“Please stop, Father! Teacher is a mage from another country. Wouldn’t it be bad to arbitrarily lay claim to a mage from another country?”

“Yes, however.. Alexia, he is a commoner, is he not? In that case, we should seek prosperity for our house. He may be appointed nobility.”

“But..!” Alexia says, at a loss for words. She’s so upset that she can’t get her thoughts in order, her mind stuck on her father’s words. If Chaos was a noble..

“Why are you so desperately.. Could it be, have you developed feelings for a commoner?!”

Alexia’s white skin suddenly flushes. That alone makes her answer clear.

“I won’t allow it! You are the daughter of the Zavarish family. You will not be taken by a man of such dubious origin!”

Those few words leave Alexia shocked, as if she was drenched with cold water. Realizing her romantic interest in Chaos made her lose her composure and she was feeling a bit giddy. Because of this, before joining the line of defense, she unconsciously averted her gaze from the wall of the difference in status between herself and Chaos which should have been incredibly obvious to her.

Love between a noble girl like her and a foreign commoner boy would never bear fruit.

Even though she realized her feelings, nothing about the situation has changed. If anything, it’s gotten worse. She has ended up in such an important position that she’s being called a saint. Now that it’s come to this, her father – no, this country will never allow it. How ironic it is that the days she spent with Chaos learning magic so desperately in order to fulfill her wishes would widen the distance between them even further.

Alexia loses all hope, as if she’s been drained of vitality. Chaos should have been her moral support, but now he’s become a faraway existence.

“Teacher..”

Unconsciously, she reaches for the staff by the side of the bed. The same staff as Chaos’s. Her keepsake. Since she no longer has his support, she wants to feel his presence at her side, even if only a little bit.

However, from another’s perspective, Alexia’s actions look different. A mage holding a staff can only mean that they intend to use magic.

“What are you doing, Alexia?!”

Before Alexia’s hand can reach it, her father snatches the staff away from her. Not once has Alexia taken her eyes off of it.

“I won’t let you use teleportation magic to escape! This accursed thing..! I’ll show you what I’ll do to it!”

“Father, stop!” Alexia frantically reaches out for it, having guessed what her father intends to do, but she doesn’t make it in time. The sound of wood snapping echoes through the room. The broken remains of the staff slowly fall to the floor.

“You’ve become indispensable to this country! Cool your head a bit, Alexia!” Count Zavarish says, leaving the room in indignation. The only one left is just a single girl.

“Ah, aaaaahh..!” the girl wails in solitude.

The lovebird has lost her mate and has been locked inside a cage.

***

I still can’t stop thinking about what happened yesterday. If anything, now that more time has passed, I’ve spent even more time thinking about it. When Alexia collapsed, it was just so bloody and vivid. Maybe I’m just biased because of that experience, but I feel like that’s way too graphic to say it’s just a game.

When I analyzed these suspicions that rose from the depths of my heart, the conclusion I arrived at was kind of absurd: Maybe this isn’t a game. Maybe I thought Another World was just a game I was playing, but I was actually just going to a world that’s really similar to Another World or something like that. It kind of sounds like the setup for an anime or a game, but after spending a whole day agonizing over it, that explanation makes the most sense to me.

If it’s true, then what are the other players doing? Valgears are expensive, but there should be a lot of people logging into the open beta test. If they’re playing this game, I’d expect at least a few of them to notice. But when I search online for it, I can’t find anything like that. (Apparently, the network problems were fixed.) There certainly are a lot of people freaking out over how realistic it is since it’s the first VRMMORPG, but none of them are saying “this is reality” except the advertisements. And even when there are, none if it is very credible, like occult stuff or made-up stories if anything.

Which would mean that the other players are all playing around in a game world and I’m the only one going to another world. Though, I don’t need to go as far as going to another world to be a solitary player. But why am I the only one who can go to another world even though there’s no particular reason for it? I don’t have any skills that are unique enough to say that I’m special, and I’ve never had anything amazing happen to me like reincarnating or having someone summon me to another world or being sucked into a hole to another world. In that case, I can’t think of anything at all that could have caused it. It also bothers me that I can use my game character’s abilities as is.

