Book 9: Chapter 11:

Construction on the secret project might have begun, but there was something else that everybody deemed far more important to take care of first.

And that something was finally coming up with a name for their town.

It was basically the capital of of the region with Nell as the regional leader calling it her home, but they still had no name for it. Even after dozens of players moved in, causing NPCs to spawn and travel to the town to live there as well, they still lacked any sort of proper name for it. “Nameless” was the most commonly used name, and that was only ever intended to be used as a jab at Fenrir and Nell for not figuring something out yet.

After all, most people didn’t struggle to name places in the world of Fantasy Tales Online. It was an online roleplaying game. Sure, the virtual assistants and Kadi might have tried to keep things consistent and lore-friendly at first, but they loosened their standards in regard to player appearance and the naming of things. Technology was still limited as strictly as ever, but not other creations.

Rainbow Afro never would have been allowed to look so fabulous back in the early beta days of the game due to that breaking immersion too much. But now? There was nothing wrong with him and his decision to rainbowify as much as possible.

That was just one example of players easily coming up with themes for their villages. Does the founder like rainbows? Then everything would be rainbows. Maybe the leader liked garlic? Then they would name their village after garlic. What about unicorns? Trolls? Poop emojis? It was extremely easy to come up with a name, even a stupid one, and that was why everybody found it annoying that it was taking so long to come up with one.

But Fenrir and Nell wanted the perfect name.

Unfortunately, they were never able to think of one, so that was why they organized a public vote and put a name suggestion box in the center of town for everybody.

And now it was finally time to actually decide on a name. Fenrir and Nell promised themselves that they would not be waking from virtual reality until a name was settled on.

Now, while Nell finished getting ready with her maids who were handling her makeup and hair, Fenrir rested the back of his head against Cassiel’s thighs and whined.

“You sound like a puppy,” Cassiel said. “It’s… kind of cute. But also, you’re a grown man. Stop whining.”

“But Caaaaassssssss,” Fenrir whined, “what if they vote on a stupid name I don’t like?”

“Then you should have come up with a name on your own sooner.”

“Can’t they just be happy not having a name? I mean, come on. Who needs an easy way to reference a location? Who needs a specific name for a group to feel a belonging to it? Hey, it’s not too late to call it off, become dictators, and tell them to deal with it, is it?”

“I’m about to smack you off my lap.”

“Please no. Your thighs are the only things keeping me going right now. I love your thighs, Cass Cass.”

“You’re such a weirdo.”

“Maybe that’s what I should name this place. Thighsville. Make it a law that everybody has to walk around with exposed thighs.”

“No.”

“What about Dogsville? Everybody is mandated by law to have a pet dog?”

“That’s better, but no.”

Fenrir sighed. “Seriously, I’m just… clueless when it comes to this sort of stuff. I always let Olly and Bone pick names for everything back in the day, but Olly has no interest in helping and Bone is—well, you know. Kind of not exactly around anymore.”

“Does he still have you blocked?”

“Yeah. Either I’m blocked or he changed all his accounts on everything.”

“Do you miss him?”

“Yeah. I feel like I shouldn’t, but… we spent all those years together. But I’m selfish. I want to be friends with him, but only if he changes. I should want to be friends with who he is, not who he could be, or something like that.”

“That’s pretty mature sounding coming from somebody who’s been whining and pouting on my thighs for the last thirty minutes.”

“Caaaaaaaasssssssssssss! I want to stay on your thighs forever! Can I marry your thighs instead of you?”

Naturally, such a question prompted Cassiel to pinch and pull on one of Fenrir’s canid ears. ‘Want to ask that again?”

“O-ow-ow! Alright, alright. I’m sorry. I’ll marry you and then marry your thighs.”

“He-hey… you can’t just… say you’re going to marry me so casually.”

“Why not?”

“Because! That’s serious!”

“I guess so, but at the same time… isn’t it obvious we’re all going to get married?”

“I—I mean… I… I guess so, but still! It’s… it’s embarrassing if you talk about it like that. And aren’t you supposed to wait and not talk about it until after you’ve proposed or something?!”

“Want me to propose right now? I can propose right now if you don’t mind me doing ot from your lap.”

“I…”

“Cass, will you—”

“At least use my real name!”

“Wait, do you actually want me to?”

“Well, you—you offered! And… like you said… it’s obvious. And I’m not somebody who cares about a fancy proposal or anything, so…”

“I think we talked about something like that before. It was uh… after that one movie, right? With the girl who fell in love with a dragon? And then Serra and Nell went to grab ice cream but we were too tired to go with them?”

