Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 34

Ponsuke

「LET’S DANCING!」

「RETS DANSHING!」

The brawny trainer was standing in front of Ponsuke. The two were standing in front of a mirror.

The distance between the two wasn’t even two meters.

The two were matching each other’s movement to dance as though  looking at a mirror reflection from a distance where they could see each  other’s face very clearly. It looked disgusting how their movements  were completely matching.

Ponsuke, Alfie, and Mariela were visiting this dance classroom in the sightseeing area where they changed into sportswear.

The movement of the three who were dancing intensely was perfect.

But the trainer was oddly close to Ponsuke.

「Good! Ponsuke, we’re speeding up. KEEP UP WITH ME!」

「Hahaha, leave it to me Bob!」

The NPC was a trainer and he didn’t have any individual name, but Ponsuke called him Bob.

Ponsuke continued doing aerobic inside the game……where he couldn’t sweat and doing it wouldn’t make him thinner.

The three players sped up and danced along to something different.  They were perfectly keeping up with the trainer’s intense movement.

「PONSUKEEEEEE!」

「BOBBBBBB!」

Ponsuke had gotten high in the head from moving too much which resulted in him yelling.

The person himself was in agony and surely he didn’t know just what  he was screaming, but that didn’t change the fact that the scene was  very strange to watch.

The four danced intensely.

And then the music stopped and they did the finishing pose.

「……PERRFECTTT!」

At the end there was an enlarged image of Bob giving them a thumb up. Then the video ended.

――Several comments were scrolling over the image.

『Oi, why is the video centered on the trainer and the orc? Say it-!』

『Show the cute girls! Especially their jiggling chest and butt!』

『Wait a second. These guys are actually amazing……』

『Hah, even I can dance. If only there is someone who want to dance with me that is.』

『Why aerobic? It’s not useful at all for diet or anything right?』

『You guys don’t get it at all. Ponsuke X Bob. The dance is just an extra.』

『……Bob X Ponsuke』

『Drop dead!』

『The glimpses of her majesty’s body that sometimes showed up are great. Haa, I want her to kick me again.』

『Oi, there’s a strange comment mixing in?』

『Shit! When. When should I go there so I can run into them!?』

『I’m in love with big bro Ponsuke.』

『It showed a tiny five under the screen, so five o’clock? That’s a vacant time slot.』

『Ponsuke, isn’t that the guy who got into quarrel with those cheat players?』

『I fought the fire dragon with him the other day. If it’s that guy it’s not that strange for him to do something like this.』

『What, so he’s going to Temperance. He isn’t going to dance at the tourist area again?』

『Orc is basically used by many strange players.』

『Aa~, before this I also ran into this strange orc. Those guys, they moaned when receiving damage.』

『Abnormal perverts. That’s the orc race!』

『I’m going to remake my avatar into orc!』

Akito was reading the comments that kept scrolling in while speaking toward the laughing Riku.

「Stop it alreadyyyy! Do you……hate me that much!?」

Akito was in tears. He never imagined that he had gotten secretly recorded and the video got uploaded to internet.

In the morning Riku approached him in the classroom while grinning and showed him this video.

Furthermore the view count and comment’s amount were a lot.

It was a recent video and the popularity was still climbing up  sharply……the view count and comment’s number were still going to  increase at this rate.

「No no, I just thought that I should let my friend who has just become famous to know about this.」

Riku said that before he stopped the video and put the tablet into his bag.

「I’m happy that you’re seriously getting into dance. Next you just need to actually move and train your body in RL.」

He had checked a fitness club before.

He was preparing to join that club, but it would increase his spending so he planned to join during summer vacation or after.

「Dammittt……record Alfie and Mariela rather than me. The two of them look pretty aren’t they?」

Riku laughed.

「The way you said it is biting huh. More importantly, it’s great that  you finally can go to the Capital of Temperance without problem. Are  you going there tomorrow?」

Akito sighed.

And then he nodded a little, but he looked like he had a strong feeling of not wanting to login.

「I had also promised those two after all. Come to think of it, I got  my hand on Fire Dragon’s Horn and Reverse Scale. Is it okay if I just  use them normally as material?」

Riku looked at Akito’s face jealously.

「You got the two of them? You’ll be able to get the complete set of  fire dragon equipments if you have the claw and fang too……ah, wait a  second.」

Riku seemed to recall something and told Akito to wait from using the item.

「The information broker from before mentioned that there was an altar  at a destroyed orc village. How about you try going there? Well, I  think it’ll take some time until you go there because your level isn’t  enough right now.」

Before this he offered an ogre’s horn on an altar.

「Will something happen if I offer a fire dragon’s horn? Has something like that happened before?」

Information about unpopular race like orc was unexpectedly few.

Part of the reason was because the number of player who used orc  avatar was extremely few and that many players who did use orc were only  playing around with it as a joke character.

Even if orc event increased after update, many of them weren’t found.  There was also talk how the even might have finished after an update  without ever getting discovered.

Furthermore there was also the fact how an event didn’t get anyone at all to participate in it.

Akito tried imagining the feeling of the management when they learned  that an event that they had created with care ended up not getting a  single player to play it.

(……No, in the first place there are also many events that are hard to understand.)

「That sound plausible when it come to orc.」

Akito listened to Riku’s story while waiting for the teacher to come.

.

.

.

Night.

Maya was wearing her uniform while visiting a family that she was acquainted with through her family.

