Brand New Life Online: Rise Of The Goddess Of Harvest

"For now, enjoy the banquet." The King rose his wine-filled cup. "Everyone, behave and recognize the heroes, despite being non-humans. This is a great step forwards in our Kingdom, and this day shall be remembered as well as the day new heroes were born!"

"OOOHH!"

Several nobles celebrated and raised their cups filled with wine, giving a toast in our honor. Since then, the nobles started pestering us at every moment.

They surrounded us and asked us all matter of things. Some were interested in our feats, others were interested in our appearances, our strengths, or even our riches.

"Lady Planta, you're such a beautiful maiden. I apologize for not having realized earlier."

"You stand with so much pride and strength! You're truly a hero!"

"Do you happen to have a fiancée? I have a son around your age that would gladly marry a maiden like you. If the King has married a Player I don't see the problem, right? You will receive half of my family's riches if you-"

"Don't listen to him! His son is ugly! Please marry me, I'll make you the happiest woman alive!"

"Men are sure disgusting, aren't they? You could also marry me, I do have a few female concubines… You're beautiful."

From men to women, all of them wanted me to marry them, or give them something else! It was a bit disgusting, and it was overwhelming me. I felt like at any moment I would explode.

It was the same with my friends, Mark was surrounded by mostly ladies, Lily and Rita by guys, and… Well, some of us by kids, like Acorn and Nieve.

"Let me touch your fluffy tail!"

"You're so cute!"

"Uwah, a real-life fairy! I can't believe it!"

"Can you sing and call animals from the forest?"

After arduously dragging ourselves away from the crowd, we gathered once more, sighing in relief. There were still a few questions in our heads. One of them included Camilla's true identity, if she was truly Black Haze, this only made things even more confusing.

But I guess it would make even more sense that she saved the Luminous Kingdom from the invading army of Miasmic Monsters when the Forest of Beginnings was infected by them.

She had literally flown there as fast as she could to save these people in specific, using all her powers to destroy the monsters before they could even touch the city.

If Camilla is really Black Haze, then this is incredible…

"Well? How is the banquet?" Camilla walked to my side, gently smiling at me.

"Black- I mean, Queen Camilla…" I muttered. "Is it really you? Since that time we talked that you never came back. I thought you just stopped caring?"

"It hasn't even been a whole month, Planta." She sighed. "I do have a life here, after all. Whenever I'm not raiding dungeons and exploring new lands with my Guild, I'm here taking care of my child and helping my husband."

"I-I see… You… You said you have been here for years but… BNLO has only been out for three years, no?" I asked her. "So how… is your son?"

"Oh, that?" She giggled. "It has to do with the Beta Test… A special ability BNLO has, which hasn't been revealed to the public. The Beta Test had time dilation. That year became five years."

"Eh?!" I was completely shocked. "That's… so you played the Beta…"

Although it is widely known that there was a Beta Test, the Beta Testers were only a hundred people all around the world, all of them with mysterious backgrounds.

Only a few have shared tips in the forums, the rest falling into obscurity. And it becomes even more mysterious because to become a Beta Tester, they had to work or have connections with Nexus Corporations, the company behind BNLO.

Meaning that… if she truly has connections with them, Camilla probably is aware that this world is not truly a game. Perhaps the very reason why she never called anybody here as an NPC and simply called the "inhabitants of Arcadia".

"I did." Camilla nodded. "My circumstances were very unique… It was thanks to my father. Ah, I suppose I shouldn't be talking more than that, confidential info from the company and all."

Maybe she's not aware the world is real, or maybe she's not aware I know its real, so she's not talking about that… I better just simply play along instead of trying to get myself into more problems.

But the curiosity is still killing me, she's too mysterious! Someone with so many secrets… can they truly be trusted?

"I guess it is not information you're allowed to reveal, by legal contracts and all?" I wondered.

"More or less… But I can reveal that my father is one of the people working for BNLO. So thanks to that, I was able to access the game- Ah, I'm not a kid if you're wondering, I'm already a young adult, my father just loves to spoil me…" Camilla giggled a bit.

"I see…" I felt a bit awkward.

But her interactions seemed genuine, and she looked to be trying her hardest to make be friendly. I know she has many more secrets, but she has already revealed a lot to me.

It means she wants me to trust her… And after she has helped me and all, I guess I can't deny I want to become her friend too.

"I know that you're thinking that you can't trust me after learning this…" Camilla crossed her arms. "But everyone has secrets, right? I could had also pretended to not know you, and you wouldn't had been able to do anything about that. You also keep many secrets, don't you? Some secrets you don't want anybody to know."

"…" I remained in silence, she was right. "Sorry, I guess I was just overthinking things, a lot has happened, and there's a lot of things to do too."

"Believe me when I say this, I also want to protect this place… Everything I lived here, and what I built, it's all for me." She said. "It's everything, in fact.."

"Camilla…" I felt a bit surprised. "Do you know that this world…?"

"I don't know if its real or not, but to me, it is…" She smiled. "I want to believe it."