5 - Noble Son, Arrive at Your Destination

Sakurako Ogi awoke for the morning of the big fight. From her point of view, that grandiose phrasing was no exaggeration.

In order to psyche herself up, she spent the morning exactly as she always did. She cleared her head with a cold shower, then dried off her hair and combed it. She brushed her teeth, changed into her usual maid outfit, sat down in front of her vanity, and opened her makeup box.

Sakurako was preparing to do battle. For a maid, the battlefield was the same place she lived her daily life. She was always ready to fight. Her maid costume was effectively her battle uniform, and having it on put her fully into fight mode. The light makeup she wore was her war paint. She then added her lace cap, transforming into the complete Sakurako Ogi.

Pilder on!

“Okay!”

She threw up her hands and howled at the ceiling.

She prepared for breakfast, did the laundry, cleaned up Ichiro’s room in his absence, and treated herself to breakfast a little sooner than usual. On days when Ichiro wasn’t there, she would usually rustle up a more half-hearted breakfast, but not today.

Crispy fried bacon and scrambled eggs, toast, salad, and soup. She observed her table manners perfectly, and even poured herself an after-breakfast coffee.

As she had promised to Matsunaga, she sat down in the Miraive Gear Cocoon around 7 AM.

After she finished her login, Sakurako Ogi transformed once more, this time into Kirschwasser. The shift in consciousness brought her to a place that was not the Knights’ guild house she had logged out from, but a lake shore covered in mist. A few Sahagins were sleeping on the shore, showing no signs of hostility.

“Hmm...” Kirschwasser put a hand to his jaw.

This was the Mediterra Demon Sea. It was probably safe to assume that Matsunaga had been leveling him up here, although it seemed a bit inconsiderate to just leave him out in the field like this.

He opened his menu window and checked his stats. His level was over 130, which put him around the upper tier of the top players.

To have increased this much in only six hours... Kirschwasser was surprised by it, but not at all happy. It made him realize how much he had enjoyed the process of leveling himself up.

He’d made an exception and gone along with Matsunaga’s plan, since he really had wanted to stop Duplichiro himself, but he couldn’t deny that as a player, it felt like a tremendous waste.

He hadn’t explained his own build in detail, but unsurprisingly, Matsunaga had understood it very well. He had increased his stats in an extremely min-maxed manner, and had brought him to the point where he could likely equip a new tier of weapons and armor, too. Kirschwasser hadn’t lost any money on hand, but to his surprise, he hadn’t gained much, either. Perhaps the mini-quest Matsunaga had talked about didn’t earn much in the way of money, or perhaps he’d quietly taken a stipend for his assistance, but either way, Kirschwasser didn’t mind.

What about his Skills, then? Matsunaga had increased these, too, in alignment with Kirschwasser’s original build. His typically ironclad defenses had grown even stronger, and his support attacks had also been raised across the board. All of his Skill levels had increased greatly, and he was probably running drastically low on slots.

He wondered what his ATK and DEF amounted to now. He could obviously just check the numbers themselves, but he’d prefer to try them out on someone.

He looked around, but couldn’t find any mobs in range besides the Sahagins that were resting on the beach, and while they were just programs without feelings or free will, he felt a bit hesitant to attack a creature that was resting. This was not him being overly sensitive, Kirschwasser thought, but a natural state of mind for players of games. There were always going to be some monsters that acted innocently enough that it made you feel guilty about killing them.

He had drawn his Knight Sword, looking around for an opponent to fight, when someone came walking out of the fog. He stiffened. Kirschwasser’s perception stat wasn’t high enough to make out what the other character was doing in the fog.

“Hello there, Sir Kirschwasser.” At last, the form became visible as the familiar Elf with the superficial smile, and Kirschwasser sheathed his Knight Sword.

“Lord Matsunaga.”

Remembering that it was Matsunaga who had been increasing his stats, he realized that his avatar must have been using that same body language just a little while ago. It was a bit unsettling to think about.

Kirschwasser bowed to him. “I see you’ve been up all night leveling me. Thank you.”

“Oh, no need to thank me. We gained useful data from it, too. This place might make a good new dojo for high-level players.”

Of course, he wouldn’t be making any of that information public for a while, Matsunaga added emphatically.

“‘We’?” Kirschwasser asked.

“Oh, didn’t you realize? Right, your perception stats aren’t that high, after all... See?”

Snap. As Matsunaga snapped his fingers, a number of players dressed in chain mail whipped into view out of the fog, one after another, and surrounded Kirschwasser with overly acrobatic movements. If they’d wanted to attack him, he would have been completely vulnerable to the ambush.

This was the Dual Serpents’ Shinobi Army. They wore horned noh masks and frilly shinobi costumes that bore a crest of intertwining serpents textured onto their collars.

“Ah, hello,” said Kirschwasser. “Um, does this mean you helped me level up?”

In perfect sync, the shinobi all widened their stances, thrust out their chests, and silently bowed. Even the angle of the bows was identical. Kirschwasser was forced to wonder if they were really bots.

