Without a single hint of his earlier informal behavior, Solomon talked in a tone that now exuded a dignified presence, his intense stare directed at the pretty girl that had just arrived. Then, the moment said girl heard those words, she vigorously closed the door; sadly for Reynard, his face was nailed hard by the moving object, causing the Knight to display an anguished expression as he greatly staggered, tears faintly welling up in his eyes. While placing a hand on his companion’s shoulder, Joachim tried to comfort him by saying, “No matter what you say to that lady, it will be useless, so please do not mind her.”

  “When I heard about how a girl, who called herself Dunbalf’s disciple, was here in the castle, I went to take a look at her. But alas, I had no luck in finding anyone inside the guest room. Then, I saw one of the guards nearby and squeezed out the answer from him. ‘Everyone moved to the office,’ he said. So, here I am.”

  The beauty moved to face Solomon and explained herself, her expression now revealing a bright smile.

  “I see… well, whatever. Afterwards, I was planning on bringing her to your place anyway.”

  Following his reply, the King walked and approached Mira.

  “This girl here is the so-called disciple of Dunbalf. Her name is Mira.”

  After being introduced, the little girl didn’t even try to leave her seat nor greet the other party. She simply gazed at the woman standing in front of the door and, upon confirming that the beauty looked the same as ever, corrected her posture on the sofa with a wry smile.

  “Ah, so it is her. By the way, Solomon-sama, is it fine to be using that kind of tone?”

  What the woman meant was that Solomon’s manner of speech had, currently, changed to one that would only be used when talking between friends; there wasn’t a single trace left of the previous tone he had recently used, one filled with the dignity of a king. That matter was something they had decided beforehand: in a situation where the two of them weren’t alone, both Solomon and the woman were supposed to behave in a suitable posture and manner.

  “Yeah, there’s no problem. Since this girl here is Dunbalf himself, you know? So you can just drop the act and speak normally. Even after this many years, I’m still not used to that new tone of yours.”

  While saying that, the boy had a playful and radiant smile on his face.

  “Wha… w-w-wha...”

  “Ooh, hey there, Luminaria, long time no see. Or that is how it is supposed to be for you, I guess. In my case, it has been barely a day since then.”

  Still relaxing on the couch, Mira simply raised a hand to greet the woman.

  Luminaria. That was the name of one of the Nine Sages and also the only Elder whose whereabouts were known.

  “Got it. Dunbalf, huh? So you’ve finally arrived here too...”

  The beauty then tried to get a good look at Mira, observing her whole figure from top to bottom. That cute, adorable little girl in front of her was enough to make Luminaria remember clearly an old conversation she had with Dunbalf, when they talked about their preferences in women. Currently, Mira’s appearance completely matched the characteristics she had heard at that time. Finally, while feeling happy to once again meet her longtime friend—but also finding that situation hilarious—Luminaria burst out in laughter.

  Escaping through the door and reaching the outside, the faint laughing voice made Reynard cover his ears as both him and Joachim nodded to each other. Within the castle, there were rumors circulating that, sometimes, Luminaria would act like a completely different person. And in a sense, they were completely right.

  When the woman finally stopped her convulsing outburst of laughs, she gave another look at Mira’s figure and, as if trying to imply something, smiled broadly.

  “So you’ve also finally realized how wonderful it is. Having a woman’s body is great, right? Did you play with it to your heart’s content already?”

  Then, the very first thing that came out of Luminaria’s mouth was some really indecent speak. However, even that didn’t change the fact her seductive lips, now raised in a smile after uttering those words, were also part of her charm, filled with sensuality.

  “Do not put me on the same level as you. This was mostly an accident, I had no intention of having this happening to me.”

  “Damn, that was some excellent work for an accident, dontcha think? I’m finding it a tad bit hard to believe...”

  After stroking Mira’s silver hair for a moment, the woman placed her fingers on the collar of her friend’s robe and pulled it, taking a peek at the young girl’s chest; even under the clothes everything was flawless, so Luminaria made sure to voice what she found.

  “...Uughh. It will take some time if I were to explain, but...”

  Seemingly irritated, Mira brushed off the beauty’s hand and briefly explained the events the led to her current situation, starting with the message that had warned about her soon to be expired in-game cash.

  ◆◆◆

  “Well, I bought my current Vanity Case because of that too. But in my case, I didn’t use it.”

  As Solomon finished listening to his friend’s history, he mentioned that the same message had arrived to him and, after thinking that it would be a waste to simply let his money expire, bought the Vanity Case in the process.

  “Same here, dude.”

  In order to prove what she had said, Luminaria opened her Item Box and brought out the same item, holding it on the palm of her hand. Then, while glaring at the case with a bitter expression on her face, a completely sulky Mira pouted and threw herself on the couch.

  “Why am I the only one without iiit?”

  “ ‘Cause you used yours, of course.”

  Having her heart pierced by Solomon’s point-blank words, the girl could only groan in despair and, while looking exactly like a sullen kid, sprawled face-up over the sofa.

