‘He must have realized my identity after I mentioned Silver Heart to him.’ Serenity thought to herself with a deep look. She wondered what she should reply with.
“Miss Serenity?” The ginger-haired player, named Caveman, talked to the absent-looking dojo master.
However, the beautiful silver-haired girl didn’t hear him and instead started writing a lengthy message.
After finishing writing it, she made sure that there was no problem with it and then pressed send.
At the same time, she noticed the hovering clock with time beside her interface. She was surprised to see the time, as she had some work-related things back in reality.
“Caveman, I have to get going, but make sure that Leprechaun gets the extra wagon. And ask for Teddy extra hands in getting the wagon. He should know how to drive one.” Serenity said and pressed the log out button.
“Ah, alri—” Caveman tried speaking as fast as he could, but the beautiful silver-haired girl had already disappeared from the dojo. He sighed and looked towards the members of the dojo packing up stuff into wooden boxes and carrying them out of the room towards the wagons.
A certain person attracted his attention. The person was a man with broad shoulders and well-defined facial features. He was carrying the boxes effortlessly, without a single sweat on his brows.
His eyebrows were sharp, and he was wearing a silver t-shirt that outlined his muscular torso. At the back of the shirt, there was a silver heart, signaling his dedication to the dojo, which earned a look of admiration from Caveman.
“Sir.” Caveman walked to the muscular man.
“What is it?” The muscular man, named Teddy, looked at him with a stern look after finishing carrying the box inside the wagon. He didn’t look exhausted in the slightest even though the boxes looked like they weighed a lot.
“Miss Serenity told us to go fetch a new wagon.” Caveman said and pointed towards the backyard. From their angle, they barely saw the figure of Leprechaun, scribbling something down.
“Leprechaun has to give us money for that from the dojo’s finances. Since you have some experience driving a wagon, Miss Serenity suggested that you should come with me.”
“Miss Serenity did?” Teddy looked around the dojo, in search for the beautiful girl. “She… coming with us?”
“No, she returned to reality. It will just be us two.” Caveman said.
“Oh…” Teddy looked clearly disappointed. “Fine, let’s get the wagon.”
Caveman nodded and glanced sideways towards the backyard with a smirk growing on his lips. ‘Even Leprechaun wouldn’t dare to refuse giving money to Teddy. He acts mighty, but in front of true power, he is pitiful sheep.’ 𝑜𝗏xt.𝗇t
…
“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen!” A bearded fellow with top hat shouted loudly as he stood on top of a small, shaky box. Around him, crowd had gathered to look at the scene with fascination.
The crowd applauded with lukewarm tone. They were still wondering what this was about.
Next to the feet of tall adults, children peeked curiously at the strange, bearded man.
The bearded man fluttered his long cloak and took off his top hat, revealing black hair beneath. He plucked one of his hairs to surprise of the crowd and placed it on bottom of the top hat.
“Where I am from, magic has been core principle of our life.” The bearded man said with a dreamy voice as if it had eternal echo. He then flipped the top hat over, but the hairstrand didn’t fall off as if it was stuck inside the hat.
The children exclaimed and wanted to run to the top hat to see where the hairstrand had disappeared. However, their parents grabbed their children before they could leave their side.
The bearded man sneakily smiled and hopped off the wooden box. He approached a curious blond-haired little girl and and kneeled before her. The little girl’s parents looked at the scene curiously.
“Well, what do we have here?” The bearded man reached towards the little girl’s ear and took something from there. It was a blond hair.
“Huh?” The little girl looked at the hairstrand, thinking that the bearded man must have plucked one of her hairs. However, she soon saw her bangs swaying before her eyes.
Her hair wasn’t blond anymore and it had turned black!
She exclaimed and her parents were terrified by the sight.
The nearby childrens exclaimed in surprise and some even laughed at the magical show.
The bearded man put the top hat back on and removed it only seconds later. This time, he had blond hair, which fluttered against the morning wind.
“Wow!” The little girl exclaimed with a huge smile and the crowd started clapping loudly.
The bearded man smiled and put the top hat on the little girl’s head. When he removed the top hat again, the little girl’s hair returned to normal color as did the bearded man’s.
He then stood up under the loud applause of the crowd. He bowed with smile and flipped the top hat over. The adults from the crowd took out their money pouches and gave few silvers while showering his magical show with praise.
The bearded man accepted the silvers with a smile without answering to the praises.
A some distance away, a black-haired young man looked at the magic show and clapped once it was over.
“He is a player. However, how did he do that?” Ambrose wryly smiled. “So, one can also earn silver that way. Some people can apply their real-life knowledge to this game and use it effectively. I am kind of jealous.”
Ding, ding!
A sharp dinging noise echoed in his ears.
Once the floating screen appeared in front of his vision, he noticed that he had received a message from player named Serenity.
His heart started beating faster at the sight of it. He took a deep breath and pressed on the chat icon.
[Serenity: Good morning. I didn’t expect you to realize my identity so quickly. Thank you for accepting my friend request, I have something to ask you. Tomorrow, my guild will depart to Yatagarasu. The quest location is there.
[If you still want to, the invitation to join the quest still stands. I hope the incident between us didn’t hinder our friendship, as that wasn’t what I wanted. I might’ve said that I only did my duty as your physical therapist, but I also did it as your friend.
[Whenever you are free, please reply back. We will be leaving at 10.00 a.m. tomorrow morning. It will be fun, I promise]
Ambrose leaned on the wall and looked at the long message with crossed arms. He was tempted, very much so. Visiting new city alone would be enough for him to accept the quest immediately, but he was nervous.
‘I acted childishly against her. She only wanted good for me, but I acted like a douchebag. It is strange, I always feel anger these days. I wasn’t like this before, but ever since I started playing, I felt like my emotions were overflowing.
‘Jealousy, anger, and hate, why am I feeling those now so strongly? Those are emotions I often feel in my everyday life, but I thought I was good at keeping them inside, without letting them out.
‘But I have lost control so many times now.’ Ambrose sighed and looked back at the long message. He didn’t either want to lose Alice, as he liked their friendship, even though at the back of the mind, he once wanted to become something more.
Ambrose sighed and pressed on the chat icon. He began writing a short message and seconds later, he pressed send.
‘I shouldn’t laze around. I have one day to try to increase my level and I should try my best to increase my strength before the quest. I won’t be the weakest person in the quest, I won’t accept that.’
Ambrose grabbed the sword hilt and closed his eyes. He felt strangely calm with his eyes closed and without noticing, his veins started glowing with a dim golden glow before disappearing.