“Your guild members are truly thorough, Lord Matsunaga.”

“That is our guild’s philosophy, after all. Well, and we enjoy it... in chat, we all have our own personalities.”

Kirschwasser could tell that much from looking at the names displayed over the avatars’ heads.

Matsunaga then changed the subject, explaining the all-nighter he had pulled to increase Kirschwasser’s stats. It seemed to Kirschwasser that he should have been exhausted, but he seemed surprisingly lively.

“Duplichiro hasn’t shown any signs of taking action yet,” Matsunaga continued. “Of course, that’s just as we expected... he still seems to be holed up in the volcanoes hunting Lizardmen, grinding up his stats and Skill levels in the usual way. Which means that, for now, the plan is still on schedule.”

Matsunaga then manipulated some windows, and Kirschwasser received a friend message. Its title was “Development Chart.”

Matsunaga’s blog and the walkthrough wiki he ran both included charts for how player characters could most efficiently improve themselves. Given Matsunaga’s personality, it was probably a joke, but he had also included a detailed timetable on how fast a character would grow both under normal situations and with microtransaction boosts applied. Kirschwasser had referenced this many times in deciding his own path.

“So this is my own personal development chart?” Kirschwasser asked.

“Yes. I had lots of time to think while I was repeating the mini-quest. It’s going to turn you into a lethal weapon against Duplichiro.”

That was what Kirschwasser had wanted, of course, and when Matsunaga had made the proposal to him, this had likely been his goal. Having infinite money made it possible to level in ways standard play wouldn’t allow. At the moment, the money spent on the microtransaction boosts wasn’t very significant, but...

Kirschwasser opened the message and examined the chart. He grasped that the concept was to find a way to compensate for Kirschwasser’s main deficiency, the inability to deal massive amounts of damage in one hit. Nodding in agreement, he scrolled down further. The further he scrolled, the more ashen his face became.

“L-Lord Matsunaga... is this...”

“Yes. That will increase your ATK. This is one area where you’ll really need to spend virtual cash to increase it. That’s why, until you logged in, I focused on leveling up and bolstering your Skills.”

It certainly was a method of increasing ATK that only Kirschwasser—or rather, someone using Ichiro’s credit card—could accomplish.

“It’s the combination of Mr. Tsuwabuki’s money and my knowledge of the game system,” said Matsunaga. “What do you think?”

“I-It’s excellent, of course! But this...” Kirschwasser couldn’t help but feel like crying. It was only natural; the development chart he had been given was such a blasphemy to the middle-class Sakurako-Kirschwasser that she wasn’t sure if her financial sense could survive intact. Putting this into practice might be crossing a line that could never be uncrossed.

But Matsunaga just smiled his superficial smile and wagged his finger. “Sir, that credit card is not just a lovely thing to have in your collection. It is a powerful weapon, and a weapon must be used. Why did he make all that money, if not to use it?”

“L-Lord Matsunaga... You’re so perfect for this role...”

“It sounds like a villain’s line, doesn’t it? I’m glad to hear it. I do enjoy characters like that.”

The thought arose in Kirschwasser’s mind that he’d gone to the wrong person for advice, but he squelched it right away.

Matsunaga was right. Sakurako-Kirschwasser had been entrusted with the full force of Ichiro Tsuwabuki’s money. When one was given power, they had to use it. Whether that power might crush them in the process was irrelevant; it was a servant’s duty to carry out their mission.

Kirschwasser struck his fist into his palm, gauntlets clinking from the impact.

“Let’s do it. I put myself into your care.”

“Very good. Depending on what Duplichiro does, we may need to hasten our plans a bit... but I’m sure we’ll make you dominant soon enough. Using the power of money.”

Kirschwasser looked up at the foggy sky above the Mediterra Demon Sea.

Can you see me now, Ichiro-sama? I’m going to go as far as I can with the money you entrusted to me. Though my heart may be that of a peasant, I’ll be reborn as Great Whale Kirschwasser, the legendary fighter with no financial sense whatsoever...

Sakurako’s sense of duty was starting to take her in a questionable direction.

If she kept on down this road, her ideas about money might end up closer to those of her extravagant master, Ichiro Tsuwabuki. But perhaps this sacrifice was another way of showing her pride and determination as a servant.

“You can’t just call me out of the blue and ask for this!” The person on the other side of the phone, screaming in English, was Ichiro’s friend from college. “You’re supposed to make appointments for things like this, Ichiro! I’m busy, you know!”

“Sorry, but it’s quite urgent. I’ve actually just arrived in Chicago, so I’ll be there in only a few hours.”

“You idiot!”

The airport lobby of Chicago O’Hare was a bustling place, with people coming and going all around them. As usual, Sera was playing a portable game system, while Asuha was sitting on top of her suitcase, looking all around. From time to time, she murmured, “Chicago, huh?” to herself, suggesting she wasn’t much of a fan of the White Sox.

