Volume 1, Chapter 7

Volume 1, Chapter 7

Translator: Adam Seacord

Editor: Weasalopes

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「Fold it. Mix it. Twirl it. Fold it. Mix it. Twirl it.」

It was time for today’s snack. As Aearis waited with anticipation for the sweet of the day, some weird looking powder and water was presented to her by a sketchy old lady in a witch’s costume.

「Mix it and twirl it, it’s Mixytwirly.」

Aearis watched speechless as the old woman dissolved the powder into water and knead it into a paste, singing an off-putting song. The mysterious interjection of strange sound effects only added to the utter sketchiness of it all.

「Mix it and twirl it, mmm, so good! It’s Mixytwirly!」

With a strangely enthusiastic declaration, the woman put the gel into her mouth. Aearis was overwhelmed with questions, and she didn’t know where to start. Who was this old woman, anyway? What was this little sketch for? Most importantly, Aearis wonder if she could survive ingesting that strangely colored gel-like substance.

While she had a mountain of questions and interjections to offer, Aearis was brought up with manners, and was over all a quiet child. Unfortunately, she couldn’t really tell whether she could say anything or not.

「What in the world are you two doing…?」

Aearis was saved from her frozen-from-confusion state by Makoto, who had just returned to form an outing. Hearing that there was a sweet, Mikoto had decided to stop by and join them, just in time to witness Obaba mixing and twirling. Rayna (who had been with Makoto the whole time since the previous night) wasn’t sure how to react to this scene.

「What do ya mean, what? It’s Mixytwirly.」

Hiroshi (who had been providing the strange sound effects) replied nonchalantly. Mixytwirly, for those who may be unaware, is the most popular of “educational treats” (a category of snacks that utilize chemical reactions) where Hiroshi and Haruna came from. Its texture was similar to that of mousse, and it really wasn’t as sketchy as it looked, but the gimmick of mixing a strange powder with water just caused a lot of people to be skeptical about it.

「Yeah, I know that. Why Mixytwirly, though? You even dressed Tetsuya up for this?」

「’Cus it’s a traditional Japanese educational treat. Duh. This is a crucial experience to understandin’ Japan.」

「How is that…」

An acceptable answer!? Makoto wanted to shake Hiroshi for an hour or so, but all she could do was just slump down, exhausted. Hiroshi placed the strange powder in front of Makoto, too. Of course, Tatsuya had been performing the commercial for Mixytwirly, and dressing the part. The Mixytwirly Witch, as she is called, has a strange backstory that gives her a hobby of mixing powder into paste.

「…Why, oh why, am I eating Mixytwirly in Wulls…?」

「Mizoguchi-san, don’t you miss Japanese cuisine, yet?」

「Just call me Makoto. In fact, if you call me just Mizoguchi or by my full name, or Tiger Cannon or something, I’ll crush you into paste.」

A certain fighting game had been revived during her teenage years, which lead to Makoto’s name being mocked continuously by those around here. As a result, Makoto hates her last name.

「Also, I don’t miss Mixytwirly. Don’t you feed this to Elle. It looks so unhealthy.」

「You got it twisted. There ain’t anythin’ in here that’s bad for ya.」

Makoto and the old woman (Tatsuya) stare at Hiroshi, shocked. Chuckling, he explained:

「I used the coagulation process of milk. And I didn’t put it in this time, but the color-changin’ ones use the same trick as Litmus paper, essentially. Lotta natural pigments change color by reactin’ to acidic or base substances.」

「Really?」

「Yep. Like the pigments of purple cabbage, for starters. You can read about that in textbooks, even. Hydrandrea, too. The petal, or the calyx, changes color based on the ground’s acidity. And I don’t remember which fruit it was, but you can drip lemon juice onto a jello of it and change its color. Not all ingredients are on a neutral pH to begin with, either.」

「Still, you went through so much trouble to recreate such a… mediocre thing.」

「Why not? You gotta have this much playfulness to make it through life, ya know?」

Makoto frowns at this. She could see Hiroshi (or Hiroshi and Haruna, rather), derail themselves and never look back from their “playfulness.” Hiroshi especially, had a specific talent for derailment that was quite different from the way a conversation between girls could derail, for example. Worse, this man was one of the top craftsman in the world, giving him a monopoly on resources. While Mio still had top notch craftsmanship (several notches below Hiroshi, of course), she was unfortunately this sheep’s apprentice. Which made it unlikely that Mio would stop him when he runs straight off the rails.

「…Wow. Wow wow wow.」

As Makoto was contemplating how to retort, she could hear Aearis in a strange tone of amazement.

「…Elle. It’s beautiful that you’re pure. But do you have to be so trusting?」

Makoto commented on Aearis, who was twirling the powder with shimmering eyes. Makoto was losing grip on the situation, fast. In fact, she didn’t expect Tatsuya to hop on their derailing train. When they had spoken the day before, he had been the one to bring Hiroshi and Haruna back on course. The betrayal. What reinforced her headache was that Aearis, who usually kept the train in-line, had a tendency of being kidnapped into derailment when it came to food.

「Tatsuya. You just had to fuel fire to the flames, didn’t you?」

「Well, when they ask you “What would Obaba do?”… You know.」

Makoto sighed once more, and she was running out of them. Come to think, this was a man who put real effort into roleplaying back in the game. She should have known he wouldn’t be able to resist taking part in such an opportune gag.