“Yeah. That movie was weird.”

“Well, it was recommended by Aza, so. But yeah. I remember you saying uh… it would piss your dad off if you just went and got a drive-thru marriage, right?”

“Yeah. He hates me dating you. He’d hate it even more if I got married without letting him advise how the wedding is supposed to go.”

“Alright. Then, hey, Cassandra, wanna marry me?”

“Is—is that supposed to be the proposal?”

“Yep.”

Cassiel stared at Fenrir with a blank face before grabbing him by the sides of his face, lifting him up, and placing her lips down against his own for a kiss. “Fine. Bastard.”

“I’ve always wanted to be called a bastard after having my marriage proposal unenthusiastically accepted.”

“You’re seriously so weird.”

“Love you too.”

“And it’s not like I was trying to be unenthusiastic! Just, you know. How else am I supposed to act? It’s not like I’ve been proposed to before.”

“I think you’re supposed to cry and scream from how happy you are.”

“Not happening.”

“Hmm. I’m not sure then—wait. There’s something that you can do for me. Something that would make me beyond happy.”

“Wh-what?”

“Lean forward enough so that your boobs are pressing down against my face while I use your lap as a pillow. I want to be sandwiched between your thighs and your boobs.”

“…”

“Please.”

“…”

“I need this, Cass Cass.”

“…”

“I’ll make you the happiest girl in the world for the rest of your life if you do it for me.”

“You’re—you’re so weird… how am I even… what am I supposed to do?”

“Lean forward and apply your boobs directly to my face.”

Fenrir got to see an adorable blush on Cassiel’s face before she leaned forward and consumed his sight with the overwhelming power of her breasts. Said overwhelming breasts then came down directly against her face, surrounding him with their warmth through the shirt that she wore under her armor. “Am… am I doing it right?” she asked.

He gave her a thumbs-up since his voice would have been too muffled to give a proper response.

“You weird bastard. But… I love you. And… if you like this sort of thing… I’ll do it for you whenever you want. But not in real life. I can tell my back would hurt if I tried this there.”

He gave her another thumbs-up as he enjoyed being sandwiched between two of the softest places that existed within the world of Fantasy Tales Online.

Life is good, Fenrir thought.

Life was good, rather. Fenrir never dreaded hearing Nell enter the room more than when he heard her shout out, “My hero! Let us not keep the crowd waiting any—ah. Am I interrupting?”

He turned his head onto its side so that he could actually speak and look at her.

As dressed and prettied up as Nell was, Fenrir honestly couldn’t say that he was a fan. He liked how she looked when she was more simple than wearing a ridiculous amount of jewelry with makeup all over her face, but it was what she wanted and how the maids insisted on preparing her anyways. She really did look like a proper queen.

Cassiel, on the other hand, was much more impressed. “Woah… you look beautiful.”

“Thank you, my dearest Cassiel,” Nell said and followed up with a curtsy. “I wanted to make sure that I look the part!”

“I think it’s probably overboard for what you’re doing, but you look great. Like… I would have imagined you looking like this for some important global meeting, not just for picking out a name for this place.”

“On the contrary, who better to dress in such a way than for our people? If I cannot present myself as such before our people, why would I do it for others? They do not deserve more than our own.”

“It’s too much makeup,” Fenrir said, “but I still love you and think you’ll be an incredible leader.”

“Thank you, my hero! Now, are you going to accompany me as my champion, or are you going to stay there?”

“I’m coming, I’m coming.”

“Oh! And before I forget.”

“Yeah?”

“Perhaps it is selfish of me, but I will be expecting a much grander proposal than what you gave Cassiel.”

“You heard that?”

“I was only in the connected room and your voice is louder than you know. Also, congrats on your engagement!” Nell turned her attention to Cassiel. “How does it feel to be engaged?”

“E-engaged? I—I guess… I technically am now. Uhh, it feels… nice, I guess?” Cassiel answered.

“You sound very unimpressed.”

“I’m not! It’s just—I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel. I mean, I’m happy. Super happy. But like… we’re still us. It’s not like anything is going to be that different, right? Even if we’re engaged, and even after we get married, our life is just going to continue on like always. The only thing that would seriously make it different is if we have kids. But even then, it would be the same… just with kids. It’s not like we’re going to treat each other any differently, though, right?”

“Ahh, I see! So that is how you look at it. That is precious in its own way. It is true, too! Personally, I am a lover of drama and making a scene, so I would adore a proper proposal and wedding. Not that either is a requirement, of course, but I would appreciate them!”

