When we got to the restaurant, we didn't imdiately order, mainly because we wanted to wait until the others got here as we had sothing important to discuss with them - and that was the next primary quest, the one with a tir on it.
But before that Hina-nee and I also had sothing we needed to talk about. Luckily, the waiter had led us to an isolated corner of the diner, where we could talk in private.
"Kaze-kun about the news article"
I nodded, understanding what she was about to say without her needing to finish the sentence. "It seems uncle and auntie submitted a complaint."
"Was I too rash in coming in here to look for you? I just never thought I would wound up trapped as well"
"That's not your fault. You thought I got trapped because you unplugged my AR helt, but that's not true. I was already trapped anyway, but you didn't know that, so you ca in the ga thinking you were safe as long as no one unplugged the AR helt you were wearing."
"Right but still what do we do now? The excuse of being sick won't last forever. Jim doesn't know us two in real life, but the other three all do. Even the two dimwits would be able to tell sothing's wrong if you keep showing up in-ga but don't appear in class."
"They're in a two-week suspension right now, but it's as you say - once they return to school, they'll notice I'm not there."
"Not to ntion that girl, Chiaki-san. She seems to be quite careful and observant."
I nodded in agreent. "She's definitely not the type to be easily fooled."
"So? What's our move here?"
I bit my lip as I attempted to think of a plan. After a few minutes of silence, I finally spoke.
"Well, I do have a plan, but"
"Hm? Let's hear it, Kaze-kun," Hina-nee tilted her head curiously.
"It's simple, really. All we have to do is abandon them."
"Abandon them? As in"
I nodded once again. "Basically, escape from their confrontation. The primary quest tir reaches zero two weeks from now, correct? That's perfect. Once we finish that quest, we'll imdiately leave Qilian City and continue onwards to wherever the next quest will be."
"But won't they follow us eventually?" Hina-nee asked. "I an, we all have the sa primary quests."
"Yeah, that's true, but there's two ways around that."
I cleared my throat and raised my fingers according to the number. "One, we purposely let them surpass us in terms of quest progress - though that would an a ti delay for god knows how long."
"Hm"
"And two, finish all the quests as fast as we can so that they can't catch up even if they tried," I concluded, and set my hand back down again. "Which one will it be?"
Hina-nee thought for a mont. " I think I like the second option more. In the first thod, we have to indirectly rely on them - the speed at which we do things will end up being controlled by them, although inadvertently. I can't say I like that very much."
I smiled. "Exactly what I thought you would say. To be honest, I like the second option more as well, and thought you would too. Still, I had to ask, just in case."
"Hehe~ we've always been the type to not let anyone else dictate what we do, for better or worse."
"Yeah if life was a ship, then we'll be the ones steering it, no one else," I agreed.
After all, if we weren't the ones at the rudder of our ship, then it could hardly be called our ship at all.
I wish I could just leave outright without caring whatsoever, but reality isn't that simple. If I truly wanted to make 100% sure I would not run into these guys again, I had to take these counterasures - it was inevitable.
And besides, if it's like this... I won't be completely cutting off my relationship with them. That way, if I ever have a need for a pawn, I could always just wait for them to catch up to Hina-nee and I in terms of quest progress. When that happens, Ichigo and Horiya would be there for to manipulate, since they were still trying to befriend . Jim wasn't a bad guy, so I'll spare him, and Furuwa would be difficult to control. Therefore, the two idiots were my best bet.
Playing friends with them wasn't so bad, considering I get two pieces to move to my will in exchange.
*****
Soon after, the others arrived. Ichigo and Horiya sohow managed to make their way back to the city, though they appeared wounded and battered. I heard Hina-nee do her best to stifle her evil laughter from beside . Furuwa seed to have led them here after running into them by chance, perhaps at the Hunter's Guild.
They sat down on the chairs all around us, six of us in total. We had asked for a large table when Hina-nee and I first got here, in preparation for this.
"Man, Igarashi, where did you and Sakura-senpai run off to?" Ichigo complained, scratching his hair after we all ordered our food and were waiting patiently for it to arrive.
"Us, running off?" I scoffed. "That's rich, coming from you, the sa guy who charged straight ahead into the forest without thinking, leaving us behind."
"U-Uh, I was just following Horiya" he murmured, attempting to shift the bla.
"W-What?! ? Nah nah nah kid, I was following YOU!" Horiya quickly denied.
Before they started yelling and fighting in the restaurant, I quickly interrupted as to not disturb the other custors here.
"Shut up, both of you," Furuwa cut in. Looks like I didn't need to intervene. "Does it matter who was following who? It's like you're trying to compare who's the bigger idiot."
Both Ichigo and Horiya zipped their mouths after being t with Furuwa's cold glare. I sighed.
"Doesn't matter. Hina-nee and I managed to complete the quest anyway."
