Chapter 631: Strange! Thirdrema's White Cloth Ghost!!

It is exactly at times like these that the scales of a situation inevitably tip in the other direction. Looking down at Orcelott-kun and his group, who were clearly tense, I pondered what to do from atop the roof.

At the end of their gaze was a single young girl buying skewered meat at an open-air stall. I could only see her back from my elevated position behind her, but it wasn't a perm... how should I describe it... it seemed their target was a girl with incredibly fluffy, slightly bluish-gray hair.

"Emul, can you hear anything?"

"I can't hear anything unless we get a little closer desu wa..."

"Is that so."

Say, Emul-san, it just so happens that I have this rope I bought on a whim taking up a tiny fraction of my Inventoria's resources with absolutely zero use...

◇

"But you see, the pure-white ghost-san might be over there..."

"N-No, no, that's why I'm telling you there were eyewitness accounts over that way!"

While Zanryu Engetsu, a friend of his in real life, was struggling to negotiate with the NPC "Thirdrema's Princess Frederia," Orcelott was grinding his teeth at the fact that the Unique Scenario he had so casually accepted was far more difficult than he had imagined.

"Hey Orcelo, isn't this gonna fail in the worst way possible? The Princess basically refuses to listen to reason..."

"I can see that, Reza, but what else are we supposed to do? Are we gonna sling her over our shoulders and carry her through the main street?"

If they could generate enough speed to outrun any pursuers while carrying a human being on their shoulder, then that might have been an option. But unfortunately, Orcelott and his group were all uniformly "ready for a bloody brawl" attackers who had allocated their stats into sheer sturdiness rather than speed.

In PvP, the most important thing is how to seal the opponent's movements. Because PvP operates on the "common sense" that creating distance grants a healing opportunity to both yourself and your opponent—unlike PvM—the stats of players accustomed to PvP naturally converge into enough durability to ignore minor damage and enough physical strength to corner the opponent.

Among them, there were some who seemed to say, "If I have the speed to close the distance before my opponent can move, even paper-thin armor is fine, right?" and others who intentionally wore light armor, claiming, "I'm highly skilled in real-life martial arts, so it's actually better if my armor is easy to move in." But at the very least, Orcelott and his group possessed standard PK stats.

"...Worst case scenario, we could drag her into a back alley."

"Hey, doesn't your conscience hurt doing that? Zanryu has been shooting us looks this whole time."

"He's the one who said, 'Leave the picking up to me,' so let's make him do his best until the bitter end."

"He was just acting tough even though he's never picked up a girl in his life..."

The Unique Scenario "Operation: Princess Guidance"—to put it simply, it was just a Unique Scenario to guide the Princess to the exit of Thirdrema. But perhaps because it was a special Unique Scenario, Princess Frederia refused to listen to reason far more than they had heard.

In the first place, if Orcelott's prediction was correct, this "Thirdrema's White Cloth Ghost" was referring to that annoying bastard, so he honestly wanted to scream at him to never show his face again.

.........Hobyaaaaaaa

"Hm?"

"What's wrong, Reza?"

"No, I feel like I just saw a furball floating behind us..."

"A furball? It's just your imagination."

"I guess so."

Come to think of it, tracing the origin of why they ended up doing something akin to kidnapping, that guy was partially involved as well.

Of course, Orcelott knew that ninety percent of the blame fell on the root cause, but even taking that into consideration, he wasn't simple-minded enough to believe that Sunraku and OiKatzo—the two who had spurred that sister of his into action—were entirely unrelated.

"Ugh..."

Suppressing the urge to storm into the Grand Duke's castle right now and complain to his older sister, he devoted his consciousness to figuring out how to guide the Princess standing before him.

He didn't entirely dismiss the idea of either himself or Leatherette disguising themselves as this white cloth ghost while Zanryu Engetsu was drawing her attention, but the method of obtaining that mysterious equipment was still completely unknown. As long as it required a system-recognized equipment action, they had no idea where else to find cloth armor that completely enveloped the body like that.

And then,

"Oh my! It's the white cloth ghost~!!"

"Yeah, see, just like I told you, the white cloth ghost is over... wait, huh?"

"What!?"

Looking up, they saw exactly that: a mysterious two-legged figure draped in a sheet with eyes drawn on the head, leaping from rooftop to rooftop with bizarre movements...

"Eh, no way. Is it seriously a rare enemy unique to Thirdrema? What do we do, Orcelo?"

"Don't just stand there, the Princess chased after it! After her!!"

"Wait, it's fast!!?"

Was it truth spawned from a lie, or mere coincidence? In a bizarre composition of the Princess chasing the mysterious white cloth ghost that was becoming a Thirdrema urban legend, and Orcelott's group chasing the Princess, the "five" of them dashed through Thirdrema.

◆

It looked like Emul—whom I had tied to a rope and lowered down to widen my eavesdropping range—was about to get caught, so when I forcefully yanked her back up, she kicked me.

"Consideration! I demand consideration desu wa!!"

"Where exactly is the consideration in kicking someone in the ribs..."

"It's a necessary evil desu wa! Yanking me up with all your might after leaving me dangling like that lacks far too much consideration desu waaaa!!!"

Yes, yes, I'm sorry, here's a carrot. For now, just tell me what you heard.

"It seems that fluffy person is looking for a white cloth ghost desu wa! And those three were trying to take her away by telling her the white cloth ghost was in that direction desu wa!!"

"A white cloth ghost... Who the hell could that be..."

"Looking away won't change the truth desu wa, it's Sunraku-san they're talking about desu wa."

"Why am I standing out in such a bad way? Peatz literally sells them in the back alleys, so they shouldn't be that rare..."

"Oh, you didn't know desu wa? Peatz is terrible at restocking, so he sells the few he manages to gather in human settlements desu wa."

So it was just inventory clearance... That's a fact I didn't want to know.

Even so, the important thing is the information Emul gathered. It seems Princess-sama desires the appearance of the white cloth ghost. I feel like an idol making a surprise appearance. I look like a total creep from every angle, so where the hell is the demand coming from... If I talk to Pencilgon, do you think I could become Thirdrema's mascot, its local yuru-chara?

"Alright Emul, here's the plan... First, I'm going to guide the Princess to a place with a lot of people."

"What happens after that desu wa?"

"After that... what should I do, I don't really want to stand out."

Ah, that's right. I was planning on guiding her to a main street somewhere, but if I choose that place instead...

"The plan is set, Emul. You're the key to this operation."

"Desu wa?"

The name of the operation is... yes, not "parental flag," but "older sister flag." Sorry, Orcelott-kun, but I'm going to summon your big sister!!

---

Author's Afterword

Weapon: Emul Yo-Yo

An intelligence weapon completed by tying a rope around Emul's waist.

With Emul tied to the end casting magic attacks, it can handle both physical and magical combat, and is also useful for espionage. However, the moment you use it as a physical weapon, the aftermath is terrifying in various ways, so it's honestly more efficient for the user to just punch things directly.

By the way, if you untie the rope, she becomes an auto-piloted option part.