Ending Maker Chapter 2
Ending Maker Chapter 2
Chapter 1 - Pleiades #2
"Young master?"
"My lady?"
Maia and the female knight serving as Cordelia's escort spoke almost at the same time.
That was only natural, because Yuder and Cordelia had suddenly looked at each other and said something strange.
Why are you here?
'What do you mean, why? I came to visit you because you were sick.'
'I came because I was visiting you, obviously.'
While Maia and the female knight were having those perfectly reasonable thoughts, Yuder calmed his startled heart and looked at Cordelia. She seemed just as embarrassed and surprised as he was, along with a host of other emotions.
'What is this? Why does Yellow Storm come to mind?'
The girl before him, beautiful enough that the word "peerless" could be attached to her, was Cordelia.
His own fiancée, who had not the slightest connection to someone like Yellow Storm, the eternal second place.
But it was strange.
The moment their eyes met, Yellow Storm came to mind.
It could truly be called an absolute intuition.
Moreover, what mattered was that the other party had shown a similar reaction.
'No way.'
No way, is she really Yellow Storm?
It was a dizzying thought, but not entirely impossible.
After all, Yuder himself—that is, Outboxer009, Kang Jin-ho—had become Yuder Bayel.
"Ahem, ah, um. Excuse me for a moment."
"Ah...... I, I'm sorry too."
When Yuder spoke hesitantly first, Cordelia also spoke hesitantly.
But the way she was watching him was clearly not ordinary either.
"For now...... please have a seat."
"Ah...... yes."
For the moment, they really did sit down.
Maia and the female knight tilted their heads at the sight of the two being unbearably awkward, but only for a moment.
Maia served fresh tea that had been prepared in advance, and Yuder continued exchanging awkward glances with Cordelia.
'Let's test it.'
If Yuder had been the only one to feel it, he might have dismissed it, but Cordelia seemed to have felt something similar.
If his intuition was right and she really was Yellow Storm, then as disastrous as this looked, she would understand.
"Ye, Yel."
Yellow Storm hi.
His voice trembled because he was embarrassed once he actually tried to say it out loud.
But the reaction was exactly right. Cordelia flinched for a moment, then opened her eyes wide.
"Ah...... aha."
Outboxer hi.
Cordelia also spoke quietly, and just as Maia and the female knight tilted their heads again, Yuder drove the point home.
"Hey...... you too?"
"Hey...... me too."
"Young master?"
"My lady?"
Now a fairly serious look of concern appeared on the faces of Maia and the female knight.
Why were these perfectly fine people suddenly acting like that?
But Yuder could not afford to care about the two women's reactions.
'Crazy! Is she really Yellow Storm?!'
When he conveyed this roughly with his eyes, the other party returned a similar answer.
Yuder took a deep breath for now. He wanted to ask so many things—what had happened, since when she had become Cordelia—but Maia and the female knight were present.
So Yuder attempted to speak indirectly.
"Co-op reset, 9 o'clock, 3-9."
The co-op mode, one of the contents of Hero Legend 2, reset every night at 12 o'clock—that is, at midnight.
9 o'clock meant the 9 o'clock direction, and 3-9 meant 9 squares down from the entrance coordinates—that is, 18 meters down.
Therefore, interpreting Yuder's words, they meant the following.
'Meet me in the corner of my garden at midnight.'
Honestly, even an ordinary Hero Legend 2 player would have had trouble following this, but a rotten fossil like Yellow Storm would understand.
And sure enough, Cordelia nodded and said quietly.
"Good reception."
It was radio jargon meaning she had understood properly, and one of Yellow Storm's characteristic ways of speaking.
"Ahem, I'm glad you seem to be in good health. It's late today, so I'll take my leave...... I'll see you next time."
"Ahem, it was a pleasure meeting you. I look forward to the day we meet again."
They couldn't have a proper conversation here anyway.
They had already decided when and where to meet, so it was better to part quickly.
When Cordelia and Yuder said that to each other and rose from their seats, the flustered ones this time were Maia and the female knight.
"Y, you're leaving already?"
"My lady?"
They were so surprised that even Maia's usually expressionless face filled with astonishment.
But Yuder and Cordelia had already reached an agreement and even exchanged farewells.
Yuder smiled awkwardly and saw off Yellow Storm—no, Cordelia, and Cordelia likewise exited with an awkward smile and quick steps.
"Young master? What in the world......."
"Hmm, indeed."
What in the world was going on?
But one fact was certain.
The appearance of an ally who would believe Yuder's words and take his side.
Yuder stared at the reception-room doorway through which Cordelia had left, then clenched his fist.
* * *
Count Bayel, Yuder Bayel's father, was away on a northern expedition together with the heir, Gale Bayel—that is, Yuder's older brother.
Though it was called an expedition, it was essentially the annual northern monster subjugation: a small-scale campaign lasting about a month from departure to return.
In any case, thanks to that, the already quiet household was even quieter. Most of the vassals had followed his father and brother on the expedition.
Yuder, who had finished his dinner alone in his room, waited eagerly for midnight to come.
And finally, deep into the night, midnight arrived.
Yuder slipped out of his room and hurried toward the garden.
Judging by the season, it was still summer, but perhaps because this was the north, the night air was cold.
'She'll be able to find her way here, right?'
Standing under the large tree that was the promised spot, Yuder looked up at the night sky with a worried face.
'It really is Pleiades.'
Two moons hung in the sky.
Selene and Helene.
The twin goddesses who illuminated the night sky.
