kscans

Chapter 428 - Military Maid

Ten days after Natsu logged in, her friend Chris celebrated her birthday.

She was scheduled to log in today and come to the Eastern Country, so Parfait and Natsu were waiting at the Maid Guild.

"My friend, today we wait for Chris and then go to a candidate site to build our base, is that correct?"

"That’s right. Abel-kun and the others won’t be here for a little while longer, so I thought we’d go ahead and build the base without waiting. I think you guys will like it."

"I prefer places that seem to have dimensional rifts or abysses, however."

"I don’t think you’ll find those in the Eastern Country… Maybe in dungeons, but you have to win territory battles to get places like that."

Like the Demon Lord’s Castle, dungeons were also targets for territory battles. You had to protect a control device called a dungeon core from constantly spawning monsters, but since you could use the dungeon itself as a base, they were quite popular.

There were many other benefits, such as not having to pay monthly taxes and periodically obtaining materials like ore depending on the location. Clans with production-focused members especially aimed to make dungeons their bases.

"Someday, let us obtain such a dungeon and form an evil organization!"

"Why an evil organization…?"

"Because it is cool!"

"I can’t believe you get the top scores on tests, Natsu-chan… Oh well. By the way, have your skills gone up?"

"I have been leveling my Sniping, Necromancy, and Logging skills, and I believe they have risen a fair amount. As expected of the Necromancer Guild. It is exceptionally suspicious, but my Necromancy and Logging skill experience rises rapidly there…!"

Natsu had joined the Necromancer Guild, not the Maid Guild.

At skill level 100, Necromancy allows the use of vampire transformation magic. Natsu was leveling her Necromancy skill to become a vampire, just like her father, Mist.

"I have finally become able to create skeletons with Create Undead. Although I call them Dark Knight Type-0."

"It’s kind of like summoning magic, that’s cool. I want to tame a black cat soon, too. Ah, I want to pet something fluffy. Fluffy, fluffy…"

"My friend, calm yourself."

"…I almost crossed over to the other side. As the famous saying goes, when you pet the fluff, the fluff also pets you."

"That is about gazing into the abyss. Do not steal my dark side material. In any case, it seems black cats are a rare color among strays. The black cat we fought before, Bishamonten, is apparently always black."

"Black cats are rare and popular, so they get tamed right away. But I absolutely will not compromise…!"

"Then how about you tame Bishamonten?"

"…You can’t tame event monsters, can you?"

"Such preconceptions are not good. For the most part, this game’s selling point is that it is a virtual reality no different from the real world. I feel like game-like restrictions such as not being able to tame event monsters do not exist. How about asking at the Tamer Guild?"

"Well, Chris-chan won’t be here for a little while, so shall we go for a bit?"

"Yes, I too am interested in animals. For the dark side, a black cat is good, but perhaps a crow… no, a wolf…? For now, let us see if there are any familiar-like animals."

Once they decided, the two of them left the Maid Guild and headed for the Tamer Guild.

In the Eastern Country, a Stampede called the Hyakki Yakou occurs every week, so many guilds are destroyed. However, only the Maid Guild and the Tamer Guild have never been destroyed before.

The Maid Guild offered all-you-can-eat sweets, while the Tamer Guild offered all-you-can-eat pet food. The quantities were limited, but you could even get Nekomanma Deluxe, so the tamers worked hard to protect it.

Being a tamer in the Eastern Country was not the most efficient, but since there were unique monsters called yokai, it was reasonably lively. Nekomata, Kamaitachi, and Kyubi were quite popular.

The two of them stepped into such a Tamer Guild.

Most of what they heard was people bragging about their pets. In the past, there was a lot of talk about unknown yokai, but recently most of the information had been gathered, and sightings of new yokai were few.

Parfait bought the item "nekomanma" here in large quantities to raise her taming skill. Since she was already well-known, some of the staff had come to recognize her.

A female staff member from behind the counter smiled when she saw Parfait.