From Chicago, they were going to take a private plane to Pittsburgh. There hadn’t been many flights convenient for a connection, so he’d reserved it in advance. If they waited, there would be domestic flights. But Ichiro, who had just been through a boring eleven-and-a-half-hour flight, wasn’t about to allow himself to be subjected to any more passive modes of travel.

Once they’d touched down in Chicago, Ichiro had remembered that he hadn’t actually contacted his friend at the lab, so that was what he was doing now. As a result, his California-born friend was hurling strings of profanity at him, a specialty of West Coasters. Naturally, Ichiro was unfazed by them.

“Allow me to explain the circumstances, Charles. There’s something I need you to investigate for me before I arrive.”

“If you weren’t my sponsor, I’d throw you and your phone out on your collective asses!” his friend screamed.

“Since I’m the one who provides funding for all your equipment, that would be inadvisable.”

Such exchanges summed up their relationship perfectly. It was just about five years ago that his friend had declared that he wanted to start up a robotics lab, and Ichiro had provided the funding for that. That was when Ichiro had just been getting into investing for real, and a portion of his swelling bank account had gotten invested—half for business, half for friendship—into make Charles’s dreams come true.

As a result, things were going quite well for Charles. Said dream was to create an autonomous robot maid, so Ichiro was the only proper sponsor he’d found. Apparently, he was currently working on developing artificial intelligence. Ichiro had no particular interest in a maid robot himself, but he’d still asked to be sent one when the prototypes were finished.

He wasn’t telling Sakurako about the maid robot, but given the rate at which the development was proceeding, it probably wouldn’t be finished until she was already retired—assuming she didn’t miss her chance to get married first.

“I want you to investigate whether there’s been outside, unwarranted access into your lab’s servers,” Ichiro said.

“What?”

“I’ll tell you the details in an e-mail. If my estimations are correct, an outside program has infiltrated your servers. But if you do find it, please don’t delete it.”

“This is an awful lot to throw at a guy out of the blue,” Charles protested. “I’ll do it if you insist, but...”

“Thanks.”

“You know, I said this before, but I wish you’d told me sooner. Are you the only one coming?”

“No, my cousin and her friend are with us.” Ichiro cast a glance at Asuha and Sera, both looking rather bored. He’d been holding the entire conversation in English, so it likely only confused the two of them.

“Cousin?! You mean Asuha?”

“Yes.”

“Yahoo! Ichiro, she’s still in primary school, right?”

“No, she’s in junior high now.”

“Ah, I see... No, but that’s still okay! Japanese people look young! Please get me a picture, okay?”

“If she gives permission, I shall.”

Ichiro had always been worried that Charles might commit a crime someday. If it meant he would channel that passion of his into a maid robot instead, Ichiro was willing to spend as much money as it took. Pondering his friend’s private fetishes, Ichiro hung up.

“Oh, Itchy, how’d it go?” Asuha asked.

“He wants me to take your picture, Asuha.”

“Huh?!” Asuha seemed flustered, unable to figure out how these things connected. Sera was playing a game with a bored expression, but one eyebrow twitched.

“Now, what shall we do?” Ichiro asked. “We can head to Pittsburgh now if you want.”

“I’m hungry...” Asuha whispered as she stroked her stomach. She had eaten Sera’s meal on the plane as well as her own, since Sera was a light eater, but it seemed even that hadn’t been enough. Did she have a huge appetite, or was she just in the middle of a growth spurt? She was in middle school and an athlete, so perhaps it was just her metabolism.

Ichiro suggested, “Then as long as we’re in Chicago, let’s find a good pizza place.”

“Sounds great!”

“Would you like that, King?” he asked.

“Sure.”

They both seemed very laid-back about the whole thing.

In accordance with the requests of Matsunaga and the others, Iris logged in just before 9 A.M.

She felt like she’d been spending a lot more time in the game since summer break had started. Of course, she’d gone out with her friends when they’d invited her, and on days like that, she would easily spend the whole day without logging in at all. But with her parents out all day for work, there was nobody to scold her for staying cooped up in the house all day, so...

While recognizing that her behavior really wasn’t healthy, she logged in once again today. The truth was, she had a backlog of new designs she wanted to try, and she was hoping to show them to Nem this time. She was sure she’d get another raking over the coals, but to complain about that would be looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Iris opened her eyes to find herself inside the Red Sunset Knights’ guild house, the same place she’d been when she’d logged out the night before. Matsunaga wasn’t in sight, but Yuri was already there.

“Morning, Yuri!” she called.

“Morning, Ai.” The friends exchanged light smiles and greetings.

Yuri was wearing a gi and point armor, with light equipment on her wrists that was part of a Grapper’s style. It was a more mature-looking outfit than she’d worn back when they were first adventuring together. She had asked Iris occasionally to make her new equipment, but Iris couldn’t imagine that her friend’s heroic fighting style would gel well with that year’s on-trend floral patterns. She was also concerned about trying to blend it with her own and the young heir’s high-class(ish) style.

