It has been more than half a month since Riel had his first visitors in a while. Runa & Luna had already visited him thrice in the span of two weeks but Riel didn’t have any qualms about it because the twins seemed to be taking his words to heart. That said, he didn’t really know when they might come and interrupt his peaceful, but colorless life again.
In the last few days that had passed, Riel did nothing but sit in front of his computer just writing stories until his brain gets busted.
“I feel unnaturally motivated these days… But this is nice. If I can push out quality contents fast, I might get more money out of the idiots who devours my sh*t.”
And so, he continued writing for a couple of hours without break. He failed to realize that lunch-time had already passed and that it was already one o’clock in the afternoon. He had already bought a fried chicken from a nearby convenience store since the morning, but he still hadn’t felt the need to eat as he was fully focused on writing.
**iel…**
“Hmm? Did I just hear my name?”
He felt like he heard his name just now, but the voice was too weak for him to verify. He decided to ignore it for about ten minutes until
[Bang, bang, BAng, bang]
Someone was banging at the front door.
“Wha?! Who’s that insolent human who dares disturb the peace and tranquil of the Almighty Riel?!”
The man who arrogantly declared himself “almighty” hastily ran towards the front door, but he needed to prepare his heart and mind for whatever might happen. It took him a few seconds to gather the strength to open the door.
“Wha?! It’s…!”
What appeared in front of him was the familiar face of the twins. Except only one of the twins was present. He didn’t utter a name because he still wasn’t sure who of the two it was that had been calling out to him, but he felt the need to point out something.
“Tsch, Do you really need to be that violent? You could’ve just pressed the doorbell.”
“S-sorry… You couldn’t hear me, a-and.. I didn’t notice there was a doorbell...”
The girl who wore flushed cheeks accompanied by clumsy, fidgety movements offered her meek apology to the resident of the house. Riel could only scratch his head while saying,
“It can’t be helped. Next time just press the bell and I’ll come rushing, Okay?”
At that point, he had already figured out who his visitor was.
[I see. This must be Luna. Well, I gotta take care of her. Unlike that barbaric Runa, Luna is an angel.]
He offered Luna a sit, but since he wasn’t done with what he needed to do yet, he decided to have Luna wait.
“Sorry, but I’m still not done with my stuff. Is it alright if I make you wait for a bit?”
Luna nodded in agreement and with the smile of an angel,
“It’s alright… I’m fine.”
“I’ll leave the door to my room open. If you need anything, just poke me.”
Riel went back to his room, leaving Luna alone in the living room. It just so happens that Riel’s sister wasn’t home at the time, so he worried that Luna might feel too lonely and bored.
[If sis is here, she could entertain Luna.]
He gave himself a double slap on his cheeks the moment he noticed that his thoughts were beginning to wander.
[Sigh. Just a little more and I’ll finish the chapter. My damn web editor can’t wait any longer. This arc is finally ending, after all.]
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
He once again sat down on his chair and began typing at a rate of 100 WPM.
[It’s a good thing I have a clear image of what I really want to write this time around. Finishing this should be a piece of cake.]
It took him more or less thirty minutes to finish what he needed to write and another minute to send the draft to his editor. All that was left was for him to eat and then he would be able to come back to Luna but...
Without him realizing, Luna had already moved out of her initial position and was slowly beginning to explore the nooks and crannies of the house. Luna wasn’t wearing anything on her feet, so her footsteps were rather unnoticeable to the clueless Riel. A little bit later, she finally arrived at the door to Riel’s room.
[Peek, Peek!]
She peeked at the small gap on the opened door. She didn’t know if it was alright to interrupt him
[I hope… I’m not troubling him..]
Slowly, she entered the room without making a sound. Riel was still in front of his computer because his editor was confirming something.
[Just hurry up already dumbass! I want to eat!]
Without the knowledge that someone was behind him,
[Poke, poke]
“UWAAaaH!!”
“Hiyaa!”
Luna’s poke on Riel’s shoulders sent jolts to his whole body. His heart that was resting just then got shocked. Luna also got taken aback by Riel’s sudden reaction because she didn’t expect that he would be that surprised.
“What, it’s just you. Sigh, I did say to poke me, but I didn’t say you can go be a ninja on me. Don’t surprise me like that next time. I nearly threw up my heart. I thought I was gonna die.”
“S-sorry!!”
“It’s fine. So, did you need something?”
“Umm… Not.. really.. I just got…”
“You just got what?”
“Hhnnnnn…!”
Luna couldn’t say what she wanted to say, but Riel already had an idea.
