Several days after the Giant Tortoise Incident was (supposedly) resolved… Cayna proposed her idea to Marelle and successfully set up the projector in the inn’s dining hall. She chose this location for two reasons. First, it was a popular gathering place among the villagers. Second, the dining hall had ample room. The projector had enough cavities for three sets of Eyes, so everyone could enjoy multiple simulcasts from each area. The projected images were about two by four meters. The issue was where to place them. The Pair of Eyes was creepy-looking, had no defense system, and couldn’t determine what to film on its own. Back in the game, Cayna used to hang out at her old guild base and watch other players livestream their quests from a fixed vantage point as she had just done. However, walking around town with a giant eyeball over your head in this world was a surefire way to get arrested. And so, her best bet was to ensure that the job was secured within trusted locales and broadcast from there. Cayna then remembered the Guardian Towers. Seeing as how the Guardian of Cayna’s tower was stuck in the wall and had no limbs, one might wonder what giving it a Pair of Eyes would accomplish. However, the Guardian was omniscient within the tower itself and could project multiple surveillance videos around its Skill Master for a firsthand look at fresh challengers. Cayna thought she could use that function along with the Pair of Eyes to broadcast the surrounding scenery. The mural Guardian wasn’t on board at first and muttered, “What? Me protect some weird eyeball?” However, Kuu’s terrifying smile that seemed to say, You can’t? Are you sure? changed its mind in a heartbeat. She planned to leave one of the two remaining Eyes with the smoky Guardian of the Battle Arena. As luck would have it, there was an upcoming tourney that Cayna had been hoping to broadcast. The Pair of Eyes couldn’t transmit sounds on its own, but the projector circumvented this. However, the region currently being telecast around Cayna’s tower was practically silent. A gust of wind blowing past the tower’s peak or the occasional high-pitched cry of a passing bird were almost the only sounds to be heard. The footage was broadcast in real time during the day as a matter of convenience, and Cayna was thrilled to witness the villagers’ shared astonishment as they marveled at the tower’s scenic views. If asked, most villagers would insist that such sights were a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Cayna tried looking for places even higher than the towers, but Hidden Ogre’s floating garden seemed to be the only candidate. After all, even the three nations’ capitals were modest compared to any cluster of skyscrapers. Nevertheless, the wide-eyed villagers broke into huge smiles as they enjoyed a bird’s-eye view of their little hamlet. The people were smaller than a grain of rice from that height, but everyone clapped merrily and shouted things like, “That’s my field!” and “I can see my house!” Unsurprisingly, only lamplight illuminated the village after dark, so even the mural Guardian wasn’t entirely sure where to focus next. Villagers who stopped by the dining hall for dinner could enjoy watching the sun dip beneath the horizon as the orange sky faded to navy blue. Once night fell, the small, faint lights of the village would dot the screen. If it was neither daytime nor a shift in seasons, the timeless local forest and grand Ejidd River running through the woods north of the village were shown as well. Opus advised Cayna to avoid the fortress along the national border, so she said as much to the mural Guardian. The edge of something fortress-like would sometimes appear as the Eyeball did a slow pan and caused the camera to suddenly face the sky. Cayna had to laugh at the mural’s obvious panic. Marelle told her some villagers would claim to have free time and stop by the dining hall during the day, but Cayna was relieved to hear this hadn’t caused any major inconvenience. “They order snacks and alcohol while they watch, so it’s good for business,” Marelle said from one side of the counter. “Still, I have a scary feelin’ the womenfolk are gonna tighten their purse strings.” She smiled in exasperation while Luka and Lytt sat in front of her and stared at the projector. The two were captivated by the sights initially, but several days later, they appeared