Wriggling about under the mantle, the girl put her robe back on, and after checking the status menu again, she found that the avatar being displayed there returned to wearing the robe as well.

  “Is that an Operator’s Bracelet? So you were actually an adventurer, weren’t you, young lady?”

  While returning his mantle to its proper location, the commander muttered those words as he looked at the girl’s arm.

  An Operator’s Bracelet. Now that was a strange term to her. Following the knight’s gaze, there was no mistake that he was referring to her terminal. However, there was no need for him to ask about it: every player in the game had one of those bracelets. In addition, why would he use something like “adventurer” instead of “player”? As the weirdness of that situation continued to intensify, the doubts in the girl’s mind only increased.

  “Well, if I am asked whether or not I am an adventurer, I suppose the answer should be yes.”

  She may not have understood it, but the girl still answered affirmatively. In a voice she just couldn’t get used to. Hearing her usual manner of speech2 being used by a voice whose timbre sounded simply too lovely, an indescribable feeling welled up within her heart.

  Everything, from her choice of words and overall pattern of speech, came from when she had decided to play as Dunbalf in the game, right when it had officially began. She thought that, indeed, there was a need to use a certain tone to match the speaker’s dignified appearance, so she began roleplaying like that.

  And now, having gone through four years of speaking with the same kind of speech, she was already used to employing it while logged in; as a result, it came naturally out of the girl’s mouth. Growing accustomed was truly a frightening thing; she had been so concentrated on unveiling the mysteries of the world that, even after taking the form of a little girl, she felt an inexplicable sense of discomfort just by thinking of trying to change how she had always spoken. As a result, there was no way she could do that all of a sudden. Still, because there was no particular problem with using that tone, she quickly abandoned the idea to switch her speech pattern.

  “I see, so you were an adventurer. I’m grateful to receive the assistance of such a powerful one like you. However, about that black knight from earlier... I’ve never seen something that looked like it before; what kind of technique was that?”

  Despite accepting the girl’s words, the commander was apparently curious about her strength. In particular, he was interested in the identity of the black knight clad in an ominous aura, a clear mismatch with the girl’s lovely appearance.

  “Pardon me, but I do not quite get what you mean. As you can see, this is just a summoning skill.”

  While speaking, the girl activated 【Summoning: Dark Knight】, and by her side appeared once again the black knight. While the other knights were shaken by the overwhelming pressure being released by it, the commander alone gazed at the summon with deep fascination.

  “Summoning… how splendid. I see, an Armor Spirit is it? That’s pretty rare.”

  Probably comparing the Dark Knight against what he knew, the commander’s thoughtful expression transformed completely when he realized how magnificent that summon was, his degree of astonishment now doubled or tripled.

  Among the spirits used by Summoning Experts, for example, there were those that dwelled in man-made creations, called Artificial Spirits, and those that were naturally found in the world, the Primordial Spirits.

  Primordial Spirits were the stronger of the two, but because the Artificial ones lived within created objects, they were easier to handle and tame.

  Spirits that dwelled in armor that had been used by individuals who only battled for their own benefit were called 『Dark Knights』; conversely, armor whose owners had fought to protect others were possessed by spirits called 『Holy Knights』.

  Although Armor Spirits were classified as lower class summons, the Dark Knights had the quality of being easy to use and consequently, through their continued deployment, could become fighters that rivalled even high class summons. Having said that, the girl thought the commander seemed rather weird for calling the Armor Spirit Summon, something so basic to Summoning Experts, as “rare”; but certainly, it was a fact that, when compared with the past, the current days saw a great decline in Summoning Experts who used such a low class summon. That’s why she understood that, indeed, there was a reason for saying the technique was rare.

  “Still, just when were you sent out on a request? Lately monster herds like these have been frequently appearing, so I’m grateful for you, but I would have liked to be informed in advance of your help.”

  Muttered the commander, a small grumble making itself apparent in his speech. And yet, the expression on his face looked quite happy; that was just how busy he had been when dealing with the monsters. What caught the girl’s attention, however, was a certain something he had said.

  First of all, because the Nine Sages had been taking turns exterminating them, the herd of monsters were being dealt with just fine. Second of all, they weren’t actually appearing all that frequently. The monster herds attacked with a frequency that was enough to let each Sage have their turn only once every few months.

  “Hmmm, do they not appear only once or, at most, twice a month? I do not believe that it is a huge number.”

  Despite saying that, the girl felt there was something wrong about that situation. There might have existed somebody who thought that once every month was too much, but what made her feel out of place there wasn’t that; it was something much more fundamental, like there was some kind of basic difference between herself and the knight commander.

  “Once a month, huh? If it were ten years ago, then you might have been right, but these days we get ordered to suppress them at least three times a month.”

  While showing a—rather child-like—expression of disappointment after comparing his own build with the Dark Knight’s, the commander nonchalantly replied.

  “Did you just say… ten years ago?”

