I hate courses with regards to free time.

With that said, here's the next chapter of What If? We've reached chapter 10, hooray! *Starts throwing confetti everywhere*

Please R&R and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Log Horizon.

Chapter 10: Kuresento Mun (Crescent Moon)

This world has one type of currency: gold.

The standard cost for the items in a single meal is around five gold.

A night at a cheap inn is ten gold.

In other words, Thirty-five gold a day will suffice to supply life's basic needs. A player can easily earn that much by defeating six goblins.

In addition, adventurers can put money and items in the guild building's bank to keep them from being stolen by others. Of course, with a system like this, any one person's account has limited space within their bank vault itself.

Minutes previously

"In short," Shiroe was saying to the two leaders of the Crescent Moon Alliance who were sitting across the table from him, "I need money. For now, five million gold will suffice."

"That's insane!" Henrietta exclaimed as Marielle was shocked into not being able to even answer Shiroe. "Our treasury only has sixty thousand. Even if we included all our members' belongings..."

"What would you use all that money for?" Marielle spoke up timidly, still a bit in shock from what Shiroe had said.

Shiroe's only response was to adjust his glasses, a smirk on his face.

Later that day; Imperial Garden Forest

"It's pretty tough to catch them alive…" Shoryu remarked from where he stood back-to-back with Hein and Naotsugu, facing outward at the large amount of low-level boars that were surrounding them.

"If you kill them, they just become ingredient items." Naotsugu reminded the boy, readying his shield at the same time.

Meanwhile, behind the both of them, Hien was glaring at the giant boar in front of him with a disbelieving look on his face.

"It's impossible…" The assassin said mostly to himself. "That huge boar becomes a mere two kilograms of meat!"

"But with a good cook, if you catch them alive, you can use the entire thing." Naotsugu recited the explanation that was given to him previously. "So it'll all be worth it in the end."

At that moment, by pure coincidence, the wild boars around the group immediately started charging for the adventurers, who all readied up for combat.

"Okay, let's do this!" Naotsugu exclaimed. Hitting his shield with his sword to taunt the enemies surrounding them, Naotsugu continued: "Our quota for today is sixty!"

"Okay!" Hein answered, the assassin taking up position in a nearby tree. In front of him (but on the ground), Shoryu was also taking up position to take on the incoming monsters.

"If it's for Marie-san, I'll catch as many as you need!" the swashbuckler yelled as both he and Hein jumped into the mass of boars surrounding Naotsugu.

Meanwhile, at the same time back in the Crescent Moon Alliance Guild Hall, preparations were going at full force for Shiroe's plan of attack.

In one section of the hall, Eisel was busy overwatching a group of guild members who were manually cutting up logs into wooden planks for later use.

In another room, a group of three young girls were currently analyzing a set of maid costumes that they had tried on.

"That isn't quite right." One of them said as she watched Ashlynn move around in her own (smaller) maid uniform.

"Something easier to move in would be nice." Ashlynn agreed with the first girl's thoughts, continuing to shift around in her uniform, trying to see if there was any ways to get it to feel more comfortable.

"Let's see what other clothes we have in the bank!" The first girl exclaimed after Ashlynn's remark.

"Hai!" The young girl replied as she held up her hand in an affirmative response.

At the same time in the guild hall's kitchen, the two Crescent Moon Alliance Chefs, Girov and Second, were busy presenting to Nyanta samples of the sauces that they were preparing.

"Please taste this!" Girov, the head chef, exclaimed as he held out a small dish of the latest sauces that he and his brother had prepared.

"Let's see here, nya…" Nyanta said, taking the dish from Girov and taking a sip. After sampling it, Nyanta returned the dish to Girov and gave some constructive criticism: "It needs a little salt, nyan. In addition, it also would work well to add coriander as a secret ingredient, nya."

"Hai! Thank you very much!" Girov exclaimed, taking the used dish and rushing back to the next batch of sauces that the two brothers were creating.

In a corner of the room, watching the entire proceedings in a not-so-subtle-or-cliché hiding place behind a wooden barrel, Serara was currently completely love-struck by the sight of Nyanta in a working environment.

"Nyanta-san is so wonderful…" The girl muttered to herself as she continued to watch.

Finally, in the guild master's office of the Crescent Moon Alliance, Marielle, as the guild leader, was hard at work signing lots of paperwork and forms that needed to be done in preparation for Shiroe's plan with no qualms whatsoever.

Or at least that was what the scene was supposed to be in theory.

In actuality, the sight of the room in its current state was quite pitiful, to put it bluntly. There was a form resembling a human slumped over onto the desk, but whenether said person was alive or not remained to be seen. The dark aura surrounding Marielle, complete with flies buzzing around and the hastily scribbled will on a corner of the paper in front of her didn't help the situation at all.

"I haven't left the room for three days…" Marielle complained to herself, not moving from the pretty-much-dead position that her body had slumped into. All around her on the desk, mounds and mounds of yet-to-be-finished paperwork loomed ominously, causing Marielle to shrink further into her depressed state. Pushing herself up and attempting to finish the form that she currently was on, Marielle continued: "I can't take this anymore…"

Thunk

Marielle quickly looked to the left at the source of the noise-

-only to be dismayed when the source of the sound turned out to be Henrietta plunking down yet another large amount of documents and forms on the desk for Marielle to get to.

"We need these register for our plan." Henrietta said simply, her glasses and face giving off an (to Marielle at least) evil aura reminiscence of the Villain in Glasses. "Please look through and approve them as fast as possible, guild master."