For now, though, Iris was one of the key members of the plan to fight Duplichiro. She was going to send him a string of stinging friend messages to try to monopolize his attention. She was effectively serving as a decoy. Of course, since things were going to get dangerous for her, she’d have Tiramisu, one of the Knights’ commanders, guarding her. Yuri had also volunteered to act as bodyguard.

Yuri was a front-line fighter specialized for offense, but there was a big gap in ability between her and the top-level players. Even if she served as a bodyguard, a single attack from Duplichiro might be able to take her down. While Iris was grateful for her friend’s sentiment, she had initially refused her out of worry. But Matsunaga had said, “Let’s just go with it. It’s only a game, after all,” and had accepted Yuri’s request.

It was true that no matter how badly any of them got beaten, the worst that might happen was that they’d lose their equipment and items.

As examples of people growing too obsessed with VRMMOs and becoming junkies had become more widely known, the tendency of the internet community to disdain people for taking a game too seriously had begun to grow. Matsunaga, for his part, skillfully made use of both philosophies as it suited him: that it was only a game, and that they were pursuing a real-life criminal. Iris had been drawn in by him, too. She didn’t know which side Matsunaga really fell on, but it did seem like, despite the exaggerated concept that they were “arresting a criminal’s avatar,” he was being very easygoing about the whole thing.

“Iris, Yuri, good morning!” Nem logged in with a cheerful greeting.

“Nem... ah, Fuyo. Don’t you have work to do?”

“I finished everything that was urgent!” Nem clenched her hands into fists.

She was the CEO and designer for the apparel brand MiZUNO, and perhaps wasn’t in any sort of position to be devoting this much time to a game, but she appeared to have a surprising vitality.

“Nem, are you okay?” Iris asked. “It’s going to be dangerous.”

“I’ll be fine, thank you. I just remembered this morning that I have Immortal status!”

That was true, now that she mentioned it.

Nem hadn’t acquired her avatar through conventional means; Megumi Fuyo had gotten her friend Azami Nono to design a special character especially for her to go in and pick a fight with Iris. In other words, she was a cheat character. She had a collection of Skills and Arts needed to craft things, no combat capabilities whatsoever, and in addition, she had Immortal status. In effect, she was like a child perpetually left out of a game of tag.

Even so, the mission was going to be dangerous. If Duplichiro assaulted Nem the way he’d gone after Tiramisu the other day, striking her down with terrible violence, it could still be a terrifying experience. And Duplichiro’s own actions with King had proven better than anyone that Immortal status couldn’t protect your mental state.

“I understand what you’re saying.” Nem’s expression became more drawn as she talked to the two of them. “Nevertheless, I cannot remain on the sidelines. To simply stand here while someone uses Ichiro’s account and avatar for such mischief...”

Iris let out a sigh. “Fine. Okay, Nem. There’s not that much we can do anyway... but let’s do our best together.”

“I will, Iris!”

“Morning, everyone.” The door opened and Tiramisu entered. As usual, she had the calming air of a mild-mannered woman.

“Morning, Tiramisu.”

Tiramisu wasn’t alone. A small group of Knights had come with her. Their faces were familiar, but there were none of the few famous players who occupied the top echelons of the player base.

“Allow me to explain our route,” Tiramisu said as she unfurled a map on the desk.

Yuri looked a bit surprised. “They sell maps?”

“The update after the Grand Quest came with a lot of useful items,” Tiramisu explained. “You can buy them in Delve’s NPC shops.”

The map was designed to have a Middle Ages feel to it, but you could also bring up information displays by touching it with your fingertip. It was clearly high technology, but one could write it off as a magic item, perhaps.

As Tiramisu traced the map with her fingertip, the route showed up, displayed in red. They’d be setting out from Delve, where they’d wait for Duplichiro to come after them after caving in to Iris’s provocations. After he arrived, they would then run for the Great Sandsea and take the Sandship north. Their destination was the Doom Range. Here she explained the various points perfect for sneaking and hiding that Tomakomai had discovered over the course of his long days spent in isolation in that area. While repeating provocation and flight where necessary, they’d head for the ravine deep in the territory.

“The canyon is our final destination. That’s where we’ll fight the final battle against Duplichiro.”

It did seem like drawing him out there would keep him from causing trouble with beginner and intermediate players.

“We won’t be entering any cities?” Iris asked.

“Tomakomai advised us on that, too. He said that if we stay too long in combat-prohibited regions, Duplichiro might realize what we’re doing, or even log out. We need to keep him in the game as long as possible.”

Until they learned what Duplichiro really wanted, none of them could fully wipe away their concerns about their ability to keep him occupied. Iris opened her menu window and checked her friend message history.

Iris had already sent a few needling messages last night, and received replies each time. This had allowed them to confirm one thing:

It was easy to get a rise out of Duplichiro.

As far as Iris could see, her attempts at provoking him were working, but she wondered if making him too angry could cause its own problems. Listening to the others speak made it sound like Duplichiro might have more game authority than he’d even used so far. Iris didn’t know a lot about computers, but it felt to her like if he wanted to, he could steal their accounts, as well.

