“Hello Riri.i was so surprised to see you here.” Hasega greet me casually in Rebirth Living room. it is almost the same as the lounge room in Tantalus headquarters but it was only a little bit bigger

Now that he speaks so casually i don’t know how to respond with him. Let;’s first start by usual greeting. “Well, umm. i just came since i have some business with the count.”

“I see. if i may, what kind of business?” Hasega suddenly got interested

“It is about company advertisement. my father want to open a branch here in royalroad.” I said bluntly.

“Whoa. Amazing. I personally disliked someone that used their other’s connection to be successful here. but since you are the other way around, you still earned my respect.” Victor said bluntly.

“T-thank you.”

“So. Is the count recommended you to stay here?” Fira asked

“Umm, well, the count said that you are reviving the theater group although using a different name. So i came to look at your progress.”

“I don’t really think we will succeed so i do not want to tarnish Tantalus name and use rebirth instead. Hahaha. But it seems we get quite a lot of visitors.” Dem answered

“Half of the stadium is a lot?” Stella answered.

“well, hahah. It might not looked much compared to Tantalus but we are doing our best.” Hasega made a wry smile towards Stella sarcasm.

“Besides, we made profits too, and the audience are increasing if we are judging from monthly audience.” Said Reiner

“Profit! Really?” Stella suddenly went excited and grabbed Reiner’s collars

“Yeah. We made profit. What about it?”

“How? I mean, we have a full audience yet we barely made profits. Why do these groups which only had half the audience we had can make a profit?”

“Well, first of all, the count has freed this building’s rent unlike our Tantaus. Then, we are supported both by church and the count so we got some kind of fundraiser. And then, there is more, we also got some kind of sponsor. Well, the booths are not officially set now but they will later, someone selling drinks and popcorn it is a future profit. And also, we manage to make a cd out of this to sell to players. It is on the other world so it is kind of useless to natives but to players it is a different story. Also, there are weekly performance. We changed them in set interval, but with more shows we got more audience in overall. And we also hired a part timer which is a beginner player which reduced our expenses.” Reiner told us one by one

Stella blatantly looked at Reiner with an unbelievable look.

“Sigh, somehow i feel defeated.”

“Well, finance and management isn’t Tantalus group strong suit. But we have a good marketer and management here.” Reiner pointed at Hasega.

“Haha, it is just something that i learned from my father. He was a good businessman.” Hasega laughed while scratching his head.

“I just get a new insight now. you clearly have several good knowledge. I have never realized that kind of strategy until now.” Stella sighed admitting her defeat.

“I have notified Ragnar about a few of those ideas including sponsorship, but he rejected it since some petty nobles tried to change the scenario to boast his own petty pride. But right now, the sponsor is the church and the the count the scenario didn’t change much either so we accepted it. stalls were also rejected due to the lack of space but we have a bigger building now and the audience isn’t as packed as Tantalus was so we can manage some stalls. i can safely say that luck played a big part in it not only management.” Reiner with a very businessman looking said all of those marketing strategies. I definitely can copy some of it. i should pay some attention

“A little huh.” El murmured loud enough for everyone to hear. It is definitely a sarcasm

“Umm, Well. hehehe” Hasega and the others went speechless

“If you think about it, isn’t the real thing and the show is a little too much different?” Stella said while putting emphasize on the little part.

“Umm, Hasega. It might be awkward for me to say it. but who are you depicting just before?” i asked him for confirmation.

An awkward silence suddenly filled the room. Stella and El also included while glaring at the suspect. I can see cold sweat are forming on Hasega’s forehead. This silence continued for a minute, two minutes. after that hasega finally opened his mouth

“Well, there are no other player that can take your position. Maria is the head priest of the temple here and thus she can’t join us. not only that, we can’t change Maria’s role into a guy either since she is right in front of us.” so it is okay that you change my role into a guy? Now i know why that archer guy thinks the white rider is a male. Honestly, with all of his role playing character, Hasega is kinda suited for the role. But somehow seeing myself as a guy like that kinda feel bad in my mouth

“We are sorry Riri. We are short on performers.” Fira finally said it out

“By the way, isn’t the one defeating Death manager kinda wrong?” El blurted out

“Ah! That’s the one that i want to protest.” I finally remembered why i feel angered when watching the performance.

“Isn’t it you?” Hasega and the others looked at each other while making a single unified wrong deduction

“It is Stella.” i blurted out the words

“Well, everyone only knew that you are the one that beat Death Manager. Stella is involved but, isn’t she being controlled by death manager that time? everyone only knew that Stella died when you defeat DM” Hasega and co are confused. It is true that i have never told them. so no one actually saw that scene where Stella dignified wolf form thrashed DM like a toy?

