kscans

Chapter 77 - A Request for Cooperation

His course of action was set. Persuade Diite. He would have to make various preparations for that, but it likely wouldn’t be finished in a day.

With that in mind, Hayato first contacted Ney.

He sent a voice chat request, and it connected immediately.

"Hayato? What’s wrong? Today’s the last day of the Clan War, isn’t it?"

"Ney, I have a favor to ask."

"Wh, what’s with the sudden seriousness. If it’s a favor from you, Hayato, I’ll do anything."

"Then please. There’s something I need you to do at a place I’m about to tell you."

"Got it. I don’t know what it is, but if it’s a request from you, Hayato, I’ll do it!"

"Thanks. First, go to the residential space in the fourth sector of the Factory..."

"Wait, wait, wait! The place you want me to go is a real place!?"

"That’s right. I don’t have time for a detailed explanation, so I’ll skip a few things, but right now, if I log out, I’ll never be able to log into this game again."

"...Huh?"

"I still have things I need to do in this game. I can’t log out."

There was no reply from Ney. She might not believe him, but Hayato continued anyway.

"The headgear has a safety feature, and apparently, if my body weakens, it’s designed to log me out automatically. I want to avoid that. That’s why I need you to inject an energy tube into my body."

Energy tubes that provided enough nutrition to live on if you had three a day. He wanted her to inject that into his real body. That was Hayato’s request.

"Ney, you’re the only one I can ask this of. Of course, the members of Kokuryu are the same, but among them, I trust you the most."

"Hayato..."

"Besides, you were born on Earth, right? You’re closest to the Seventh Satellite Station, which can get you to the Factory space colony."

"N, not true, I’m a career woman working in a city like Central!"

"You can drop that lie already. Besides, someone who can work in Central would have to be Earth-born in the first place... Ney, listen, I’m from the Factory, in other words, the laboring class. You might have been born into the capitalist class, Ney, but please, I’m asking you to grant my request."

Ney had seemed not to need the prize money, so Hayato suspected she was likely from the capitalist class. If so, she had no reason to listen to the request of someone from the laboring class like him.

Normally, there was such a class difference between them that they wouldn't even be able to speak, but even so, Hayato had no choice but to ask Ney.

Ney was silent.

It’s no good, Hayato thought, just as he was about to give up, he heard her voice.

"Hayato, what are you saying. We’re friends, aren’t we? We’ve been playing together for over two years. A difference in class isn’t going to change our friendship now!"

"Ney..."

"Tell me the location. My Foundation will take full responsibility for protecting your body, Hayato! We’ll take good care of you for a week, or even a month!"

(Did she say Foundation? What kind of rich girl is she... no, but if that’s the case, it helps. If I don’t have to worry about my body and the forced logout, I can focus on things here.)

Hayato gave Ney his address and also told her he had something he needed her to do in the game, so he wanted her to come back. He also contacted the former members of Kokuryu and made a request.

It was a request to gather the materials needed to make the weapon written on the paper Esha had given him.

Whether the members of Kokuryu were too kind, or because of their friendship with Hayato, they agreed to his request without saying anything in particular. They said they would gather them immediately and each went off to do their part.

(I can’t thank everyone enough. There was talk of an offline meetup, so I’ll have to treat everyone. Though that alone won’t be enough.)

Hayato thanked everyone once more in his heart, and then decided to head for the Maid Guild.

The Maid Guild in the Royal Capital. It was as it always was, but since it was during the Clan War, there were few players. Most were NPCs.

(Esha should have been fighting the Maid Chief. But Esha came to help me. I don't know the circumstances of how she was able to come, but at the very least, Esha won, right? If the Clan War is over, the Maid Chief should be here.)

With that thought, Hayato entered the cafe.

He then spoke to one of the waitresses. As Hayato expected, the Maid Chief had already returned.

Hayato expressed his wish to see her, and was led by the waitress to the Maid Chief’s office.

The Maid Chief remained seated in her chair and greeted Hayato with a smile.

"Welcome, Hayato-sama. Thank you for your hard work in today’s Clan War."

He felt a little uneasy at how good the Maid Chief’s mood was, but Hayato got straight to the point.

"Maid Chief-san, I’m the savior of the Maid Guild, right?"

"So you finally admit it. Very well, I will give you Esha."

"No, that’s not it."

"It is fine. I understand. Esha was very serious today. I wondered what was the matter, but so that was it."

Hayato didn’t understand what the Maid Chief was talking about. What did she even mean by Esha being serious?

"Um, what are you talking about?"

"You are talking about taking Esha, are you not? Esha said so today, during the Clan War. She said she was going to her master’s side, and asked me to let her go. Of course, I gave my permission."

That wasn’t what he meant. Hayato thought so, but let it be. He didn't have time to explain.

"Um, we can talk about that later, but I actually came here with a request."

"What might that be? I can arrange a wedding venue if you like."

"That’s not it. I want you to spread a rumor."

"A rumor?"

