Rebirth Online - Chapter 3：The One Called Master

2nd login – The One Called Master

In a small building located at the outskirts of Memoria – the city of time, a girl is preparing a meal in the kitchen. While she’s cooking, she can hear some footstep approaching. “Welcome home Master…” she said that while bowing down to show some respects to the person.

“Yeah… I’m back, Sakuya.” A man in a black outfit enters the kitchen. He’s not too tall but his body is thin. He is dressed black from the tip of his head until the bottom of his toes. His face also covered with a mask only leaves his black eyes and hair to be seen. He’s then leaning to one of the pillars in the kitchen.

“I’m cooking some wild bear meat, some grilled vegetable and gryphon’s leg soup. They’ll be ready in a minute.” Sakuya said while turning back and resuming her cooking.

Minutes later, a tasty fragrance fulfilled the kitchen. Her cooking has finished. She then set up the food in the dining table, taking out some cutleries and sitting down. She’s then looking to her master and said: “come on… Just sit down already, I didn’t have to tell you that right? Let us eat master.”

After hearing that, he sits down at the table and Sakuya starts to give him three slices of meat and handling out a bowl of gryphon’s leg soup. She’s then put almost all of the grilled vegetable into his plate.

“Hey… Don’t you think this is too much?” the black guy lowers down his mask and then starts to complain.

“But, you must be tired from hunting all day long master. You need to eat a lot to recover your stamina.”

The black man puts his hand at his head while shaking his head. But then he picks up his knife and fork and start to cut some bear meat and put it in his mouth. Seeing that, Sakuya then starts to eat. A few minutes later, the plates on the table are empty.

“So, how is it Master?” Sakuya ask him while she starts to pick up the dishes.

“`It’s good.” He didn’t say much in response.

Hearing that, Sakuya smiles and starts to hum while she washes the dishes.

After that her master stands up and putting back his mask on. “I’m going to log out for a moments.”

“Very well Master… I shall wait for your return.” Sakuya then gives him a bow and after that he disappears along the lights.

After finished with the dishes, Sakuya then decided to take a shower. Her status as a NPC didn’t tells her to take a shower. It is also isn’t mentioned in the guardian task list. But she just feels that she has to take a shower. After finished her shower and look for her master who hasn’t came back, she then decides to dance to help her hair to dry up.

She’s dancing at the building halls. The hall isn’t too big and the lightning is dim. There’s only moonlight to helps brighten the room. But her dancing is really beautiful. As if she was born to dance. She’s dancing the same dance as the one in the fountain. Everybody who’s watching this surely won’t forget it. When she finished her dance, she was surprised to see his master standing at the corner. She can feel her face turns red and she try to say something but her voice is trembling.

“Ma, ma, master… How long you’ve been there?”

“From the very beginning.”

Hearing that, she feels embarrassed and then turns her body around.

“You don’t have to be shy; after all, your dance is marvelous. You danced all the time whenever I’m away right? I also know the other day you danced at the fountain.” He calmly said all of that.

She was shocked when she hears that. She turns her head a little bit and says:

“Ho, ho, how did you know master?”

“When I see your status bar, there’s the dance of time buff, and when I walked at the town, i keep hearing rumor about a goddess show up at Edelweiss fountain.” He said that while walking towards Sakuya.

After hearing that from her master she can feels that her head is about to explode.

“Come on, don’t feel embarrassed. I like seeing you dance.” He says that while patting her head. “Cheer up already, we’re going out tonight.”

When Sakuya hears that, she slowly starts to stand and tidy up her clothes. Both of them then walk out of the building and then walk towards the city. Not long, they arrive at Memoria city.

Memoria city is full of buildings that looked like chapels, full of stained glass and have a bell on top of every building. Many canals run through the city and you can use a gondola to enjoy a tour around the city just like a replica of Venice. A big and tall clock tower can be seen standing in the middle of the town. Every hour, all of the bells chime together making a loud noise that can be heard at every corner of the city. This is Memoria – the city of time.

After that, they walk towards the warp portal. The master then starts talking to the NPC and pays the warps fee. After that both of them approaches the warp portal and a lights shine upon them. A few seconds later, they disappeared.

They have arrived to their destination but it seemed to be in the middle of the forest. The forest is filled with giant trees and it is dark, the trees branches and leaf covered the sky hindering the moonlight. And if you look carefully, some of the trees are connected with their giant branch. After a few seconds, a firefly starts to show up from behind the tree, giving some light the forest. Another firefly to show up and another one show up, another one, until finally thousands of fireflies shows up and brighten up the dark forest. Makes it easier to see, that some of the giant trees have doors and windows. There are also stairs made from vines hanging around the trees. This is Illidian – the fairy hideout.

“Master, what are we going to do here?”

“Just follow me.”