  “But hey, that ended great, right? At least you didn’t try to copy the image of some joke character out there. If I remember well, you said this was your ideal female figure, no? Well, even if this weren’t your ideal or you had no attachments to it at all, your current state in itself is something to celebrate. For me, it was like I’d hit the jackpot when this world became real, this place is just the best shit ever. I spent the entirety of my first day here playing hard with my body.”

  A truly refreshing smile appeared on Luminaria’s beautiful face. Without a doubt, most men would get instantly charmed by it, but only if they didn’t know the real person behind that pretty expression. And unfortunately, the other two individuals there knew really well her true identity.

  While sending an icy stare towards her friend, whose behavior and appearance remained the same even after all the time that had passed, a certain question appeared in the girl’s mind.

  “By the way, I had this sudden thought now, but... Solomon spent thirty years here and Luminaria twenty, right? It is a lot of time, so why do you guys look like you did not age a single year?”

  Because Mira had barely spent a day in that world, she obviously wouldn’t feel that things were out of place there; what was baffling, however, was that her friends didn’t change a single bit after spending a considerable amount of time in that new reality. Even if she disregarded Luminaria’s case, it would be impossible to do the same for Solomon. There was no way for a human in their forties to still have the figure of a young boy.

  “Oh, that’s right, it's already so natural to us that we actually forgot to talk about that.”

  “Yeah, it’s the reason why I said this world was the best shit ever.”

  In order to settle down and focus on the talk, Solomon tried to get his wheeled office chair and bring it near the sofa, but apparently Luminaria thought, “First come, first served,” and quickly sat on said chair. The woman then crossed her fascinatingly long and slender legs, with a clear intention of showing them off.

  “Simply put, it seems that we, former players, are quite different from the ordinary people, or former NPCs.”

  The boy continued the conversation while poking his friend’s head, retaliating for her audacity in taking his seat.

  “Different from the ordinary, you say…?”

  “Yep. First of all, I’m talking about ‘Inspection.’ Did you already try to inspect both me and Luminaria?”

  When the King asked that, Mira remembered that during her audience with him, she had tried to inspect the boy, but no information was displayed. So this time, the girl attempted to observe Luminaria, who kept squirming around in a really unpleasant way. However, she couldn’t make any kind of data appear in her field of vision.

  “Nothing appeared, for the both of you. And yet I could do it for Suleiman and Graia...”

  After hearing Mira’s reply, Solomon let out a jovial laugh and quietly sat near the sprawled girl’s feet.

  “Somehow, it looks like we can’t inspect former players. This is the first difference. Oh, by the way, when I first saw you I tried the inspect function, but since it didn’t show anything, I could confirm that you were an ex-player. Then, there was the fact that the name Dunbalf had changed to ‘online’ and, at the same, a certain disciple of his appeared—or a loli whose appearance looked perfectly fit for his tastes. That was enough evidence to convince not only me, but anyone else with such information.”

  “In other words, it can be used as material for decision-making.”

  Mira concluded with a bitter smile.

  “Indeed. We can’t be completely sure that the people you’ll be looking for won’t change their appearances, right? At least with this you will be able to identify if someone is a former player or not.”

  Said the boy as he adjusted the lower hem of his friend’s robe, covering her legs with it; that skirt-like part of her clothing had been in a dangerous position, to the point that even her bloomers were exposed.

  “Anyway, with how those guys are, we should be able to identify them without even looking at their appearances.”

  “You’re right. For example, if Luminaria here changed into someone else, I’m pretty sure I would recognize her.”

  “Exactly. There are not many perverts like her.”

  Throwing a look at Luminaria, whose expression was of pure ecstasy as she ogled her own legs, the other two resisted the urge to laugh. Although the woman directed a sharp glare towards her friends after being called a pervert, she completely changed her expression all of a sudden, as if something had happened.

  “Hey, in other words… if we’re already at the point that we can recognize each other without even looking at our appearance, then we’re really close buddies!”

  Luminaria, who gave a surprisingly positive reply, stood straight up and, looking almost like a pro wrestler, made a diving attack towards the sofa. With nimble movements, Solomon managed to escape in time, but Mira wasn’t that lucky; the girl had been lying sprawled on the couch, feeling completely exhausted, so she couldn’t do anything in response to her friend’s sudden attack. A moment later, assisted by the force of gravity, the woman relentlessly embraced Mira.

  “Ohh, my friend~!”

  “Hey! Drop that, Dumbnaria!6 ...Where the hell do you think you are touching me!?”

  Switching their target to the young girl now, Luminaria’s hands started crawling all over Mira’s body, as if trying to investigate its every nook and cranny.

  “This should be fine, right? It’s aalright… OOOF!”

  While making a scene fit for a clichéd drama7, Luminaria, acting as the evil governor, laid her hands on the young girl, attempting to rape her. However, that was quickly interrupted by a dull exploding sound, immediately followed by the woman’s groan as the air from her lungs was forcefully expelled; Luminaria flew in the air for a moment and, after colliding hard with the ceiling, crashed onto the floor.

