Chapter 37: The Long-Awaited Progress (2)

Clara.

A limited-time S-Rank character in Abyss City. At the time of her release, she was ranked number 1 in sales in the store.

And the last time Rohan checked, the character PV had surpassed 2.7 million views.

Compared to Ichinose Yui and Noa Frozenheart, the period Clara had been part of Rohan’s party was relatively short.

However, she was the third S-Rank character Rohan managed to Limit Break completely, and he cherished her no less than the other two.

Therefore, he clearly remembered the revealed lore.

Clara is originally from Zeno.

Zeno was a small, impoverished nation located in the West, known for its isolation and lack of interaction with the outside world.

And also…

Unlike the Southern Region, which was listed as Rohan’s homeland, it was a country on the path to ruin due to internal conflict.

He had recently learned that a succession of deaths among the leadership had left the country in a state of near anarchy, prompting surrounding nations to begin extending their influence under various pretexts.

And Clara probably knew this as well.

Anyway, contrary to Zeno’s exclusionary stance toward foreign countries…

Internally, they dedicated themselves to training spies for various purposes such as assassinating key figures, gathering intelligence on other nations, and extracting technology.

Clara was one of the vagrant children trained and raised there.

Her name there wasn’t Clara, but Number 11.

As you could see, her natural disposition was timid. Like the other vagrants who came for the promise of food, she too could have been cast out at any time.

However, when it came to combat power, her talent surpassed everyone she trained with, and it was said that expectations for her within Zeno were high.

It’s a tragic story.

But as they say, the ups and downs and transformations of fate arrive unexpectedly.

One day, Clara was tasked with finding and eliminating a group that had amassed wealth by smuggling foreign goods into Zeno, and confiscating their assets…

What more needed to be said?

The girl, who had lived under the burdensome weight of “dying for one’s country” without understanding why, encountered foreign goods that day and caught a glimpse of the outside world.

Unused smartphones, laptops, colorful books, and external hard drives filled with animations and movies, all without owners.

At first, she dismissed them as cheap propaganda meant to confuse the citizens of Zeno.

But although Clara was timid in interpersonal relationships, she wasn’t stupid. So, before returning to Zeon, she pocketed some of the items.

The person in charge of Clara’s training made two major mistakes.

The first mistake was believing that Clara lacked the courage to escape, based solely on her passive behavior.

The second was dispatching her on that mission before conducting proper mental conditioning, based on that belief.

Thus began a period of hardship.

Perhaps the heavens took pity on the girl who accumulated knowledge and was waiting for a chance to escape.

And as if urging her to leave, an incident occurred that shook the foundations of the nation, creating an opening.

Farmers, who lived in a society so impoverished that it was mocked by other nations as a barren land rather than Zeno, rose up, forming military organizations or bandit groups.

The leadership, lacking a ruler with overwhelming power, was constantly at odds, and the small country began to crumble.

On the day one of the leaders dispatched the spies they had trained, not for their original purpose, but to suppress the domestic uprising…

Clara seized the opportunity and escaped without looking back.

“…”

Rohan looked at the girl facing him.

It feels different to see the person who actually experienced it, compared to just learning the information from the game.

Rohan even understood why Clara stuck to her unique fashion style.

After wearing the same black, tight-fitting outfit every day, she had fallen in love at first sight with something she saw in a smuggled fashion magazine.

I also heard she got into gaming while learning about the outside world.

Despite possessing all this information about Clara, there was something Rohan didn’t know.

That was the ‘present.’

He knew up until the moment she escaped from Zeno, but the period after that, until she met with the protagonist in her second year, was a blank.

So Rohan wanted to know about Clara’s current situation.

He was also pleased that this girl seemed willing to share her personal story.

“Th, then you don’t ask me anything? Like, why am I there every day…?”

Turning his attention back to the topic Clara initiated, Rohan answered carefully.

“Honestly, I was curious, but I thought it might be a burdensome question.”

“You were curious…!”

The girl’s eyes widened, sparkling.

He had the illusion that her twin tails were wagging like a tail.

That’s what she’s happy about.

Rohan was curious about what sort of personal story Clara would tell, so he decided to inquire subtly.

And seeing that she brought it up herself, he felt it should be okay to ask.

“You’ll tell me, right?”

“But…it-it might be boring.”

Rohan watched Clara stir her drink with her straw, then reached out.

He tapped Clara’s pale hand with his finger.

“!!!”

The startled girl met his gaze, which she had been avoiding.

