Chapter 8: Genders

Mariya walked the city streets while Wolfy casually followed by her side. She read over the private message she had received from a player named Repus who informed her they had a rare item that would be of value to them. Even though she wasn’t one to believe what most players said, she decided to humour the player and meet him out at a secluded forest on one of the mainlands.

Reaching the destination, Mariya and Wolfy noticed a player who was dressed in a set of white robes that clearly were of the beginner level. Wolfy could only raise an eyebrow as he looked at the player who he could tell was only in his mid-twenties. He turned to his sister and whispered in her ear.

“If he tries to do or say anything inappropriate to you, I’m killing him.”

Mariya smiled as placed her hand on Wolfy’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry, nii-nii. If this is a trick, I’ll kill himself.”

The two of them approached Repus and watched as he navigated his menu to show off the rare stone that he had talked about. In his hand was a clear stone of pure white.

“Behold! I hold in my hand the rare stone of Gifted Super Educational Phantasy Magic! This stone shall make you a magical girl.”

Mariya placed her hand over her mouth and tried her best not to laugh.

“You do realise that we know about every item in this game, right?” Wolfy asked as he stared with a moon gaze at the player before him.

“Okay, let’s say I play along with this little game. What do you plan to charge for it?”

“One picture of your feet!”

“I… beg your pardon?”

Wolfy pulled out one of his greatest weapons that he used to slowly murder his victims in painful and agonising ways. It was as black as mid-night and had small crimson red accent colour around the edges. On the hilt of the weapon was a red ribbon that had a phrase on it in the game world’s writing system.

“Sis, would you mind if I changed his gender?” Wolfy asked with a smile that was filled with murderous intent.

Mariya was silent for a second and smiled as she placed her hand on her brother’s head.

“It’s okay, nii-nii.”

Mariya turned to Repus and smiled.

“Okay, Repus. It’s clear your stone isn’t really what you say it is. So how about this, for five hundred gold, I’ll give you exactly one minute to stare at my feet. How does—”

Before Mariya could finish her sentence, she noticed a menu appearing in front of her. The trade menu was used for players to trade items with each other. A player could trade up to five different items with another and stacks of the same item were allowed. The trade would only go through if both players confirmed the trade.

“Is he… giving you one thousand gold?” Wolfy asked with a slight annoyed expression.

“My… he is generous.”

After accepting the trade, Mariya smiled – her eye slightly twitching by the fact that he had paid more than the agreed upon sum.

“Would you mind if we go behind those trees over there? Can’t have my brother here watching us.”

“I don’t care who watches let’s just go!”

Without another word, Mariya followed Repus behind some trees until they were out of sight. Wolfy bit down on his lip as he twirled his blade in his hand. He knew players would want to hit on his little sister and he wasn’t against letting her be free to live her life but the thought of anyone bringing harem or hurting her in any way angered him. She was family and he cared deeply for her as a brother.

Ten seconds had passed before Wolfy heard a loud thunderous boom echo throughout the forest. Returning from behind the thick trees, Mariya smiled as she danced and twirled like a dancer over to her brother’s side. Sitting down in the grass, she stretched out her legs and laid back – resting her head against her arms.

“He’s down to one hit point now. I punched him in the face. So, fill free to go change his gender for me,” Mariya said as she giggled.

“With pleasure.”

A sadistic smile appeared on Wolfy’s face as he changed into his wolf form. An ear splitting howl echoed throughout the forest as Mariya continued to lay there peacefully. Rushing off into the trees, Wolfy dashed ever closer to his goal. On that day, it was rumoured that players were able to change their gender in the game.

#

The guild building was quiet as Mariya read her book in silence. She decided to study up on the history and lore of the world they were in through the countless books that were scattered throughout the lands. While most books were simply meant to deepen the history of world, there were some books that allowed players to gain skill increases or learn new skills that wasn’t dependant on their class and occupation.

As she continued to read through the book, she took note of the fact that the story she was reading reminded her of the real world. When she was just entering high-school, she didn’t speak to many of her classmates and mostly kept to herself aside from talking to her brother when they had free time between classes and lunch. She made sure her brother ate his lunch during their time together and defended him when she learned that he was being bullied by another girl. He had vowed never to hit a girl due to how their father had treated them – this didn’t stop Mariya from hitting a girl.

She made sure to look after her brother until the day he decided to drop out of school. While she tried to help her brother as best she could, there was only so much she could do to protect him from bullies and the other struggles of school. It wasn’t long before she watched him drop out of school and proceed to wither away into nothing. Determined to better her own life, she continued to pursue education only for life to throw every obstacle in her path. Yet, she marched forward until she was in a position to go after her master’s degree, something her brother wanted but could never get. While she knew her brother wanted to better himself and worked hard to try and get a degree in graphic design but even though she had a degree, she felt the four years of her life were wasted.

Mariya closed the book she was reading and breathed in for a second. She looked over to her brother who slept soundly beside her. Placing her hand on his head, she smiled as she stroked his hair gently. With her other hand, she opened the menu and looked over the tasks she had planned for the guild.

“Sis?”

Wolfy let out a long yawn as he laid back and looked over to his sister.

“Sleep well?”

“It was okay. What have you been doing?”

“Just reading and looking over what we needed to do for the guild.”