The Protagonist’s Party is Too Diligent – 44
EP.44 The Early Bird (2)
Honestly, I was curious.
How did they find the time to travel all over the huge empire, do all the side quests, and experience every relationship event?
Of course, I’ve never seriously considered such settings or delved into them. After all, there was no such thing as a “second playthrough” in real life. From that perspective, the protagonist’s life could only be limited to the first playthrough, and in that first playthrough, the protagonist could never see all the relationship quests.
Some side quests were often hidden, so if you forgot to talk to an NPC, you’d miss them entirely.
So, I just thought of it as “game logic.” Just like how FPS characters didn’t die from a single bullet and could walk around shrugging off gunshots with a bit of body armor, RPGs simplify time concepts to avoid making the game too difficult for the player.
But what happened when that logic crossed over into reality?
In an FPS, the protagonist would be so amazing that they wouldn’t get hit by bullets, taking out every enemy in their path. In a game, you might die multiple times, but you couldn’t afford to do so in reality.
So, what about the unique time concept of an RPG?
The answer was simple: cramming everything into a limited timeframe.
In the game, there weren’t important events every weekend. If there were, the game would be too long. So, there were three important weekends in the first half of the game and two in the second half before the main story took the protagonists out of the academy.
And there were a total of seven side quests that happened on these important weekends: three in the morning, three in the afternoon, and one at night. Morning, of course, means “morning”—the time from when you wake up until lunch. Generally, this runs from 7 a.m. to noon. Within that time, you had to complete “three” quests.
Wait, logically, wouldn’t it make more sense to have four in the afternoon and three in the morning? No matter how I think about it, the morning slot felt excessively narrow, didn’t it?
Moreover, side quests weren’t the only problem. The “relationship events” between characters also overlap with the concepts of morning, afternoon, and night. Side quests and relationship events were separate entities, and those relationship events didn’t just consist of brief conversations; they often involved errands, consultations, training, studying, helping with a request, and so on—stories that could easily take anywhere from ten minutes to an hour to complete.
Given that, if we assume that experiencing all those relationship events was the goal, it was indeed the right choice to finish the side quests with no time limit early on.
…But still.
“Four in the morning…?”
Four a.m.?
They were already out in the wild, hunting beasts at that hour?! Were they out of their minds?
And it was just Leo and Claire.
Oh, right, I remember seeing in the game that the academy had a 24-hour carriage service that was very reliable. It went directly between stations without getting lost or being robbed. It always followed the schedule, so even local people used it. Of course, they charged the students for it.
It seemed that the 24-hour carriage service was running for the sake of people like Leo and Claire, who moved around at such odd hours. However, I never thought there would actually be those who rode this carriage in the dark, pre-dawn hours.
“Huh? Sylvia?”
Claire turned around at the sound of my footsteps, having just defeated the elemental beast. The streetlights were bright, so I could clearly see Claire’s slightly dazed expression.
“…May I ask what you’re doing here at this hour?”
I tried to keep my voice as calm as possible to hide the fact that I had run all the way from the carriage.
“Huh? Uh…”
Did I look angry? Claire seemed a bit flustered as she glanced at Leo. He shook his head as if he didn’t understand the situation either.
“Well…”
Eventually, Claire opened her mouth, still not fully grasping the situation.
“Leo and I were doing early morning training—”
“…Early morning training?”
“Ah, yes.”
Even though I interrupted her, Claire continued to explain calmly, without looking particularly upset.
“Every morning, we do meditation and sword practice. We’ve been doing it consistently.”
“…Morning?”
I looked up at the sky.
It was starting to get light. But anyone could see it was still “night.” The sky was tinged with blue, but honestly, it looked more like the middle of the night than early morning.
“Uh, yes, and?”
Claire tilted her head in confusion.
So, they got up at four a.m. and—wait, no.
The fact that they were already doing meditation and sword practice at that time meant they woke up even earlier. Plus, it took quite a bit of time to get here. Even if the roads were clear, the only transportation available to us was the carriage.
They could have ridden horses, but I doubted they had horses. The academy had stables, but very few students brought personal horses. There were cars, but fewer students used cars than horses. Moreover, cars had many restrictions within the capital due to conflicts with carriage drivers.
Bicycles… They could have ridden bicycles. But I didn’t see any parked bicycles on the way here.
“Don’t you get tired waking up and moving around at such an hour?”
“Tired?”
Claire looked genuinely puzzled by my question. She then turned to look at Leo.
Leo also had a bewildered expression.
…I felt a strange, cold sensation. No, it wasn’t just the chilly early morning air. It was more like… a feeling from my mood, not my body.
“Uh… Well, it’s related to our energy, right?”