The master start’s to walks into the forest followed by Sakuya. They climb a couple vine stairs and walks to one of the tree dead ends. But her master keeps walking forwards and they are walking through some hidden passage located at the back of another tree. The branches then start to going down and finally, they arrived at a small vacant land. In the right side of the land, a spring with clear water flows to the middle of the forest. At the end of land, a giant sakura tree is blossoming. The branches are full of pink flowers and it is glowing. A wind is passing by causing some of the petals to falls down from the tree, giving off a romantic ambience.

“It’s beautiful.” Sakuya stand there frozen seeing the spectacular view in front of her eyes.

“You may know about the giant sacred tree from your database, but seeing it with your own eyes is different from what it tells you right?”

“Yes, master…” Sakuya which still in awe can only muttered those words.

The master then starts to look for a space to set up a tent. He then starts making a tent and a bonfire. After he finished setting up the tent he then says: “You can sleep inside Sakuya, I’ll sleep outside in a sleeping bag.”

“Whoa, you can’t do that master. You’re the one who should sleep inside and I’m the one who sleep outside.” Sakuya is giving her objection to her master.

“Well… we can just sleep together inside then.” Her master saying that makes her hearts throbbing.

“I’m kidding. Just go inside and sleep will you?”

“Errm… Okay then… By the way master, are we here just for that? Or for our honeymoon?” Sakuya is saying the last sentence with almost no sounds coming out from her. To make sure that her master can’t hear them.

“Of course not, you’ll know our reasons in the morning. By the way, what is your last question? I can’t hear them well. Some honey or something?”

Sakuya surprised that her master can hear her voice. Her face turn a little bit red and she said. “No, nothing… I’ll go inside to sleep then, master. Good night.” She bows down to his master and then goes inside the tent.

The master then takes out a sleeping bag from his bag and then sleeps outside in front of the fire.

*****

After a few hours has passed, Sakuya wakes up from her sleep. She then walks out from the tent and then she saw her master in front of the tree. She then decides to greet him.

“Good morning master. What are you doing?”

Her master seems a little bit surprised seeing her. “Oh, good morning Sakuya. Do you sleep well last night? I’m collecting the waters that falls from the tree.”

She saw her master with his hand up holding some kind of tube. He is collecting water that falls from the flowers of the tree. After a few minutes the tube is full of water and he closed the tube. Sakuya is curious about it.

“What is that master?”

“This is the morning dew. I have a hard time figuring out on how to acquire it. After all even your database only tells that the giant sacred tree is located at Illidian and the morning dew is collected from the tree. This is the last item I need to complete the forgotten melody quest. With this, I can accompany you when you’re dancing.”

Hearing that, Sakuya smiles and said: “I see… By the way, are you hungry master? Do you want me to cook something for you?”

“Sure… How about some wild mushroom soup? There are some mushroom near the springs, and the springs water taste great.”

With that said, Sakuya quickly goes to the spring to collects some mushroom. She then cooks the soup while her master is lying down inside the tent. When she finished cooking, she goes inside the tent and finds her master is sleeping. She’s then moving closer to him carefully, to make sure that he didn’t awake. She is then looks at her master face and slowly she is moving closer. When their face is closed enough, her master eyes suddenly opened, surprising her which makes her jumped back a little.

“What are you doing Sakuya?” her master asks while he sits and rubs his eyes.

“No, nothing… I’m I’m ju-just trying to tells you that the soup is ready.” Her answer is a little bit stuttered and her face is beet red.

“So that’s what awoken me. It smells good as usual.”

Hearing that, Sakuya stand up and try to hide her embarrassment. Then she walks out the tent and pours some of the soup to the bowl. “Here’s your soup master. Make sure you finished them.”

“I will. Thank you Sakuya.”

After they had their breakfast, her master clear up the tent and put it back in his bag. They then walks up the same branch that they used to came down. When they reach the heart of the city, they can see a lot of fairy flying and some players near the warp portal.

When they’re nearing the warp portal, some of the players then saw Sakuya. One of them then decided to approach her and greets her.

“Hey, isn’t it the dancer from the fountain. I saw you the other day. What’re you doing here? How about hunting with me?” He is saying that while touching her shoulder.

“Please, don’t disturb me. And don’t touch me.” Sakuya is saying that with her body trembling a little bit.

“Oh, did I scare you? Come on, don’t be like that. We’re not bad people. We won’t hurt you.” He is keep forcing Sakuya to come with him. He doesn’t looks like a bad people. His face is pretty handsome and his body is proportional. But for some reason, he keeps cornered Sakuya.

Just then, her master grabs the man hand and throws it aside. You can feel the master anger from his eyes. “Don’t you hear her? Let go of your hand and leave her alone.”

“Just who the hell are you? Some passersby trying to be a hero? Don’t you know who I am?” the man then challenges him.

“I don’t care who you are. But she is mine.” The master said that with full of emotion.

