Explanation, Return to the Clearing

Kirou looked at the now identified female archer with a casual smile on his face. instead of directly answering her question, he told her something else, "Why don't we take a trip back to that clearing for now. After seeing how quickly that bandit leader scrambled to chase after me after I dealt with the ambush party, I'm sure he's probably there waiting for you at the moment. Especially since you never stopped by the village to inform him you were gonna be later or leave him some kind of message."

After saying those words, Kirou took to the treetops and started making his way towards the aforementioned clearing. The female archer narrowed her eyes slightly at his last sentence before following his trail along the ground. Since she no longer needed to track him and she had to move fast, traveling along the ground was the smarter choice for her.

After a few moments of traveling like this, the female archer finally caught up who was taking his time, swinging from treetop to treetop using his wires like makeshift vines or grappling hooks. It seems like he was still practicing his control over them even now.

Upon getting close enough for Kirou to hear, the female archer asked in a loud voice, "How did you know that I never dropped by the village to leave a message? You left the clearing first so that shouldn't have been possible."

Instead of answering her question, Kirou swung to a branch on a large tree, where he stopped and turned to face the female archer beneath him with a casual smile on his face. Seeing that he now had her attention, Kirou pointed to two locations in the forest before continuing with his practice of swinging between the treetops using his wires.

The girl saw this action and was admittedly a bit puzzled at seeing Kirou just point to those two locations instead of answering her. Feeling that it was best that she took a look, the female archer glanced at the two areas, only to receive a surprise. At one of the locations that Kirou pointed to, within the foliage near the ground, a half meter tall demonic spider made its presence known, moving its mandibles as if saying something before it vanished within the foliage once more. As for the other spot, when the female archer took a look, she was greeted to the sight of another Kirou that gave her a nod before it copied the original and started to swing between the treetops using its wires as well.

The female archer just stared at the two beings that had been stalking her for so long disappear within the foliage around her. Right now, her mind was a mess, wondering just how and when she had fallen into Kirou's trap. Just the fact that he had a pet and what appeared to be a doppelganger stalking her from the start sent shivers down her spine as she thought to herself, 'Had I tried to make a move on him while he was busy during those fights, while it isn't likely that he would have been affected much, I would have certainly died a dog's death.'

With that thought in mind, the female archer shook off her confusion and continued to give chase after Kirou, or rather, his pets at the moment since the man himself was far ahead. For now, she had to hurry to that clearing in order to get to the bottom of this.

*******

Roughly fifteen minutes later, near the random forest clearing.

Kirou and the female archer were relatively close to the clearing in which Kirou had been ambushed by the bandit party earlier that day. Seeing that the clearing was in sight, Kirou finally left the treetops and started walking on the floor. As for the female archer, although a bit winded, she finally caught up with Kirou after running for so long. Kirou only had a casual smile on his face, but to the female archer, that was the smile of a devil staring at her.

Taking a few seconds to catch her breath, the female archer finally regained her composure and allowed her body to relax a bit. With her state of mind now returned to normal, the female archer finally spoke up once more, "Now that we are back, would you be so kind as to inform me as to how you realized that I was a female player? Since you've goaded me into stalking you and we've been at this for so long, I believe it's time I received an answer."

At those words, Kirou nodded his head at the female archer slightly before he opened his mouth, "Since we've come this far, I guess I can reveal how I noticed. The player part seems easier so I'll explain that part first. You remember how back when the fight started, I was mainly dodging the attacks from the bandits instead of launching any attacks?"

"Yes, I remember. I also found that a bit strange, considering how you were able to quickly take out the mage so easily afterward," said the female archer.

To this, Kirou nodded slightly before continuing, "At the time, I was verifying whether or not your group was made up of players or actual NPCs. When I received a few attacks from those bandits, I realized that the system's player-kill message never showed up, which I found strange."

"Why did you find that strange?"

"I found it strange because the moment I caught your arrow, the system was swift in delivering a message that I was facing a hostile attack from a player. Maybe it was due to the fact that I never received any damage from you since I caught your arrow mid-flight, but the player-kill message never showed up. That said, unlike when I received a message from the system pertaining to your arrow, I never received on after taking quite a few attacks from those bandits, so I concluded that you were probably the only player present within the group. That said, it probably didn't matter If another one was present since I was set on killing everyone at the time, and having a red name wouldn't really affect me too much." Kirou looked at the female archer with a somewhat sly smile after saying that, prompting the archer to turn her head away and cough into her hand to disperse the awkwardness about being found out like that.

Having cleared up that part of the riddle, the female archer spoke once more, "Ok, I can accept that. Now tell me, how did you figure out that I was a girl?"

To this one, Kirou's sly smile disappeared and his face was now showing a very blank expression as he stared at the female archer. To this, the female archer felt a bit uncomfortable under Kirou's gaze but she stood her ground and managed to stare back at Kirou as well. The staring contest between the two went on for a minute before Kirou spoke up, "That was a complete and utter guess on my part. I never expected you to own up to it like that." Kirou did a slight shrug at the end of his statement

Following those words, the area around the two devolved into an eerie silence. The female archer stared at Kirou with disbelieving eyes, all while Kirou's reflected innocence that stated that he was telling the truth, probably. After a few seconds, the female archer retrieved a knife from her inventory, instantly equipped it, and tried stabbing Kirou in the chest. All while she was doing this, her face took on a shade of red, signifying that she believed his words and was now embarrassed that she admitted to that when there was no proof.

