VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 90: Why shouldn’t I keep it?
Beans flapped his wings, soaring through the air until he landed on Belladonna’s head and completely messed up her hair in the process. She laughed softly, lifting him up as she walked and bringing him down so that they were face to face.
The little kitten tilted his head, letting out a soft ’Mreow?’ as he looked into Belladonna’s eyes. He had something dangling from his mouth, a golden locket connected to a delicate golden chain that Beans was currently using as a chew toy.
"Oh? What have you got there you little menace? Did that bum actually have something good?" She asked in a cooing baby voice, scratching behind Beans’ ears, eliciting rumbling purrs from the kitten, before she plucked the medallion from his mouth.
Turning it over in her hand, Belladonna examined the locket closely. It was easy to tell that it was incredibly valuable, as it was embossed with the intricate design of a thorn covered rose crossing over with a sword to create an X shape. The rose itself had its petals, and even the tips of some of its thorns, painted a striking crimson that drew the eye.
The sheer amount of detail that went into this design, and the care taken with it despite the locket only being an inch and a half in diameter, spoke to not only its price but the sentimental value that such an item must have held.
It was almost enough for her to feel guilty about taking it. Although just almost. As soon as she remembered who it came from, that almost dissolved completely into ’not in the slightest’.
Taking things from bad people was always easier.
Naturally, she wondered how much it could be worth if she sold it. But as soon as that thought entered her mind, her fingers naturally curled around the locket possessively completely on instinct.
Sure... it could be worth something, but just because it was a game did it really mean she had to sell it? There was nothing wrong a little accessorising or wearing something to look good. She could even enchant it later once she gained the skills so that it was truly useful. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂
Perhaps even a little flaunting of wealth could get her in the doors of those fancy stores. Yes... Why shouldn’t she just keep it for herself?
Shifting Beans in her arms, Belladonna unclasped the locket and put it around her own neck, before tucking it under her armour so that she could feel its weight pressing down on her skin.
The fact that hiding it like this was completely contradictory to her previous wealth flaunting rationale simply never entered her mind. Nor did the thought of opening the locket to see if anything was contained inside.
In fact, the moment it was pressed against her skin, all thoughts of the locket simply vanished from her mind, as if she had never seen it in the first place.
She quickly made her way back to the same Inn she had left Lilith and Saige in, using the same room as them, and found herself a comfy spot to log out. Naturally only doing so after she confirmed the Brownies protection with some nice cooked and juicy meat.
Once she came to again, Valerie pulled herself out of her gaming chair and into her usual chair, before quickly wheeling herself to the bathroom. Half an hour later, she was wheeling herself out with a towel wrapped around her hair and some fresh clothes on.
Both of which were kindly provided to her by her doting butler Jinu. If he was more than just a cardboard mask stapled to a robot, she might have kissed him. But since he was that, unfortunately, she decided to save such kisses for the real men.
Such as all the suitors that were lining up at her door, desperate to bed her and be with her and... Oh right, that was no one. Perhaps the robot wouldn’t be such a bad choice.
Laughing to herself, Valerie picked up her phone from where it had been charging and saw a message waiting for her.
.
{Hey Ray-gun! Seems I missed you in the starter town. Now I’m grinding away with the guild, trying to get everything established, I’m sure you’re having much more fun than me. Where did you end up anyways? Maybe if we are close, we can try a dungeon run or two together.
You still owe me for getting me killed, after all. And for the coffee. That was a serious recruitment effort, so really you gotta come run with the guild at least once. Who knows, maybe we could even get another one together.}
She read over the message from Percy, which came from his personal device rather than his in-game scrying skull. A small smile danced on her lips as she took in his words, and a soft giggle escaped at the mention of her getting him killed. That was still funny to her.
She took a few minutes to compose a message, struggling to find the words for some reason, before finally texting back.
{I’m surprised Mister Popular has time for little ol’ me. But sure, if you’ve got the time I think that would be fun. Just like when we were young! It was nice seeing you again, it’s always nice seeing old friends.}
Hitting send on that message was strangely difficult, and she couldn’t figure out why she felt so weird about it, but she eventually got it out of the way. Although since his first message was hours old, it was unlikely he would reply soon.
So she swept the messenger to the side and was about to pull up one of the food delivery apps, but had her finger hovering over it for a few seconds. Eventually, she put her phone down all together and stuffed it into her bag before heading out of the house.
At least with her condition, she didn’t need to worry about changing her shoes.
