Prologue

“Friend, I have been waiting for you.”

Those were the words I wanted to hear most in this world, and the words I thought I would never get to hear.

I looked at the face of the man who uttered those words, the man I love most in this world.

As if to prove this situation was not a lie, his appearance did not differ by a single point from what I remembered.

His kind blue eyes, and his golden hair that seemed to brighten even the surroundings.

My heart pounded without any sense of propriety.

In this illogical situation, I found myself smiling brightly as I answered him.

“I missed you, Prince.”

A massive jet-black dragon that had soared into the air let out a roar.

The ground in all directions vibrated at that cry, signaling the end of the battle.

The giant monster began its final struggle before death, enveloped in an ominous dark red light as if to imply its attack power had become stronger than in any previous phase.

The party members hurriedly gripped their weapons to reorganize themselves, even if only for a short time.

The lead healer and sub-healers raised their staves and deployed shields.

As soon as the pitch-black dragon descended back to the ground, the main tanker, who had to position the dragon where the party members would take the least damage, looked up at the dragon while clenching and unclenching his fists with a tense face.

And I,

“Ah….”

I muttered with a sigh.

“Looking at that lizard makes me miss Azrael….”

When I called out the name of my favorite character as if he were an ex-lover, snickering laughter leaked out from various spots in the party.

Is it funny.

I am being serious.

As I grumbled with a gloomy expression, the main dealer, who had been extremely tense, smacked the back of my head.

“Ack! Why did you hit me!”

“Are you in your right mind, you?! Do you even know what raid we are doing right now?! My concentration is completely broken because of you!”

“Why are you blaming me for your lack of focus!”

“It is funny because you are acting like a crazy guy pining for a prince, so what do you expect me to do!”

“It is always the guys who are bad at studying who blame others!”

“Ah, everyone, stop being funny!”

The lead healer, unable to listen anymore, shouted toward us.

The support dealer and I shut our mouths immediately, but one sub-healer, who ended up giggling because even that situation was funny, failed their shield skill.

From the moment the shield shattered with a crashing sound, the party became a chaotic mess.

The entire party took much more damage than expected from the impact of the dragon landing on the ground.

Because of that, the main tanker fumbled while trying to position the dragon in a place where the party would take less damage, tripped over a stone, and failed to grab aggro in time.

Afterward, hell unfolded as the dragon began to follow the party members one by one.

The lead healer called me in a tone that sounded like they were about to spit out a curse.

“Andrealphus, you b*stard, why aren’t you cleaning this up quickly?”

Correction.

They did not just use a tone that sounded like they were spitting a curse; they actually cursed.

I pouted at the situation where I did nothing but still got cursed at and had to take responsibility for the cleanup.

I raised my staff and cast a temporary stasis spell on the dragon, while simultaneously casting stat-enhancement and heal-received-enhancement buffs on the party members.

[A curse shall fall upon you…!]

After pouring out attacks for a long time, the dragon died while spitting out a bone-chilling curse.

In the end, we managed to clear it somehow, but as soon as the clear was over, I was hit with a flick on the forehead by every single one of the ragged party members.

No, they have sickened me with their own relationship counseling for years, and yet they give me this kind of treatment!

It was beyond unfair, but since I did not want the number of forehead flicks to increase, I kept my mouth shut obediently.

Anyway, it was true the atmosphere changed because I was thinking of something else and making comments unrelated to the raid while dealing with the highest difficulty raid boss in this game.

So, who exactly is Azrael, the one whose name alone almost caused the party to collapse….

He is a prince.

….

If someone laughed at this point, I would like to clarify first that the fact he is a prince was not the reason our party almost met its doom.

He is an NPC from a different game.

That d*mn collaboration event was the problem.

I punched my pillow while cursing the management of The Hunters, who held a collaboration event with Knights of Dark Ages.

That dmn collaboration event, seriously, that dmn collaboration event was the problem!

The outline of the collaboration event itself was not much different from other games.

It was an event where popular NPCs from each game were dropped into each other’s worlds, and players helped the NPCs who were confused after falling into an unknown world.

In that process, the NPCs formed bonds with the users who helped them, thanked those who provided aid in times of trouble, gave light event rewards, and parted ways.

Because of such a trivial event, who would have known I would end up suffering over a virtual reality graphic character for over a year.

I ended up falling deeply for Azrael during that mere ten-day event period.

If I could have seen the future, I would not have played the game during the collaboration period.

To explain it step by step, anyone who has played games even a little bit will know.

Not only people who like games but even hard gamers who love games like crazy do not like every single game.

Especially in this era of virtual reality games, gamers, and especially those who earn a living through games, are quite divided into games they can play and games they cannot play depending on their tastes.

Among those, my preference lies with the monster raid type of games.

Rather than PVP or dark worldviews that drain mental strength by fighting enemies that blatantly look like humans, I like worldviews filled with a fairy-tale fantasy sensibility that feels like a different world.

Things like fighting against a dragon that is much larger than oneself.

Ha, isn’t that truly the flower of virtual reality and the standard of fantasy.

Furthermore, this game I have been playing like crazy for the last few years, The Hunters, allows one character to obtain all the professions in the game.

The more you develop a profession, the greater the power of the skills or synergy effects, so from start to finish, it was a game that perfectly suited my taste.

Inside the game, the player was portrayed as someone with much more ability than ordinary people, like a transcendent being.

The story also progressed in a refreshing and exciting way without any frustrating or ridiculous sections, as if I had just drunk a cold soda.

Though there are many people who evaluate it as lacking depth or not being flavorful enough.

But the thing is, the game where my love and my soul, the Prince, resides is exactly the opposite of this game.

My head hurts just thinking about it.

Feeling somewhat sorrowful, I hugged the blanket in my in-game house and buried my face in it.