“Game Insight reporter, Seong Gi-chan?”
It was a name I’d never heard before.
No, I felt like I’d at least heard the name Game Insight in passing, but the reporter requesting an interview with me didn’t seem to be anyone particularly famous in the industry.
‘But why request an interview all of a sudden?’
The demo version of Slash the Dragon that I’d made was getting a fair bit of attention online and elsewhere, but at the end of the day, it was still a game that hadn’t even been released yet.
I hadn’t shown any real results to speak of, so having an interview request come out of nowhere left me nothing but bewildered.
Which naturally led to suspicion.
‘Maybe he’s just aiming for a first-mover advantage and sent out the email on a whim.’
I’d heard that it was more common than you’d think for game industry reporters to cast a wide net by sending emails to indie game developers who looked like they had some promise.
If even one of them bit, they could slap on the title of “exclusive interview” and sweetly farm the views, so from their perspective, it probably wasn’t much of a loss.
On the other hand, indie game developers might agree to interviews before official release in hopes of stirring up even a little buzz, only to get no real promotional effect and end up wasting their time.
‘Is there anything I stand to gain by accepting this interview?’
I thought about it for a moment, but soon reached a conclusion.
‘Yeah, let’s pass.’
A half-baked interview would only lower my own value.
Moreover, if I got all excited in an interview like that and said, “Our game is going to be a huge hit,” only for it to fail miserably, that would basically create a dark history all on its own. There was no need to rush.
After all, if I achieved the kind of massive success that surprised everyone, interview requests from game journalists would come flooding in whether I wanted them to or not.
Having reached that conclusion, I decided to pretend I’d never seen the interview request email.
***
“Come to think of it, is this the first time the two of us have gone out together?”
On their way back from shopping for dinner at a large mart near the house, Yang Bibi suddenly brought that up. Saori, who had been walking beside her, fell into thought for a moment before answering.
“Now that you mention it, I suppose it is.”
“More importantly, how long are you planning to keep speaking so politely to me? We’re both twenty, aren’t we?”
“As a rule, I don’t intend to speak casually to anyone other than Teacher. It’s a symbol of affection.”
“Hmph, what kind of logic is that? If you use it, you use it.”
Yang Bibi snorted as she said that.
For reference, her current outfit was the same one she had been wearing when she first popped out of the phone screen.
In other words, she was dressed in an extremely eye-catching combination of a Chinese dress and a leather jacket.
Passersby saw Yang Bibi and whispered among themselves, wondering if it was cosplay, but she herself didn’t seem to care in the slightest.
‘Does this person not know the meaning of embarrassment?’
Thinking that to herself, Saori stated her own position.
“More importantly, Bibi, how long are you planning to speak casually to Teacher and me? To be honest, it makes me a little uncomfortable. I can put myself aside, but Teacher is more than ten years older than you.”
At that, Yang Bibi shrugged with her hands shoved into her pockets.
“Sorry, but I’m from the slums, so I never learned that kind of etiquette. And using casual speech is something the captain permitted before.”
“…Teacher did?”
“Well, to be precise, the captain from my world permitted it, so I guess the captain of this world has nothing to do with it.”
Yang Bibi gave a faint chuckle as she said that.
Saori stared at her in disbelief, then let out a small sigh and asked,
“More importantly, how long are you planning to freeload at Teacher’s house?”
“I don’t know how to return to my original world, so it can’t be helped. And I’m pretty fond of staying here right now.”
“Is that because Teacher is here?”
“Mm, that’s true. That does make up a pretty big part of it. But my original world is a place where space wars happen every single day, so the peace here is sweet enough to rot my teeth.”
Saying that, Yang Bibi clasped her hands behind the back of her neck.
“I can sort of understand now why the captain used to say he wanted to retire all the time.”
“……”
Tachibana Saori looked anew at Yang Bibi, an outsider who had come from a completely different world than her own.
At a glance, she looked like a girl around fourteen or fifteen years old.
But judging by the way she spoke, there was an unmistakable sense of experience about her that did not match that appearance.
Most likely, her claim that she was actually twenty years old wasn’t a lie either.
When Saori had read her memories before, the days when she was fourteen had been quite a long time ago.
