“Your one issue was that the Guild Orb’s power affects everyone in the area equally. That quality, at least, doesn’t seem to have changed.” The only differences were the targets of its power and the use of intermediaries. Analissia’s dolls had still been showing people their memories from the past, just as surely as when Nacht had used the Guild Orb to look at old images or videos. Without the restrictions imposed by the format of the game, anyone within the area of effect who had a strong wish could see their past reflected in a doll. It wasn’t, it turned out, a malicious power. It was simply being used without any understanding. Aisha had never done anything wrong.
“You ought to be ashamed,” Nacht scolded Erin. “This power is meant to be for making precious friends. Didn’t your father entrust you with the Guild Orb because you’re precious to him?” He must have bestowed the power to replay memories from the past to his daughter because he knew how lonely she would be without him. That was why he had given it to his family but taught them nothing about its many versatile uses.
“Who knows?” Erin responded, clearly conflicted. “Despite what you might assume, papa could be rather irresponsible sometimes. But I would rather prioritize my family who might still be alive over memories from the past. I don’t have any regrets. But Rinoa’s missing, and I can’t do this without her. Plus, now you have those troublesome eyes of yours on us. Maybe it’s time to try another approach...”
“Did you say ‘Rinoa’?” Nacht asked. “Red hair? Single horn? Kind of a brat?”
“Wait, do you know her?! Rinoa is my niece! The whole reason I gave that woman the Guild Orb was because she told me she could use the power of the Demon Eyes to free Rinoa from her seal, but by the time we found her, the seal was already broken! The whole thing is seriously getting on my nerves.”
“Yeah...” mumbled Nacht, thinking about that spell she had cast before she’d realized how truly vast her magic power was. “Sorry about that.” Thinking rationally, it only made sense that the grandfather who’d given Rinoa her Real World Online equipment was the same person as the father who’d given Erin hers. “But you don’t look like a demon...”
“I guess I just take after my mom,” said Erin. “But that doesn’t matter. Is Rinoa all right?”
“She’s so all right that she started a war as soon as she got free. I had to chastise her a little for that. Wouldn’t want your cute little niece to develop bad manners.”
“I can’t believe we didn’t notice...” Erin said. “I guess everyone was busy at the time or just didn’t want to interfere. But those are all excuses.”
Nacht looked up at the Orb shining high in the air. “So,” she said, “I suppose that Orb belonged to your father and Rinoa’s grandfather, the man named Renji Shinohara?”
“Y-Yes, that’s right.”
“I see!” Nacht said cheerfully. Then, she leaped into the air and grabbed the Orb.
“Hey! Give that back!” Erin said, pointing both of her guns straight at Nacht’s heart. Cold mist, filled with the power of death, flowed out of the barrels as they prepared to fire.
“Hang on,” Nacht said. “There’s just something I wanna check.” Nacht only knew of two demon player characters who also served as guildmasters. One of them was someone she knew personally. She had to know for certain if it was him.
Nacht touched the Guild Orb and looked for the name of the guild. However, she was not a member of the guild in question, let alone the guildmaster, so all she could access was its public information. That, however, was enough.
“Hah!” Nacht laughed. “Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I see! So that’s what’s going on! I guess it’s fate after all!” She looked again at Erin, smiling with sudden fondness.
“Wh-What are you...?” the girl asked.
“Tell me,” said Nacht, “does the name xXxEvil_AngelxXx mean anything to you?”
“‘xXxEvil_AngelxXx’?! What an atrocious nom de plume! I simply refuse to believe that’s someone’s actual name.”
Unfortunately for the poor girl, that name belonged to none other than her father, the guildmaster of the Rainbow Bridge guild. In a sense, he was Nacht’s father as well. It was he, after all, whom Toru had commissioned to design Nacht.
~ ‡ ~
As rude as it might be to say, the members of Nacht’s guild, Outer Cafeteria, were not so much content with their offline lives as they were oppressed by them. The result, however, was not much different—most of them were too busy with family and the like to participate in the Christmas event. Only Toru the university student was left alone, hunched over his desk and staring happily at the VR headset screen on Christmas Eve.
“Damned ingrates!” stormed xXx_EvilAngel_xXx over voice chat. “Ignoring the guildmaster’s orders like that. I ought to have the lot of them expelled!”
“Hey, don’t say that!” protested Toru. “Their wives are on their side of the screen, you know.”
“They still shouldn’t go back on their word!” xXx_EvilAngel_xXx declared, his character’s red, fire-like hair fluttering lonesomely in the breeze. “How can you stand it, Nacht? Knowing that while we’re fighting the event boss, all those reality junkies are spending Christmas Eve doing the old in-and-out?! Haah... I’m just about at the point of asking you on a date.”
“Please don’t tell me you’re turning into one of Nacht’s admirers too...” Toru said. “At the very least wait until the voice changer is on to start flirting with me.” He didn’t know how to handle advances like that with his natural voice coming through the chat.