「Ya don’t look too happy.」

「You guys were hustling hard because you wanted the workshop, right?」

「Yeah.」

「And the first thing you make in that workshop is a Mixytwirly…?」

「That’s life for ya.」

Another blow of confident nonchalance from Hiroshi, perhaps aided by the plentiful distance between him and Makoto. It crossed her mind to approach him, but the entire thing seemed too trivial to make her want to exploit his detriment. Besides, Rayna had done that not too long ago. Makoto taking on Rayna as a roommate would have been all for naught if she went on and did the same.

Seeing that Hiroshi knew all this in his jestering, Makoto had to reaknowledge that Hiroshi was more durable, or less of a man. In either case, she saw him as someone difficult to handle.

「Fine… I’ll take it for today…」

Makoto said, and began mixing the powder. She clumsily followed instructions to mix them together, and grunted at the paste showing a strange reaction. Haruna and Mio returned as she was twirling, and exclaimed:

「Oh, I remember these!」

「I’ve always wanted to do this!」

And began mixing with glee, which exhausted Makoto further. The taste of her first Mixytwirly in several years… was so-so, at best.

For arresting the slave traders, Hiroshi and Haruna had earned a large, live-in workshop that belonged to Merizza. More accurately, they were renting it for free. By the way, most nations including Farlane had outlawed slave possession and trading, so they received some bounty from the government, as well.

Apparently, the building had gone three years without a lease, and they were considering taking it down entirely to build a different building on the lot, but in exchange for the occasional free labor and product, they decided to rent it out to Hiroshi and Haruna. The free labor clause was proposed by Hiroshi and Haruna, and there was a cap to the scale of each request and the frequency of requests (on paper, at least).

The very first request was for two hundred unclassified healing potions (with ingredients provided already), because they clearly knew that Haruna had been practicing Potion Making. Truth be told, for a workshop this size, they would have barely made enough for a month’s worth of property tax from an order like this.

Still, it wasn’t like Hiroshi and Haruna had buyers for their potions. No skin off their back if they take the unclassified potions Haruna made for practice in lieu of tax. In any nation, the buying and selling of potions required a special license, and selling them on a food stand, for example, was out of the question. Any civilian (including adventurers) generally could only purchase potions from a licensed shop or the Adventurers’ Association. There are some exceptions, when Hiroshi gave Kurt the antidote or whenever they use the potions they crafted on their own, for example, where personal gifting and usage are accepted, albeit in an unspoken manner.

If Merizza had gifted them the property, they would have had to earn enough to pay taxes. But, if they were to sell the unclassified potions (which the Association didn’t buy out) they would have to sell them to Merizza anyway, and two hundred wouldn’t cut it in that case. Also, they were renovating the building this time around, but the building was going to be maintained by Merizza to a certain degree, free of charge. Hiroshi and Haruna were way in the black, all in all. Merizza didn’t mind the lack of rental income, either, since she could take advantage of Hiroshi’s outrageous craftsmanship somewhat.

Needless to say, there was a push and pull behind the scenes, which should never have took place between a merchant and adventurers under any normal circumstances, where each side strove to increase the profits of the other party.

「I only got two hands, so, what should we start on?」

Hiroshi started, after everyone had settle from moving and purchasing the bare necessities. On a side note, the table they were sitting at now was a large one left behind in the dining hall of the workshop.

「What do you mean?」

「Should we be prioritizin’ equipment makin’, like a furnace, loom, and workbench, or should we start with our day-to-day stuff, startin’ with the kitchen?」

Haruna had to think about this. The other members couldn’t make a snap decision, either.

「Mio-chan, how much crafting can you do?」

「She can make furniture just fine, but I don’t think she’s up to addin’ or renovatin’ a buildin’ this size. Can’t go too wild with machinery, either.」

「I started intermediate Carpentry. I can design and build a house that’s a tiny bit better than a log cabin. As for Tool Building, I can’t modify a furnace or anything like that.」

Haruna was nodding in response.

「I think you’ll use the kitchen the most, Toudou-san. Don’t ya want a smart kitchen sorta thing?」

「I don’t need that much, but it does feel pretty inconvenient compared to what we had.」

「Then why don’t we start there. And if we’re gonna toy with waterworks, you want me to fix up the bath, too?」

Hearing Hiroshi’s proposition, the women in the room gave him back an intense look. In Farlane, where bathing had been relatively normalized, a bath was a rather important piece of a house.

「Look at y’all’s faces, I better dig deep. Should I make it big enough so all the girls can take a bath at once?」

「It’s always nice to have a big bath.」

「And I better set it up so the bath can be drawn mighty quick.」

With that, Hiroshi whipped up a sketch. A rather large bathtub large enough for ten, and about ten sets of faucets and shower heads. While their current bath was by no means meager, it certainly wasn’t large enough for something like this.

「How are you going to build this? Our bathroom isn’t this big right now.」

「I’m gonna change the boiler to a magic-powered one, so I think I can manage with that space combined. Of course, we gotta expand the changin’ room, too, so the layout of the place is gonna shift a bit.」

「That sounds like a big job. Can you handle all that?」

「I’ll get it done in three days.」

「You can get it done in three days, huh?」

「The rest would be furniture, but I’m leavin’ all that with you, Mio. For the time bein’, Makoto-san, Doul, Brother and Reena should rotate guardin’ Elle and buyin’ buildin’ materials. Toudou-san, could you help me or Mio? I’d like ya opinion on things, too.」

「Okay. So, all of that aside…」

「Hm?」

「You call Makoto-san and Mio-chan by their first name. Why do you still call me Toudou-san?」

「If I get used to callin’ ya by your name and I accidently call ya that way when we get back home, I could see some problems arisin’.」

Haruna couldn’t help but sigh at this. She could easily foresee that future. Yet, it did already seem too late for her, in some sense. While she had no idea how many years it would take or what type of situation they would be in when they get back, but even if time hadn’t passed in their original world until they returned, as long as they had these memories together, it was clear to her that they would inevitability exude their closeness.

