was it not enough? Then, please ask me anything. I shall answer what I can."

She seemed a little off from common sense, but she was an NPC. He decided she must be a character with that kind of setting and decided to ask some questions.

"Um, the reason you came here was to talk to me, but where did you learn about me?"

"You won your Clan War in an interesting way. And this clan was only created about three months ago. Despite your late start compared to clans that have been fighting from the beginning, you are already A-rank and in a position to aim for the top, are you not? It would be impossible not to be interested."

That was certainly true, but Hayato wondered where she had gotten that information.

A clan’s founding date could be found with a little research. The facility where you can apply for a clan provides basic information on all clans. However, knowing they had won in an interesting way was not something one would normally know.

Hayato’s clan, Daedalus, hadn’t been featured in any videos so far, so the only ones who knew how they fought would be their opponents or someone related to the clan application facility.

"Are you perhaps from the Clan Management Committee?"

If she were a member of the Clan Management Committee, like Mist the vampire had been, it might be possible for her to check. He asked with that in mind.

"No, I do not belong to it."

"Then how do you know our victories were interesting? I thought you could only see the match details in featured videos. And we’ve never fought you, have we?"

"It is true that you have not been featured in videos, nor have we ever fought. But there are loopholes for everything. Now, are there any other questions?"

It wasn’t the answer Hayato wanted, but he judged that she wouldn’t answer even if he pressed her. All he understood was that the Diite in front of him could check on their situation in some way.

Hayato continued his questions, hoping to draw out more information.

"You wanted to talk just because we fight in an interesting way?"

"That is correct. The second Clan War was particularly good. Hayato-kun, you could have made a sword identical to the one that was stolen, could you not? Yet you went to the trouble of taking it back through a risky method. Why did you do such a thing?"

Relic-san asked me that question too. But does this mean she knows not only the details of the match but the circumstances as well? What is this NPC? Could she be an admin?

It was said that there were no characters controlled by the admins in this game, "Another Frontier Online".

There had been information on the internet before about people seeing them, but it had been proven to be false information. It was common knowledge in this game that there were no admin-controlled characters.

Just because there weren’t any back then doesn’t mean there aren’t any now. Information on the internet is restricted, so I can’t be sure, but from the way she talks, I get the impression she’s an admin. What should I do? I don’t think she’d suddenly suspend my account, but I should be careful.

Hayato’s wariness grew. Coming here just to talk was suspicious enough, but she knew too much about his circumstances. On the other hand, if she wasn't an admin, he wondered if an NPC would go that far.

However, staying silent felt like a bad idea. Besides, it wasn’t something he needed to hide. Hayato decided to answer.

"I’ve been asked that before. It’s because I was frustrated that it was stolen. And it was an item with memories attached. I didn’t want something with the same stats, I wanted to get that specific one back."

At those words, Diite’s face lit up with a smile.

"Wonderful. Even though you can create an item with the exact same performance, you took it back because it held memories. That is a truly wonderful thing."

Seeing Diite’s obviously pleased expression, Hayato was puzzled. He didn’t understand why she called it wonderful. To him, it was a normal thing to do. It wasn't something to be praised for.

"I don’t understand what’s so wonderful about it."

"That is something only I need to understand. In any case, Hayato-kun, you are quite similar to Esha-kun."

"Huh?"

Hayato let out a strange sound at the sudden remark. The girl in front of him had just said he and Esha were similar.

He knew she wasn’t talking about their looks. That was obvious at a glance. But their personalities, actions, beliefs, there were far fewer similarities than differences. He had no idea what she meant by similar.

And there was something else strange. It meant Diite had known Esha from before. If they had just met today, she couldn’t have compared him and Esha and said they were alike.

Hayato looked at Esha behind him. Esha was just staring at Diite with a frown.

Come to think of it, Esha hasn’t interrupted the conversation at all. Normally she’d say something silly.

"Esha, do you know this girl?"

"No, not at all. However, I feel as if I have met her somewhere before. Have we met before?"

Diite laughed at Esha’s question.

"Oh, how careless of me. Come to think of it, this is our first time meeting. No, we have never met directly. You are famous, so it would not be strange for me to know of you, would it?"

There was no doubt Esha was famous among the NPCs. After all, she had defeated the Hero and the Demon Lord in the previous Clan War. Furthermore, she was such a big eater that she had been banned from the restaurants in the Royal Capital. It was unlikely any NPC wouldn’t know of her.

The proof was that Ash and the others knew her, and even the butlers at the Butler Guild had given her strange looks. There were probably some NPCs who didn’t know her, but they were likely in the minority.

"I am indeed famous, and my looks are quite good, but I do not believe you would know my personality. Why do you say I am similar to my master?"

"To say you have good looks yourself shows quite a personality. It is true that I do not know the details, but there are some things I do know. To put it simply, the part about cherishing items with personal attachment. That is what I meant by similar—now then, Hayato-kun. It was good to talk with you. Please continue to do your best. I very much hope you aim for the top five in the rankings."

Diite smiled, then turned around and started to leave the base.

Hayato stopped her.

"Could you wait a moment?"

He didn’t know who she was, but Hayato thought that the vaguely mysterious Diite might be a valuable asset.

"Diite-chan, if you’d like, why don’t you join this clan? We’re recruiting members right now. If you’re as strong as you say, I’d really like you to join."

At Hayato’s words, Diite stopped. Then she turned around.

"You never cease to surprise me. You want me to join your clan?"

"On the condition that you’re strong."

"Interesting. Yes, I suppose I am strong, though it feels strange to say it myself. I am sure I can live up to your expectations."

"Then—"

"Well, hold on. When you have recruited others, you have used your production skills to give them something they want, have you not? Then, I would like you to make something for me as well."

How much does she know? Now that I think about it, it feels dangerous to let her join. Maybe I should take it back…?

Just as Hayato thought that, Esha stepped forward.

"Something is suspicious. Are you truly strong?"

"Hmm. Do you wish to test my strength? Very well, come at me."

Diite provoked Esha with a confident smile on her face.

Esha responded in kind, taking out her Beelzebub 666.