Chapter 421 - 417 ~ House Party

"Ah! Yuuji-san! Everyone! I’m here!"

*Tweet!*

A cute girl waved her hand wildly, her light brown hair, tied into two tails by red ribbons as well as two red ring baubles, swaying as she did.

Her whole visage brightened when she saw Yuuji, Asuna, Yuna, Lux, and Lisbeth appearing on the dais of the 22nd floor’s Teleportation Plaza.

And resting on her head, a cute «Feathered Little Dragon» animal companion tweeted, echoing its master’s greetings.

"Silica-chan!"

"Silica-chan, it’s been a while~"

Asuna and Yuna waved back as the group hastened their steps to approach her.

The girls hugged each other. Silica had already become a part of the close knit group of girls around Yuuji ever since she was helped by Yuuji and Asuna to revive Pina and protect her from an ambush from the orange guild, Titan Hand.

Although they’d rarely meet due to the difference in their levels and activities, they’d often chat with each other and meet once in a while.

And because it has been a while since she last met them, Silica was especially excited to hang out with them after so long.

But when she glanced at Lis, she noticed something wrong.

’She seemed... out of it.’

It was a rare sight. Silica almost never saw her this silent and distracted.

Lis had always been the sun of the group, always cheerful and witty. And she would even often clash with her, though never over something serious.

But now, seeing her this daze and distracted made everything seemed strange and out of place.

"Hey, Asuna-chan... What’s her deal...?"

Silica whispered to Asuna softly, glancing at Lis from the corner of her eyes.

"Ah... She’ll be fine. We just had an exhausting adventure yesterday."

Asuna answered vaguely, which created more questions than answers for her to process.

*Tweet!*

Suddenly, she felt the weight on her head vanish, and saw Pina flying towards Yuuji and landing on his head instead.

"Pina, it’s been a while. Are you doing well?"

*Tweet!*

Yuuji patted the blue feathered dragon’s head as it nuzzled his hand. A purr of pure bliss rumbling from it.

"Ah, Pina! Don’t bother Yuuji-san!"

*Tweet!*

"Ahahaha, it’s fine. I’m used to it."

Yuuji laughed and waved at Silica’s concern dismissively. But Silica’s concern wasn’t whether or not he was fine with it!

How could Pina betray her like this?! She was its owner! Why was it closer to Yuuji than her?!

Moreover... She’s so envious of it!

"Yuuji-san hasn’t even petted me in the head!’

She glared at her digital pet. Her friend, trusted companion, and partner in battle now looked like a rival to Yuuji’s affection!

"Alright, now that we’ve gathered. How about we head home and prepare for lunch?"

""Yes~""

Quickly arriving in Yuuji and Asuna’s familiar luxurious log house, the girls quickly settled in the living room as Yuuji and Asuna prepared the Raggout Rabbit meat Silica brought.

Conversations quickly spread amongst the girls who hadn’t met each other in a while.

For one, Yuna had been busy with several of her concerts in the effort to encourage the Clearers in their rapid clearing of the floors. While Lux was also busy accompanying Yuna as her guard while also secretly investigating Laughing Coffin and feeding information to Yuuji.

Meanwhile, Silica had been busy grinding and leveling up. The trauma of losing Pina hadn’t completely left her, perhaps never. So, to prevent it from happening again, she was doing her best to level up and get stronger.

The three girls chatted up a storm, while one stayed silent.

Lis, still thinking about Asuna’s words from yesterday, held her cup absently in silence, staring at the bronze gold liquid which was still steaming at the perfect temperature for a warm, soothing tea.

’Hah...’

She sighed inwardly for the umpteenth time before she felt a nudge to her side.

"Hm? What’s wrong?"

Silica returned her gaze with an exasperated one.

"We’ve been calling you for a while, blockhead!"

"Ah, sorry sorry! I was a bit out of it. What’s wrong?"

Silica sighed and raised her hand to point towards the kitchen.

"That... We were just talking about how quickly they’re cooking."

