This Love is Futile

Chapter 050 – Kairi is Too Extreme…

I woke up after sleeping through the night. 

The weekend was already over. Today was a school day again. 

After yesterday’s ordeal, I logged out at the inn and earnestly went to bed. But my initial plan of laying down for a bit and logging in again to do things went astray when I ended up falling asleep until morning without accomplishing anything. 

I slept too much; despite that, I was still sleepy, but even in that state, I got ready and dragged myself to school. 

When I entered the classroom with a loud yawn, Yuuta was already there in his seat. As always, he was an early bird. 

I approached and called out to him.

“Hey! How was it yesterday? Did it still end up as a normal quest achievement?” I asked him as I sat down in the seat in front of him. 

He replied, saying no and shaking his head with a yawn. “In our case, it was an emergency quest from the guild. When I pointed out the discrepancies in the quest content to the receptionist, I somehow got an additional quest. This time, I had to accept the quest by default. We still have a lot of time to complete it, or should I say, the quest doesn’t have a specific time limit.”

“That’s a shame. And what kind of quest is it?”

“Umm— we need to go to the frontier region. But our level isn’t high enough, so I’ll think about it after we get up to the proper level.” 

Just as I thought, there might be disagreement within the group. When I frowned, Yuuta spoke to me again.

“But Kengo, was that quest really from the guild? If it really was an escort request, it could have been handled in lots of other ways. If you hadn’t left a message, I wouldn’t have been in the guild, and then there wouldn’t have been anyone who could set off on the quest right away.”

“Huh, it wasn’t a guild request.”

“Wha?! But you delivered the goods to the guild yesterday!”

“Ah— that’s— it was a personal request from the shopkeeper. I only had an hour to prepare from the time I accepted the quest to the time of departure, and when I asked you whether there would be an ambush from the bandits or not, my mind was preoccupied with preparation for that. Besides, I never thought that it would become a quest of this scale, and Crash also said there was no one else he could ask. But for me to turn down his request, or if I failed this quest, there was a penalty like the general store closing down, which was written in the quest content. And when I thought about how he would have to go alone if I turned him down, I had no other choice but to simply nod and accept his request. And, it also seemed like he never imagined that he would get attacked on the way.”

When I pouted, Yuuta looked at me with pity in his eyes. 

“Kengo, you really are… Why do all kinds of strange quests always come your way? I understand that you were desperate back then. Even I’m really grateful that the shop won’t close. But next time, if you ever get a by-name request like that, be sure to take someone with you, like that gatekeeper.” 

“No, no, no, the gatekeepers also have their work to do, so they can’t leave their posts.”

The moment I denied his words, he was smirking at me. 

Thi-this guy, he was making fun of me…! You’re just Yuuta! You damn normie!

“More importantly! Yui, Kairi, and Brave, are they people you know?”

“Ah, Kengo, you were in class 4 last year, right? Masuda, who was in class 7 with me last year, is Kairi. I think he’s in class 2 this year?”

“Masuda…?”

It was probably because our school had 9 classes in each grade, but I didn’t know the names of the students I wasn’t familiar with, even if you said them. 

When I tilted my head, he asked me, “Want to meet him later?” I vaguely nodded, recalling the large cleavage of his in-game character. 

After I saw his real face, I didn’t know how to react when I saw him in-game again, so I was a little troubled. 

“By the way, Yui and Brave are students from Hanafuri/Hanakuda1 girl’s high school.”

Watching my reaction, Yuuta was holding himself back from bursting out into laughter, and he grinned while telling me all this unnecessary info. 

Wasn’t that girl’s high school famous for having lots of beautiful hotties!? Just how did Yuuta become acquainted with those girls from that high school?

It was written all over my face, so he flicked my forehead, saying, “At first, we were just playing as a party, but became closer little by little, starting with trivial matters. We later found out that our schools were close, so that’s how it all started.”

“You normie!”

“That’s why I once asked you, ‘Want me to introduce you to someone?’ How about meeting with Yui’s friends from that girl’s high school?”

