"Thank you nya!"
After entering the house, Carol Cat removed her cloak. Her outfit was typical adventurer ranger gear, but it seemed she had added many flashy but impractical accessories for aesthetic appeal and reduced defensive power for adjustments.
It's normal for young girls to care about their appearance, especially since there isn't much equipment on Lemoria Continent that combines beauty with practicality. At least Carol Cat's exposed healthy white thighs are genuinely defenseless.
"Miss Anna is staring at my legs, it's embarrassing nya..."
A nimble cat tail tied with a bow wrapped around under her skirt, curving to cover her snow-white beautiful legs.
"My apologies. I'm unfamiliar with beastkin. You... look very much like a human."
"What did Miss Anna imagine beastkin to look like nya?"
"Green-skinned all over, shouting 'Waghhhhhh,' a bloodthirsty and warlike race..."
That's what orcs should look like in my impression. However, Miss Carol Cat looks much more like a "demi-human.”
Demi-human is a general term in fantasy worldviews for describing races that seem human but aren't quite human—generally similar to humans but with some non-human characteristics.
Carol Cat's cat ears and cat tail are precisely those non-human characteristics, but if you removed those two features, Carol Cat would be a thoroughly human beautiful girl. Everything else about her has human appearance. I thought Carol Cat's legs would be fluffy, but in fact her thighs are clean and white—just looking at her legs, you couldn't tell Carol Cat is a beastkin at all.
Carol Cat was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing, her cat tail swaying left and right continuously.
"Miss Anna's perception is so interesting~ There are no such orcs in Arcadia, but I can't say Miss Anna's perception is wrong... Actually, beastkin really were like that at first, but absolutely no one wanted to play them."
"No one was interested?"
"Pretty much. It's not that there were completely no players, but the design didn't match mainstream aesthetics. Manual operation was fine, but personally and subjectively embodying them would be super awkward. And they were all male players—no female players wanted to play green-skinned orcs. The entire tribe was filled with a philosophical atmosphere, and everyone said, 'Play orc for three years, and sows become beauties nya.'"
"..."
Now it was my turn to be speechless. I didn't expect the reason to be so realistic.
Traditional green-skinned orcs aren't problematic when operating from in front of a computer, but in a virtual online game playing from a first-person perspective, it's simply unacceptable for all but hardcore players. Regarding female players, as Carol Cat said, what female player would play green-skinned orcs? The entire tribe consists of muscular tough guys. The few players who tried it for novelty often weren't gay enough to fit in with the tribe's atmosphere and eventually quit to preserve their dignity.
The developers need to make money—having a race that no one plays is just too awkward. So the final result was that the developers had to redesign the beastkin race.
"All the beastkin in Arcadia are very beautiful, I know several cute fox clan girls, and everyone loves the beautiful beast girl designs... Do you understand nya?"
Carol Cat seemed to just now remember that I'm an NPC and had inadvertently said a lot of player-specific content.
But I understand basically without problems. At least now I understand the beastkin of Lemoria Continent. So the reason there are no green-skinned orcs is that the developers couldn't make money... The purity of orcs has greatly decreased.
Carol Cat's ID is quite casual, belonging to the naming style of ordinary players doing whatever they want. She hasn't etched her name into the chronicles of Lemoria Continent, so her ID isn't restricted.
Sigrdrífa seems to have quietly returned to the second floor. I invited Carol Cat to sit in the living room. When I went shopping in Baron Hurst's territory, I bought some fine tea leaves. Although I couldn't buy the highest grade due to budget constraints, I'll make up for the lacking parts with my tea-making skills.
"Actually, I'm very flattered, Miss Carol Cat, hearing you're my fan and such."
"Miss Anna is a popular character—just look at the number of tents outside Rothschild nya."
Carol Cat sipped her black tea and answered my confusion with a smile.
"But they're all male adventurers. Miss Carol Cat is the first female adventurer."
"Eh? Really? I remember Miss Anna has female fans... Maybe they can't compete with male players. The human female players who like Miss Anna are all somewhat distinguished female players. Noble ladies of high status really love beautiful girl maids nya, but there are few female players who become nobles in the first place, and [Charm] doesn't work on Miss Anna either, so none of them came."
Moreover, being crammed into the messy tents outside Rothschild is really torture for female players.
But actually, male players' [Charm] has even less effect on me... I'd actually feel much more at ease serving a female master...
"In that case, why did Miss Carol Cat travel all the way from Arcadia to visit?"
"Because I wanted to come. There's nothing else to do staying in Arcadia, so it's not bad to come to the Kingdom of Michel and see Miss Anna with my own eyes. Miss Anna is much cuter than in photos and fan fiction, and you have that lavender scent I like nya~"
"You flatter me."
Lavender... I did use it yesterday. It's a scent I quite like.
So Carol Cat simply came from Arcadia because she wanted to see me? In The Eternal Pacificus, which doesn't restrict player freedom, this reason actually makes sense. The developers put great care into creating scenes, hoping players would calm down and appreciate the beautiful Lemoria Continent rather than constantly fighting for levels and equipment.