  The words she had unconsciously repeated were, without a doubt, part of the main problem that was causing the feeling of discomfort within her.

  “Young lady, you’re an adventurer but you haven’t heard of it, huh? It’s about the war with the monsters that had rained from the sky ten years ago, the Three God-doms Defensive Battle. Since that time, monster appearances had a sharp increase and have nearly doubled now.”

  “Three God-doms Defensive Battle, you say… It does not sound familiar to me.”

  “You don’t know about it? Hmmm, well, ten years ago you would’ve been two or three years old I guess, so I suppose this is not unreasonable.”

  So said the man. However, Ark Earth Online’s in-game clock ran at the same rate as a clock in the real-world, meaning that ten years ago not even the Closed β of the game would have existed.

  She then manipulated her bracelet and opened the usual menu. Looking like something that came directly out of sci-fi anime and films, that floating display could only be seen by the owner themselves. To the other people, they would only see that person poking at the air.

  The commander merely waited silently as he observed the girl operating her menu, a difficult expression showing on her face.

  Selecting the option to display the game’s chronology in the menu, the troubled girl did not pay attention to any historical details written there in particular. Instead, there was just only one thing that made her feel at a complete loss for words: a sequence of numerical characters within the description of the earliest historical event.

  『Year 2146 of the Arks Calendar, April 23rd: The Second Prince of the Kingdom of Millston was born. He was named “Atolzade.”』

  Her state of shock wasn’t caused by the contents of the event per se, but actually by the year indicated there. Panicking, when she checked the present time that was displayed in the upper-right corner of the page, she found it marked as “Year 2146 of the Arks Calendar, May 12th, 3:12PM.”

  “There is something I wish to confirm; what year, month and date is it?”

  “Right now? We’re in the 12th of May, 2146.”

  That answer proved that the terminal’s date was not broken.

  The game had begun in the Year 2112 of the Arks Calendar. No matter how one thought about it, that situation was strange. Provided that the ingame time still ran in sync with the real world’s clock, “thirty years” had passed for the girl. Moreover, after taking just a little time to re-examine the chronology table, she found that it was filled with events that she had no memory of; incidentally, as the commander had mentioned, ten years ago on the 24th of June 2136, there really was the “Outbreak of the Three God-doms Defensive Battle”.

  Immediately, the girl grabbed a bunch of her own silver hair and brought it to her nose. When she did, a faint and sweet, girly-like fragrance that resembled vanilla entered through her nostrils. Trying to place that hair in her mouth, she found that it had no taste, and that both her tongue and lips could finely perceive each individual strand.

  From what she remembered, the simulation of all five senses with the VR technology was still in the research stage. Having said that, within its own capacity, the technology was able to reproduce some of those senses, but for the sense of touch, for example, the person could only recognize if they have touched something or not. If there had been really a version update where one’s virtual senses could reach such a fine degree of detail—like what the girl was experiencing now—then, without a doubt, it would be recorded in the chronology page. And in fact, the two previous updates had been recorded there. However, there was not a single mention of the version update that was supposed to have happened just yesterday; even after skimming through the past entries, she could only find the two updates that were already known to her.

  “Does this mean that it was not a new version that caused all of this?” pondered the girl as anxiety welled up within her. She was able to perfectly feel the taste of grass and the smells in the air, so what could possibly be the meaning of that?

  Strictly speaking, her present situation was simply too unrealistic, but with how she could actually use her five senses there, it felt all too realistic.

  By chance, a sudden hypothesis came to her mind; one that was simply, absolutely impossible.

  Closing the menu and raising her face, she met eyes with the knight commander, who looked bewildered by her eccentric behaviour.

  “Aahhh… oh yes, speaking of which we haven’t introduced ourselves yet, have we? I’m Graia. Graia Astol. I’m serving as the First Squad Captain of the Arkite Kingdom’s Magic Clothed Knights.”

  Introducing himself almost reflexively, Commander Graia bowed to the girl in a display of respect.

  “And by the way, from what I have seen, you are quite the skilful Expert, young lady. But if you’re fine with it, would you grant me the honor of knowing your name?”

  After finishing his bow and raising his head again, Graia continued speaking and, with great interest, asked the girl a question.

  Then, right there, something felt out of place to her.

  Graia’s actions seemed extremely natural. Naming himself upon his first meeting with someone; becoming interested in the other party and asking for their name. But things were different within the game. It was common sense for one to inspect the other person and see that individual’s name floating above their head. As such, it was possible to know each other’s names without going out of one’s way to ask or tell them.

  And yet, Graia named himself. On top of that, he was asking for the name of someone who, most probably, could not be merely classified as a “skilful Expert”; he was one of the Nine Sages of the Kingdom of Arkite, Dunbalf.

  It wasn’t conceit, but she thought that there was no way that an elite member of the Kingdom would not know about her avatar’s name. There was something clearly unnatural about that.

