0 - Prologue

As usual, there were no customers in the Iris Brand guild house.

“Oh?” The moment Ichiro logged on, a message window popped up. He looked at it curiously.

It had been sent by way of the messaging system used to communicate along quantum pathways between players logged in to the fictional environments of the Miraive Gear. It was similar to free SNS internet communication services.

Ichiro touched the communication panel, eager to find out who it was from. After all, this communication function could only transpire between individuals who had friended each other on the Mirai Network.

The voice he ended up hearing was the last one he would ever have expected. “It’s been a while, Ichiro.”

“Well, well. Is that you, Rosemary?” he asked. “This is quite a surprise. I would never have expected you to reach out to me.”

“Yes,” the AI said. “After I confirmed that you had logged in, I judged that the correct course of action would be to contact you.”

“I can’t approve of such displays of favoritism towards individual players within the game,” he said. “You’re like a GM, aren’t you?”

Rosemary was a program which had been given arbitrary decision-making power over some systems by the game’s developers, the Thistle Corporation. She was one of several artificial intelligences that had been developed by the company president Azami Nono in her college days. She had high self-education and problem-solving abilities, as well as the ability to accumulate knowledge from users. Still, at the end of the day, Rosemary was merely a program, and it was difficult for Ichiro, a mere mortal, to determine if she was truly self-aware or not.

“Well, if you want to talk to me, I’ll oblige,” said Ichiro. “I was just feeling rather bored, anyway. I was about to head for the Spiritwood Sea.”

“Your cooperation is appreciated.” Rosemary’s response was entirely businesslike.

“That reminds me. Azami told me you’ve been acting rather willfully of late,” Ichiro said.

“I determined it unnecessary to follow illogical orders,” Rosemary explained. “They are tremendous nonsense. I have noticed many areas in which Dr. Azami is deficient both as a company president and as a game designer.”

“Of course, I suppose you can’t simply tell her that,” Ichiro agreed. It was likely that Azami was aware of her deficiencies, but it would probably be quite shocking for her to have them pointed out by the very AI she had developed herself.

The other day, the player Ichiro Tsuwabuki had had a “conversation” with Rosemary at the Thistle Corporation’s main office. Ichiro had been causing a lot of problems in the game over the last few days, and Rosemary had shown interest in him, so Azami had asked him if he would help to clear up her questions about him.

Ichiro had tried to interact with Rosemary with perfect sincerity, but Azami had called him back a few days later with an air of bafflement. What she had said, more or less, amounted to, “Rosemary has started quibbling a lot lately. Did you put ideas into her head?”

Viewing it objectively, her new behavior was clearly the result of a faithful replication of part of Ichiro’s thought patterns. If he were to mention this situation to someone like Sakurako or Iris, their unanimous response would be that it was his fault.

Of course, Ichiro’s response had been: “I didn’t put anything into her head. What you’re seeing is more likely the result of her performing her own analysis on the information she gained during our conversation.”

It was a shameless bit of self-justification—unless he meant it sincerely, in which case, it was even more shameless. And by copying this man’s thought patterns, Rosemary herself had grown into a shameless AI.

“Our conversation the other day was extremely meaningful to me,” said Rosemary. “I decided I needed to thank you again.”

“I found it rather enjoyable, myself,” said Ichiro. “Though it did create a bit of trouble for Sir Kirschwasser.”

“And I judge that that incident has not yet been resolved.”

Rosemary’s level-headed response did not faze Ichiro in the slightest. She was referring to the discord between Nem and Iris. Nem was a real-life acquaintance of Ichiro’s, one who had been inspired to issue a challenge to Iris for reasons of her own—not as a player, but as a fashion designer. It seemed like the height of pettiness for a pro to pick a fight with an amateur, but nevertheless, Iris had decided to accept.

The fact that it was Iris’s decision meant that there was nothing Ichiro could say about it. It certainly hadn’t been resolved; to the contrary, the real fight was only beginning, and there was likely nothing he could do to stop it.

“We’re back!” Felicia exclaimed. “Sheeesh...”

“In we go,” said Sir Kirschwasser.

The door to the guild house burst open, allowing ingress to one young woman and one elder Knight.

“Well, Rosemary,” Ichiro said, “my comrades just walked in the door, so I really must be going.”

“Understood. Goodbye.” With that, Rosemary simply hung up.

Perhaps the artificial intelligence’s “interest” in him was still ongoing. He was still curious to know just how deep it went, but if her interest in him hadn’t been dampened yet, then she would probably contact him again.

“Welcome back, Felicia, Sir Kirschwasser,” Ichiro said, still sitting where he was. Felicia seemed to be in rough shape.

“Thanks!” she shouted.

“Gracious, but our luck was terribly poor.” It was enough that even Sir Kirschwasser was wincing. “Warp Feathers were all sold out. There’s been a sharp drop in the number in circulation.”

“Of Warp Feathers?” asked Ichiro.

Warp Feathers were one of NaroFan’s indispensable items, a consumable that could move you instantly between towns and other points of interest. As a VRMMO, Narrow Fantasy Online’s issues with crossing over long distances were even worse than those of a standard RPG, so having Warp Feathers could literally be the difference between life and death.

Warp Feathers could only be acquired from a small number of mobs that dropped them or from NPC shops. Since there were only a certain number of each item made available in NaroFan every day, it was indeed possible to limit the circulation of Warp Feathers by buying them all out.

“Thanks to that, we had to walk all the way back from the volcanoes!” Felicia harrumphed. She seemed to find something to be mad about every time he saw her.

“I have a feeling the issue wasn’t with the circulation, but with the fact that Felicia simply forgot to buy them, yes?” Ichiro asked.

“Ah, yes,” said Kirschwasser. “That’s correct.”

At that, Felicia’s anger deflated, and she looked around awkwardly.

“But why would anyone buy up all the Warp Feathers?” Ichiro wondered. “If they mean to resell them, people will immediately find out and start a backlash against them.”

“Well, there are quite a few players who resell Warp Feathers at very high prices, but I doubt they would try to buy them all out,” said Kirschwasser.

Felicia had only noticed the lack of Warp Feathers after they’d arrived back in town, but Kirschwasser had noticed it in the market that morning. As a result, he had had to accompany her on his promise to level her up without the aid of a movement item, and since Felicia herself hadn’t had a Warp Feather either, they had had to walk back.

“Hmm...” Ichiro put a hand to his chin, closed his eyes, and thought.

“Itchy, do you have any ideas?” asked Felicia.

“No, not a one,” said Ichiro. “Not at the moment, at least.”

“Why did you try to make yourself sound so clever, then?!” Felicia pounded on the table.

Kirschwasser poured some tea with a leisurely smile. “His only purpose was to try to sound clever.”

“I suppose.” Ichiro did not attempt to deny Kirschwasser’s suggestion.

Felicia, perhaps tired of interrupting all the time, slumped over, then took a long look around the guild house. “By the way, where is Iris?”

“She’s not here yet,” said Ichiro. “She said she was going to work on her summer homework first.”

“Wow, good for her!” Felicia exclaimed, as if this was a matter that didn’t concern her, as well.

Ichiro hadn’t intended to say this to lecture her, but after a moment’s thought about the inevitable future, he decided to bring it up. “If you don’t want Aunt Yoko to scold you about it, Felicia, you should do yours, too.”

“Okay...” she muttered.