Maids VS Apocalypse

Still dumbfounded, Mark took a few seconds to come up with a response.

"Just so you know, she’s Lara in name and appearance alone." He opened his inventory and selected the pen from the list ten materialized it with the ’Use’ option. "The person on the inside is entirely different."

"Entirely different?"

Kanna appeared confused, but only for a second. She snatched the pen then turned back to the maid.

"So you aren’t really Lara?"

"I... It is complicated."

"Would you mind sitting here?"

The question appeared to serve no point as the illustrator pointed at an empty sofa. She gave a few more instructions then dragged a chair and sat down herself, and with the pen and tablet in hand, she began sketching.

A few minutes passed before anyone spoke again.

"If... if she isn’t Lara then who... who is she?" Pausing, the illustrator looked back at Mark. "Don’t tell me it’s just a cosplay?"

The world was ending. Monsters flooded from hell, buildings toppled and fires spread everywhere. In such chaos, who would go so far as to put on a costume just to surprise a random illustrator?

"No," Mark glanced at Ramsay who was standing near the door then returned his gaze to the illustrator who had gone back to sketching. Heaving a sigh, he organized his thoughts and prepared for a lengthy explanation. "The other day you Awakened and received a Level 1 LRGS, right?"

Kanna stopped moving her pen, but she didn’t turn around. Instead, she stared at Lara for a while then went back to sketching. After a few seconds with no response, Mark began to suspect that she hadn’t heard him at all. He was about to call for her when she spoke up, not taking her eyes off the tablet.

"Level 1?" She said. "Yeah, we talked about it already, right?"

The messages she exchanged with Mark went over a few things, including whatever he learned about the LRGS and the state of the world.

"Well, there is more to it."

Multitasking seemed to be a skill Kanna had. She only raised her head to look at Lara before diving back into her tablet. Even then, she didn’t miss a single thing from Mark’s explanation, although her responses lagged from time to time.

"So your System is based on the game?" Her body went stiff and a second later she whipped her head in his direction. "What about the others!?"

"It will take some time but..." Mark’s eyes met Lara’s at that moment and shame came crashing down on him.

"So you can summon the others as well?" The illustrator went back to sketching. "Then why didn’t you summon Celestia?"

"Pffft."

Ramsay started coughing and Mark turned to glare at him. Lara’s gaze grew cold and sent a shiver down his spine. That was when he knew he had to say something that could fix the mess his illustrator friend ignorantly created.

"If I remember right, only Lara had been on my mind that night." He caught onto a thread and went with it. "I was thinking of how to make her fall in love with me. Next thing I knew, she was there."

At that moment Mark wanted to pat himself on the back. What he said was the truth, he simply omitted that it was all in the contest of his game. He had been struggling with the dating aspect of his game back then and was wondering if he should adjust the script so that Lara in the game is easier to romance.

"Hold on..." Kanna’s eyes widened and she began looking between him and the maid. "Don’t tell me."

At that moment, Mark couldn’t stop the smirk from forming.

"We’re already married."

The pen dropped from the illustrator’s hand as she went static. Ramsay who had been struggling to hold in his laughter froze as well. They both shifted toward Lara a couple of seconds later and seeing her blush while averting her gaze, lightning came down on the two.

"C-congratulations!"

With eyes sparkling the illustrator jumped from her seat, startling Lara as she rushed over to her side.

"You did it, Lara! You won!"

The hammer of confusion didn’t strike the maid alone but Mark and Ramsay as well.

"Wait! How long have you two been together? Didn’t you meet just a few days ago?" Kanna looked up in realization. "Oh right! White is still a virgin so I guess making him fall for you wasn’t too difficult."

"Hey!"

Mark’s protesting cry fell on deaf ears.

"But what about you? You weren’t particularly fond of humans so- wait, what about the blood? You’re a dhampir, right? Did you-"

"Ms. Kobayashi," Ramsay cut her off. "Please show some tact."

The illustrator froze once more. Her gaze wandered around the room before landing on Lara, and noting that her blushing had gotten worse, she seemed to get the idea, her face growing red by the second.

"S-sorry! I-I-I-"

"Please, just shut up for a second."

Mark’s head fell into his hands. Suddenly exhausted, he exhaled and thought for a while.

"I already told you she isn’t the Lara from the game."

"... oh..."

"Let’s make that part clear first."

With another sigh, Mark went on to explain how the summoning of his System works.

"A shell that is based on the character?"

"Yes, and the person residing in it has no relation to the Lara in the game."

Silence filled the room. For a while, the illustrator only stared at Lara. Her gaze then turned to the youth sitting on the opposite sofa, and with a shaky smile, she pointed at the maid beside her and said.

"A g-g-ghost?"

"More like a heroic spirit."

Technically speaking she wasn’t far off the mark. The dreams he had been getting didn’t hint at anything good, and looking at the summoning process it can be boiled down to someone being possessed.

’Ah...’ The talk he had with his maid earlier came back to him and Mark realized something. ’I didn’t ask about her goals...’

The conversation went off track, so much so that he forgot about the main topic entirely. Lara wasn’t always a being that could be summoned. She had a different life, one that appears to have reached its end at some point. Her memories of that life had been sealed and she was forced to take on her current role.

’Is her goal to unseal her memories?’ He thought. ’Or does it have to do something with her previous life?’

"So she isn’t the real Lara..." Kanna muttered to herself. "Wait, since she is real, wouldn’t that mean she’s the real Lara?"

"What matters is that you shouldn’t think of her in the context of the story." Said Mark. "The same goes for the others."

"But... how did it work, then?" She asked, tilting her head slightly. "If she isn’t the heroine, how did you make her fall for you?"

"Master, I believe further explanation is required." Lara’s glare told him to cut it out and properly clear things up. He was going to do so at some point, of course, but her patience ran out before that happened and she did so herself. "Master’s and my relationship is purely for appearance and convenience. It is in no way intimate."

"For... convenience?"

"Let’s leave the details for later."

Mark knew for sure that his illustrator friend wouldn’t have any trouble figuring out the rest on her own. That didn’t matter right now. It was time to discuss the reason they came all the way here.

"Listen, Kobayashi..."

It was then that Mark came to notice something important. He suddenly went silent as he grabbed his imaginary controller and opened the Journal entry on the Player Menu. Once he entered the Quests section, his hunch was confirmed.

The System Upgrade quest was still ongoing. The second clear condition had yet to receive its checkmark even though they had already secured the illustrator.

’Don’t tell me...’ He glanced at the Asian with round glasses. ’Is she still in danger?’

The battle was over so he had assumed that all the danger had passed. Why else would they allow him to sleep for twelve hours straight?

’Is there another reason?’

"Kid, you shouldn’t suddenly go silent like that," Ramsay said. "You’ll make everyone worry."

Apparently his expression had turned grave and alerted the others that something was amiss. Giving it one more look, Mark dismissed the quest screen and did his best to smile.

"It’s nothing important. Don’t worry about it." He was telling that to himself instead of the others. "Let’s get back to why we came all the way here."

Pausing, he locked eyes with the illustrator.

"Now that you know about my System, you should understand that you had a role to play in its development."

Kanna blinked a few times then pointed at herself.

"Me?"

"Yes." Mark nodded. "It’s based on the game, and since Maids VS Apocalypse wouldn’t exist without your illustrations, that means your contribution is quite significant."