A week and half had gone by as they were filled with constant fights against viral monsters all around the fields surrounding Leanbox.
At first the situation seemed troubling, but thanks to Alex and Cave's efforts, the number of viral monsters decreased greatly in a short period of time. After all of the battles, it seemed like the problem had finally been dealt with.
After completing yet another extermination quest, Alex returned to Vert's mansion where he was welcomed by her and Chika.
"Good job today Alex." She said with a smile.
"No need to thank me Vert. Just glad to be helping." He replied after sitting down on the couch, being a little exhausted.
"According to the reports, the number of viral monsters has greatly decreased and nearly returned to normal already." Explained the Oracle while checking a cluster of documents.
"The cause of the sudden increase is still a mystery, but at least we have secured Leanbox's safety for the time being." Said Chika.
"It's all thanks to everyone's combined efforts." Said Vert while beaming at Alex.
'I-I mean, Vert really didn't do anything to he honest.' Thought Alex while looking at her with an awkward smile.
Upon looking at the young boy, Chika sweat dropped and laughed awkwardly.
It was almost as if she knew what was going through his mind at that moment and to be fair, he had a valid point to think that way.
In the week and a half, Vert hardly moved from the mansion.
She dedicated most of her time to gaming rather than to help deal with the current threat and whenever someone inquired to her about the issue, she said that the problem was already being dealt with by some "reliable" forces.
Of course, Chika also tried to vouch for Vert's behavior by saying that she only entrusted this task to Alex and Cave because she wanted the people of Leanbox to develop trust towards the young boy to get his name out as a reliable mercenary, and that she didn't go out herself because the threat didn't get close enough to the capital to harm any civilians yet.
To Alex though, this only felt like Chika not wanting to outright call out Vert on her rather lackadaisical behavior.
"Oh I just remembered!" Said the Oracle after suddenly recalling something she read while doing paperwork. "5pb is having a concert later today. How about we go?" She asked.
"I'm sorry Chika but I have a raid with my guild today so I won't be able to go." Said Vert as Alex looked at her with an unamused expression.
'Not even a concert is enough to get her outside?' He thought.
'Second place to her games again.' Thought Chika with a sulking expression.
"5pb? That name sounds a little familiar." Said Alex.
"5pb is Leanbox's top idol and one of my supporters. She's not very well known outside of Leanbox though so I'm not surprised you don't know about her." Explained Vert as she turned her head to look at Alex before suddenly hatching an idea.
"I know! How about you and Chika go see her concert? I'm sure you two will have fun." Said Vert.
"Eh? B-But Big Sister Vert!" Said Chika.
"Yes?" Said Vert while turning her head to look at her Oracle.
"Ah…erm…" Said Chika while struggling to find what to say before she suddenly began coughing and faking sick noises "I-I'm not feeling so good. I think I caught the summer flu…"
'That certainly is quite the excuse.' Thought Alex, commending Chika for the effort.
"Don't worry there's some medicine in the drawers over there. I'm sure they'll help with your flu." Said Vert with a completely calm tone while pointing at some drawers on the other side of the room.
Turned out Vert already knew that Chika was faking an illness as this wasn't the first time she's done this to get Vert's attention.
'I-I'm not giving up so easily!' Thought Chika with more determination.
"I-I also have some very bad coughing." She said.
At this point, the oracle began getting desperate and coughed as hard as she could, but she ended up pushing hit a bit more than she should have and began feeling lightheaded.
'Ugh…I-I think that was a bad idea…' Thought Chika as she then began coughing once again, but it was for real this time which both Alex and Vert noticed.
"Chika, are you okay!?"
"M-Ms. Chika!"
While Alex got up from the couch and Vert approached her, the Oracle tried to keep them from worrying about her.
"D-Don't worry, I just overdid it a bit." She said.
"Try taking a seat for now, okay?" Said Vert while leading Chika and sitting her down on the couch.
"Thank you…" Replied the oracle before suddenly raising her head to look at her "Wait...you could tell I wasn't faking it?"
"Of course I can tell. You're my precious Oracle after all" Answered Vert kindly while beaming at her.
Chika couldn't help but blush with a shy smile after being called precious by the person she adored the most.
"Big Sister Vert."
While Alex watched the oracle and the goddess have some sisterly bonding, he felt like the extra person in the picture and decided to give them some privacy by walking out of the room.
Before he fully stepped out, his attention was called out by Vert.
"Hey Alex?" She asked.
Alex turned back to face her.
"Yeah Vert?" He said.
"You, haven't been overworking yourself have you? I've been noticing that you've been coming back more and more exhausted each day. If you need a break then you can tell me." Said Vert as Alex just shrugged her off.