A huge man then appeared behind him. He has a big and tall body figure. His hair is colored in red and he seemed to be the leader of the party. “Just let it go Calvin. He isn’t worth your time.”

“What are you saying Dimitry, I can’t possibly let this one go. He dares to insult me in front of our party. What do you says Carla?” He’s asking to the girl in the party. She is using glasses, slender figure, wearing green robe, and have a purple hair styled in a bun.

“Eeh… ju-just gi-give him a li-little beating Calvin, af-after th-that let’s co-continue our hunt.” The girls seemed to have a little bit speaking problems. We don’t know if she was just shy or if she was stammered.

“That’s what I like about you Carla. Let me show him the power of an advanced class.” Judging by his words, their party seemed to be made of high leveled player. All of them seemed to be in the advanced class. “Are you scared now huh? After hearing our levels?” He tries to intimidate the master.

“Not at all.” The master replied.

“Then, let me show you the differences in our level.” Calvin said that cockily.

After that, both of them shakes hand hardly and shout, “Let’s duel”. A few seconds latter a big system message pop out above them. It says,” Requesting a Judge”.

After seeing that text, a fairy then approaches them and says.”My name is Flying Fairy no.12 NPC. Both of you doing this without anyone forcing you to fight right?”

Both of them nod to the fairy, and then the fairy continuing his speech. “Confirming the duel. Duel battle number: 103. Kuro vs. Calvin. Starting in 30 seconds. 29, 28, 27, 26…”

With the time nearing the duel, even though Sakuya is happy that her master defends her, but she looked worried. The Master, which his name announced as Kuro, seemed to be angry. Calvin on the other hand looked serious and pulls out a spear. His advanced class is lancer which utilizes the usage of spear. Mean while his party member is watching carefully from the sidelines.

“…5, 4,3,2,1, Start…” shouts the fairy.

Just when he signals the start of the battle, Calvin suddenly dashed off while trusting his spear. Kuro apparently see that one coming. He moves his body a little bit to the side and the tip of the spear just goes past him.

“So you can see that one coming heh? But, try to dodge this…” after saying that, Calvin activated one of basic swordsman skill, the whirling slash. Becoming an advanced class in this game required a mastery of the basic class. Calvin shows that by being able to applying some basic swordsman class, the whirling slash. This skill can utilize the spear length and useful to cover the attack pattern of spear which usually only focused on the front and weak to the sides.

Seeing the skills activated by Calvin, Kuro blocks the attack that’s coming from his back using only his right hand.

“Tch… You managed to block that one. I think it’s time for me to get serious then.” After saying that, Calvin hold his spear with both hand and performed another skill, thousand thrust.

Thousand thrust is a lancer advanced class skills, which allows them to perform 10 thrust within 3 seconds. This is useful because performing regular attacks using a spear require a lot of time to draw back the spear once it is thrusted at the enemy.

But Kuro calmly parry all of Calvin’s attack using his right hand only.

“Impossible, how can he block Calvin attack using his fist? Did he hides something in his arm?” one of Calvin teammates saying that while doubting Kuro’s move.

“Can’t you guys see it, that man is faster than Calvin, that’s why he can see al of Calvin’s attack. But seeing in the way he battle, maybe he’s a shinobi or an assassin. He certainly hides his weapon in his right arm; nobody can block a spear using his fist only. Maybe he only increases his AGI, it can be said by the way he only dodges and parry but he haven’t launches an attack yet.” Dimitry said while calmly observing the battle.

“h-he is an a-assassin.. h-he hi-hides his we-weapon in his arm. B-but th-that is all th-that I c-can see…” Carla commented at Kuro’s action.

The battle continues for several minutes with Calvin keeps attacking and Kuro keeps dodge and parry his attacks. It starts to irritate Calvin.

“Why are you keep moving around, dodging and blocking my attack all the time. Are you too afraid to attack me? Or my chain attack leaves you no space to strike back?”

A moment later, Calvin suddenly fell onto his knees. He can feel that his sense starting to goes numb. He is looking at his arms and showing a confused face.

“Why? What’s happening to me?” When he finished his sentence he fell down to the ground and scattered into glowing dust.

“Duel battle number: 103. Kuro vs. Calvin, Kuro wins. The battle duration is 6 minutes and 32 seconds.” The judge NPC announcing the results of the duel.

“Impossible…” Calvin party members just stood there seeing a battle with impossible results. They didn’t see Calvin get attacked for the whole battle and

“Easier than I expected.” Kuro said that and then he starts to walk towards Sakuya who’s looked relieve. He pats her head and says: “Why are you so worried? Don’t let that expression ruins your beautiful face.”

After hearing that, Sakuya then tries to smile. “I’m glad you’re okay master.”

Both of them then start walking towards the warp portal. But before they enter the warp portal, Dimitry starts to ask him: “how did you defeat him?”

