It hurts…

  It hurts so much…

  I can’t go on much longer… I need to get lovey-dovey with someone as soon as possible!

  I’ve been thinking about nothing but what I’ve learned at the Pilr of Silver, and I can’t stand it anymore! Our world is merging with the other world, and there is someone trying to close off the portals? What does that mean? The other world will become fictional again, and I’ll lose Ririna! No way… I can’t allow that, but… But! It’s too much! I can’t think about that anymore. It’s not like that’s going to happen tomorrow or anything. I need to take a day off and regain some energy.

  Well, finding someone to be lovey-dovey with shouldn’t be that hard, right? With three girlfriends, I’m sure one of them is up for some fun. If I were to ask Carol… Well… She’s gonna call me an idiot and tell me to stop acting like a perv…

  Asking Hecate… I guess it could work… She’d probably be happy to spend all day pying with my hair… It’s not that it doesn’t sound nice, but… I want a little more than that.

  Well, Ririna it is. Now, all that’s left is to find a way to meet her.

  “Done with breakfast yet?” Katja asked. “Are you going to school today?” I spent the night at the House, and we all ate breakfast together. Some of us had already finished, and there was some movement between the table and sink.

  “Uhmm… I think I’m skipping today.”

  “Oh really? Do you need more time to recover? I didn’t think you’d be that tired. The flower must have taken a bigger toll on you than I thought.” Katja was the one who finished eating first, and she was sitting across from me, just hanging out.

  “That’s not it. I’m not feeling tired anymore. I just have something to do, so I’m thinking about skipping today.”

  “Hmm… Alright. I trust you know what you’re doing, so I won’t say much. Don’t get yourself into trouble, okay?”

  “Of course not. I just finished, so I’ll be going out for a while. See you ter.” Katja smiled as a goodbye. I took my things to the kitchen, then left the dorm.

  Ah… Ririna… I can feel the other world calling for me… Ririna, Ririna, Ririna! Wait for me! “Geeh!!”

  “Where do you think you’re going?” I was about to run off into the woods when my clothes strangled me. Carol grabbed my colr and stopped me from going anywhere.

  “Ahahaha… What was that for, Carol? I was… Uhh… Just going for a walk?” She let go of my colr, and I turned around.

  “Ah yes… Wearing your battle dress and with your sword in hand. Liar!” Carol crossed her arms and gave me a hostile look. To be honest, I may or may not have sneaked around the dorm to change clothes before leaving. I didn’t want anyone to know where I was going, but I needed to be prepared for the other world.

  “Okay, okay… I’ll confess… I wanted to see Ririna…” I hung my head, hoping she would take pity on me.

  “Ehh…? You were going to meet her without saying anything… You’d do that behind our backs… huh?” Carol looked at me with a look of disgust.

  “Sorry… I didn’t mean anything bad by it.” What should I do? “Well, wanna come along? You won’t have reason to compin then.”

  “I’m obviously not letting you meet Ririna alone, but that’s not it, you idiot.” She sighed. “You haven’t even properly told me what happened yesterday. Katja told us you succeeded, but you’re acting a bit strange. Did anything else happen?

  “Did anything else happen? Ahahahahah…” Don’t even remind me… “Not much really… I just talked to a godlike being who seemed to know what’s happening to our world. That’s about it.”

  “Wait, seriously? Did you learn something useful? Tell me about it.” We made a pact to uncover the mysteries of this phenomenon, so of course Carol was interested. That didn’t mean she was gonna cut me any sck, though. “But drop the sarcasm first. It doesn’t fit you.”

  “Right… Well, let me give you a rundown…” I told Carol what I learned yesterday. I told her how our worlds are like two different dimensions separated by some kind of boundary and that the portals are tears in that boundary. Among other things.

  “That’s quite a lot… So the fact that portals are becoming more frequent is because the two worlds are getting closer… That’s troubling… At least now we have a confirmation that the problem is, in fact, in that demon territory. That was already our goal, and I don’t think this changes that.”

