Three more days passed peacefully. But on the fourth date, things did not go as smoothly. Chocola woke up and went on with her duties, but today things were simply boring. The two nerdy dragons that visited the place days ago kind of set the higher standard for what is "fun," and this day was way below that standard.

A few locals came in, and a character from another anime series Mary recognized. She was excited at first, but the encounter was not as fun as she hoped it would be.

The elf girl was quiet; she said she was adventuring but did not share much of it. She was quite reserved and not really trusting. It was in character for her, and she played her role well. She simply ordered a cup of tea and a croissant and left without leaving any tips.

Chocola sighed. It felt like her fate was teasing her. The day continued. Towards midday, the unpurry thoughts have returned too. She was thinking about the orb. She was happy with her progress, but she was worried it was not quick enough.

She caught herself thinking about those and rushed towards Vanilla.

"Sisnya, this might sound strange, but did anyone ever return here?" She asked worryingly.

"Why?" Vanilla did not answer.

"Well, what if something goes wrong and I am kicked out of here? No goodbye, no hugs, no anything." Chocola lowered her ears.

"Oh, I see. You're not the first one to worry about it, but it is a needless worry. If you're going to get kicked out of here, you will definitely have time to say goodbye. No one ever got kicked out without a good reason. And even if you do get kicked out without a good reason, you will be able to return." Vanilla explained.

"Wait, wait, wait, so it is possible to return?!!?" Chocola's tail jumped excitedly. Vanilla twitched her ears lower, as if she said something that she shouldn't.

"Normally, no. If a person leaves, that's it. But… I suppose I can tell you. Some time ago, there was one mischievous catgirl. She was playing with her sphere. Normally, we are supposed to break it, and the magic will take us back. But she did something else; she used the instructions we received back, you know, putting it into heat and then touching it." Vanilla explained and paused to get some air.

Chocola nodded, waiting for more.

"Sooo, she touched it. The orb exploded into a sphere of light and swallowed the catgirl." She paused again.

"That's how it works, right?"

"No, no. Normally, if you leave, you and the orb simply fade away. This was different. But that's not the point." Vanilla paused to think about the next part. "She was not alone. Another person tried to stop her, and they too got swallowed. Gone."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"So, the two people returned, right?" Chocola was a bit surprised.

"Yes, but for the one who tried to help, it was not her fault. And to make it even more weird, they found the orb. No, no, not the one that was activated, but the one that belonged to the hum… catgirl, I mean. It was such chaos afterwards. People got all kinds of creepy ideas too, like two of them now sharing a single body and things like that. Then the magical girl came and tried to calm everyone down. But even she was very angry and looked very troubled."

Chocola was absolutely curious. It was such a great incident. She remembered reading about it in the research notes, but Vanilla gave her so much more information.

"And what happened next?!" She stared at Vanilla, demanding to know more.

"Well, weeks passed, and finally the missing person walked through the door with the magical girl. Things went back to normal, and we were told to keep everything a secret. Of course, we discussed everything about it five minutes after the magical girl left."

"So what did you figure out?!?" Chocola immediately perked up.

"Nyope, not telling you. But my point is, if something goes wrong and you get kicked out without the fault of your own, you will be brought back free of charge."

Chocola sighed. For two reasons, it was a loud sigh. But she was relieved.

"That does not mean you should be careless, however. If you do get kicked out due to your own fault, bye bye." Vanilla was teased playfully. But her playfulness made Chocola even more relaxed.

Chocola returned to her waitress duties, and the day continued. Chocola still kept thinking about the orb. Vanilla's thoughts confirmed something she and the researcher suspected—a rather 'programmatic' nature to the magic.

In the evening, Chocola asked her sister to walk with her. Vanilla happily agreed, and they went to a forest. They had a quick playful chat, gossiping about customers, but the real reason Chocola came here was to pick up a single cursed mushroom. No, not to eat it, but to study it.

Once home, Chocola held the tiny mushroom in her hands. She focused on it and whispered, "Show me what you do?" to herself. She then simply cleared her mind and let any vision, no matter how weak, creep in. She saw herself as a child. That was what the curse did. But she saw that already, several days ago.

"No, no, I know what you do; I want to know how you work." She whispered to the mushroom and cleared her mind again. Suddenly, another thought came in. It was so colorful and overwhelming, yet so confusing and unknown. A wall of magical text where each letter changed color. She tried to focus on the characters, but an intense sense of confusion and dread popped up too. As if she peeked upon something she should not have had. Something completely unknown, something that she might never understand. Her body froze, and the mushroom fell off her hand.

Chocola took a few seconds to recover. One thing was clear: while she could not read the letters, she did indeed see them before, in a book about magic. It was elven. And this confirmed the theory she had.

While already in bed, another thought popped into her head. Not from the mushroom; she threw it out some time ago; it was her own thought.

"Magic seems to follow the law of physics. And there is one thing common between the two worlds: light. The glass is transparent, so it can let the light through!" Chocola spoke to herself.

"Chocola, stop mumbling and go to sleep." Vanilla gently poked the catgirl beside her.

Chocola went quiet and thought to herself. She realized she knew enough magic to execute her devious plan and soon fell asleep.