“So, Stella is the one that defeat him huh? now that makes sense. Although i do not deny that Riri is strong, but she is more like a defensive character. I was wondering at how she was able to defeat DM. So it is Stella secret moves that defeat him. Except when she turned into a fairy last time” Hasega made a thinking pose. Damn that words hurt in my heart. I am not a defensive characters!

“That’s rude. She is just undeveloped you know. Her class is not exactly a defensive one.” El said

“I see.” Hasega made a vague comment “I wonder if your class will be like Stella. if you have power like Stella, it would be a secret class.”

“Okay. we promise that as soon as we got more members, we will try to hold an authenticate show which is as close as possible as the truth.”

“No. You don’t really have to do that.” Stella made a surprising comment

“Eh? Why?” i asked

“Sometimes the truth can’t easily be picked by shows like this. for example, how will you explain Yggdrasil came to save some humans? Or how you will explain my condition? That performance earlier is an easier truth. Ragnar and i already performed much of those things. I am not mad at all.”

“Okay. although we really want to invite you to our group, you have a village to manage. So we already know the answer before we even asked. Okay, byee “Fira commented and thus ending the conversation

“Hmm....”

“What is it Riri?”

“Somehow i feel like i forgot something.”

“Now that you said it, i also seemed to forgot something.” Stella and El followed suit

Hasega and co tilted their head. then Hasega said like he realized something “Ahh! if you are talking about Iris. He is the commander of Trisia military together with Arknum. So, after the show he disappear somewhere. He can’t exactly show his face in public either. So, he only played narrator for us this time.”

“By the way, his way of narrating kinda familiar.” Stella put another sarcasm.

“Well, he had so few practice and truth is, that show in city of acolyte is the first real theater show that he has seen. can’t really blame him now can’t he.

“If he heard you saying that, Stella, he is going to have a heart attack” Fira giggled.

“”What is it Riri?” Fira asked again

“That’s... not quite i was about to ask” what do i forgot. Something about this group. but, it is not Iris or Arknum. it is not about its members. something related to Stella. it seems important. i got a feeling that somethings here was a clue. Something that can’t be moved, something that is only here. what is it, i can’t seemed to remember

Seeing my desperate expression, Stella and El made the same thinking expression like it was concerned them. they must realized that they also forgot something that they wanted to ask this new group but none of these pets of mine can seem to remember that detail.

“Now seeing Riri like that we seemed to forgot something right?” El said

“I wonder what it is... something about this building right?” Stella also said the same thing

“Ahh, that’s right. this building was renovated through some blueprints from the basement floor. Hahah, if we didn’t found that blueprints, the architect would ask for a higher price for drawing the blueprints. We saved 30% of money from that. hahaha. “ Hasega and Victor laughed while blurting that fact out loud

“That’s it!!” Stella, me and El said in unison

“So, you really found that basement huh?”Stella asked

"Well, when we plundered the remains of this building, we kinda found it the passage leading to underground base.” Hasega said

“I see. “ Stella only sighed

“Umm,” I don’t kow what to say now, on the other hands i want to get angry for taking things without permission, but the things they took are from dead people. It was normal in games like this. what should i do.

“There are several rooms in there right? in underground basement. There should be nameplates in front of the steel doors in that room. at least, could you give mine to Riri here? or have you sold everything?” Stella asked Hasega and the other without any sign of resentment she sure is mature. She didn’t throw any tantrum even if her privacy and treasures are breached like this

“The truth is, we haven’t touch that door.” Hasega

“Morelike, i can’t open it.” Dem answered.

“I thought we found a secret dungeon. That room was filled with monsters. “ Fira whispered

“Hmm, a simple lock picking should be able to open some doors in the basement.” Stella said. “That’s weird. And you have a thief around you right?”

“What about you opened it then Stella. that basement room behind those steel doors were untouched.”

“I can’t of course. The key was gone.” Stella said while shaking her head

“Let’s see it then. “ Dem answered. “Somehow i kinda gets excited.”

Then the group let’s me to the secret passage. The passage was surprisingly placed under the carpet on the very living room we were in. I was surprised when i see how obvious the secret passage is. if the carpet was not there the passage would be in a clear view. You just need to pull a handle which were fixated on the floor and a trapdoor which lead to the secret passage opened. Stella kinda complained that the secret room was kind of obvious than before.

“So this is the secret basement of Tantalus.” I murmured “It is kinda creepy.” The room was dim it has an aura of courage test which held in schools and camping sites

“It has lamps before. i wonder where the lamps went. Well, the oil must have run dry anyway. it is useless to talk about it.” Stella retorted

“The rats were dismantling it. literally.” Hasge answered.

