Estimated reading time: ~11 minutes
Chapter 35
After several more runs, Isamu and the others finally manage to obtain the staff and axe they were seeking.
With some extra time on their hands, the party decides to hunt Golden Almirages in the Red Jungle to increase their guild rank.
Several hours pass, and then—
「Hey, Tutorial Guy! It’s almost 7 PM!」
Isamu checks the time in his menu window and sees that it’s 6:45 PM.
He has other plans starting at 7:00, so as much as he doesn’t want to, it’s time to part ways with Lucifer.
「Oh wow, you’re right. Thanks for letting me know! Well then, I should get going.」
「Indeed. Tutorial Guy, you were a great help. You have our thanks.」
「Thank you very much!」
「No no, I should be thanking you. I’m really glad you were able to get the items you needed. See you again sometime!」
Bidding farewell to his companions, Isamu leaves the guild Dark Faith and departs from the Red Jungle.
Returning to Starting Town, Isamu sends a chat message to Elena, whom he’s made plans to meet, asking her current location.
Her reply comes swiftly:
『Sieg, good evening! I’m looking forward to hanging out today! We’re currently at the guild home. If you let us know where you are, we can come to you!』
(They’re at the guild home, huh? In that case, I’d feel bad making them come all the way here.)
With that in mind, Isamu replies: 『If you give me the room number and password, I can come to you.』
A few minutes later, another chat message arrives:
『Wow, thanks so much! We’ll be waiting for you then! The room number is—』
Reading Elena’s message, Isamu mutters 「Alright」 and starts walking towards the teleportation magic circle.
☆
Inputting the numbers into the magic circle, Isamu is instantly transported to a predominantly white room.
Pink and yellow accents lend a feminine touch to the décor—the perfect space for girls around Elena’s age.
A white round table sits in the center, surrounded by Elena and two other young women.
Noticing Isamu’s arrival, they immediately stand up from their chairs and rush over to greet him.
There are no panels visible around Elena, indicating she hasn’t started streaming yet.
「It’s been a while, Sieg! Thanks so much for coming all this way to see us!」
「Elena, long time no see! Happy to be here. And who are your two friends?」
Isamu shifts his gaze to the two women standing behind Elena as he greets her.
One appears even younger than high school-aged Elena, with black hair.
The other is a beautiful lady who looks to be in her early twenties, with hair the color of milk tea.
「Ah, let me introduce you! This cutie here is Mew, and this gorgeous older girl is Cocono!」
The two step forward and introduce themselves.
「Nice to meet you, I’m Mew! Pleasure to be working with you today!」
「I’m Cocono. Thank you for joining us!」
「The pleasure is all mine! I’m Sieg, though most folks call me Tutorial Guy. Happy to be here with you all today.」
Isamu returns their bows with a deep one of his own as they exchange introductions.
Greetings complete, a thought occurs to Isamu and he turns to Elena with a question.
「By the way Elena, I only see the three of you here. Do you not have any other guildmates joining?」
As a streamer with an average viewership of 100,000, Isamu had assumed Elena’s fans would be clamoring to join her guild, easily reaching the maximum 30-person capacity.
But in reality, there are only three people present. It’s only natural for him to find this puzzling.
「Nope, it’s just us!」
「What about your viewers?」
「Ah, I’ve been told not to interact too closely with fans, so we don’t include viewers in the guild!」
Come to think of it, Isamu can’t recall ever seeing Elena have much direct interaction with her fans.
Even when he faced off against her one-on-one before, her exchanges with fans were limited to a brief word or handshake at most.
Well, even if this space isn’t all that different from reality despite being virtual, that’s probably for the best.
Especially given Elena’s particularly passionate fanbase.
With that in mind, Isamu nods in understanding at her policy of not grouping with viewers.
「I see, that makes sense. So Mew and Cocono must be your real-life friends then.」
「Ah, not quite friends, more like fellow streamers!」
「Streamers? Wait, you two stream as well?」
Isamu looks to Mew and Cocono, who both nod in confirmation.
Elena continues her explanation.
「Yep! They’re part of Girly Live too, just like me.」
「Girly Live…?」
Isamu repeats the unfamiliar term, tilting his head.
Elena seems confused by his reaction at first, but then her expression shifts to one of realization and she quickly speaks up.
「Oh, I’m so sorry! Um, Girly Live is a streamer management agency. I’m part of it too.」
「Oh wow, I had no idea! Sorry, I don’t really know much about that stuff…」
「No no, it’s totally fine! Well then, let me go ahead and invite you to the guild… Huh?」
As Elena is speaking, a semi-transparent panel suddenly appears in front of her.
It seems to be a system message notifying her of something.
She opens her menu window and taps a few times, then stares intently at the screen with a serious expression.
After a moment, Elena abruptly bows to Isamu.
「I’m so sorry! I just got an urgent message from my manager that I need to step away for…」
「Ah, I see. No worries at all! Feel free to go take care of it.」
「I really am sorry! I’ll be back as soon as I can, so please wait here for just a bit! Mew, Cocono, sorry about this!」
With that hasty apology, Elena vanishes from sight.
It appears she’s logged out.
As Isamu watches her go, Cocono, the older of the two remaining girls, speaks up.
「We’re sorry about this. You took time out of your busy schedule to be here…」
「It’s really no problem at all! But man, Elena sure is a busy gal, huh?」
「…Yes. Unlike me, Elena is really popular, so…」
Cocono’s voice carries a tinge of sadness.
Following her lead, Mew’s face also falls as she hangs her head, instantly dampening the mood.
(Huh? Wait, are they actually on bad terms or something…?)
Just as Isamu starts to worry, Cocono hurriedly speaks up again.
