“Do you think that you can run away like that? It won’t be long before they catch you. Where are you running to anyway? There’s absolutely nothing in that direction.”

“… Wait, aren’t you...” “That’s right, it’s me!” “… that creepy kid from before…” “That’s right!” I struck a smug pose. “…” She remembers me, looks like I left an impression.

“Last time I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself. I am Crystal, nice to meet you.” I shifted into a cute pose and made a weird hand sign.

“I am Riko. But that’s not important, what are you doing here? Did they get you too?”

“I came here to save you! Obviously.”

“You? Save me? Huh, how, why?”

“You see, I am the kind of person that always comes to other people with only the best of intentions. So, once I learned of what happened to you, I decided to save you. Obviously.”

“But still… Didn’t they send you to an orphanage, how did you get here, exactly?”

“By a boat. It was a treacherous journey, I had to fend off sea monsters and giant waves.”

“Really?”

“No, I just teleported.” I put my hand on her shoulder and the next second we both appeared on the eastern side of the island.

“Whaa…!”

“Ta-da! Introducing teleportation!”

She distanced herself from me as she tried to get her bearings. “Where?”

“On the east side of the island, quite convenient, don't you think?”

“You can do that? … … Then you could…”

“Sure. But before we leave, we need to make sure that they won't follow behind.”

I took out an item from my inventory, it looks like a weird wooden totem thing. This thing will come in handy, thankfully it was among already identified ones. Otherwise, it would be an enormous pain to find.

In the game, it spawned a clone of yourself and turned you invisible. The clone itself didn’t do anything, but it was still a useful item. You could use it to deaggro mobs and run away. I don’t know how well it translated to reality but, this is a good time to try as any. Best-case scenario, it will save me a bunch of extra trouble.

“Here we go!” I aimed the weird totem thing at Riko and used my mana. In the next instant, an identical clone appeared right next to her.

“What?!” Riko jumped in surprise.

It looks exactly like her, just with closed eyes and motionless. It should hopefully be good enough to fool them.

“What is that?” Riko kept looking back and forth between the clone and myself, while sporadically pointing at it with both hands.

“That’s a clone of yourself. Pretty convincing, don't you think? It looks just like you.”

“A clone?”

“Yes, a clone. We can use it to fake your death, so they stop looking for you. But firstly, we need to test if it’s good enough to fool them. Come closer and don’t move.”

“…” Without a response, she just stood there, seemingly unsure of what to do.

“This is important! We don’t have time!”

“… Alright?”

“We really need to check it first. As long as they will believe that you died, they won’t look for you. Now don’t move. I have to make sure that it will work.”

“…”

I grabbed the tail of the perfect body clone with my left hand, and Riko’s tail with another. Soft, very soft. My hands slowly slipped across both tails. Such an exquisite feeling, what a fluffy texture. I grinned happily as I continued to fondle both tails. “Yes, yes, very authentic.”

Riko shifted from side to side with an uncertain expression on her face. “Umm, I am getting a little weirded out…”

“Weirded out?” As we made eye contact, I tilted my head and made a confused expression. “By what?”

“Umm… … never mind…”

“Alright, it’s pretty convincing… But we still need to do a second test to be one-hundred percent sure.”

“The second test?”

“Yes.” I took out a chair out of my inventory and sat on it. “Alright, now put your head on my lap.”

“Umm, what?”

“This is an important test. Do you want them to know that you escaped? Do you want to return there?” I pointed in the general direction of where I think that place was.

“No. I… Alright…”

She put her head on my lap from my right side and from the other side I brought the perfect body clone and put its head right next to Riko’s.

“Umm…”

I started to pet them both. “There, there.” After that, I switched to caressing their ears. Fluffy. Ears. Addictive. This is heaven.

Did she just purr? Hmm, she seems to be enjoying it.

 

“Alright, I am done.”

Riko stood up, eyeing me with an awkward expression.

“Tests were very successful, that clone is indistinguishable from the original. They will certainly fall for it.”

“Right. So, now what? What will we do with that, exactly?” She pointed at her clone.

“It will be best to put it into water so they will be led to believe that you drowned.” I pushed the clone off the edge right into the water. After a big splash, it floated up face down.

“…”

“…”

“Won’t it be suspicious for it to be this close to the shore?”

I put my right hand on my chin. “I guess that’s true.” From under the nearby tree, I picked up a stick and with it, I poked the perfect body clone, pushing it slightly further away from the shore.

“I don’t think that they will buy that. It needs to be much further than that, for it to be believable.”

“Right. You don’t happen to have a longer stick, do you?”

“…”

“…”

In the end, we weren’t able to find a longer stick, so I just pushed it away with the gravity skill.

 

41. Pet a cat girl. SUCCESS (Good start just two more!)

42. Pet a fox girl.

43. Pet a dragon girl.

 

Now the only thing left to do was to leave the island, but after a short talk with Riko I realized that things were a bit more complicated. She explained that she had no home to return to or anyone she could rely on. She isn’t familiar with this country, she has no money, property or anywhere to go…

Right, now what? I haven’t thought this through, did I? I don’t think that I can just bring her with me, not sure how I would explain that… and she has nowhere to go… what to do, what to do… I can’t just leave her at some random street. Otherwise, she could turn into a homeless, and I couldn’t do that with a good conscience. It’s the same as when you don’t bury the corpses after a battle, and they rise up as zombies, I mean at that point you can’t act surprised that it happened.

“Where should we go… Do you want to go back to Silvercrest?”

“Can’t we go to some other city instead?” She asked after a bit of hesitation.

“Sure?” Well, whatever, there’s only one other city I have been to. I guess we’ll go there… and so we teleported away.

 

After arriving in the alleged capital, we went to an inn. I paid for one night so she has somewhere to sleep, I, on the other hand, will have to return home.

“What do you want to do now?”

“I don’t know…”

“You should figure something out. I guess you could stay at an inn for now, this one is pretty cheap, all things considered.”

“But I don’t have any runes to pay for it.”

I folded my arms as I turned towards her. “Right. Ideally, you would get a job. But in the meantime, I can lend you some money if you'd like. In today's economy, it is prudent to borrow from a reliable and trustworthy figure.”