Chapter 26: Kiro’s Bizarre Adventure, Part 2
Kiro walked out of Fia’s room like someone sleepwalking, her steps light and unsteady.
The heavy wooden door slowly closed behind her, cutting off the warm candlelight and the fragrance of lilies inside the room.
She leaned against the cold wall and took the dagger out of her pouch.
What now?
D was sitting quietly over there, like a silent statue.
Give the dagger to him?
In Kiro’s memory of the game, that was the standard progression.
Give this dagger to D, and then Fia would...
Kiro shivered.
No.
D would die if she did that.
It was not that she cared all that much whether D lived or died. Kiro did not have any particular affection for him.
The key was the rewards!
If D died, his questline would break. What about the Clawmark Seal? And the Bestial incantations he would give later! She could choose not to use those incantations, but she could not simply not have them!
And besides, once she handed over the dagger, Fia would leave this place.
Then...
Then wouldn’t her “hugs” be gone too?
The moment she thought about never being able to feel that soft embrace again, Kiro felt empty inside.
That was one of the few sources of comfort for her soul in the Lands Between!
She would not hand it over!
That thought instantly occupied her mind.
Right!
She would not hand it over!
She could just throw this stupid dagger into storage and pretend this had never happened. That way, D would not die, his rewards would still be there, Fia would not leave, and her “hugs” would still be there too.
She could continue being a happy little hug monster here.
This was practically the perfect choice!
Kiro almost wanted to applaud her own genius.
Feeling pleased with herself, she put the dagger back into her pouch and was just about to find somewhere to sit down and think about how she would brag to Loran once he came back.
But...
Her steps stopped.
If she handed over the dagger...
From another corner of her memory, the image of a long black gauze dress slowly surfaced.
[Fia’s Robe].
[Fia’s Hood].
That outfit.
That mysterious outfit, with a kind of restrained, forbidden sexiness.
Kiro’s game character had once worn that outfit and run around the grasslands of Limgrave for hours, just to watch the hem of the skirt flutter.
It was so pretty.
It was practically one of the top-tier fashion sets in the Lands Between.
And to get that outfit, she had to complete Fia’s entire questline.
Killing D was only the first step of that long questline.
Hand it over, or not?
The question had come back around again.
On one side were the Sacred Seal, the incantations, and the warm hugs she could enjoy every day.
Those were immediate, tangible benefits.
On the other side was a gorgeous outfit, a much grander questline, and...
Fia’s death.
That was a future, uncertain reward.
Kiro felt like her head was about to split open.
She paced back and forth, muttering under her breath.
“Hugs... clothes... incantations... hugs... clothes...”
She walked in front of D and stared fixedly at him from a few steps away.
It was as if she wanted to glare straight through the Twinned Armor on his body.
D seemed to notice her gaze and slowly raised his head.
“...Do you need something, fellow traveler?”
Kiro jumped in fright.
She hurriedly backed away a few steps, hid her hands behind her back, and shook her head guiltily.
“N-no! Nothing! I was just... looking at the scenery!”
She quickly fled, hiding in the shadows beside the fireplace.
This was a choice that could not satisfy both sides.
For someone with only 9 Intelligence, this question was far too difficult.
Why?
Why did she have to make this kind of choice?
Kiro irritably grabbed at her own hair.
Then she suddenly thought of Loran.
That silent block of wood might be infuriating sometimes, but he could always come up with strange solutions to problems that seemed impossible to solve.
If he were here, what would he choose?
He would definitely say a bunch of complicated nonsense she could not understand, then pick some boring option she never would have thought of, right?
Kiro curled her lip.
No.
She could not count on him.
This was her problem. She had to make the decision herself.
She closed her eyes.
I want both!
When Loran’s consciousness condensed from the flowing light of teleportation and his feet once again touched the ground before Stormveil Castle’s gate, his first reaction was—
Relief.
Caelid’s scarlet sky, rotting earth, and twisted, malformed creatures still lingered on his retinas.
Now, the ordinary scenery of Limgrave actually seemed unbelievably friendly.
The process had gone more smoothly than expected.
He had obtained the Meteorite Staff, the Rock Sling sorcery, and a set of Perfumer clothes.
He subconsciously began searching for Kiro.
She should still be nearby, either sitting beside the Site of Grace out of boredom, or having run off somewhere to cause trouble again.
Then he saw her.
On the other side of the Site of Grace, with her back facing him, stood a slender figure.
It was a woman wearing black robes.
A hood covered her face, but Loran would never mistake those clothes.
A black gauze robe, with complex embroidery decorating the hem and the cuffs.
A thin veil hung down from the edge of the hood, drifting gently in the breeze, giving off a mysterious and solemn impression.
Fia?
Why was she here?
Had something happened at Roundtable Hold?
Loran immediately became alert.
Without making a sound, he gripped the Meteorite Staff at his waist.
But very quickly, he noticed that something was wrong.
Fia’s aura was quiet and gentle.
But this woman in front of him...
She was standing crookedly, with all her weight on one leg. The tip of her other foot was tapping the ground impatiently again and again. One hand was planted on her waist, while the other tugged at the veil hanging from the hood, twirling it around in boredom.
That lazy, careless aura was so familiar that Loran’s temple began throbbing.
The woman seemed to notice the movement behind her and impatiently turned around.
“You’re finally back—”
Under the hood was Kiro’s irritating face.
Loran completely froze in place.
His brain—
That brain with 99 Intelligence, capable of interpreting the secrets of the stars—
crashed.
He had gone to Caelid to pick up a Meteorite Staff.
The round trip had taken only a few hours at most.
And Kiro...
The clothes she was wearing were [Fia’s Robe] and [Fia’s Hood].
To obtain this outfit, one had to complete Fia’s entire questline.
That meant that during the few hours he had been gone, Kiro would have had to trigger Fia’s questline, complete Ranni’s questline, obtain the Cursemark of Death, and deliver it to Fia.
After that, Fia would enter the Deathbed Dream, and Kiro would need to enter the dream and defeat Lichdragon Fortissax.
Only then would Fia die, allowing the player to pick up this outfit from her body.
Her?
This woman?
The woman who died three times to the Leonine Misbegotten and got nightmares from seeing the dogs in Caelid?
All by herself?
Loran’s worldview collapsed.
He walked forward, reached out, and almost roughly tugged at the black gauze robe Kiro was wearing.
The fabric was soft and cool.
The texture was real.
“You...”
Loran’s throat felt dry.
He tried to organize his words, only to discover that he could not ask anything at all.
And Kiro, seeing his dazed and broken expression, revealed a smug smile.
She cleared her throat, then copied Fia’s tone, pinching her voice into what she believed was a very gentle sound, but which actually sounded incredibly awkward.
“Greetings, great champion called by grace. A pleasure to meet you.”
She even opened her arms toward Loran.
“Could you let me... hold you? Just for a little while?”
After saying that, she was the first to fail, letting out a pfft of laughter.