Chapter 19

“Excuse me…”

I stood in front of the gate to a large mansion. Well, maybe it wasn't mansion-sized, but the house was ridiculous when compared to my apartment. It was three stories tall, with an elevator in front of the building.

A sports car, a sedan, and an SUV had been parked inside. Nadia's driver drove the luxurious sedan to pick her up. I heard Nadia had bought that sedan with her own money.

“Come on in.”

“Ah, right.”

She pulled me into the building, causing me to stumble.

“Ah, sorry.”

“You should be more careful, My Lady.” The old man who drove us here shook his head. He looked like a proper butler with his suit and outfit.

“You're right, my bad.”

I followed Nadia into the building. This would be the first time I entered a girl's home. Despite being with Carol since middle school, I never went to her place. I wonder if hers was as big as Nadia's.

“Sorry for intruding,” I called out. The maids smiled at me warmly. One even offered me a drink. I politely declined.

The living room matched the size of my apartment. A massive and curved TV occupied one side of the room. It looked very expensive. The newest generation of home consoles sat below the TV along with its controllers.

“Do you like to play games, Nadia?”

“Hmm? Oh, I don't use that. That's my dad's.”

“I see…”

I looked around. Her parents didn't seem to be home.

“I use this when I play games.” Nadia took out a pink handheld from the cabinet underneath the TV. It had a lot of cute stickers on it, very girlish.

“Oh, do you like cozy games?”

“Not really.”

I thought she would play life-sims or farming-sims.

“What do you play, then?”

“My favorite is Eternal Destruction.”

I stood there, silent. Eternal Destruction is a hardcore first-person shooter.

“... You like FPS?”

“Yeah, although I mostly play on my PC. I play it here when I want to lie down.”

I honestly did not expect that. Especially not with the pink color.

“Is it weird?”

“N- No, of course not! I just wasn't expecting it.”

“Eh… what did you expect I would play, then?”

“The life…?”

“That's boring. Why would I watch a simulated character do something I could do myself?”

I wonder if that would piss off the many players that game had. I should probably mention that I had differing opinions on the matter.

“I- I guess you have a point.”

“You can't really shoot demons in real life, although I guess getting a role like that would be exciting.”

I imagined Lily wearing full metal armor, cursing the demons, while running straight into a horde of them, guns blazing. Her poor fans would probably experience a heart attack.

“But… that might not be possible,” she murmured.

“Getting that role is tough, huh?”

“Ye- yeah? I mean… never mind.” She returned the handheld. “If you want to borrow it, just tell me.”

“Don't worry about me. I'm here to help you cook.”

After shopping yesterday, Nadia invited me to come to her home to show her how it's done. I didn't understand why she wanted me to be here, but I didn't have anything to do today, so I agreed.

Admittedly, I am curious about what the new consoles could do. When counting in years, you might consider them old, but I never played with them before, so they were still new by my standards.

“Alright then.”

She showed me to the kitchen. Unsurprisingly, the kitchen was clean and massive, fitted with various cooking tools all neatly arranged next to each other. On the kitchen set, all of the ingredients had been lined up. The seasoning, the premium beef, the salted eggs, and everything else we need. With that, we started cooking.

•••

“Thank you very much for teaching me!” Nadia clapped her hands. After we finished cooking, we sat down and ate our rawon together. The result? Not bad. Not bad at all. It tasted a bit better than the one I made, though, thanks to the different seasoning.

“I didn’t do much.”

I could probably make my own seasoning if I wanted to, but Nadia was right. I would struggle to make something more delicious than that brand. The taste justified its price.

“You could probably get some help.” I glanced at the kitchen.

The kitchen didn’t have anyone in there at the moment, but she had a lot of staff members. I’m sure they would be more than willing to help her. I guess doing it with someone her age made a difference.

“By the way, do you want to play some games?”

“... I am curious.”

“Which one do you want to try?”

“I wanted to try the handheld, if you don’t mind.” The home console didn’t have as many exclusives as it used to, or at least, that was what Ian had told me.

He said that nowadays, there are too many… what did they call it again? Reboots, remakes, or something like that. Basically, video game companies didn’t make new games. Instead, they upgraded old games to be closer to the modern standard. They didn’t make these games from scratch, so the graphics update was often insignificant.

I wasn’t much of a gamer myself, so I didn’t have many games that I played. The ones I did play, I often have on my phone, as something to kill time.

“Ian said that the console isn’t really as good as it used to be?”

“Oh, really? I didn’t play a lot of games when I was a child.”

“You must be really busy.”

Nadia nodded. “I still need to do schoolwork, but shoots aren’t quick, either.”

“Right.”

“I remember one shoot in a different town that went on for six months. I had to fly back and forth on the weekends.”

“That sounds like a pain.”

“You get used to it.”

“I’m surprised they didn’t get someone who lived closer.”

“Oh, it’s a spin-off of the main show, so they couldn’t get a different person as Lily. Besides, I didn’t go there every weekend. The shoot went on for six months, but I only needed to be there around seven times. It should have been less, but we ran into production issues.”

Even a show as big as Lily’s Long Adventure had issues. It certainly is a long show.

As Nadia took out her handheld, I looked around the cabinet. It had a lot of things on display. Certificates, trophies, pictures, and various decorations. It even had a picture of Nadia’s family standing in front of a jet. I took a closer look at it.

It looked familiar. I recognized the airport terminal seen in the background.

“Ah, that? That was a family picture from when we went to Solo.” Nadia explained. “I couldn’t believe it had been six years since then.”

Six years?

The burning building was near Solo.

“What were you doing there?”

“It’s for the shoot I mentioned earlier. My entire family didn’t normally come with me for shoots. My father had a job here, so only my mom and one of our maids came with me. That time was different, though. Dad’s job had an extended holiday thanks to Easter, so he could accompany me.”

… Easter? But, she did say it was for a shoot…

Maybe… She was there for one of the shoots?

I tried recalling the scene that I saw six years ago. That cube thing… could it be…

“It’s quite an eventful shoot.” Nadia gazed at the picture, as if recalling a lot of memories. “Ah, right, the handheld.”

Nadia turned on her handheld.

“Come on, no need to be shy. Let’s have some fun.”

“Alright.”

She gave me one of the controllers. We picked a co-op game and played until the afternoon.