The sharp rap of knuckles against the heavy oak door sliced through the oppressive silence of the room. It was a rhythmic, demanding sound—knock, knock—that felt entirely too grounded for the hour. Night had long since bled across the cobblestone streets of the city, drowning the usual bustle in a sea of ink and shadows. At this time, the inn should have been a tomb of sleeping travelers and dying hearths.

  Rize remained still for a heartbeat, her breath catching in her throat. She exchanged a look with the empty air where she knew the observation was anchored, then moved to the door. When she pulled it open, she found Kaya standing in the dimly lit hallway. Her friend’s face was a mask of sheer bewilderment, the flickering torchlight from the corridor casting deep, uncertain hollows under her eyes.

  "Rize, sorry to wake you, but... there’s a girl outside," Kaya began, her voice a mix of skepticism and a strangely hushed awe. "I’ve never seen anyone like her. She looks like she stepped out of a high-nobility ballroom, silver hair and all. She’s demanding you come out. At this hour? Seriously, who is she?"

  Ice, thin and sharp, slid into Rize’s chest. She didn't need a description. She didn't need a name. The weight of that presence had been hovering at the edge of her senses for days, a pressure that refused to dissipate. Claval’s here.

  "Thanks, Kaya. I’ll handle it." Rize said, her voice sounding far more composed than she felt. She didn't wait for a reply, brushing past her friend and stepping into the cool, damp night air.

  The street was bathed in the sickly pallor of the magic-stone lamps. The light didn't so much illuminate the alley as it did create more jagged shadows to hide in. Standing in the center of the road, looking entirely out of place amidst the grime and weathered stone, was Claval. Her silver hair seemed to catch every stray photon, stirring in a wind that didn't exist, shimmering with an unnatural, curated brilliance. She looked like a diva positioned at the center of a grand stage, her very existence a challenge to the mundane world around her.

  Before Rize could demand an explanation, Claval’s lips curved into a smile. It was a sugary, practiced expression, the kind used for fans and cameras, but as Rize looked closer, she saw the subtle warp at the edges—the raw, jagged edges of someone who was losing her grip on a game she was supposed to be winning.

  "Gooood eveeening, Riiizeee~" Claval sang. The greeting was honeyed, dripping with a condescension that made Rize’s blood simmer.

  "Unfortunately, time is up," Claval continued, her voice hardening. A small, involuntary tic appeared at the corner of her mouth, betraying the frustration boiling beneath the surface. "I’m running on 'National Authority' right now. I used every last second of my King-sanctioned free time just to coordinate this little greeting. I had every intention of bringing him back with me tonight."

  Rize felt the invisible thread between Claval and Yu tighten. The air between the two women grew thick, charged with a static tension that made the hair on Rize’s arms stand up.

  "Well, then..." Claval turned as if to vanish back into the darkness, but then she paused, glancing back over her shoulder. The streetlamp caught the predatory gleam in her eyes. "Next time—I’m taking Yu. Count on it! He belongs in a world of brilliance, not rotting out it!"

  Claval crooked smile, the declaration landed like a physical blow, a curse that hung in the air long after the words were spoken. Rize’s voice died in her parched throat; she could only watch as a shadow coalesced behind Claval— a silent sentinel who had been waiting in the folds of the night. The man stepped to Claval’s side, and a complex, glowing geometric circle ignited at their feet, hissing with the sound of displaced air. In a flash of blinding red light, they were gone.

  The quiet flowed back in, but it wasn't the peace of a resolved conflict. It was a vacuum, humming with the aftershocks of a declaration of war. Rize stood alone in the street, her hands curled into fists so tight her nails drew blood from her palms. She bit her lip until she tasted the metallic tang of iron. That girl... she isn't playing anymore. She’s coming for him.

  A raw, irritation clawed at her insides. Rize turned and stormed back toward the inn, her boots striking the cobblestones with rhythmic fury. She glanced back toward her room—toward the unseen presence of the boy. The thought of Yu, caught in the crosshairs of a monster like Claval, sparked a fuse in her chest that refused to be extinguished.

  ?

  Rize back inn. She leaned against door for a moment, her breath leaking out in rough, uneven gasps. Her shoulders rose and fell as she struggled to pull air into lungs that felt far too small. She wiped her brow with the back of her hand, but the cold sweat wouldn't stop.

  "...Yu." Rize asked. His name shook out of her, a tangled knot of anger, fear, and a possessiveness she didn't know she possessed.

  Inside the room, Yu sat at his desk, his posture stiff, his hands hovering over the wood as if searching for something to hold onto. He looked like he was trying to swallow a stone.

  Next time I’m taking Yu. Count on it. The frost of those words crawled through Rize’s chest, settling in her marrow. Even the act of breathing felt like moving heavy weights. The room felt smaller, the walls closing in as the implications.

  "Why..." Rize voice dropped to a low, dangerous murmur. She didn't look at the frame; she looked at the space where he should have been. "Why do you let your eyes be dragged to a woman like that?"

  "I didn't want this, Rize," Yu said, his voice rasped thin, barely a ghost of its usual self. "I never asked for her to notice me. She came after me on her own—"

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  "On her own!?" Rize cut him off, her voice snapping like a whip. She spun around to face the glowing rectangle of the frame, her eyes flashing with a brilliance that rivaled Claval’s. "Then can you swear it? Can you swear you feel nothing when she looks at you? When she calls your name in front of the whole your world?"

  Yu flinched. The stored-up panic and jealousy in Rize’s chest finally broke, pouring out in a torrent of accusation.

  "Don't lie to me! Don't tell me you aren't going to her! She called you—everyone heard it!? You watched her stream! Are’nt you!?" Rize continued.