to be looking for something. The girls at last came to Cayna, and just as she was wondering what their question might be, the two said they thought it was strange that the silver tower was nowhere in sight. “Ah, that’s because the picture is being broadcast from the tower.” “Oh…,” said Luka. “Wow.” “Ooh, I get it now. Of course it didn’t disappear!” said Lytt. That seemed to have been the big question on the girls’ minds; Cayna’s explanation had delighted them. The memory of hugging the girls tight was still fresh in her memory. Since Marelle believed Cayna’s Guardian Tower was the home of the fearsome Silver Ring Witch, Cayna instructed the mural Guardian not to include it. It could have made an appearance, but she figured it was best not to upset anyone. In retrospect, she realized she should have mentioned this to Luka and Lytt as two of the few people who knew Cayna was the Silver Ring Witch. “Cayna, isn’t there something else you should upgrade?” Opus asked with a frown. “What’re you talking about?” she replied as she tossed a new barrel of whiskey into the storehouse. Luka was recording the storehouse’s inventory next to her but looked up at Opus with a mystified expression. “Twelve!” “Twelve…?” Kuu peeked at Luka’s notes from the side and pointed out a mistake, which Luka promptly corrected. It was a charming scene. Roxilius had been tasked with managing their liquor business, but Luka was currently assisting him, since she had plenty of free time. Marelle said it was normal for village children to shadow their mothers as they learned daily chores. However, as Cayna’s adoptive daughter, Luka had missed out on this tradition. The housework was split among the servants, and Mommy Cayna was always out adventuring, so she never had the chance to learn. Siren immediately addressed the situation after Marelle pointed this out, and the girl was presently learning basic cooking with her, Roxilius, and Roxine. Roxilius had been the one to suggest involving Luka in the alcohol business as well, since he intended to eventually make her his assistant. Cayna heard this would allow Rox to focus on protecting the village while she and the others were away. Even so, it would be a long time before Luka could handle such responsibility. “You know what I’m talking about,” said Opus. “That.” “Oh.” Opus forcefully pushed Cayna over to the caterpillar-tread water well as if to say, If you’re going to follow the offline quest, then swap it out. “It’s not in anyone’s way. Can’t we just leave it?” “As usual, you decide everything on your own…,” Opus said with a sigh. His bitter expression indicated that he was at the end of his rope, and the demon stared emptily into the distance. “Well, I can’t say there have been complaints.” “Wait, you already asked? Based on that reaction, I take it the villagers said they already have more than enough?” “Everyone unanimously agreed that life has been very convenient.” “Ah-ha-ha-ha, I can only imagine what too much technology would do to them.” “They truly are a selfless people.” In Opus’s opinion, their best option was to inundate the village with the same convenient amenities found in offline quests and turn it into a fortress. Nevertheless, modernization held no merit in this particular situation. After all, regardless of the system inside Cayna, there was no guarantee the village would truly evolve. Moreover, the people themselves had no incentive to find out. Cayna always took their desires into account, but forcefulness would breed animosity. Opus decided to drop the subject. “Oh, but…” Cayna struck a fist against her palm when an idea occurred to her. Opus halted midstride. “Opus, you’re talking about a bronze water pump, right?” “Correct.” “In that case, can’t we just draw up a blueprint and let an expert build and sell it?” “An expert?” Opus asked quizzically. Cayna grabbed his hand and headed back home. First, she had Opus draw up a blueprint for a water pump. He had a skill called Tech Draft, so they didn’t need any special tools. With parchment in front of him, Opus cast Tech Draft and sketched the plans in midair. This ability could take any item made even once and form a blueprint of it. The skill Transcribe could then put it to paper. Back in the game, the finished item was nothing more than a picture of an item to hang in one’s room. By this point, there was no easier way to explain things