"Wait, it's impossible…that's impossible!" Marielle exclaimed.

"It is, indeed." Henrietta surprisingly concurred.

"You know paperwork isn't really my thing…" Marielle continued her complaints, chewing on the end of her quill ink pen as she did so.

"Approving budgets is your job, guild master." Henrietta replied bluntly, accentuating the usage of Marielle's formal title.

Marielle finally couldn't stand it anymore and exploded.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" The big-boobed guild leader yelled at Henrietta as she exploded upwards from the chair she was sitting on. "Stupid Umeko!"

That last remark caught Henrietta's attention fully, and not in a good way.

"Don't use my real name!" Henrietta yelled back at Marielle. Marielle, of course, ignored her.

"Umeko! Umeko! Umeko!" The guild leader continued shouting, causing Henrietta to bit violently on a random piece of cloth that she had somehow procured from nowhere. The comedic argument would have continued further, if both ladies weren't distracted by the sound of something heavy hitting the ground. Look at the source of the noise, both Henrietta and Marielle found that in the heat of the yelling match, Shiroe had returned to the room carrying two more heavy loads of paperwork.

"I've brought more, Mari-nee." Shiroe said simply.

"…Shiro-bou, you're a demon." Was all Marielle could respond with.

"Shiroe-sama." Henrietta said, as the enchanter approached the desk that the two of them were around. "I've compiled a list of everything you requested."

"That was fast." Shiroe replied, taking the clipboard that Henrietta was offering him. Looking through the papers on the clipboard, Shiroe nodded approvingly. "And it looks like all the numbers are accurate, too."

Meanwhile, the currently-ignored Marielle slumped back over her desk in a mix of complete and utter defeat/exhaustion/despair.

"Our treasurer is amazing." Marielle said, obviously referring to Henrietta. "The devil himself would run if he saw her coming with a stack of budgets."

"No, there are limits to my abilities." Henrietta replied, ignoring the last part of Marielle's statement. "What instead amazes me is the mercilessness of Shiroe-sama's plans. He should just call himself Mr. Super Villian in Glasses at this rate."

"Compared to Mari-nee's spaciness, my villainy is nothing." Shiroe humbly replied to Henrietta's "praise," following along with the flow of conversation.

"That's true!" Henrietta replied enthusiastically. Marielle, meanwhile, could swear she saw both of their glasses giving off evil glints and black auras emitting from both of their persons.

"I give up…" Marielle said resignedly as Henrietta and Shiroe laughed in an evil way.

"Anyways, there's so much work," Henrietta abruptly said, her hand going to her heart and causing Shiroe to look at her with how abrupt the change was. "having Akatsuki-chan and Sakura-chan for a full day is the only way I can keep going."

"They are both on separate missions right now, but they could probably spare a bit of their time." Shiroe replied to Henrietta's statement.

"Oh my!" Henrietta said as she turned around, emitting a pink aura around her happily.

A certain gunner shuddered as she was swiftly moving between rooftops near the outskirts of the city.

"Did we even implement colds in the last patch…?"

A certain assassin felt a shudder run down her entire body from her position in the shadows of an upper floor of a ruined building.

"Is catching a cold even possible in this world?" Akatsuki asked herself. Her attention was immediately drawn back to the scene in front of her, however, after one of the two adventurers involved started talking.

"Here's the money for this week." One of them was saying as he handed what looked to be a quite heavy bag to the other member of the transaction, who was wearing a plumed hat and had a red handkerchief covering the lower half of his face. "This is a great way to earn money."

"Thank you." The adventurer receiving the money said, after the bag had switched hands. "Tell Isaac-san hello for me."

"Hey, I heard you started dealing in leather-working, too." The first adventurer suddenly spoke up.

"We're open twenty-four hours a day, and can repair things quickly." The second adventurer answered in a business-like fashion. However, the current topic of conversation was of no interest to Akatsuki.

What was, however, was the crate of very familiar-looking potions that was the subject of the current transaction.

At the same time, back in the Crescent Moon Alliance's guild hall, Nyanta was approvingly looking at all the monsters that Naotsugu, Hein, and Shoryuu had managed to bring back from their hunt that morning.

"Well now…this is quite a haul, nyan." The cat-man remarked as he nodded his head.

"Now it's up to you, chief!" Naotsugu exclaimed after Nyanta had finished his statement. Just then, a loud, female voice from behind the four of them drew the attention of three (Nyanta didn't turn around and was continually staring at the soon-to-be foodstuff in front of him):

"Naotsugu! Thank you!" Marielle exclaimed loudly as she threw herself full-force at Naotsugu, causing the guardian to crash into the wall and leave a huge dent where he impacted.

"Rub, rub, rub, rub!" Marielle continued to say happily as she rubbed her face up and down a slightly disturbed Naotsugu's, who was attempting to get the cleric off of him ("Hey! Don't cling to me!").

Watching the scene, Henrietta (who had come into the room at the same time as Marielle) adjusted her glasses, causing a twinkle to come off of them.

"Marie, behave yourself." The bard admonished the guild leader. At the same time, behind her, Hein was busy nudging a very jealous-looking Shoryuu in the side with his elbow.

After finishing with Naotsugu, Henrietta turned around and focused her attention on the two other members of the hunting group.

"Shoryu, Hien, thank you both as well!" Marielle said enthusiastically.

"This guy was all fired up during the hunt." Hein said, looking at his companion with the full intention of teasing him. The tease worked, as Shoryu started yelling back at the wolfish assassin.

"No, you're just good at slacking off!"

"Who's slacking off?" Hein retorted. "You loyal little puppy!"

