Log Horizon - Shiroe's sister

Chapter 13 (Edited)

"Conversation~"

Thinking thoughts

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"But, why now?" Akatsuki had finally started on the main topic.

"Because..."

"Ah, because, erm... We were planning to bring her back, it's scary to be alone in the northern border, correct?"

Henrietta wanted to speak, but something was holding her back, and her arms gripped Akatsuki stronger. Maryele who had interrupted her seemed to be carefully choosing her words when explaining.

"... Mary-nee."

"Don't look at people with your sharp eyes, Shiroe, you won't be popular with the ladies if you do that, alright?"

"Mary-nee."

Maryele seemed to be changing the topic, so Shiroe asked her again.

"Eh... yeah, the security in Susukino seems to be worse than here. Ah, forget it, it's not 'seems like' or 'appears to be'. The security in Susukino is definitely bad... Serara is being harassed by nasty guys."

In this girly room with the pastel pink decor, her words sounded foreboding.

The city was a non-combat zone.

Offensive weapons and magic were prohibited, and confining or trapping another player character was also banned.

But not all crimes were against the law, and even such crimes could still be carried out. Even so, there are some things that were nastier than PK for a low-level girl player.

Things that didn't exist in the programming of the game weren't restricted by the developers, but it might be possible to carry them out in this alternate world.

"..." Akatsuki's intimidating silence came from her correctly grasping the meaning behind 'harass'.

"Ah, it's not that bad yet. But Susukino has less than 2,000 players, so it's hard to hide in a city with such a low population, right? She is also our guild member, so we need to rescue her, correct? It's embarrassing, but I want to discuss something with you, we have many kids in our guild, right? They are all good kids, but not too reliable yet. We need to send our best players out, or we won't make it to Ezzo. So while we are away, could you help me... look after the kids here?"

"You don't need to spend all your time here since we have Eisel around here to take care of them as well. Marie, Shouryuu, and I will do all we can for this expedition. It is a willful request, and we are anxious about this too... But Shiroe-sama, Naotsugu-sama, Rinne-sama, Akatsuki-chan, can you take care of this guild for a short while?"

Maryele and Henrietta lowered their heads pleading for their assistance.

Shiroe looked at the two ladies bowing before him.

He held his breath.

His mind became silent.

But it was still noisy.

He wanted to stop his blood from flowing if possible.

His mind turned furiously.

His focus called forth lightning from the darkness.

In the real world, Tokyo and Sapporo were 850km apart, which was 425km under the Half-Gaia project in this world. Maryele's party would be traveling by horse and foot, some of the roads were still serviceable. But most of the zones consisted of uneven plains and hills.

Under the best condition, they could move about 50km per day, but it would be a blessing if they managed half of that every day. 

No...