Then again, it wasn’t good to overthink things.

As Iris shook her head, Nem peered at her in concern.

“Tiramisu, should I send the message now?” Iris asked.

“Yes, I think it’s about time we got started.” Tiramisu opened a menu window as well to check their schedule. “At the longest, this should take us to a bit past 1 P.M. We won’t have time to log out for four hours. Is everyone prepared for that?”

“I’m great,” said Iris.

“I’m ready to go,” agreed Nem.

“I’m fine,” said Yuri.

Tiramisu was phrasing it in a roundabout way, but of course, there was a more crude implication behind it. She was referring to bathroom breaks.

The drive simulation meant that you wouldn’t notice it, but the body was still sending signals at all times, and if things got bad enough, the system was programmed to send alarm messages to the player. If hunger or other biological needs got too serious, then it would go past alarm messages to a total severance of signal. The feeling of going from totally full to suddenly hungry, or needing to go to the bathroom, could be quite a cause for panic.

That was why, if a player was planning to stay in the drive for long periods of time, they had to take care of their physiological functions first. Truly passionate players would apparently drive in a diaper, but Iris had no intention of going to those lengths.

The four of them left the guild house, followed by the handful of Knights. Their role was apparently to help Iris and the others run away, and they were prepared to serve as human shields as part of that endeavor. They were wearing rather shabby armor given their level range, most likely so that they wouldn’t mind losing it to the death penalty.

Iris headed outside while composing her friend message text. She knew that when her mouth opened, abuse tended to pour out of it, but realizing that she could provoke people this cool-headedly made her wonder if she was becoming a bad person. It certainly wasn’t good for her mental state.

“Whoa, Ai, you’re really gonna send that?”

“Iris, that’s vulgar...”

The two had gotten around behind her at some point and peered. Iris unconsciously moved to hide the window. “Hey, don’t look!”

Out on the main street stood a white horse whose saddle had been textured with the crest of the Red Sunset Knights. In this game, steeds were items with very few programmed motions, and there was something creepy about the way it just stood there, stock still, without even fidgeting.

“This is Custard,” Tiramisu said.

It took Iris a minute to realize that was the horse’s name.

Nem tilted her head. “You, Tiramisu, have a horse named Custard?”

“I named it after a horse I like in a manga.”

“I thought Custard was seal brown.”

“Oh, you know it, Yuri? I wanted a dark horse, but our leader said that my color was white, so...”

“Huh?”

Iris mounted Tiramisu’s horse, while Yuri and Nem mounted another. To deflect attacks targeted at Iris, Yuri stood up on the horse’s saddle, apparently intending to mimic something she’d seen in a kung fu movie once.

“Yuri, are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I’ve got my ‘Equilibrium’ Skill raised to about 50.” Yuri launched into a burst of lithe karate movements, which set Iris’s heart at ease.

At last, Iris received a response from Duplichiro. It sounded like he was nibbling at the bait.

Iris picked her words, calmly and carefully, to slowly fray at her opponent’s nerves. It seemed she had a talent for trolling.

After a few tense exchanges, Iris received this message.

Iris, you’re in Martial City Delve right now, right? Stay there. I’m going to come talk to you directly.

And there was the bite.

Iris fiddled with her menu window, changing over from her messages to her guild member view screen. She was checking the icon next to Duplichiro’s name. He’d previously been in the deepest regions of the Volgund Volcanoes, but now he was “Moving.” She also checked his stats, which seemed to have gone up a little bit from yesterday; he must have hunted quite a number of Lizardmen.

“H-He’s coming,” Iris said nervously.

“Already?” Tiramisu asked. “I suppose he really must be easily baited.”

“Well, given the messages you sent him...” Yuri said.

“Wh-What...?”

If he was heading here straight from the Volgund Volcano region, then no matter how fast he flew, it would probably take about an hour. That seemed like a long time, but Iris was expecting him sooner. Ichiro always had Warp Feathers in stock to get around. Once he got to an area where he could use a movement item, he’d be on them instantaneously. Tiramisu and Yuri had been informed of that, too, and Iris could hear the two bracing for battle behind her.

The Knights members around them broke into whispers. As a group, they looked up at the sky, pointing to a single spot within it. Iris did the same. In the blue, clear sky above the Martial City, a single ray of light appeared. It was streaking right towards them.

“Here he is,” Tiramisu said, clutching her bridle.

Yuri and Nem both gulped.

Like a meteorite, the light collided with the ground at a low angle and bore its way into the main street. There was a flash and a roar, and the ground shook, flushing up a massive visual of dust and rubble... though perhaps to reduce burden on the server, the graphics were less detailed than they had been the last few times this had happened.

“Th-That was fast,” Iris said, doing her best to keep up the bluff.

Beyond the whirling dust cloud, a silhouette smoothly rose to its feet. It flapped its dragon wings to cause a damageless wind effect that blew the obscuring walls of sand away. There was no question: this was Duplichiro. He wasn’t smiling that sticky grin of his; he didn’t have much of an expression at all, resorting instead to the “default face” that suggested no emotional input behind it. Yet she could detect the faintest sense of anger welling up from him.

