Chapter 29

Putting aside the player's situation for now, we took turns explaining the reason for being here and the current situation.

"We were commissioned by the Felskero Trade Guild. At first, we went to a village a day's walk away because fish weren't coming in from the sea. When we got there, no one was left, and there were no signs of a struggle."

"It's not that big of a deal..."

"Then we headed north to check on the other fishing villages. Two days ago, everything was still peaceful... but when the villagers started talking about 'something with the ships' around evening, the whole village was suddenly covered in fog. The villagers started falling over and turning into zombies, attacking sporadically, and occasionally strong skeletons would join in. We couldn't leave, so we ended up taking refuge here and met this kid."

"You don't have to keep using such feminine language, you know? It's breaking down and making you sound even stranger."

"Ugh..."

Quorke hung his head at Kena's comment.

The girl who had been alone, named Luka, was apparently the only survivor in the village.

Of course, Kena had been talking to her persistently to get her name. This hut had been a playground.

The fog hadn't penetrated underground, and the hut had a charm on it as a food storage, which is why it was spared from the damage.

However, to leave this place, they would have to pass through the fog, and if a child touched it, they would instantly turn into a zombie.

On the other hand, they couldn't leave her behind and risk her being attacked by the former villagers while they investigated the cause.

Quorke had been occasionally going outside to reduce the number of zombies bit by bit.

"Kena's here, so we can use various strategies. It would be safer to leave this kid with you while we investigate the cause."

"We could just cover the hut with a barrier so no one can touch it, right?"

Because she had spent a lot of time talking to children while in the hospital, Luka had clung to Kena's clothes and grown quite attached to her.

Luka was apparently just ten years old, and in a village with few children, she had grown up rather quiet.

Exis and Quorke recommended smashing everything to avoid leaving her alone and sad.

On the other hand, Kena suggested it would be better to have a rear guard.

Exis, as a player, knew that having a combat support would increase tactical options because her main character used to be one.

"Truly, the 'Considerate' Tartar Sauce. Prioritizing the child even if it hinders our actions, huh?"

"Don't call me Sauce. It's pitiful to leave a child alone here."

"No one said anything about leaving her alone..."

Kena took out a blue and a red handbell from her item box and stared at both, pondering.

Quorke didn't know the effects of the unfamiliar items, but Exis (Tartaros) had a past of being involved in a commotion caused by Kena and Ops using these handbells in the game, so she made a visibly unpleasant face.

"Why do you have two of them...?"

"Well, I played a lot, you know."

"You're such a shut-in."

"It's a compliment, really."

"Sorry, I don't understand your conversation at all."

Having not played the game for long, Quorke couldn't follow the conversation between the ultra-guild members.

Kena apologized to Quorke, who had been left out, and explained the handbells.

"You get these if you play the game for ten thousand hours."

"Having two means you're a shut-in, doesn't it?"

"Sure, a member of the Cream Team... Your level of shut-in is off the charts."

"The effect is to summon a butler or maid who will serve you for ten days for a thousand gil. Their level is half of the person who summoned them."

"I see, so you're thinking of having one of them accompany us?"

"Wrong, I'll be the one to go. I'll leave this kid's protection to you. But should I call Shi or Rox?"

"Please, not the maid. If something like that appeared in real life, I'd die of fright."

His tone was very rejecting, indicating he had a bad experience.

Quorke, whose curiosity was piqued by the problematic maid, restrained himself, considering the situation.

"But it costs money, and a thousand gil is quite a bit, isn't it?"

"Yeah, in current Riedale, that's a thousand silver coins, or ten gold coins."

"Expensive!"

Both of them were shocked and fell over in unison. Kena, who was surprised, asked in return.

"Huh? Neither of you have in-game money? One gil is one silver coin..."

Kena's light explanation made both of them fall into a daze.

Exis clenched her fist, bared her fangs, and growled, while Quorke huddled in a corner, holding his head.

Luka, worried by their strange behavior, clung to Kena's back.

"It's okay, Luka. They brought this upon themselves."

"......Hmm......"