"Oh, Parfait-chan, welcome. More cat food today?"

"I’m here on other business today. Can I buy information about monsters here?"

"If you want to know detailed stats, I’ll have to charge you. On the other hand, we also buy information about new types of yokai."

"No, I haven’t really encountered any new yokai. I’ve just been defeating a lot of Kappa in the nearby river. The only drop item is cucumber, what should I do with it…?"

"Sell it or eat it… You can use it to raise your Cooking Skill, though."

Cucumbers were in a similar situation to curry, they didn’t sell at all. And unlike curry, eating them barely raised your stats. Since curry was fine for leveling the Cooking Skill, there was no need to use cucumbers.

The last resort was to throw them away, but that felt like a waste.

Putting that aside, she first confirmed the information with the staff member.

"Um, can you tame monsters from event battles?"

"Ah, that kind of information? Of course, you can. When you think of event monsters, you think of subjugating them, but taming them as a companion also counts as subjugation, so if you can, you should tame them."

"Is that so…!"

If that was the case, Parfait decided in her heart to tame the black cat Bishamonten.

"Which one are you trying to tame?"

"Um, it’s a black cat called Black-Clawed Bishamonten, but is it impossible with my Taming Skill?"

"Oh, that one’s fine. The required Taming Skill value is the same as a normal stray cat. However, the probability for event monsters is extremely low. You’ll have a tough time taming it if you don’t focus on recovery."

Parfait understood. If it wasn’t that difficult, there would be no joy in achieving it. She vowed in her heart to try to tame Bishamonten every day starting today.

She had gotten her information and was about to leave when she noticed Natsu was gone.

"Huh? Natsu-chan?"

"My friend, over here."

Natsu was looking at the bulletin board where the Tamer Guild’s requests were posted. Parfait approached and saw what Natsu was looking at. There was an illustration of a Doberman-like dog breathing fire.

"It seems to be a monster called a Hellhound. In other words, a dog from hell… Perfect!"

"It’s a little lacking in fluff, but it’s cute."

"I think it’s more cool than cute, but let’s go catch one next time. The location is… a dungeon called the Ruined City Necropolis. Another place that makes my soul tremble. I want it as my territory someday."

"Did my mom say something about that? I think she said there’s a Duke-class Demon on the lowest floor?"

"Is it not perfect in every way? Fufufu, someday I shall obtain it. But before that, a normal base… Is Chris not coming soon?"

"Oh, you’re right. Let’s go back right away. Chris-chan is strict about time."

Parfait and Natsu left the Tamer Guild and hurried back to the Maid Guild.

When they reached the entrance of the Maid Guild, they found it was a little noisy inside.

Wondering what had happened, she peeked inside and saw not a Japanese-style maid, but a perfect-looking maid sitting at a table gracefully drinking tea. It was probably surprising because you rarely saw such a classic maid in this area.

For some reason, the Maid Guild staff were also intimidated by her perfection. But that was to be expected. The person had black eyes and black hair in an updo, and wore square, under-rim glasses, giving off a serious impression.

She was a maid so perfect in appearance that she seemed unlikely to exist in reality. That maid was Parfait’s friend, Chris.

Chris stood out quite a bit, and Parfait and the others approached her.

"Chris-chan, sorry to keep you waiting."

As Parfait and the others said this and sat at the table, Chris smiled and placed her teacup on its saucer.

"Parfait, Natsu, being late is unacceptable. On the battlefield, you would be dead."

The surroundings fell silent for a moment at those words, but the hustle and bustle returned as if nothing had happened.

"Sorry, sorry. We had some time so we went to the Tamer Guild."

"More importantly, my friend, Chris. What is with that perfect appearance?"

"This belonged to my mother. I received it through Diite-dono. Looking closely, Natsu’s military uniform is also good. That direction is tempting, but I suppose I should master the way of the maid like my mother."

"Are you really aiming to be a maid like your mom, Silva-san, in the real world too?"