“I simply wanted to correct your mistake,” he said in the same cool tones typically employed by Ichiro Tsuwabuki. “I asked you not to move, yet I see you were planning on running, weren’t you?”

“Unlike you, I have things to do,” Iris said coolly.

“Nonsense,” Duplichiro said. The way he said that, and nothing more, was just like the real Ichiro. “First, your assumption that I have nothing but free time on my hands is greatly mistaken. It is a truly abstract assumption lacking in objective scrutiny. In addition, I can surmise from interpreting your previous messages that you are intending to anger me. Thus, your observation just now, that I have nothing better to do, has no effect on me. It is a truly nonsense comment. It is—”

“You’re so mad,” Iris said, interrupting him.

“Nonsense. I am not—”

“You’re so mad, there’s steam rising out of your ears. Look, I told you, I’ve got better things to do, remember? Why should I care if you’re mad? The only reason you could possibly think I care is because you’re really super mad. Right?”

“Nonse—”

“Idiot.”

In that instant, Duplichiro silently unleashed a Fireball. Multiple crimson spheres rocketed forward, trailing a flashy visual behind them.

The Knights moved into action, gathering in front of Custard to act as a shield against the Fireballs. The attack probably wasn’t very powerful, but with the weak armor they were wearing, the damage would likely be fatal. Fortunately, the horses that Yuri and Nem were riding avoided any major damage.

“Iris, well done,” Tiramisu whispered. “Keep up the provocations. We need to get out of Delve first.”

She grabbed the reins and kicked Custard in the side. The horse let out a little neigh and started running down the main street. Ahead of them, she could see Duplichiro preparing to meet them. But rather than continue to charge, Custard turned its back on Duplichiro and headed into an alley.

“I knew you were mad, idiot!” Iris shouted.

“Yeah, idiot!” yelled Yuri.

“You... foolish person! Very foolish!” Nem scolded.

Yuri and even Nem had joined in on the provocation. Nem had seemed rather hesitant in her choice of words, but they still seemed to have had an effect on Duplichiro. He immediately spread his wings and flew after them.

The city of Delve was laid out on a grid: even if you ran into a side street, it was always easy to find your way back to main thoroughfare. Tiramisu, while choosing the narrowest routes, tugged at the reins to control Custard’s movements precisely.

Tiramisu’s Horseback Riding and “Swift Rider” Skill levels appeared to be high, which made it hard for Duplichiro to close the gap between them. He seemed to have completely lost his temper, because he continued firing off Fireballs at them as he pursued. His aim was reckless, causing Fireballs to hit the walls and ground around them and spread rubble everywhere.

During the dramatic chase, Yuri served as their shield, repelling Duplichiro’s magic attacks. Having applied “Aura Fist,” her fists were able to execute Weapon Guards against the incoming Fireballs. Out of the indiscriminately-fired blasts, she was able to identify the few that might actually reach them, and deflected them with her chops.

“Yuri, so cool!” Iris called.

“Thanks.”

“I’m taking us back onto the thoroughfare!” Tiramisu cried, then charged back onto the main street exactly as described.

The street was very wide, and Duplichiro, seeming to think he had them now, began firing off even more powerful attack magic Arts than before. Iris cringed.

Yuri slashed her hands through the air to repel the approaching “Spiral Blaze.” The deflected attack impacted around them, sending dust clouds and rubble rising once more.

“T-Tiramisu... will we be able to hold out until we reach our destination, the ravine?!” Nem cried.

“I’m not sure. His attacks are more aggressive than I was expecting.”

“You think I made him too angry?” Iris asked.

Tiramisu turned back and smiled uncomfortably. “Well, you may have talent for it.”

“I don’t think that’s a compliment...”

The young heir... What on Earth was the young heir off doing, while the account he had put so much time into was on the rampage?

Well, thinking about it wouldn’t solve anything, Iris decided, and she began thinking up her next bit of bait.

It was right around that time that said young heir was finally arriving at his own destination.

They were in America; specifically Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It had once been a flourishing steelmaking city, but it had since gained a reputation as a college town for engineering and a host to cutting-edge robotics, biology, and nuclear engineering laboratories. It normally had a 14-hour time difference with Japan, but with daylight savings time in practice, it was currently 13.

That meant that by the time Ichiro reached Pittsburgh, it was already night. But despite the hour, Ichiro wasn’t the kind of person who would hold back in carrying out his objective. Without hesitation, he pushed his way to the robotics engineering lab at the center of the city.

“So, Ichiro. How was your flight?” Charles asked the aggravating intruder.

“Hm, I was rather nervous,” said Ichiro. “It has been quite a while, and it was night. But the runway lighting made it easier than I thought it would be.”

“You flew the plane yourself?!”

Ichiro was walking down the hallway with Charles, a heavyset white man in a lab coat. He was about 20 years older than Ichiro, but in truth, they had graduated from Harvard at the same time. Naturally, they’d chosen different fields; Charles was an engineer. Whenever they talked about majors, Ichiro would always say, “If you wanted engineering, you should have gone to MIT.”