"Shut up, you flippant fox!"

The two were glaring dagger at each other (and if one looked closely, emitting auras that looked like a wolf and a fox, respectively), oblivious to the fact that Henrietta had turned her attention away from the two of them.

"But there still isn't enough." The Crescent Moon Alliance guild master suddenly said, causing the two boys to stop arguing and look at her.

"I'm on it!" Shoryu immediately replied, clenching both of his fists eagerly.

In the hallway, the same three girls that had been trying on maid costumes earlier watched as a figure burst out of a door and ran down the hall at breakneck speed.

"I don't know why, but he's really into this…" Marielle stated as she watched Shoryu go from her position at the open door. "I can always count on you, Shoryu!"

Behind her, back inside the room, the Henrietta, Nyanta, and Hein all gave good-natured chuckles at Shoryu's obviousness and Marielle's obliviousness.

"NO MORE!"

The scene within the guild master's room after the sun had gone down was even more chaotic than it was before. Piles upon piles of paperwork not only lined the desk, but was also covering the floor surrounding the desk as well as the person sitting at the desk…supposedly.

"This is all the paperwork." Henrietta said simply, not paying any attention to Marielle's plight. "Then, I'll return to my own job." With that, Henrietta turned around and walked out of the room, leaving Marielle to her own devices.

After she left, Marielle just managed to poke her head out of the piles of papers that she was buried under.

"Now I'm scared of glasses." The cleric said to herself. "The glasses all frighten me!"

"Ta-dah!"

With a flourish, two junior members of the Crescent Moon alliance presented the finished sign that they had been working on all day to the four people standing in front of them.

"It looks wonderful!" Henrietta exclaimed.

"It's amazing how nice handmade stuff looks." Ashlynn added.

"Now we're almost done." Asuka added.

As she adjusted her glasses Henrietta had a thought:

'It's finally time.'

Flashback

"Henrietta-san, what do you think of this?"

"Eh?"

"In the old world, weren't you an accountant, with a master's in business administration?"

In response to Henrietta's lowering of her head (while thinking), Shiroe pressed on:

"I think it could work. Basically, we just need to get the money any way we can. We don't have to worry about where it came from or whose it was. At this moment, this world had no rules. There's no point in restricting ourselves by making new ones."

Henrietta was deep in thought from what Shiroe had said.

'This world has no rules. In other words, we can make up our own…we need a new rule to make money. A way to make people bring us money, and be happy doing so…'

A thought suddenly occurred to the bard. One that involved the party that had just finished just a few hours ago.

"We can do it." Henrietta said simply, emerging from her thought process. "Five million gold. We can get the money."

"Eh?"

"EH?!"

Shiroe's response to Henrietta's declaration was to simply adjust his glasses, a move that Henrietta also followed.

'Now it's time for the plan's first stage.' Henrietta thought to herself as she walked down the hallway of the guild hall.

There was a soft knock on the door of the guild leader's room. Hearing no response, the intruder opened the door and stepped into the dark room.

"Marie-san, I brought you a snack." Naotsugu said, holding a group of sandwiches on a plate and grinning widely as he did so. "Chief Nyanta made this sandwich himse-EH?!"

The guardian stopped himself as he saw the sight inside of the room. In the center, lying on the floor completely motionless, Marielle was covered in a few remnants of the papers that she had spent days signing and approving. All around her, throughout the room, stacks upon stacks of finished, signed, and approved paperwork were scattered around, a testament to all the torture she had gone through.

"I can't go on!" Marielle suddenly exclaimed, popping up from her motionless position on the ground and starting to roll around in childish frustration. "Stupid Umeko, I hate you!"

"Oi, come on…" Naotsugu said gently, trying to calm the cleric down.

"I can't take this room anymore." Marielle exclaimed, tears beginning to flow unimpeded down her face. "I want a bath! I want to go outside!"

"Alright, alright Marie-san…" Naotsugu said, slightly taken aback from Marielle spinning and rolling around on the ground. Setting the plate gently on the ground, the guardian continued: "Easy there…"

At the sight of the sandwiches on the plate, Marielle immediately stopped rolling around and instead grabbed on, munching down on it eagerly.

"This is great!" Marielle exclaimed as a little heart floated around above her head.

"Hey," Naotsugu started, causing Marielle to look at him curiously. "…thanks for going along with Shiro's plan."

"Eh?" Marielle replied, confused to what Naotsugu meant.

"I think it made him happy that you agreed." Naotsugu continued with his explanation. "Once again, thank you."

"…you're a good boy, Naotsugu." Marielle responded after Naotsugu had finished. Moving swiftly over to him, Marielle began stroking the guardian's head like a child while saying: "Good boy, good boy…"

Naotsugu, who was taken aback from the action, could not muster anything in response to Marielle's actions.

"I'm glad you're with Shiro-bou." Marielle said. "Keep being his friend, please."

"Y-yeah…" Naotsugu replied. After a few moments, both of them picked themselves off the ground and moved to the window, staring out at the bright night sky.

"So tomorrow's the day, isn't it?" Naotsugu asked.

"Yeah, tomorrow." Marielle confirmed.

"What kind of monster are you…?"

"…One who requests that after I send you back to your cathedral, to tell your leader, whichever one that you report to, to not lay a hand on my strategist, my friends, or this city."

"C-curse you-!"
As her opponent exploded into a shower of sparkles and coins, Sakura sighed as she turned away to look up at the full moon in the sky. Off to the side, a figure stood in the shadows of a tree growing out of the top of the building, silently watching the girl.

