Just like the previous room, this room look empty on the first glance. but Stella fiddled with some shelves and bookcases and it turns out to be just like the room before. It is full of equipments and books. Stella picked the clothes diligently but her eyes seemed to looking at the memory of the clothes in front of her.

“Stella, you can pick all of them if you like....” i can’t stand it. her hands seemed to pick the best of the equipment. But her eyes clearly don’t. Her eyes seemed to pick the clothes with most memories in it. i see that while her hand picked some good looking weapons, her eyes was occupied with some rag clothes beside it and she keeps sighing as she took that weapon.

“Ahh, “ Suddenly aware that she is not alone in this room, she let out a surprised voice. “Sorry. It is fine. Really.”

“I see.”

“Because, this clothes isn’t for me anymore.”

“Huh?”

“I have to picked the best one for you.”

“I see.” i can only look at her sad face. what can i say to cheer her up now.

“Sorry that you have to see me like this. thank you for being so considerate”

“Well, we have a house. Even if you take everything and i ended up not wearing it, we can put it in our house. And then you can look or wear it as much as you like.” I said trying to cheer her up.

“I see.” Stella expression didn’t change. Crap, i just said something horrible. This room was her friend. She tried to abandon that clothes to forget her, and i just asked her to bring it home for her to remember her sadness

“Sorry.”

“it is okay. you were doing it for me after all. i am grateful. But the past is the past. Instead of me worrying about my past, could i worry about you instead?” Stella made a sad smile toward me

“O-okay. thanks Stella.” i answered while sobbing a little.

Feeling uncomfortable, i decided to stroll away from this place. But Stella stopped me so i just sit in front of the opening door while she still manage her clothes and books.

“Okay. this is it. “ She pointed at a large stack of books and equipments. It has a very large stack of books and some equipments and weapons

“Okay.” i absorbed the things she pointed into my inventory

you are overloaded

your movement speed will be reduced by 40%

your stamina consumption will increase by 60%

“Sorry. It must be heavy.”

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. if you still have more we can bring another.” I said but it might seemed very unconvincing for her now that i am panting

“Well, this is all. others equipment are inferior to this stack.”Stella declared. But what she gave to me wasn’t just a single piece of equipment. There are many variety of equipment here even metal based ones. so she was still unsure of what equipment i am about to wear. Does performer wear different kind of equipment to their liking?

“well, i don't really want to stay in this place for too long. Let’s go home Riri.” Stella pleads.

“Okay. Stella, Riri. Let me at least carry you to village of acolyte.” Hasega and Victor volunteered to carry us. with a griffin i suppose it would be very fast to travel between cities. It might even take less than a day. Should i accept them?

“Thank you Victor and Hasega. I will accept your proposal.” Stella said in a firm tone. If she isn’t denying it then i guess i have no reason to deny it either. I want to get home fast anyway. i wonder how that royal knight is faring at my village.

With that, we strolled out of Rebirth guild’s headquarter. Stela gave the building one last look before following Hasega into third level of Trisia. It is more spacious there so they used it as some kind of landing square for the griffin.

“Hasega,” Stella called

“Thank you for continuing the group. i sincerely hope that the new guild of yours will prosper just like Tantalus did.” Stella said while holding her chest. She either felt relieve or happy that Tantalus isn’t die yet.

“You are welcome. I am sorry for ransacking your treasure vault just now. “

“It is fine. Since all Tantalus member died, you are the inheritor now. i am actually glad that it fell in your hands rather than some random adventurer treating our vault as some random dungeon and plundering it as they like.”Stella smiled again. i like this smile of hers the most. She somehow felt radiant

“Your words relieved me the most Stella. thank you i will try to make this guild more or at least the same as it was before..” Hasega replied with a relieved smile

Then as i headed towards the griffin and was about to unsummon Stella and El a heavy sense of deja vu shook my body

“Riri??” Stella and El looked at me

“Now that i think about it. there was supposed to be something else that we were about to ask you.”

“Again?” El made an annoyed expression

“ i don’t think we forgot anything though Riri.”