“Honestly, why do you always push your way in here?” he griped. “You’ve always been a pretentious little brat, and I see it hasn’t changed.”

“Nonsense. I am who I am. That’s not going to change anytime soon.”

“Last time we spoke, you decided you wanted to research VRMMOs and ended up running off with a room full of equipment!”

“I won’t try to excuse my actions, but there was a reason behind that. I said I wanted kenkyusho—research documents—and my servant thought I said kenkyujo, a laboratory. I immediately realized that might be better, so I asked them to send me your laboratory... equipment.”

“That’s a stupid Japanese joke! You and your oyaji gags. Honestly, if you weren’t my sponsor, I’d throw you out on your ass.” With that, Charles cast a glance behind Ichiro.

Two children stood there, looking all around them.

Charles Morgan, director of the Pittsburgh Maid Robotics Laboratory, leaned in to whisper into Ichiro’s ear. “Which one’s Asuha?”

“The one on the right with the long hair.”

“Oho. She’s as cute as I’d expect your cousin to be. Who’s the other?”

“Her friend.”

Both were apparently in junior high. Japanese people really did look very young. By white people’s standards, they would still be in primary school. The mysteries of the Orient. The fountain of youth. The land of gold, Zipang. Banzai, baby.

As if noticing Charles’s eyes on her, Asuha drew behind her friend’s back. Said friend looked at him with a glare, then asked a pointed question.

“What are you researching here?” the friend asked in Japanese.

Charles was well-versed in Japanese through his love of “Japanimation,” and he cleared his throat and began his explanation.

“Robots, of course. But not just any robots. Maid robots. It’s any man’s dream.”

“Oh?” The young person looked away, disinterestedly.

Ichiro whispered, “That’s Sera,” which must have been the child’s name.

Sera murmured, “Not games, huh?”

“We have games here, too,” Charles assured the child. “It’s part of our artificial intelligence research. Since games are becoming more intimately connected to the human experience lately, we have to come up with NPC algorithms to match them.”

Then Charles turned back to Ichiro, and began speaking in English again. “For instance, that VRMMO you’re playing, Ichiro.”

“Narrow Fantasy Online.”

“Yes, Narrow Fantasy Online! I’ve played it, but the NPC AI routines still have room for improvement.”

Sera stared straight at Charles. The child had an androgynous figure that was hard to call either boyish or girlish, with a dark gaze that seemed almost accusatory. A gaze like that caused Charles’s most deviant feelings to rear their heads.

“And, um, right. Let’s have some coffee first,” Charles said, after inviting the three into his personal lab room. The room was a pigsty, with documents scattered everywhere. He could see Asuha and Sera’s faces both draw harshly in a wince of pain.

“He wants to know if you want something to drink,” Ichiro interpreted into Japanese for the two children, then turned back and spoke in English. “Ah, Charles, I’ll take mine black.”

While Charles was making some instant coffee, Asuha started cleaning, seeming unable to take the sheer amount of entropy in the room. Ichiro and Sera didn’t seem willing to go that far, but Sera had picked up a few scattered documents and was staring at them fervently.

“Sera, that’s not anything a child would find interesting...” Charles said with a wince, and Sera looked up, holding the documents.

“Mr. Director. This is an image processor and motion tracer you bought around mid-July.”

“Hmm?” Charles couldn’t help but do a double-take at the words, which he wouldn’t have expected to hear from the mouth of a child. He looked over at Ichiro, who was merely sipping his instant coffee with a cool expression.

“You probably use these in your game AI development arm, right?” Sera asked. “And does the fact that you’re intentionally using IPU instead of GPU suggest that it’s for VR games? Your lab isn’t creating bots for VRMMO use, is it?”

“H-Hey, Ichiro.”

“Hmm?”

“How is this kid guessing everything just from reading one invoice in English?”

“Sera is a gamer who loves games, no more,” Ichiro said. He added that image processors and motion tracers were used in boosting the performance of Miraive Gears.

Still, Charles thought, the kid was in junior high...

The face of a ten-year-old boy he’d met in college drifted into his mind. Thirteen years later, that same boy was sitting here drinking coffee with a hatefully unflappable smile on his face.

“Sera also plays Narrow Fantasy Online with the avatar name Kirihito.”

“Kiri...” Charles hesitated, thinking the name sounded familiar. Then he gasped. “Sera, are you the legendary strike soldier ‘Kiriko’ who struck terror into the hearts of players of the FPS Code: Assault three years ago?!”

“Oh, yeah. That’s me.” Sera nodded casually, and Asuha looked up from tidying up to respond.

“Kiryu, you play those, too? We even knew each other three years ago...”

“Then five years ago, what was it... the ‘Kiriel’ that plunged into the world of fighting games and brought all opponents to their knees?!”

“Also me, yeah.”

“But you weren’t the ‘Kirilla’ who took MMOs by storm ten years ago, right?”

