Chapter 46: Weekday Lunh And IdleTalk

「...」 (Wataru)

「Hey, Wacchi. What's wrong with you today? You've been absent-minded all day.」 (Shuuhei)

What happened last night had been etched in my eyes.

If I let my mind wander, that scene repeated over and over in my head.

Selene-san's lips...they were soft...

「He's not even reacting! Hey, Wacchi. I'm hungry already. Hey...」 (Shuuhei)

「!! Ah, what is it, Shuuhei? Did something happen?」 (Wataru)

「What are you even saying? It's lunch time, lunch time. Let's go eat already.」 (Shuuhei)

「A-Ah.」 (Wataru)

Is it lunch time already?

I can't remember the contents of the lessons...

Once I noticed, inside the class there weren't many people and it was deserted.

In our school there are not many students that eat inside the classroom, so my classmates probably already took their lunch and left the classroom.

I took out two bentos from my bag and headed towards the courtyard with Shuuhei.

「Oh, Wataru. Where's my bento?」 (Miyu)

「Oh. Here.」 (Wataru)

I gave a bento to Miyu, who had arrived first.

Since we are in different classrooms, who arrives first depends on the day.

She's alone today huh...there are times when girls cling onto Miyu and lunch gets lively when they do.

It was normal for her, I sat down on a bench surrounded by Zelkova trees and opened my own bento.

...Hmm?

「Eh...I forgot to put in chopsticks.」 (Wataru)

「Eh? What are you doing, Wacchi? What's wrong with you today? It was unusual for Rise-chan to send me an e-mail.」 (Shuuhei)

「Rise sent you one? What did she say?」 (Wataru)

「That you had been acting weird since last night, so I had to keep an eye on you.」 (Shuuhei)

「Is that so...?」 (Wataru)

-No good no good, I have to get a grip.

I can't become an hindrance on Rise's studies.

She has been able to get into a prep school after working so hard, it would be bad if she started worrying about unnecessary things.

However, I did plan to put in chopsticks properly though.

Shuuhei is bringing his own bento today, seems like lately his mother hasn't been in a bad mood.

Now that I think about it, a while back I did find Shuuhei's mom in the supermarket by coincidence when I was buying things.

She thanked me saying that since he had started playing with us, his lifestyle has turned for the better, but I was slightly troubled about how I should have replied to her.

How should I say this, we are only playing together after all...

Ah, more importantly the chopsticks...in this case I should go to the cafeteria.

If I ask auntie, she'll probably lend me some.

I left the bento on the bench and stood up.

「Sorry, I'll go get some from the cafeteria so eat before me. Do you have yours, Miyu?」 (Wataru)

「Mine had them.」 (Miyu)

「I see. In that case, I'll be back soon.」 (Wataru)

I started walking while the sunlight was pouring onto the courtyard.

Hah, today is quite hot.

「Only forgetting his, in a sense, it's a failure that's so like Wacchi...Miyucchi, since this is quite the chance, why don't you feed him with those chopsticks?」 (Shuuhei)

「Wha!?」 (Miyu)

Just before I left the courtyard, I heard Shuuhei's scream from being hit in the back with all her strength.

That's because you said unnecessary things...

I was delayed because I met some people I knew in the cafeteria, but I was able to successfully get some chopsticks.

When I returned to the courtyard, I saw that Miyu and Shuuhei were waiting for me without having touched their bentos.

I thanked them and sat down, then we opened our bentos again.

「Yup, it's so so.」 (Wataru)

「It's so gooooood!!」 (Miyu)

「Miyucchi, you are being noisy! You have to eat your food quietly!」 (Shuuhei)

「Well, you are being quite loud too Shuuhei...」 (Wataru)

Even if you spend the time being absent minded, as expected, you still get hungry.

Once I finished eating lunch, my mind became calmer.

I think the spring rolls came out quite well today.

The wrapping is crispy, and they were delicious along with the fragrance of the sesame oil.

The stickiness of the red bean paste came out as planned and the vegetables left a good after taste.

One of the two was stolen by Shuuhei though...

By the way, if you tried to steal from Miyu since the contents of the bentos were the same, she would mercilessly beat you to a pulp so you have to be careful.

Even though I say that, it's not like it's fine if he steals from me.