to people. Cayna could have also used Tech Draft to explain the crawler-style well, but she’d completely forgotten about it at the time. “There are waaay too many Throwaway Skills and pointless items.” “Hey, spare a thought for my tortured staff. Still, I’ll admit it’s not something one should consider praiseworthy.” Opus’s unfocused eyes swam with grief, and Cayna was paralyzed by an ominous foreboding. He continued. “All was well initially, but as the list of skills grew, we would pick random words from the dictionary and then decide which ones to keep. However, this eventually got so out of hand that it left everyone brain-dead. No one was around to stop us, and a lot of the staff felt skills should be the game’s main identity. In the end, I took a few people aside and formed a separate division just for skills. The darkness that radiated from us night after night seemed to leak into the hallways—” “All right! That’s enough! Finito!” Cayna had no intention of going down that particular rabbit hole and cut Opus off with an air karate chop to clear the bad vibes. His dead fisheyes were hard to watch. In short, although the game had a near-infinite variety of skills, the staff also suffered horribly in the process. Whether Opus regretted this now was a moot point. Afterward, Cayna told Luka and the Double Rs she would be heading to Felskeilo. Kuu would naturally come along, since she couldn’t leave Cayna’s side. However, Luka wasn’t inclined to visit the capital on a regular basis and chose to quietly stay home instead. Lytt declined for similar reasons. Luka quickly grew flustered when Cayna teased her and put on a show of crocodile tears. “Won’t you come with me, Lu?” she begged. Note: Cayna conversely panicked when she dropped the act and Luka sullenly said, “I…hate you, Mommy Cayna,” upon realizing she’d been tricked. The Double Rs’ relief was palpable when they heard Opus would be taking Siren along as well. The elven maid had apparently begun her own secret reign of terror within the household. Cayna activated her Guardian Ring, and the group was soon on its way. Teleport would have sufficed, but a Skill Master like Opus had to be introduced to the Guardians. They flew to the First Skill Master’s Guardian Tower, the white whale. This decision was partly rooted in Cayna’s desire to see Opus’s reaction. “Why,”—ka-thunk—“if it isn’t”—ka-thunk—“my master.”—ka-thunk—“What can”—ka-thunk—“I do for you”—ka-thunk—“today?” Opus and Siren, first-timers at this tower, were thrown by the Guardian’s welcome. They stared dumbfounded at the little yellow bird Guardian attached to a bellows, rhythmically popping in and out of a large pendulum clock. Cayna hardly ever saw such an expression on Opus’s face and suddenly felt like she’d won something. “Sorry, but we didn’t stop by for any real reason,” she said. “We just needed a place to stop.” “That is fine. I”—ka-thunk—“am a tool,”—ka-thunk—“after all.”—ka-thunk—“Being useful”—ka-thunk—“demonstrates my true value.”—ka-thunk. Cayna admired the Guardian’s businesslike approach to its own worth, though she had to wonder if Marvelia had implemented this particular detail. Siren nodded as if she could completely understand the Guardian’s viewpoint. Hold on, Cayna thought, don’t you have any issue with being treated like a tool? Cayna was immediately concerned by Siren’s lack of self-worth, although Opus was to blame for creating her that way. Instead of a mere pointed rebuttal, she took things a step further and jabbed an elbow into his side. “The young man you”—ka-thunk—“brought along has”—ka-thunk—“suddenly collapsed.”—ka-thunk—“Is he”—ka-thunk—“all right?” “It’s just the usual. Nothing to worry about.” Cayna’s response was cold as ice, but even the Guardian pretended to see nothing and fell silent. As always, Siren eyed her master as one might a piece of trash. Their master-servant relationship sometimes felt like an inexplicable mystery. Outside of Siren (just barely) staying a step behind Opus, it seemed like their roles were reversed. While supplying the seated wooden figure with MP, Cayna asked if it noticed anything different around the tower lately. “There were”—ka-thunk—“a few minor events, but”—ka-thunk—“nothing significant.”—ka-thunk. “Oh, really?” “If I must”—ka-thunk—“say anything,”—ka-thunk—“it would be that”—ka-thunk—“the people have”—ka-thunk—“set altars upon”—ka-thunk—“the water.”