A long-running mobile game, six years past its initial release, still thrived.
‘Destiny: Child of Fate’
Though unequivocally developed in Korea, it had deeply interwoven Japanese sensibilities within its narrative, largely due to the casting of Japanese voice actors. Adding to its peculiar structure, China managed its distribution.
Yet, paradoxically, this unusual setup was credited with maintaining a balanced operation, allowing the game to run smoothly and without incident for the entirety of its six-year tenure.
Even I had been a dedicated player, at least up until its first-anniversary event.
But then, these developers brazenly desecrated my very Maid Soul.
The incident occurred not long after the first-anniversary festivities had concluded.
With the launch of the summer event, players eagerly anticipated limited-edition characters clad in swimwear, and true to popular expectation, these swimsuit-clad limited characters were indeed unveiled.
“Ugh, for a princess like me to be reduced to this…! What are you gawking at?! Do you have a death wish?!”
[SSR Shy Imperial Thunder Maid, Lucia von Melizeus]
“Ugh… Fine, I understand. For the sake of upholding the nobility’s honor, I’ll… I’ll endeavor to do my utmost…”
[SSR Striving White Flame Maid, Noir von Leonhardt]
These are supposed to be maids?
Dressed in mere scraps of fabric, yet they dare call themselves maids?
Seriously, what maid in any sensible world would ever don something as preposterous as a bikini maid outfit?
Why, in the name of all that is sacred, would they commit such an atrocious act…!
With a deceptively calm gaze, I perused the event story.
[As summer vacation commenced, the ‘protagonist’ and their companions journeyed to the seaside for leisure.]
[There, they fortuitously encountered and assisted an elderly couple, only for debt collectors to descend upon the old pair, demanding payment.]
[The righteous ‘protagonist’ and their companions then drastically modified the elderly couple’s shop, transforming it into a maid swimsuit stall….]
No, seriously?
Does anyone genuinely believe this makes a shred of sense?
What deranged debt collectors would dare demand money from an elderly couple directly in front of a princess or a duchess?
Moreover, a princess and a duchess donning maid bikinis?
“This… this is the very spirit of a maid…!”
And then, upon hearing the duchess’s ultimate skill declaration, I simply… blacked out.
This was no mere figure of speech.
I had genuinely lost consciousness.
When my eyes fluttered open, an unfamiliar ceiling greeted me, along with a bespectacled doctor who offered a welcoming smile.
But now, I felt an even greater sense of my mind drifting away, far beyond that previous incident.
Though I had achieved a certain notoriety by cross-dressing for part-time work, that was only possible because I was performing the noble and beautiful duties of a maid, an occupation that transcends mere gender.
I had never abandoned my masculinity, nor had I awakened to any peculiar proclivities.
Indeed, the very act of donning a maid’s attire while harboring unseemly desires is nothing short of blasphemy, is it not?
To gaze upon a maid with lustful thoughts is akin to a saint, nailed to the cross, rejecting the burden of sin and disavowing their own father.
My path, much like that of religious ascetics who embark on arduous journeys in pursuit of enlightenment, was to become a maid myself, thereby seeking enlightenment, and never out of any peculiar or untoward desires.
Thus, I had neither truly forsaken my masculinity nor harbored any strange inclinations.
On the contrary, my heart was surely more sacred and incorruptible than anyone else’s.
For within my very being, the Maid Soul blazes incandescently.
Yet, for some inexplicable reason, when my eyes next opened, the masculinity that had accompanied me my entire life had vanished.
What is this? Could it be the Maid God’s divine retribution for daring to embody a maid while still possessing male attributes?
Furthermore, within the confines of a dilapidated prison cell, my hands and feet were shackled by iron chains, and in a murky puddle on the floor, the reflection of a character I recognized from the game shimmered back at me.
“That’s ‘Unnamed’.”
Silver hair, crimson eyes.
Despite the myriad wounds marring her body, the vivid crimson of her blood only served to accentuate the stark paleness of her skin.
I knew this face.
While significantly younger than the visage etched in my memory, this face was undeniably that of *the* character.
A supremely popular character from Destiny.
Her name: ‘Unnamed’.
But could it truly be considered a name?
For ‘Unnamed’ was merely a designation, reflecting her literal lack of a given name, rather than a true appellation.
Yet, as she was the sole character in Destiny referred to as ‘Unnamed,’ the designation effectively functioned as her name.
Unnamed served as a villainous boss character in Chapter 2 of Destiny’s main storyline.
She was an executive of the clandestine organization ‘Journey of Nothingness’—colloquially known as the Journey—and a character who had infiltrated the academy with the express purpose of abducting the princess.
Initially, she feigned innocence, cultivating friendships with the protagonist’s party, only to later overpower them with overwhelming force and abduct the princess.
However, due to the valiant efforts of both the homeroom teacher and the protagonist, she was ultimately defeated and subsequently incarcerated as a prisoner in the academy’s subterranean levels.
Her subsequent whereabouts remained largely unknown to me.
