I see...she didn’t want to spend years in some corporate fairy tale with a bunch of hired babysitters, so she slipped through their fingers with a fresh character.
“Oh... The thought of our shy little girl wandering this world alone... It’s hurting my heart...”
“We just want to find her, explain the situation, and live out the plan we’d dreamed of together. That’s why we’re searching for our daughter.”
How should I put this... Should I call it a tragic misstep...? If only they’d been honest from the start without building this whole thing up as a surprise... And wait, this has nothing to do with business. There was no reason for Alto to butt in.
It had already been a few months since the game began... It wasn’t like she’d starve or physically die here. But still... It reminded me of our own household’s birthday disaster.
“It’s as I feared. Surprises only ever lead to tragedy,” I concluded.
“Exactly,” my sister agreed. “Nothing good ever comes of them.”
“Truly.”
We were both in complete agreement on that one.
The real incompetence in this story came from that event planner, who’d never stopped to think about what actions their jilted daughter might take. Surprises like these only worked when the one being surprised already half-suspected it.
“Was it just me, or did your words come out unusually heavy, little lady?”
“What on earth happened with the Exceed sisters?” mused Emoji. “Surprise events are nothing new—the industry holds them all the time.”
Well, of course, with my two sisters being thrill-seekers who loved their events, there was no way our household didn’t have its fair share of surprises.
But the end result? Unless you made preparations to tie down the guest of honor, the whole thing fell apart. Like a birthday celebration where the birthday girl was off celebrating with friends instead.
“So to summarize, you’re asking if I’ve seen your missing daughter anywhere?”
“That’s right,” Cray replied. “I thought a player with your level of renown might know something—and if not, I was hoping you could get the word out that there’s someone looking for her. She might catch wind of it somehow or other.”
If his corporate authority wouldn’t help him here, he’d have to turn to human connections to find her. It was the sort of work that seemed more suited to people like Alto or Romina...or even his subordinate L’Arc. No wonder they put him up to the search.
“But doesn’t it defeat the purpose of the search if you get summoned to a place like this?”
It would definitely prove harder to find a player—any player—in a cut-off event space. Wouldn’t they be prime candidates to get mad at the one who summoned them?
“We’ve already exhausted every means at our disposal. If nothing else works, then our best bet is to make our names known through an event like this. We need to conduct public relations. That’s why I was tracking down Ms. Loley’s party members. I wanted them to pass the message to her on the off chance they got summoned.”
The short of the matter was this. Even before they’d stepped in, they’d suspected that Emoji had been dragged into some sort of special event. It wasn’t a bad idea at all.
If the two of them emerged as VIPs of a new settlement, their names would be spread far and wide, and perhaps it would lead to the discovery of their daughter.
“Of course, my comrade did curse me when I first summoned them, but they did pass the message. Cray and Millie would be my next summons—I was waiting for Santa Hat Bunowny to give me the go-ahead.”
It was a transaction of sorts, working under the assumption that Cray would become the face of the settlement as its primary merchant once the event was cleared.
He’d be to the Prado Desert what Alto was to Cal Mira.
If only Alto would hear him out and help with the search... But he was a pragmatist who put his profits first. He wasn’t about to do charity work akin to...well, quite literally like finding a lost jewel in the desert.
“Well...I get the situation. So what are some key features I should be looking for? Appearance won’t get you anywhere in this game, so I’ll need some personality details to go off of.”
“We’ve been advised not to spread her real name for the search effort. But as for her character, she’s a very shy child,” Cray explained.
“She’s always loved books,” Millie added, “and she’s always done well in school. She often watches movies too. She has a vivid imagination, and we believe she has a bright future ahead of her.”
A shy girl who likes stories and movies.
“She also studied music,” Cray recalled, “well enough to perform at recitals.”
“And she was very good at games. She’d play the same title over and over again, trying out different challenge runs. I understood her passion—when I was young, I played too.”
“The characters we’re playing are actually our attempts at getting as close as possible to the designs she described to us before the game began. This Aultcray is supposed to be a brilliant tactician, master alchemist, inventor extraordinaire, and the strongest magician of all. The ultimate father...”
“She always said her mother should be a bewitching queen able to solve any diplomatic crisis in a flash, and who also happened to be well-versed in archaeology.”
Wow...she even has her perfect parent lore fleshed out.
It was heartwarming to see her parents faithfully adhering to those identities. Still, the sheer density of the stuff crammed into that character sheet...reeked of a bit of middle school cringe.
She seemed like a bit of a shut-in...did she devour light novels and manga too? I could imagine her being the sort who’d tumble headlong into the otaku abyss if she took a single wrong step on her way into middle school.
Whether she rotted or went awry... Going off my personal biases, she’d definitely be into vampires and that sort of stuff. She was a future Yamikage in the making.
“We might be able to find her if we can get closer to her ideals.”
“A competent queen. We know she always wanted a castle, and I’d love to help make that happen.”
I see, I see...they really do seem like good parents.
“How old is your daughter?”
“She’s still in elementary school.”
“Aah...to think that young child is wandering who knows where...”
Hmm...I feel like I might be getting somewhere, but maybe not, I thought with a sigh. First and foremost, most of the people playing Dimension Wave were otakus, so narrowing down by hobbies was pretty much impossible.
Cray was probably right. Unless he and Millie became big names, the girl would never step forward on her own.
Still, there are elementary schoolers playing this game?
When it came to elementary schoolers... I remembered how Tsumugi was cackling away before a match on some kid-friendly FPS, shouting, “Yeah, baby! Let’s beat up some kids today!”
In terms of mental age, she was probably on their level. That lovely little sister of mine.
In all likelihood, Cray’s daughter was more mature.
“I didn’t see either of you during the last Dimension Wave,” I said to Aultcray and Millie.
“We requested Lahal to summon us as soon as possible, and we didn’t want to start something we couldn’t finish,” Aultcray explained. “Thus, we did not participate in the event. Although we made some small contributions here and there, we did not do anything too conspicuous.”
“I only grew close to them after Cal Mira’s Dimension Wave,” Emoji added. “There, the island lord and his party were simply too capable for anyone else to make a name for themselves.”
Well, yeah... Shouko and Yamikage were both insanely skilled. And Tsumugi too—their innate player skills were just top tier.
It was tough to keep up with those names...especially for the frontliners, who were mostly specced solely for combat. Yamikage and I were mostly doing meme builds, and we’d just managed to make it work.
Still...it feels like something’s tugging at me. What is it?
“Yeah...”
The person they’re describing... Don’t I know someone like that?
It felt like something was stuck in the back of my throat.