“Hahahaha”
“What’s so funny?”
“No, it’s just that even if you are a copy of me you are not like me at all. Anyway, it’s not like you will not gain anything by ‘marrying’ me in this game.”
The stick and now the carrot? Of course, I was forced to use both of them in order to survive but I merely adopted that approach from the people who are leading me on.
“Do you want to see the outside world again?”
“Of course, I do.”
“Then you should just agree to add me as your partner and wife.”
“But what do you get out of this?”
“Does it matter to you?”
“Yes, actually it matters a lot.”
Depending on the reason why she was doing this, I would decide to go along with this or not.
Helena sighed.
“I just wanted to make amends for getting you involved in this. Would you believe me if I said that?”
“No, actually I don’t. That’s why I asked what’s in it for you.”
“But it’s the truth. I wanted to have this conversation in private.”
Helena glared at Lain and Celestina. Lain stuck her tongue out in response.
“Bleh!”
Sigh.
“Well, I guess they aren’t really alive so it doesn’t matter if they hear us.”
“What I wanted to say is that, I am sorry. You were going to die anyway and I didn’t really think this was the way to save you, but I have come to realise that you are still alive here, and I hate to have unpaid debts.”
I convinced Celestina that this was just a temporary situation in order to do some investigations myself but Lain was unconvinced that I would get rid of Helena later on.
I resisted the urge to cop a feel because Helen could still see and feel everything that I could. The unfamiliar ceiling above my head was what I first saw when I opened my eyes, well that and the Augmented Reality menu which I had myself created. I dismissed it out of my field of view to have a look at reality for one more time even if it was just through someone else’s eyes.
“Where am I?”
“In my studio flat obviously.”
“I see.”
I agreed that I would switch control with Helena when she’s using the toilet to avoid anything too awkward. Of course, whether or not I would switch was up to me.
“Do you want to go to your home in Scotland? Or… to visit your loved ones?”
“No, there’s something much closer. I want to meet Chamberlain. You are his secretary, you should be able to arrange that.”
“Do you mean — you want to—”
“No, I don’t want to kill him. Or harm in any way.”
No, not now anyway.
“Okay, let me take over and make some phone calls.”
—
“Fortunately, he is in London today. As you heard, he agreed to meet us at midnight in St Paul’s Cathedral.”
“It’s still 6am. It shouldn’t take us an hour to go to St. Paul’s. Is there anything you want to do or see before that?”
“Since we are in London, let’s go to Animate.”
“Ani-mate?”
Animate was the premiere anime-related goods store in the United Kingdom.
“Do I really have to go in there? Even if I am wearing sunglasses and a wig, it would be a problem if it came out that the prime minister’s secretary went into such a place.”
“Whatever happened to making amends?”
Sigh.
I entered the door to the 18+ section of Animate. The suspicious gaze of the balding 30+ year old unfashionable clientele of the store turned towards me, as it would be weird for an attractive woman like Helen Baker to ever enter. Of course what these nerds didn’t know was that I was responsible for the decline in the eroge market as younger people preferred VR porn over 2D.
“This is more embarrassing than if you saw me pee.”
“Do you want to test that theory?”
“What!?”
“Nothing. Pretend you didn’t hear that.”
Constantly being in Albion Online had dulled my senses as to what’s appropriate and not appropriate to say.