“Hmm. Well, i can’t remember it. and it doesn’t seemed important. even if it is important, we can always go back here again right? let’s go” I replied to Stella and El

“ before we ride on my griffin, shall we say some greeting to Maria, she has been missing you quite a lot. You are also one of her life benefactor after all.” Hasega said

“Ahh! now i remember. It is about Death Manager. how did you knew that he was still alive?!” when Hasega mentioned Maria an imaginary thunder suddenly struck me making me remember what i was about to ask to him this thought lingered in my mind since the ending of the show but the situation at that basement made me forget

“Maria told us and the count. She received some kind of divination from the gods and thus warned us. that’s why the count has been so hastily building troops and weapons like this. you should see on the streets that even iron swords for newbies level 10 or so was sold at ridiculous 1 gold coin.”

“So that’s why.”

“Well, i don’t know, from my point of view, Yggdrasil seemed to plead to some other gods. And Freya was among them. seeing some of her church in acolyte city was demolished i guess Freya was willing to participate in this campaign against death manager. “

“I see.”

“On a side note, this is just my hunch. But i guess Maria wants to talk about you about this matter. So let’s get on to her before we depart okay?”

I looked towards my two pets. they all; nodded their heads affirming my decision. If none of my pets refused, i guess i should not. After all, i also want to meet with Maria and see how well she is faring right now. the head priest is the highest position just under pope. Depending on the city, it might even be higher than bishops

And so, we paid a visit to the church. To meet with the head priest, we need to pay some ridiculous 10 gold thinking that we need some kind of high grade blessing. But after Hasega replied to some nuns about our circumstances and some kind of hidden mission the nun rushed back and came out with Maria. she wore the nicest gold clothes there along with a staff that embed with some jewel. Her face was very dignified. She was dignified before, but the image was more humble and honest before. Now with all top jewelries plastered on her body, her dignity seemed to be over enhanced. She looks a little unfriendly and arrogant right now.

“Hello Riri.” She said while looking calm

“Hello. How are you?”

“I am fine.” She answered politely and nicely with exaggerated smile but she seemed distant now. “Please come into my room.”

She walked over quickly passing some random person asking to cure some ailments or curse. the local priest will handle it, Maria was just like a symbol with an exception of high rank quest that some adventurer got. Of course it is about curse, evil and enemy of god.

“Hah, that was so tiring. I have to plaster this smile every time i am out!” she said while undressing her self in her spacious room. The gold clothes she just wore elegantly was brushed aside and thrown on top of her bed. Her clothes now was a simple negligee and she just casually sit on the bed besides her thrown out clothes

“Come on Stella, Riri, and el. Sit. I have a lot to talked about. Want some drink? We only have water here though.” She said while taking some cups from the cupboard and a bottle of water. I can only look at her in astonishment. I kinda felt like my eyes was about to pop and my jaw was about to drop seeing this twin personalities

“Thank you. i am taking that.” Stalla took a glass casually. She seemed to have experience with this kind of situation. She then looked at me then giggled along with Hasega. El can only blatantly look. i am glad that i have some inexperienced company that deal with this absurd situation

“It is normal Riri. After all, looks are important when you are an important person.” Stella said some wisdom out of her mouth while winking at me.

“Well, at least she is kind both inside and outside. Just a little bit different on how you look at it. she is 18 years old after all .haha.” hasega laughed a little while drinking.

“True!” Stella replied vigorously.

“Could you stop teasing about me? it felt a little uncomfortable.” Maria said looking embarrassed

“”It is a compliment Maria.” Stella said cheerfully

“I see.”

“Well, then Maria greetings aside, these two here wants to inquire about that order from gods.” Hasega said returning us back to the topic

“Hmm, okay.. as you already knew, Death Manager is still alive. Yggdrasil asked the other gods to help him vanquish the devil. Seeing at how abominable his power is, the god decided to kill him. Freya included. However, we can’t openly request adventurers about this sort of situation not to raise panic. We don’t know anything. So, there was this kind of secret quest given about his whereabouts. Freya, Yggdrasil, Ares, and Thor has already giving out this kind of quests to some trusted foreigner. But there was no result so far.”

“I see.”

“So, seeing that you two are his bane, are you willing to join us searching for that devil?” Maria asked us

a quest has been offered

Find Information about Death Manager

Find death manager whereabouts so the gods can prepare a crusade against him.

