I'd Have to Think It Over a Bit

“That’s good news. I’ll contact you separately later, Ms. Ophelia.”

“Yes, understood.”

It’s not finalized yet, but Nova Guild is also still reaching out to the administrators remaining in Oders. Since Oders borrowed money from the World Hunter Association, the public auction of Silence Laboratory is definitely going to be on a global scale, but...

As a rule, ownership of dungeon structures goes first to the local guild based in the country where the dungeon is primarily active.

Nova has tons of money and is the strongest of the strong, so wouldn’t it be natural for them to end up with ownership of Silence Laboratory? Of course, if it’s split by shares, it may not end up being completely 100 percent Nova’s! But there’s a high chance it’ll fall under Nova’s ownership by a large margin.

“Tower-type dungeon structure..!”

This is something ordinary hunters couldn’t even dream of. You’d need at least B-rank, and not just ordinary B-rank either—B-rank by the standards of rare classes like psychics or healers.

For ordinary frontline bruisers, tanks, or ranged dealers, you’d need to be around mid-tier A-rank before you could even think about it.

Building-type dungeon structures like Desert Mausoleum have a fixed difficulty value depending on their measured rank, and you can roughly grasp the situation inside from the outside.

These days there are even reconnaissance devices that can see inside like an X-ray, so you can figure out the layout and decide on fortress spots before you go.

But tower-type structures send you to another world the moment you go inside, so that’s impossible, and even going in and coming back out is limited.

“Ophelia, did you talk to them? What did they say??”

“I’ve conveyed it verbally, but I think we’ll be signing a proper contract with the necessary documents attached later.”

“Oooh.”

* * * * *

“Ooooh... that’s cool.”

Watching it in person has a thrill you can only feel on site, but that doesn’t mean videos are bad. When I watch those hunter battle highlight reels, I find myself thinking that—before awakening, I only vaguely thought, ‘This guy fights well.’

“Ah, it would’ve been nice if there were a hunter who could do long-range AoE attacks.”

The video shows an enormous swarm of bat monsters covering the sky. There are hunters who can attack from a distance, but because there isn’t a mage, they’re not making much progress in the subjugation.

—You see? There are more than a few people who died after casting spells in caves like this.

“Oh, an Indian.”

With such a unique accent that the Dangdang translation earbuds even glitched out for a moment, he goes on and on about this and that. I don’t know the details, but he’s an Indian uncle who keeps giving useful advice.

What to be careful of inside dungeons, what’s good to do in the dark, combinations and synergy between classes, counters between unit types, and so on.

“Huh, wait a second.”

After searching through videos on YouTube for a while, I realized...

“Whoa, I’m kind of cool. It feels like I’m learning statecraft or something?”

I’m not sure if stuff like this is part of statecraft, but that’s the vibe. It’s basically how to become a great commander. Come to think of it, if I want to recover a princess’s dignity, I should probably speak more coolly too. Maybe I should look into that as well.

“How to give... a cool... speech...”

—Do you want total war!!!

“Oh. This won’t do.”

An old man with a mustache was giving a speech in the video, and copying this seems like it would cause all kinds of problems. Besides, it doesn’t feel like it would help me much.

I need to make my speech sound a bit more aristocratic. Is there anything like that? A young lady’s way of speaking?

“Hmm... but are all of these really true..? Did people back then actually speak like this?”

Come to think of it, old-time young ladies didn’t speak Korean, right? It’s probably just a translation of English speech patterns. Honestly, just reading it on paper makes it look funny, but I guess it depends on who’s saying it.

If I say it, it might actually sound cool.

“Heave-ho.”

For now, I stood up from my seat and, based on the analysis of the materials floating on the screen...

“O, ohohohoh! You lowly commoners! You shall obey me!”

“Princess?”

“Eek.”

“What are you doing?”

I’d just tossed out a line or two when Ophelia suddenly burst in through the door, looking startled, and asked.

“Ah, n-no... just...? I was trying to see how a princess talks...”

“From what I can tell, the reference material you used doesn’t seem very good, Princess.”

“I think so too...”

After saying that, Ophelia quietly closed the door and left. No matter how I look at it, this feels like a royal family member who’ll eventually get caught in a peasant uprising or a coup. Being a princess isn’t easy at all.

Skills are steadily growing as my follower count increases, but it’s a shame I don’t feel like I’m growing myself. Then again, if I told Ophelia, she’d probably start something like princess training for real, which is scary.

“Sigh, Dangdang. Being a princess isn’t easy either.”

—beep..

In encouragement, Dangdang climbed onto the desk and started wildly shaking its little butt. Watching that stubby backside was so absurd it just made me laugh.

“Heehee, I feel better now. Want to go for a walk with Princess Dangdang?”

—beep beep!!

“All right, all right. I’ll ask Ophelia and get ready, so wait here.”

* * * * *

“Whew, it’s freezing.”

—beep..!

“Right? It feels like even your little butt is about to freeze solid.”

I came out for a walk to clear my head for a bit, but it’s way too cold. The dinosaurs that were sleeping might wake up, thinking the Ice Age has come back, or I might end up frozen in a glacier and wind up in the same situation as them.