“I guess all of you are too smart. Let me tell you, he is so careless; he didn’t even try to see his remaining HP in the whole time. All of you too, you believe that he can win easily, so none of you who is his party member see his HP bar that reduces continuously and the status ailments that is affecting him.”

“Yeah, it is true that we underestimated you and get so careless. I understand that you use poison, but tell me how did you managed to hit him?” Dimitry is demanding Kuro to tell him about the battle.

“None of you can see my attacks then? I was hoping that glasses girl could see it though, because I didn’t even show you my true speed. Let me teach you the differences in our skills then. I only grazed him once at his left waist when I first dodged his rush attack. One hit is all I need. Didn’t you say that I’m not even worth of your time? Don’t make me laugh. I can easily defeat you in one attack.” Kuro saying all of that while staring with merciless eyes.

Hearing all of that, Dimitry can’t say anything to fight Kuro backs. He realized that their high level makes them reckless. He also recognized that Kuro is much more superior to him and his party. He is then remembering the name that defeated his teammates, Kuro, while the black man disappears in light.

Kuro and Sakuya then show up at Edelweiss city. They walked to the fountain and then they sits on the bench. Sakuya is trying to say something but she hesitated. Kuro can see all of that and said:

“What is it?”

“No-nothing… I just want to say thank you…” she then blushed remembering how Kuro said that she belongs to him.

“I don’t need that. I’m just doing my job as your master.” Kuro said that calmly. It seems like his anger has gone out.

Sakuya than starts to get embarrassed and instantly buries her arm into her face. She tries to calm down and said: “by the way master, I just found out your name from the battle before. Can I call you using your name?”

Strangely Kuro laughs hearing Sakuya’s words: “Hahaha… How can that be? You can always see my name from your party windows, stupid… Hahaha… Sure, you can call me anything.”

“Umm, I never think of that. Okay then master, let me say it K-K-Kuro-sama…” for a milliseconds she tries to call him just using his name, but she’s too shy to do that.

“Don’t be so tense when you say my name. You’re making it sounds like we just know each other recently. Anyway, I’m going to log out to have my breakfast. That battle makes me hungry. It won’t be long. You can wait for me here or you can wait at the house. After that I’m going to take you to a good place. Okay?” Kuro then stands up and blinding lights starts to envelop him.

“Alright, Kuro-sama… I’m waiting for your return.” She said while bowing down to him as he disappears.

*****

The time still shows that it was still early morning, but a lot of activities can be seen from a small house in Arakawa district. Middle aged men sit at the dining table while reading his news paper. A younger woman meanwhile, cooking in the kitchen. Moments later, a young boy enters the room silently. His body is thin, and he looked gloomy. His hair is messy and looks like he hasn’t cut his hair for a long time. It starts to cover his eyes.

The boy then sits at the table. Without saying anything, the middle aged man looks at the boy from behind his newspaper. The woman finished her cooking and setting up the food at the table. The three of them then starts to eat in silent.

The boy finishes his meal quickly and then said in a small volume: “I’m done eating, thank you for the food.” Then he stands, puts his empty dish at the sink and then walks out of the kitchen.

“Looked at that boy, he didn’t do anything all day, he only appears at meal time. Other than that, he rarely goes out of his room. Didn’t he think about his future? Even the last 3 months he stop going to schools.” The middle aged man let out a sigh while complaining.

“You know, it’s not Ryuuji’s fault. His friends at schools bully him. It’s not like he did anything wrong. Just give him some times to be alone.” The woman tries to defend the boy.

“It’s because you’re too soft on him. He’s becoming a weak and spoiled son.” The man’s tone is increasing.

“Don’t be too hard on him. After all he’s still in his puberty; he’s still figuring out his identity.” The woman answered in a soft voice, try to calm his husband.

“You know, I’m saying this just because I’m worried about his future.” The father starts to calm down and let out a big sigh.

The boy can hear their conversation, but he is not showing any reaction. He starts to walk towards his room, putting on his Syder, lie down on his bed and press the power button.

*****

It is still early in the morning, not a lot of activities in Edelweiss town. The shops are open for 24 hours, but not a lot of player can be seen during the early morning. Meanwhile, a girl in maiden robe is sitting in a bench near the city fountain plaza. She’s waiting for someone.

With nothing to do, she closes her eyes and starts humming. The note is beautiful but you can feel that it is full of sorrow and solitude. A couple of birds start to gather around her. When she opens her eyes, Kuro is already standing in front of her. She is shocked a little bit and shy. She then tries to talk: “Ku-Kuro-sama… Just how long have you been there?”

“From the very beginning.”

“Geez… why don’t you say something?” she then puffed her cheeks try to act angry.

“I don’t want to disturb you.” He said that in a calm voice. “Are you ready to go, Sakuya?”

