And Then It All Came Tumbling Down
And then, it all went wrong.
The sun came up.
We'd had our fill of fun and retreated to our respective rooms to sleep, but sleeping had never been a particularly important mechanic in Deoen anyway, so we only dozed for a couple of hours or so. When you logged into Deoen, your real-world body naturally slipped into sleep mode. Stamina and health recovered through potions, food, or special facilities — meaning that unless you were settling in for a long stay, the bed in your room was essentially decorative.
Click.
Fwooo~
When I slid open the door to the room's terrace, Kiki Island spread out before me in the pale hush of a dawn that hadn't quite broken yet. Must have been around five in the morning. I stood there breathing in the crisp morning air, letting my mind drift back to the conversation from a few hours earlier.
'...That's enough. Actually, one more question.'
'Hmm? Anything. Just say the word.'
'This "luck" I have. Is it some kind of power someone bestowed on me?'
I hadn't noticed before I'd become aware of it, but now that I was paying attention, I could clearly feel the power that had been granted to me.
Kiki.
A power that carried the will of someone else. In a way, it might resemble the authority of the Celestials or the Demonkin, but there was an absolute gulf in strength between them. Still, the ability itself was genuine, so calling it a scaled-down version of those two races' powers wouldn't have been far off the mark.
'At least, within the island.'
Alice nodded, her face flushed red.
'Th-that's right. The Great Races of Kiki Island bestow blessings on the island's residents. Those blessings are the very foundation of Kiki Island — its most important truth. The luck you carry, Darling, the Charm I carry, all the KP on Kiki Island — every bit of it is part of the blessing.'
Alice poured the words out in a rush, as if she'd been waiting for the chance.
Listening to her, a question suddenly occurred to me.
'...Charm? Charm was a blessing?'
'Mm-hmm...'
Something had felt off, so I'd naturally blocked it — and to think that something had been Charm.
Alice nodded and let out an awkward little laugh.
'I think it's changed now, but...'
Far from charming me, she'd been the one charmed. And at that fact, Alice —exasperated and yet somehow delighted at the same time — had sidled up to Lily with a coquettish smile.
'There are six Blessings of the Great Races. Gather all six blessings they've bestowed, and you can meet a special being. One who holds the blessing of "Wish." Meeting that being is my goal.'
'...I see.'
'So... anything else you're curious about...?'
'No. I'll be going now.'
'If you ever want to know more about the blessings, come find me anytime.'
I'll be waiting.
"...Bizarre. Completely bizarre."
With that brief flashback concluded, I rested both arms on the terrace railing and let out a small sigh. Why try to seduce someone on a whim, then turn around and fall for them on her own whim? And she's the one holding the blessing of Charm, no less. I couldn't make heads or tails of it.
"...I honestly didn't expect any of this."
In the past, plenty of people had approached me boldly because of my looks. Part of it was surely because I'd been a Saintess, but seven out of ten — no, if they were men, ten out of ten — had come up to me on account of my face. People sidling up and trying to get close under the pretense of friendliness, people pretending to be patients so they could furtively attempt physical contact, people brazenly reaching out to grab me, people launching sudden confession attacks... and so on, and so on.
There had been hundreds, thousands of variations.
And when it came to those confession attacks, women were no exception either.
Blood of the Celestials.
I was human, but because Celestial blood flowed in my veins, I'd been born with looks that broke every norm. And yet they carried no unsettling wrongness, no instinctive sense of something alien — an appearance with genuinely fraudulent specifications packed into it. It drew crowds wherever I went; on busy streets I would hide myself or change my face with illusion magic.
But Deoen was a little different.
Perhaps because it had become a "virtual reality" game, the number of approaches had dropped dramatically compared to before. The interest itself was the same or greater, but the actual approaches — literally — had dwindled, so I'd figured things had improved a little.
"...Whatever."
We were leaving the island soon anyway. Alice wouldn't cling to me once we were off it either. There was just one thing that grated on me...
"Could you please stop laughing?"
Kiki.
That laughter from "the presence" — I'd started hearing it at some point. That was probably the so-called Great Race Alice had mentioned. I had no idea why it had chosen me, but my plan was to enjoy the island in moderation and move on. I wasn't going to gather every blessing and claim some special prize like a Masterpiece.
"Actually, could you give yours to Alice instead?"
Kiki?
Kiki.
"If you'd rather not, forget it."
If it said no, so be it. I looked straight at the exact spot where the presence was and spoke. The Great Race seemed slightly taken aback, but it was soon kiki-ing away again, circling around me as it always did.
I'll have to find some way to shut it up once we leave the island.
And with that, I returned to my room.
"GYAAAAAH!!"
And then, it all went wrong.
"?"
"Aww, you didn't even flinch."
Seeing me react not at all, White Autumn awkwardly shut the mouth she'd been shouting with.
"I told you she wouldn't be surprised, Unnie."
"What are you all doing here?"
"Sorry. This wasn't why we came, but then Gaeul Unnie suddenly..."