Seeing the two moons with his own eyes was far more beautiful and mysterious than seeing them through virtual reality.
"Hey."
It was right at that moment. Snapped back to attention by a faint voice, Yuder pressed himself close to the wall and looked up to see who had spoken.
It was a red-haired girl wearing a brown hood pulled down firmly, reminiscent of the robes of monks.
"Yellow Storm."
"Outboxer009."
When he spoke quietly, an equally quiet voice came back.
And then, plop.
Cordelia, who had crossed over the wall using fly magic, looked at Yuder with a face full of all sorts of mixed emotions.
"Really, for real?"
"Yeah, really, for real."
They had just confirmed each other's nicknames, after all.
"This really sucks."
"What does?"
"That I'm insanely glad to see you, even though it's you."
Yuder nodded at Cordelia's words. He felt the same way.
He had thought he had fallen alone into a completely different world, so finding someone familiar—someone who truly knew the same world he did—made him happier than words could express.
"Since when?"
"Two days ago. You?"
"Me too, two days ago."
"You just opened your eyes and found yourself here?"
"For now."
Yuder and Cordelia squatted beneath the tree at almost the same time and looked at each other.
Cordelia spoke first this time.
"Hey, but shouldn't the guy be the one coming over for this kind of thing? How can you make a girl climb over the wall of a guy's house?"
"Where's this sudden sexism coming from? And don't you know Yuder? Yuder Bayel. Nine Yin Meridian Blockage. How am I supposed to climb over a wall?"
Come to think of it, that wasn't the only thing.
"And since when were you a girl?"
"Since birth."
"Huh?"
"Since birth, you crazy bastard."
At Cordelia's confession that wasn't quite a confession, Yuder blinked, then spoke in a bewildered voice.
"Yellow Storm was a girl?"
"And you, were you a guy?"
"Well, I was a guy."
"I was a girl."
"O, oh."
Come to think of it, they had known each other for five years already, but they had never even done the most basic voice chat. When they met in the game, they naturally met as game characters, so there was no way to tell.
"Anyway, that's not what's important."
When Yuder spoke, Cordelia frowned slightly but nodded.
What mattered was that Outboxer009 had become Yuder, Yellow Storm had become Cordelia, and this world was the world of Hero Legend 2.
Yuder decided to start by checking the basics.
"You too? That...... rather than the feeling of having entered the game, it's more like your 'past life' was Outboxer...... I mean, Yellow Storm."
"Me too. So you're the same."
At a glance, there might not seem to be much difference, but in fact, there was a decisive difference between the two.
Whether return was possible.
If they had truly been reborn into Pleiades, the world of Hero Legend 2, then there would be no destination called "return." Since they had been reborn in the first place, where would they return to?
But neither Yuder nor Cordelia thought deeply about that. It was partly because they each felt such a strong sense of reality in being Yuder and Cordelia, but more importantly, there was a more pressing matter right in front of them.
"The Great Summoning Ritual," they said in unison.
The event that would serve as the trigger for angels and demons to descend in earnest.
At first, they had only thought about becoming stronger so they could survive the era of the Great Upheaval, but that alone was not enough.
They had to prevent the Great Summoning Ritual itself, which would bring ruin to this world.
Of course, it was a daunting prospect.
The descent of angels and demons was truly a fate-like event for the world of Pleiades.
No matter how much of a rotten fossil Yuder was, doing it alone was absolutely impossible.
But what if there were two of them instead of one?
And what if the server's #1 and #2 worked together?
"On top of that, our picks are good."
Yuder Bayel and Cordelia Chase.
Both were non-mainstream characters far from being overpowered, but the pick Yuder was talking about wasn't simply about performance.
Cordelia smiled bitterly and said.
"Perfect for splitting the loot."
"Bingo."
Because Yuder was a martial artist, and Cordelia was a mage.
Just like any other finite resource, the fortuitous encounters and items scattered throughout Pleiades were limited in number.
If Yuder and Cordelia had been characters walking the same path, they would inevitably have gotten in each other's way of growth.
But the two were a martial artist and a mage, and so, just as Cordelia said, they could amicably split the goods of Pleiades between them.
"To think we'd form a party here when we never did once in five years......."
"Right, the world really is a twisted place."
Being reborn in the world of a game was absurd enough, but to be reborn together with the eternal second-place bastard—and as an engaged couple, no less.
"Anyway, since it's come to this, I'd like to ask for your cooperation."
"What kind of cooperation?"
"We need to cure the Nine Yin Meridian Blockage."
"Doesn't that get cured automatically through an event?"
That was true.
If you played as Yuder Bayel and made it through the first half-year, an event would occur in which the Count Chase Household obtained a cure for the Nine Yin Meridian Blockage and sent it to the Count Bayel Household.
In other words, if you just waited quietly, the Nine Yin Meridian Blockage could be cured.
But at Cordelia's question, Yuder clicked his tongue and said.
"That's why you're the eternal second place."
"What?"
"Hey, be honest. You've never played Yuder, have you?"
"No, I have? I have played him? I know he gets cured because I played him?"
"Then how can you say that? That we should just wait half a year and get treated?"
Half a year was 6 months, 6 months was 180 days, 180 days was a whopping 4,320 hours.
It was far too long a time to waste away idly.
At Yuder's point, Cordelia frowned and retorted.
"Then what do you want to do?"
"We cure it before then. Using every trick in the book."
Using methods that only rotten fossils like them—players who had gone beyond ordinary veteran status—could pull off.
"Come closer."
Yuder gestured to Cordelia once more and began to explain.