Kirou quickly dodged the archer's attack and took some distance away from her. He even had the gall to have a cheeky smile on his face while he asked, "Hey, what was that for?"

As if now hearing him, the archer lunged at him again, fully intent on stabbing Kirou to death. Her attack was once again dodged, but this time she no longer attacked and instead shouted, "Are you kidding me? You figured out I was a player through combat and then just randomly guessed I was a girl. Are you freaking kidding me???" Having said these words, she lunged at Kirou once more.

This time, instead of dodging, Kirou caught the hand of the archer holding the knife and disarmed her of it. Following this, he pushed her away while taking some distance himself with her dagger in hand. Since he was still under the weapon lock from his class advancement quest, the dagger in his hand was more like a useless stick than an actual weapon. With some distance between them, before the archer could lunge at him once more, Kirou decided to toss the dagger back to her as he spoke up, "Calm down. I'm only joking. I'll explain how I figured it out so no more trying to stab me, or I'll disarm you again."

Having caught the knife, the girl put it back in her inventory before staring directly at Kirou. She had a frosty look in her eyes as she spoke, "Speak. And there better not be any more tricks, or else."

With his hands up in a surrender pose, Kirou spoke up, "Jeez, fine. I'll talk. Why not sue a guy for having some fun." That last part Kirou said under his breath but it was heard by the female archer.

"What was that?" asked the archer in a cold tone, prompting Kirou to take another step back.

"Nothing," said Kirou as he coughed into his hands a few times to clear his throat. Kirou's face once again adopted his casual expression as he spoke, "Fun and jokes aside, figuring out that you were a girl wasn't easy in the slightest. In fact, it wasn't until the very end when you showed yourself that I was truly sure that you were a girl."

"Go on," said the female archer, now more relaxed and less hostile.

"The first thing that caught my attention was your gaze. With how you were watching my every move while we were verifying those coordinates that Bandit Warrior Jack gave us, it reminded me of a girl I know. That said, just cuz your gaze was similar to hers doesn't mean that you would be a girl yourself." Although Kirou said that out loud, there was another thought in his mind, 'Then again, with the kind of passion that you used in the gaze, it was easy for me to notice and compare, allowing me to realize just who you are.'

The female archer looked at Kirou with slightly narrowed eyes but she said nothing as his deduction made some sense, though she doesn't like the fact that he was reminded of another woman because of her gaze. That said, she gave him a nod, signifying that he continues.

Kirou could practically picture the thoughts going through her mind, prompting him to roll his eyes before continuing, "Next came your gear." At this, the girl took a glance at her gear before looked back at Kirou with a confused expression. Upon seeing that expression, Kirou spoke up, "Your armor doesn't match your body. Maybe it's because you're working with bandits or maybe it due to poor luck in farming equipment, but the armor on your body is more suited for males. That isn't to say that females can't wear it, it's just that it becomes obvious to someone who crafts armor whether or not it's a male or female wearing it. Well, there is that and the fact that the robe you wear in order to hide your body's features isn't perfect as there are times when you move that your feminine features are exposed to the light, especially to someone with sharp eyes." As if to prove a point, Kirou was now staring at the female archer's legs, which seemed a bit too shapely to be a man's.

Upon noticing his gaze, the female archer took a glance and noticed that her coat wasn't covering her body fully. She wondered what caused this, only to now realize that this was probably Kirou's intent when he got her to attack him earlier. He had made it so that she would be too agitated to notice that her cloak wasn't covering everything as it should. With the cat out of the bag, the archer no longer cared if her shapely legs could be seen by Kirou or not and instead opted to hear the rest of his explanation, "And what's the last reason? That second reason was more than enough to give me away but you seem like the kind of guy that looks for at least three reasons before you finalize your thoughts on something."

At those words, Kirou nodded before he started making his way towards the clearing. It wasn't far but the duo hadn't made it there yet since they had stopped to have this convo. Seeing Kirou walk towards the clearing, the female archer decided to join him. With the archer now next to him, Kirou spoke up in a casual tone, "It was your silence that put everything in place for me."

Upon hearing this, the female archer tilted her head in confusion as she spoke, "My silence? Please explain."

Kirou kept his gaze ahead as he spoke, "From the very first moment you shot an arrow towards me until you finally asked how I knew you were a player, you've never spoken a single word in my presence. At first, I thought you were mute or just into the role play of being a silent archer, so I never bothered to pay too much attention to it. It was only after Jackson led that squad to retaliate against me that I realized that you had no issues with talking. With that being the case, I thought about why you never talked during the ambush even though you would have probably been the spokesman at the time versus why you wouldn't mind talking to Jackson and his crew. It was during this time that a random thought flashed in my mind and after it entered, it just stuck there. That thought was, 'maybe the reason the archer doesn't talk is so that no one outside of the bandits will realize that the archer is a woman.' As soon as I thought about it, I just noticed how it fits with the second reason perfectly and I decided to roll with it. Then again, even with all this, it wasn't until you showed up at the end that I was absolutely sure."

Having said his piece, Kirou no longer entertained the female archer as he kept quiet while maintaining his casual expression as the duo walked into the forest clearing. As for the female archer, she thought over Kirou's words and could see where he was coming from by following his thought process. Before she could comment on this, however, they both heard a voice as soon as they entered the clearing properly.

"It took you two long enough."