Gideon, City of Duels
After a few hours of sparring in the Eighth Arena, Chelsea said she had some business to attend to and logged out.
Juliet was thinking of doing the same. While it was evening in Gideon right now, it was almost dawn in real life—and since it was a regular Tuesday, a middle schooler like her had classes to attend.
But in all honesty, her heavy sighs clearly showed that she wanted to stay logged in.
In Dendro time, tomorrow was the final day of The Tournaments. It was the climax of a major dueling event, and yet Juliet had to go to school. Just thinking about that before she’d logged in had made her so disheartened that her head had started to feel strangely heavy.
Thus, she was now walking through the city wearing a rather gloomy expression.
Logging out right away was an option—but knowing that she’d get less than two hours of sleep before her mother came to wake her up, Juliet wanted to enjoy the festivities a bit longer instead.
Additionally, though she’d been logged in for a while now, she didn’t actually feel all that sleepy. She’d taken a nap between day eight and day nine. Converted to real time, it was only about an hour of sleep, but it had spared her from feeling drowsy.
Juliet was actually full of energy and a desire to do something.
It’s right before the final day, so maybe they’re doing something in the first district? she thought. It’s a bit far, though. I’ll just fly there.
She spread Hræsvelgr—her Embryo—wide and prepared to leap into the sky when...
“Hey! You there! You, with those photogenic black wings!”
...someone suddenly called out to her.
Juliet turned around in surprise to see an unfamiliar girl running up to her, eyes glittering.
“Is that cosplay? Or are they the real deal? Oh! They move! Can you fly? That’s amazing!”
“Hm? Huh? What?” Juliet was completely taken aback by the mystery girl’s sudden approach. She didn’t even manage to speak in her usual manner, instead only letting out confused exclamations.
“There’s winged Masters in Legendaria too, but theirs don’t really work! Everything in character creation is just cosmetic! But your wings move! Are they some kind of magic item? Wait, Identification doesn’t show anything... It’s an Embryo!”
“I-It is...”
“Nice! So nice! Wings that can actually fly! A fallen angel! This would get so many views! Tons of likes! Hey! Would you join me for a photo shoot? I feel like we can take some great pictures together!”
“O-Okay... Huh?” Overwhelmed by the girl’s energy, Juliet found herself nodding.
Sh-She’s so pushy... Juliet thought. I feel more pressured than I did with Max.
In their first meeting, Max had challenged Juliet to a duel in the middle of the street—but in a way, this girl was more overwhelming. It was enough to knock the role-playing right out of her.
“Yay! That’s great! We’re like a devil and a fallen angel! This will look great together!”
“A devil...? Oh.” Juliet finally noticed the girl’s devilish horns and tail—though the horns were somewhat rounded, and combined with the hair color that matched her dress and crown, along with the closed parasol she carried, she looked more like...
“A cute devil girl...”
“Yeah! I know, right? Thanks! I’m proud of my avatar too!” Those words, along with the crest on her left hand—showing an image of what almost seemed to be an ancient underwater temple—were more than enough to confirm that she wasn’t a tian, but a Master.
While Infinite Dendrogram’s avatar creation let players assume all sorts of strange appearances, it was often difficult to balance the function and design of features humans didn’t have in reality. However, this devil girl pulled it off really well. The tail even seemed to move based on her emotions, however that worked.
“Oh! Right! Can I have your name? I wanna put ‘Me and Whoever’ as the title for the photo set!”
“Um... I’m Juliet.”
The fact that the devil girl had to ask her name made it clear that she was new to Gideon. Juliet was fourth in the duel rankings—the duelist who showed up in more matches than any others near the top. Nobody from the area who cared even slightly about duels would fail to recognize Juliet’s face or name.
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Oh yeah, she did say something about Legendaria... Juliet thought.
“Juliet. Julie it is then! I hope we can be friends!” The devil girl grasped Juliet’s hands and shook them up and down.
It was an awfully blatant expression of familiarity, but it obviously came from the heart.
“And, so... You are...?”
“Huh...? Oh. Right. Riiight...”
Juliet’s question made the devil girl freeze mid-handshake. However, she quickly rebooted and gave Juliet a smile.
“I’m G! A streamer and content creator! Search for ‘G Channel’ and you’ll find me!”
“Oh. A streamer...” Juliet mostly watched fashion and occult videos, so she didn’t know much about streamers, but based on G’s reaction to her lack of recognition, Juliet figured she must’ve been pretty famous.
“I-I’ll have a look...”
“Please do! Check me out! Anyway, on to the photo shoot!” G said with a smile plastered across her face, making Juliet nod.