Rohan smiled and said,

“Does being interesting even matter between us? Getting to know each other is what’s important.”

“…!”

They met almost every day, shared hobbies, belonged to the same guild, and hung out together after work occasionally.

How could there be a closer friendship?

“I think it would be good if we dropped the formalities. What do you think?”

“Ah! Eh? Uh, g-guh…?”

Clara made strange noises and couldn’t keep her eyes still.

She seemed quite flustered, but since it didn’t look like she would run away, Rohan enjoyed observing her fresh reaction.

Clink!

The melting ice clinked against the glass.

“Between us…between us…”

After repeating Rohan’s words for some time, the girl seemed to make up her mind.

She straightened her posture, placed her hands on her knees, and nodded with a sense of gravity.

“O-Okay! Let’s drop the formalities…!”

“Then is it okay if I just call you Clara?”

The girl gave a small nod of agreement.

Then, mixing in awkward informal speech, she asked what she should call him. She still remembered their respective ages.

“You’re…no, you’re going to be in the Academy next year…”

“What does a one-year difference matter? It’s okay to call me by my name, so call me whatever you want.”

Even though there was only a one-year age gap, Rohan felt much older to Clara.

So, the choice of address inevitably went in one direction.

“Th-Then, Rohan oppa…?”

“I like it. It’s like music to my ears.”

Still awkward with informal speech, Clara twitched the corners of her upturned lips.

Rohan enjoyed the lighthearted conversation, but he wanted to hear the main story, so he changed the subject.

“Now then, are you going to tell me about yourself?”

“…Yes.”

With the premise that it wouldn’t be everything, Clara continued her personal story.

“I came from a little far away…”

“I see.”

She meant to say that her home country wasn’t one of the three superpowers that operated Academy City.

There was no need to specifically mention Zeno.

“F-First, the bookstore… it’s because I can’t work anywhere until my identification is issued…and I also just like bookstores…”

“Identification?”

“Yes, I went to the Public Security Bureau and they said that in my situation, I’m like a refugee, so I need to apply for immigration and get my identity confirmed first, so I went to the government office…no, I went, but?”

“Ah.”

“I was getting counseling on that floor, and that’s where I met the bookstore manager, who was there for something else…”

A clear picture was already forming in Rohan’s mind.

That’s when the manager told you to come and hang out at the bookstore.

With understanding…

He focused on Clara’s voice and listened attentively.

“It’s hard to explain in detail, but… in my case, the procedure for getting an ID seems to be, uh, incredibly complicated and time-consuming…”

“So, you need that before you can look for a job or anything?”

Nod, nod.

Confirming his words, Clara recounted what she heard at the government office at Rohan’s request to elaborate.

Rohan absorbed every piece of information without missing a single word.

The basic conditions for obtaining identification seemed simple.

The first was to enroll in an Academy, which was practically synonymous with Academy City Elysium.

The second was to be a citizen of one of the three superpowers that operated Academy City—the Three Kingdoms Union, Tigrova, or the Sepia Archipelago—or an honorary citizen recognized by either of those countries.

The third was to pass an examination to become directly affiliated with Academy City.

These were the main methods, and Clara’s case fell under the third category.

There were other methods, such as those for businesses or individuals seeking to conduct commerce, but those were irrelevant to Clara.

The third one is too vague and broad… things like this are usually complicated.

Even Abyss City didn’t provide these specific details about the system.

So, this was new information for Rohan.

Ultimately…

Obtaining identification in Academy City was extremely easy for some, but impossibly difficult for others.

“So how are you living now?”

“Th-The Academy City is providing me with food and lodging until they finish reviewing the documents …and for my phone bill, I followed what the manager told me, so the subsidy is just enough…”

“Hmm.”

Rohan’s expression grew serious.

It wasn’t a pleasant story for his beloved character to be experiencing.

Even if Academy City was a collective of powerful nations, how great could the food and lodging provided to Clara be?

Could it be that her identification still hasn’t been issued after all this time, which is why she enrolled in Orion Academy?

It was difficult to say for sure.

However, considering Clara’s portrayal in Abyss City, the possibility was high.

Her abilities were certainly sufficient for admission.

“Is the room they provided warm? Does it have hot water?”

“Th-There’s no need to wash with warm water. Ah, um, there isn’t…? And I don’t really feel cold…”

She responded with polite language that was far from fluent.

In the end, it meant she was washing herself with cold water even in the middle of winter and was sleeping in a freezing room.

“Hmm.”

Rohan’s worries deepened.