"I'm afraid I'm asking too much of you once again." Sakura remarked to the figure, although she hadn't turned around to look at them.

"This is well within my forte." The figure replied. "You need not be worried about anything."

With that, the figure vanished (Skill: Hide) into the night air, leaving only the gunner (who was looking at the moon) left on the rooftop.

"Shiro-kun!"

Shiroe looked up from where he had dozed off at his (temporary) desk to find a very-pouty-and-annoyed Kanami right in front of him.

"Shiro-kun! You've been too busy with all of this behind-the-scenes work! You need to head out, explore new things, and be my bus guide!" The hyperactive monk said, propping one of her feet up on the desk and pointing off into the distance, sparkles in her eyes.

Shiroe sighed in response (It just dawned on him how used he was to Kanami's antics that he didn't even react to this one).

"So you're bored?" The enchanter simply asked. In response, Kanami slammed both of her hands on the desk (and nearly breaking the poor piece of furniture).

"Of course!" The monk replied loudly. "I've been waiting because you said you'd show me the world, but I'm reaching my limit! Let's go! Me and you! To new adventurers and new things!"

"Please don't." Shiroe quickly replied, seeing that Kanami was deadly serious (so much so that Kanami had reached over the desk and grabbed part of Shiroe's robe with the intent of dragging him off). Kanami let go at his statement and Shiroe sighed (in relief).

"But Shiro-kun~!" Kanami complained. "I'm bored! KR isn't here! There's no chaos! I've had no appearances lately!"

'I don't know exactly if that's a bad thing if KR-san isn't here.' Shiroe silently thought to himself, while also wondering what Kanami meant by "appearances."

"Well, if you're really that bored." Shiroe said, keeping his voice level to avoid betraying what he was saying. "I do have something that I'd like to entrust to you. Something new, exciting, and that helps with the entire plan."

Kanami's eyes began lighting up at Shiroe's statement.

"Leave it to me, Shiro-kun!" Kanami said, overjoyed that her boredom would be coming to an end.

"SHIRO-KUN NO BAKA!"

The sound of a completely betrayed female monk's voice rang out throughout the food area of Akihabara, causing the few passing adventurers to give glancing looks in curiosity.

"Now, now, Kanami. Now's not the time to complain." Marielle said, trying to calm the angry monk down. "We have to get this running for the first part of Shiro-bou's plan, after all."

Seeing the logic behind Marielle's explanation, Kanami calmed down, albeit with a pouty look on her face. Marielle then turned her attention to directing the other members of the soon-to-be-opened stall, sporting very cute waitress uniforms, to their respective positions.

'Shiro-kun,' Kanami thought to herself. 'You owe me a raid after this! Not just any raid, one of the new ones from the Pioneers patch! You, me, Nao-kun, Nya-kun, Sakura-chan and the others are charging head-first into it after all this is done!'

With that thought finished, Kanami, wearing the same outfit as the other female members of the Crescent Moon Alliance that were bustling in the area, turned her attention to helping with the set-up of the stall.

Meanwhile, from his position quite a few floors up on a ruined building, Shiroe felt a cold chill run down his entire frame as he silently watching the proceedings that were going on below him.

A few minutes later, a group of three adventurers (one male, two female) were making their way down the street on their way to the main gate.

"Hey…before we head into the field, let's grab something to eat." The only male member, Dolce, remarked to his two companions, causing them to look at him.

"Does it matter what?" One of the girls, whose status screen gave her name away as Kawara, said as she put her hands behind her head. "Everything tastes the same, anyway."

"Don't say that…" The last girl, Isami, said with a depressed voice.

"Anyways, this place sure is deserted." Kawara remarked as the three of them continued walking.

"Of course it is." Dolce remarked.

"Well, if it all tastes the same, the cheapest food is as good as any…" Isami added at the end of Dolce's remark.

Meanwhile, at the same time going in the other direction down the road, a male and female adventurer (who looked familiarly like the ones that attacked Shiroe and his party before they went to Susukino) were walking before the male one stopped, causing the other to stop with him.

"Something smells good." The man (Smash) remarked, sniffing at the air.

"No way…" his companion (Rikopin) answered, dismissing his remark.

Just then, their attention (as well as Dolce, Isami, Kawara, and anyone else in the area) was suddenly taken by a loud, female voice that was speaking a small distance away:

"Hello, residents of Akihabara!"

Looking in the direction of the voice, the adventurers in the area found themselves looking at a blonde-haired onee-chan woman with big breasts, dressed cutely in a waitress outfit and standing in front of both a new stall and a group of other female adventurers dressed in the same style.

"For those of you who miss real food, we have good news for you!" Marielle continued with her explanation. Sweeping her hands in an overexaggurated motion, Marielle continued: "Now you can bring genuine flavor back to your table! The Crescent Moon refreshment stand opens today! Please give it a try!"

As she was saying her explanation, the other girls, mainly consisting of Serara, Kanami, Liliana, Asuka, and Ashlynn busied themselves with handing out (and in Kanami's case, forcefully handing out) flyers that advertised the stall's products and prices.

"Thank you! Thank you for your purchase!" Serara was saying every time she handed out a flyer, bowing an extreme number of times as well. In response, Liliana placed a hand gently on the young druid's shoulder.

"Serara, we haven't sold any yet." Liliana said gently, calming Serara down.

Meanwhile, Smash was busy looking through the contents of the flyer and reading them aloud to himself (with Rikopin looking over his shoulder).

"Cresent Burger, fifteen gold…one crispy chicken strip, eighteen gold…black rose tea, five gold."

