Esther de Baronia - Chapter 2.1

His consciousness wavered.

His brain trembled.

“….Hey.”

He hears someone’s voice but it’s impossible to determine whose voice it is.

However, he knows it’s a familiar voice. That voice repeatedly urges him to wake up.

“Please wake up! Lord Karon!”

He gradually regained his eyesight and closed his eyelids tightly in response to the orange light penetrating them.

He opens his eyes narrowly, feeling annoyed by the light, and sees a woman looking at him.

She’s dressed in a black military uniform; her beautiful sky-blue hair and making a sad face, but she seems to have noticed that they’re looking at each other and she smiles at him in admiration.

“Oh …… Oh, thank goodness ……”

‘Am I still asleep?’

Karon blinks at the unacceptable situation, but calmed down a little and looks at the woman.

He puts his hands on the side of her face and stares at her as she cries, her cheeks soaked with a stream of joyful tears.

A beautiful woman with long sky-blue hair and a military uniform. This is, without a doubt, the Rushka that Karon chose as his second-in-command, whose voice is inorganic and fixed.

‘Why is it that you are at my bedside? Or rather, you wouldn’t be able to talk like that.’

Questions are bubbling up in his confused brain, but Karon is convinced to one conclusion.

‘I see. It’s a dream.’

A situation he has never experienced, a voice he has never heard, and face he has never seen. But it’s an expression he wanted to see many times before.

It’s a spectacle that only makes sense if it’s a dream.

Karon rubs his hazy eyes hard, and after a quick check of his surroundings with his newfound vision, he is even more convinced.

This is the royal, or rather, a private chamber that he had created. It was designed for comfort rather than luxury, with high quality cypress flooring and white painted walls. The bed is a fluffy one with a canopy, and the chest of drawers, tables, chairs and desks are all made of walnut with a deep grain in color.

This is a private room in the royal castle of Esther de Baronia.

It’s night outside, thick, almost rug-like curtains covered the windows, but floating, light-bulb-coloured spheres called “ferrite” illuminates the room.

He didn’t expect to see it in his dreams, but he’s impressed that he can remember the room with such precision. However, he is a little embarrassed to think that altering the character of Rushka is a hobby of his.

“Thank God …… I was really worried. I thought you were going to die……”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t cry. I don’t know you, but I’m fine.”

When he raises his body up, Rushka smiles softly.

When he sees the expression on the face of Rushka, who originally had no character at all, he feels embarrassed about the feelings he has for her like a pet.

While looking at her, King Karon of Esther de Baronia confirms himself, thinking that he should have wanted this dream from the beginning if the character he created were so active, just by changing her expressionless and uninflected voice.

“…hmmm?”

His military uniform is still black, but he feels strangely comfortable. Even though it’s clothes, it’s data after all, and he thinks if it’s a dream, she shouldn’t feel that much. But if it’s a dream, anything is possible.

Thinking that he doesn’t want to wake up from his dream, Karon stands up and makes eye contact with Rushka, who has a slightly higher face.

It’s a little funny to see her waving her hands from side to side, but when Karon sees her face contorted in sadness again, he naturally tightened his expression.

“Oh, don’t push yourself too hard! There’s an urgent matter, but I’ll take care of it.”

“Urgent? What is?”

“Yes, …… there is a little, no, a big problem. We are in close contact with the Seventeen Pillars of Baronia to deal with the situation…”

With a dark expression on her face, Rushka took her eyes off Karon and lowered her head.

The Seventeen Pillars of Baronia are the guardians of Esther de Baronia, the home of the unhuman, and are divided into seventeen groups, each of which is led by a handful of men.

It is not part of the setting, but it is a name that Karon had decided on his own. The fact that it came out of Rushka’s mouth without any hesitation strengthened the possibility that it’s a dream.

The demons used in Apocalypse have their own personalities. For example, you can choose up to two personalities for each monster, such as “arrogant”, “moderate”, “polite”, “short-tempered”, “shy”, “cold-hearted”, “good-natured”, “angry”, etc. ……

It also determines the compatibility of the demons. For example, “temperamental” and “good-natured” are incompatible, “temperate” and “polite” are compatible, and so on.

This setting creates individuality, so that the same demon can change its appearance and personality in a thousand different ways.

In reality, demons don’t speak, so such a setting is only a decoration to help them work together in battle. But if it’s a dream, he’s curious to see how that setting is reflected from his imagination and to what extent he has created it. He’s curious to know how much his brain can imagine things.

Therefore.

Hence.