"You said it'd be fun too!"
"Still, notifying you comes first. Something serious might have happened."
"?"
We were supposed to gather for breakfast at eight — so why were they here two hours early? And just the two of them, no less. Jjoa spoke in a tone tinged with worry.
"Um... Battery and Hyuji never came back to their rooms. Even now."
"Maybe they're just out having fun?"
"That's possible, but the two of them have only been together since around eleven at night. I don't think they'd keep playing straight through until six in the morning."
"......"
Seven hours. You could call it a short time for playing around, but seven hours with a coworker you'd only just gotten to know was pushing it. And it wasn't as if they'd be goofing off inside a room, either.
White Autumn, her expression uncharacteristically grave, came over to stand beside me and Jjoa.
"So I tried calling them. Neither of them picked up. I went out and asked on Discord too — no answer."
"Deoen messages too?"
"Yes."
"......"
I checked their connection status through the party system. Both were still connected, perfectly healthy. But it only said they were on Kiki Island — nothing about where. If something had gone wrong in the real world, Deoen would have logged them out, so it couldn't be a reality-side problem.
Which left exactly one possibility.
Something has gone wrong for them inside Deoen.
"...What about Apple Flavor?"
"Ah. They said they'd go check with the lobby desk real quick. In case the two of them came back, just in case."
"Let's head out for now."
"Eh?"
"Oh, a barrier."
Somehow, I had a bad feeling about this.
Kiki.
Somewhere beneath Kiki Island.
A man with dusty-blue hair looked at the two men locked behind bars.
"......"
"......"
Already consumed by their blessings, the two stared blankly at nothing in particular.
"I grabbed them for now, but... what exactly do you plan to do with them?"
Good question.
A voice, deep and measured, answered the man from beyond the screen.
Crere — master of Kiki Island and bearer of the Blessing of Hierarchy — tilted his head with a flourish, brandishing the badge held in his hand. A new kind of badge, dyed in gold. The man glanced at it, swallowed hard, and turned his gaze back.
"You do realize that if this comes to light later, we're in serious trouble? When Lily finds out, she will not let this slide."
I'm well aware.
How could he not be? He had witnessed, with his own eyes, her carving up a level-140 World Boss. Honestly, when Lily had first set foot on his island, he'd been rather tense. If she'd come to clear the dungeon, he would have had to fight with everything he had. And even if he had fought, his odds of winning had been vanishingly slim.
But that hadn't been it at all.
Lily had come purely, genuinely, to enjoy herself.
And that had given Crere a great deal of both time and conviction.
The Queen approached Lily. In the process, she interfered with Hierarchy quite a bit.
"Didn't you say Charm didn't work on her? Can Hierarchy manage it?"
My goal isn't to beat Lily.
Beat Lily? Why would anyone even speak of beating her? Naturally she'd win — and even in the freak event that someone did win, in the end they'd still lose. For Crere, whose mission was to build Kiki Island into the finest tourist destination, such posturing was counterproductive.
It seems the blessings are about to be gathered.
The Queen believed she had released her blessing-bearers — but it was precisely the opposite.
His own Hierarchy and the Queen's Charm. The three remaining blessings already caught in his grasp, and the Luck that Lily carried. He had been waiting for the moment when all of them would be gathered in one place. An unforeseen variable named Lily had entered the picture, yes — but if anything, that was a stroke of fortune.
Luck can never be claimed by anyone who isn't strong enough to bear it.
We summon Lily to this place and force open the Great Altar. Then we steal her Luck.
"And after that, use 'Wish' to block Lily's retaliation?"
Exactly.
According to the Great Races themselves and the dungeon's own documentation, the blessing of "Wish" was a power beyond even Mythic grade — what one might call Trans-Mythic. No matter how formidable Lily was, she could not block an ability of that tier. Granted, this was all strictly a matter inside Deoen; in the real world, Lily could still expose the truth of Kiki Island to the public...
But once I have Wish, a little exposé like that is nothing.
It wouldn't even register as an inconvenience.
With my Hierarchy and your Illusion, we can buy a little time. All that matters is holding out for roughly ten seconds.
"I'm picturing the hammer coming down on us."
Even if it does, hand her as much Illusion as you can. That's the only way your Wish gets granted too.
"...Fine."
If it meant getting his wish granted.
Clang!
"Nnngh!"
"You're not fired, Ms. Lily!"
The two sank deeper and deeper into their illusions. The Illusion-blessed giver, apparently dissatisfied with something, turned his head toward the screen.
"But will two men really be enough? Even if it's Lily — what if she just leaves them behind and walks off? It's not like they'd actually die."
Absolutely not. Knowing Lily's character as I've observed it, she is not one to let that pass. More importantly, if we bring them too, there'll be no one left to warn her — the two women are always together anyway.
"Not two. There's one more, isn't there?"
The timid little peach who'd just been promoted this round.
Crere nodded absently, as if he couldn't be bothered.
By the way — is that one a man or a woman?
"No idea. We'll find out when we grab them."