"I would like to pursue that path, but I have not decided yet. I am also considering being a guard like my father. So first, I am trying it out in the game."

"Your father, Gil-san, huh. But isn’t it difficult to get a job at the Foundation? Especially at Lunaria-san’s place?"

"Perhaps, but with both my father and mother there, that is no reason to give up. Now, you were going to show me a place to build a base, were you not? Let us go."

Parfait stopped Chris as she tried to stand up.

"Now, now, since you’re here, let’s have some sweets. My treat."

"I think you just want to eat, Parfait, but if you put it that way, I suppose I must join you."

"Then I shall request the ‘Pierced Moon.’"

"A lemon donut, got it. What about you, Chris-chan?"

"A protein shake with milk."

Once again, the surroundings fell silent for a moment, but only for a moment. The noise soon returned.

"Is that a sweet? And you’re drinking that in virtual reality?"

"Is that not allowed? Then I will add honey as well. I do it sometimes in the real world, and it is a good thing."

"Do they even have protein here in the first place…? Excuse me, do you have protein?"

The kitchen became noisy, but it did come out. The slight delay might have been because they had to go buy some.

Parfait felt a little sorry for the maids, but she imagined it would probably be treated as a hidden menu item by tomorrow. For a maid, "I can’t" was not an option.

And so, the three of them ate and drank their favorite things while having a trivial conversation.

Normally, this was something they did at a fast food place after school, ordering only from the drink bar, but doing it in this virtual reality made them feel a little more grown up. Even though what they were doing was not much different, Parfait was a little happy just for that.

"By the way, Chris, are you going to join the Maid Guild?"

"No, I chose a different guild."

"To say you’re not in the Maid Guild while dressed like that is amazing, but then what guild are you in?"

"The Assassin Guild."

"I see, you choose the bloodstained path…"

"Wait, Chris-chan?"

Parfait was surprised to hear it was the Assassin Guild. If it was at least the assassin course at the Maid Guild, she could understand, but she had not expected her to join the assassination-specialist Assassin Guild.

"Hear me out. The Assassin Guild gives bonuses to hand-to-hand combat skills, dagger skills, and treasure hunting-type skills."

"I guess so, but what of it?"

"It’s like military martial arts, so I decided instantly. For some reason, when I went to greet Rose-san, she cried."

"I bet. And I heard Silva-san was Rose-san’s former boss and the Maid Chief, so I think she had high expectations."

Even now, Rose sends her offers to change courses. And with various bonuses for changing courses. Not that she had any plans to change.

"I feel bad for not being able to meet her expectations, but I have already decided."

"Well, I guess it’s fine… is it? Um, so you’ve decided to fight in a boxing style?"

"That is the plan. I go to a boxing gym in the real world, but they do not let you do practical fights if you are too young. I plan to try various things here. Besides, the gloves I inherited from my mother, ‘Crazy Eraser,’ also give a damage bonus to attacks with my fists, so I will go in that direction."

Spectacularly, they had all ended up as front-liners, but this was just as Parfait had expected. They weren’t ready for an adventure yet, but her friends had finally arrived, so she renewed her determination to prioritize building a base first.

"Alright then, let’s go to the candidate site for our base soon. There’s a lake nearby, and I think it’s a pretty good place."

"Understood. I want to build a base quickly. Oh, right, you can leave the cleaning to me. Not a single speck of dust will escape."

"You’re a neat freak, aren’t you, Chris-chan?"

"Yes. I like cleaning and muscles. You could also say I like beautiful things."

Once again, the surroundings fell silent. This time, the silence was long.

"My friend has somewhat strange tastes."

"I know I am strange myself, but I do not want to be told that by you, Natsu. Muscles are superior to the dark side."

"Very well. Let us settle this here and now…! I shall request a duel."

"Alright, alright, let’s save the PvP for later. Okay, let’s go!"

After stopping the usual squabble between Natsu and Chris, Parfait led the two of them out of the Maid Guild.