”Weird. Why is he not responding?” Aria muttered.
”Maybe he is still sleeping?” Victoria wondered. “I am not sure about his sleeping patterns since I haven’t spent much time with him in the game. But in the real world, I always had a hard time waking him up.”
Aria squinted her eyes at Victoria and commented, “Stop flexing about your relationship with him.”
”I am not!”
SIGH!
Aria opened her menu and messaged Zach, but he didn’t reply to her messages either,
”…”
This wasn’t Zach’s first time doing that, and he sometimes went to explore the world in the middle of the night because he couldn’t fall asleep if Aurora wasn’t by his side.
”Maybe he went outside?” Aria went downstairs to the counter to ask the man at the reception about Zach. “Have you seen a black-haired man going out in the middle of the night or in the early morning?”
”Most of the players have black hair, so I am not sure who you are talking about,” the NPC replied without looking at Aria.
”He has golden eyes!” Aria added.
”Unfortunately, I don’t look at the customer’s eyes. If you can describe the clothes of your companion to me, then maybe I can help you,” he said.
”He was staying in room number 69! We came here at night and rented two rooms on the third floor.”
”Oh! You are talking about Lord Zach?!” the NPC exclaimed.
”…” Aria let out a weary sigh and nodded, “Yes.”
”No, he hasn’t left. But I will ask the woman who was at the reception at night,” he said in a calm voice.
The NPC called out to the woman and asked, “Did you see Lord Zach leaving at night?!”
The woman shook her head and said, “No. But the weather was bad last night.”
”Huh?” Aria raised her brows in confusion and turned to the man to ask, “What is she talking about? If the weather was bad, I would have noticed it. And what does she mean by bad weather?”
”I am not sure…” The man glanced outside through the door and said, “Weather never changes in this place.”
”Exactly!”
After feeling uneasy, Aria immediately rushed upstairs to see the door of Zach’s room was open.
”…” She stealthily walked towards the room and peeked inside to see Victoria shaking Zach to wake him up.
SIGH!
Aria sighed in relief and walked inside without letting her presence known. She stood beside Victoria and asked, “So he was sleeping, after all.”
Victoria jolted after hearing Aria’s voice and turned to her with a glare in her eyes.
”What?”
”Something is wrong! He is not waking up!” Victoria panicked.
”Didn’t you say you always had a hard time waking him up?” Aria remarked with a soft scoff and walked forward. She smirked at Victoria and said, “let me teach you how a wife should wake up her man.”
”…”
Victoria was frustrated by that, but she couldn’t care less as long as Zach was alright.
’What’s this tight feeling in my chest?’ Victoria placed her hand on her chest and muttered, “I feel exactly the same as I felt I broke up with Zach. What’s this feeling?”
While Victoria was trying to understand the reason behind her anxiousness, Aria was trying her best to wake Zach up. But to no avail, Zach didn’t wake up.
Now, both of them were freaking out.
”What do we do?” Aria asked Victoria with a concerned look on her face.
”I don’t know! What happened to him?!”
”How am I supposed to know? I was sleeping in the same room as you!” Aria yelled.
”But aren’t you the almighty goddess?! The creator of the world and mother of all humans!”
”I am not a doctor or a detective that I can tell what’s wrong by looking at someone!” Aria retorted. “And besides, I don’t have my godly powers. I am as strong as you are.”
Aria placed her hand on Zach’s forehead and tried to examine him, but clenched her fists and ended up shouting celestial curses.
”…”
After seeing Aria enraged like that, Victoria didn’t dare to talk back to Aria.
”I can’t examine him! We have to go to my domain, but only he can open it!” Aria informed Victoria, who was clearly taken aback by the sudden change in Aria’s mood.
”So… what do we do now…?” Victoria asked reluctantly in a low voice.
Aria glanced at Zach’s body once more and inspected it with her eyes.
”There is nothing wrong with him, visibly and physically, so we have no other choice but to get him examined by a healer,” Aria stated with an anxious look on her face.
”Huh?”
”I mean, NPC healer,” she added.
”Oh…” Victoria pondered for a few seconds, and Ninia’s face flashed before her eyes.
Aria and Victoria looked at each other at the same time, seemingly they both thought of the same thing.
”But where are we going to find her?” Aria asked.
”Church, duh!”
”But she can’t possibly be at the church for 24 hours, right? Maybe she has a house of her own, and perhaps a family too?” Victoria wondered.
”We will get to know all that once we take Zach there.”
Aria carried Zach on her back, and Victoria held him from behind to make sure he didn’t fall. They slowly got off the stairs and reached the counter. But everyone was giving them a weird look.
Of course, it was a suspicious scenario to see two girls carrying an unconscious man from the inn.
”My Lord!” The NPCs who were Zach’s worshipers noticed Zach and rushed to them and panicked: “What happened to him?”
”We have to take him to the church. Do you have something that can help us get there faster?” Aria asked in a calm voice.
”We…don’t…”
She wanted to be polite, so they wouldn’t refuse to help, but they weren’t of any help either.
Aria ignored the NPCs surrounding them, and Victoria cleared the way.
After getting out of the inn, Aria turned to Victoria and said, “I guess we will have to carry him to the church.”
[There is no need for that!]
Cerberus came out of Zach’s shadow and bowed down in front of Aria and Victoria.
[I have a message for you,] he said.
”What message? And from whom?” Victoria asked with a confused look on her face.
[By my liege, of course.]
***
Total players in the game- 1,482,901
0 new players logged in.
15 players died.