「Ah! Sorry, ignore me. I didn’t mean that in a jealous way at all. Please don’t let it bother you!」
It seems Isamu misunderstood, much to his relief.
「I see. That’s good to hear then.」
「Yes. The truth is, I absolutely adore Elena. I’m truly grateful to her. Right, Mew?」
「Mhm! Elena is such a wonderful person. I love her so much too!」
「Wow, you two really look up to Elena, don’t you?」
「We do! After all, she’s our savior.」
「Savior?」
Isamu echoes back curiously.
Mew takes over the explanation.
「…You see, Elena is the most popular streamer in our agency. So for someone like me with no following, I normally wouldn’t get to interact with her at all. But even though there’s zero benefit in it for her, Elena invited me to play games together.」
「I’m the same as Mew. Elena reached out to me, and thanks to that, I’ve slowly been gaining more viewers. She gave us juniors a chance.」
「Ah, I get it. So that’s why you see her as your benefactor.」
「「Yes!」」
From what he’s heard, it sounds like Elena is their senior who’s using her influence to help out her junior members.
Learning about this unexpected side of her, Isamu gains a newfound respect for Elena, not that he ever looked down on her to begin with.
Cocono and Mew then spend some time gushing to Isamu about just how amazing Elena is as a streamer.
Suddenly, Elena reappears out of thin air.
「Ah, welcome back Elena!」
「Welcome back!」
「I’m back! And Sieg, I’m so sorry again for the wait.」
「No no, it’s all good! More importantly, is everything okay on your end now?」
「Yep, for the moment at least!」
「Ah, glad to hear it then.」
「Thanks for understanding! Alright, let me go ahead and invite you to the guild now!」
Elena opens her menu window and swipes through it swiftly.
<You have been invited to join the guild 「Strawberry Montblanc」 by Elena. Accept?>
After selecting yes on the system message prompt, Isamu turns to Elena.
「Huh, so your guild is called ‘Strawberry Montblanc’?」
「That’s right! What do you think of the name?」
「…Hm? Oh, uh, I think it’s really cute!」
「Really? I’m so glad to hear that! I just picked it on a whim since I couldn’t think of anything better.」
(It was just random, huh…)
Isamu forces a wry smile, having learned the name holds no special meaning, and moves the conversation along.
「I-I see! So, um, where are we headed now?」
「Ah, I didn’t mention it yet! We’re planning to go to the Novice Plains. There’s a mushroom-shaped monster there that drops an item we need.」
「Oh, you mean the Toadstool! But wait, Toadstools drop items?」
「Yep! It was added in the last update. If you trade the drops to an NPC in town, you can get furniture. This table and these chairs were obtained that way!」
(I see, so they implemented interior items and set up new monster drops to go with it.)
「Huh, didn’t know that. Well, got it! I’ll help you gather those items.」
「Thank you so much! Okay, I’m going to start streaming now!」
「Ah, me too then!」
「Me too!」
The three girls spread out a bit and open their menu windows.
(Oh, so they’re each doing their own separate broadcasts. Well, that makes sense.)
Just as that thought crosses Isamu’s mind—
「Yahoooo! It’s everyone’s little sister Elena! I’ll be playing with Mew and Cocono again today! Aaand! As I mentioned before, I’ve invited Sieg to join us!」
「Hey everyone! Welcome to Mew’s stream! The three Strawberry Montblanc members will be playing together as usual! And today, we have a super special guest – the one and only Tutorial Guy!」
「Hi hi! Cocono here! I’ll be enjoying Dream Fantasy with Elena and Mew like always! And today, the moment you’ve all been waiting for – we have an extra special guest with us!」
The three girls greet their respective panels simultaneously.
With Isamu standing awkwardly in the center of them, they suddenly converge on him, panels aimed his way.
(Hm? …Ah, guess it’s my turn!)
Realizing they’re prompting him to introduce himself, Isamu takes a deep breath and starts talking.
「…Hey there! Tutorial Guy here! Looking forward to streaming with you all today!」
He makes his greeting while looking at each girl’s panel in turn.
A flood of welcoming messages pours into the chat boxes.
Relieved, Isamu watches as the girls turn their panels back towards themselves and resume addressing their viewers.
Once the opening chatter dies down, the party sets off for the Novice Plains.
☆
After hours of battling giant mushrooms with arms and legs across the vast plains—
「Alrighty, that’s all for today! Byeee everyone!」
「Thanks so much for tuning in to Mew’s stream! Buh-byeee!」
「Great job today everyone! Please come watch again!」
The girls bid farewell to their panels and close out of the streaming windows.
「Phew. Great work Mew, Cocono!」
「Yep, good work!」
「Thanks for the stream!」
They congratulate each other before approaching Isamu as a group.
「Okay, on three! One, two—」
「「「Sieg! Thank you so much for today!!」」」
「No no, I’m just glad we got a good haul of items.」
「Yes! And thanks to you Sieg, we had way more viewers than usual! I really appreciate your help today!」
「Me too! Thank you so much, Sieg!」
「This is the first time I’ve ever had such a big crowd! I can’t thank you enough!」
The trio showers Isamu with heartfelt gratitude, all smiles.
He returns a grin of his own as he responds.
「That’s awesome. I’m really happy I could help out! Well, I’ve got some stuff to take care of, so I should get going. Feel free to invite me again anytime though!」
「Absolutely! Thanks again for everything! Great work today!」
「「Amazing job everyone!」」
Isamu then leaves the guild and starts walking towards the teleportation magic circle.
(Man, I’m beat. But I’m glad the three of them seemed to have fun. I hope they keep working hard and doing their best.)
His chest swelling with the joy of having been useful to the hardworking girls, Isamu departs from the Novice Plains.
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