  Yu tried to form a denial, a justification, but his throat jammed. The memory of the silver-haired goddess on his screen, the way he had been mesmerized by her sheer, terrifying power—it was a stain he couldn't wash away. The fact that he had watched her stole the strength from his rebuttal. He felt like a traitor in his own skin.

  "No... I... it wasn't like that..." Yu lost his words.

  "Then say it clearly!" Rize stepped toward the desk, leaning over the boundary of the frame, closing the distance until her face was inches from the shimmering veil. "Are you choosing her!? Are you choosing Claval over me!?"

  The words smashed together in the cramped room, the air beginning to tremble with a low-frequency hum. The glow of the frame quivered, the blue light flickering like a dying candle, mirroring, spikes of their emotional state. The hotter their voices ran, the hotter the air in the room became. The frame's light groaned—a literal, mechanical sound of reality being stretched too thin—as the borders began to widen by degrees.

  "Yu...!" Rize called.

  "Rize...!" Yu called too.

  Their calls were no longer conversations; they were shouts, desperate reaches across an impossible chasm. Each swing of the emotional needle, each spike of fury and guilt, made the frame swell. At first, it was just a few more inches of visible space, pushing into the corners of the inn room. Then, it began to shoulder the walls aside, the image of Yu’s bedroom expanding.

  "Why won't you answer me!?" Rize screamed. Her voice hit the frame like a wave, and the light screamed back.

  Yu’s heart was a chaotic storm. He felt a searing fury at his own inability to speak, a crushing guilt for the way he had hurt her, and a strange, terrifying heat swimming at the edge of his vision.

  "You idiot, Yu!" Rize lashed out on unadulterated impulse. Her hand would have slammed into the "wall" of the screen or passed through his image like a ghost through fog. Thud. There was a shock. Rize’s palm didn't hit glass. It hit the fabric of a hoodie. It hit the solid, warm weight of Yu’s chest.

  "...Eh—"

  The world stopped. The humming of the frame, the flickering of the lamps, the sound of the wind—all of it vanished. Across a boundary that every law of physics and magic insisted was uncrossable, a terrifying, beautiful warmth came through.

  Yu’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. On pure reflex, his hand shot up and grabbed her wrist, his fingers sinking into her skin. He pulled, a desperate, instinctive yank, catching Rize as she stumbled forward. Their bodies collided, the impact knocking the air out of them. A searing, synchronized heartbeat overlapped in the center of their chests.

  "...Rize." Yu whispered.

  "Yu..." Rize whispered too.

  For a long moment, their names were the only currency they had. The anger and the jealousy burned off in an instant, swallowed by the impossible, undeniable fact of physical contact. Rize buried her face in his shoulder, her fingers digging into his back, confirming over and over that he was solid. He was real.

  Then, a spike of agony stabbed through Yu’s skull, sharper than a hot needle. —!! White light ruptured his vision, a tearing, grinding pain that felt like his mind was being shredded by a thousand blades. He let out a strangled gasp, his strength vanishing as if a plug had been pulled. He sagged against Rize, his weight becoming a dead pull.

  "Yu!? Hey—stay with me! Yu!" Rize’s voice was frantic.

  The frame began to shriek. It went feral, the edges of the frame rattling the room like an earthquake. Yu’s body slumped heavier in her arms, his skin turning a ghostly, translucent pale. Rize called his name again and again, but there was no answer—only a ragged, shallow breath that sounded like it was being squeezed out of him.

  "...No—I won't let it happen—not like this—" Rize clutched him tight. "Yu—open your eyes! Please!" She shook him, but the response was thin, a mere flutter of his eyelids. When she pressed her palm to his forehead, it felt like she was touching a furnace. It wasn't a fever of the blood; it was the "Magical Recoil" of a human soul being processed by a magic frequency it was never meant to handle.

  If this keeps up... magic will knockout him and Yu will break. A sharp, cold panic speared her chest. There was no time to think, no time to worry about the laws of the world or the consequences of her actions. Rize hugged him close, her face lowered against his neck, the smell of his world—laundry detergent and stale air.

  "...I’m sorry, Yu. I won't hesitate anymore." Rize snapped. She scooped him up like a child. With one final look at the room, she turned and stepped backward, dragging him with her into the heart of the light.ZAP.

  Unstable mana snapped against her skin like a million tiny whips. Her vision reeled as the world turned into a kaleidoscope of screaming color and distorted shapes. Crossing the boundary was harsher than a plunge into sub-zero ice; it was a physical grinding, a bone-deep pressure.

  "—ah—!" Rize cry of pure agony tore loose from her throat, but she didn't Yu let go. She couldn't let go. The warmth in her arms was the only thing that kept her from dissolving into the static. Then, in the span of a heartbeat, the sensation underfoot changed. The swirling vortex vanished. The crushing pressure evaporated. The familiar, slightly uneven wooden floor of the inn was beneath her boots once more. The air was still, smelling of old dust and cold stone.

  At the same time, a deafening roar burst behind her. SLAM. The frame didn't just close; it jammed shut with the force of a tectonic plate shifting. Rize whirled around, her breath coming in ragged stabs. The cool-blue residue of the frame was snuffed out in a single, blink, melting into the shadows of the room. There was no way back. The bridge had been burned.

  Breathing hard, her chest heaving, Rize moved to the bed and laid Yu down with trembling hands. She bent over him, her fingertips brushing the stray hairs from his face, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.

  "...It’s okay," Rize whispered, her voice a fragile promise in the dark. "It’s okay now. I swear I’ll protect you. I won't let anyone take you away." She said it to steady him, but mostly to steady herself. Outside, the night wind slipped through the gaps in the window frame, teasing the thin curtains. Even that mundane sound carried a strange, taut note, a reminder that the world had changed forever.

  Yu was here. The boy from the voice, the boy behind the screen. He was finally, undeniably, in the Isekai world.