As expected of me, even my "Natural Airhead" skill is at Lv. Max.
Well, there's no such skill—I'm just not quite used to my new name yet. When I see "Anastasia," I keep thinking it refers to some other girl, before remembering that I am Anastasia.
"Anna! Do you even understand your situation?!"
Chris, infuriated by my complete lack of crisis awareness, suddenly produced a small blackboard—presumably taken from her storage space, or what players call a (Bag).
Storage space isn't a technology available to every NPC; it requires at least some magical foundation, though the storage capacity relates to factors like physical strength. By the way, my storage space capacity can rival even a dragon's treasure hoard.
Chris's jade-like fingers danced like butterflies as she drew the most straightforward relationship diagram about my position on the blackboard.
"Look carefully, Anna."
Chris rarely showed such seriousness.
In the center of the blackboard was the elegant text "Anna. " While the game world is fictional, creating a completely fictional writing system would've been putting the cart before the horse, so the text and language used in-game match reality. As for the heart shape around "Anna," just ignore that.
"This was Anna's original master."
"Original master..."
Above ❤Anna❤ was a line connecting to a player's ID—the true owner of the mansion where I now live, Anastasia's former master, and in a sense, the direct cause of the character Anastasia's creation.
About a year ago, officials launched an event similar to a martial arts tournament. In the human kingdoms' division, the champion's reward was an exclusive NPC custom-made by the officials. The winning player submitted their character design requirements, and a month later, officials released a preview of the game model.
Purple-blue crystal-like eyes, a small, adorable nose, lips bearing a faint smile—even without makeup, her features were flawless. Silk-soft light black hair flowing to her waist, snow-white skin that, against the preview background, emanated a dreamlike, beautiful glow. Though wearing a modest maid uniform that didn't emphasize her figure, her chest like ripe fruit waiting to be plucked by its master, and those long, well-proportioned, beautiful legs beneath the skirt were more than enough to thoroughly capture players' desires to possess her.
They say when players who lost the tournament saw Anastasia's design, their wails of regret filled the air, cursing their own inadequacy.
However, shortly after the official implementation, Anastasia's master never logged into the game again. Game settings dictate that if an exclusive NPC's master is inactive for an extended period, the NPC regains freedom, preventing them from being locked to a dead account. The time limit was set very long—logging in just once during the period, even without doing anything, would reset the timer. To truly never log in again, there must have been some unavoidable reason to abandon the game.
The officials, unwilling to let their carefully designed NPC go to waste, confirmed Anastasia's liberation from the master-servant relationship and officially announced a new way to acquire Anastasia.
Now, I am a wild maid without a master.
"Anna's original master has abandoned their oath to protect Lemoria. Even if they returned now, it wouldn't matter, so they can't help Anna. PASS!"
I understand the logic, but was it really necessary to draw a tombstone over the original master's name? It gives me the creepy feeling that a zombie might suddenly appear.
Chris then pointed to the connection on the left.
"This is Anna's mother."
My mother...
Officials couldn't create an exclusive NPC with a blank background, so I'm the daughter of a witch in the setting.
"Mother-in-law's whereabouts are unknown, and she never visits Anna, so the possibility of her coming to help Anna is infinitely close to zero. PASS!"
...Is this really my birth mother? Also, don't just casually call her mother-in-law.
Chris pointed to the bottom, following clockwise.
"This is Anna's adventurer fan club."
"Eh? I have a fan club?"
"Of course! I heard from adventurers that Anna makes it into the top eight in every moe battle!"
Moe battles—competitions where players vote for the game's cutest characters. Among the top eight, Anastasia is the only NPC that players have a chance of acquiring.
"Anna is super popular among adventurers. She's ranked TOP1 in lists like 'Most Desired Wake-up Service,' 'Most Wanted Humiliated Expression When Forced to Submit to Enemies,' 'Most Wanted to See Her Stockings After a Full Day's Work All Sweaty Before She Can Take Them Off (Preferably Forgetting to Wear Panties That Day),' 'Most Wanted to See Her Being Lovey-Dovey with the Noble and Beautiful Lady Chris,' and so on!"
"What kind of messed-up rankings are these?!"
For the first time in my life, my cheeks burned hot enough to cook slime, and just hearing these ranking titles sent waves of intense embarrassment surging from deep within my heart.
By the way, wasn't that last ranking totally made up by Chris? The tone is entirely different from the others.
"Anna's support group is an organization where like-minded adventurers gather."
"Shouldn't this kind of terrifying organization be disbanded immediately?"
"Yesterday, the leader of Anna's support group was arrested for licking the Holy Maiden's footprints. His last words were 'Even if I die, even nailed in my coffin, I'll still cry out from my grave with these rotting vocal cords: Anna's footprints are the best in the world!!!'"
I often feel out of place among adventurers due to not being perverted enough.
"By the way, Anna's fan club conservatively numbers over ten thousand members."
There are tens of thousands of players as perverted as him?! I'm starting to worry about Young Miss's gaming environment and even wonder if the game company did any real-name verification.
So scary... The players in this game are all such perverts...
"In conclusion, Anna's support group isn't up to the task, PASS! So Anna's only path to survival is—"
On the rightmost side of the relationship web was clearly written ❤Anna❤Chris❤.
Without thinking, I blurted out:
"But, I refuse."