"Don't worry Vert it's okay. Remember I'm here to help. Everyone's been doing their best so I gotta keep up and do the same. Seriously, don't worry about me okay?" He said as he waved her goodbye before leaving the room.
With no more monsters to take care of at the moment and no desire to laze around the mansion either, the young boy decided to go out and take a walk around town.
As he went out for his walk, he was greeted by numerous Leanbox citizens commending him for all contributions to the Viral Monsters outbreak which Alex greatly appreciated as he was just doing his job.
During his walk, Alex's attention would be caught by a familiar voice.
"Oh Alex. How unusual to see you around town by yourself."
The young boy turned around to see Cave standing behind him.
"I just felt like going for a walk that's all. What're you doing here?" He asked.
"I was heading to the Basilicom to request for some extra reinforcements for tonight's concert." She replied.
"Concert? You mean 5pb's concert?"
"That's right..." She replied before looking at him with certain curiosity "Are you going to attend it?"
"Um, I'm not really sure." He said.
"I see..." Said Cave while lowering her head slightly and closing her "Well, I should be on my way then."
For a moment it seemed like Cave would leave, but she then took a ticket from her pocket and gave it to Alex.
"Here, you can have this...just in case you change your mind."
Alex took the ticket and analyzed it for a moment as it was an entrance for the concert.
"Well then, have a good day." Said Cave as she walked past him and left for the basilicom.
Alex looked at the entrance ticket for a bit longer before putting it in his pocket as he kept walking.
[Later That Night]
The stage for the concert was set up in a large plaza in the open air and the climate was looking favorable too so there surely wouldn't be any inconveniences regarding rain.
Though a ton of people had shown up in droves to the concert, there actually wasn't an issue with space as the place was quite wide and allowed just about enough room to move without being tightly packed.
Although he wasn't sure about going at first, Alex ultimately decieded to go as it'd be a neat memory to have during his first ever trip to Leanbox.
That and he didn't wanna put Cave's kind gesture of her gifting him the ticket to waste.
"All right everyone! Are you ready!?"
Alex's attention was immediately caught by a cheerful shout as he looked at the stage and saw a girl holding a guitar as she called out to the entire crowd.
The second they spotted her, the crowd went wild cheering for her.
"So that's 5pb." Said Alex while looking at her.
She was a young girl with fair-pale skin, long blue hair, and bright pink eyes with a mole below the left one.
Worn over her hair was a pair of black headphones with silver and pink accents and a small black microphone attached to the left ear piece.
She also had black painted nails and a black treble clef with a heart piece tattoo on the left side of her stomach.
5pb not only had a good voice, but also sang with passion and enthusiasm.
It was no wonder the people of Leanbox chose her as their number one idol.
Even Alex, who wasn't really into concerts and idols ended up liking her singing more than he expected.
After five songs, the concert was over.
"Everyone, thank you for coming today!" Said 5pb while waving at the crowd before heading backstage.
With that, the people began leaving one after the other, many still hyped and excited about how much fun they had.
As Alex walked away, he got bumped into from behind as he and whoever bumped into him both fell.
"Ow!" Shouted Alex as he turned and saw that it was the Underling from before.
"Hey, watch it you dumb-" Yelled the Underling before raising her head and noticing who she was yelling at.
"Oh damn, it's you!" She shouted.
"Uh, what?" Asked Alex with a confused look as he slowly got back up.
"Ah! E-Erm!"
The Underling began to panic while Alex simply looked at her as she tried to figure out how to escape from this situation without being caught.
"S-Sorry, didn't see where I was going!" Said the Underling while quickly getting up and forcing a weak laugh with one hand placed behind her head.
"I-It's okay really. I wasn't paying attention either." Said Alex accepting her excuse as Underling breathed a sigh of relief.
'Thank god! He doesn't know who I am.' Thought Underling.
"Hey! What are you waiting for!? We have to beat it from this gig-Chu!"
Underling suddenly turned her head sideways and looked down at the mouse who was standing next to her.
Out of curiosity, Alex looked down as well and saw the mouse.
'Oh a rat.' He intially thought before doing a double take and looking back at it again.
'Holy crap! That's a giant ass rat!'
"I know that already damn it!" Shouted the Underling as she and the mouse ran past Alex and merged into the crowds, getting away from his sight as he simply stood there watching the direction they ran towards.
'Christ. Just what kind of rat was that?' He thought while sweat dropping.
"Alex!"
Alex then turned his head again and saw Cave running towards him.
"We have a problem!"
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Chapter 8: Complete