When I ceased playing, only up to Chapter 3 had been released, and Unnamed thereafter only ever appeared as a fleeting recollection whenever the Journey organization was mentioned.
The one definitive fact I did recall was that Unnamed, with her striking appearance and enigmatic aura, coupled with the fervent performance of her voice actress, had become an immensely popular character.
Consequently, I’d heard that up until the game’s fifth anniversary, players had relentlessly implored the developers to release Unnamed as a playable character.
Ultimately, when Unnamed was finally released as a limited-edition festival character for the fifth anniversary, it ignited not only the Destiny fan forums but also countless other online communities.
Primarily within manga-related forums, the discussions fiercely debated whether Unnamed, given her origins in a criminal organization, was a virgin or not.
However, considering these imbeciles would even debate the virginity of the Virgin Mary, it was probably best to simply disregard their arguments.
Regardless, Unnamed was not merely a favorite among Destiny fans; she was one of those characters collectively adored by otaku, and I, too, held a rather favorable opinion of Unnamed.
More accurately, perhaps, I harbored a profound sense of lament when I gazed upon her.
Her dignified appearance, utterly devoid of any unsightly flaw.
Her unwavering prioritization of duty, her readiness to sacrifice everything for the sake of a mission.
Ah, why was such an exceptional talent never designated a maid?
Furthermore, why would such a prodigious individual, endowed with overwhelming martial prowess to protect her master, be relegated to the role of a mere assassin?
Had I been the boss of the Journey, I would have immediately groomed Unnamed not as an assassin, but as a maid.
The core issue, from the very beginning, lay with Destiny itself—that wretched game.
For six long years, not a single true maid character had graced its roster; only four dissolute women, shamelessly masquerading under the esteemed title of ‘maid,’ had emerged.
My righteous indignation at this fact compelled me to dispatch a 57,000-character email to the game company, and it was an inevitable culmination of events that I found myself sued for obstruction of business after orchestrating a 100-day continuous solo protest outside the company headquarters, vehemently demanding an explanation for the maid bikinis.
“Good heavens.”
As my train of thought reached this very juncture, an immense shock, akin to a lightning bolt searing through my mind, suddenly struck me.
This shock surpassed even the moment my master plunged a blade into my abdomen.
Though I had been rambling, desperately attempting to deny the reality of my situation, it was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, undeniable that I had transmigrated into the younger body of Unnamed.
And Unnamed, I realized, was the most impeccably perfect talent for a maid the world had ever known.
Ah, my Maid Soul surged within me, a tempest of fervent conviction.
So that’s it.
Everything had led to this very moment….
All this time, I had mistakenly believed I was being chastised for the sacrilege of a mere human such as myself daring to don a maid’s attire and embody her duties.
But no, I was wrong.
This was, in fact, the Maid God’s divine grace, a profound trial bestowed upon me.
The Maid God had, at this very instant, commanded me to transform Unnamed into the most perfect and magnificent maid the world had ever witnessed.
Unnamed… becoming a maid… a maid, indeed…
This… this is truly… truly… magnificent…❤
“What consumes your thoughts so deeply, M?”
As I was responding to the Maid God’s call and swearing a solemn oath deep within my Maid Soul, a boy’s rather brutish voice echoed from beyond the iron bars.
“Seven.”
“Hoo, so you’ve finally regained your faculties.”
From the shadows, a young boy clad in samurai attire emerged, gazing at me with an air of peculiar curiosity.
The Journey organization assigned its executives ten numerical codes, while its subordinates were given alphabetical designations.
And the boy before me was ‘Dante,’ an executive of the Journey, designated with the number seven.
There had been mentions that ‘Dante’ was not his real name, but the lore suggested he treated it as such.
Just a moment ago, when he appeared, I almost called him Dante.
However, the Journey’s members adhered to the principle of addressing each other by their assigned code names.
Had I called him by his name, he likely would have sensed something amiss.
“Where… am I?”
“Hmm, you don’t even remember? Well, that’s understandable. You went berserk, after all.”
Berserk? Remember?
What in the world was he talking about?
“Hey, hey, don’t glare at me like that. It’s not like we wanted to tie you up like this.”
Dante then cleanly severed the prison bars and the shackles binding me with his sword.
“Hmm? You look like you have a lot to say. Is there something you want to ask?”
“This prison and these shackles, they aren’t single-use items, so why did you destroy them?”
“What?”
“You were the ones who imprisoned me here, and you’re the ones who want to release me, aren’t you?
Surely, you have the key. So why did you destroy these items, rendering them unusable forever?”
Dante was momentarily speechless.
He had fully expected me to ask where I was or what had happened, so why was I suddenly lecturing him?
Dante almost blurted out that he broke the bars and shackles because it was ‘cool,’ but he never let the words escape his lips.
For uttering such a thing would be decidedly ‘uncool.’
“No matter how wealthy one is, they must learn to conserve money and resources. This is a maid’s…”
“A maid’s…?”
“Ahem, it’s basic common sense for any human being.”