“Energy?”
Was he talking about some pseudo-religious nonsense?
“The first thing you learn in the Grace style is how to circulate clear energy through your body… To handle sword energy, you must always maintain a clear mind, and to do that, you can’t be tired. So, we always learn how to calm our minds through meditation…”
Leo explained this to me in a tone that suggested he was trying hard to suppress a more formal way of speaking.
Huh.
Energy? Clarity? Mind?
Are we reciting Buddhist scriptures in a steampunk fantasy set in the industrial age?
…
Ah, right.
Well, I already knew this.
This world casually used term like sword energy. Claire, who fought against me, also used sword energy. Sword energy in the Age of Enlightenment? What nonsense.
But surprise, surprise, this world had magic and magic stones! Absolutely! There was! No such thing!
“……”
That said, I had no idea whether meditation had any real benefits beyond mere self-hypnosis to alleviate mental and physical fatigue and clear one’s mind.
“So.”
I decided to ask one last time.
“Even if you don’t sleep long, you can drive away fatigue and maintain a clear mind through morning meditation? And you can still use your sword properly?”
“That’s… right?”
Leo answered as if wondering what was so strange about it.
Ah, so I was the odd one here.
I had been mistaken.
I should have considered that the protagonists would actually complete all the side quests in the game!
“…Hey.”
Wait a minute.
I felt a chill run down my spine again. It might have been my imagination, but it felt like my body temperature dropped by about two degrees.
The number of people that Leo, the protagonist, could take on side quests was limited to six, including Leo himself. Two of them were support characters who followed along.
Then, what about the remaining characters? Did they do side quests too?
What if the protagonist were to split the tasks with them?
“Sylvia? What’s wrong? Are you sick?”
As I stood there silently, sweat dripping from my forehead, Claire stepped closer, looking concerned.
“….”
I glanced at Claire and then…
I reset the time once more.
*
I needed to get a driver’s license. I wasn’t sure if such a system existed in this world, but learning how to drive a car seemed like the best option.
After all, horses required constant care. Cars needed maintenance too, but they were certainly easier to manage than living creatures. Plus, learning to drive a car would be much more convenient than horseback riding. If I were nearby, I could hop in anytime, just like now.
“….”
No matter what the coachman sitting on the driver’s seat said, I wouldn’t hear him well. Even without listening to his voice, I could sense from his demeanor that he found the situation extremely uncomfortable.
And it made sense.
The academy staff received important information about their students. Everyone likely knew I was a princess, and seeing me riding alone in a carriage at this hour would definitely make them uneasy.
Well, they might not think I was off to assassinate someone or anything like that.
“….”
If a high-ranking person with a bad temper sat there with a sullen expression, arms crossed, and staring ahead without saying a word, the coachman would probably wonder if he had done something wrong.
Of course, he hadn’t done anything wrong.
I was just annoyed by myself.
“We’ve arrived at the eastern road of the capital.”
“…Thank you.”
When the carriage stopped, and the coachman got down to open the door, I thanked him as I got off.
“The next carriage will arrive in thirty minutes. Is that alright with you?”
“It’s fine.”
Seeing my stiff response, the coachman must have sensed something was off because he quickly bowed and climbed back onto the driver’s seat.
“….”
I quietly watched the carriage disappear, then reached into the pocket of my coat to pull out my pocket watch.
Tick-tock. In the stillness of the night, the ticking sound seemed particularly loud.
“…Three-thirty.”
I quietly muttered and looked up at the sky.
The moon was bright.
…Huh.
After taking a deep breath, I started walking slowly.
Well, fine.
Let’s finish this quickly and go back.
At least I managed to get five hours of sleep since I had reset the time and went to bed early last night.
….
Should I learn that meditation thing too?
*
Elemental dogs weren’t particularly strong beasts. Despite being called “dogs,” they were larger than wolves, and their fur color and the effects around them vary based on their elemental attribute.
Of course, those “effects” manifested as real elements like wind, grass, fire, or ice in this reality.
I had already encountered these creatures several times before. They made good targets for shooting practice.
The quest request stated, “An elemental dog has appeared on the road, threatening people. Please deal with it.”
The elemental dog that appeared before me had green fur and seemed to be surrounded by swirling winds. I was sure if I caught it and brought it to Earth, I could sell it for a good price.
But here, it was just a common sight.
“……Hah.”
Suddenly, I slipped into a contemplative state.
So, did I wake up early in the morning just to catch this one creature? And I already knew it would be a monster like this?
“……Grrr.”
The elemental dog growled, keeping its distance as if it understood how dangerous a lone human could be.
“……”
Click.
I looked at the dog and silently pulled the bolt back, loading a bullet into the chamber.