Chapter 7: Training, a relationship, and more choco milk?! (2)
Benjamin said, "I'm forced to stay here for a while. I won't give up on making a connection with a protagonist, either. But I won't spoil a protagonist, too, just to have her on my mind later. I'll treat you properly, meaning you either accept my conditions or I'll seclude myself somewhere in the forest."
He was so straightforward that Estelle straightened herself and nodded, "What conditions?"
"I can invest in others. It's a mutual power to strengthen me and anyone I invest in. I'll use it on you and have you train under me so that you can be self-independent and fight for yourself," Benjamin explained, "While you train, I'll do chores in your shrine, anything that an outsider can do."
Benjamin wasn't the type to parasite on others. From this exchange with Estelle, he could see that she and her sisters treasured this shrine, so he didn't want her to give up on her duties.
Doing some chores wasn't anything foreign to him.
Moreover, he was on the better end of this deal.
'Since I've been given a protagonist to work with, I shouldn't let her go easily,' Benjamin thought, 'Forcing anyone to train or go alongside their fate isn't ideal, though. If she refuses, I'll improve myself on those phantoms in her shrine and squeeze information from her about the evil spirits and the forest. I might just casually invest in her and see what this technique does.'
Estelle had her own train of thought.
She clenched her hands and looked up, her face twisted.
"Why do I have to fight? I hate fighting!" Estelle was inexperienced, but she had seen her fair share of the fighting because of another existence within her that could have been called a superlative fighter. Only Estelle believed that this other existence was a good fighter. Conversely, it was the reason she was afraid of fighting.
If she became strong enough to contest against this existence, wouldn't she be forced to fight against her for her body?
Those were so horrifying thoughts that Estelle masked them with another question.
"Just because I am a protagonist?!"
"Yes," Benjamin nodded right away, silencing the wolf. "There's only so little people who are free to do whatever they want with their lives. You are clearly not one of them, so either strengthen yourself or pray that you will have someone protecting you. I am not one to be a full-time white knight on a white horse, nor am I interested in consorting with weak people. Just know you're a protagonist whose presence alone attracts people like me. You lucked out this time, but your kindness might not be enough next time, and you will have to put a leash on someone else."
"Her Excellency must have sent you-"
"No," Benjamin instantly refuted.
"My elder sisters-"
"-are sick and won't be able to help you at all. You never know what happens next."
Having nothing else to talk back with, Estelle bit her lips and ran away to her shrine.
Benjamin sat down on the ground. He could tell he wasn't welcome in the shrine yet, and his relationship with Estelle wasn't that close for him to follow her.
It wasn't like he had anything to add, either.
Life's life.
Benjamin might be only twenty-three years old, but he had started consorting with outstanding people when he was sixteen, and it was from that juncture that he began playing virtual reality games and making a name for himself.
In those years, he had gained a fair share of social experience, and he came to an understanding that everyone's life is what they make it.
In his life, Benjamin wanted to have friends of any kind, but those wouldn't have a large role to fulfill, nor would he be anyone significant to them, just a casual friend.
Estelle, therefore, couldn't stay weak.
Benjamin tapped the black box's shell with his index finger, not opening it yet because it was something he should do with Estelle. Instead, he thought aloud, "That battle breathed so much life into me… I've been missing this prospect of being enabled so much."
It had to be mentioned, but once the three virtual games on Earth had finished, no fourth had taken over the market. There was literally no virtual game.
It was as though someone had cleansed the community of powerless humans from the means of tasting the fantasy worlds, leaving many people without ambition and thrill.
Benjamin was one of them.
Which was why the incentive of going back to Earth wasn't the one keeping his new life exciting; it was that prospect of being enabled.
"Every close tie I had with others was severed because our paths went astray. As a side character, if I latch myself to the ambitious protagonist or antagonist, I'll be able to live a life close to my desires," Benjamin believed himself to have been a side character whose fate was to see the end.
He understood that deeper when he had received the loot box.
Others might have been born or transmigrated to the fantasy world to be nothing more than incentives for protagonists, either with their lives or deaths.
Benjamin, however, was set on being a side character whose eyes would see the end of whatever was brewing in the shadows. Anyone he invested in and worked for had to be ambitious enough to improve his strength.
Anything else was secondary.
'Maybe I should learn more about her sisters and see if any of them is ambitious enough. There are three protagonists, after all. I really shouldn't waste this precious chance,' Benjamin thought.
Before long, the sky turned dark, and it became colder.
Estelle grew worried about Benjamin's health as he wasn't bundled up. She peeked at him from her shrine and decided to wipe the slate clean. His health was more important!
In her black kimono, Estelle approached Benjamin and noticed that he hadn't opened the black box yet.
It was something he must have received from the summoning circle.
"How come he hasn't opened it yet?" Estelle voiced her thoughts aloud.
Benjamin smiled, "I was taught, pretty late by one of my exes, to not be so selfish. Upbringing in an orphanage can turn one into a real selfish bastard, you see. You're the reason I got it, so I've been waiting to open it with you."
Estelle sucked a lot of air through her little nose and bit her lips—her cheeks reddened—before shouting at him, "Come back home! Now!"
She turned on her heels and ran back inside.
Benjamin languorously got to his feet before following her wake.