The Real RPG of Life Series: Memoirs of Friendship [FIN]

Chapter 19: Rematch (Chris)

It has been a week from now since that incident happened. Now referred as the “Doppelganger” incident, it has caused the player community in outburst as many complaints of being attacked by people they knew were being submitted one by one. It wasn’t long that even Yuit’s attacking spree incident was soon forgotten and buried down the hatchet.

An official announcement has been made by Grandiel’s staff that they will put up and investigate the Doppelganger incident and that for now, they requests that everyone be cautious and submit reports whenever someone has copied their avatars.

Natasha, careful as she always was, decided not to log in for a few weeks to maintain a low profile. Somehow, it has paid off and now, whenever she logs in, people seem to have forgotten all about it. They went back to asking her for some tips about Grandiel. While some people are still doubtful about her, some of the players are starting to defend her from them.

Kathy, one of Natasha’s classmates, has spread the video of her duel with another Yuit convincing everyone that she wasn’t to blame for the attacks. When Natasha started going back to class, everyone would just be awkwardly silent towards her, all except for Alicia and Kathy, who would greet her normally as if nothing happened.

Knowing her quite well, she was still in the process of recovery. I would call and mail her every night, asking about her day. Still, I would log in to Grandiel and just ask her about it in person was the best option.

“Hey Chris, wanna come with us for another dungeon run later tonight?” Richardson said, walking towards me just as the bell rang.

“I’ll pass for now, Natie will be on later so…”

“Ho ho, getting into it I see…”

“I-it’s not like that, idiot! I’ll go training with her.”

“What’s all this training stuff I hear from you, Chris?” Brianna drops in, joining in our conversation.

“Oh, he’s going to meet up with his girlfr—“ I cover Richardson’s blabbering mouth saying, “Can it!”

“Girlfriend? You had one, Chris?” Brianna seems startled.

“Y-yeah, I wasn’t hiding it or anything.”

“I see…” come to think of it, Brianna did mention that she would want to join in with the guys in dungeon running, since most of the girls in our class would just do field hunting rather than dungeon runs.

“Hey, Richardson, why not take Brianna to sub out for me?” Breaking free of my hold on his mouth he replies, “Oh, not a bad idea!”

“W-what are you talking about?”

“Well you see…” Slowly I try slipping by the two as Richardson discuss the details with Brianna.

Later that afternoon, I log in Grandiel and meet up with Yuit. She looked bright as always, like the first time I saw her when I first started playing Grandiel. She had this confidence that you can sense from he had this confidence that you can sense from her but underneath all that, she was the hesitant but thoughtful Natasha, whom I happen to be dating. We went back to training, as Natasha thought that I still had a lot to learn in my ways in using the sword.

“Alright, that’s enough for today.” Yuit sheathes her blade back.

“Eh? Already? It’s a bit too soon.” Clinging onto me like a child, she mumbles, “Get a hint, idiot.”

For a while now, Natasha has been a bit touchy whenever she was with me. Not that I mind her acting this way, but it worries me to some extent. While walking back to Saja’s shop, I figured this might be the right time to ask her.