"That's pretty pricy!" Dolce remarked from his position slightly behind the crowd.

"What noisy, strange people." Kawara added on.

Seemingly not hearing them, Marielle leaned in close to smash and asked in a tempting voice:

"Onii-san, care to take a leap of faith and try one?" Placing both of her hands on her cheeks and making a cute expression, Marielle continued: "You'll be amazing at how good it is."

"Ah, th-then…" Smash said, seemingly not being able to resist Marielle's salespitch. "I'll take a Crescent Burger. Or she will." He finished, pointing a thumb over towards Rikopin.

"Me?!" The female adventurer replied.

"Okay!" Marielle exclaimed happily before turning back to the stall and calling out: "One Crescent Burger, coming right up!"

"Hey, this smell…"

"No, even if it smells good…"

"…it either tastes like nothing or like salt…"
While they were waiting, the other adventurers around the area were beginning to smell something delicious rising from the stall's direction. Behind them, even Dolce and his group were leaning in, becoming more interested in the food by the second.

Finally, after a few minutes of waiting, Marielle returned with a burger, giving it to Rikopin, who looked at it skeptically in her hand.

"Give it a try!" Marielle urged. In response, the female adventurer readied herself and took a bite of the burger.

And then another one.

And then another one.

"What is this…"

"Huh?" Smash said, holding his hand out worriedly to his companion. Ignoring him, Rikopin began wolfing down the rest of the burger.

"It tastes exactly like a hamburger!" The female adventurer exclaimed, tears freely running down her eyes.

"What?!"

"Hey, I want one too!"

"Me too!"

The scene soon erupted into pure pandemonium, with all of the adventurers present ordering food from the stall and beginning to wolf it down with gusto.

"It tastes like grilled meat and sauce!" Dolce exclaimed with a completely satisfied look on his face.

"It's so good!" Kawara concurred, tears flowing down her face in even greater quantity than Rikopin.

"We can't just stand here!" Isami exclaimed, holding her own half-eaten burger in her hands.

"Let's go tell Sou-chan!" Dolce concurred. The three of them ran off, presumably to tell 'Sou-chan' about this new development.

Watching the entire scene unfold, Marielle turned around and gave a wink and a thumbs up to a figure up on one of the buildings.

Shiroe's only response was to adjust his glasses once more before turning and walking back into the shadows.

"Um…um, this is the end of the line. Thank you for staying in line!" Serara called out, holding up a sign that stated quite literally "end of the line" while standing at the back of the quite sizeable line that formed at the Crescent Moon stall in just a few minutes. Kanami had taken on the role of 'enforcer,' that is keeping everyone in line, with gusto. She was doing it quite successfully too (mainly through the intimidation of punching one would-be rule breaker into a nearby building).

All the other girls were working inside the stall itself. However, a problem was soon arising.

"We only have one box of burgers left!" Asuka exclaimed worriedly to Marielle, who was working the front counter. She quickly placed a call to Henrietta, who was working supply behind the scenes.

"Don't worry, Marie." Henrietta replied to the call from where she was watching over Girov, Second, and Nyanta cook as fast as they possibly could (with Nyanta being the only one who didn't looked stressed at all). "I'm bringing more."

Hanging up the call, Henrietta smiled grimly.

'This is where things will get tough. We'll go at full speed!' She thought to herself as she turned around to arrange the next shipment of burgers to the stall.

West Wind Brigade Guild Hall

Meanwhile, at the same time, Soujiro Seta, the guild master of one of the smallest yet very powerful "large guilds" in the city, was busy taking a bite out of the hamburger that Dolce, Kawara, and Isami had brought back for him.

"This is…" The samurai said, looking down at the burger in surprise. "delicious? Who made this? How?"

Outside Eating Area

"Have you tried the Crescent Burger?"

"I heard its food that actually tastes like food."

"Not just ingredient items? Seriously?"

From where he was seated, Isaac, the leader of the Black Sword Knights guild, took another bite of the Crescent Burger he was eating as he continued listening to the chatter all around him.

8th Shopping District Center Meeting Place

"Hmmm…this flavor, at this price." Mumbled a young man to himself as he chowed into the Crescent Burger that he was eating. "I wonder if we can get in on this…"

Oceanic Systems Guild Warehouse

"Big trouble, boss! Look at this!"

One of the guild members of the Oceanic System Guilds ran into the warehouse where the guild leader, Michitaka, was currently pouring over something on a table with his back turned.

"You're too slow on the draw, Kayu…" Michitaka replied, turning around to reveal that he had been eating the same burger that Kayu had brought in. "This is good, though." Turning back to look at the member, Michitaka started giving out orders: "Investigate the shop. Who's running it, what they use for ingredients, and how they get them. Everything you can find!"

"Right!"

As the guild member ran off, Michitaka took another look at the half-eaten burger in his hand.

"This will change the world."

The Rodrick Firm Guild Hall

An older man was sitting at a table, surrounded by test vials and other scientific items, while eating a Crescent Burger, nodding to himself, and then continuing to write down his observations of the new food item.

Meanwhile, back at the hunting grounds, Naotsugu, Hein, and Shoryu were just securing the latest monsters that they had captured into the back of a cart utilized to tow the monsters back to the Crescent Moon Alliance Guild Hall.

"Okay, that's enough for now." Naotsugu exclaimed as he latched the last cage shut. Turning back to face the other two, the guardian said: "Let's go, kids."

"Right!" Hein said, happy it was all over.

Shoryu, meanwhile, turned his back and started walking away.