“That was my mom.” Sera swept up more of the documents and pulled out a few pages of interest to the gamer.

Asuha, who seemed to have grown exasperated, said, “Kiryu, help me out!” but rebelliously, Sera just replied, “Mr. Tsuwabuki’s taking it easy...”

Still, after a while, the young gamer began helping obediently, apparently unable to disobey her.

Charles just watched it all in bewilderment.

“Nante kotta, panna cotta...” he muttered, reciting a bad old Japanese pun.

“So, Charles. About the favor I asked you...” Ichiro said, smoothly ignoring the gag Charles had put so much effort into.

“R-Right...” Charles responded with a shake of his head.

Over the phone, Ichiro had told him to investigate whether there’d been an illegal access into the laboratory. Charles had found it unlikely, but he had investigated, and had found traces of said access. The lab had been hacked. Charles was genuinely grateful to Ichiro for letting him know.

“It was just like you said, Ichiro. There was an unauthorized access, and ever since then, an unknown program has been running in one of our unused server machines. It’s creeping me out, so I wanted to delete it, but I remembered what you said...”

“Thank you. This all but confirms my speculation.”

Charles had no idea what Ichiro was talking about.

Meanwhile, as Asuha and Sera tidied up the room, Asuha was asking about a term Sera had mentioned before. “Kiryu, what’s a bot?”

“It’s short for robot. Online game characters are controlled by input into a program, so if you set up a program with automated input, you can have a machine that controls your avatar. It’s a simple way to keep leveling up even when you can’t log in due to school or work.”

“Huh? Isn’t that cheating?”

“Yeah, it is. And it puts a huge burden on the server, so lots of games forbid it. NaroFan doesn’t have a clear rule on it, though. Given the incredible amount of input data it would require, it has been believed that current bot technology was insufficient to create a bot that could be used in VRMMOs.”

Sera cast another glance at Charles. As one might expect from a legendary gamer, the child knew what they were talking about.

Setting aside whether they were good or bad, bots and macros—programs to autopilot MMOs—had been around for a very long time. In this laboratory, during the process of developing the independent thought algorithms for artificial intelligence, they had had the idea of developing bots that would set goals for themselves and then complete those goals, over and over again. Could they create an artificial intelligence that, given an avatar, could think for itself, take on quests, and proceed through the MMO like any other player? The architecture was assembled, and it had been completed.

Originally, they had developed the bots, partly, to fill in slots in games like FPSes. The completed autonomous action bots, including “HARO9000,” picked up experience at the feet of friendly company. And while they had never quite reached the level of having feelings, they had gained something like individuality with regards to accomplishment of their goal settings.

Currently, the people at the lab were researching ways to customize a few of them to VRMMOs, as well.

“That reminds me. I never asked what this was all about,” Charles added. The small talk would continue forever if he let it, so the director decided to cut to the chase.

Unhurriedly, Ichiro brought the coffee cup to his lips, took a drink, and then spoke again. “I have good news and bad news.”

“Oho, just like a movie, eh?” A grin appeared on the director’s bear-like face. “I’d better hear the bad news first.”

“There’s a chance that your laboratory is being used for hacking in Japan.”

“Bluh!” He instinctively spit out his coffee. It didn’t actually reach Ichiro, but the man still made a face. “Hacking?! You mean we hacked someone, not that we were hacked, right?”

As he asked, Ichiro opened his mouth and began enunciating a line of letters and numbers. It sounded like an incantation, but after some thought, Charles understood it.

“That is your IP address, isn’t it?” Ichiro asked.

“Yes, that is ours, but...”

“I only caught a glimpse of it from the screen of the security supervisor, but I’m positive it’s yours,” Ichiro said. “Three instances of illegal access, every one of them using a VRMMO account. The last one may have infiltrated the management server.”

The director narrowed his eyes. Ichiro was an unpredictable man, but he didn’t seem like the kind of person to fly across the Pacific just to make jokes in bad taste. “You mean they’re using us as a transit point?”

“Not quite, but it’s something like that.”

“But Ichiro, why are you playing cyber detective anyway?”

“The account that was stolen was mine.”

It took Charles quite a lot of effort not to spit out his coffee again. As a result, it went down his windpipe and caused him to choke. “D-Do they know that?”

“I think so.” Ichiro drank down the last of his coffee. His manner was as cool as ever, and there was no trace of anger in it. But the fact that he had come all the way from America to tell Charles about this suggested that he found it quite intolerable. Charles never would have expected Ichiro to get that deep into an online game.

The hacking of their lab, the insertion of the unknown program into the server, and the hacking of the Japanese game company from their lab. They were all tied together. That was why Ichiro had come here. But even so...

“What would the culprit gain by doing all this?” Charles wondered. That was the biggest mystery of them all.

Ichiro fell into thought, as though he wasn’t fully sure yet. Just then, despite it being unlikely that they were listening to the contents of their conversation, Sera plucked out a document from the pile, and whispered...

“They wanted to create an Ichiro Tsuwabuki.”