"Yeah, but we didn't get any rewards" Ichigo sobbed.
"Welp, ya got no one to bla there," Jim said with a soft chuckle. "500 gold per quest is pretty good! They ain't easy, but don't take long at all."
"That aside " I began, eyeing all of them. "I do have sothing to discuss with you."
"Hm?" they raised an eyebrow in puzzlent.
"It's about the new primary quest," I explained. "The Qilian City one."
"Ya an the one with a bloody tir on it?" Jim asked.
I nodded. "Yes. I took a look at it, and saw that in order to complete this quest, we had to first reach Level 30 before the two week tir runs out."
"Huh? Why?"
"Because this primary quest is introducing Tournants to us. And in order to unlock tournants, we have to hit Level 30. I don't know what exactly they are or how they work, but I did notice the 'annual' adjective in the quest description. If my guess is correct if we don't make it this ti around, we'll have to wait a whole year before being able to access the quest again."
"A ti-restrained main quest? That's never been seen in other video gas before" Furuwa murmured in thought. "Currently, I'm Level 16. What about the rest of you?"
"17," Ichigo and Horiya replied in unison.
"14," said Hina-nee.
"16, just like ya," Jim responded.
"And finally Kaze?" Furuwa looked at .
"I'm Level 17 as well, but really close to 18."
"I see, so you're in the lead," Furuwa murmured. "You'll have the easiest ti, then"
"Yeah, but it's still going to be difficult. Going up 12 levels in a re 14, now 13 days, is pretty challenging, especially because of school," Ichigo argued, then turned to . "Igarashi, how long are you planning on taking school off for?"
"Uh I don't know," I said awkwardly, scratching my cheek. "When I woke up today, I felt pretty bad, so two weeks, maybe even more?"
"Geez you sure you didn't like, catch a pandemic or sothing?" Horiya mused. "I don't think there's one going on in Japan right now, but sheesh."
"Maybe," I shrugged. "But in any case, starting from tomorrow, we should just grind as much XP as possible."
Of course, I was just saying this for show. The best scenario here for Hina-nee and I would be for them to not make the tir and end up having to wait a year, while the two of us go on ahead. Of course this was pretty unlikely to happen.
"What's the best thod available fer us right now ta farm XP?" Jim asked.
"Hm the Hunter's Guild," I replied after so thought. "Pick a quest, complete it, return to the guild, then pick up another quest, and so on. This way, not only can we get XP, we can also get money and eventually rank up to the next rank. By doing this, we can tackle harder quests, slaying tougher enemies that obviously grant more XP."
"That makes sense," Horiya murmured, seeming to buy my words perfectly.
"Yeah, we're gonna put our all into doing those quests one-by-one starting tomorrow!" Ichigo chuckled. "This tournant thing has got fired up!"
" To think you didn't even know it was a tournant until Kaze told you" Furuwa sighed and facepald slightly. "What a joke."
"Well, I have a bad tendency of not liking to read, whether its books or even short quest descriptions," Ichigo replied quietly, avoiding looking at Furuwa in the eyes.
"Ha! Sa here, fella," Jim laughed in a boisterous manner.
What I told them was half-truth, half-lie. Hina-nee noticed this and sent an amused grin. While the thod I told them was indeed the best thod on the surface, it would not be enough for them to make the deadline. Traveling to and from the quest destination to return to the guild would take so much precious ti out of their day. But this was the only option they had.
Why?
Because they didn't know about the fact that you could take on multiple quests at the sa ti. Hina-nee had been the only one around when I asked the receptionist that earlier today, and I would take advantage of that fact.
Even if they did find out about this sohow, I had a back-up plan. Hina-nee and I would set out during nightti to do quests, while they were all logged off. That way, we would be able to gain a huge increase in terms of levels. If they asked about it well, they won't - because we'll be avoiding them for the next week. That was the plan, anyway.
And now, it was ti to put the final nail in the coffin to successfully trick these four.
"From now on, let's split into groups - Ichigo, Horiya, Jim, and Furuwa, you guys can be a group, and Hina-nee and I will be another," I proposed. "This way, quests will be done quicker as a group. Strength in numbers."
Once again, this was a lie. Sure, single quests will be done a lot faster, but the XP each person of the group would obtain from this quest would also be dramatically reduced. They didn't seem to realize that, however.
"Huh? Why not just 3 and 3?" Horiya asked.
"Hina-nee and I are used to just being a duo. We're more efficient like this," I replied. I had prepared for this question as well.
"You can do whatever you want, but I'm not grouping with you," Furuwa said, perfectly ruining my plan.
"W-Why?" I asked, stuttering a bit from the surprise.
She turned to and looked at directly in the eyes. "Just like how you and Sakura-senpai work better as a pair, I work better alone. It's that simple."
Using my own words to fight against , huh?
With this, I have once again confird: Chiaki Furuwa was truly a terrifying girl.
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