"W-why?!"
Chris's carefully constructed serious image crumbled in an instant.
"I understand Lady Christiana's good intentions..."
Anastasia's relationship network in the Lemoria Continent was surprisingly simple.
The original master who no longer logs in, the witch mother I've never even met, the completely unrelated support group—just these three categories in total. For various reasons, none of them could become Anastasia's new master.
Chris is the only NPC eager to become my new master. Perhaps due to excessive concern, she overlooked something quite important.
"But Lady Christiana, you've missed one crucial point." I raised one finger and calmly said, "As long as I don't agree, no adventurer can do anything to me."
Chris was momentarily stunned.
Although the game's background settings heavily reference the medieval period, the decisive factor is: this is a virtual game aimed at people worldwide. True, there is a servant system, but settings that violate human rights, like slavery, could never appear in the game. Even if they tried to gloss it over as historical accuracy, one official document would force them to make changes.
In《The Eternal Pacificus》, players and NPCs have age restriction toggles. While these can be disabled for certain special behaviors, each character's age restriction toggle is under their own control. No one has the right to interfere—even masters can't force servants to disable their age restrictions.
In other words, unless I subjectively wish to remove the restrictions, no one can do anything excessive to me. Hence, the nobles in the game show far less interest in me than players do—after all, if they can't be physical, how many nobles would be willing to be emotional with a maid?
The player side has even stricter verification for removing restrictions than NPCs do, including but not limited to real age, physical health condition, whether there are previous legal violations, and many other restrictions.
This isn't some single-player 18+ virtual game—I'll never be reduced to a slave or have weird settings like "shared maid" added.
With Chris's intelligence, turning this over in her mind would help her understand this logic.
Chris opened and closed her mouth, the bright light in her eyes dimming considerably.
The Montefeltro family's daughter having a fondness for cute girls is no longer news in the Kingdom of Michel. However, the information I received shows no memories of Chris abandoning or toying with any girls. At least that panicked concern—I don't believe it's purely personal feelings.
"Actually, there's another reason."
"...What is it?"
"A servant serving a new master while harboring lingering attachments to their previous master would certainly be negligent."
I must find Young Miss's game character in Lemoria. Only then can I understand exactly what happened. It would be perfect if I could continue to protect Young Miss in the game world as before.
This is undoubtedly a thorny task. I don't know Young Miss's in-game ID or race, and can't even describe her character's appearance. Based on gender protection laws, virtual online games prohibit cross-gender character creation. Still, game character appearances can be adjusted according to reality—freckles can be removed, height can be increased, and the vast majority of players have varying degrees of difference from their game-world characters.
The contract between Young Miss and me hasn't ended, so I absolutely cannot seek a new master in this state.
Hearing my answer, Chris sniffled, and tears suddenly poured down like rain.
Aren't Chris's tear ducts a bit too active?
"Wuu... Anna... guarding the spirit altar of a departed master for a whole year, unable to sever thoughts of the master... wuaah—this just makes me love Anna even more!"
The master I'm concerned about is Young Miss, though...
"Right! I've decided!"
Chris suddenly raised her pink fist forcefully.
"Forced melons aren't sweet. Until Anna lets go, I won't force Anna anymore, and Anna won't accept adventurers' pursuits either, right?"
"Correct."
My brief answer earned Chris's satisfied smile, but I really wanted to ask an irrelevant question: How exactly can you control your tears so freely?
"Whenever Anna figures things out, you can come find me. The Montefeltro family will always welcome Anna as a family member. Well then, that's all for today."
"I'm deeply honored by your kindness."
Thanks to Chris, I've gained some helpful information.
Anastasia's shallow relationships allow me to blend into the role with minimal suspicion. Chris is the person most familiar with Anastasia—if even Chris can't spot any inconsistencies, others have even less chance of discovering anything.
Until watching Chris leave, I couldn't believe that Chris was an NPC simulated by the game world. Has artificial intelligence really developed to this level?
There's just one thing that really concerns me.
Chris had no reason to lie to me, so according to her, Anastasia is a very popular character in《The Eternal Pacificus》. Tomorrow officially opens the path to gain Anastasia's favor, yet until now, the game operators haven't discovered that Anastasia, the central character of the event, has been internally replaced by a man?
The questions in my heart keep piling up. Everything will be revealed after midnight—midnight is a dividing point when I'll update with the game official's newly loaded functions. There will definitely be data interactions then.
Perhaps by then, the officials will discover the anomaly and fix the bug, and my experience of transmigrating into the game world will be nothing more than a brief dream.
But if everything proceeds normally, then why exactly... did I come to the game world...?