Hard decision

"Cheers!"

They both downed the glasses, and Klaus poured more.

Soon they finished the entire bottle, but because Finn's parents didn't allow him to drink alcohol, his alcohol tolerance was nonexistent, and his face immediately became flushed.

He started to feel the world spinning, and he was glad that he was sitting down because he would fall over if he were to stand up.

Jonathan was also a little drunk, but he was used to drinking during important meetings, so he was in a lot better shape than Finn was.

"Klaus, tell the helicopter pilot to get ready. Now that we have fixed Finn's problem, we will send him home."

Looking at his butler, Jonathan waved his hand while ordering him to take Finn home.

"I understand. But master, wouldn't it be better for him to sleep over in one of the guest rooms?"

"No! I refuse to have Sophie and Finn sleep in the same house! They have only just started dating, and you are already thinking about my grandchildren, Klaus?!"

"...Huh?"

The butler Klaus was a little flustered by his master's drunken words.

All he wanted was for Finn to not return to his home drunk so that his parents wouldn't think badly of Jonathan, but he was simply a butler, so he didn't go against his master's wishes and called the helicopter pilot so he would get ready.

The butler then wanted to help Finn stand up, but Finn refused his help because he wanted to show Jonathan that he could walk on his own.

"I- *Hic* am alright, *Hic*!"

He said that, but after walking only two meters, he fell on the floor, blaming gravity for being stronger than usual.

Klaus took Finn's left arm around his shoulders and helped him stand up.

"Careful Klaus! That is my soon-to-be son!"

Jonathan shouted from the back.

"Thank you, *Hic* father!"

Finn looked at Jonathan with tears filling his eyes.

Klaus had enough of these two drunkards, so he took Finn and escorted him out of the office.

On his way to the elevator, he saw that someone exited the elevator and was walking towards him.

"Young miss."

He bowed his head, but that also made Finn bow his head, and almost vomit the contents of his stomach out.

Sophie walked towards Klaus, and she noticed that the person he was carrying was actually Finn.

Looking up, Finn saw Sophie, but because his vision was blurry, he saw her twice.

"Oh no, Klaus!"

"What is it, sir?"

Klaus worriedly looked at Finn, who had a surprised expression on his face.

"I love Sophie, but *Hic* if there are two Sophies, then I don't know what *Hic* to do. Would I be cheating on one if I chose *Hic* the other or would I be an asshole for picking them both?"

"…"

"…"

Both Klaus and Sophie were left speechless at Finn's nonexistent problem, but he was seriously considering it.

"I will take him, Klaus."

Seeing how drunk her new boyfriend was, Sophie decided to carry him instead of burdening the old butler.

"Yes, young lady. Master has ordered for me to bring him to the helipad."

"The helipad? He needs to rest."

She looked at Klaus with a questioning gaze but he just helplessly shook his head.

"I know young miss, but master had given out an order."

"…"

Even Sophie couldn't go against her father's orders, so she nodded and held Finn's arm around her shoulder while taking him to the helipad on the roof.

"S- Sophie! I am *Hic* sorry!"

As they kept walking, Finn suddenly appologized to her.

"Why are you sorry?"

"Well, there are a lot of *Hic* things, but mainly I am sorry because you have to *Hic* touch my arm to carry me when you *Hic* previously said you don't want to touch me yet."

Even while drunk, Finn wanted to respect Sophie but he was in no state to walk on his own.

"As long as you understand. And carrying your arm around my shoulders while you are drunk isn't a very romantic touch in my opinion, so I don't mind."

Sophie calmly brushed it off and continued walking, but Finn didn't stop talking about it.

"Sophie! To- *Hic* To me, any touch with you is romantic!"

"Shut up."

Getting slightly embarrassed by him, Sophie coldly glanced at Finn with a murderous look.

"Yes, I will shut up if *Hic* Sophie wants me to shut up!

