With a loud thwack, she punched straight through his neck. The NPC’s eyes rolled back, and he began to foam at the mouth. At last, he fell backward and disappeared.
The level-up chime sounded twice, but MagNe wasn’t in the mood to celebrate.
“Thank you, Keisuke…”
She picked up the pieces of the broken sword and sobbed.
A short while later, Rick’s mud wall crumbled, and MagNe escaped the alley she’d been trapped in. When she received her reward from the Adventurers Guild, the exhaustion finally hit her like a ton of bricks. For the first time, she got a taste of what it was like living in a game where you could really die.
And all that…for just one thousand two hundred gold…
That could cover close to a month of lodging, but it didn’t seem like a fair price for risking your life. MagNe grasped just how dependent she was on Crest for support. If she hadn’t done a quest by herself, she would’ve continued to think of her Crest stipend as a freebie she was entitled to.
MagNe dragged her feet, feeling more pathetic than ever.
“Wait… MagNe?”
She hadn’t been expecting to hear that voice.
“Kei…suke?”
It was her beloved boyfriend. He seemed less confident than she remembered, but then again, it had been a long time since she last saw him. This was Keisuke, though; there was no mistaking it. Her dear boyfriend was back.
Overwhelmed with relief, MagNe almost collapsed, but Keisuke swiftly caught her in his arms. He looked at her with concern.
“Hey, are you all right?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Sorry to make you worried.”
Her own state didn’t matter to her—she was overjoyed to have him back. It paid off in the end to have been patiently waiting for him in Allistras, and she couldn’t be happier everything worked out.
“You’re back at last…,” she said through tears.
“Yeah…,” Keisuke replied, looking somewhat uncomfortable. “I saved up a good amount of money, so I thought I might as well settle in Allistras. I went as far as Kiren Graveyard, but that area’s too spicy for me.”
He smiled at her, making her so emotional that fresh tears flowed from her eyes. She’d been longing to see that smile for so long.
“So what’s up with you?” he asked.
“I was just finishing up a quest. I didn’t wanna sponge off others, y’know…”
But the quest had taught her a painful lesson, and now that she had Keisuke back, she no longer felt like making any more effort. She was about to tell Keisuke that when he spoke up.
“MagNe, I’ve been meaning to ask you. Want to become my slave?”
He looked the same as she remembered.
“Striking out on your own—that’s not your style. Give me the money you got from your quest, and I promise you that from now on, you won’t have to worry your pretty head about anything at all. Oh, but don’t mess around with other guys, or I’ll kill you, got it?”
She’d heard that many times when they used to semi-live together.
MagNe was about to obediently give Keisuke the 1,200G she’d earned from the quest, but somehow, she couldn’t bring herself to confirm the transaction on her screen.
Huh…?
Her hand just wouldn’t move.
“You can sleep as much as you like, eat all your favorite foods, and have as much sex as you want. Best deal ever, huh?”
Keisuke kept talking to her, but his words seemed increasingly distant. She felt as if she was underwater—sounds were muffled, and her vision was hazy.
“Striking out on your own—that’s not your style.”
Those words were playing in her mind over and over. She thought he’d be happy to hear she learned how to make money on her own.
Is he upset that I’m independent now?
That was what she gathered from what he was saying.
Kiren Graveyard was far from Allistras, but it was nowhere near the front lines. If that was where Keisuke had gotten held up for so long, it meant he wasn’t strong enough to progress in the game. He returned because he’d failed.
It hit MagNe that Keisuke didn’t want her to be independent. He wanted to keep her entirely dependent on him, like before.
“Here,” he said. “The place where I’m staying.”
He handed her a piece of paper with an address on it.
“Thanks,” MagNe said with a smile. “I’ll think about your offer.”
She quickly left the Adventurers Guild without waiting for his reply.
MagNe walked fast down the street until she had to stop to catch her breath by the weapon shop. She bent over with her hands on her knees, taking big gulps of air.
“What’s wrong with me…?”
She should be happy that her boyfriend was back, but it wasn’t happiness she was feeling, and she didn’t understand why.
When she straightened up, she saw her pitiful reflection in the store window. She remembered Gallarus telling her he hated spineless people like her. Memories of her conversations with various men flashed back in her mind.
“Oh… Sorry! You’re busy. Got it. I won’t come over tonight.”
“I’ll do whatever you say, dear Crimson Knight.”
“Yeah, I’m okay. Sorry to make you worried.”
“I’m so freaking pathetic…”
Sobbing, she crouched down limply. The things she tried not to think about were coming back to her, inflating until they were so big, they exploded.
Keisuke had disappeared from Allistras after stealing everything she had. The last thing he’d said to her was that he’d come back after finding the next town. She’d never forgotten his face when he said that. It happened several months earlier. MagNe knew he had abandoned her, but she’d been in denial, telling herself she believed him and patiently waiting. And he did come back. He appeared as if out of thin air, without an apology for leaving her for so long, taking for granted that their relationship was as before.
“I’ve had enough…”
She opened her menu window with a shaking hand. Her eyes were overflowing with tears even though what she was about to do was her own decision.
She brought up her friends list. Sniffling, she began to delete everyone from it. She could remember what the men looked like but not their personalities or even their voices.
Soon enough, her friends list was empty. She didn’t need to delete Keisuke from it—he had unfriended her sometime earlier.
“I knew it then…”