The place I was led to was one of the settlement’s workshops—though unlike Romina’s smithy, this one seemed more designed for making medicine.
“Oh? If everyone’s coming together, that must mean Miss Kizuna has arrived.”
Aultcray noticed us and approached with a warm, refreshing smile.
“Yep, one little lady coming right up. So anyway, Brave Bunowny apparently kicked off a synergy effect with Brave Pekkle, and he listens to Loley’s orders now.”
“I see, I see. That’s a load off my back.”
In the midst of that back-and-forth, Emoji stepped in front of Aultcray, turned to me, and started gesturing at the man.
“This one is Cray. His full name is Aultcray, but if you shorten it the other way, he sounds too much like the other merchant you know. That’s why he’s been introducing himself as Cray these days.”
“Thanks again for the ribbon. It’s been a nice change of pace.”
“I’m glad to hear it. Allow me to properly introduce myself: I focus mainly on magic in combat and dabble broadly in mercantilism...alchemy, machinery, that sort of thing. I’ve cast a wide but shallow net, so to speak.”
“Looking forward to working with you. But won’t it be an issue if a merchant’s summoned to a sanctioned off place like this?”
“The trade is more of a hobby, or rather, a habit of mine. I have an eye for quality, and I end up naturally amassing money whether I like it or not.”
Unlike Alto, this guy seems to be practicing legitimate business. Alto seems to one-sidedly view him as an enemy, but...what is it? There’s something about him.
Something about him just gave off the air that he’d never been strapped for cash in his life. If Alto was an upstart nouveau riche, then this man felt like a real established name. Not greedy, not grasping. The sort who accumulated money without chasing after it.
“Oh, right,” Aultcray began. “There was something I was meaning to ask you back then, but would you mind if I asked you now? You seem to know a lot of people, so I thought you might have some insight.”
“My network’s a lot smaller than you’d think... L’Arc definitely knows way more people than I do,” I said.
Yeah, he was trying to ask me something before Alto got in the way. Still, while it’s not a new revelation, I really don’t have many connections.
Outside of that one event, I’d never formed a party with anyone outside of the usual gang, and I’d pretty much left all the territory management to Alto and Romina. Trade was handled by other people too and in the end, I just didn’t talk to anyone.
If I was ever short on hands, I’d just summon the Pekkles and make do.
“Seriously, how you managed to be this successful in this game is a mystery.”
“I’m well aware of that.”
Maybe I just happened to be on the same wavelength as the dev team, or maybe it was just dumb luck.
“So, what was it you wanted to ask me?”
“Yes, we should get to that. Millie...he’s here.”
“Coming,” a voice answered from the back of the workshop.
Then, out stepped an adult woman with long, purple hair—a player. Purple hair could look gaudy if overdone, but this person managed to not only avoid that but turn it into a touch of elegance. I had to wonder just how much work had been put into designing her.
She was pretty, of course—everyone was in this game. Going off her refined dress, I had to imagine she was more geared toward magic.
“This is my wife, Millie. Millie, this is Kanade’s infamous brother, Kizuna.”
So this is Cray’s IRL wife? We’ve got a lot of couples here.
Emoji had put some thought into this lineup.
Admittedly, this was my own prejudice, but people who were married or in serious relationships in real life tended to have decently high social skills and emotional intelligence. At least, that was how it seemed to me. Maybe she’d chosen them to avoid the kind of childish instabilities she’d faced with her guild members.
“I go by Millie in game,” said Millie. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Like Cray, I specialize in magic, while my secondary role is appraisal—archeology, to be precise.”
Clear and concise. It was the kind of self-introduction that told you right away how she could contribute. She gave the impression of someone who was used to temporary parties.
“Umm, Kizuna, was it?”
“Pleasure... So, what was it you wanted to ask me?”
From the sound of it, they’d been asking other people too. But what exactly did they want to know? If it was “how to succeed in this game,” I could maybe give a vague rundown, though the way Yamikage and the others reacted to these spiels of mine had begun to make me feel a little awkward when I talked about it.
“I’ve heard their story too,” said Emoji. “L’Arc and Therese were called here for their real-life ties as well.”
“Yeah. Just hear them out, will you, little lady?”
“Yeah, yeah, just what is it already?”
“The truth is, we have a young daughter. But with work keeping us busy day after day, it was rare for us to spend time together as a family...”
And so, the two of them began to explain the situation.
Just as L’Arc had told me before, Cray was a corporate executive in real life. Both he and his wife were constantly traveling, working for the company without rest.
They had a daughter they adored, and their relationship with her was good—or good enough. But the demands of their work left them with little time to spend together, with that time sometimes being nothing more than some minutes on the phone.
The child’s education was taken care of by private tutors and nannies... This is starting to sound like some overseas elite situation.
In any case, Cray and Millie yearned to create a way to spend more time with her. And just as they were grappling with that problem, the Second Life Project caught their attention. If they played with their daughter, they’d be able to spend years together in game. A whole new life full of the time they couldn’t spare in reality! The girl herself was overjoyed to hear it and would spend her time counting down the days until the game kicked off.
Well, of course, it was easy to get an entry ticket if you were rich. Sure, they were expensive, but that was only to the extent that ordinary folks could manage to afford it if they scraped by for a bit. I see... For a family too busy to share real time, this game is the perfect stage to strengthen the bonds of parent and child.
“I get where you’re coming from,” I said. “But why are you telling me this?”
“Yes, that’s what everyone wonders,” Millie admitted.
Look, I get that it takes courage for wealthy people to openly divulge the details of their lives in places like these. And come to think of it...where’s the daughter in question?
“Yes... It was fine up to that point,” Cray sighed. “But then our company’s event planner suggested that it would be more memorable if we added a little surprise.”
Millie pressed a hand to her face in lament.
The mood...just took a turn.
“My wife and I thought she would enjoy a happy little surprise. So we told her that an important event had come up, and since it would be a waste for her to waste her ticket, that she could play with some skilled bodyguards we’d hired. We planned to meet up right away in game to reveal the truth.”
“The characters we’re using, you see... Our daughter was the one who made them for us...”
Ah! My spider senses... I could already see what was coming.
“We confirmed she logged in. Millie was able to spot her from a nearby capsule.”
“But inside the game, her character...well... Her character ‘Mel’ was being piloted by someone else. According to the girl, she made a deal online—the new Mel would get a free participation ticket in exchange for logging in with the character she’d been provided.”