My consciousness surfaced with the strange feeling that my body was floating.
Once I realized I’d safely escaped the virtual space, I took off the VR device I’d been wearing.
What I saw was a room full of equipment.
‘Ah. Right, this place.’
The place I’d woken up in was the same room I’d come to when I first logged into the game.
Maybe I’d been inside the game for too long, because my vision wouldn’t focus. I had to blink several times before everything finally came into view.
"Oh! Hieta’s awake!"
At the familiar voice from the side, I turned my head. There, everyone including Tohka was looking at me with worried expressions.
"Ugh... I’m dizzy."
When I got up to walk over to them, the room spun and my body swayed.
"H-Hai!"
Thankfully, Mayuri came over and supported me before I fell.
I bowed my head to thank her, then looked forward again.
"Since everyone’s here, I guess we made it back safely?"
"Yeah. Thanks to all your hard work, [Fraxinus]’s altitude has stabilized, and everyone made it back safely."
The commander smiled and praised me like I’d done something very admirable.
At that, Itsuka-kun and Rinne looked at the commander with the eyes of people seeing something cute, and when the commander noticed that, she attacked Itsuka-kun, but seeing this made it feel real. We really were back.
It honestly felt like it had been a really long time since I’d been in reality.
Of course, in real-world time, not much had passed.
"Thank goodness."
As I muttered that in relief, Itsuka-kun nodded too.
"Yeah. Thank goodness."
In that warm atmosphere, the commander cleared her throat a few times and looked at me.
"S-Sorry to ruin the mood, but... the virtual space has been destroyed, and there’s no sign of Maria or Marina anywhere..."
At the commander’s words, everyone fell silent.
Even the bright mood sank, and the others’ expressions darkened.
The virtual space being destroyed was one thing, but no response from Maria and Marina meant their deaths.
"...Are you okay?"
Unlike the commander I knew, she watched my face carefully as she asked.
At that considerate gesture, I almost laughed, but I held it in and put a hand in my pocket.
Well, Maria and Marina weren’t dead.
"Yeah, I’m fine."
"...Really?"
"Of course. They’re both alive."
I pulled my phone from my pocket and tapped the screen twice. The black display lit up.
And on my phone screen, the images of two girls appeared: one with white hair and one with black hair.
"H-Huh?"
"Maria and... Marina?"
In the suddenly changed atmosphere, everyone’s eyes were fixed on my phone as they blinked in confusion.
[...Hello, everyone.]
[............]
Maria bowed her head in greeting, while Marina, whether embarrassed or shy, kept looking away and staring blankly at the floor.
"W-Whaaaat――!?"
At the belated scream of confusion, I couldn’t help snickering.
"What? What happened?"
"Well, you see—"
At the commander’s question, as she uncrossed her arms and stared at me wide-eyed, I explained it as briefly as I could.
I told her that I’d met Maria and Marina, sealed both of their spirit waves, and solved the problem with the equipment created from that.
Then the commander looked at my hand with a disbelieving expression.
There, a white ring and a black ring existed.
"Hah! You can interfere with machines!?"
"Yeah."
"That’s just cheating!!!"
The commander’s shriek slammed into my eardrums, and I felt like something was leaking out of my ears.
[Ah, haha. It really is absurdly strong, at least when it comes to machines.]
[...That much is true.]
Maybe because they were made from their own spirit waves, Maria and Marina awkwardly laughed and agreed with the commander.
Honestly, I thought it was a little broken too.
The ability to interfere with machines meant it could be used anywhere in a civilization this advanced.
"...Still, with an ability like that, there are places it could help."
"Murasame-san?"
By the time I noticed, Murasame-san had joined the group, and the commander grinned.
That expression felt extremely ominous.
"True. [Fraxinus] is a mess everywhere because of this incident."
"But what does that have to do with my ability...?"
"It means Shido can do the heavy lifting, and you can do the thinking."
"Eeeh!?"
At the sudden announcement that he’d be worked to death too, Itsuka-kun, who had been quiet until now, was shocked.
Of course I was shocked too.
"Wait, hold on. Actually, I might not have that kind of ability...?"
"Too late."
"Damn it!!!"
"It’s okay, Hai! I’ll help too!"
Mana-chan tried to comfort me from the side in her own way.
But you’re the one who does the heavy lifting...
"By the way, where is the young lady?"
Only now did I notice that her figure was nowhere to be seen.
"...Ah, her? She already vanished. The moment she left [Fraxinus], she disappeared somewhere."
"That does sound like her."
She’d always been elusive, so if anything, it was exactly the sort of thing she’d do.
[By the way, strangely enough, Hai’s phone doesn’t have that.]