Lis followed the direction of her point, and she became equally surprised as the others when she saw what was happening in the kitchen.

Yuuji and Asuna were moving in perfect harmony around the kitchen space, slipping past each other without even needing to exchange words.

In fact, they were working in total silence. They hadn’t exchanged a word in a while, and yet, they worked together with perfect team work.

"That’s amazing... They must’ve built up that kind of team work over countless battles together."

"Well, they’ve been fighting together since the beginning."

Lux shrugged, her lips curled into a small smile.

"I’ve also heard that their cooking skills are both in the high 800s... And not even the well-known top chefs had reached 800."

"Really? That’s amazing! No wonder their food is always delicious!"

Yuna’s eyes sparkled, her mind recalling the lunch boxes and food made by Yuuji and Asuna she had tasted in the past.

And no matter which popular food or expensive food items made by various well-known chefs players she tasted, none of them could compare to Yuuji and Asuna’s food.

Although the game world’s cooking mechanic simplified the cooking methods to the point that the taste wouldn’t differ if two different chefs of the same level were to cook with the same recipe, it was Yuuji and Asuna’s ability to combine various ingredients and spices, and come up with recipes that would create such delicious dishes that put them above the rest.

"Even as the Clearers who spearheaded the raid on the 70th a few weeks ago, to have skills at that level was unheard of. I can’t even imagine how many times they cook to increase their cooking level that much."

Lux shook her head, her lips curled into a helpless smile.

"Ah, that’s right! There was a rich chef who tried to buy one of Yuuji-san’s recipes for a bunch of Cors. He tried over and over, but Yuuji-san never agreed to any of it, no matter how much he was willing to pay."

Silica had actually witnessed one such occurrence in the past, when Yuuji and Asuna were helping her with a quest.

The head chef and owner of a super popular player-run restaurant came personally and bowed at a 90 degree angle to buy one of Yuuji and Asuna’s recipes. He even said that he’s willing to borrow from his friends and guild, in addition to everything in his current savings, to buy it from them.

But the couple refused. They didn’t intend on selling their recipes for Cors. After all, they were both already extremely rich from their own grinding and levelling efforts.

The chef kept begging them, and in the end, Yuuji simply gave him a hint on what could actually help him make the dish.

"Apparently, with Yuuji-san’s hint, he managed to make his own original dish that became popular with players and NPCs alike. And he started calling Yuuji his great teacher."

"Hahaha, he must’ve ’love’ it so much!"

Lis grinned. She could already imagine his uncomfortable expression from being called that.

"He refused the nickname, but the chef kept calling him that. So there was nothing he could do."

Silica also chuckled.

Just then, Asuna’s voice resounded from the kitchen.

"Everyone, the food’s almost ready! Can you help set the table?"

""Yes~""

--------------------------------X--------------------------------

After a tremendous feast, all made with the rare delicacy of ragout rabbit meat Silica brought as the main ingredient, the stuffed girls and Yuuji rested for a bit before returning to their activities for the rest of the day.

Lisbeth returned to her workshop to work on Yuuji’s commission. After a day’s rest and an incredible meal, she felt energized and excited to work on his new sword with the rare materials Yuuji provided and the crystalline ingot they got.

Meanwhile, Yuna, Lux, and Silica decided to follow Lisbeth and hangout around the city of Lindarth on the 48th floor while she worked in her workshop.

Yuuji and Asuna would love to follow them and hang out a bit more with their friends, taking the day to relax and rest after their return from the 55th floor.

But they’ve made an appointment to meet with Heathcliff beforehand.

They thought they’d have at least a full day or two to rest and relax after everything that had happened with the Golden Apple guild and Laughing Coffin before they had to return to the guild.

Neither Yuuji or Asuna expected that they would be going to a day-long quest on the 55th floor when they went to Lis’s workshop to commission a sword.

So now, they had to return to the 55th floor and head to the newly acquired base of the Knights of Blood.

Granzam.

Dressed in their Knights of Blood armor and cloak, the two headed directly to their guild base.