While Haruna was patient and had finesse in many ways, she didn’t have enough self-control, especially when it came to social aspects, to not let it bother her when she had to keep her distance and almost act like a stranger, even though they were on good terms. She was the type not to be too dependent on anyone physically or mentally, but the truth was that she would get rather lonely.

She could read the room, of course, but she would have a hard time spending time with a classmate and keeping it secret. She felt bad for Hiroshi and his phobia, but she knew they had nothing to be guilty about, much less a romantic relationship. Haruna saw nothing wrong in openly maintaining their friendship.

There was no other reason why Hiroshi called Mio by her first name other than to avoid the mutual awkwardness of calling his apprentice by her last name. Of course, now that Hiroshi had discovered that Mio was a woman (unlike in-game), he would seldom get close enough to make physical contact with her.

He called Tatsuya “Brother” after a long night of man-talk. It just came to him. Of course, Hiroshi was heterosexual, so there were only platonic implications here. Like addressing an older friend in the neighborhood.

「Well, I think that ship has sailed beyond the horizon. It feels like I’m being singled out as untouchable, and I don’t like it. Just give up and call me Haruna already. I’ll call you Hiroshi-kun, too.」

「Haruna-sama. I recall you calling Hiroshi-sama that way the other day…」

「That was just the spur of the moment.」

Hiroshi listened with a puzzled expression. Of course, she had screamed it a step away from him, but that was one of the memories he didn’t retain from that incident due to his physical ailment.

「So, is that okay? Hiroshi-kun?」

「…Yeah, sure.」

Haruna clenched her fist in victory.

「Are you two done with your sweet romance for now?」

「Get a room, won’t you?」

「I ain’t got the guts for anything like that.」

「You guys were acting like a new couple, just now.」

「Tell it to Toudou… Haruna-san, then.」

The group couldn’t help but give an understanding glance, hearing Hiroshi’s genuine disgust. They could see that any woman unfortunate enough to fall in love with Hiroshi would be troubled with all sorts of turbulence. The silver lining may be that, combined with his phobia for the opposite sex and his (albeit not ugly) not exactly attractive looks, said woman would not have to worry about infidelity on his part.

「Returning to our original subject…」

Dougan interjected.

「What do you want to do for the rest of the day?」

「I’ll start a temporary remodelin’ of the kitchen with the machines we’ve been usin’. Haruna-san, maybe you can take Makoto-san or Brother and go buy some food. Doul and Reena-san, and Mio, please gather up as much construction materials as y’all can. Sorry, Elle, you gotta stay in. And if there’s time left I’m gonna take down the bathroom, so go bathe at the public bathhouse for the night.」

「Okay. I’ll take care of shopping. Stay here, Tatsuya.」

「All righty.」

With duties assigned, everyone sprang to action. Dinner that night was stew full of meat and vegetables, cooked using a large clay pot.

***

「So, here’s the problem.」

「What is?」

「We ain’t got too much of the spider silk.」

Seeing where the conversation was headed, Haruna sighed.

「So what’s the problem, now?」

Tatsuya joined in.

「The clothes, ya see, I can only whip up five or six outfits, tops.」

「So what’s the matter… Oh, I see.」

「I can’t make enough for everyone. Makoto-san’s got her own clothes since she weren’t restricted, Elle, Doul, and Reena-san are all walkin’ around in smocks, basically.」

The group nearly grunted, hearing this. He was only planning for two to begin with. In fact, Hiroshi’s initial plan was to craft three outfits for both of them so they could rotate them. Suddenly, there were five more people in the picture, throwing a giant wrench in the whole plan.

「For starters, since we gotta pretend like y’all ain’t here anyway, I’ll make a set of work clothes for me and Toudou… I mean, Haruna-san. The question’s what to do with the rest.」

「In that case, could you make them two a pair, and craft one for Elle?」

Doul proposed.

「Ya sure?」

「We’re used to going without a change of clothes for days. We shan’t wear anything of a higher quality than our master, either.」

「Another way to see it is that people on the frontlines should get the good equipment?」

Douga shook his head with a chuckle. Clothes is clothes, he thought. While it would be stronger than an ordinary set of leather armor once layers of enchantments were put on it, but Douga figured it still couldn’t be more protective than a set of metal armor. It only made sense to give it to Aearis, who couldn’t wear an armor to begin with.

「Can’t you go get more ingredients?」

「Sure. It just takes three days or so to go there, gather ‘em and come back.」

「So, what if we split up the group to do that? We have enough people.」

As Makoto suggested so, Hiroshi contemplated and observed the group’s reaction. It didn’t seem that anyone would be in too much trouble if Hiroshi left the house for three days.

「If that’s fine with y’all, I’ll head out once I finish the bathroom. I can’t imagine that Piaranork would have come back already. I doubt we gotta pack too much of a punch, combat-wise.」

The group nodded in response. These types of bosses were often individuals that were mutated by being heavily afflicted. No matter how many times they were slain, they were eventually revived. Also, for some reason, there was only one species that would mutate in such a way in each area. So right now, Hiroshi could safely assume that there would only be ordinary (albeit giant) insects.