While drunk, Finn was a lot more docile, and he also knew that his ability to walk depended on his girlfriend, so he didn't want to anger her by talking about something she didn't want to talk about.

After that, he remained silent, and they soon arrived on the rooftop.

But before Sophie could help him get on the helicopter, she noticed that Estelle was there waiting for them.

She walked up to the drunken Finn and chuckled at how his head was hung down, with his messy hair covering his face.

"Yes mother?"

Sophie calmly looked at Estelle.

"Give him to me, and I will make sure he gets on the helicopter. I have something to talk to him about."

"…Yes."

Unwillingly, Sophie let go of Finn and gave him to Estelle.

Finn wanted to shout at Sophie that she had just given him to the devil, but because he had promised to shut up, he didn't want to break that promise and remained silent.

Fortunately for Finn, Estelle didn't try anything and just helped him get on the helicopter.

She didn't really have anything to talk about with Finn. Estelle just wanted to see what the pathetic side of the man who raised his voice at her looked like.

"W- Why doesn't your husband *Hic* know about what you tried to do to me in your bedroom?"

Finn asked what he was curious about while she was strapping him to the helicopter seat.

"Hmm? Oh… Let's just say that not every maid works for him. Some work only for me."

She winked at him and got off.

At that point, Finn was too drunk to show a reaction, so when he heard the helicopter rotors start spinning, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

---

Upon waking up, Finn didn't have a headache, but he was really tired, like he hadn't slept for at least a week.

Looking around, he noticed that he was in his bed.

Loki then replayed the memories for Finn, and he knew what had happened after he had gotten drunk, but he didn't know what had happened after he had fallen asleep in the helicopter.

So he slowly got up and walked downstairs, where his mom was making breakfast.

'How long was I out for?'

He wondered, but he had no way of knowing. Not even Loki knew because he wasn't able to spy on Finn's surroundings when he was asleep.

"Good morning, mom."

Finn said as he walked into the kitchen, which made Helen turn around and look at him.

"I am happy that you have helped your father, and I want to hug you for that, but you know what you have done wrong, right?"

She immediately frowned and looked at Finn with an angry expression.

"…I got drunk and then arrived home completely knocked out?"

SLAP

Finn felt his mom's hand slap his shoulder.

"That's for drinking alcohol, and this is for doing your best to help your parents."

She then hugged him, and Finn suddenly felt really bad for being swept up in the moment and deciding to drink with Jonathan.

"I am sorry, mom."

"Hmph! If you are sorry, then help me with breakfast!"

"Okay."

After that, they continued making breakfast, and soon even Josh woke up and came down the stairs.

"Hey dad."

Finn turned around to greet his dad, but as soon as he did, he received another hug.

"Thanks champ. I am sure your mom had already scolded you, so I won't, and thanks to you, I received multiple offers for new jobs."

"Thanks to me? You know already?"

Confused, Finn asked because he knew that he wasn't the one who had told his dad the good news.

"Yeah, the suited guy who brought you back told me everything."

'Ahh… probably a bodyguard.'

Finn thought, and after they stopped hugging, they all went to sit down and eat.

"All of these offers are allowing me to work from home, so I will have a lot more free time now."

Josh kept smiling because he was not only glad that his unfortunate situation was fixed, but also because he was proud of his son that had helped him.

"That's great, dad."

Finn was genuinely happy for his father because he believed that he truly deserved all the good things that came his way.

"Also, our capsules have already arrived, so we wanted to ask you to help us in Second Life."

"Sure!"

Now that his parents were entering Second Life, Finn could help them so that they could enjoy playing the game.

---

After breakfast, Finn told his parents to take a carriage to the city of Iliados once they entered the game, and as soon as they arrived there, they should message him, and he would meet up with them.

He then also noticed that he had a new message from Sophie, so he opened it to see what she wrote.

[Sophie]: Did you get home safely?

