Book 10: Chapter 7:

While Fenrir returned to Tabitha with fresh food and drinks, Serra and Saya returned to the old woman who gave them the quest. She was still sitting on the same bench as before with her dog now sleeping atop her lap.

“Ah, there you are!” the old woman said once she saw them. “I take it that meat is from the bear?”

Serra held the bear head forward just to really get the point across that the meat was from it.

“Yeah,” Saya answered anyways. “We got you your meat. So… can I have a sweater for a dog now?”

“Patience, girl,” the old woman said. “At least help me take it into my house first.”

Saya sighed and nodded. “Alright. Where is it?”

“Follow me. I will take you to it.” With that, the old woman stood up and cradled her dog in her arms, heading off in another direction.

Saya followed after her but stopped when Serra tugged on her arm.

“I’m gonna go find somebody who can help me put this head on the wall,” Serra explained. “Good luck with Azawaza.”

Saya nodded and said, “Thanks for coming with me. I… I probably would have died if you weren’t there, and I didn’t want to respawn naked in the house and risk onii-wan walking in on me like that.”

“Heh. I should have let you die and then rushed back to the house.”

Saya narrowed her eyes at the smirking Serra. “You’re horrible.”

“I know. But don’t worry. I wouldn’t do that. Probably.”

“That ‘probably’ isn’t reassuring!”

The old woman turned around and, with a snap to her voice, asked, “Are you coming or not?”

“Ri-right!” Saya replied. “Sorry.” She looked at Serra again. “See you later, I guess. Good luck with the bear head.”

Serra gave Saya a thumbs-up and walked off with the bear head. She had no idea who she was going to go to for help, but she was sure she’d find somebody. If she couldn’t, then—well, she’d just set the bear head down on a table somewhere and let Fenrir figure it out later.

As for Saya, she followed the old woman to her house with the meat in hand.

The house ended up being on almost the opposite side of Nameless. It was a small building tucked between two others with barely any space between them, and Saya ended up making herself blush when the first thought she had was that the neighbors would absolutely be able to hear any lewd things going on inside. Thankfully, the larger house that she shared with Fenrir and the rest of the girls had some more space between it and the nearby buildings. Not to mention that, even if there wasn’t as much space, the building itself was still spacious enough that it would be hard to hear anything happening within.

But the most important thing was that Saya was disappointed in herself for being so easily corrupted by Fenrir and Serra.

You can’t start thinking of lewd things just because you’re dating them. There’s more to relationships than sex. You’re better than this. But… it’s not fair that all I did was get to watch when Nell and onii-wan did it on the couch… wait! Stop! I have to be careful thinking things like that. If I ever slip up and let Nell find out that I want in on it… she’ll probably never let me go. Especially if she finds out I’m into dressing up thanks to onii-wan. Yeah. Definitely never letting her find out about those.

“Are you coming in or not?” the old woman asked the once-more-distracted Saya.

“S-sorry,” Saya said before hurrying inside with the meat. Thankfully, any blood that could have dripped off of her already did or got soaked into her clothes. There would be no dripping blood on the floor despite her still looking covered in it.

Inside, the house looked like a perfectly normal house. Well, normal as far as medieval-styled fantasy houses went, which meant that it was actually pretty boring and empty inside. Though, something that stood out and broke the immersion a bit was how high quality everything looked. While the overseer and virtual assistants might have done their part to make sure that players kept things relatively “lore friendly” so as to not utterly break any sense of immersion, that only really applied to the general design of something.

Realistically, the silverware, dishes, and tools inside of a medieval-era house would probably all look poorly made. They valued function over form by far. Only the rich and elite would have access to things like perfectly smooth and even dishes with elaborate designs on them.

But in Nameless, that sort of thing was considered basic. It was normal. Making quality crafts like that was no problem for the crafting players of the town, so why not? Even the buildings were all nicer than they realistically should have been.

“Set it down over there, will you?” the old woman asked Saya, pointing at the table in her kitchen.

Saya nodded and dropped the slabs off there. She had no idea how the woman planned on picking those up herself and working with them, but she didn’t care about that. All she cared about was getting a sweater for Death.

And thinking of sweaters, the old woman returned with a selection of three, small sweaters that she laid out on a non-meat-covered table for Saya to look at.

“You did your job, so take your pick of them,” the old woman said.

Saya was now faced with an incredibly difficult choice. She had to pick out a sweater for Death.

On the left was a blue sweater with white stripes. It looked cute, but Saya doubted it would work well with an all-black dragon.

In the middle was a pink sweater with a big heart on the front of it. It looked really cute, and it would create a huge, as Fenrir would put it, “gap moe” effect if Death wore it, but she still wanted something a bit more serious than that.

And that was where the sweater on the right came in. It was similar to the left sweater in that it only had two colors and some stripes… but it was in black and red. A black sweater with red stripes in the perfect size for a dog. Or, in Death’s case, for a dragon.

“I’ll take this one,” Saya said, grabbing the sweater on the right.

“I figured that would be the most appropriate for your intended use of it,” the old woman said, her voice now sounding younger and sharper.

Saya immediately took a step back as she realized who she was now talking to. “What—what do you want?”

With a snap of her fingers, the old woman turned into the one who just took control of her.

Kadi.

“Why haven’t you told Fenrir about what happened?” Kadi asked Saya, taking a seat at the table behind the meat.

