[Brynhildr Fort: Guild Building]

Emilia was the first one to break the silence.

"What do you all think about this?" (Emilia)

The "this" that Emilia said was obviously about the conversation with Hecate earlier.

Astrid was silent, she wanted to say something but still couldn't find the right words to express her thoughts. Meanwhile, Rena just smiled in relief and said calmly.

"Well, I'm glad that Hecate-cchi was cured from her leukemia." (Rena-cchi)

"No, that's not what I meant. I mean, don't you think Hecate is hiding a lot of things from us?" (Emilia)

Hearing Rena's nonchalant response, Emilia frowned.

Their previous conversation with Hecate earlier has given them so many shocking revelations. Like how her health information was wrong, or the fact that she had so much gold in her possession.

'I didn't expect Hecate to be deceiving people with her health information...'

Emilia's feelings now are a little complicated.

It wasn't that Emilia was unhappy that Hecate was healthy, but she was unhappy that Hecate created false information that could make people panic.

Because of this information, Emilia volunteered to take on many duties that were originally Hecate's responsibility. Emilia did this to reduce Hecate's burden as much as possible and ensure that she wouldn't become mentally exhausted to the point of endangering her life.

This was the main reason why Hecate didn't have many duties in the guild and could roam freely as a mascot.

But now that Emilia knew Hecate was healthy, did that mean she worked for this loli in vain?

Emilia also still remembered how depressed Rena was when she saw Hecate's health information at school. That same day Rena decided to become a doctor, and the effort she put into studying was not small.

The main reason Rena wanted to become a doctor was because of Hecate's illness, but now just right before the exam, the person herself said that the illness didn't exist.

Doesn't that mean that Rena's career aspirations to become a doctor and her efforts to achieve that are in vain?

However, looking at her friend's expression, it seemed that Rena herself didn't mind. On the contrary, she didn't seem too surprised by this development.

"Yeah, I know that very much. We have been together with her for two years after all, so I know very much that Hecate-cchi still hasn't fully opened herself to us." (Rena-cchi)

Regarding this, Rena was also helpless.

She knew very well that her beloved loli still closed her heart and built an invisible wall to distance herself from everyone. That was why she wasn't surprised and didn't say anything when Hecate asked Astrid to buy a separate house. Though, Rena was still a little surprised by Hecate's wealth, which was able to spend 120 million yen worth of gold.

Besides, from Rena's point of view, Hecate didn't intentionally create false information and deceive everyone.

The fact that Hecate suffered from leukemia was true and unlikely to be faked, but after that she recovered without updating the information. It's just that Rena arbitrarily looked at her outdated data and arbitrarily panicked.

Rena couldn't blame Hecate for the misunderstanding, because it was her own fault for looking the information without permission.

"But this is good news, right?! At least her life wasn't in danger as we thought and she doesn't seem to need our help. Maybe we have done something unnecessary." (Rena-cchi)

As for her aspiration that has lost its goal, Rena doesn't mind very much.

On the contrary, she felt genuinely happy from the bottom of her heart because her beloved loli was healthy and did not have to face the threat of death in a short time.

Before this, Rena made serious efforts to research leukemia cases in the past 20 years. At the same time, she took her time to research the feasibility of cloning human bone marrow for Hecate to transplant. She spent a lot of AP to use Kyoto Academy's quantum server to carry out simulations several times, and finally concluded that the feasibility was high.

Not to mention that she had to race against time, so she accepted Astrid's offer to work as an intern at the hospital owned by Tenz company. In this case, even though she couldn't immediately become a doctor, she could still build connections with many doctors to cure Hecate in the shortest possible time.

But now that her biggest worry has been solved, she doesn't need to rush anymore.

Apart from that, because Hecate bought a house in Tokyo through Astrid's connection, Rena just had to ask for the address afterwards. There will be many opportunities to meet her even offline in the real world.

Thinking about this, Rena felt very excited.

