I did it for a pretty meaningless reason, that being that it felt kind of lonely being in a base without any mob characters, so I ended up forgetting about her. I think I remembered getting high on myself back in the beginning and gave her a weird background like “Lufas’ Advisor.”
But she wasn’t capable of combat, and to be honest she was basically a decoration that happened to move around and was shaped like a person, so I didn’t bother to remember her. So at some point, she really did start to become part of the background.
So, that girl who I completely forgot gained a will and has been waiting this entire time? Even if I didn’t remember, she did? So she’d been loyally waiting here the entire time, fulfilling her role of advisor? “Ahh, yes......We remember now. Forgive us, Dina. Something was wrong with us, to forget one such as you.” This wasn’t a game.
I felt like the truth, which I’d been taking for granted all this time, was suddenly thrust in front of me.
Even if I didn’t care or forgot, this world had other lives that would be affected by it.
In the game, forgetting something slight like a decoration would pass with just a, “Oh I forgot about it. Oh well.” But that won’t fly now that they’re alive, with their own thoughts and sense of self.
“Good work. Well done protecting this place while We were away, Dina.”
“Y-your praise is too much!”
I must never think of her as a ‘human-shaped decoration’ ever again. I must always see her as an individual, a person.
“Excuse me, Mistress Lufas. Just how did you manage to revive yourself?”
“Ahh, that? They tried to summon a hero......Excuse us, We don’t know the name of the country. For now, the king of a country to the west made an error and returned us from subspace. Thanks to that, as you can see, We are free to move as We wish.”
“West......that means the country of Laevateinn. Their movements have been hinting at a hero summoning for a while now, so that’s what it was......” According to Dina, that country’s been trying their best to summon a hero for a while now.
Thanks for the hard work.
And, well, sorry. That I was the one to come out.
“Indeed, and so We are currently dull to the ways of this age. I have heard that that devil king is still alive and well, though.”
“That’s right! Those heroes that defeated you, Lufas, those fools ended up splitting apart with their own countries before getting beaten to pieces by the devil king! They’re so useless!”
Ahh, yeah. Sorry, Dina. Splitting up the army was established beforehand. Actually, that entire event was made for our army to split up......
Well, as expected, the monolith that was Lufas’ army crumbled, and after that many different players formed their own forces as they liked, aiming to be my successor. So that was how the world split apart, huh?
After all, fighting with the devil king was fighting with the official last boss.
Unlike me, where there was no prize even for beating me, beating the devil king had a clear prize to it. That was, rare items and drops. Of course, it’d be hard to get people to unite for that. In fact, there’d probably been vicious people getting in the way of others so they could get to the prize first.
But that’s really just in terms of the game.
In this world, where the game was real, they split apart for some unknown reason, and no one knew why they lost.
No, in the first place, just how much of the game’s settings were applied here? Was stuff that got cemented into the history of the game, like fighting the devil king, reflected here? Or did this place have its own history? ......The more I thought about it, the less I figured I knew. In the first place, it was weird that game settings even applied.
Just what kind of relationship do this world and the game Exgate Online have? They definitely aren’t just different worlds that happen to be similar.
“......Mistress Lufas?”
“Ahh, sorry. We were just thinking. Dina, if possible, could you tell us about what has happened since We left this world?”
“Yes, of course! If I can be of service to you, Lufas, please ask me whatever you wish!” Dina replied to me with a smile as clear as a cloudless sky.
W-what a nice girl......this girl might become my oasis in this place.
For now, I’ve gotten something I need to protect.
It’s a simple thing. Cute girls are the world’s treasure.
It’s only natural for a man to want to protect them.
“Then, starting from those awful, hateful heroes that defeated you: after the battle they were hailed as the Seven Heroes, and they each formed their own country. Of those, four of them are already dead of old age, but three of them have long life spans, so they’re still alive.”
No doubt the Seven Heroes were the other famous high level players from Exgate Online. Each of them mastered their classes, or specialized in a gimmick, and we went hunting or boss-killing several times together. They were former comrades.
......I wonder how they are. Are they like me, where on the inside they’re players? Or not? Of course, I’d like them to be the former, but I won’t be able to tell unless I see them in person.
For now, let’s set meeting them again as one of my objectives while I travel around this world.
“All of the Twelve Heavenly Stars are alive and well. However, they’ve all scattered and spread after you were defeated, and right now, I only know where six of them are. Out of those, two of them have sided with the devil king as revenge against humankind for having beaten you.”
The Twelve Heavenly Stars...... Their official title was The Conquering Twelve Heavenly Stars, and they were NPCs or companion monsters.
One of the classes I’d mastered was ‘Monster Tamer,’ which gave me a skill to tame any monsters I’d defeated with a certain chance of success. Of course, once they became friendly their stats and data were changed from when they were wild. But for a Monster Tamer, who had almost no ability to fight themselves, taming strong monsters was a matter of life and death.
And I was......very lucky.
I’d gotten boss monsters that only appeared in events and rare monsters that basically never spawned at all. I managed to tame extremely rare high level monsters, and because of that I got full of myself and named the twelve strongest of them generals under Lufas, giving them the title of ‘Twelve Heavenly Stars.’
For big bosses, it’s cooler to have strong subordinates with titles like ‘The Four Divine Kings.’
There was a time when I thought like that.
Anyway, please try not to pry into that stuff. It was a mistake of my youth.
......Well, to be honest, there are also things other than monsters mixed in, but that doesn’t matter right now.
“The devil king, huh......? My my, even if this was brought on by our own worthlessness, they’ve done something quite shameful, haven’t they? We will have to fix this promptly.”
And one more goal for the trip. That is, to round up all the Twelve Heavenly Stars, and take responsibility and stop them if they’re doing something stupid.
Man, to be honest, it’s actually causing me stomach problems just thinking about how monsters I’ve tamed and raised are causing trouble. I’m gonna have to stop them, even if I have to beat them up a little, won’t I?
“Hm......Dina, for the three heroes that are still alive as well as the Twelve Heavenly Stars that you know of, are you able to put their locations on a map?”
“Yes, certainly.”
For now, I’m going to see whether or not the heroes are the same as I am. And if the Twelve Heavenly Stars are doing something stupid, I’ll stop them and return them to the tower. Let’s make this the goal of my travels for now.
......Ahh, right.
And I need money, too. It’s going to be really important to earn some money, since I’ve got nothing at the moment. I’m gonna have to find some way to make money, fast.
“It’s done. I’ve drawn their locations on this map, please take a look.”
“Hm.”
I took the paper from Dina and looked at the map. Looking at the heroes first, the closest one to this tower was in the country of Svel, 1400km to the north. That was the location of the elven hero, Megrez. And right next to Svel, at the base of a nearby volcano, was one of the Twelve Heavenly Stars: the Ram, Aries. He’d built a fort and was currently repeating attempts to invade the country.
......What the hell is that sheep doing?
Anyway, this is probably best as our first destination.
I’ll get an ulcer if I don’t stop that dumbass sheep.
Oh man, prospects are grim, aren’t they? But it’s true there’s a part of me that thinks this’ll be interesting.
Now then, let’s start by earning some money to travel with, why don’t we?