  “Yeah… You’re right, but I don’t wanna think about that now. Are you ready to leave? I’d like to see Ririna soon…” I turned around to start walking, but Carol reached for my colr again.

  “Wait… What are you gonna do about Hecate? I don’t really care if you wanna ignore her and she breaks up with you because of that, but are you fine with that?”

  Hecate… I haven’t had the time to properly talk with her since we started dating… I also promised her that one thing… “I’ve decided. Let’s have Hecate meet Ririna today!”

  “Huh?!” Carol was shocked, then shook her head, dumbfounded. “How’s that supposed to happen? Are you stupid? There’s no way for them to meet.”

  “Why not? You’re the one who’s not thinking things through. Now that I’m dating her, I don’t wanna keep any more secrets from Hecate. Why don’t we just tell her everything and have her come with us?”

  “A- are you crazy?! This is Hecate we’re talking about! Do you think she’s just gonna hear you and go, ‘Oh, cool, I believe you,’ like I did? It’s not gonna be that easy, you know?” Yeah right… Like you went, ‘Oh, cool, I believe you.’ It wasn’t easy getting you on board either.

  “Even if it’s not easy, it’s still something I have to do… I want our retionship to succeed, so I don’t wanna lie to her when I don’t need to.”

  …

  “So yeah, the portals are actually connecting to another world. The two worlds are going to merge, and it’s going to be a catastrophe if they do. The only way to stop it is to go into the other world. Oh, and my strength is because of the VISS Driver I mentioned earlier.”

  We found Hecate alone in the kitchen, washing the dishes. She wiped her hands and turned around with a complicated look on her face. “You know, Iroha, if someone heard you say all that without context, they’d think you were insane.”

  “I know… Obviously… I’m just summing up what I told you.”

  Hecate closed her eyes and thought in silence for a moment. “See, Iroha? I told you she wouldn’t understand!” Carol compined, afraid that Hecate was gonna snap…

  “I can’t believe that’s the secret you’ve been keeping this whole time… How dreadful…” Hecate let out a sigh. “Sorry, Iroha. I feel bad for pressuring you so much now. I had no idea you were shouldering such a burden…”

  “N- no way! Hecate’s apologizing?!” Carol almost fell back in shock.

  “As is only natural. You’re making it sound like I’m some kind of monster who’s incapable of apologizing.” I nodded my head while looking at Carol. We’ve had our ups and downs, but Hecate has always apologized when she went too far. “What Iroha just told me is too much for one person to handle. It’s no wonder she wasn’t able to express herself. Such stress might ruin her hair. There was no need for me to pile on more.”

  “H- her hair?” Carol tilted her head and looked to me for an expnation. Sorry, we’re brushing over that.

  “Anyway, Hecate, can you come with us? I want you to meet my third girlfriend like I promised. Wait, technically she was the first one…”

  “Huh?!” Carol took a step closer and forgot her previous worries. “Ririna’s the first? Is that some kind of joke? I’m your number one, isn’t that right?”

  No? I didn’t mean first as in number one… You’re all equal… The hell am I even supposed to say?

  “Don’t say things like that, Carol. No one wins when people start pying favorites.” Carol looked at Hecate. She didn’t really buy it, but let it slide. “But do you really want to enter one of those portals? I can’t really believe they really connect to a different world… You said it’s the world of a video game, but it’s not a game anymore, right? How confusing…”

  “I don’t know a better way to say it. It’s the same world as the world used in a certain video game, but it’s not like we’re going inside of a game or anything.”

  “I understood that part… I’m just a bit worried about what to expect.” Hecate hugged her arm.

  “It’s fine, it’s fine. We’re going together so nothing bad is gonna happen. It’s a completely different world, you know? Aren’t you at least a bit curious? Doesn’t it sound kinda fun?” I tried to convince Hecate and exchanged gnces with Carol. Fun… fun for us to see her reactions, right? Can’t wait.

  “Well then… I suppose I’ll let you lead the way.”

  “Nice! Let’s go! I promise you won’t regret it!”

  Bam100