"Yeah, the fact that there's nothing wrong with Hecate's health is actually good news." (Emilia)

Emilia agreed with Rena's words.

In any case, the fact that Hecate did not suffer from such a dangerous disease was undoubtedly good news worth celebrating. As for returning the duties back to Hecate, forget it. The current organizational structure was already solid and changing it haphazardly could cause unnecessary chaos.

There was no problem letting the loli continue to act as a mascot.

"But, there is still a problem, it's about the illegal doctor who cured her." (Emilia)

"The underworld, huh..." (Astrid)

The fact that Hecate has ties to the underworld also shocked them greatly.

Having ties to the underworld could be said to be a double-edged sword. If used correctly, they can solve most of your problems, but if careless, they can drag you down to hell.

This so-called underworld refers to people who do many things outside the law, most of which are in the gray area. Sometimes they do something illegal, such as drug cartels, organ trafficking, and so on.

"The reason Hecate recovered was most likely because she obtained a suitable bone marrow from the organ trading business. Now it makes sense why she hasn't updated her health information." (Astrid)

"Ah... Yes, that's true! This is very serious!" (Emilia)

"Wh, what should we do, A-cchi-senpai!?" (Rena-cchi)

Hearing Astrid's speculation, Rena and Emilia could only gasp in horror.

Now that they thought about this carefully, it did make sense why Hecate didn't update her health information. If the authorities know about this, she definitely get into a big trouble.

It was just like buying narcotics can be considered a crime, no less important than selling them. The fact that she had transaction activities with the organ trafficking business could also result in a guilty verdict.

They could imagine a loli curled up in prison pitifully...

Then, Astrid continued her words.

"You two don't have to worry about this. No matter what method she used to cure her illness, she is still a member of the Genesis Guild, and also our friend. I will use my authority talk to the dean to falsify the hospital report later." (Astrid)

"Yes, this is good, very good, A-cchi-senpai. Let's just do what you say." (Rena-cchi)

"I have no objection." (Emilia)

Hearing Astrid's assurance, Rena and Emilia breathed a sigh of relief.

With Astrid's current position, she could definitely do that. As for the doctor who would be responsible for healing Hecate, she didn't need to think too hard.

Didn't Rena study cloning human bone marrow?

Astrid had looked at the simulation data and saw the 90% feasibility of success written in the analysis report. The only problem was that if this simulation were actually implemented, the cost of materials alone such as various types of nutrient solutions would cost millions and it would take about 2 years for the cloned bone marrow to grow into a usable form.

'Then, let's just pretend the simulation is real.'

With that thinking, Astrid quickly decided her next move.

If this simulation were to be written as real, then this would be written as Rena has been preparing to clone this bone marrow since she was in high school. Anyway, Hecate has recovered from her leukemia, so this fake case can be used to boost Rena's momentum so she can become a licensed doctor faster.

This matter will have to be discussed again later with all related parties.

"Let's stop talking about depressing matters. Why don't we look at the house Hecate wants to buy now?" (Astrid)

"Okay." | "Agreed."

Rena and Emilia nodded.

With that said, the three of them quickly logout and disappeared from the lounge.

♠♠♠

 

[Real World: Yasaka Ruri's Home]

Ruri who woke up from the Capsule Pod let out a sigh of relief.

"That was close..."

The conversation just now made her break out in cold sweat.

She didn't expect her outrageous lie about the Mastersmith buff to have such a big impact. At best, she thought that this report would be just like her other reports that people casually praised, commented on, and then quickly forgotten. Unexpectedly, Shuna and her Blacksmith department took this report seriously and began trying to reproduce it.

If it weren't for the fact that the settings for the lie she made were very solid and she had prepared herself mentally beforehand, perhaps her lie would have been exposed.

"Well, even if they got some Blacksmith related relics, it shouldn't be a problem to me."

There are a lot of relics that appear in the game and it was normal not to get the same results.

Instead, maybe they should thank her because if they succeeded, they would get real rewards, like Blacksmith skills or rare materials. As for the buff reward, it was actually just a mediocre reward that people could get just by passing the dungeon.