‘Well, since she’s a companion chosen by Teacher from another world, she must have extraordinary abilities too.’
Accepting that, Saori turned her gaze forward.
“Then let’s change the subject. Bibi, if you find a way to return to your original world, will you go back?”
“You’re suddenly bringing up a sensitive topic.”
“Of course, it’s possible you may never be able to return for the rest of your life. But if you were able to cross over from that world to this one, then in theory, it should be possible to return from this world to that one.”
“Mm… I’m still not sure. What about you?”
At that, Saori answered without the slightest hesitation.
“I’ll stay.”
“Why?”
“Teacher told us before, didn’t he? That his ability to interfere with various parallel universes had a time limit, and once that period passed, it had no choice but to disappear.”
In other words, even if she returned to her original world, she would not be able to meet the Teacher she had longed for so desperately again.
If that was the case, there was no need to go back in the first place.
That was the conclusion she had reached.
“And the current Teacher seems to need my care.”
“…Do you like the captain?”
“Yes. That’s why I was able to cross the window of light without hesitation. What about you, Bibi? Do you not like him?”
At that, Yang Bibi drew out an “Mmm~” before answering.
“To be honest, I do like the captain, but it’s closer to like than love. If you ask me how he is as a member of the opposite sex, he feels more like a friend who shares my hobbies.”
“Then if Teacher asked you to date him, would you refuse?”
“There’s no particular reason to refuse, is there? If that happened, I think I’d date him.”
“You just said it wasn’t love, but like.”
“If it feels like having a lifelong companion, then as long as you like each other, that’s enough.”
“In our world, we don’t split hairs over things like that, you know?”
Yang Bibi said that with a broad grin.
Saori couldn’t understand Yang Bibi’s view on romance, but she decided to respect it.
After all, it made no sense to impose modern ethical standards on someone from a future age where humanity had advanced into the galaxy.
“More importantly, do you remember what the captain said last time?”
“What did he say?”
“He said there used to be about ten worlds he was protecting in the past. And two of them are your world and mine.”
“…In other words, someone in the same situation as us could suddenly appear again?”
“It’s just a guess. It’s not something that’s actually happened.”
“But Teacher said he doesn’t know anything about this transference phenomenon either.”
“That’s why, at first, I thought a third party was involved. But after thinking it over carefully, I actually started to think the culprit might be somewhere close by.”
Hearing Yang Bibi’s words, Saori’s expression hardened.
“And who would that be?”
At that, Yang Bibi pointed in the direction of the apartment that was their destination and said,
“The captain himself.”
“Pardon?”
“I don’t think there would be multiple people in this world with abilities related to dimensions in the first place. If so, wouldn’t it make more sense to assume that the person who originally had a similar ability gained another ability as well?”
“……”
Now that she heard it, that was certainly true.
Teacher had said that his ability to involve himself in parallel universes had completely vanished two years ago. But what if, in truth, that ability had transformed into an entirely different one?
“Of course, this is only a hypothesis. In truth, it may not have been the captain, but some genuine third party who used an ability. But the one you and I saw the moment we crossed dimensions was the captain. In other words, there’s a high chance that this phenomenon is connected to the captain himself in some way.”
“To prove your hypothesis, we’ll need a verification process.”
“Of course. In the process of verifying the hypothesis, there’s a high chance that one more person who has feelings for the captain will cross over into this world. If that happens, you’ll be increasing your own rivals. Are you okay with that?”
At that, Saori smiled with overflowing confidence and said,
“At this point, I don’t care if one or two more rivals appear. And I don’t particularly feel like I’d lose in a fight either.”
When Saori said that and glanced down at Yang Bibi’s meager chest, Yang Bibi replied as if dumbfounded,
“How cheeky. What are you going to do if I monopolize the captain’s love?”
“There’s a common saying that imagination is free. Teacher likes large breasts, so that won’t happen.”
“Hahahaha.”
“Hehehehe.”
Their laughter overlapped in the air.
Eventually, as if they had planned it in advance, the two fell silent at the same time and looked in different directions as they spoke.
“Let’s verify the hypothesis after the game the captain is making right now is officially released.”
“I agree with that. I don’t want Teacher’s efforts to go to waste.”
Calling the same person by different titles, the two women quietly made their way home.