"If only I had known that, I could have done something back then..."

"......I was working as a waitress in a bar, enduring the shame......"

"What have you been doing all this time, really?"

Kena, who understood their frustration, tried to reassure them and gently shook the blue handbell.

-- Chirin --

The aftertaste dissolved into the air, and the space in front of Kena opened up.

The items hanging on the wall of the warehouse split vertically, and the doors slowly opened, creaking. A white space appeared beyond the opened doors.

The light sound of footsteps was heard, and a figure emerged from the white space in front of Kena.

A young butler with black eyes, black hair, and black cat ears, dressed in a neat semi-formal butler's uniform, stood there.

The doors that had opened behind him had vanished without a trace.

The young butler, slightly shorter than Kena, took a few steps forward and bowed respectfully before her.

"It's been a while, Master. I have come at your call, Roxilus. Please use me as you see fit."

Kena smiled at Luka, who was still clinging to her back, staring at the miraculous sight in front of her.

To calm her down, Kena said, "It's okay, he's very kind," and introduced her to the cat-eared butler.

"I have some business to attend to, so can you take care of this girl, Luka?"

"Of course, Master."

Roxilus knelt before Luka, meeting her gaze, and bowed deeply.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Luka. I am Roxilus. Please take care of me."

Luka looked back and forth between Kena and Roxilus, bewildered.

Kena patted her back to calm her down, and Luka tentatively placed her hand on Roxilus's gloved hand.

"It's an honor to have your trust, Miss Luka."

Roxilus smiled at her, and Luka blushed and bowed.

When Kena patted her head, Luka looked up at her curiously and was then hugged tightly by Kena, who couldn't help herself.

"Rox, the fog outside is harmful, so I'll put up a barrier. I'll remove it when we're done, so please take care of her until then."

"Understood. I will protect Miss Luka with my life."

"Luka, can you stay here with Rox for a bit? I'll try to finish as quickly as possible."

Luka, who was clinging to Roxilus's waist, nodded sadly at Kena's words.

Kena smiled at Luka and turned to Exis and the others, who had been watching the situation solemnly.

"Then, let's clean up!"

"Are you a babysitter or something?"

"You seem really good at this."

"In real life, I'm bedridden, and I mostly dealt with the elderly and children."

"I see..."

Exis, who was taken aback by Kena's frank and rather pessimistic explanation of her situation, nodded in understanding.

Since she was always in the game when she logged in, she had thought of Kena as a shut-in NEET. Her perception wasn't wrong, but...

Back on the ground, with the fog making it hard to see, Kena cast a barrier on the hut, and zombies immediately began to approach.

Exis and Quorke easily fended them off, and Kena didn't need to intervene.

Considering the physical defense was handled by the two of them, Kena opened the command screen in her mind and focused on selecting the optimal magic.

Exis's weapon was a halberd, longer than her tall dragonkin height.

A hybrid weapon with a slightly larger axe part, it was designed to crush with centrifugal force.

The power generated from her 600-level dragonkin, without relying on combat skills, was enough to shatter the zombies with the shock of a single swing.

Quorke, who used two-handed weapons, was a technical fighter who switched between mid and close range.

She handled close combat with her left-hand saber, deflecting and guiding enemy attacks while letting Exis take the final blow.

Her right-hand chain whip used the combat skill "Wheel Slash" (creating a ring of wind by rapidly rotating the whip in mid-air and launching it to cut the target) to intercept the shadows moving in the fog.

The zombies were easily defeated and turned to dust.

"Good teamwork."

"We've been working together for over a year... yeah."

When they first met, Quorke's speech was decent, but being thrown off by Kena, her natural speech patterns came out, making her language messy.

Exis could only chuckle.

"Anyway, this fog event, I remember the relevant quest. It's the 'Active Skill: Enhancement' quest. The boss enemies are a ghost ship and a pirate captain."

"You remember that well..."

"Hehehe, well, I've played a lot... unnecessarily."

"You're a skill master, after all."

Of course, the information came from Key, who had accumulated a lot of data, so she laughed it off.