Since I was going out for a walk anyway, Ophelia also asked me to run an errand and pick up a few things from a nearby mart, so I’m on my way there now.

“Dangdang, you remember the list well, right?? You have to be my navigation too.”

—beep-beep!

I only need to buy a few ingredients for cooking at the mart. After wandering around it for a bit and thinking things over, I feel like my head’s cleared up.

“Why are kids these days so tall? The world has really changed.”

—beep-beep....

But every kid I passed in the mart looked ridiculously tall. Some of them looked like total baby-faced shorties, yet they were taller than me. I’m so wronged I feel like I could cry.

“Sweetie, are you running an errand?”

“Huh? Ah, yes. I’m running an errand.”

“You’re young, but you’re doing great~”

At the checkout, I even got praised for doing my mart errand well. It does make me feel good, but I can feel the pride still left in my heart going clink-clink.

“Hmm...”

There was a wall section reflecting like a mirror, and when I stared at it for a moment, I could only see a grade-schooler’s face. A grade-schooler out on an errand.

“I really can’t believe this..!”

Maybe this isn’t the kind of look I want. Isn’t there something more mature and cool? I want to grow up fast—if I could speed time up 500 times, it’d be nice to become an adult right away.

“Sigh. Real time can’t even be skipped with game cash.”

—beep...

On the way home, Dangdang carried the bags. The little thing may be small, but it’s strong.

Should I even call it strong..? It can even balance a box on its head and walk just fine. It always claims to go on walks, but then just sits on top of my head and does a fake walk, so I made it exercise like this for once.

And something mildly nice happened on the way home, too.

“Hey, are you Eve by any chance?”

“Huh..?! Do you know me?”

“Ah, um... I followed you. Or maybe not..?”

“Gasp. That’s me.”

“Right?! You look exactly like your photos! So you really are a real person!?”

The young woman who had been crossing the crosswalk with me kept staring at me uncertainly, and then at the fork in the road she finally couldn’t help herself and spoke up.

“Hehe, I really am...”

“I really love your photos! Could you give me just one autograph?”

“A-autograph..?”

What do I do? I hadn’t imagined something like this, so I still hadn’t made an insanely cool autograph. The kind where a celebrity goes shaa-shaa-shaak, swoosh, and signs it with a slick flourish!

I wanted to write something like, ‘I am a princess. Please be happy.’ If I’d known I’d meet a fan like this, I should have made one ages ago..!

“J-just a moment..!”

“Sure! Take your time.”

It was strategy time for me and Dangdang. Though it looked absurdly stupid, I quickly asked Dangdang, who actually has AI functions, to give me ten draft candidates for an insanely cool autograph.

“Hmm, this one is good..!”

Meanwhile, the young woman fumbled around in her bag, pulled out a Post-it and a marker, and held them out to me.

“Do you have an autograph? If not, you can just write your name.”

“I-I do! I’ll do it.”

After receiving the marker from the fan I didn’t know the name of, I put it in Dangdang’s mouth and brought the Post-it to the tip of the marker.

—shrrrak, shashak....

“A-hem... here you go. Please treasure it.”

“Wow, your autograph is so cute!”

“Eep.”

Not cool, but cute. To me it looks super cool, but I guess reactions can differ a little from person to person.

“Well then, I’ll be going.”

“Okay! Keep up the good work!”

The young woman who got my autograph nodded and carefully tucked the Post-it with my signature into her inner pocket. Come to think of it, if my SNS account has 1 million followers, doesn’t that mean that among 50 people walking down the street, at least one of them has to be my follower?

Strictly speaking, a pretty large share of my followers are foreigners, so in Korea it might not be like that. Still, statistically, that’s how it is.

“Hehe, I can feel my confidence starting to rise!”

When I get home, I should practice my autograph hard. This time was my first try, so I left it to Dangdang, but later I’ll have to do it myself and make it look insanely cool with a shaa-shaa-shak flourish. And maybe only give that as a special service to longtime fans; if I hand out too many autographs, the value will drop, right?

“Heehee.”

Later, if I sign papers and sell them online, they’ll go for like 1 million won each. I can use that for pocket money.

* * * * *

“Ophelia! I’m home!”

“Princess, you’ve returned safely.”

“Yep. I bought the things you asked me to get, too.”

“Thank you.”

Ophelia took out the things I bought one by one and checked them, then nodded and praised me for doing a good job. My head had felt a little heavy, but meeting a fan made it feel lighter.

“Ophelia. I’m going to study hard and use my ability properly!”

“You mean study.”

Mmm—Ophelia closed her eyes gently, then opened her mouth as if something had come to mind.

“Princess. Then would you like to go to school?”

“Huh.”

I’ve confirmed that there are schools for awakeners, and that they receive substantial support at the institutional level. It’s a school where general subjects are shared with non-awakeners, and special subjects are offered for awakeners.

“T-there’s something like that..?”

“Yes. There is still time until the semester starts in March, but applications for admission are open at any time.”

Of course, I did say I’d study hard... but go back to school..?

‘Then where would I go? Elementary school?’

I’m not sure about that.