"Here, eat as much as you like. It's on me."
"Mm, thank you."
Ye Delun had once again, finished a chapter and was sent back to HQ. And Huang Song, as she promised, pulled him aside to talk to him.
"Do you only like meat? You're avoiding the vegetables."
"Mmm. I like it all, but meat is better."
"It's like that and you're still so scrawny? I don't know whether to say your body's cursed or blessed..."
That is, she pulled him out of work entirely.
Although Gao Niu was reluctant to let them go, through Huang Song's rushed escape they were able to make it out to the marketplace. Huang Song had happily ordered Ye Delun some food.
[A large, juicy, succulent meat kabob grilled just for you (//ω//)]
[Is this perhaps, an innuendo for something? How dirty~ (*/▽＼*)]
"..."
'Please don't. I'm gonna lose my appetite.'
And yet, Ye Delun ate it anyways.
[Your stamina has successfully risen!]
Huang Song watched Ye Delun chew on meat kabobs from local stands with lidded eyes. "Hmm, so it seems it's true..."
"Hmm?" Ye Delun looked at her with cheeks filled with food. "Wat ez zet?"
"I was doubting it at first, but after looking at your face long enough, you really aren't a woman..."
Ye Delun took a large shallow, "You believed it by looking at my face but not when I told you?"
"No, no, it's more like, I doubted you were biologically male. No offense. But you seemed too dainty to be a man, especially since the only men that we see nowadays are large, handsome hunks. I almost forgot about the diversity of men in the real world." She nonchalantly laughed loudly and chewed on her own kabob stick. She ran her hand through his hair just like Gao Niu would and messed it up. "Ah, so fluffy~ so cute~
"Everyone here in HQ has always had their eyes full of girls for so long, I doubt they would even suspect you to be male. Seeing you is a nice change of pace." She laughed again. Ye Delun didn't know whether it was at him, or something else.
"..." 'What kind of conversation is this? Am I being insulted or...?'
Ye Delun just decided to eat more meat to wash away his sorrows. Ah, he wanted to be a large handsome hunk as well.
"So there aren't any other men here?"
"Although I, myself, have never seen a man around here. I doubt there's never been one, there has to be some of them in other places. I have heard of some NPCs like Gao Niu who can be pretty involved in this world and are male. But he doesn't know anything, that poor old man wants to sell broad swords and war axes but he's only selling perfume and bath salts! Fucking hilarious!" She burst out into laughter once again and smacked her knee and almost fell off her chair.
Ye Delun, who didn't at all find her funny, awkwardly faked his own laugher to not insult her.
"Owner!" She yelled. A dainty female on the other side of the stall looked in their direction.
"Huang Song, will you quiet down? I'm going to have to kick you out if this continues." She served drinks to another table before pressing down on her apron. "Other customers aren't ever able to enjoy their free time to relax because you're always yelling up of storm in here."
Huang Song didn't at all seem to take her warning and grinned at the small woman. "Owner is it just me or are you getting smaller and smaller by the day. Someday, I'm going to walk in and accidentally crush you with my foot!"
The owner of the bar didn't seem at impressed and just silently glare down at her. "Someday, I'm going to poison your drink. You know that, right?"
"Haha, as long as it's coming from a cute girl like you. I wouldn't mind."
"Right. I'd like to hear that again when you're dying on the floor."
"Now, is that how you treat your loyal customers? Even after all the money I've given you?"
"I couldn't care less."
As the both of them seemed to 'converse', Ye Delun was having a hard time understanding.
'What kind of relationship is this? And why does Huang Song sound like a perverted old man?'
She sounded like she was one of those troublesome men that would get punished by the male lead after continuously harassing the female lead.
'Huang Song isn't actually going to get killed by poison, right?'
Suddenly, those drinks didn't look too friendly...
"Alright, that's enough already. Now, are you going to tell me who this guy is or not?" The bar owner said as she pointed at the startled Ye Delun.
"Eh! You could tell he was a man?"
