No Way That's Possible
Yena had been in a remarkably good mood lately.
Her guild, -Ye-, was growing at a healthy clip, and thanks to Lily, her streams were on an unprecedented upswing. Newtube's algorithm had sent her subscriber count soaring, and her Twitch numbers had climbed from a modest 20,000 viewers to brushing 40,000–50,000 on content days.
Of course, all of it was thanks to Lily.
Lily herself seemed blissfully unaware of her own standing, but even at this very moment, people eager to forge any kind of connection with her were lining up out the door. Eighty percent of the emails that flooded Yena's inbox these days were some variation of "Introduce me to Lily."
She's not my property, so what exactly do they expect me to do about it?
Recently Yena had helped Lily out with copyright issues and a few Newtube matters to repay her kindness, but she hadn't done it expecting anything in return. She was already being compensated more than generously, after all. And no matter how often the two of them streamed together, handing Lily out to just anyone wouldn't have been fair to Lily either.
"I should've asked her to come with me."
Yena swallowed a curse as she trekked across the Great Desert, the scorched expanse that separated the Empire's territory from the neutral city of Runos. Of all the days for the intercontinental gate to malfunction, it had to drop her right in the middle of the desert.
It was one of those rare "glitch events." Being an event, it occasionally transported travelers to some strange pocket of space, sometimes leading to hidden dungeons or hidden items. But because it was truly occasional, it could just as easily dump you somewhere completely meaningless.
So this is just a total dud.
Of all places, she'd been dropped dead center of a desert crossing. No dungeon, no hidden anything—just sand as far as the eye could see.
Gritting her teeth, Yena resolved to squeeze a generous settlement out of the gate keeper. This wasn't a joke.
"Ugh... it's so hot..."
Anyone crossing this kind of desert was supposed to come prepared with heat-resistant gear, items, or consumable drinks. But all Yena had on her were two cans of Blue Palm Ade she'd packed for that ocean trip a while back. Their entire effect: a little sweet, a little cool.
The original plan had been to arrive in Runos through the gate and pick up the Mirage Palm Drink—a beverage that could only be bought locally there. At around 3 gold it was fairly pricey, but it was a magic drink that kept your body temperature normal for three hours after a single sip. On top of that, it boosted mana regeneration, which was why users who dabbled in trading would stop by Runos and buy it by the crate...
"Argh, seriously! I'm getting a hundred gold out of them for this..."
Hot. Hot hot hot...
Yena lifted her head. Runos shimmered faintly on the horizon—visible, but only barely. She still had a long, long way to go.
"...I miss Lily."
Today of all days, I really miss her.
"Fiiinally here!!"
She'd made it at last. Runos was already teeming with people.
Yena hurried straight to the shop selling the Mirage Palm Drink—only to find it in complete chaos.
"Get me one, quick!"
"Mister, three palm drinks!"
"You don't sell the leaf fruit?"
"Get in line, people, line! Tsk. Outsiders."
"I'm selling Mirage Palm Drinks for 5 gold~"
The shop had been bedlam from the moment she arrived. Since the Mock Siege Battle team draft was being held in the city square itself, crowds had poured into Runos just to watch the selection. Lending out a neutral city to outsiders wasn't exactly welcome from a territory manager's perspective, but with travelers flooding in, the city came out ahead in the end. And since the users labeled "outsiders" didn't side with anyone in particular, there wasn't really any problem at all.
Yena tilted her head and eyed the line. Somehow, waiting in it felt like it would never end.
Then she stepped out of the shop's front and turned her head—and spotted a familiar face.
"Mirage Palm Drinks, 5 gold~"
Barely a meter away stood a user who had hoarded an armful of palm drinks and was now shamelessly hawking them like a street peddler. It was flat-out illegal, but the shop owner seemed too overwhelmed by the crush of customers to pay him any mind.
"Excuse me."
"Yes! One drink... oh? Aren't you Yena? Wow~ it's been ages!"
The scalper greeted her cheerfully. Yena knew him—the sort who wandered every region snapping up goods and turning a quick profit off them. She vaguely recalled him getting caught at this kind of thing a few times and doing stints in jail for it. She'd bought from him plenty of times herself, too.