「So, who’s comin’?」

「Considering watch duty, at least a pair.」

Douga chimed in.

「Sorry, I’ll pass. I don’t want to touch that again.」

「If we’re thinking speed and firepower, why don’t Makoto and I go?」

Tatsuya said.

「Sensible.」

Douga agreed.

And so the job was assigned, and they were to depart the day after the bathroom had been completed.

After they had returned, though, Makoto remarked:

「No wonder Haruna didn’t want to go…」

***

Makoto couldn’t help but let a gleeful sigh out, as she felt her limbs stretch out and her exhaustion melt away in the bathtub large enough to do so. She could feel herself relax in many ways. Since Hiroshi’s team had left to gather the silk as soon as the renovation had been completed, so today was the first time that this bath was occupied. Everyone had been polite, saving the first bathing.

「You just can’t beat a big bath.」

「It’s wonderful to bathe together, too.」

Mio and Aearis finished rinsing off, and they dipped in the tub together, and started talking. Mio was apparently twelve years old, but her short and skeletal stature aided in anyone assuming that Aearis’ and Mio’s ages were reversed. Still, compared to Makoto (who reportedly has never needed a bra) Mio’s silhouette was feminine, considering that she had what could be described as breasts. On another note, Rayna (fifteen) had pectoral muscles, more so than breasts. It was difficult to say who was more feminine, Makoto or Rayna.

Mio was small in many ways, but Makoto was only at 158cm, too. The average female height in Farlane was 170cm, which Makoto was way below. She was barely taller than Aearis now, but it was a matter of time before she would catch up. As for Mio, who just reached 145, anyone in Farlane could mistake her age for eight or nine.

Of course, since the male average height in Farlane was 180cm, Hiroshi was rather small. That being said, the male height fluctuated more in comparison to female, and most often, men in Farlane would reach 175cm. A man (unlike a woman) would only begin to stand out as short once they were shorter than 165cm or so, which made Hiroshi stand out less than Makoto or Mio. In Hiroshi’s case, however, his attitude and atmosphere could make him look shorter than he really was.

The reason Hiroshi and Haruna had mistaken Aearis to be taller when they rescued her was because of the impression her hair and attire gave. Aearis, in reality, was barely 150cm, so they had seen her as 10cm or so taller than her actual height.

「By the way, Mio. You’re super skinny. Were you eating okay back home?」

「I was bedridden, so, not at all.」

「Bedridden? What happened?」

「Paralyzed from the waist-down. Accident. I also have this disease, so I couldn’t eat much to begin with. I was already spending more than six months a year in the hospital before the accident.」

Makoto regretted her questions, in fear of that she had mentioned a taboo. While she could tell what kind of disease Mio meant by that, it sounded like it wasn’t something that kept her bedridden to begin with.

「But you still have beautiful hair. Mine curls everywhere, and it’s so dull. I’m jealous.」

「I didn’t take care of it at all in the hospital, so it looked horrible. I couldn’t even roll over on my own, so I got so many cowlicks.」

Since Makoto had started with the subject, she couldn’t escape mentions of the hospital. That being said, Mio’s brunette hair was beautiful. If she grew a little taller (10, even 5cm) and gained some healthy weight, with her already pretty face, she would garner a double take from most people on the street.

In a different way than Mio, both Haruna and Aearis were very beautiful in their own right. Who was prettier? Haruna. But Aearis carried a mystical air about her. In five or six years, these two would exude beauty like a pair of fine art pieces. One of them lived in a la-la-land where she blindly devoted so much of her passion for food, and the other was basically a starving puppy that scoffed down anything put in front of her, but those traits didn’t show in their appearances.

Considering this, Makoto was hurt by how she was the only one in the group with nothing remarkable about her appearance. On top of that, she could only cook scrambled eggs at best (in-game and in real life) and she lacked any other homely skills, like sewing and such, entirely. If she hadn’t been swiftly found by Douga after being teleported to this world, she would have been in deep trouble, in another sense than Tatsuya and Mio would have been.

Then, she could hear a hum. It sounded like Haruna, just humming a song as she washed up. Even her humming was enchanting; all three in the tub stopped to listen.

「Haru’s singing is amazing.」

「I guess it’s only natural since she has the skills for it.」

「According to Sensei, her singing wasn’t much different in real life.」

Mio and Makoto whispered to each other when the humming had subsided. Aearis didn’t understand, and just looked confused. It was only natural, since she had no concept of Skills, or even these kinds of games in general. Haruna, who had tied up her hair to keep it out of the tub, approached the bathtub holding a towel in front of her body. Rayna was with her, as she seemed to have finished washing up at around the same time.

「Oooh…」

Haruna stretched in the tub, letting out a relaxed sigh. Seeing this, the eyes of the group were drawn towards her chest, where two glorious mounds rose to the surface. Exuding such immense presence (far superior to that of the other four women in the tub combined) attracted even the eyes of women and held onto them.

「Hey, Haruna.」

「Yeah? What’s up?」

「Can I lop them off?」

「…That sounds really terrifying out of the blue… What “them”?」

As she said so, Haruna covered her breasts (the stares at which she had instinctively felt) with her arms. She tried to, anyway, but her slender arms (which weren’t ready for this) couldn’t hide them, but instead squished her breasts into a bunch as to exaggerate their size even more. Her attempt to hide them had worked against her, as that exuded a strange sense of sensuality, triggering something within the women in the tub.

「…Haru.」

Mio started.