The owner looked confused at her question. "Of course I could tell, who do you think I am? Just looking at him you could tell. Don't tell me that's the best impression of a woman you could conger up? Because if so, then you've failed at keeping your title of a 'make-up artist'." She sarcastically air quoted her title as if it was a bad joke.
"No, No. I didn't do anything to him yet. It's just that he looks so dainty and small, I thought you would also mistake him for a woman." She chuckled and scratched her scalp, causing her already messy hair to become even more unruly. "And did you really have to say it like that? Just because you don't know much about make-up doesn't mean it isn't real!"
The owner ignored her and turned to look directly into Ye Delun's eyes. Ye Delun froze under her jade gaze and held them with his own black eyes.
[Name: Anselma Vogt
Age: 28
Occupation: Barkeeper
Story: ???]
A similar message from the one that appeared when he met Gao Niu, Ye Delun noted the 'story' section at the bottom.
"Although he's small, he looks nothing like a woman. Don't say such things to the poor boy, you'll hurt his pride."
Ye Delun smiled inwardly and agreed wholeheartedly. His lowered confidence from before silently rose.
"Now don't pick on the poor kid. I'm sure he's going to grow up to be a handsome young warrior." But it seemed that Anselma saw Ye Delun as just a child. To prove this she gave Huang Song a comically large jug of beer and to Ye Delun? A glass of juice.
"Although others don't care whether or not children drink, I'm not one of them. So please enjoy some juice instead."
Ye Delun blankly stared at the glass before looking back at Anselma. Seeing her nice warm smile, he decided to keep quiet about his real age and bitterly drink the juice.
[A cool glass of juice made from freshly squeezed fruits.]
[A secret recipe passed down the Vogt family, Anselma is widely known for this delicious drink.]
'I'm 21 years old and have already tried my hand at alcohol, but thanks for the consideration I guess...'
Perhaps it wouldn't have been that bad, but the sight of Huang Song trying to conceal her laugher ticked him off. Even though this was something that has happened several times in the past, back then he would be wearing age-appropriate clothing and carrying an ID on hand. But now he was wearing extremely baggy shorts that just enunciated his small size and a large t-shirt. No wonder people were misunderstanding...
"Thank you."
Huang Song creepily watched Anselma's back as she walked away before turning to Ye Delun. "You see that? As ignorant as a baby. They're living their own lives without even knowing that their so-called 'shop' is just connected to this place. In most of these stands are owned by people just like Gao Niu and Anselma, characters that were pulled from a story."
Ye Delun looked back up from his juice and looked confused. "You're saying that they're not real?"
"Kind of, but I like to think that they're just like the people you see whenever you're put into a story. They're fake, just a bunch of programmed NPCs, but then they become real once you choose them. Then, you and that character get sent back to your real life together so that you can live the rest of your beautiful relationship together.
"'Where we make fictional dreams come true and close single lives to an end!' That message was sent to you too, right?"
"That's right. It appeared in my message board."
That day, when he was alone in his room, once again getting a happy ending he didn't want, that message appeared.
[Are you lonely and in need of a lover? Have you been falling asleep at night dreaming of fictional characters? Knowing good and well that they're not there? If you want that to change, then join us here at 'OtomeHorror'! Where we make fictional dreams come true and close single lives to an end!]
He has no reason to look for any romance, nor had he thought of himself as 'lonely'. But the thought of being in the same position as the characters, and being able to play out what they were going through as if it was real was too much of a bargain for him to deny.
"That's the miracle of 'OtomeHorror'. They can bring people here, let them explore a whole other world, and come out with a whole new person with them." She looked back at Anselma, who was currently taking orders from a pair of girls and scribbling on her notebook with a pen she kept in her hair.
"They can create such realistic people...out of thin air, and play with their lives, over and over. Replaying the same plot and the same scenes. None of them know what's going on, nor do they know about anything about where we came from. They're kept pure and ignorant like cattle." Her usual crooked smile and bright eyes faded away. Ye Delun was startled by how serious her face became with her dark eyes seeming to be empty pools filled with a long-lasting bitterness. Her plump lips snarled in revulsion and said something that caused this scene to permanently be burned into Ye Delun's brain.
"Disgusting."