The Unavoidable Sacrifices for Reading Novels In-Game

It seems the Spirits decided to narrate the story orally so they could enjoy the novel.

A quiet room was prepared for this purpose, and Tria and Alto entered it, just the two of them.

"Alright, I'll be speaking through Friend Chat, so listen quietly."

"Ooh! All set, yo!"

"Inhale… 'Title: Demon Lord, There's a Traitor Among Us! The Demon Lord, Al Betray. He had waged war against the entire world. And today was the day of the Demon Army's Supreme Command Council meeting to discuss the state of the war. Grand Vizier: Lee Uragi. High Priest: Shiin Hai. Grand General: Usha Knights. The Four Heavenly Kings: Horn Mu of Earth, Datz San of Water, Kuu Mikko of Wind, and Gaeri Ne of Fire. At a council where eight key figures had gathered, a single piece of critical news arrived. "Demon Lord, there's a traitor among us!" …So then, who is the traitor—'"

And with that, a torrent of speech began.

Tria's mouth didn't stop for a moment. In just a few minutes, she narrated nearly 2,500 characters' worth of story, a full episode.

Her mouth kept going with perfect precision, not pausing for even a fraction of a second.

At a constant volume. Flawlessly.

"'—Gaeri Ne was carried off to prison by soldiers acting on the Demon Lord's command. To the dungeon beneath the Demon Lord's castle, from which not even a dragon could escape…' …And that's episode one. How'd it go!?"

"…Log check, success, yo!"

"Hell yeah! It worked!"

"Hey, don't say anything extra, yo! The log's gonna scroll, yo!"

"…! Voice recognition picking things up on its own is a problem here… whoops."

Tria clapped a hand over her mouth.

"! …If we transcribe it before the log scrolls away, we can read it later, yo!"

"Right, let's get it transcribed."

"Alto-chan, can you see the log, yo?"

"Could I get Tria-chan to handle the second half?"

"L-Logs? I'm sorry, I don't understand."

"…Same here. Also, Tria can't write."

"Figures."

"Literacy rates… yeah, yo."

Nothing to be done if they can't write.

Either read it before the log disappears or have someone transcribe the read-aloud. Something along those lines.

For the time being, they decided to read it before the log disappeared. And read it they did.

Now then, on to episode two. They dropped out of VR Mode again to discuss how to handle input.

"If Tria-chan has to narrate every single time, her throat's gonna give out."

"Then why not go into Halo mode, yo? We're using Friend Chat anyway, yo."

"Ah, good point. That way there's no strain on her throat."

And so they switched to Auto Mode and sent the chat from Halo mode instead.

"Here we go. Inhale… 'How deplorable. To think one of the Four Heavenly Kings would lose to the hero.' 'Kekeh! He was merely the weakest of the Four Heavenly Kings, brute strength and nothing more…' 'Honestly, that dragon was a disgrace to the Heavenly Kings. …We'll need to appoint a new holder of Fire.' The remaining Heavenly Kings sighed in exasperation—"

"Eep!?"

"Hyah!?"

This time, Tria and Alto let out yelps, cutting the reading short.

"W-Whoa whoa, what happened, you two?"

"Abuh, ababah… the command, um, we need to appoint a new holder of Fire?"

"I-I'm sorry, Spirit-sama. A flood of words just hit my head… I'm dizzy…"

"Ahh. So that's how it is, yo."

In Auto Mode, the Spirit's words become commands.

In other words, for Tria, all of the pasted text, every line of dialogue and narration, registered as "commands from the Spirit."

This was very bad.

And even Alto, who was only on the receiving end, had a massive volume of words blasted into her brain all at once. Of course she'd be startled. Having a novel poured directly into your brain would obviously be a shock.

"Hmm, lot of failures here."

"Safest bet's probably to dictate to someone who can write, have them transcribe it, and turn it into a book, yo."

"That's way too much work… Hmm, but there's no other way, is there."

They had at least managed to read episode one, so it wasn't a complete failure.

But it was hard to call it a success, either.

They switched back to VR Mode to discuss things.

"If someone has to write it all down, we'd have to pace the reading to match."

"Getting a perfectly accurate text seems impossible, yo."

"What if we just looked for a bookstore in-game? Buying books there might be faster."

"Oh ho ho, that'd be something, yo. They'd never get through their backlog and a whole new pile of guilt would stack up, yo."

"U-Um."

"Spirit-sama. I have… a small request."

"Hm? What's up?"

"What is it, yo? That's unusual, yo."

The two Spirit-Possessed timidly voiced their request.

"…Tria wants to know what happens next in that story. Please tell me."

"There are still more traitors, right? What's going to happen to the Demon Army!?"

"…Ah, so that's where this is going."

"Can't be helped, yo. Tria, go ahead and tell Alto-chan and the others what happens next, yo!"

After that, the story was narrated in full to the Spirit-Possessed using the original method, one way or another.

Tria's throat took damage, but Light Heal patched it right up.