"Hm? That? What are you talking about?"
At Maria’s surprised tone, everyone pricked up their ears.
[The search history that every man absolutely has to have... ]
When Marina said that, blushing with embarrassment, everyone else’s faces turned red too.
Of course, Itsuka-kun and my face turned the reddest.
"No! What kind of thing are you looking for...?"
[At least for a man in his prime, it’s normal to have it. I’m worried there may be something wrong with Hai.]
"Wait, so it wasn’t that he was clueless...?"
Everyone stared at me in shock.
In particular, Itsuka-kun, being a guy himself, was looking at me with pity.
"No, that’s not it! Don’t look at me like that! I’m perfectly fine!"
I desperately tried to explain.
Because I’d deleted all those records before transferring them to their phones, so of course they weren’t there!
"Huh?"
While I was explaining myself to everyone, a window suddenly popped up in front of me.
"A dark spirit is invading...?"
While I was still wondering why a dark spirit would show up here, one of the crew members shouted.
"Commander! We’ve located the spirit!"
"What? Where is it?"
"I’ll bring up the screen now!"
Inside the display of the thankfully undamaged central monitor, I could see Min Gyeong-sik in his dark spirit state running away from AST members.
"Why the hell is that bastard doing that over there...?"
I gave up on thinking about it.
*******
I told the commander he was the guy who’d helped us last time, and we recovered Gyeongsik.
"Haaah...! Haaah...!"
The recovered guy gasped for breath and plopped down on the floor.
Unlike me, he hadn’t been possessing a character, but rather had the power of Dark Souls dwelling in his original body, so his stamina didn’t seem all that great.
His appearance hadn’t changed either.
He was just wrapped in a red aura because he’d come as a dark spirit.
As soon as Gyeongsik caught his breath, he asked what the hell was going on, and I gave him a rough summary.
"AHAHAHAHAHA!!! So that’s what happened!"
After hearing the story, Gyeongsik laughed his ass off.
Seeing that, I was filled with the urge to split his skull open.
"Gyeongsik."
"Aha ha! Huh? What?"
"What happens if you hit someone in the head?"
"Huh? Obviously..."
At my question, Gyeongsik couldn’t finish his answer and turned to look at me.
"W-Wait. Why are you asking that...?"
"Hm? No, no. Nothing."
I smiled brightly at him and rolled my wrists.
"Well. It looks like you’re having an emotional reunion, so let’s give them some space."
"Agreed. That would be best."
At Kaguya and Yuzuru’s words, everyone slowly backed away.
Despair filled Gyeongsik’s eyes as he watched that, and I walked toward him.
"Uh, hey...? Sorry, sorry!"
"What’s wrong? Smile. We’re friends."
"S-Sorrrry――!!!"
As I approached with a club in hand, Gyeongsik immediately threw himself into a full prostration and entered apology mode.
"I’m sorry!"
"You keep trying to cross the line, don’t you?"
"I’m really sorry!"
"If you do it again next time, I’ll make you the star of the show."
"Thanks for forgiving me!!!"
"Hm? Everyone, why are you standing so far away?"
Leaving Gyeongsik still prostrating behind me, I looked at the others who had backed off.
They gave awkward smiles and came closer again.
[Hai? That person is...?]
"Ah, right. Maria and Marina probably don’t know him."
To Maria’s questioning look, I gave a brief explanation of Gyeongsik.
[...To think there’s someone in the exact same situation as Hai. That’s shocking.]
[Are you okay?]
"About what?"
[No, I mean, after everything you went through.]
"Well, by now I’ve just accepted it. There’s no way back, and I’ve got precious people here now."
"Ooooh, a romantic~"
"You wanna die?"
"Sorry."
Gyeongsik immediately folded at my words.
As expected, this guy needed a beating.
"By the way, who are the people on this phone?"
"Ah, I’ll introduce you."
Since Gyeongsik didn’t know Maria and Marina either, I briefly explained them to him.
Then I also gave him a quick summary of everything that had happened so far.
At that, Gyeongsik was stunned.
"What!? You, you went that far with her!?"
[Yes. We got right up to the point of kissing Hai. We were interrupted there, though.]
[S-Sorry... ]
[It’s okay, Marina. It’s a little disappointing, but I don’t blame you.]
[Maria... ]
"Wait. So both of them have feelings for you?"
[...If you put it that way, yes.]
[That’s right.]
This time, contempt was mixed into Gyeongsik’s stare.
"How do you manage to keep adding more from there...?"
"Like I wanted this to happen!"
"N-No, I mean..."
But Gyeongsik’s expression didn’t change at all.
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