  “Would you not know if you simply inspected me?”

  With a certain hypothesis passing through her mind, the girl asked a question in return just to test it.

  “Hmmm… I’m sure that someone with your level of skill should be quite famous, young lady. However, pardon my ignorance, but I do not know you. Excuse me. Is there anyone here that knows her?”

  At the commander’s question, everybody shook their heads, indicating that they had never seen the girl before.

  “Hmm… I... see…”

  She had once heard that there were some players who felt it was disrespectful to inspect an individual’s status without permission. Nonetheless, if one were to tell them to take a look, then even those players would probably inspect the person in question. Although her appearance had gone through a complete change, inspecting the girl in front of them would make them realize that she was one of the most important individuals of the Kingdom: Dunbalf.

  In spite of that, even with the great number of people there, no one knew who she was.

  The hypothesis she had was whether those knights could use “Inspect” or not. And what came from their responses was a certain sense of reality.

  Those she was dealing with didn’t know what was common sense among players. That line of thinking was actually way off; to begin with, she might even have the need to revise her thoughts, removing anything related to players. As she pondered that, the girl placed her hand on her chin and began an indistinct mumble.

  With the information she had gathered as the basis, she built her hypothesis up. Consequently, yet another impossible thought surfaced and her theory began to gradually take form.

  “Really, I’m truly sorry. We’re just a group of people who has no redeeming features outside of our own swordsmanship, you see? So we really aren’t that knowledgeable about adventurers.”

  Albeit he actually guessed it wrong, Graia had wondered if the girl’s silence was a result of the shock of not being recognized, so he tried to patch things up with her; even the other knights had apologetic expressions on their faces. Noticing the strong will displayed by them, and yet recognizing that they weren’t players. That was enough basis for her theory.

  The five senses working true to reality. Individuals who couldn’t be categorized as either NPCs or players. With that in mind, she realized it was impossible for VR to reproduce her current situation, so she abandoned her original theory that everything had been caused by a version update.

  And as she dropped that conjecture, the explanation that seemed more like an urban legend became impossible to leave her mind. Even if she were to completely reject it, telling herself that there was no way it could be true, the girl’s current situation made it so that she couldn’t completely deny that “impossible” theory.

  Yes, she was in a real world. It was truly a ridiculous assumption. However, it was also certainly true that she had nothing to refute it with.

  At that moment, she recalled something that could prove that she was a game. It was the command to close the game: the logout.

  (Looks like I could not think straight at all.)

  While mocking herself, she opened the “System” entry on her main menu and chose to log out… or at least she tried to. To no avail. Far from succeeding, the “System” menu itself had disappeared. To make matters worse, even the forced shutdown code—originally prepared for game freezing situations—was not working.

  It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that such an occurrence was a huge, decisive blow for the “impossible” hypothesis.

  Then, in that case, was that (real) world the same one as the game world she knew?

  “Do you know who Dunbalf is?”

  To determine that, she asked a question about herself, or rather, someone who should have existed in the past of that world.

  “But of course! There’s probably no one in this country who doesn’t know about Dunbalf-sama.”

  So replied Graia, with some hint of pride showing on his face. When he followed up by asking, “Right, everyone?” all the other knights gave large nods as if it was a natural response.

  “I see. So you do know of him.”

  From their reply, she established that a person named Dunbalf existed, or at least had existed in the past. Next, she had to find out whether they were talking about herself or just a completely different person who had the same name.

  “Then, do you know what kind of person he is?”

  Upon hearing that question, Graia tilted his head.

  “What kind of person? Well, like I mentioned earlier, everyone in this country knows who he is. When you speak of Dunbalf-sama, what comes to mind is the Kingdom’s hero who played an active role in the 『Age of Upheaval』. He is an Elder of the Silver Linked Towers, a Sage and Summoning Expert feared by the other nations as the 『War Power Dunbalf』, right?”

  Indicating he was saying something pretty obvious, the commander told a tale that matched perfectly with the girl’s memories. She could also confirm that even her… chuunibyou-esque alias had been passed down.

  “Ohh…? A hero, you say?”

  “That’s right. It is said that in the wars following the founding of the country, he continuously held back the enemy advances and created a chance for our victory. Also, there’s the story of how the platoon composed by the Elders descended the enemy camp into chaos. Moreover, I’ve heard that he was the one who developed the refining technology that, even today, only a few users have mastered and that he could use the powerful Xian techniques. Well, it’s not just Dunbalf-sama, but there is a huge number of anecdotes regarding all the Sages.”

  The events Graia spoke of were just like the ones she had within her memories. The war was the same, as well as having the Xian Expert as a second class. There was also the fact that Dunbalf, the Elder, had researched and devised the refining technology. Without a doubt, all of those anecdotes referred to her past self and were passed down as the tale of Dunbalf, the Hero.

  “Hmm, I see. And so, do you know anything about his last moments?”