“Yes, Kuro-sama. Where are we heading today?” Sakuya asked in curiosity.

“Firstly, we’re going to the bard headquarter to finish the mission. After that we’re going to buy some things.” He said that while starts walking toward the warp portal followed by Sakuya behind.

They arrived at a new city. There is a big castle standing at the top of the hill. Tall brick wall spreads from one side of the city to the other end. Making the city surrounded by brick wall and mountains. A firm stone gate becomes the only way in and out of the city. The city building then graded from the top of the hill to the bottom neatly. Show the great skills of the architect. This is Avalon – the city of vanguard. Avalon is the capital city of east continent which mainly covered by mountain range and forest. It is the city with the largest and most comprehensive building in RO. All of the headquarters branch can be found here. Which makes it becomes one of the player favorites base.

“We’re going to stop by the bard headquarter first.” After he said that, Kuro and Sakuya start to walk towards the bard headquarters. It is located near the big castle. When they enter Kuro then starts to reports his quest completion to one of the NPC. He then acquired one bard skills named, the forgotten melody. After that, they are heading to the shopping district of the town. The market is full of NPC and players. It is one of the busiest markets in RO beside the black factory and the harbor bay. They then enter to a tailor shops. The NPC inside the shops is a really old man with glasses. He approaches them and gives a greetings: “well, look who’s coming. Welcome sir.”

“Is my order ready?” Kuro asked to the old man.

“Yours are ready, but as for the other one, don’t you think we need to do some fitting?” the old man says that while looking at Sakuya.

“Don’t do that. It won’t be a surprise then. Hehehe… I’ll just take them with me.” Kuro saying that in a suspicious tone making Sakuya a little bit scared. After that, he’s handing out a coin purse. “Here’s the payment.”

“I guess you’re right sir.”The old man smiles a little and then handing out two packages to Kuro. After he gave the package, he checks the amount of gold in the bag. “It is just the exact amount as the deal. Thank you for the business sir.” The old man gives a little bow.

Both of them then walks outside of the shop, and starts examining the market. Kuro then decided to walks around a little bit since he looked like have other thing to buy.

Not long after that, Sakuya is asking in curiosity while pointing at the packages is Kuro’s hand.

“Kuro-sama, what are those?”

“It’s nothing… Oh yeah, can you wait a little bit here. I’m going to go inside that shop for a moment.”

Kuro answers makes Sakuya more willing to know what is inside the packages. Just when she’s deep thinking about what could be inside it, Kuro has came out of the shop and call for her. The packages are gone from his hand; he must have put it inside his inventory. They then walked towards the warp portal.

Kuro then turn his head towards Sakuya and asked: “What do you want to do Sakuya? We still have some time to spare. My agenda is starting at 6 o’clock in the evening.”

“Hmm… I don’t know have anything that I wanted to do in particular. But, maybe we can hunt for some cooking ingredients.” Sakuya answered while thinking.

“Seems like a plan… What ingredients do you want to acquire?”

“Hmm… I always want to try some salamander meat. Do you think we can hunt some?”

“Sure. Let’s go to Magma dungeon then. Bu it’s too far from here. Let’s go to Memoria first.”

After that, both of them enter the warp portal.

*****

“How long are they planning to makes me wait?” a blond girl in a red cape kicking some stones and moving back and forth near the Edelweiss city fountain plaza. Not long after that, two boys seemed to appear near the bench. “You’re late” she scolds them.

“Sorry, today I planned to sleep at Kongou house. But when I arrived, we talked and forgot about our meeting.” A boy with a sword hanging at his waist, begging for forgiveness with both of his hand clasped together in front of his forehead.

“Yeah, please forgive us Leona.” The other boy in a purple rob, who is referred as Kongou doing the same thing.

“Well I guess I can let you guys go away without punishment this time.” She said while trying to forgive them but giving some means look.

“Th-thank you Leona.” Both of the boys said while smiling in fear.

“By the way, are we really going to go to the festival tonight?” Kongou ask to Leona, confirming their plan.

“Yes, of course. I want to see how common people like you have a celebration.” She said it coldly.

“So how are we going to go there? Are we going to walk?” the other boy with the sword ask.

“Don’t be silly Hikaru; it will be too late for the festival then. We’re going there using warp portal.” Leona replied while mocking Hikaru.

“But don’t we have to pay gold to use the warp portal?” Kongou is worrying about their gold.

“Don’t worry about that, it only takes 300 gold to warps to Seaside shore. I never know that you guys are so poor. Hohoho…” Kongou is ticked off hearing Leona words.

“Yoouu…” Kongou is glaring at Leona furiously.

“Come on, stop it already, let’s just go… Otherwise, we may be late.” Hikaru tries to get between them and separates them.

The three of them then walks toward the warp portal. They paid for the fee to the Warp Portal NPC then disappeared along with light.