"I will gather more." The swashbuckler simply said, causing the other two to look back. "You two go on back."

"Don't push yourself." Naotsugu responded. "There's a long way to go."

"No." Shoryu said. "I don't want to lose."

"Huh? To whom?" asked Naotsugu, not knowing who Shoryu was referring to.

"Then, let's go." Hein, who was smirking as he knew exactly who Shoryu was referring to, said.

"Will he be okay?" Naotsugu asked, worriedly.
"He'll be fine." Hein waved off Naotsugu's concerns. Naotsugu shrugged in response.

As the cart moved away, Shoryu was busy muttering to himself.

"Watch me, Marie-san." The swashbuckler said. "I-"

Just then, he was interrupted by the sound of a monster to his right. Turning, Shoryu found himself face to face with the biggest monster that they had seen the entire day.

"A-an area boss?!" The swashbuckler yelled in complete surprise. "You have to be joking…"

"Good work everyone." Shiroe said as he saw the group that had been running the stall enter the guild leader's room. Serara and Ashlynn immediately fell on the couch, exhausted, and started snoozing, while Marielle bounded up to Henrietta eagerly (Kanami had remained by the door and was now shooting Shiroe looks that made Shiroe fear for his very life).

"So, how much did we make?" Henrietta asked eagerly.

"We earned 43, 776 gold in sales, representing 1,159 customers who spent an average of 38 gold each." Henrietta reported in response to Marielle's question. "We sold out the Crescent Burgers we prepared, as well as everything else, except the Black Rose Tea."

"Wow!" Marielle said, clapping her hands together in glee. "This is great! At this rate, we'll get that five million in no time at all!"

"We'll never make it in time…not even close, Mari-nee." Shiroe suddenly interjected, brining Marielle out of her blissful state.

"We won't?"

"Basic math shows it would take one hundred twenty days, or four months." Shiroe responded.

"But today, we turned away a lot of customers…" Marielle pointed out. "If we wanted, we could sell a lot more."

"Our total market size probably measures in the tens of thousands." Shiroe stated, holding out his hand to stop Marielle from continuing. "In Akihabara alone, there are over fifteen thousand players."

"The problem is," Henrietta continued Shiroe's statement, "no matter how high the demand, we can only serve around a thousand customers a day. Our guild just isn't big enough."

"That's it." Shiroe ended as Marielle pouted. "Money isn't the point of this plan, anyway."

"That's right." Marielle suddenly perked up. Hitting her head lightly with her fist in a 'tee-hee' motion, Marielle continued: "I was just blinded by the huge fortune in front of me. Eh he he…"

Henrietta stood up from the desk after Marielle's laugh.

"I'll go deposit our earnings in the bank."

"Thanks." Shiroe replied.

"That's perfect timing." Kanami suddenly spoke up from where she was making her way over to Shiroe. "I'll be taking Shiro-kun out for a little talk in the meantime."

Shiroe suddenly felt a sudden and dire need to run as he watched the monk, who was emitting a 'don't you dare run away' aura, approach him swiftly.

"Hey, Shiro-bou." Marielle suddenly asked. "If money wasn't the Crescent Burger's goal, does that mean you'll use your other plan?"

"I'm sure it'll work." Shiroe said simply to reassure Marielle.

"But I don't know if I can do it…"

"Just leave it to Henrietta-san." Shiroe replied once again. Looking over Marielle's shoulder to the bard who was leaving the room, Shiroe added: "Right?"

"Yes." Henrietta replied. "Leave it to me. In exchange…"

Akatsuki and Sakura had never felt so threatened in their lives.

Both girls had just returned from their respective missions (Akatsuki from one of Shiroe's and Sakura from one of her own) and as soon as they got back to the Crescent Moon Alliance's guild hall, they found themselves being approached by a shadowy Henrietta-type figure who was radiating dark energy as she walked toward them.

"Where are you going?" The Henrietta-type figure asked as she slowly continued approaching the two of them.

The two girls immediately turned around and started sprinting full speed in the other direction.

"My lord has given me a secret mission!" Akatsuki exclaimed as the two of them continued running. "Don't stop me!"

Just then, Akatsuki tripped over her own feet and fell to the ground. Sakura, not even bothering to check up on the assassin, continued running as fast as possible down the hall and around the corner.

"Shiroe-sama was kind enough to lend you to me~!" The Henrietta-type shadowy figure sang as she continued approaching Akatsuki.

The look on Akatsuki's face was enough to rival that of Kanami's earlier that day.

"My lord, you sold me out again!"

"Now…" said Henrietta, reaching behind her back and pulling out an object that she had somehow hid, "put this on!"

To her complete horror, Akatsuki found herself looking straight at an Akatsuki-sized waitress costume of what the other girls had been wearing earlier that day.

"I refuse!" Akatsuki instantly yelled out, jumping to her feet and running around a different corner than Sakura had disappeared behind earlier. "I am not a doll for you to dress up!"

Reaching out to the handle of the door at the end of that hallway, Akatsuki was suddenly met by an electric shock, causing her to pull her hand away from the knob.

"You can't enter that room." Henrietta said from where she was standing a small distance away from Akatsuki.

"What?"

Henrietta lowered the costume that she was holding up a little bit to reveal her glinting glasses before replying: "This zone belongs to the Crescent Moon Alliance, and that warehouse only permits guild members."

Akatsuki recoiled in horror.

"I guess I'll have to…" The assassin began, before opening her status menu and finding out the button for 'skills' was greyed out and unusable. "I can't use it?"