A lot of men and women wearing mourning clothes entered inside the house that could be called a mansion.

Maya too was brought here by her parents. They met the haggard looking house owner when they entered the mansion.

Maya had met him not long ago, but he looked like he had become far older than that time.

The mother was crying. Her eldest son who was about the same age with Maya was at her side supporting her.

「……I don’t know what to say.」

The father, [Hiragi Jun] shook his head powerlessly when the matter of his departed second son was mentioned.

「It seemed there was nothing that could be done with the current  medical treatment. They don’t even know the cause. ……There was nothing  that could be done. But, even though that child did his best I……」

He was a stern looking gentleman with tall and sturdy body and a beard growing.

For Maya he was a reliable uncle that she was acquainted with, but  the way he was crying caused Maya to feel something in her heart.

Besides, Maya also knew the child who died.

She had met him several times.

Then Jun talked with Maya’s parents.

「That’s right. Can I talk for a bit with Maya-chan? ……It won’t take long.」

Her parents looked a bit puzzled but, they immediately agreed.

「Yeah, I don’t mind.」

After that Maya followed Jun into one of the rooms in the mansion.

There were two sofas facing together and a small table placed between them.

However the place seemed to be not used much. There were a lot of things placed at the surrounding.

「Sorry to call you to this kind place but, can I have a talk with you?」

Maya nodded.

「Yes. Umm……why call me here?」

Jun made a slightly troubled look. And then he smiled a little before  it turned into a sad look immediately. And then he rubbed the area  around his eyes.

Tear fell on the floor, but Maya waited for Jun to speak.

「……Sorry. It’s unsightly to show you a middle-aged man’s tear like this.」

Maya shook her head. Jun took a deep breath.

「I recalled hearing from Maya-chan’s parents how they’re troubled that you’re getting absorbed into a game recently.」

Maya thought.

(You two, how can you tell uncle something like that.)

Jun laughed powerlessly seeing Maya’s bewildered look.

「It’s not like you aren’t allowed to play as long as you still do  everything that you ought to do. It’s just……I don’t know anything about  game. It’s called Pandora isn’t it? Pandora’s Box?」

Maya immediately corrected him.

「You mean, Pandora’s Box Garden.」

「Yes, that one. My son was playing that game during his stay in  hospital. He mentioned how there is a way to increase the login time for  seriously ill patient and he wanted to apply for it. It was troubling.」

Jun laughed powerlessly and then his expression gradually turned blank.

「I refused him at first. I told him that he should spend more time  with his family rather than playing game. But, I was also busy and there  were days where I couldn’t visit him……thinking back now, I should let  him did what he liked more……」

Jun talked with some sobs in between. Maya listened quietly without hurrying him up.

「……I want to ask a favor from you Maya-chan.」

Maya straightened her sitting posture.

「What is it?」

「Introduce me to that game. Can you walk me through it? I too want to see the world that my son saw.」

Jun recalled the face of his son when talking about the game in the hospital room. He started talking haltingly.

「I had no time to play. But he said that we can play together if it’s  inside the game where the time is stretched……that child invited me to  play that game. But in the end I couldn’t play it with him.」

Maya agreed to that request from Jun.

◇

Inside the game.

Ponsuke and Mariela were facing Alfie who was looking troubled at the plaza of the Capital of Hope.

「……And that person is?」

Ponsuke was looking down on a gnome.

A race with small build that had skillful hands and quick on their feet.

They looked adorable but, they were suited to be thief and you would  meet painful experience if you let your guard down around them.

It was the scene of a huge orc looking down on a small gnome.

However the player inside the small male gnome avatar was,

「Nice to meet you. I’m [Lighter]. Actually, Ma……Alfie-cha――」

「Nn, nh! Lighter, you can just call me Alfie here without any suffix.」

In the middle Alfie warned the gentlemanly gnome who introduced himself as Lighter. The adorable gentleman nodded.

He had a beard, but he was small and looked like a child trying to make himself look like an adult.

But his way of speaking was calm and composed. He really sounded like a gentleman.

「My apologies. I asked Alfie to show me around inside the game.」

Mariela crouched so that her face would be at the same level with Lighter. She stared fixedly on him.

「You’re a gentleman despite your small body. I wish the huge Ponsuke can learn from you.」

Ponsuke averted his gaze.

Alfie was looking apologetic.

「Because of this I can’t go to the Capital of Temperance with you two today. I’m sorry!」

Alfie pressed her hands together and apologized. Ponsuke said to her.

「Well, in that case we’ll also postpone going there to the next  login. More importantly, if you two want to be alone then we can go off  on our own.」

Alfie looked up to Ponsuke’s face.

「Is that alright!?」

Ponsuke got bashful and cleared his throat.

「Well, it’ll be a killjoy if the two of us go ahead without you. More importantly, what are you going to do?」

Mariela also agreed with Ponsuke’s opinion and nodded.

Alfie looked at Lighter’s face and nodded before she asked for a favor to Ponsuke.

「Actually, there is someone that we’re looking for.」

「Someone you’re looking for?」

Lighter explained.

「There was also other player than me who was a gnome and called Lighter. I’m thinking to meet that player’s friends.」

Mariela put her hand on her chin.

「Looking for someone eh. But, can we find them with just that much information?」

Ponsuke folded his arms.

「……Alright!」

He seemed to get an idea. Ponsuke’s expression was really bright.

Seeing that expression was enough for the other three to hold expectations for him.

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