“L–Lilith, you have to…calm down!” Following her friend inside, Olivia advised. “N-Nothing happened yet…we might be fine!”
“...We can’t stay here any longer. It’s all over, don’t you realize!?” Lilith yelled as he dashed upstairs. “How could…this happen!?”
“I-It’s similar to what…happened to Zack,” Olivia muttered. “B-But that doesn’t…make any sense for them to track us.”
“...It’s all my fault. I was too careless and wasn’t aware of my surroundings,” Lilith concluded as she opened the door to her room. “I should…I should have realized something was up when I was attacked in the forest. Now it’s come to this.”
Calming her spiked emotion, Lilith entered the room. There was only one thing she set her sights on - Nathan Hayes.
“I’ve been getting stronger…without knowing anything. Any moment Ada felt like it, they could have snuck up under our noses, and finished us without a second thought,” Lilith muttered as she gazed at Nathan. “It never really mattered how strong I was huh…how would I be able to change the tides against an entire army to protect Nathan.”
“...Lilith.”
“Let’s get out of here, Olivia,” Lilith suggested as she grabbed Nathan’s hand. “We’re all leaving here together.”
“Okay…”
- * * *
It didn’t matter how dark it had gotten, or how much they’d leave behind, Lilith had exited the front door with her two swords by her side…and Nathan on her back.
“...I can carry Nathan for you, you know,” Olivia suggested after witnessing the weight Lilith had to bear. “That sword is pretty heavy, right?”
“It’s fine. This is something…I have to bear on my own,” Lilith replied. “Let’s go now.”
“Where will we go though?”
“I guess…we can go to the blacksmith’s hideout,” Lilith responded as she began to move. “We can’t waste any time thinking about that sort of stuff. We just need to move now.”
Lilith’s attitude changed so drastically…she really has been shaken by the tracker. Olivia pondered as she followed. I always hate seeing her like this…
“I understand how bad it all may seem. Ada…always seems like she’s…two steps…ahead of us,” Olivia remarked as they ran through the forest. “But…there’s something I have to tell you.”
“Huh?”
“I really admire…how determined you are to keep Nathan safe…because you love him,” Olivia continued, much to Lilith’s surprise - her face flushed red with her words. “You’re so amazing…you have what I don’t. So don’t be afraid of Ada.”
It was obvious Olivia’s words were to soothe Lilith’s shaken resolve, and it couldn’t have been more effective. The smile from Lilith was all she needed to see.
“...Fufu, you’re right. I’ve come this far but I still need to hear this, huh,” Lilith remarked with a smile. “Thank you Olivia…you’re a good friend.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“...Yeah!” Olivia matched her happiness with a delighted smile of her own.
- * * *
Just as the criminals disregarded the moonlight which shone over the pitch black land, the military was the exact same. With their earlier failure when it came to Zack, they had to show results – though his survival was covered up, they had to cement their standing with true results.
Twintails had ventured throughout that same forest, with a squad of super soldiers with her, to create those exact results Ada was looking for.
“Remember the plan, men,” Twintails remarked. “And don’t underestimate any of those criminals…you saw what happened with Dave.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
After setting everything in order, Twintails and her gang had ventured to the mansion in the forest. Gazing at the living room through the window, she saw and heard nothing more than the telegraphed laughter of a comedy show on the television.
“...Hmm.”
With a few hand gestures, Twintails had communicated with her comrades. Wasting no time, they covered all areas of the home. Twintails had taken it upon herself to barge right in.
“...Not in the living room…”
She scoured all throughout the home, but it was all the same no matter the room – the criminals were nowhere to be seen.
“She’s not at the back, and neither is she at the garage,” Regrouping in the living room, a super soldier had remarked to Twintails. “They must have left.”
“...The tracker had been dug up from the bushes. It seems that they figured their location was compromised and left,” Twintails accurately speculated. “But judging by the television being on, footprints on the outside and other clues, they must not have left too long ago.”
“What should we do?”
“Isn’t it obvious? We weren’t beaten or killed by them…so the mission is not over yet,” Twintails replied. “They can’t have gotten too far…but even if they did, we’ll find them. I’ll let the Chief know about this though.”
- * * *
“It’s pretty late, developer. The doctor needs to rest as she used energy to heal Lilith,” In the cottage of the blacksmith, the NPC remarked. “Yet you’ve gathered all of us here. What’s the issue?”
Just as the NPC said, the developer and all his NPCs had sat around the living room of the blacksmith.
“The doctor has been working so hard, aren’t we all so proud of her?” The developer remarked. “You’ve helped Lilih so much!”
“Thank you for the praise, developer.”
The NPCs had traded glances at one another, clearly confused by this reunion.
“If you’re wondering, I didn’t call you guys here to just commend the doctor. There’s something far more important than that,” The developer explained as he leaned back in his chair. “And I believe we’ll see the real reason quite soon.”
“Huh? What do you mean, developer?” The blacksmith questioned. “Is there going to be a new person joining us? Like a new NPC?”
“Well…you could say that.”
“Hmm?” The NPC muttered as he shifted his masked face to the door, much to the NPC’s surprise and conversely to the developer’s interest.
“What’s wrong?” The C. Specialist questioned.
“Heh, you noticed it, huh, NPC,” The developer said, sitting back up in the chair with a grin. “Things are really going to get interesting then, huh?”
“...What did–”
The creaking of the door as it slowly opened had interrupted the NPC’s sentence, and grabbed the attention of all occupants in the room. The NPCs eyes widened and their posture shifted in surprise as the ones who emerged were not new NPCs, as the blacksmith speculated, but were the party members who abandoned their old home.
“...Sorry for intruding,” Lilith, drenched in sweat and breathing heavily, muttered as she and Olivia stepped inside. “But…we had no choice.”
“...Lilith? What’s wrong?” The doctor questioned. “Why have you come here?”
“...Olivia found a tracking device in our yard,” Lilith muttered, garnering the gasps of the doctor and the blacksmith. “Who knows how long we’ve been found…”
“...I see,” The NPC replied. “So that’s why you came here.”
“Heh, so you finally realized it, huh?” With a cheeky smirk, the developer chimed in. “Took you long enough, am I right?”
Lilith and Olivia had shifted their attention to the developer, the latter visibly shaken by his words.
“...So you knew about it, huh?” Lilith muttered as she grated her teeth in anger. “Even though you were putting us…putting Nathan at risk, right?”
“Heh, I know everything that my game characters do,” The developer said. “So…what are you going to do now?”