“We’re not joining the competition?” Shao asked in surprise as I started heading back to the exit of town.
I shook my head. “It won’t be for two weeks, right? I’d rather concentrate on clearing the dungeon. That’s what we came here to do. If I focused on my own problems, it’d probably cause trouble for the prince.”
“Hmph… I could win against all of them.” Shao sniffed and crossed her arms.
“I also have no desire to put the life of someone I care about on the line. It wouldn’t be acceptable to bet any of your lives that way.”
This time, Shao’s cheeks turned pink. “When you put it that way… were you always such a sweet talker on Earth?”
I let out a cough. “What? Earth?”
I couldn’t help but shoot her an incredulous look. How could she even suggest that I was popular? I was a bullied and unpopular kid! However, when I saw her eyes, I could see that she was being completely serious.
“I’m interested in what Deek was like on Earth.”
“Didn’t we share memories back then?”
“All the memories, they turned blurry. I can only remember feelings and things like that. It’s more like I just have a familiarity with Deek.” Her expression darkened and she shot me a worried look. “Isn’t it the same for you?”
I remembered her life fairly clearly, I wondered why she forgot and I didn’t. Was it because of the lore? That tattoo might have something to do with me retaining the memories of her life.
“So, I mean, I’d like to know more about Deek?”
“For example, what kind of name is Deek? I can’t even think what country you came from!”
“Shao’s not exactly a Japanese name, you know.”
“Ah, well, you look Japanese…” I responded quickly and then tried to change the subject again, “Well, what about you? You must have been popular with the boys.”
“I was…” She admitted it! Shao’s expression quickly turned bitter. “It caused me a lot of problems. Other girls were jealous and a lot of bad rumors were spread around about me. My life… I don’t want to talk about it.”
I just managed to stop myself from nodding. In truth, I understood exactly why she didn’t want to talk about it. She had a lot of frustration and anger from her previous life, and this life wasn’t much better.
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, Deek was my player name, not my real name.”
“Aw? You haven’t even told me your real name!”
I stopped for a second. “The person with that name… they no longer exist. I became my character when I came to this world, so that old world is all in the past.”
“Maybe my mother. And my cousin a bit. Generally, though, no. I left nothing behind there that I’m not happier with here. If I didn’t come here, I would have never met you. For that, I’d trade a hundred Earths…”
“Deek…” I realized Shao had stopped and was looking at me with tear-soaked eyes.
“Let’s get a hotel and make a baby.”
“Denied. The girls are waiting for us.”