Chapter 7: Magique Without Players

"My parents… They're all gone." I evenly spoke. Not a single emotion showed on my face.

What I told them was not a lie, but it was not far from the truth, either.

The two children felt silent after hearing such a depressing answer that came from me. Afenos, who was usually a rowdy boy, could not insult me or make a joke. I was expecting one, but words did not come out of his mouth.

It only meant that the boy still had decency left inside of him.

"I'm… sorry for asking. I didn't know." Rain expressed her apologies to me, since she was the one who dug up my past.

"It's fine. It's not your fault, anyway."

I paid it no mind and brushed it off Rain's attempt to liven the conversation. This pair were still children and did not know the entire world.

We continued marching on the road and followed the set of trees planted on the sides. There was a well before us. Rain told me that this shaft was the centre of their village. "The town's plaza", if people wanted to become as fancy as me.

Just as we were about to visit the village's plaza, we took a sharp turn and avoided the pavement. There was a small cottage up ahead that looked empty from afar. But these children told me that somebody still lived there right after the war.

He was an adventurer that went with the name Uncle Roger.

"Here we are! The lodge that Uncle Roger is staying at!" Rain said with her arms extending wide.

Afenos averted his gaze and looked at the road from where we walked earlier. That kid was eager to leave me behind and play with the others.

"Now that we're here, maybe we could leave him alone?" Afenos remarked, while kicking the pebbles beside his feet. If those stones could talk, they could have cursed the kid for his actions.

"Hey, Afenos! That's not nice! We should accompany Mister Arthur and-,"

"It's okay, Rain. Afenos is right. There's no need for you two to come inside if you don't want to. I'll be fine on my own. Thanks to you two, we arrived at the house. Why don't you two run along and play with your friends until the sun goes down, hm?" I cut off Rain's sentence and seconded Afenos.

No matter what angle I would look at it, these two were still children that wanted to play outside. Children disliked hearing serious topics concerning the end of their village. Even I, as an adult, hated to hear that. But I wanted more information about this place and what happened to the adventurers.

I may not be the only one reincarnated in this world. Magique was a vast space where billions of players could communicate at once! Nighttime did not stop them from playing this game. I had heard from the community that a guy got hospitalised after playing this game nonstop. That news became the trend and alert for children who felt eager to touch this game.

"See? I told you so, Rain. Come on! Our friends are waiting for us at the crop field."

"Uhh, okay, Mister Arthur! Come back to the house once you're done talking with Uncle Roger! Dad is making some delicious curry! You should try some!"

"Alright, kids. Be sure to go home before sundown, or the monsters will catch you!" I said. It was the lines that my mother told me when I was still a little kid, when Magique did not take over Earth.

"You grownups are no fun at all," Afenos snorted, before taking his leave.

Rain followed close by and waved me goodbye. "We will, Mister Arthur!"

"You could exclude the mister, Rain! Call me Arthur next time!"

I waved at them in return. After seeing the two kids off, I averted my gaze from the two figures and gave a light knock on the front door. There were no doorbells invented during this time, given the decline of technology of Magique. This generation was the era where lamps became too popular and used as lights in the room.

Those who could afford a decent toilet had the title in the kingdom.

"Who's there?" A man asked from the other side of the door.

I did not know what to reply, so I answered truthfully. "It's Arthur. An adventurer who just arrived in this town."

"An adventurer…?" the man said, with his voice trailing far away. Since that old farmer told me that all the adventurers died from the previous war, this man must have been shaking to hear me.

"Come on inside. The door is never locked."

Granted with that permission, I touched the door and witnessed a simple interior design inside a cabin. The guy did not have any wild animals used as decor. But he had a settee made of stacked hay with woods as its foundation. It was an invention if one would build it back on Earth.

There were no light bulbs, televisions, or gadgets inside this place. Just like the adventurer's guild before, this place had nothing to offer but a campfire that crisps the dry twigs. The warmth coming from the blazing embers was the only thing that soothed my senses.

"Please, have a seat." the man who I believed was the adventurer who lived from the war suggested.

I took his advice and sat on the couch. My bottom kissed the haystacks and sunk on them. I did not expect the bench to be this soft, since the man bundled these pointy-looking hays into a char.

The man who talked to me was behind another room, doing something that I did not know. I did not want to be a rude guest, so I waited for him to reveal himself to me.

Footsteps drew closer to that room, telling me that the man was coming for me. I sat on the chair with my legs rubbing at each other and waited for the guy.

"So? What do you want from me this dull afternoon?"

The man behind the curtain finally revealed himself to me. However, the guy shattered my expectations and fell to the ground. He was not the brave adventurer found in fantasy comics. That guy did not have a legendary sword.

The adventurer had only one thing. He had several injuries on his body. He had a missing left arm and multiple scars on his face. Even his clothes were all tattered up like a beggar in the streets. I did not know if that guy was still alive or a walking corpse.

But much to my surprise, I did not pity the crippled man. My heart pumped a billion times, and it only expressed one thing.

"It must have been tough to defend this village." Those words came naturally to my mouth as soon as the adventurer greeted me.

This guy was the embodiment of the hero that I wanted to become. However, he did not have the lavish clothes, armours, and weapons in his arsenal. All the man had was a steeled heart meant to protect anyone in need.

"Yes, young man. I had a tough job protecting this place to maintain peace. But after getting my arm ripped off by a demon, my adventuring days went down to the sewers," the man explained, and sat beside me. "So, what do you want to ask me about? You did not go here to chit-chat with me, did you?"

"Uncle Roger's your name, right?"

"Aye," Roger replied.

Before I could speak my fill, I shut my mouth and thought of something to ask. It took me a while before processing all the data inside my head, deciphering the happenings in this down. But I kept it simple after waiting for a minute.

"What happened to the adventurers? This village should be a haven for adventurers, mages, and mercenaries! Where were they when the war happened?"

Roger closed his eyes, as if reminiscing from the grim past, and gave me his answer. "If Aferous told you this, you should probably know by now."

"I heard they all died from the war," I retorted. "But should there be a group of them defending this place? All of them died just like that?"

The adventurer gave me a firm nod. "Aye. Those brave people died. Humans had a scarce population from the start. Those adventurers you speak of were merely around a hundred. The kingdom could not pay for any mercenaries as they continued strengthening the kingdom. Since Camelot also received an attack, the king was too busy to defend other villages like us. That's what I believe."

What Roger said only meant one thing. Players like me did not exist in this world. Since the players overpopulated this game, defending the town should be a piece of cake. And yet, none of the players did that during the assault.

"What else do you want to ask, young child? The night has already gotten old. You must return to your lodge if you want to rest before the next attack."