While Quorke kept watch, Exis turned to discuss the strategy with Kena and froze.

Kena had changed into her full combat gear, which, to her, was perfectly normal.

"Hey, it's rare for you, usually so mild, to go this far?"

"I lost one of my summons. I need to vent my frustration."

"I understand. You care about your summons, so of course you'd be angry. By the way, what did you lose?"

"...A Centaur, level 250."

"Ten days until re-summoning."

"Right."

Losing a summon doesn't mean permanent loss, but it can't be re-summoned until the level multiplied by one hour has passed.

The higher the level, the longer the restriction, a good example of the game's mechanics.

Regardless, Quorke couldn't stand being left out while they chatted casually while on guard.

Turning to ask for help, he was startled by a traumatic sight.

"W-What...! ...Ki...gi... 'Silver Ring Witch' oh!?"

"Oh, no."

"?"

The sight of Kena with silver rings floating around her waist, her special equipment, was traumatic for most who had faced her, with a few exceptions.

Exis explained to Kena, who was unaware of Quorke's shock.

"He was apparently present during a major disaster event."

"Don't call it a disaster."

Kena understood, though she didn't want to.

Kena's nickname spread due to three events: the tri-nation monthly battle right after she became a skill master, the sudden event of a monster attack on the capital of the Blue Kingdom, and the sudden event of a monster attack on the capital of the Brown Kingdom.

The main cause of the Brown Kingdom event was a test feature implemented just before the event, "Damage to buildings in area attacks."

Within just a few minutes of the event starting, the capital of the Brown Kingdom was reduced to a wasteland, as if hit by a massive air raid.

While it didn't affect NPCs, it was considered a major disaster in the history of MMO Riedale and is often talked about.

The direct cause was a large-scale meteor bombardment, and the players present witnessed the city being reduced to rubble by rocks falling from the sky with horror.

For a while, images of the tragedy circulated on the internet, and the developers revised the experimental version update and restored the capital of the Brown Kingdom.

However, the capital of the Brown Kingdom, often referred to as the "ruined city," saw a sharp decline in adventurer population.

Of course, Kena's nickname "Silver Ring Witch" became infamous, and she didn't show up in official battles for a while.

Given the history of this equipment, it was understandable to suspect it might destroy the area.

However, Kena had no such intention; she only wanted to use a holy attribute magic to clear the fog.

"Close your eyes, it's going to be bright."

"Wh-What!?"

[High-Level Magic: Ultimate Holy Light]

Without waiting for Exis's warning to Quorke, Kena's high-level holy magic exploded.

The purifying light, amplified and expanded by the silver rings, instantly dispelled the fog and eliminated the unclean beings.

The light overflowed beyond the fog barrier, engulfing the ghost ship secretly docked at the shore.

From the high-level Terraskelton pirate captain to the low-level skeleton crew, everything was purified and turned to dust, including the eerie ghost ship, which was burned to ashes by the holy light.

The magic only affected unclean beings, so the village's houses were unharmed.

After the sudden light faded, the village stood desolate, with barrels and buckets scattered around and nets rotting in the wind, the only signs that people had lived there recently.

They cautiously patrolled the area, summoning two wind spirits and two light spirits to search the surroundings.

With the western sky turning red, they decided to camp for the night after consulting with Exis.

Considering the possibility, they planned to set up a barrier in a nearby house and stay there.

"What about Luka?"

"It depends on her. She might stay here..."

"Isn't it dangerous for a child to be alone?"

Kena's murmur was met with a philosophical response from Exis and a worried one from Quorke.

Kena removed the barrier from the hut, and the door immediately opened, revealing Luka with Roxilus.

The cat-eared butler bowed, and the girl, who had been holding his hand, let go and looked around the deserted village, tears in her eyes, and ran to a house.

"Mom...!"

The desperate voice was faint, but Exis and the others watched with pained expressions.

Shaking her head at Roxilus's concerned gaze, Kena followed Luka into the house.

Roxilus, staying behind, gathered firewood from a nearby house and started preparing dinner in the kitchen.