“We’ll give you one,” Fenrir said. “Well, at least the proposal part.”

“Then I shall look forward to it! Now, let us not keep the crowd waiting any longer! They are going to revolve if we keep them waiting for such a long time.”

“You know, we’d be out there a lot sooner if you didn’t spend all that time having your face done.”

“I know, but it is my duty to look proper! You should—”

The cheering crowd could be heard from indoors, and they sounded strangely happy about something. They were either happy or excited. Whatever it was, their cheers reached Fenrir and Nell despite them being quiet up until then.

“Huh, we should probably get out there,” Fenrir said.

Nell nodded. “Let us not wait another second!”

As for Cassiel, she stretched and said, “I’m going to go take a nap. I’ll be on later.”

“Sounds good,” Fenrir replied before leaning in to give her a quick kiss on the lips.

“He-hey, what was that for?”

“It was because I love you. Does every kiss need a specific reason or to be for something?”

“I guess not…”

“Then let me kiss my fiancée for the sake of kissing my fiancée.”

A soft smile spread curled Cassiel’s lips followed by a relaxed-sounding sigh. “Remember, I’m not doing that thigh and boob thing for you in real life.”

“Not even for a few seconds?”

“… maybe, but no more than that. Seriously, I know it’ll hurt my back.”

“Sounds good to—”

The crowd cheered again.

“Get out there,” Cassiel said.

“Alright, we’re going,” Fenrir groaned. “I’m coming to bother your nap if they end up choosing something stupid.”

“Just get in bed with me instead of waking me up.”

“I’ll try.”

With that, Fenrir and Nell went out to greet the crowd side by side. The meeting with the people was held right in the town’s center, and there were already dozens of chairs set out for them alongside various stalls for food setup by some of the other players. The whole thing was to be more like a party than a town meeting. Going by all the cheering, though, it sounded way more like a party than they had anticipated.

“Hey!” Fenrir shouted out to them. “What’s all the cheering for?”

“We picked a name!” one of the nearest players shouted back.

Fenrir never felt his gut sink so quickly before. “You—you did?”

“What happened to doing this together and having a public vote?” Nell asked.

That was when Serra showed up with a grilled fish on a skewer. “They got bored of waiting,” she said. “They went in the box and did the voting without you.”

“A-ah… I see.”

“I have a horrible feeling about this. I guess they really couldn’t stand waiting a few minutes later,” Fenrir said. “Also, that looks good.”

“Want a bite?” Serra asked.

Fenrir nodded, so Serra held the fish up for him to bend over and take a bite out of. “Thanks. Anyways… be honest. How bad is the name they picked?”

“I like it.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. It’s a good name.”

Now, they could have asked Serra what the name was, but Fenrir and Nell decided to hear it from the people themselves. So, they went up onto the little stage that they had prepared and sat down.

Fenrir could tell that nobody else there really cared about all the effort Nell put into her appearance, but that was alright. She wanted to look pretty and proper. He wasn’t going to stop her from that even if they probably would have been there for the name on time had she not worried about it.

As for Serra, she went around the stalls to try out more food while more or less ignoring everything else.

Back to the two on their stage, Nell cleared her throat and stood up. “Thank you all for coming today! I apologize for the minor delay… which has apparently turned out to be a delay too long.”

The suggestion box was open with all of its suggestions messily thrown about on the table in front of it.

“May I ask who took charge of the voting? I am not upset, so please do not be shy,” Nell continued.

The front of the crowd parted to reveal a single figure standing in the middle—to reveal the one who decided that they were taking too long and started the voting without Fenrir and Nell.

And that one person had the ears of a canine, a wagging tail behind them, and a smug expression on their face—on her face.

“Most were already calling it this anyways,” Saya said, “but welcome to the town of Nameless!”

Nell sighed and smiled after a few seconds. As for Fenrir, he just kept on blinking to make sure that it was really Saya who he saw standing there among the crowd. But no matter how many times he blinked, Saya remained there. She was undeniably herself. And Saya, obviously aware of his confusion, looked even more smug as she stared right back at him.

Well, at least it’s better than some stupid meme name, Fenrir thought.

“Trust me, onii-wan, there were so many bad names suggested that you should be overjoyed everybody liked Nameless the best,” Saya thought to him.

Maybe it was a good thing that Saya went ahead to lead the crowd without them, though he never would have expected something like that from her. Had she not, Fenrir would have had to feel anxiety and suffer through the voting process and fear that an even worse name might have won.

Nameless wasn’t the best name, but it was good enough and he was already used to most calling the village that.

So, Nameless it was.