"It's useless." Henrietta said in response to Akatsuki's comment. "I set it so that skills can't be used here. I can also set combat permission individually as well. Have you forgotten?"

Akatsuki began shaking all over as the dreaded costume came closer and closer to her, held by a clearly psychotic bard who would stop at nothing to get her way.

"Curse you…!"

"So cute!"

Akatsuki trembled in complete embarrassment as she stood in front of the others, fully dressed in the Crescent Moon Café uniform. In the back, Shiroe, who was looking extremely exhausted, was making a 'I'm sorry' type of gesture while Asuka, Liliana, and Ashlynn were ogling Akatsuki.

"My, my." Nyanta said from where he was standing near Shiroe. "It looks wonderful on you, nya."

"Ah! My exhaustion is flying away!" Henrietta exclaimed from where she was kneeling on the ground, tightly hugging Akatsuki. "It's only too bad that Sakura-chan got away."

From his vantage point behind everyone else, Shiroe looked out the window at an angle at Henrietta's statement to find Sakura hiding outside the window of the room, making 'please don't give me away' faces at Shiroe.

"Hey, have you seen Shoryu?" Marielle suddenly spoke up.

"Now that you mention it, he's late." Naotsugu said from where he was standing.

"He was so excited, he hasn't returned from hunting…" Hein gave his thoughts.

"R-really?" Marielle answered with a worried look on her face. "Maybe something happened…"

Just then, there was a loud crash from outside of the room in the hallway. The group quickly moved towards the door to see the source of the noise (Kanami, in the very back of the group, noticed Sakura quietly making her way back into the room from the window and joining at the back of the group).

"What is this?" Asuka asked, clearly confused at the sight that was in front of them.

"There's a boar stuck in the hall." Liliana said while sweatdropping at the same sight.

Carrying the giant boar in the very front, Shoryu was kneeling, extremely exhausted at his task.

"Marie-san, am I helping a little?" The swashbuckler managed to say before collapsing to the ground.

"Shoryu!" Marielle called out, rushing to where the boy had collapsed. Pulling him out from under the boar (which had also collapsed partially on top of him, Marielle called out his name once again: "Shoryu!"

Just then, Shoryu started snoring softly, startling Marielle.

"Eh?"

"He's hasn't rested or slept for a long time." Naotsugu remarked from where he was looking at the sleeping boy.

"He's been killing himself slowly." Hein added from his own position.

Meanwhile, Marielle was softly stroking Shoryu's head in a motherly manner.

"Thank goodness…" The cleric said softly. Turning to face the others (while continuing to give Shoryu a lap pillow), Marielle said: "Thank you, everyone. I'm blessed with such wonderful companions."

"He looks so happy in his sleep." Hein remarked. "I guess all that killing himself was worth it."

Just then, everyone's attention was drawn by a soft cough from Nyanta.

"After all that work, I'm sorry to say this, nya…" The cat-man began saying, "but giant boar tastes too strong, so I can't use it."

There was a small moment of silence from the group as they digested what Nyanta had just said. Afterwards, the group broke out into quiet laughter, prompting Marielle to shush them: "You'll wake him up!"

Shiroe looked around at all the people surrounding him, smiling at the scene (he also noticed that Sakura was missing, but considering that Henrietta was gone as well, Shiroe probably knew what had happened).

'The Crescent Moon Alliance members are all so nice.' The Enchanter thought to himself.

Later on, in Hamelin's guild hall, Minori was working on leatherworking as she listened to Shiroe speak in her ear.

"Yes…" Shiroe's voice was saying. "I'm sure it's due to Mari-nee's kindness and sunflower-like smile."

Minori paused from what she was working on in response.

"Actually, I've made a guild of my own." Shiroe started talking again. "I'll introduce them to you soon."

Minori made an even more unhappy face as she resumed working.

"Our preparations are progressing; hold out just a bit longer. It'll be okay, Minori, Tohya."

"Shiroe-nii-chan said that?"

"Yeah." Minori confirmed to her brother as the two of them were sitting on a bench and table, respectively.

"I see." Tohya said.

"Is this okay?" Minori asked, causing Tohya to look at her. "Is this really okay?"

Tohya could only make a thoughtful face at his sister's words.

"Chief, did you know this?" Shiroe asked Nyanta as the two of them stood outside of one of the abandoned and ruined buildings in Akihabara. "When this was a game, these buildings were just background, but now they appear to be zones for purchase."

"So it seems, nya."

"And that isn't just all." Shiroe continued. "Every city and building in the world is for sale. But they're astronomically expensive."

"Then, should we buy Tokyo Station as the Log Horizon base, nya?" Nyanta teased. "It would suit well for Kanami as well, nya."

'Why did you bring her up?' Shiroe inwardly thought, shuddering at what Kanami had put him through earlier today. Outwardly, however, the enchanter made no indication to what he was inwardly thinking, instead simply adjusting his glasses before replying to Naotsugu:

"No."

"Speaking of Kanami-chi, nya." Nyanta spoke up. "What happened earlier today, nyan? I saw Kanami-chi dragging Shiroe-chi away in the early evening."

"She dragged me to go run Heart of the Wild." Shiroe answered, referring to one of the dungeons slightly North-West of Akihabara.

"…Isn't that a level ninety dungeon for six people, nyan?" Nyanta asked.

"Yes."

"You weren't gone for very long, nyan." Nyanta remarked, remembering that Shiroe had only been gone for about an hour and a half. "I take it was a failure for the both of you, nya?"

Shiroe didn't respond, causing Nyanta to open one eye and look at him.

"…Nya?" Nyanta implied.