They arrived at a shore but what surprises them is the amount of people. There seemed to be a lot of people coming tonight to celebrate the starts of summer festival hundreds of them, maybe thousands.

The seaside shore that night is decorated with lampions. There is no tall building in the city and they are made from wood. Even some of the building is floating in the middle of the sea. They’re connected to the shore by wooden bridges. At the beach, a lot of food stall enliven the night. There is even music played at the stage. The stage is located in the middle of the crowd. So, this is the Seaside shore – the city of festival.

“Whoa, amazing…” Kongou and Hikaru stand frozen at their place looking at the city and the players.

“Not bad I guess. So what are you guys waiting for? Let’s see the entire stall.” Leona said that while moving forwards. Both of them couldn’t see it but her eyes are glimmering in admiration.

The three of them then walking from stall to stall and they bought some foods. Until they’re nearing the stage, the music suddenly stops and somebody walks up on the stage. He’s wearing short pants and Hawaiian shirts. Wear black sunglasses and red spiky hair. He takes out a microphone and then shouting loud: “Hey guys are you enjoying the festival tonight??”

“Yeah” the crowds replied together.

“Let me introduce myself. My name is Genki and I’m one of the GM in charge for this events. We have some performances tonight and fireworks display on midnight. But before that, let’s start up with some events.”

“Whoa…” all of the players surprised hearing that.

“For tonight events, the reward for the winner is 100.000 gold.” Genki is announcing with full of energy.

The crowds are growing wild hearing the amounts of the prize money

“Are you ready guys? Only the fastest player to complete the quest is the winner… Prepare yourself. the quest item can be found among the hundreds of stall tonight… bring me 1 apple candy, 1 portion of deep sea takoyaki, and 10 pieces of yakitori. Starting now!”

Teeeeet. A loud noise of horn, signal the starts of the quest. As a quest window has appeared for every players at seaside shore tonight. The crowds then turn into havoc as they tried to find the stall. Kongou, Hikaru, and Leona are pushed aside by the other players.

“Ugh, how dare they do this to me?” Leona is angry as she sits down at the ground. “No matter what, Kongou, Hikaru, we have to win this quest! We will scatter and each person has to find one item. Because I think most of the player work alone, so we have a chance to be the fastest one. She said that with a fire burning from her eyes.

“Yes mam.” Both of them can only say that, because they’re afraid to refuse her command.

“Kongou, you go to the east, and Hikaru, you go to the west. I’ll search from north to the south.” She said that as she stands up and immediately runs to the north part of the shore.

“Whew, she’s sure full of energy, come on Kongou let’s split up. She’s going to kill us if we didn’t find at least one item.” Hikaru said that and then he starts running into the crowds.

The seaside shore suddenly filled with noises of the player who’s looking for the stall. Kongou and Hikaru got a message from Leona saying that she found the apple candy already. When they read that, they’re moving like crazy searching for the other item. Kongou then found out a long line in front of the deep sea takoyaki stall.

Hikaru then receive a message that Kongou already find the takoyaki stall. A few seconds later a message from Leona came in. “If you fail to find the yakitori, I’ll make sure that you can’t even see your face in the mirror.”

Reading the crazy message he starts to worry. Yakitori, yakitori, yakitori. Aha, he then sees the stall at the end of road and a long line can be seen in front of it. “I found the stall but the line is long”.

He sends the message to Leona and Kongou. And he instantly got a reply. “Just buy it and comes to the stage. Do whatever it takes.” He’s waiting on the line impatiently but the line slowly moves forward. He can’t wait any longer and decided to cut in the line.

When another player sees what Hikaru is doing, he’s trying to do the same. Then the crazy mass of people which has line up neatly in front of the stall became a mess. Hikaru which is the source of this trouble is pushed around in the middle of the crowd.

In the middle of that confusion, Hikaru is using his strength to reach the stall. “It’s nothing compared to my dark future if I fail to buy it for Leona.”

He finally managed to buy the yakitori. But he’s appearance is now messy. Looks like if his health only has 1 point remaining even though he didn’t take any damage.

After acquiring the yakitori, he runs as fast as he can. When he’s nearing the stage, he can see Leona shouting to him to hurry up. He can see Kongou lying down on the ground exhausted, and his appearance now is worst than Hikaru. He then reach Leona and gives her his yakitori. Leona then runs at a speed of light towards the stage.

Genki seeing Leona coming towards him starts to attract the crowd. “It seems like we almost have the winner here guys.”

Leona then saw another player try to run to the stage too. She then let out a high pitched scream which silences the crowd and forcing them to cover their ear.

“Whoa, crazy…” Hikaru talks to Kongou, while both of them covering their ear using their arms.

The other player who’s running to the stage stops his run and covers his ears too. Seeing that Leona give an evil smirk and keep running until she finally reach the stage and climb up.