I returned the chopsticks to the cafeteria and the time after we ate our bentos was reserved for idle talk.

Whenever Miyu brings another girl, we tend to talk about topics related to the school.

However, if it's just us three, lately it would be all related to TB.

Though it's usually mainly Shuuhei bringing information.

「Right, they announced the contents of the next update.」 (Shuuhei)

「Update? Is it going to be some kind of event?」 (Miyu)

Miyu replied as she was tilting her canned juice.

Meanwhile I was sitting next to her and I poured some warm green tea from the thermos onto the cap.

「Yup. The next one will be a PvP tournament. They haven't released the details yet though.」 (Shuuhei)

「I see. However, there are people that definitely won't do PvP right? There are people that like and hate that.」 (Hind)

Leaving PK aside, I believe there are people that disabled the option to have duels requested from the beginning.

It's part of the game, but I believe that in this kind of game, the number of people that are into PvP are a minority.

「For people like that, it seems like they are holding bets on who'll advance through the tournament. Obviously using in game currency, regarding the odds, the dividend will go up and down throughout the betting times.」 (Shuuhei)

「I see. So they are trying to get normal people to watch the tournament that way!」 (Miyu)

「However, since the betting odds fluctuate, there won't be any fixed-odds betting. If some random person wins, it's going to get rough.」 (Wataru)

「Probably」 (Shuuhei)

After searching about it on my smartphone, it seems like this way of betting is called Parimutuel betting. That's a word you'd bite your tongue trying to pronounce.

The dividend will go down down if everyone bets on that person, so if you try to aim for a lucky break and win...that kind of dream is possible.

Well, we can leave this for later.

We still haven't set up a base, so we are not at that point yet.

「What about the progress players have made in areas outside the Grado empire?」 (Wataru)

「Other than the desert it seems to be going well. They have reached around the 3rd town in each area and have reached the capital.

「They sure have made quite a lot of progress this weekend. And, they have also confirmed the names of the countries.」 (Shuuhei)

According to Shuuhei, the names of the three countries are as follows.

North area, mountain country, Beli confederation.

East area, forest country, Rust kingdom.

South area, sea and islands country, Mahl republic.

The west area is still unknown and the Grado empire is at the center.

「Which means, we are part of the ones exploring that area first even at that speed.」 (Hind)

「Though that's only because there are few competitors!」 (Miyu)

She sure says that happily.

However, it's true that there's fun in exploring the lands with your own feet.

I wonder what it is like, beyond those wastelands...

「Other than that, it seems like Wacchi was right, if players catch bandits, their numbers will gradually decrease.

「Seems like the fate of players that go outside the country early is to get surrounded by them...」 (Shuuhei)

「So there's a need for players to maintain the public order. The fact that they made NPCs incompetent, maybe that was in order for players to have bigger influence...?」 (Wataru)

Or is this simply to show the difference in national power with the empire?

However, there were also bandits within the empire.

Or was that only a special case because of the quest...? I don't get it.

「Since you can earn gold from it, is there any need to think that hard about it? Provided that you do it in moderation.」 (Wataru)

「You are right. There are too many of them so you wouldn't be able to catch them all, like yesterday...」 (Shuuhei)

The three of us remembered and made similar fed up faces.

If that many came to us, being difficult to deal with aside, the reward wouldn't be worth it.

We were forced to use a lot of the healing items we prepared...we need to buy some again.

Even if we catch their leader like yesterday, another guy will probably take his place anyway.

Unless the number of players in the west side increase, it's a problem we can't really deal with.

「There's one last thing. There was information about rides being sold in towns. Donkeys are cheap but horses are expensive, it wasn't a small amount of money.」 (Shuuhei)

「I see. However, I don't care if it's a donkey, I'd like to have something for the time being...it would definitely be faster than walking.」 (Wataru)

「If we are speaking of a desert, wouldn't it be a camel instead of a horse?」 (Miyu)

「Ah, there probably are camels. Shall we take a look once we log in tonight?」 (Shuuhei)

「Right. If we are able to get some, I believe we could make progress in the exploration.」 (Wataru)

「Alright, in that case, tonight we are looking for a ride!」 (Miyu)

Right after Miyu made such a declaration, the bell rang.

We started cleaning up and we headed to our classroom while chatting like the rest of the students.