"…Chief, I think we both once again underestimated Kanami-san's strength and perchance for chaos and destruction." Shiroe said.

"That's just like Kanami-chi, nyan." Nyanta finished, laughing loudly at what he had just heard.

A little later, Shiroe and Nyanta were waiting atop on the bridges that ran between the upper floors of some of Akihabara's buildings.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

At the sound of a younger boy's voice, both Shiroe and Nyanta turned to see the West Wind Brigade's leader and one of the former members of the Debauchery Tea Party, Soujirou, walking towards them.

"Shiro-senpai, Master Nyanta, it's been a while."

"Hey, Soujirou." Shiroe greeted.

"Souji-chi, I hear you've started your own guild?" Nyanta said after waving his own greeting.

"Yes, it's called the Caravan of the West Wind." Soujirou replied, his status screen showing at the same time, revealing him as a level ninety samurai.

"It's a small guild, but as powerful as the biggest ones." Shiroe said, showing his knack of reading up on smaller details in his free time.

"Hoh." Nyanta said, obviously impressed.

"Not at all…" Soujirou stated humbly at Shiroe's praise. "We were just getting things set up when the Apocalypse happened."

"Since the Tea Party disbanded, I hadn't been logging in as often, nyan." Nyanta said. "Are Nazuna-chi and Saki-ojou still with you?"

"Nazuna is still with me." Soujirou half-confirmed at Nyanta's question. "She's as relaxed as ever." Soujirou made a slightly sadder face before continuing: "Saki too, but she wasn't logged in during the Apocalypse."

"Hey, so, um…" Shiroe suddenly spoke up, causing the other two to look at him. "Are you still as popular with girls as you used to be?"
"Eh?" Soujirou was taken back by Shiroe's question, obviously not expecting it. "No, well…"

Nyanta gave a nice, hearty laugh.

"It's nice to be young, nyan." The cat-man said.

"A-anyway…" Soujirou said, trying desperately to change the subject, "why did you contact me?"

"Oh, you see…" Shiroe started, before being cut off by Soujirou.

"I thought you didn't like me." Soujirou confessed, a little downhearted at his own confession.

"Eh? Why?" Shiroe asked, taken aback.

"Because, well…" Soujirou struggled for his own sentences. "When I founded by guild, I invited you, but you didn't join."

"It wasn't like that at all." Shiroe spoke up, seeing where Soujirou was going. "It wasn't that I didn't like you." Looking away, the enchanter continued: "Back then, I just didn't want anything to do with guilds. But after the Apocalypse, I realized that I had to make a place for myself. That I have to be one of those that protects others. So I made a guild. There aren't many in it yet, and it's just getting started…but I'll only have a place for myself after I've made one for others. I finally realized that."

Soujirou stood in silence for a moment after Shiroe had finished before replying: "So what did you want from me?"

"What do you think of Akihabara, as it is now, nyan?" Nyanta asked, taking over for Shiroe.

"Hm." Soujirou folded his arms across his chest before replying with a thoughtful look. "I think it's a prison."

"A prison?" Shiroe asked.

"Not just Akihabara." Soujirou clarified. "Depending on your point of view, this whole world is currently a prison."

"I have a way to improve it." Shiroe said, cutting off the depressing train of thought. "And I need your help to fulfill it."

Soujirou made a face for a moment before completely brightening up with a smile.

"Alright!" The samurai stated, happily.

"Huh?" Shiroe said, obviously not expecting Soujirou to answer affirmatively that quickly. "Are you sure? Don't you want to hear the plan?"

"But you're busy, aren't you?" Soujirou correctly interpreted. "I can't take up your time. In addition, I'm a moron whose place is in the front row. Even if the Tea Party's best strategist told me the plan, I wouldn't understand half."

"…Soujirou." Shiroe said, smiling at the boy.

"You're a good kid, Souji-chi." Nyanta said, laughing once again.

"No…" Soujirou said humbly in response.

The next day, the Crescent Moon Alliance stall was once again back in full force. The one noticeable exception from the previous day, however, was that the entirety of the stall's employees were West Wind Brigade members instead of Crescent Moon Alliance members.

"I have more burgers!" Isami called out loudly as she set down another box of burgers in the stall.

Meanwhile, outside of the stand, Soujirou was dressed in his normal clothes, with the notable additions of a waiter's hat and carrying a notepad and quill pen instead of his normal swords.

"While you wait, I'll take your orders!" The boy called out, a genuine smile on his face while he was working.

As expected however, the boy soon found himself surrounded by girls, all clamoring to get close to him.

"You're so cute…"

"Please add me to your friends list!"

"Hey, stay in line and follow the rules!" Kawara exclaimed from where she had taken over Kanami's position from the previous day (Shiroe had chosen to keep Kanami's presence on the server a secret from Soujirou for now).

As the girls moved back into line reluctantly, Dolce leaned in closely to be able to whisper to Soujirou: "So this Shiro-senpai guy wanted you to help with the store?"

"Of course not." Soujirou replied, looking up at the bright sky. "It's far more than just this. After all, there's no end to his plans."

At the exact same moment, Shiroe was standing outside of the front of the Guild Building, with Kanami standing close behind him.

"Now, then…time for the plan's second stage." Shiroe said, adjusting his glasses while he did so.

Behind him, Kanami slammed her fists together, eagerly awaiting the next stage.

Done! With that said, there's no real author's note to add at the end of this, so I hope you R&R and enjoy this chapter, and I'll see you in the next one!

Next Chapter: Haraguro Megane (Villain in Glasses)