  Still lying on the sofa with her face up, Mira had her right hand thrust towards the ceiling. At point-blank range, she had launched an ability from her secondary class, the Xian Expert, against the assaulting woman.

  “Sexual harassment is pretty risky, huh.”

  Seemingly indifferent to what had just happened, Solomon called out to Luminaria. The woman then slowly rose to her feet and proudly gave a thumbs up, replying with, “But I can take that risk.” As for the girl, she got up from the couch while tidying her worn out robe and, with her eyes now completely awake, glared at her pervert friend to say, “Next time you do that, I will be using it together with my Mystic Eyes,” as an ultimatum.

  With a clear intention of continuing her assault, Luminaria’s hands were already ready to thoroughly grope Mira’s body, but when she heard the girl’s warning, the woman stopped in her tracks, both hands now wandering after losing their destination. Afterwards, she started picking up the documents that were scattered on the floor.

  “Now that is something deserving of praise.”

  “Nah, come on, I just like to keep things tidied up.”

  “Oh really? Then, while you’re at it, take care of these ones too.”

  Taking advantage of the situation, Solomon pointed towards a desk filled with even more scattered papers. Silently, Luminaria nodded in agreement.

  Chapter 14

  “Okay then. Continuing from where we have stopped, the biggest difference between us, former players, and the former NPCs is the state of our bodies. As you can see, it seems like we don’t grow old at all.”

  While saying that, Solomon spread both of his arms and showed off his figure.

  “And that is why, even after living here for thirty years, your own body stayed the same?”

  “Yeah. To be honest, there’s still a lot that we don’t know, so I can’t say with confidence that it’s something absolute. Do we really never age? What if it’s just our appearances that won’t change and we’re still growing old as usual? Do we have some sort of life span? Well, that’s the kind of doubts we still have. Maybe we’ll be able to understand things after four or five more decades have passed, I guess.”

  If they didn’t grow old, it would also mean that their bodies would stay healthy, without ever deteriorating. The same would obviously apply to their skin, with its firmness remaining the same after the passage of years. It was mostly because of the very fact that their appearances wouldn’t change that Luminaria said, previously, that their current world was the best; if a person was beautiful, it would be for eternity.

  After her friend’s explanation, Mira understood why their figures had remained unchanged. Also, it apparently was something that only happened to former players. What caught her attention, however, was how Solomon talked about a “life span.” Evidently, no one would die of age after just thirty years, but what if they still died of other causes?

  When they were in a game, every time a player was killed by the likes of a monster, for example, they would revive at their base or affiliated country and receive a debuff. The point was that, it happened when they were in a game. Now that the world became reality, would the same rule apply if they died? That was what worried the girl.

  “By the way, what happens if we die here? Do we still revive with a debuff?”

  “If we die, huh...”

  As he listened to Mira’s question, the boy made a troubled expression and crossed his arms in thought. After taking a moment to put his ideas in order, Solomon raised his face and began his reply with a few words, stating that the matter was “still inconclusive.”

  “To tell you the truth, we’ve yet to hear about a player dying in this world. Well, my personal view on it is that maybe… we just die, I guess.”

  Blunt as it was, the King’s answer was completely serious. Considering that the game became reality, it wouldn’t be impossible to think as such. Even though she wished it wouldn’t be the case, Mira also believed that such a convenient thing would be too good to be true, so she easily accepted her friend’s words.

  “Is there any reason for you to believe we would just die?”

  “It’s because of the Friend List. I kept checking it every single night. And even now, just like you guys, it seems that there are others who suddenly arrive in this world. But the opposite also happened too. I had a friend whose status appeared as online, but their whereabouts were still unknown...”

  At that point, Solomon stopped his explanation for a moment to moisten his dry lips. During that time of silence, the only thing that could be heard in the room was the sound of Luminaria bundling up the documents. Apparently, she was still working to keep the place tidy.

  “One night, when I verified the Friend List as usual, that person’s name had changed to offline. After that happened, I have never seen it return to the previous online status.”

  “I see...”

  In that world, being online in the Friend List meant that the person existed there. On the other hand, being offline was a sign that they weren’t in the world. From that, they could think of two possible answers as to what had happened with that individual.

  The first one was that they somehow managed to find a way to logout. The other one was that, for some reason, the person had disappeared from the world; in other words, they died.

  Believing in her friend’s reasons, Mira decided to act even more careful while living in that new reality.

  “Even if we’re askin’ whether we’ll die or not, the most common cause of deaths in this world is related to actual fights. Well, I doubt we’d ever die because of that shit. That’s how strong we are, and even if we’re up against something we can’t beat, be it a Demon Beast King, Demon King or Dragon God, we can simply use all our strength to escape and survive, right?”

  While organizing the papers, Luminaria sat on the table in a seductive manner and spoke. Indeed, if it were those three in the room, they wouldn’t be in serious trouble; during the four years since the official launch of the game, those individuals employed a great variety of means and ended up as one of the strongest powers in the world. So much that there was nothing that would beat them.