The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

When I set up bank accounts for Claire and Alice, not only did I divide and deposit the money we earned, but I also added a little extra.

It wasn’t a huge amount.

It was the sum of a small bonus from my savings and one-third of the settlement amount we were expecting.

Electricity bills and grocery expenses were still easily manageable with the money I was making, and if I thought about the savings I'd built up back when I had a regular job, there was no major problem.

Anyway, while it wasn’t enough to call "a lot," it was still "enough to buy something nice."

Not enough for a brand-new latest-model smartphone, but certainly enough for a good-quality coat, some branded sneakers, a piece of jewelry, or maybe some Bluetooth earphones.

Naturally, I was curious about how they would spend it.

Maybe they’d use it to buy some street food while out and about, or pop into an accessory shop and buy [N O V E L I G H T] earrings, rings, or necklaces.

Or they might buy cosmetics or something like that—though honestly, aside from food, all of these would be totally new experiences for them, given how different this world’s culture was compared to the Azerna Empire.

Come to think of it, would this world's cosmetics even suit them?

I didn’t know much about skin tone or anything, but I had heard that Asian and Western skin tones were quite different—even if they looked similar at a glance, there were differences like melanin content or whatever.

...Well, if anyone had more experience with makeup, it would be Claire and Alice, not me.

Even back when people teased me about the "Grace family black-and-white duo" thing, I never bothered with makeup.

A day passed while I was thinking about all that.

In other words, it was the day after I handed them their debit cards.

"I found somewhere I want to go," Alice said to me, and I was a little surprised.

I had expected Claire to be the one to say something like that first.

"As long as it’s somewhere we can get back from before streaming time, it’s totally fine."

I hadn’t posted any break announcements.

Unless I was genuinely sick or some really urgent situation came up that made it impossible to stream, I believed any break should be announced at least the day before.

It would be a shame to tarnish our perfect streak of never missing a single stream so far.

Once you break a promise like that even once, the trust you built crumbles all at once.

"I know," Alice said firmly.

And she wasn’t the type to be careless about that stuff—actually, she was much stricter than me when it came to those things.

Aside from that one time we stayed up late playing the horror game, Claire and Alice always woke up early and made sure I got up too.

Ever since I got them smartphones, their phones had been set to ring alarms at exactly the same time every day.

At least they weren’t getting up at insane hours like when Claire was doing missions.

Now that we were familiar with the area, we would go out for morning walks together, get some fresh air, and sometimes even rent bikes at the park and ride around for fun.

Anyway, as long as we were back before dinner, there was no problem.

"Alright then. Let’s get ready and head out."

We had already washed up in the morning, so all we had to do was change clothes.

Alice looked a little nervous, which made me a bit nervous too.

But come on, it’s not like Alice would take us anywhere weird.

*

It wasn’t a weird place.

Well... depending on the person, it might seem weird.

These days you even saw couples on dates there sometimes.

Still, in today's society, a place like this was easily misunderstood:

the International Electronics Market—commonly known as Gukjeon.

For the record, it was nearly an hour away by subway from where we lived.

In Seoul terms, that was considered pretty far.

But whatever. That didn’t matter.

"Were you interested in this kind of hobby?"

If so, she should have said so earlier.

Despite appearances, the otaku flame still burned deep in my heart.

I hadn’t kept up with new releases because I was lazy, but if I ever decided to dive back in, I could binge-watch or binge-read a bunch of series with no problem.

Besides, originally I was supposed to be at the age where my body would start breaking down, but becoming Sylvia Fangryphon had fixed a lot of that.

"...Not really. Yet."

"Not yet, but the fact that you dragged us all the way here means you're at least a little interested, right?"

"Unnie, where is this place?"

"This is where you can buy the kinds of game packages we have at home—or the small Alice figurine we have."

Honestly, I rarely came here just to buy things.

Once in a while, I'd stop by to window-shop and maybe grab some cheap, dumped games if I felt like it.

Sure, there were places that gave you discounts if you paid in cash, but ordering online with points was usually better.

Still, I couldn’t deny the special charm of seeing things with your own eyes and buying them in person.

Anyway, I was an otaku.

"Ohhh."

Claire’s eyes sparkled as she listened to me explain, but Alice had a rather stiff expression.

"I told you, I’m not into this."

But I didn’t really care.

I was already fantasizing about dragging Alice to a doujinshi event.

Wait...

Would the three of us have to go as cosplay participants if we ever attended one?

I heard they charged special entrance fees for cosplayers.

Looking the way we did, people probably wouldn’t believe we were just there to browse.

And doujin events tended to be chaotic and poorly organized too.

Well, that was a problem for another day.

"Have you been here before?" Alice asked.

I nodded.

"Then... could you maybe show us around a little? I know it’s on the ninth floor, but..."

Alice asked shyly, and I nodded again.

"Of course."

More comrades were always welcome.

It was still early in the day.

It wouldn’t take too long to look around.

Maybe we could swing by Hongdae afterward.

Or Yongsan.

Thinking seriously about our afternoon plans, I led the two toward the elevator.

*

The moment Claire and Alice stepped onto the ninth floor, they both looked visibly stunned.

"Uh...."

"Um, so...."

When you only see one figurine sitting in someone’s room, you don’t really grasp the full picture.

But there wasn’t just one figure in the world—there were tons of them.

For example—

"Keh."

Claire let out a choking sound, and when I turned to look, there it was.

A figurine I had once wanted to buy but couldn’t afford—of Claire herself.

Judging by the price tag, it seemed to be a used one.

Seeing Claire’s frozen expression, Alice smirked in satisfaction and marched right into the store.

"Ah, wait—"

Claire looked flustered but still followed her inside without much hesitation.

Like most shops in a mall like this, it was pretty cramped inside.

This one was relatively large for the area, but even so, once the three of us squeezed in with the customers already there, it felt packed.

And then—

"Eep."

Even Claire, who usually kept her cool, squeaked.

Everyone in the shop had turned to stare at us.

Even Alice, who had entered first, looked so startled she hesitated at the entrance.

...Well, yeah.

The three of us looked exactly like we were doing cosplay.

In the grand scheme of subculture, Azerna Chronicles didn’t have a massive presence.

Sure, it was a decently popular game series, but it never reached the level of massive social phenomenon like some franchises in Japan.

Still, in a place like this, famous for gaming merchandise—

Given how attention-grabbing our appearances already were, if anyone recognized our characters, they simply wouldn’t be able to look away.

The funny part was that all three of us were the real deal.

I lightly pushed Alice’s back, encouraging her to go forward.

Finally, she seemed to snap out of it.

"Ah, um... what can I help you with?"

A middle-aged man behind the counter stood up politely.

Alice hesitated, moving her lips silently for a moment—and then simply pointed her finger at me.

...Huh?

Was she telling me to speak for her?

But oddly enough, the store owner seemed to immediately understand.

He nodded, turned around, and started rummaging through a big box behind the counter.

And then—

"Ah?"

He pulled out a big figure box.

And on the front of that box—was a figure of me.

"Is this the one you were asking about?"

The man asked, looking briefly embarrassed.

Maybe because he thought we were foreigners?

"Yes, that’s right," Alice answered calmly, and the man immediately looked relieved.

The price was a little over 100,000 won.

More than affordable with the money I had deposited into Alice’s account.

And as I absentmindedly watched the purchase happening—

I finally realized why Alice had brought us here.

...Could it be?

Was she getting revenge?

Because I had bought a Claire figure before?

No way...

Was she planning to show it off on stream?