“I’ve told you that I don’t need it.”

I already had my lover.2 Leaving that aside, now I really wanted to be with Vidello-san. 

Haa, maybe I was frustrated. 

“I’ll go to the inn after I log in today,” Yuuta said.

“Okay. But I’ll go back by stagecoach after that.”

Hearing my words, Yuuta burst out into laughter. 

“A stagecoach! An adventurer and a stagecoach! Such a mismatch!”

“Well, it’s quite fast, though it’s a bit uncomfortable to ride. I just want to go back to Tre quickly and see if Crash is still at the store.”

But I wasn’t confident enough not to roll over if I rode the stagecoach alone. If Vidello-san was with me, he would support me and all I had to do was just stay close to him. And a long ride together with him was so much fun. 

The more I thought about him, the more I wanted to see him.

Staring into the distance, I let out a sigh. 

I went back home immediately after school, logged in, and got up from the bed. 

I tidied my outfit, and when I went downstairs to the dining hall, Yuuta was already there having a meal. Next to him was Masuda, or rather Kairi. 

In the end, the three of us ended up eating our lunch boxes together during our lunch break. Masuda was a very friendly, gentle-looking guy who had the aura of an honors student. 

I had to admit that I enjoyed our lunch break together and having a lively chat. He seemed like a really nice guy inside and out. But when I asked him why he was using a female avatar, his answer was so shocking that I felt devastated.

“It’s because when the players become adults in-game, they can do lots of sexy stuff. You know what, I want to know what it’s like being a woman. When I swallowed my pride and shamelessly said this to my girlfriend, she sympathized with me and agreed, so we swapped our in-game avatars’ gender and have been using them since. When we become adults, I told her, ‘Let’s have sex in our gender-swapped avatars.’ Hehe~ Isn’t my girlfriend awesome?”3

Despite his gentle look, he was the extreme type… 

He, or rather she, if I looked at her closely, still had traces of her original appearance, and she was looking and smiling sweetly at me. 

“Ahaha, Mac, now that I look at you, your avatar looks a lot like the real you. I’m sorry that I couldn’t recognize you until now even though we’re from the same school.” 

“Eh, ah, um. It’s okay. I’m the same. But did Takahashi never tell you about me at all?”

“All I heard about you from him was that you’re getting along really well with the gatekeeper.”

Wasn’t this information the last thing she needed to know!? Even so, when I knew that she was a ‘he’ inside, I came to understand why his feminine speech seemed a little off, since he used masculine speech in real life.4

“Let’s stop talking about Vidello-san… and by the way, where are Yui and Brave?”

When I tilted my head because I only saw Yuuta and Kairi, Yuuta gave me a brief explanation that they had supplementary lessons. 

I nodded in agreement and ordered some food from the dining hall. The thought crossed my mind that I had to increase my cooking skills so that Vidello-san could have my homemade food again and say that it was delicious.

I wanted to go back quickly. I would look at his face, and then…

If I had been an adult, perhaps my lower half would have been in an uncomfortable situation.5 Yep, definitely. 

As I was sitting in my seat, selling some additional potions to Yuuta, the door to the dining hall opened and a crowd of people entered the room. They seemed to be looking for vacant seats and, after looking all around, their gazes fell on our table.

“Isn’t it Takahashi? It’s been a while.”

After hearing the voice, Yuuta turned to look at the person. And then, he raised his hand and said, “Hey, it’s been a while.”

“Do you know him?” I asked Yuuta quietly.

He answered, “Yes. He’s the guy who taught us a lot of things. He’s part of a party called ‘Mad Ride’.”

Eh, ‘Mad Ride’, wasn’t that a party I had heard of? Their party was famous for being really strong or something. While I was overcoming my surprise at finding out that Yuuta was acquainted with such a strong party, that person was headed toward our table.

While the ‘Mad Ride’ members immediately gathered around our table as soon as they entered the dining hall, I couldn’t help but let out a surprised cry of, “Ah!” when I saw the face of the last person who entered the hall.

Because that person was Seven.