—ka-thunk—“It seems like”—ka-thunk—“the area is”—ka-thunk—“being overrun”—ka-thunk—“with flowers.”—ka-thunk. Live footage of the surrounding area dotted the Guardian’s room; a massive pile of cut flowers lay in front of the giant white whale just upstream of the sandbar. One might assume those on the bottom were all crushed, but apparently someone had recently preserved them with magic to create a wall of dried flowers. “Devotion is great and all, but was this really necessary?” At present, there was also a chain of rafts on the water that formed a temporary wharf and functioned as altars. “These people have the oddest obsessions,” Opus said with a sigh, having recovered from his earlier ordeal. “I have no”—ka-thunk—“intention to move, so”—ka-thunk—“I do not mind, but”—ka-thunk—“Master, shouldn’t I”—ka-thunk—“compensate them for”—ka-thunk—“treating me like”—ka-thunk—“a god?”—ka-thunk. “Hmm. Maybe?” When the loquacious Guardian put it that way, it had a point. Cayna began considering skills that might fit the bill. However, Opus disapproved. “A god mustn’t wield power so carelessly. As a higher being, you are to remain dignified. Compensating for something as frivolous as flowers will only weaken your authority.” “…” “Wh-why do you look so skeptical?” “No, it’s not that. I’m just surprised. After all, you’re talking like you’re some superior being yourself. Got any experience?” “Nonsense. If anyone is a supreme being, it’s your…” “My what?” “N-no, nothing. Forget it.” He’d been about to say something extremely intriguing but stopped himself. Cayna circled him, and he avoided her gaze. “Ohhh? How veeeeeery interesting. What’s this about me now?” “Hush! No one likes a nosy brat!” He was clearly avoiding the subject. Even Kee couldn’t help her. If he’d had a physical body, there was no question he’d be shrugging in exasperation. But surprisingly enough, it was Siren who stepped in. “Well now, Lady Cayna. How shall we make our exit from such an exposed location?” “Oh, right. No worries—I’ve got a place.” Rings were normally used to enter a Guardian Tower, but there were multiple ways to leave them. In the case of Kujo’s tortoise, you simply left the TV studio and climbed all the way down. Players all had their methods, so escape wasn’t much of an issue. For Liothek’s Dragon Palace, you needed a way back to land after being tossed into the water. For Kyotaro’s Battle Arena, these days you needed to hide from the groundskeeper and sneak out of the stadium. For Cayna’s and Opus’s towers, you were simply sent outside. There was no need to slink around, since both locations were pretty isolated. However, Marvelia’s tower was on top of a whale and visible to all hopeful pilgrims. The whale was considered a divine messenger these days, so they obviously couldn’t be caught mistreating it. Cayna had pondered if she could establish a remote exit and consulted with the Guardian. After a bit of experimentation, she realized she could leave from anywhere in the capital. Despite the labyrinth of back alleys distant from the sandbar, few places were safe from prying eyes. She thought their best bet was to rent a room somewhere long-term, and Skargo soon stepped in to lend a helping hand. Cayna had consulted with her children on the matter back in town. Mai-Mai soon offered a room in her own home, but Kartatz quickly nixed this. “Even if this is Mum we’re talkin’ about, won’t the other nobles get the wrong idea if an adventurer keeps leaving the house of a baron?” “Oh, true. I want to help Mother, but…” Although Mai-Mai was a noble, she still seemed to face a number of challenges. Cayna thought she could see cat ears droop from Mai-Mai’s head in disappointment, but it was probably just her imagination. Then Skargo stood. “Mother Dear! In that case, I shall gladly prepare you a room in the cathedral! It is near the Guardian Tower, and all our nuns and priests are well aware you are my beloved mother. It is a flawless proposal!” “Good point, Skargo. You talk about Mum every chance you get, so I’m sure they’ll make an exception.” There were a boatload of comments to be made here, and Kartatz’s visible exasperation made it clear he felt the same way. However, Cayna had a few complaints for the confident Skargo as the backdrop of a tropical island getaway appeared behind him. One of them being his notorious mother complex.
Chapter 124
15 min read