“Congratulations!” Genki shouts loud while helping her to stand up. “Here is our winner for today. Give her a round of applause. You’re fast and cute, but your scream just now is scary. Don’t you agree guys?” Genki teases her.

“Hahaha…” the crowds then laugh together.

“Humph…” Leona can only crossed her arm in front of her chest.

“So, tell us about yourself as the winner for tonight event. What is your name miss?”

“Leona.” She replied shortly.

“How did you manage to be the fastest one?”

“I just walk around as usual and finished it without breaking a sweat.”

“Boo…” her arrogant answer get an instant boo from the crowd. Kongou is also giving a fist to show his protest because she doesn’t appreciate his effort.

“Hahaha… You hear her guys. You lost to a girl that is walking around. Anyway, here’s your reward.” Genki then gives Leona a big sack that’s seemed to be heavy and full of gold.

“Once more, give her a round of applause.” Genki then gives Leona applause too and show her the stair to get off from the stage.

She then walks off the stage and gather with Kongou and Hikaru. She takes out two big purses from her bag and gives it to Kongou and Hikaru. “Here’s your reward… 25000 golds for each one of you.”

“Hey, that’s…” Kongou tries to protest but his mouth is covered by Hikaru’s hand. “Just shut up will you? She’s going to kill us otherwise.” Hikaru is giving Kongou a warning while both of them turns away from Leona.

“What are you trying to say Kongou?” Leona ask him with an evil stares.

“No, that’s very generous of you.” Kongou is saying that with a bitter smile.

Hikaru can only laugh in his heart seeing the scene.

“Okay, are you ready to dance? Are you ready for some wild action? Please welcome tonight’s special guest.” Genki is welcoming the guest who shows up from behind the stage.

*****

A few hours earlier, Sakuya is taking a bath at her house. She was just finished eating the salamander steak with her master. When he finished, Kuro stand up and logs out immediately. He said that he’s going to eat lunch in the real world. Leave Sakuya behind with nothing to do. After that she decides to take a bath. When she finished her shower, she was surprised to see a package is in front of the bathroom. There is a note on top of it. “Wear this and come to the warp portal. I’m waiting for you.”

She decides to open the packages and surprised to see a beautiful pink dancer dress inside, but it is a little bit too open. Why did she have to wear something like this? Did her master want to tease her for dancing too much? A lot of guesses running down her mind. But she then decides to obey her master words. She changed her clothes and then walked to the warp portal. She was more surprised when she saw her master there.

He was wearing a black tuxedo with his hair neatly combed. Something that Sakuya never expects. He was then approaches her and said: “that dress really suits you.”

Sakuya then blushes a little and replied: “I was surprised to see this when I open the package. And when I try this I’m a little bit embarrassed because it shows off too much. But I’m more surprised to see you dressed like that Kuro-sama.”

Kuro then showing some weird looking smile on his face as if he was forced to smile, then said. “It’s nothing special. Are you ready to go?”

Both of them then start to walks towards the warp portal and disappeared.

When Sakuya opens her eyes, she looked so happy. You can see her eyes glimmering when she saw the scenery. People are gathering in the shore and a lot of them are setting up their stall. She’s then asks her master: “Kuro-sama, can we go look around the stall first?”

“Sure.” Kuro answer with a little smile.

They are strolling around the stall and bought a few snacks. Not long after that, more and more people starts to show up at the shore. When they walk, people start to come between them and separate them until she lost sight of her master. Just then, a few players start to hit on her and surround her to a corner. “Hey, you looked beautiful and your clothes are so daring. Why don’t you come to play with us for a while?”

She was trembling and scared. She then screamed as hard as she can: “master.”

A few seconds later, her master appeared with a worried looks on his face. She then grabs her arm and said: “Come with me!” After that they run into the crowds. Those players try to catch them but it is hard with so many people at the shore. They then decided to give up.

Sakuya and Kuro runs to the back of the stage in the middle of the shore. Kuro then ask: “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay.” Sakuya replied but in truth, she’s still scared.

“How fool of you to get separated from me.” Kuro is showing some frustration.

“But there are too many people at the shore, and Kuro-sama just disappeared from my sight.” She answers with her heads down.

“If that’s the problem, you can hold my hand then!” Kuro is saying that with full of emotion, but he suddenly feel that he’s saying the wrong things. “I di-didn’t mean it like that, it just, you know…” He’s trying to think of an excuse makes him acting weird.

But hearing that Sakuya then showing a gentle smile bow down a little and said: “I understand what you’re trying to say master. Sorry for making you worried about me.”

“What’s with the commotion?” a man with tan skin, black sunglasses, in a short pants, Hawaiian shirt, and red spiky hair show up from behind.

“Nothing Genki, can we just wait here until the time?” Kuro is asking him to let them stay.

“Sure, no problem… Anything for you Kuro.” Genki then disappear again behind the curtain of the stage.