Quest difficulty A

Quest requirements must have close relationship to the church

Quest failure others have found and reported death manager whereabouts first and killed him

“Rank A..... if i am not mistaken, this quest only required us to find Death Manager right. not kill him? That alone is rank A?”

“Awesome right?” Hasega blurted out.

“The danger is pretty much the same. Remember, he has an army of more than 100 thousand when he storm this city. right now he is injured. If we want to kill him, now is the time.”

“I see.”

“By the way, who injured him? Is it you Riri? Or is it El?”

“It is me.” Stella

“ah, Yggdrasil hid some information. Freya was kind of furious that he resurrect a demon. Hold on, i will relay this info to her. “

“Stella is not a demon...” i whispered softly.

“Take no offense Riri. Her race is a demon but i do not say that she is bad as a person. Demons are generally bad though. This is a truth but most demons have this disgusting necessity to devour humans to live so we view them as bad thing. But if we take a look from their perspective, well, that is not something i should say.”

“It is fine. I despise demons all the same.” Stella said it herself.

“so will you accept our quest? Riri?”

“Okay.”

you have accepted the quest

“Our business with Reis isn’t over yet anyway. and there are no time limits. So it is fine then.” Stella made a positive comment when i accepted the quest

Well truth to be told, even if i accepted the quest, i have no plan on actively completing it yet. It is just a gamer mentality to accept all quest and then as the game continued we will complete it on the way. this quest doesn’t have time limit. Even if it failed i don’t think it would be a big deal.

“so Riri, do we have any other things that we forgot?” Stella made a question.

“No. I don’t think we have any other business here.”

“let’s go home then. I already missed that village even though it was only a couple of days since we left it.” Stella said

“Okay.”

And so we bid Maria farewell and together with Hasega we rode his griffin. Griffin can only take 3 passenger at most. But since Hasega wear full clad iron body armor and i am overloaded with items in my inventory, the griffin can only take 2 so i unsummoned Stella and El. It was a pity, she seemed really eager to rode the griffin.

The griffin was fast. We were already back at the village by nightfall. After fulfilling his duty, the royal knight went off with his horse immediately after adding me to his friend list. He sure is busy. He said that he will need to get to rosenhelm immediately to continnue his job. This is a game, and he seemed like he is working. The word game and reality is twisted in this game. I don’t really understand.

your stamina is at 10%

Attack speed decreased by 40%

Movement decreased by 50%

If you didn’t rest, you will collapse for 5 hours

“Ah.” I looked at the system message. I didn’t do any heavy activity, but even standing still while carrying a heavy load of items exhaust our stamina this quickly?

“hurry to the cabin, or you might collapse from exhaustion.” Stella grabbed me and told me to unpack our things at the cabin. The stamina bar which at 3% quickly rose once the overloaded status was gone.

“okay. Lets sort this.” Stella said while picking all the books and putting them on the shelves. Equipments are hanged on the wall or put on drawer and tables clothes and shoes goes into the wardrobe. The equipment and weapons that Stella brought didn’t looked shabby or crude at all. In fact, it was very shiny and eye catching making the cabin we stayed at looked even better.

“now that i looked carefully, Stella? The weapon and equipment is....”

“yup. It was every type. From equipment, there is a leather and iron plates. For weapons, we have bows, swords, spear, staff, etc. We are going to train every type of this weapon. A performer must be able to use every weapon. We can’t master them but we must at least be able to use them.”

“i see.”

“But, before we touch any of this equipment, here is a skill book.” Stella picked a book form a shelf “we are going to learn the skill from this book first.”

“okay. learn.” I tapped the book. But nothing happened. After a few seconds of awkward silence Stella finally muttered

“umm, sorry Riri. It is not that kind of skill book. This book is a normal book. But the inside there are some instructions on how to get a skill. Sorry that we have to learn this thee hard way.” Stella scratched her head. Ahh, i messed up. She must be uncomfortable now. I should have known that a skill book isn’t that easy to made and produced.

“Okay. I liked reading anyway. let’s start.” I grabbed the book with an embarrassed look.

chapter 35

chapter37

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author note

- managed to found some time between college