Scarlet

I hate my life right now.

“It’s your own fault for letting yourself give into her bribe,” Tar says, sounding rather amused as he no doubt watches me fidget in the skirt and blouse Belle, Denise, and Emily are having me wear, the three simply enjoying themselves by taking pictures of me. Meanwhile Arthur can be seen smugly smirking off to the side.

Doesn’t change that I hate this. And it’s not my fault Belle decided to bribe me with the exclusive beta test slot for the latest Hunter XI MMORPG that was only just announced.

How the hell did she even get that… oh, wait. Pretty sure I heard that Silver Works had a hand in supplying them with the magical reality technology to make the game fully artificial through magical realities. An incredibly expensive project, and the first time it’s ever been utilized in a video game before.

Her only request was for me to try on clothes with her, Denise, and Emily at the mall. And Arthur was just kind of dragged here by Belle to watch the show.

And carry the bags, since as it turns out, the girls hate the idea of bringing a hired hand to do it for them. Something about not liking the idea of having a random stranger following them around all day and hearing everything they say.

Especially when Belle gets to have an excuse to drag Arthur around. Although he didn’t seem too against it. Not like Michael, who Emily enjoyed dragging around the mall that one time.

I get the feeling Arthur is enjoying watching my torment though.

As soon as the girls give the go ahead, I immediately rush back into the changing room and change out of these horrid clothes into my regular ones. Then I activate my magi-tech armor over them and leave the changing room with a scowl on my face.

“You better not forget your part of the deal,” I say to Belle, the scowl not softening on my face in the slightest.

She just giggles and says, “Don’t worry. I’ve already had the beta test spot switched over to your name.”

I let out a sigh of relief at that thought.

Only to tense up again when she says, “Now we just have one more store to check out!”

Oh, stars fucking damnit, will this ever end?!

“Once again, you could always-” Tar begins only for me to narrow my eyes and tell him in my mind, ‘Not another word.’

I try very hard not to punch Arthur in the face when I see and hear him chuckling while carrying who knows how many bags.

Just have to think about the game.

After the next store where Belle had me trying on some sort of whiteish grey winter coat with a black skirt – which makes absolutely no sense to me, but apparently it’s fashion according to her – we finally begin heading towards the entrance.

At least they didn’t make me buy any of the outfits. Not that I would’ve if they tried.

They just had me trying them on. And even some of the store clerks there were more than happy to just let me try them on as long as they got a picture of me – a famous Guardian – wearing their garments.

A couple stores even tried to give me the garments for free in return for the ‘advertisement.’

I shiver at the thought of those pictures going around. But it’s all for that beta test slot.

“What’s so important about this slot of yours anyways?” Tar asks out of curiosity.

Well, it’s the very first video game ever in production to use magical reality technology. A technology made through the skill of a very powerful Class IV Guardian using his particular magic to create an entire reality unto one selves. That skill is then put into an item through the use of various other Guardians specialized in crafting magi-tech and is extremely expensive, seeing as only one person has the skill to actually make the magical realities.

Even though everyone kind of glossed over the dude at first since his power didn’t exactly seem very useful beyond training himself for combat and stuff. Not until magi-tech became a thing that is, and they could have other people use it, and even get more than one person in the same magical reality.

This is the very first attempt at a global scale magical reality project. One that is accessible no matter where you are. Which is something that even the Interschool Tournaments don’t do since they just have a single magical reality for all of the tournaments themselves with various different stadiums and seating that is based on various different locations. A single building in each Tier 1 city where people can enter the magical reality and attend the tournaments live.

Everyone else has always been stuck watching them through live broadcasts being streamed around the world.

“Guess I can see why it’d be such a big deal then,” Tar mutters. “And if it works, they’ll likely be able to expand the number of people watching the Interschool Tournaments live, won’t they?”

Huh? Yeah, they would.

I don’t care about that though.

I just care about the game.

“Right, of course…” Tar mutters, sounding rather exasperated with my priorities.

Hey! Don’t judge me! Video games have always been an incredibly important part of my sanity!

I glance at Arthur who no longer looks happy being here, likely due to the fact that I’m not being tortured by the girls anymore and he is still lugging around bags, before I face where we’re going again. Only to find a group of people standing at a water fountain in a plaza of the mall – one that, unlike the other mall, doesn’t have any sort of VIP area for us to shop in.

The group is consistent of just guys, some high school age and some college age. And they look like they might start something with us considering the way they’re looking at us. One of them even starts whistling while not bothering to hide how he’s looking at us.

I scowl at them, but right when they look like they’re about to head towards us, a loud shattering sound echoes in the mall, following which everything gains a red tint, and several demons begin appearing. Meanwhile the group of hooligans immediately runs away while screaming as a large demon knight suddenly appears in front of them, showing just how close we are to the core of this Fracture already.

Huh. That was actually pretty good timing.