The difference between him and a proper trader was simple: a trader hauled goods in from distant lands to sell, while this guy just bought up local stock and resold it at a markup. A total lunatic, in other words.
A lunatic—but undeniably convenient.
"Uh, hey... you're, um... Great Merchant, right?"
"Ah! You remember me. That's right, it's Great Merchant!"
He laughed heartily and flashed a friendly wave. Then he scratched his beard, went oh!, and clapped his hands together.
"Come to think of it, you're in the Mock Siege Battle too, aren't you, Yena? Man, I'll be rooting for you!"
"Well, I'll take the goodwill, thanks. I'm actually here to buy a Mirage Palm Drink."
"Perfect timing—I've got exactly two left! Talk about lucky."
Great Merchant pulled two glasses of the drink from his Ice Box, one of his class skills. The cocktail-looking beverage granted a special buff just from drinking it. He handed both over with a warm, people-pleasing smile.
"That's 10 gold, but you're a regular, so I'll knock it down to 9."
"Thanks. Just don't end up in jail again, okay?"
"I've been honing my personal strength lately, you see. I can shrug off most city guards these days. I'm not the man I used to be."
Yena snorted at his booming laughter, offered a parting farewell, and watched him bound off in search of his next fortune.
Two drinks hung in her hand.
"I'll drink one... and give the other to Lily."
Lily said she'd turn her stream on once she reached Runos, so I can give it to her then—
"Oh! It's Lily!"
There, in the distance, stood someone who could only be Lily. That ocean-blue hair, that face and figure that were gorgeous even from far away. The pristine white holy-maiden outfit suited her so perfectly it felt like it had been tailored for Lily alone.
And beside her was a little girl wreathed in spirits, ah—
"Eh?"
No way... Lady Leo?
"LILY!!!"
"Ah, Yena."
Yena, who had been a speck in the distance, arrived in front of us in the blink of an eye. An assassin through and through—her speed alone was in a league of its own.
Yena smiled and held out one of the drinks to me.
"I was going to message you, but you'd already left. Oh, Lady Leo's here too!"
"Hello, Yena!"
"I was off hunting for a bit, so... Lady Leo here gave me a hand as well."
"Is that so? Haha."
Yena chuckled, looking a little awkward.
Is she not close with Leo?
I tilted my head and accepted the drink. A tiny palm fruit nestled into a swaying blue ice-glass. It was about the size of a ping-pong ball. The taste was something like lemonade... and yet somehow unlike anything I'd had before.
"It's delicious."
"It's hard to get your hands on, you know. Took me quite the effort."
Ahem! Yena launched into the harrowing tale of her journey here. From the sound of it, her gate had malfunctioned and she'd been forced to cross the desert on foot from the halfway point...
"You went through a lot. I feel like I should repay you for this..."
"Crossing the desert and the drink aren't really related. I just happened to end up with two when I bought."
"Then... I'll gratefully drink it."
"Yep. Hehe."
Scriiitch.
Something tugged at my sleeve. I looked down to find Leo's compact little face staring up at me with huge, sparkling eyes—staring, to be precise, at the drink in my hand.
"I-I wanna dwink it too..."
Oh.
"......"
I didn't resist the sleeve-tugging. I simply sank down onto one knee so I could meet Leo at eye level.
"Shall I give you some?"
"Yes!"
"Yena."
"...Oh, uh, yes?"
"Would it be alright if I gave her about half?"
I looked up at Yena, still on one knee. She'd gone to such trouble to get this for me—giving it straight to someone else would have been rude.
Yena glanced back and forth between Leo and me, swinging her head like a spectator at a tennis match, then finally gave a reluctant nod.
I took out an empty glass from my inventory and poured half of the drink into it. Leo gulped it down, beaming like a ray of sunshine.
"...Nope. No way that's possible."
"Hm?"
"Nothing! We should get going—it sounds like things are about to start."
Yena laughed it off and marched ahead of us. I briefly wondered what that strange reaction was about, but then fell into step behind her alongside Leo, who was happily savoring her drink.