After that, they can hear Genki voices from behind the curtain announcing the starts of an event. But both of them just stand there in silence. Until finally, Genki calls out their name. “Okay, are you ready to dance? Are you ready for some wild action? Please welcome tonight’s special guest, Kuro and Sakuya.”

Sakuya is surprised to hear that, she looks at her master and ask:”What’s the meaning of this Kuro-sama?”

“You know, I just want people to see your dance. I want to do something for you, so I asked Genki to give us a chance to perform.” Kuro explain to her awkwardly.

“But, you didn’t tell me anything about it before. I’m not ready for this.” Sakuya then buries her face in her arms.

“Don’t worry Sakuya. I’ll come with you up stage.” Kuro tries to calm her.

Hearing that Sakuya feels a little bit relieved, she doesn’t know what to do but Kuro already grabs her hand and goes up to the stage. Genki then welcomes them on the stage.

“All of you, prepare to see something that will amaze you. You can’t see this kind of thing every day. How lucky you are to be here tonight. Are you ready, Kuro, Sakuya?” Genki is saying that with full of energy.

“Master, what to do?” Sakuya looks worried and nervous. Kuro then whispers something to her: “don’t worry, just dance.” After saying that, he pushes her to the middle of the stage.

“Okay, the stage is all yours, Kuro, Sakuya.” Genki said that while returning to the backstage.

Seeing Sakuya in the middle of the stage, the crowds starts to be silent. Every player that sees her on stage cannot turn their eyes away. “Hey, isn’t that the beautiful lady from the other day?” Kongou asking Hikaru while keep staring at the girl in the middle of the stage.

“Yes, she’s Sakuya. So beautiful…” Hikaru replied Kongou while his eyes didn’t even blink seeing her.

“Humph… Men all are the same.” Leona said that with a little bit annoyed seeing how both of her party members react.

Sakuya then looked at her master. Kuro then gives her a nod and starts to pull out something from his bag. He is pulling out a violin and readies his stance. Seeing that, Sakuya tries to close her eyes for a second and taking a deep breath. And then his master violin starts to make a wonderful rhyme. Hearing that, she then starts to dance. She was moving around the stage flawlessly. Everyone that seeing her dances was mesmerized; as if they are seeing a goddess dancing on stage.

A couple of minutes later her dance is finished as the song ended. Silence fills the shore and then, a loud cheering voice and applause suddenly can be heard. Wow, wonderful, whoa, awesome, beautiful. All of those praises can be heard from the crowds. Genki then comes up from backstage and giving some comments: “So, such a wonderful performance. What do you think guys? Aren’t you lucky to be here tonight?”

“Yeah…” All of the boys answered together like in the army.

“Oh yeah, don’t you guys want to know more about her?” Genki asking while giving out the microphone to the crowds.

“Yeah…” The crowds replied instantly.

“That performance just now is a dancer skill “the dance of time” combined with the bard combo “the forgotten melody”. It’s not something that you see every day so you better remember it.” Genki explained to the crowd and then turn his head to Sakuya and Kuro. “So, Sakuya, Kuro, do you guys have anything to say?”

Sakuya shook her head. She’s too embarrassed to say anything right now. She didn’t believe of what just happened. But then her master grabs the microphone from Genki and said: “Just for your information, she is mine. I won’t let anybody come near her. So you better leave her alone.”

The crowds suddenly feel silent. They don’t know what happened but they can feel a pressure from his words. A player try to shout from the crowds: “who do you think you are?” and the crowds start to riot. Yeah, who do you think you are? Just die. You can hear all kinds of curses the crowds throw at Kuro. But then, Kuro say something that surprised the crowds.

“Anyone that wants to die can come up to the stage.” The crowds fell in silent once again as they can see death written in Kuro’s eyes. This man is dangerous.

After that, Genki starts to lighten up the mood again while scratching his head a little. “Err… you hear what he said guys, you better leave Sakuya alone or I can’t guarantee your safety.” Hearing those words from Genki, the crowds suddenly get more depressed and gloomy, even the GM can’t guarantee their safety. “Anyway, let’s start the fireworks.” Genki said that in the middle of the awkward silent.

Even though the fireworks are beautiful not many player cares about that. Most of them start to leaves the seaside shore one by one with a broken hearts.

“Come on Kongou, there is nothing that we can do. Just enjoy the fireworks.” Hikaru try to console his friend who has been crying nonstop.

“Hiks… Hiks… but it isn’t fair.” Kongou is sobbing with his nose runny.

On the other hand, Leona eyes are sparkling with admiration. “That man is so cool. I wish I had a boyfriend like him.” Most of the female players who are there at the scene are thinking the same things as her.

But Hikaru is thinking about another thing. His words have so much pressure and he is also willing to fight for Sakuya. I wonder if I can be as good as him. So that is the one that Sakuya calls master.