“There was some rats that are as huge as 5 year child here before along with its minions.”

“It has not even been 4 or 5 months since we last visit this place! How come there are monsters plaguing this place?” Stella asked in amazement

“It has spiders, scorpions, centipedes and many other women archenemy there. it was kinda traumatizing.”Fira can only gave a dim look when she said that

“Hahaha, she went crazy along with Maria when we visit this place.” Victor laughed

*wiggle wiggle*

“Gyaa!!” Fira jumped out as a centipede came from cracks at the wall which were killed immediately by Dem with his knife

“So cracks formed on the wall and some bugs went in huh?” Stella said.

“We made some minor repairs. But we can’t exactly show this to public. The shape of this dungeon was quite the same as we saw it first time.”

“This is Tantalus treasure vault. It is quite rude to call it dungeon.” Stella pouted

“So, i assumed there are cracks which a small kid could enter?” i asked since Fira was talking about a rat as big as a girl.

“We have sealed that. but we can open it anytime you wish. it is just a minor repair after all.” as Hasega continue to mutter some words, we finally reach the said basement. The exterior of the basement is like a copy of the living room upstairs. But it was filled to the brim with a creepy aura enhanced with a dim light from Fira staff. I could see the said steel doors Stella mentioned. It really has nameplates for each of them.

“So, to the owner of this treasure vault. Or Tantalus dungeon. That’s the system named it. we found several precious jewels and money. That blueprints included. We also found several armors and and swords and many other things. Except for hard cash like golds, silvers, and copper we still keep them to ourselves. Aren’t we kind? hahaha if you want, you might take them again. sorry for the cash though” Victor laughed satisfied

“Well, we aren’t actually do it for you exactly.” Fira commented

“Sure. You have every class. you must want to equip the treasure here yourself. and even a non combat suit such as tuxedo and suits could be useful in meeting and performances right?” Stella said while walking to a certain spot.“We thought the same.”

“Isn’t this like...” suddenly i felt a dejavu

“Well, we have our own room here also. You know right? when you came into Tantalus, you have a chests inside your room. just in case that chest was enough and you prefer higher security, this is the place. But no one used it for personal uses anymore. So as a group we usually stashed everything in the balcony. “

“Actually, i have been wondering. What is Tantalus Stella?” hasega asked

“What do you mean?”

“That kind of treasure. “

“Ahh, we traveled around places. Receiving gifts here and there. sometimes venturing into the unknown regions. That’s where the treasure is from. ”

“Ahh, Tantalus also have sewing and other craft skills huh? just obtaining materials would be enough..” Hasega made some calculation in his mind

“Ah, this is the door. The nameplates are unreadable anymore huh?” Stella came to a certain door. “Dem, can you really unable to unlock this?”

“I have tried. But the door won’t budge.”

“Hmm. Maybe the handle is rusted? Or is the lock broken? Why can’t it be unlocked?” Stella said while pulling the handle of the steel door

“No, there should be another lock mechanism which my thief skill are unable to opened yet. Are you sure the lock on the handle is the only lock Stella?”

“Ahh! but i forgot the key combination. Now what should i do.....” Stella said while made a thinking posture before the door .”the key was simple so i thought some lockpicking could opened it. but i forgot that if you lockpick it recklessly, some other mechanism would activate. A second lock or so. This door was made by some gnome in the west afterall.”

As Stella was still having a staring contest with the door i take a look at the other door. The nameplates are barely visible. I was just wondering if Ragnar and the other have their nameplates here. i wonder how ancient this place actually is.

“Ahh, Arknum! might knew about this lock.” I suddenly raised my voice. That’s true, there are other Tantalus survivors besides Stella in this group

“It is useless Riri, Arknum doesn’t knew. Well, he might knew this place exist. but there are almost no one nowadays that is able to open these doors anymore. Except me, and.... him”

“There are 15 doors here. how come you and Ragnar and someone else is the only one able to opened this door? Isn’t the rule one person for each door? Why the nameplates then?” Fira and the others made a commotion from Stella statement

“The doors here is ancient. Somewhere 100 or 150 years into the past.”

“Huh?’ my eyes popped at seeing that absurd statement while looking at Stella from head to toe

“I am 20 years old alright. don’t look at me like that. i was about to go to 21 next 3 month”

“Then...” Hasega asked

“it was inheritance system. Ragnar great great grandfather i think, founded the group. it isn’t a theater group at first if i remembered. and so, the key combination was passed along that initial group. 15 core members”

“ Then?” Fira asked

“Before death or after we decided our inheritor we are supposed to tell someone. But....” Stella stopped “Life isn’t that smooth right?” But, even if someone dies, the second lock should not be activated unless it is fiddled with lockpick recklessly. We only need the key to transfer the room to someone. Dem, did you pick every door?”