「I’m scared of how you’re looking at me… What is it?」

「Can I lop them off? I really think we should, actually.」

「But why? I ask you.」

「When they’re that big, there will be people poking them for a power-up.」

「…Personally, I don’t want to be near anyone like that…」

While Haruna’s interjection was justified, logic was useless against people jealous of the grass on the other side. It was a rare occasion for Haruna to remain the sane one, but unfortunately for her, she was the only one at this moment.

「Yep, it looks like we have to lop them off.」

「Uh-huh. If we don’t, they could shoot out lasers, supplying someone with energy.」

「You know I’m still human, right…?」

Haruna kept interjecting as she slowly walked back. She plead for some help in a desperate look with her blue eyes to Aearis, but even her (who usually would have defended Haruna) added:

「Why not, Haruna-sama? You’ll still have plenty left after we lop a bit off.」

「Et tu, Elle-chan?」

It seemed that even Aearis had something to say about Haruna’s immensity. She said all of that with a perfect smile, too. After Makoto and Aearis giving Rayna some looks, she finally went from being hesitate to determined:

「Besides, those must get in the way of swinging your sword. Why don’t we slice off the extra fat, just like Princess Aearis said.」

「The description are getting more vivid by the second, guys! And don’t call her Princess, Reena-san!」

Rayna did seem like she had some reservations about this, despite her not wanting to be treated like a woman. While Makoto guessed that that was precisely why she didn’t want to be treated like a woman, she decided to let it slide, as she didn’t want to derail from the current topic. Also, Haruna didn’t seem to notice that Rayna had been moving in accordance with looks from Makoto and Aearis.

「No one else is here, so that’s not a problem.」

「Don’t try to change the subject, Haru.」

「Okay, first of all I keep them strapped, so they’re not in the way, and lopping off sounds so painful! No!」

「How will you see, like, change on the ground by your feet? Or anything on your belt? So let’s lop them.」

The group seemed to be getting carried away as they piled joke upon joke. Haruna was beginning to actually be terrified by their insistent conclusion to lop off her breasts.

「Before you try to lop mine off, I think it would be more productive if you guys thought of how to make yours bigger?」

「That is an accurate assessment.」

「It’s only accurate for Princess and Mio, who still have some growing to do. Don’t you think?」

「You’re still fifteen, aren’t you? I’m passed twenty, you know. Mine aren’t getting bigger any time soon…」

「Wait. Maybe Sensei can make some potion for it.」

「Why didn’t we think of that!?」

With an outlandish conclusion, Makoto and Rayna left the tub. Sighing in relief that the danger of any lopping had been subsided (for now), Haruna decided to enjoy the bath a while longer. By the way, this conversation was heard loud and clear by the men of the house, so Hiroshi answered:

「Sorry to pump ya breaks, but something like diet pills or full-body modifications aside, I can’t whip up some potion or tool that’ll mess with just her breasts.」

Hiroshi had swiftly crushed the dreams of these two, who had barely dried off before putting their clothes on at supersonic speed before charging out of the changing room.

「You heard us!?」

「Hold on, you were eavesdropping!?」

「The rushed construction left a flaw in the structure, it looks like. When y’all scream as loud as you did, it all reverberates over here. I just think there’s a gap that connects the rooms, so I’ll check it and plug it up tomorrow.」

Hiroshi stated like there was nothing to it. Hearing that, they looked at Douga and Tatsuya to feel a luke-warm, indescribable sort of glance.

「Sensei, what do you mean full-body modifications?」

While not as carelessly as Makoto and Rayna, Mio rushed through the drying-off process and came out with a heap of question marks floating around.

「They had a paid item for doin’ that, remember? Resets ya appearances.」

「Oh, now that you mention it. I didn’t really look at them because I wasn’t interested in changing my appearance at all. Wait, can you craft them?」

Asked Tatsuya.

「Yep. Actually, it’s just thought they got nasty ingredients for ‘em. You can actually make all the micro-transaction items.」

Leaving the two girls burnt out from the knowing looks by the men, the rest continued that sort of conversation. Mio seemed to be pretending that the whole debacle didn’t happen. More accurately, though, she had taken a chance that they hadn’t heard the relatively quiet remarks she made. Of course, Hiroshi heard them all.

By the way, most micro-transaction items in Fairytale Chronicles were mostly cosmetic, and while they were difficult to do so, all of them could be obtained without a micro-transaction, in-game. Also, changing an avatar can be done for free once a year, as long as it was submitted to admin. So, the micro-transaction items were only for the weirdos to whom the once-a-year clause is too restrictive, but to whom the free route was too laborious. It was only acceptable because the game charged a monthly membership to begin with, providing a sustainable income.

「While we’re on it, I doubt there’s gonna be an editin’ screen or nothin’. Can’t recommend tryin’ to make your breast bigger in the full-body modification screen, either.」

「Yep. I figured as much.」

Haruna (who was taking down her blonde her after getting out of the bath) nodded with a chuckle. She figured that the item in question was a potion that changed one’s appearance as imagined. Use it without a reference, and it would most likely end in a disaster.

「By the way, Hiroshi-kun. How do the potions and accessory work that are tweaking the appearance of Elle-chan?」

「I just set the appearance for ‘em. With her face as a base, I tweaked her facial parts and colorin’, and an Illusion is applied so she really looks like that. So their body type, shape, hair, and all that are all the same as the real deal. Same mechanic with the potion.」

「I see.」

In other words, those tricks were useless for anyone who wanted to change their body.

「Life isn’t easy, is it?」

「Ya said it.」

Watching the two girls (who had become dead horses after a good kicking) Hiroshi and Haruna continued their nonchalant chit-chat.

「Now. Why don’t we share what we know with each other? I haven’t heard what you were doing before you met us, Makoto-san.」

「Let’s see. To be honest, Mio and I don’t really know what’s going on, so we couldn’t tell you much.」

「Y’all got registered as adventurers, and we got the bare minimum of the place fixed up. I think y’all have settled down enough that we can talk about this, right?」

It was nearing bed time that night. They had asked Douga and the other people from Farlane to get some rest first, so the Japanese people could talk about their situation.

「Before we do, can I?」

「Mio-chan?」

「Back in the bath, earlier. Reena-san and Elle seemed a little off. What did you do, Mako?」

「Oh, that? A part of me was serious, and another part of me just couldn’t take looking at her like that, I guess.」

Makoto must have meant Rayna, who still acted like she didn’t know how to interact with the group, and while she did anything she was asked of, she seldom expressed what she wanted for herself. Makoto seemed to see a time bomb in that.

「It’s nice that she repents for what she did, but if she keeps worrying about what the people whom that matters to don’t really care about anymore, it just mucks up the vibe of the group, you know? Thought I should jump in.」

「Mmm… Sorry you had to do that.」

「Don’t sweat it. It’s a job for someone mature on the outside of the incident, anyway. It didn’t seem like the kind of thing fit for Tatsuya, either, so I did it. Right?」

Makoto, perhaps because she was always the sane one in the group, observed and acted well with the group’s best interest at heart, in a different way than Haruna did. The group collectively found themselves with newfound respect for this woman. For this particular incident, Haruna couldn’t do much because she was so involved in it.

「Hm? Then all that before with makin’ breasts bigger. Were ya playin’ a part then, too?」

「Both of us are dead serious.」

「All righty then…」

It looked like wanting to lop off Haruna’s breasts wasn’t too far from the truth, either. Haruna kind of regretted her gratitude for Makoto.

「Well, all of that, aside. Where do we start talking about things? I probably know about this country the most, but you guys probably know about our overall situation the best.」

「Hmm… I think you’re right. Let’s start with when each of us were transported here.」

Haruna responded.

「Okay. I was about three months ago. Haruna, you and Hiroshi are like six weeks in, right?」

「47 days, I think.」

「This is our tenth day, I think.」

Tatsuya chimed in. Their times of transportation were quite spread out.

「So, I was wondering…」

「Mm?」

「Yeah?」

「Was it a big deal after I disappeared back there?」

「Not really.」

「Just an official announcement that said a corrupted e-mail would force-close ya client.」

Makoto was slightly disappointed but understood. But, then Tatsuya dropped this bomb:

「Come to think of it, when I got sent here, Hiro was logged in when I was.」

「Huh?」

「Hold on. Makoto-san, do you remember the date you were sent here on?」

「April 27th, I think…」

「We were sent out on April 27th, too. I was logged in, and I wasn’t looking at the real-life clock, but the in-game time was 1:31:52p.m.」

The group couldn’t help but look aghast at Haruna’s eerily detailed account.

「Wow, you remember it down to the second…?」

「I pretty much never forget anything. Besides, I was in some trouble that day, running late for an appointment so I kept checking the clock. I mean, that was the time right before I went through the Transportation Gate, so I don’t know the exact time I was sent here.」

Hiroshi nodded in agreement. While he couldn’t recall down to the second, his foggy memory confirmed that it was about 1:32p.m.

「I don’t remember the time of day.」

Makoto replied.

「For us, I don’t think it was passed 1:40.」

Tatsuya added.

「Okay. So it looks like the condition for being sent here is receiving a corrupt email on April 27th, and not taking care of it before going through a transportation gate, or else using a transportation spell or stone. And it looks like the difference in minutes or seconds back there translated up to a few months over here.」

The group couldn’t argue with that assessment.

「So, Haruna-san and I just happened to wanna transport almost at the exact same time.」

「Uh-huh. I think we were very lucky in that sense. If we didn’t meet each other, either of us could have died to that bear in the beginning.」

The word “bear” triggers a curious look from the other three. In response, Hiroshi and Haruna told their story of their first encounter with a monster rafter arriving to this world.

「Not as bad as us, I guess, bad you guys were in quite a pickle, too, huh?」

「Well, if we hadn’t been in that pickle, I might have never met Haruna-san, so it might have been a blessin’ in disguise.」

「Uncle Doul took me in as soon as I got sent here, so I didn’t really struggle much, day-to-day-wise.」

「And in exchange, you take on the blunt combat work.」

「There’s not much else I can do, anyway. I don’t mind. Besides, I think it’s a lot healthier than being agoraphobic like I was in real life. 」

Hiroshi and Haruna couldn’t help but find strength (different from that in combat) in Makoto’s confidence. Hiroshi and Haruna were still afraid of facing off most monsters (other than spiders that they could take by surprise, for example). Regardless of the actual combat prowess that supports her confidence, her ability to fearlessly dive into quests that involve taking down monsters was a show of her strength. While she said that she was agoraphobic, judging by her attitude when she went out to shop for supplies and other interactions like that, she seemed to have overcome it during her life here. What a huge difference from Hiroshi, who even with Haruna (whom he had lived in partnership with for a month and a half) couldn’t get closer than a certain distance other than times when he really needed to, or was concentrating too hard to notice, without still being terrified.

「My three months here were pretty uneventful. I did a bunch of quests helping out Uncle Doul and Rayna under the form of singled-out requests. Other times, I would play Elle’s bodyguard-slash-friend. Long story short, it wasn’t too different from sticking with an NPC in-game. Did a lot of tutorial-ish stuff, too. Pretty good way to get out of your agoraphobic habits, I’d say.」

「All right. When we came to, we were already tied up… And you guys know the rest. I guess we should move on to what Hiro and Haruna accomplished in their month and a half.」

In response to Tatsuya’s prompt, they told them as much as they could. Although, the only major events during that time was the Antidote mass-production right off the bat, and taking down Piaranork while saving Aearis’ party, which occurred about two weeks ago. There were a lot of things that the group wanted to comment on, like running a curry-pastry and corndog food stand, or ending up taking down Piaranork only because they had to gather spider silk because of stains from said food stand, or their ever-expanding repertoire of condiments from soy sauce, miso, bonito flakes, and even takoyaki sauce or hibachi sauce. At the end of the day, however, they were pretty much acting under the mentality of a slice-of-life player.

「Can I ask you guys something?」

「Yeah?」

「Hiro. Haruna. Did you guys really want to get back to Japan?」

「Of course, Brother. We were doin’ everything we could to.」

「You got a place and filled up your kitchen. It seems like you guys were down to stay here.」

「Riddle me this, then. What the heck should we have started doin’?」

Hiroshi had a point, and as such, Tatsuya took a moment to retort. He had one point he could stress, though:

「Getting a place, sure. But no one needs to put so much effort into developing spices and dishes!」

「You haven’t thought this through, Brother. Say that again after ya keep eatin’ an average meal here for a week.」

「Hiroshi, I agree. You guys overdo it.」

「Then, Makoto-san. Feel free to prepare ya own meals.」

「I’m sorry. I was in the wrong, here.」

A way to power is through one’s stomach. Makoto couldn’t last a second before folding to Hiroshi’s threat.

「Well, in any case, thanks to Hiro and Mio, we never have to worry about getting food and potions. And thanks to Haruna, we never have to eat a bad meal. Like Hiro was saying, we are definitely in it for the long haul, so these things are pretty important, come to think of it.」

「Then, let’s move onto the next important question. How far along are you guys on the main quest?」

Makoto asked, in part to access everyone’s combat capabilities.

「Haruna-san and I’ve stopped after finishin’ the first chapter.」

「Same with me.」

Mio chimed in.

「I’m into the second half of the second chapter.」

Tatsuya added. Everyone was around or a little bit below the average of players who mainly played to fight. Of course, Hiroshi and Haruna had prioritized crafting and day-to-day life, so that wasn’t surprising to Makoto. Tatsuya seemed to have kept his focus on roleplaying, and the second chapter was rather tough for a magic-wielding player to beat, solo. The intermittent bosses and forced combat were much more difficult in the second chapter than the first, not to mention the chapter itself was much longer. Less than half of the population of players have completed the second chapter of the main quest.

「Okay. Just so you know, I was stuck halfway through the fourth chapter. I couldn’t get the drop item for a weapon I needed.」

Makoto decided to come out that she was more of a combat addict. Hiroshi picked up on her remark, though. No way would he have let that pass.

「What were ya missin’?」

「Nemesis Blood and Holy Steel. I gathered a few Holy Steels, but just about no Nemesis Bloods.」

「Oh. I didn’t know they dropped Holy Steel. I thought ya just had to dig up Holy Ore and forge ‘em.」

「Hold up! You can forge them!?」

「I’ve made enough Holy Steel stuff to build an island.」

In response to Makoto’s demanding approach (at a safe distance, of course) Hiroshi simply answered as if this was public knowledge. The combat addicts of the game would cause a riot if they had heard him say this.

「If that’s the reason you’re stuck on the main quest, won’t ya blame the ones who caused all the craftsmen to be antisocial before ya blame us for it?」

「Everyone hates them plenty, regardless. Jeez. If that debacle hadn’t happened, level 6 potions would have been out on the market at a reasonable price…」

「Level 8s would have been out on the market, everywhere. Just in my storage, I had about 20,000 of each level 8 potion.」

「…I’m going to kill them all, someday…」

Makoto whispered, upon receiving this unnecessary bad news. As a reference, a level 6 potion went for about 50,000 Chrones a bottle. Anything lower was snatched up in a heartbeat. Holy Steel was worse than that, at 3 million a pop. It was a ridiculous price point considering that a quest to craft a weapon or armor would require dozens of them for each piece of equipment. Despite the fact that it would only take a craftsman two (in-game) days to gather that much through mining and forging. The fiends behind this phenomenon, who continued to harass the craftsmen (mainly through MPK) and spread false rumors about them to try to get them to quit the game, until finally (somehow) obtaining a home address and stalking them in real life, had every insult coming to them.

The incident was a fairly simple one when it was all said and done. Some ill-mannered addict guilds had found some craftsmen who began to make high-level potions and equipment, attempted to take the group of craftsmen at the highest caliber among them, were rejected, and started harassing them in retaliation, in very close to illegal ways. It all began when only up to level 4 potions were out on the market, the top potion maker of the time started selling level 5 potions.

The incident caused all sorts of collateral damage (by the craftsmen who were affected and reported the incident being framed for having some kind of fault in the case), to the point where, at one point, there was an atmosphere of taboo for any Crafting in the game. Many players couldn’t handle that atmosphere and the harassment and a good number of players switched out of craftsmen skills, despite almost reaching Advanced. This was the direct cause of the lack of craftsmen in the game, currently. While only one player was directly attacked, some players just fell out of the game entirely because of it. The only Crafting skills that were unaffected by this were just about Fishing, Enchanting, Cooking, and the mostly unknown Shipbuilding, Carpentry, and Farming.