'Oh, she must be worried about me! She probably typed this with her expressionless face, but with a little imagination, I can change it into a worried face.'

Finn imagined Sophie being worried about him and taking a long time to write this one message, when in reality it probably only took her a minute to write.

After imagining her worried face, he quickly began typing a reply to her message.

[Finn]: Yes! Thank you for worrying about me! We already agreed to talk in Second Life, so do you want to meet up in the usual bar right now? :D

He sent the message and waited.

Seconds later, his phone showed that his message had been read, and Sophie began typing her reply.

[Sophie is typing…]

The time she took to type out her message was around five minutes, so Finn thought that she was typing a long message where she would write her heartfelt words about wanting to meet him. But alas.

[Sophie]: Ok

'Five minutes for two letters?!'

Finn dramatically fell to his knees when he saw Sophie's message. He expected a lot of things, but getting an okay was not one of them.

Nevertheless, he didn't want to keep her waiting, so he immediately logged in.

He was worried that he would end up logging into the game and appearing inside the space where he had met the three gods, but luckily for him, he was on a road where he had accepted the tournament invitation.

Finn also noticed that there were no more messages from the other gods, so he guessed that the three powerful gods, whom he had met before, had pressured everyone to stay silent and watch him without trying to coerce him into picking them.

Not that he really cared about the gods anyway. He felt like he was streaming his gameplay to them, but he couldn't see the chat or the view count.

He also didn't plan to change how he played Second Life just because someone would now be watching him since Loki was watching him 24/7 anyway.

So after logging in, Finn ran to the bar because it was close by, but he had to wear a hood and awkwardly cover his face with his hand because he had become even more popular after the tournament.

'I need a new mask…'

His mask that WhiteTiger had broken in the tournament dissapeared, and he didn't have an extra one.

Soon he arrived in front of the bar, and after entering, he noticed that Sophie was already sitting down while sipping on lemonade.

He walked up to her table, which only had one seat left, and asked from behind her.

"Is this seat taken, miss?"

"Yes, piss off."

Without turning around, she answered, and Finn was surprised to hear that Sophie could also curse at people.

"Umm… Sophie, it's me. Finn."

She turned around and looked up and down, measuring Finn with her gaze.

"Then why did you ask?"

Sophie slightly raised one of her eyebrows in confusion.

"…Never mind, forget it."

"Weirdo."

Finn then sat down, not bothering to explain the joke that he tried to pull lest he made the atmosphere even more awkward.

"Sophie, I wanted to tell you something important."

Instead, he began talking about the main reason he had invited Sophie into the bar.

"Hmm."

She nodded, and Finn wanted to joke again by saying, "Actually… I'm pregnant!" but he was scared that the joke would miss again, so he didn't say it out loud.

"I want to create a guild, and I want you to be the vice leader of it. It's the position that is second only to the guild master."

He smiled while looking at Sophie.

"Actually, I would love to make you a guild master too so that we could both be guild masters, but that is against the rules, so I want you to be the vice leader."

She didn't answer immediately and took a second to think.

And after thinking about it for a bit, she opened her mouth.

"You know that I was promised the guild master position in my father's guild, right?"

"Yes."

"And even so, you are still trying to recruit me?"

"Yes, I am."

Finn firmly nodded, determined to have Sophie in his guild.

In the past, Sophie wouldn't even respond to Finn and would just turn around to leave, but now that she was dating him, she wanted to change her mindset so it would become more human-like.

And one of the things humans liked to do was taking a step into the dark without knowing the outcome of it.

Something that was called a "risk" and it was a decision not based on logic but completely based on emotions, which was something new to Sophie that she had never done before.

"…Alright, I will help you create a guild."

And so, after a few seconds of thinking, Sophie shut off all the thoughts in her head that were telling her to take the logical decision and decided to take a step forward into the unknown.

Sometimes taking a risk and not going the predetermined route would become the best decision one could have made.

And for Sophie, it was this decision right here.