“Yes..” Dem hangs his face now dejected

“So, not all doors in here can be opened anymore?” Hasega said

“Yes. Don’t worry about it too much Dem In fact, ever since i was born and visit this place, i have already seen nameplates from someone i doesn’t knew. Because the person died and the key was gone.”

“I see, how sad. I would love to look inside.” Fira muttered

“Now only 2 of these doors could opened. and one of them belong to Death Manager?” Hasega said while scowling

“Please do not talk to me for a while. I need to remember the combination.” Stella then fiddled with the door and suddenly a mechanism was activated which pulled out a knob along with numbers. It was like our real world vault. Turning the knob into certain numbers to open them

“Hmm. I totally forgot about this. “ Stella was now having a staring contest with the knob now. just like she asked us before, no one made a conversation or even a sound which turned this room into dead silence. After a seemingly long 3 minutes, she finally grab the knob very gently and start turning it very slowly “If i remember, it was like this, then....”

*click* the door clicked open Stella then pulled the heavy metal door with a groan. Hasega and Fira also helped her with the pulling.

“ there is a room.” Victor made a useless comment. Duh! Of course there is a room behind the door. Are you retarded?

“Victor.” Hasega said calmly “Please stop commenting like that. you make us look stupid.”

“Well, i mean. The inside of the room isn’t exactly as i imagined that’s all. i though it would be filled with jewels and gold but, these rooms are bigger than i thought but there are fewer treasures than i though, i think.” Victor made some excuses for his stupid comments.

“are there only golds inside your head? “ Fira retorted

“You should knew that there are something more precious than gold right?” Stella said. “for example, Rare skill books and equipments. That is a general view. But for individual view, there are something that are a lot more important than those.” Stella said.

What she just said seemed so wise. As expected of my idol character. Curiously i also peeked inside the room Stella just opened. inside, really was quite unusual if we are talking about treasure room. the room was like a study room with desk and a chair. Even a lamp. And there are many magic balls inside some cupboard.

“If i remembered those crystals is for taking picture right?” i said while pointing at the crystal balls. It is inside RR manual.

“Ohh, you are quite knowledgeable Riri. As expected.”

“I have never seen it.” Victor said. well, players don’t exactly need it as their activity is recorded inside hard disk in the capsule which can be accessed in computers. But if you want to spread some photos or videos inside RR you will need these crystal balls.

And so, Stella fiddled with some books in some bookcase and then opening wardrobe then pulling out some random clothes. It might not be random but seeing how she treat it gave that kind of impression. The cloth was kind of dirty anyway.

“Riri, put all of this in your inventory please.” Stella ordered. After Stella ransacked the room and giving all of the insides to me she barged out. “Hmm. I do not need anything else i guess. “ with that she went to another door.”

“Wait, you can opened more than one.”

“Whoa, there are bracelet with big jewel on it. this is quite rare. Are you sure we can have it Stella? there are also a bunch of gold rings and earrings.” Victor said while examining the room Stella just left.

“This door belong to my friend whom died before me. i was her inheritor while that last door was from my mother. And yes Victor. I am dead already. I no longer need money.” She said as she fiddled with the door the same way as she fiddled with the door earlier her expression was so sad as she answered that i was about to cry just seeing it. As the knob opened she immediately grab the knob and turned it around. a click sound was heard immediately

“That one was fast.” Fira commented

“I will never forget the code on this door in my entire life even if i want to.” She said with confidence. It must be a traumatic experience for her to say such a thing. Even though the door is unlocked but Stella hasn’t opened it yet. Meanwhile the side character group which hold a great power now was ravaging Stella treasure vault to take some remnants which Stella decided to left them behind. while i was kinda envious, i was just standing behind Stella as she was having another staring contest with the door handle.

“with this, i at least keep my promise to her. her legacy won’t die.” With a sigh she then opened the door

chapter 34

chapter 35

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Author note

- if any of you have notified, i have edited chapter 22 about Stella's death. i think it was better than previous versions. tell me what you think about it here okay.

- and another important information, i am thinking about changing the name of the game Riri was playing with. but i don't think i have the willpower to edit through the 35 chapter so i might just put some notification on the heading about name change. does that anger any of the readers? if you have complaint or critics, please by all means comment in discussion topic

- critics and suggestions about this chapter was fine too. please post it here. i think i explained too many unimportant and inconsistent thing in this chapter, or am i wrong? any of you notice some fatal plothole that i missed?

- at last enjoy readings. by the way, the things she received from Stella will be put on hold. please wait upon it in agony :mowahaha: