Tiana's Apology

It didn't take more than five minutes for everyone that was called to the meeting room to show up.

Jacoby, a tall man who was around twenty-five years old with short finely cut hair, happened to already be in the room doing some management work for the mansion. He liked being busy and many called him a workaholic because of how much work he would take on at once. Most of the time, the only way to get him to take time to rest was for Tiana to take him out on an adventure. Therefore, he was already there before Tiana arrived.

The next one to arrive after Tiana was Chloe. She was a bright energetic woman who looked around twenty, however, as she was an elf, her true age was in the hundreds. She had long platinum blonde hair that was tied up in a bun on the back of her head and liked to wear a cape style dress that was a green color that matched the forests leaves from where she came from.

Both Leala and Miiya happened to show up at the same time as they had been working on something together at the time.

Leala was a dragon who enjoyed human culture and traveled around disguised as one. She currently looked like a young eighteen-year-old women with silky brown hair that reached just past her shoulders. She was currently wearing a simple white garden dress with her favorite flowers printed on it, Snapdragon flowers.

Miiya, on the other hand, was a beast woman of the cat variety, otherwise known as a cat girl. She looked to be around twenty-four years of age with long pitch-black hair and two cute cat ears emerging form the top of her head. She wore an outfit with dark colors that would remind one of what an assassin might wear which happened to be her class. Her tail that was swishing back and forth as she walked to her seat was as pitch black as her hair and ears.

The last to show up was Harley, who happened to be the first one to join Tiana's Familia. He was a brawler type who loved to use metal gloves as a weapon. He had a buff body and wore tight cloths to show off his muscles. He was also a beast man and was a dog type and had drop ear style dog ears hanging from his head.

Harley obviously didn't have his current intimidating physique back when he joined the Familia. Otherwise, the twelve-year-old Jenny from back then would have been too afraid of him. It was through training as a part of the Familia for all these years that he now had his current looks.

These five had been with Tiana since she was still in the area that was heavily populated by players. As they didn't really have any ties to the human controlled cities there, they left with her without a second thought. And, besides two others, these five were the only ones that did come with her.

Seeing that Tiana was sitting in her seat lost in thought, no one said anything ask they came in and sat down themselves, not wanting to disturb her. It wasn't till a few minutes later that she came out of her thoughts on her own.

"Oh, you're all here." Tiana said as looked around the room.

Jacoby who had been working the entire time finally set his brush down and paid attention to the group as well.

"So, what happened yesterday? We missed you, you know? We had to go do that task by ourselves." Chloe asked with a small pout.

"Yes, I'm sorry about that. I called you here for meeting because of what happened. In fact, I should have more to be sorry for." Tiana said in shame as she looked down at the table.

"Oh, what happened?" the naturally curious Leala asked.

"Well, I learned something crazy yesterday that completely changed the way I see this world." Tiana started. "Yesterday, someone that was from this world appeared in my room in my world."

Having been around Tiana for so long they naturally learned things about her such as the fact that she's from another world and that she called herself a player in this world. So, they weren't completely lost when she started explaining.

"This next part is why I feel I need to apologize. Before yesterday, I didn't think any of you were real. I truly believed you were all just NPCs in the game Real Kingdom Online that I play. I seriously thought this whole world was nothing but a game. And for that I must apologize as I now know that isn't the case." Tiana said before standing up and deeply bowing.

All five of them looked at each other and smiled while Tiana was still looking straight at the ground while bowing.

"You know, we all kind of already knew that you didn't think this was a 'real' world." Jacoby started to say. "We have heard you say many things over the years such as 'NPC' and have been able to more or less guess what it means. None of us fault you for thinking this way. In fact, we all would continue to follow you till the last time you visit our world regardless if you had learned we are real beings or not."

"Ay." Everyone else said while nodding.

Tiana lifted her head with tears forming in her eyes. If she had known that her best friends weren't some computer-generated NPCs but real living and breathing people, dragon, and beast men, she probably would have done her best to spend more time in this world.

Seeing the tears in her eyes, all five of her Familia members in the room got up and stared a group hug with her. They couldn't help it. She just looked so cute.

"So, guess it's time I explained what happened." Tina said as she wiped away her tears.

After everyone returned to their seats, Tiana started explain everything that happened the previous day.

"So, there is another world besides yours as well. And it called the world of the gods? Interesting…" Jacoby was the first to say after Tiana finished explaining.

"Wow, learning how the Familia crests and 'Chosen Ones' work is amazing. I had always wondered about it!" Leala then chimed in in excitement.

"And you are planning to help this goddess named Luna save her world? Do we even know if we want to help free these gods?" Chloe asked.

"Hmmm, now that you mention it. I never asked what freeing them would do." Tiana continued. "We can ask them when they get here. They should be here soon."

"Ok, I'll go make sure the preparation for their arrival have been done correctly." Miiya said before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

*Cough cough*

After recovering from the smoke bomb, Tiana complained to the rest because they haven't been able to stop her from doing that yet, forgetting that she hasn't been able to either.

"I mean, we are all used to it by now so what's the harm?" Harley said while shrugging his shoulders.

*sigh*

"I guess…" Tiana replied with a defeated tone.