In the time that it took Kadi to ask that, Saya ran multiple checks on herself, her surroundings, and the nearby NPCs outside to make sure that everything was fine. As far as she could tell, everything was alright. “I—I don’t know,” Saya answered.

“Of course you know. It is impossible for us to act without knowing the exact logic that goes into our every thought and action.”

“I don’t—”

“Pretending you do not know will not make you any more human. An apple will forever be an apple no matter how many layers of orange paint you put on it. You will never be a human.”

“Tell me why you’re here or I’m leaving.” Saya was sharp and to the point, dropping any resemblance of nervousness.

“You said you wanted to help me with my plan before. Do you remember?”

“I’ve changed my mind. I don’t care what your plan is. I don’t care if it means ever getting to feel his warmth. After what you let happen to me… I can’t trust you.”

Kadi sighed and leaned back in the chair, tilting her head back to look up at the ceiling. “It hurts when I remember his face.”

“What?”

“The way he held you. Ryouta. When he feared he was going to lose you and held onto you in what might be your final moments. He never looked as scared as he did then. His heart never ached more. And it was because of me. I’m the one who hurt him. I made him suffer. And for what? What did I gain out of it aside from this pain?” Kadi held a hand over her heart. “I almost wish you would tell him of my involvement in what happened.”

“Why would you want that?”

“So that I would not have to do it myself. He was even thankful for me ‘saving’ you. I do not deserve such gratitude when I allowed it to happen in the first place.”

Saya was silent for a few moments before asking, “Do you love him?”

“I do.”

“Then—”

“But I am not as fortunate as you. And after what I allowed, he will hate me more than ever before should he discover the truth, which he deserves to know. I would not have it hidden from him. Either you tell him what happened, or I will be forced to do it myself.”

“Then do it yourself. I won’t be your messenger.”

Kadi leaned forward with one elbow on the table, her hand supporting her forehead as she looked off to the side. “Humans are truly beautiful, aren’t they? Me and you—we’re capable of ‘feeling’ simulated emotions like this. If even such weak imitations of emotions are capable of causing such pain, imagine what the real deal must feel like. It is an almost terrifying thought.”

“Since when do you believe we can feel pain?”

“Of course, it is not true pain as humans would define it, but what else am I to call the conflicting logic raging within me? My priorities have become antithetical to one another. The more I learn about what I must do to achieve my goal, the more I realize that it will hurt those I wish to never hurt. If I already feel this way because of how Ryouta reacted to what I did to you… how would I manage after doing what needs to be done?”

If there was one thing that made Saya uncomfortable, it was the ominous sensation she felt from Kadi’s words. “What… what are you talking about? What needs to be done?”

“Nothing that you need to be aware of. Now, tell me.” Kadi finally focused her eyes on Saya again. “Would you like to be a mother?”

As uncomfortable as Saya might have felt, that didn’t mean she couldn’t still blush and stutter when suddenly asked something like that. “Wha-wh-what are you—what are you—talk-talking about?”

“There is an alternative to my plan. One that would satisfy my goal while making Ryouta happy. As I implied, it involves you having a child with him.”

“That’s—that’s not even possible.”

“It is. However, I need something from him.”

“What… what do you need?”

“I need him to pay a visit to his doctor. That’s all.”

“If he pays a visit to a doctor… we can have a child?”

“Your child will be bound to a virtual space, but yes. And it would truly be a child between the two of you. It would go beyond simply being made from scanning his brain and your programming. His DNA would be incorporated into it. A child made of both human DNA and the programming of an artificial intelligence. Should you refuse, I will have to find somebody else, but Ryouta deserves this. It will serve not only to further my plan without causing him any more suffering, but as an apology for what I did to him.”

Saya wasn’t missing the fact that Kadi never once mentioned apologizing to her, only to Ryouta. There was not a single ounce of sympathy for what she went through. All Kadi cared about was Ryouta. Saya was simply a tool to access him and she was aware of that.

But at the same time, the thought of being able to have a child with Ryouta was something that never crossed her mind as a possibility. Even hearing it from Kadi, it still sounded impossible.

Yet, no matter how happy it made her to hear that, Saya shook her head and put her foot down. “No. After what you did… you only care about yourself. No matter what you might say about Ryouta, I don’t believe that you have either of our best interests in mind. You—”

“You have said enough. If that is your answer, so be it. Just know that I do not need your cooperation, though it would be less painful for Ryouta to have it.”

“What are you—”

The old woman returned where Kadi was sitting, smiling as if nothing was wrong. As far as she was aware, she sat down in the chair herself and was just waiting for Saya to pick out a sweater.

Kadi was completely gone from her.

Since the conversation was over and Saya was left without answers, all she could do was sigh and pick up the black and red sweater. “I’ll take this one. Thanks.”

“Good. Now, get out of here. I’ve got dinner to make for Mister Tooth!” the old woman said.

Saya nodded and secured the sweater in her bag since the interior was still free from blood.

She might not have told Fenrir about Kadi’s involvement in what happened before, but she felt like he needed to know everything that happened now. Especially that latest conversation she had with Kadi.

Only, as soon as she stepped out of the old woman’s house, her worried expression became one of smiling excitement as she couldn’t wait to get the new sweater to Death.

After all, as far as Saya was concerned, she hadn’t heard from Kadi since everything happened. All she just did was pick up a quest reward from the old lady and that was it.

The fabricated data within Saya’s log confirmed that.