The second unexpected thing was that Astrid's offer and the discussion about Ruri's leukemia.

This offer, doesn't seem possible to refuse.

It wasn't like the job, place to live, and everything Astrid had to offer wasn't good or detrimental to her. On the contrary, the offer was very good and she could feel Astrid's sincerity. It was just that if she accepts the offer, it means she will tie her own position to Astrid more firmly, and it would be more difficult for Hecate to betray her and the Genesis Guild in the future.

But, the offer was so good that it didn't make sense for her to refuse it. And she could feel that if she really refused, not only Astrid, but also Rena and Emi's favorability point would be greatly reduced.

Since that was the case, she could only accept the offer. Besides...

"I didn't think that Rena had actually been looking for my health information..."

Although she didn't set her information to private, but she didn't expect someone to have the free time to get her health information. But thinking about Rena, it doesn't seem strange if she did that. Unfortunately, she didn't know that this information was outdated and the so-called leukemia had long since been cured.

It was just that Ruri didn't expect that this outdated information would be dug up and discussed again. She herself had almost forgotten about this, if no one had brought it up today.

Of course, if she had to accept the offer, she would have to fix this leukemia nonsense first.

The reason why she didn't update her outdated health information was to deceive her own family, but this trick wouldn't work on Astrid and the Genesis Guild. With the current conditions, it only took a little time for them to know that the disease had been cured. Since that was the case, then it would be better to tell them the truth on her own initiative.

And then, the third unexpected thing happened, for some reason, Astrid attributed her recovery to illegal doctor!

Ruri was left speechless and she didn't understand how Astrid's brain worked to think of something like that. It was as if her family has ties to the underworld and they're relying on this to cure her leukemia.

But at that moment, she suddenly thought of a more bold plan.

At first, she planned to buy some cheap house to live temporarily, and then upgrade her livelihood step by step and move to a bigger house. But since Astrid thought that she was connected to the dark side, then so be it. She could use this misunderstanding as an opportunity to launder money through the Tenz company.

And by using this money, she could be bolder and buy a grand mansion proudly.

"Hehehe, with this, I can save three years of effort."

With their large scale, it would not be difficult for them to launder a quantity of gold of unknown origin without any suspicion from the government. At least, it was more reliable than her original plan to auction her fake heirloom.

As for living in an apartment? Sorry, no thanks.

She felt that living in the apartment next to Rena would definitely endanger her chastity!

Speaking of Rena, although this girl usually acts stupid, she is extraordinarily smart and sharp. Otherwise, she would not be able to take a special curriculum and aspire to become a doctor.

Ruri had to debuff Rena with Hecate's cuteness all the time to numb her brain and prevent her from noticing any abnormalities. But even so, Ruri was still not sure whether Rena realized there was something wrong with her behavior.

"Well, most likely she noticed... since I was sitting on her lap earlier, but it shouldn't be a big problem."

With that said, Ruri took a deep breath.

Maybe that was why Rena didn't say anything when Hecate asked Astrid to buy a house instead of living in the apartment.

Keeping secrets from everyone in the Genesis Guild was no easy task. But still, what she needed to do didn't change. She doesn't need to hide that she has some secrets, she just needs to make sure they stay secrets.

It's natural for someone to have a secret or two. Who doesn't have any secrets in their life?

But even if they found some of her secret, as long as it was not the secret about her magical ability, it was not a big problem. Oh maybe the secret about Black Phantom also needs to be included as her top secret.

Ruri patted her naked flat chest and sighed.

"Okay, let's take a look at the houses available in Tokyo now."

She turned the Capsule Pod's holo-screen on and typed in the address link Astrid shared earlier.

This was the address link that leads to the Real Estate site on Quantum Network. As soon as she pressed the confirm button, she saw an introductory web page that matched what Astrid had described.

After confirming the link was valid, she prepared to dive in immediately.