“Rushka. Gather all the commanders and come to the throne room. We’ll find out what’s going on there.”

Karon orders her heroically.

He wants to forget everything that Rushka had told him about the situation and all he wants to do is to enjoy this dream.

If it’s not reality, then he should do what he can’t do in real life. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Upon hearing the order, Rushka would normally have responded with an intonation and acted immediately, but she doesn’t. Instead, she stands motionless with her eyes widened as she looks at Karon.

“Please don’t take it too hard. You were in a very dangerous situation just now.”

“….No, I’m fine. I’m fine.”

He’s told repeatedly that he was in such a terrible situation, but he wonders what kind of setting he had assembled.

“Anyway, I’m worried about the country.So, please, please.”

He speaks in a gentle tone and sits down on the sofa in his room.

“Please leave it to me!” As she shouts cheerfully.

Karon wonders what kind of leaders will gather while watching Rushka’s hurried departure.

Slowly and slowly, he thinks about the personalities and relationships of the people who will be gathered in the throne room and decide how he should react.

He doesn’t want to wake up yet. At least not until he has met and spoken to his most recent subordinates.

‘I’m an idiot, because I’m not going to let it go.’

He’s attached to it, of course, but the gameplay is so old-fashioned and uninteresting that it’s almost fossilised.

There are probably better VR strategy games out there now, and if he’s going to spend any more money and time on this game, he might as well move on.

However, it’s a little late for that now, and it’s a game he’s enjoyed so much that it can’t be helped. That’s the way he thinks.

Actually, Karon had never played a VRMMORPG before.This is because if he got into it, there was a high probability that he would definitely get into trouble with time adjustment.

He was able to leave the game at a reasonable time because there were no human relationships and he was able to do it at his own pace, but when he started to get involved with other PC players, he was afraid that he would become obsessive about logging in at a certain time.

As he worked for himself, his schedule could be disrupted by overtime. He is a very disciplined person, so it is difficult for him to think too much when people are involved, and the restriction on playing time seemed to bother him.

He has often seen stories on the news about young people who are so into VRMMORPG that they don’t go out into the real world, so he guessed it could say they’re being manipulated by the mass media.

However, he decided to look on the bright side and think that he’s old enough and can control himself.

He’s about to turn 30 and he doesn’t want to be playing games like a student with little time on hands. He has been a working man for ten years, so this has to be.

“So, what do I play?”

Opening his eyes wide, Karon crossed his arms and legs. He has already lost all thoughts about his subordinates.

“Is it a royal fantasy type? Western style is good, but I prefer Japanese style. It’s also nice to have a dark feel like Apocalypse…”

There are so many types of MMOs to pick from. Some are about swords and sorcery, some are medieval European warfare, some are military combat, some use military weapons, some use demons, and some are just plain fun.

However, there may not be an RPG yet where you can play with NPCs in a technical sense. That’s disappointing.

Even more so because Karon prefers to play with other characters that he can see, rather than his own.

He keeps thinking about the next game, but then stops when he belatedly remembers the time.

“It’s late.”

He looks at the door. He’s sure it’s been some time since Rushka left. It would normally take more time to run around to all the leaders in the capital and the castle, but Karon doesn’t have the brain for that.

He unwittingly opens the system window with a wry smile that he should have used the message token of the item that conveys words to the demons.

He opens it and realizes.

“…… what?

In front of him is definitely a familiar window. Status, inventory, skills, quests, monster list, map, economy, current time in the upper right corner.

In a familiar order, familiar items float translucently in a vertical row. They are fixed to the front of the screen, even when he shakes his head, it will not close unless he has to close it carefully.

So he closes it. Then the item in front of him disappears and he sees the familiar room clearly.

“…… What?”

Open; Familiar text.

Close; A familiar view.

Open; Familiar text.

Select status; Your data will be displayed.

Select Skills; A list of abilities that are effective against demons.

Select Inventory; A large number of items are stored here.

“…..”

And he’s completely lost for words.

What is it that surprised Karon so much? It wasn’t the usual sight.

It was the fact that, in the midst of the usual string of letters, there’s a number he had never seen before.

Current time, 22:14PM Thursday, February 25th.

In other words, it is now 10pm. If the date and time are correct, then it’s time for emergency maintenance.

If it’s a dream, there would be no problem. But it seems strange that the time is displayed so accurately.

“Wait, what? Wait, wait, wait yes, this is a dream.”

“Yes, it is. It’s a dream, there’s nothing unnatural about it. So calm down. If you think of a time you want, you will see a different time because it’s a dream. So, what time is it now?”