Watching the bustle of the lively after-party from a distance, Aoi-chan began to speak haltingly.
"My family is quite... well, actually, they're extremely influential."
"The Kusunoki Group, right?"
"Yes. I’m sure most people would envy me. The only daughter of the head of one of Japan’s leading mega-conglomerates—people wouldn't be wrong to call me a winner from the moment I was born."
Indeed, the Kusunoki Group was a name even I knew. It was a world-class corporation that was the pride of Japan. Having been born as the young lady of such a family, there was no question that Aoi-chan belonged to the highest echelons of society.
However, if I were to ask if that life had made her happy, I had a feeling she would only shake her head.
"For as long as I can remember, my life was nothing but an endless string of lessons. I hardly ever saw my parents. Even when they did talk to me, it was always 'Hey' or 'You'; they almost never actually called me by my name. To the people around me, I wasn't Aoi Kusunoki—I was merely 'the daughter of the Kusunoki Group.'"
"...I can only imagine, but it must have been painful to never have anyone look at the real you."
"It was... and I loathed the people who flocked around me, too. To put it bluntly, marrying me meant becoming the de facto successor to the Kusunoki Group. Even at the parties I attended as a young child, men old enough to be my father would approach me with that obvious intent. It was truly revolting."
"You can usually tell what people are really thinking behind their smiles, after all."
I could relate to that, at least a little. My situation was different from hers, but immediately after I lost my parents, I could clearly sense the pity everyone felt for me. Even after my uncle and aunt took me in, I could tell how much they were walking on eggshells around me. It always made me feel somewhat guilty.
"Well, because of all that, my private life was stifling and utterly dull. I didn't have anyone I could truly trust... Perhaps if I'd had someone like Luna-san or Sieg-san are to Lilia-san, even if their positions are different, things might have been different. I didn't even become friends with Hina-chan until I entered high school."
"Does that mean you'd known each other for less than six months when you were summoned? You two always seemed much closer than that..."
"Hina-chan looked up to me in our school club, which helped, but we really bonded after coming to this world. Since we were sharing the same predicament, she's someone I can now call my best friend."
In truth, I thought the two of them made a pair that rivaled Lilia-san and her group. Their personalities meshed perfectly; it was a wonderful relationship where they complemented each other's strengths and covered for each other's weaknesses. The fact that their careers as adventurers were going so well was proof enough of their compatibility.
"Anyway, to get back to the point... in a life where I was buried under mountains of lessons and had almost no free time, that MMO was what I found. I suppose I yearned for a place where no one knew me as the daughter of the Kusunoki Group. Once I started playing, I became completely obsessed."
"Now that you mention it, you were still in elementary school when we first met, weren't you? You spoke so properly that I remember being surprised when I found out the truth later."
"I was quite lost at first. It was my very first MMO, so if Shell-san... if you hadn't called out to me back then, Kaito-san, I probably would have quit before I ever got hooked."
My meeting with Aoi-chan had been a whim, really. At the time, I was deeply immersed in the game and had cleared everything it had to offer, including the highest difficulty content.
I had finished gathering all the equipment I needed, and I was just killing time until the next major update. I remember debating whether to start an alt character or just farm gold in preparation for new items.
Because the starter town was a major hub, many players used it as a base, and player-run stalls were everywhere. I visited often.
That was when I spotted Hibis—Aoi-chan. From an experienced player's perspective, a confused beginner is easy to pick out. Since I happened to be free, I struck up a conversation and taught her the ropes.
"Calling out to you was just a coincidence, but we seemed to have a lot in common. I remember it becoming quite fun as I showed you around."
"We spent about half our login time just chatting in town, didn't we? For me, you were like the first kind older person I'd ever met. I have very fond memories of our talks."
She had been so polite and composed that I'd assumed she was my age or older. I was genuinely stunned when I finally learned her age after we'd been friends for a while.
Though it started as a whim, I genuinely enjoyed spending time with Hibis, who looked up to me so purely. Eventually, I started making sure I was online and free whenever she usually logged in, skipping hunts just to hang out.
Her daily login time was short, but we spent years together. When I think about it that way, my history with Aoi-chan is actually quite long.
Serious-senpai: "A high-society girl from a complicated family meets the protagonist in a game, falls in love before ever seeing his face, stays devoted to him even after he quits, and then happens to reunite with him in another world... If you look at the tropes, that is a textbook Main Heroine setup."
???: "And yet, she was basically a background character in Part 1. I guess you never know how things will go. Well, Seigi is the true Legend of Air, so he tended to overshadow her, but her screen time really was sparse back then."