Compared to Fireworks of Romance's shock, Ink-Stained Crystal acted with remarkable decisiveness when she saw the Weird Figurine suddenly appear before her.
Without the slightest hesitation, the bloodstained Fruit Knife in her hand shifted from a forward grip to a reverse grip as she lunged forward.
Strike first and gain the upper hand; strike late and suffer for it. That had always been her rule of action.
What she had not expected, however, was for her slash to cut through empty air. The other party's form seemed like an illusory phantom—visible, yet impossible to touch.
...A projection?
She withdrew her knife and silently stepped back several paces, Ink-Stained Crystal's face expressionless.
Only then did the Weird Figurine before them raise its head to look at them. As its projected form flickered, its voice became somewhat distorted as well.
"Where is he?"
...He? What he?
Just as Ink-Stained Crystal frowned, Fireworks of Romance, who had already come down to her side, hurriedly answered on her behalf.
"Him? He isn't here right now, but if you have something to say, I can pass it on to him later."
After some difficult thought, she had recalled the identity of the thing before her... or rather, it was a piece of scandalous history she did not want to remember.
During the first world Large-scale Campaign Quest, she had participated in a quest called What a Restaurant. In that quest, she had suffered an utterly humiliating social death that made her want to burrow into the ground.
—And this bizarre-looking figurine before her was the Manager of that restaurant.
She had no idea why the other party had appeared here, but it was probably a friend rather than an enemy... probably?
After receiving her answer, the Weird Figurine raised its head and scrutinized her for