In any case, I’ll put speculation into the cause of why I can go to another world on hold. And it’s still not certain that I really am going to another world. But how can I prove that I went to another world? I can’t log in right now since the beta test is over, so I can’t investigate inside the game. And there’s only so much I can investigate.

Oh yeah, what about yesterday’s network problems? The way MMORPGs work is that you have to access a server to be able to play the game. That would mean that even if I’m the only one going to another world through the Valgear, I wouldn’t be accessing the same server as the other players. The other players should be able to play the game without any difficulties. Of course, it’s possible that it was just that the internet connection at my house was bad, but it’s one thing I can use to judge the situation, at least.

I waste no time in going to the official site for Another World. On the official site’s main page, there’s information posted on events and announcements regarding Another World. If the network problems were on their end, it should definitely be publicly announced. And in the announcements section, there is an entry added last night which says “Technical Difficulties: Report on Server Issues”.

“Technical Difficulties: Report on Server Issues.

Thank you for your continued patronage of Another World. Below are the issues which occurred starting from around 10 p.m. on July 1X, 20XX.

[Details]

At around 10 p.m. on July 1X, 20XX, the following issues occurred:

[Cause]

Temporary server malfunction.

[Countermeasures]

Urgent server inspection by maintenance.

We deeply apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused for our users. We will strive to continue improving our service so that this does not occur during the official release.

-Another World admin team”

..Oh, so the network problems were on the servers’ end? I probably wasn’t able to connect to the servers because of the server malfunction. Even on the Another World forums, all of the most active threads are about the server malfunction just before the end of the open beta test, expressing concerns about whether there will be problems after the official release.

In other words, the fact that I was having network problems due to the server malfunction means that I was connecting to the same server as the other players. Does that mean that thinking it was another world was just a mistake? ..Yeah, no matter how you look at it, that’s way too absurd. Aagh, this is such a weird misunderstanding that it’s embarrassing! But thanks to that, I was able to get it off my chest!

..But the horror of seeing a friend dying before my eyes was real. My data will be deleted when the official release starts, but I have to get stronger so that nothing like that happens again.

Deleting character data.. Finished.

The open beta test phase has ended.

***

In the Weichsel Empire, there was a very devout, kind girl named Alexia. Alexia was praying at the church just as she always did when she heard a voice from the heavens. Alexia realized that this was the voice of a god.

“Hear me, Alexia. In a few days, a monster horde of unprecedented size will attack this land and bring ruin.”

Alexia trembled in fear.

“Fear not, Alexia. You must not give in. I shall bestow you with power,” the god said, and Alexia was surrounded by light and granted the power of the gods. “Listen well, Alexia. This is a trial that a god bestows upon a human. You must join forces with everyone to overcome this trial. You must never forget this.”

One day, just as foretold, a horde of monsters attacked Brandenburg. As the people were overcome with despair, Alexia rose up.

“My beloved people. If the monsters intend to harm what is precious to you, I will stand against them. However, I cannot do it with my power alone. Everyone, please lend me your strength.”

Moved by Alexia’s words, they fell to their knees. Then, the people united to face the monsters.

The battle was incredibly fierce. Using the power of the gods, Alexia fought as hard as she could, but they were outnumbered. One by one, the people fell. Alexia’s heart pained, and she prayed to the heavens.

“O gods, why did you bestow this trial upon me? Is it necessary for my people to be harmed any further? I do not mind if harm befalls me, but I beg you, please do not harm my people any further.”

Then, a barrage of lightning poured down from the sky as if to pierce the heavens. The barrage of lightning fell all throughout the surrounding land and wiped out all of the monsters. The gods heard Alexia’s wish.

And so, peace returned to Brandenburg.