"I want you to spread a rumor everywhere that there will be an event at the Demon Lord’s Castle. There are maids all over the world. If you all spread the rumor, everyone will go to the Demon Lord’s Castle."

Diite was in a location deep within the Demon Lord’s Castle. But the castle was a den of vicious monsters, and it would be impossible for Hayato and the members of Kokuryu to go alone. And besides them, Hayato had no other players he could ask.

So, what he came up with was to spread false information that an event was taking place at the Demon Lord’s Castle. If he did that, there was no doubt that a large number of players would go to that location. His plan was to mingle with that group and go deep into the Demon Lord’s Castle.

And the best people to spread that false information were the maids of the Maid Guild. With that in mind, Hayato had come all this way.

"Hayato-sama? Is this story actually true?"

"No, it’s a false rumor."

"I cannot do that. If it is discovered to be a lie, the Maid Guild will be criticized."

"Please, somehow. Right, please make me the main culprit and frame it as the Maid Guild being deceived, if you do that..."

"The moment we say we were deceived, the Maid Guild’s reputation will fall. In the first place, why would you lie about an event happening at the Demon Lord’s Castle?"

Hayato hesitated, wondering if he should tell the Maid Chief the circumstances.

There was a possibility that the Maid Chief was on the side of the god, Diite. He would be in trouble if he told her the truth and she passed the information on to Diite. He didn't think she would resort to harassment like making the monsters in the Demon Lord’s Castle stronger, but he wanted to keep his actions as secret as possible.

The Maid Chief seemed to sense Hayato’s feelings and nodded with a smile.

"You have some circumstances you cannot speak of, do you not? And I see that Esha is involved in them, am I wrong?"

"How did you..."

"A maid’s intuition, perhaps. You have seemed very flustered for a while now, Hayato-sama. I simply thought it was because Esha was involved."

She wasn't wrong. He was indeed flustered, and it did involve Esha. However, when he looked into the Maid Chief’s eyes, he felt a certain warmth. He also had a feeling that she was making some tremendous misunderstanding.

Hayato wondered what to do, but decided there was no point in hesitating and nodded.

"That’s right. I can’t go into details, but I really need you to make it seem like there’s an event at the Demon Lord’s Castle."

"...Very well. In that case, let’s hold an event hosted by the Maid Guild. By offering some kind of prize, we can make it a real event."

An event hosted by players instead of the administration was a common sight in other online games. This time it would be hosted by an NPC, but there wasn't much difference.

Hayato was pleased, thinking that this would surely gather players at the Demon Lord’s Castle.

"Thank you very much!"

"Please wait. However, if we are to do this, we must solve another problem."

The Maid Chief stopped Hayato, who was bowing his head in delight.

"The prize for the event, it is difficult for the Maid Guild to prepare one. As someone who has mastered production skills, Hayato-sama, do you not have something? Preferably, not food or weapons, but something more like a commemorative item would be good."

"A commemorative item, you say... I don’t know if it would be commemorative, but I have the Demon Lord’s autographed card, how about this?"

Demon Lord Lunaria’s autograph. It was an item with an undroppable attribute, but it could be transferred.

"You have quite a rare item. The people in the Demon Country will surely want this."

(I see, so it can be for NPCs, not just players... now that I think about it, players wouldn’t really want this, would they.)

The Maid Chief took Lunaria’s autographed card from Hayato and nodded.

"Understood. We will hold the event with this as the prize. Now, what format shall the event be?"

"What format?"

"There are various types of events. Defeating monsters is the most common form. Or collecting items dropped by monsters, for example."

"In that case, please make it in the form of collecting dropped items. If possible, I’d like it to be an item that only drops in the Demon Lord’s Castle, and in a way that involves defeating a wide range of monsters. Is there such a convenient item?"

Hayato’s goal was to ensure the safety of the Demon Lord’s Castle. There was no point if only specific monsters were defeated and other monsters were left alone.

"In that case, it would have to be Demon Horns. The Demon Lord’s Castle is mostly filled with demon-type monsters, so we will arrange it so that the person who collects the most of them will receive Demon Lord Lunaria-sama’s autographed card. How long should the period be?"

"Three days, please."

"Understood. I will issue such an announcement immediately."

"Thank you for your cooperation."

With that, one of the preparations was complete. Just as he thought that, the Maid Chief stopped him.

"Hayato-sama, I believe this is a favor to me, am I wrong?"

"Y, yes, that’s right. I’m grateful."

"Gratitude is unnecessary, but a reward is. Please laugh at this shameless maid."

"A reward?"

"I would like to have a meal with a wonderful man, just the two of us."

"...There is a wonderful butler in our clan, how about him?"

"As expected of our savior. Your insight is magnificent."

(Anyone who doesn’t get that would be a fool. I feel bad for Relic-san, but I’ll apologize to him later... Speaking of which, what happened to everyone else besides Esha? I need to check on that too.)

After that, he left the minor details to the Maid Chief and left the facility.

Thirty minutes later, an announcement was made to the entire game world from the Maid Guild that a Clan War victory commemorative event would be held.