It wasn’t long before they could see the massive castle of gray with the red flags of the Knights of Blood hung over walls and on pikes, fluttering in the extremely realistic winds of the digital world.

Yuuji had messaged Heathcliff beforehand, informing him of their arrival, so they headed to the guild master’s office without delay.

*Knock* *Knock*

"Come in."

Pushing open the massive double doors of white and red, Yuuji and Asuna entered into a massive room.

Lit by the natural light that entered through the massive floor to ceiling windows behind him, a silver-haired man sat behind a large stone desk with piles of documents resting atop of it alongside a cup of tea.

Hanging down from the ceiling, a banner of the Knights of Blood’s guild logo exerted itself with its bright red color amongst the gray and white.

After one last document was signed, Heathcliff looked up with a smile.

"It has been a while. I’m glad to see both of you well."

"Likewise, guild master. Though you seemed to be ever-buried in a sea of paperworks."

Heathcliff smiled helplessly and shook his head.

"It is only expected as a guild master. But, enough about my boring paperwork... I’ve heard you’ve done something quite interesting the last few days."

Heathcliff clasped his hands over his lips and rested his elbows on his desk, his gaze sharpened onto the couple.

But Yuuji and Asuna kept their composure, despite standing before the imposing figure of the man known as the strongest shield.

"It was an unexpected case we accidentally got involved in... And I certainly didn’t expect to meet Laughing Coffin then."

Yuuji recounted the story of Yolko, Caynz, Schmitt, and Grimlock. The trick they used to "commit murder" within the safe zone to bait out those who had killed their guild leader. Only to find out that their leader’s husband was the one who put a hit on her.

"And when we confronted them... We encountered three Laughing Coffin executives. Johnny Black, Red-eyed Xaxa, and PoH."

Yuuji could see the recognition in his eyes and the slight flinch of his body.

Then, with a grave voice, Heathcliff spoke once again.

"How did it go?"

"Johnny Black has been eliminated. We managed to injure Xaxa gravely, but we failed to eliminate him. He managed to escape alongside PoH with a prepared teleportation crystal."

There was a heavy silence. As if the room was suddenly plunged into the deep ocean where breathing simply became impossible.

"You let them go?"

Although he didn’t know Yuuji’s full capabilities, Heathcliff knew full well that no one would’ve been able to escape him if he were intent on eliminating them.

"Yes."

Four eyes stared into each other in the heavy silence as Asuna watched from the side.

She was completely unperturbed by the conversation. Heathcliff’s insinuation of letting the leader and executive of Laughing Coffin escape wasn’t missed by Asuna. But she knew full well why Yuuji let them go, and she supported him no matter what.

She knew that the guild master would be able to see the reason behind their actions as well.

And as they expected, he did.

"Good."

He nodded solemnly, his lips curled into a small smile.

"Cut off the head, and those below will scatter into the four winds. You did well to hold back."

The heavy air vanished like it had never been there at all.

Then, Heathcliff took out several sealed envelopes from the locked drawer of his desk, placed it on his desk, and pushed it towards Yuuji and Asuna.

"We’ve been working on finding leads to the location of their main base and list of members from our side. The information is all there to help you with your hunt. Once we find it, we’ll strike and capture as many of them as we can."

"Understood."

Yuuji picked up the sealed envelopes from the desk and placed them inside his inventory.

"You can leave the matter of the Laughing Coffin members to us and the coalition we’re building against Laughing Coffin. I want you two to keep your eyes on PoH... and eliminate him."

""Yes.""

None of them objected to Heathcliff’s instructions.

And seeing their response, Heathcliff allowed himself a moment of reprieve as he leaned back to his chair.

"Good. And speaking of Laughing Coffin..."

"What about the mole in the house?"

This time, Yuuji smiled and gave him an assured nod.

"He’s getting impatient. We’re getting a lot of information on Laughing Coffin’s agents and base locations just by watching him. We can get rid of him soon."

"Good. It’s about time."

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