The incident did as much damage as it did in part, because the harassment against the craftsmen were not quite red-handed until the stalker incident, and in part because admin took too long to garner enough evidence to take care of it. In the meantime, all admin could do was to make an announcement that the craftsmen have not used any third-party cheating tool, nor rewrite any data or program on the server.

The game gaining a poor reputation wasn’t good for business, of course, so admin had tried their best to quench this fire, but being short-staffed, combined with the incredible acceleration of the situation, caused the stalker incident to occur before the admin could gather the evidence of the addict guild spreading false rumors and defamation. Certainly not fast enough to delete the accounts of all members involved. This incident is described as the one and only stain on the admin’s reputation.

It is worth noting that the address obtained by the stalker was kind of divulged by the first victim, and not leaked by the admin. Admin has never let any personal information leak. For the second victim on, their addresses were leaked from bugs encrypted in forums and information from playthrough vlogs. As a result as the incident, all information of the craftsmen were kept hidden, and no one could blame them for it.

As a consequence, any player who would want to newly start crafting, would only get enough information to get them into Intermediate skills (at best), and they were on their own for the rest of the journey. A big blow to the community was that this incident occurred before anyone had shared information regarding Making Mastery (a big contributor to keeping the craftsmen population down.

「Come to think of it, I’m sure you were one of the OGs in the game. Didn’t they get to you?」

「I hadn’t been doin’ nothin’ too flashy since I was in the busiest time of studyin’ for entrance exams. The most I did was take castle-buildin’ or ship buildin’ quests from NPCs and left it alone. Most of the time, the other players won’t see the stats of these quests.」

The first incident had occurred during Hiroshi’s summer of ninth grade, his last year of middle school. He had begun getting desperate to move away, to the point where he barely logged into the game. Thanks to the fact that he had stayed logged out for a while, other than Harvesting skills and Carpentry (which he had just mastered Advanced), and Shipbuilding (which he was actively progressing by not logging in), all of his skills were below average for a craftsman. In fact, the first production skill Hiroshi had mastered was Carpentry, and the second was Shipbuilding.

Of course, Haruna didn’t know much about this incident either, since she had been offline studying for entrance exams, as well. The incident had resolved (for the time being) on October of the same year, which meant that, by the time Hiroshi and Haruna started logging in regularly again, the incident was not forgotten but treated as a taboo. They both knew something had happened, but they judged from their friends’ and acquaintances’ attitudes, that it would only leave a bad taste in their mouths if they’d heard it. So, they each decided not to look into what everyone wanted to let be bygones.

「I see. And do you still hear about that kind of stuff?」

「Recently, a girl last one was gettin’ harassed. It seemed like the perp was an OG still believin’ in all the tall tales ‘bout craftin’. Took care of him with a call to the GM, but he just changed his name and face, and ghosted. Sure, that took care of it, but it just gets so darn annoyin’. And idiots nowadays don’t know when to stop. Won’t be funny if there’s a murder or somethin’ in real life.」

Makoto put on a frown, hearing this. The craftsmen were in hiding simply because nothing guaranteed their safety, yet. It was only natural that neither the admin nor the police could do anything until something went south. It was difficult for admin to step in just for some in-game harassment, unless it crossed a line. The lies spread by the people who caused the incident in the first place, which were unnecessarily convincing, had not yet lost their effect entirely. Collectively, the craftsmen recognized that it was still too early to walk under the sun.

It wasn’t like some of the upper-level players didn’t get together in attempt to protect the craftsmen. However, the average top player at the time only had Intermediate skills, which made it difficult to protect the craftsmen population (which was too large to protect but small enough for the perps to target), and the discussion ended with the conclusion that the best course of action was for the craftsmen to protect themselves. To boot, some of the upper-level players were deceived by the lies, and ended up acting against the interest of the craftsmen.

The people arrested by police and publicized by admin were publically known for their bad manners already, which lead to most players ignoring the lies spewed by them by now, and on the surface, the negative vibes revolving around Crafting skills and craftsmen had subsided.

Still, despite three years being passed after the incident, there were more than a few OGs who still saw craftsmen players as con artists. And there were more than a few new players believed what these OGs told them. It was ironic that once the OG craftsmen tried to defend themselves from those rumors and new players started reaching Advanced on their own, the new players became more noticeable and easier to target.

「Meh, that kind of stuff don’t matter to us no more. Once we’re on the same page with our skills and the like, we should decide on what we’re gonna do next.」

「Right. Of course, we should start by dealing with Elle-chan’s situation so we can gather more information.」

So, Hiroshi and Haruna decided to change the subject from one that would probably leave a bad taste in their mouths. While Haruna still didn’t know much about the incident, she decided she still didn’t need to stick her nose in it just yet, and decided to not ask for any details.

「I’m sure Makoto-san knows what’s goin’ on, already, but I wanna hear this kind of stuff from the horse’s mouth. I’ll try askin’ ‘em again, tomorrow.」

「Okay. I’ll let you handle all that. What about Tatsuya’s equipment?」

「I’ll whip somethin’ up for Brother this week usin’ the furnace and the anvil. It’s just temporary, anyhow, and ya wanna practice makin’ ya own, right, Mio?」

「Yep.」

And so, the group finally decided on a reasonable plan. The next day, Makoto would witness Hiroshi and Mio “whip up” a staff, bow, and dagger, before losing all faith. But that’s another story.