[She must have gotten bored...]
“Luna, I’ll have you wait just a bit more. I just need to eat. I haven’t yet since I woke up. You can stay here if you like.”
Luna nodded. She wanted to give a remark, but it won’t escape her mouth. Her words remained caged on her mind.
[I wish you would take better care of yourself....]
Riel began eating while Luna, on the other hand, continued to worry about Riel’s lack of self-love. After all, Riel seemed to have taken neither a bath nor even just wash his face. His bedhead stuck out like a sore thumb, and he hadn’t eaten anything since he woke up. She wondered if he ever gets sick, or if his body had already gotten used to that kind of lifestyle, just as Riel’s mind and heart were used to pain.
[W-what is he doing??]
Finally, Luna noticed the fact that Riel had been fiddling with his phone as he ate. Her mouth opened in an “O” shape with what she saw.
“You also play Brave Summoner 2?!”
Luna’s sudden shouting surprised Riel yet again. After all, he wouldn’t really expect Luna to be like that especially upon seeing the game that he was playing.
“Don’t tell me you also…”
Luna nodded. It was a really surprising development for Riel. To think that somebody else near him would be playing the same game as him, not to mention the game didn’t have a global server. He couldn’t help but ask,
“You wouldn’t happen to understand Japanese, would you?”
“Umm… I just use.. Googal translate..”
“Right. Same here. I’m curious, is it possible for you to show me your account?”
“Y-yep.. But, I want to see yours, too.”
“hand me your phone. I’ll lend you my Wi-Fi.”
The two exchanged phones at the moment and the first thing that Riel noticed on Luna’s phone was obviously its wallpaper.
[The sisters really love each other. Hehe.]
Yes, it was a picture of the sisters where the one at the front was doing a peace sign, while the other is hugging her sister from behind and is smiling shyly.
[Haha, the one hugging the other is definitely Luna. The one doing the peace sign is Runa.]
He didn’t want to be mistaken for a weirdo, so he kept himself together and decided to quickly type the Wi-Fi password for Luna.
“There! I’ll open your app now.”
Luna nodded while she remained busy checking Riel’s squad.
“You like dark?”
Asked Luna upon noticing that Riel’s squad is a mono-element comprising only of dark element units.
“Yep. But the real reason I went mono dark is honestly just because of the nostalgia.”
“Nostalgia??”
“Yeah. I played the first brave summoner and I wanted to use my favorite units from the original game. That’s why I went mono dark in Brave Summoner 2. I’m lucky that they are all useful in the sequel. On top of that, there’s no gacha here. I can get whoever I want. As you can see, I use Alice, Elza, Zephyr, Feevus, and Lunaris.”
“How long..?”
“Hmm?”
“How long have you been… playing?”
“Ahh! I played the sequel only three months ago. I’ve already caught up though. I subscribed to VIP and would buy $25 worth of gems on a monthly basis.”
After that, Luna’s phone had fully loaded the game.
“Ohh! You’re using mono-light?!”
To Riel’s surprise, Luna is using the complete opposite of his squad. Both elements are strong but also weak to each other. From the beginning, Riel didn’t have any clue as to why the game’s element chart looked incomplete, but he wrote it off as **the developers ran out of ideas. The end.**
“Y-yep. I want to be the light… That will give hope to everyone..”
Riel didn’t know the exact meaning behind Luna’s words, but one thing was for sure. Luna had a fulfilled and satisfied expression.
“But you know, we mono-users are often discriminated against. They say mono-squads aren’t really necessary anymore and that we are inefficient.”
Said Riel, but Luna didn’t want to agree.
“Even if they say that..! I want to live my life as me. I don’t want to…”
She hesitated for a moment but resumed anyway.
“I don’t want to be a slave who only knows how to follow the crowd. I…. I want to go against the flow! To find my own path… I don’t mind if I’m discriminated against.”
She wore the face of someone who had resolved herself. Her hands tightly gripped, one could easily see the fires of determination that was flowing deep within the quiet and reserved Luna. Riel couldn’t help but giggle.
“Haha… Well, we both finished every content that is currently available in the game. That just proves that we can do just fine even if our choices are completely removed from the rest.”
For the first time in a very long time, Riel felt like he gained a comrade. He felt a force that was connecting him with Luna. For the first time in a while, he wanted to remember. He didn’t want to forget that moment when he and Luna alone spent their time together.
The two experimented on each other’s accounts after Riel had finished his food. Luna got to go home by five in the afternoon, essentially creating three hours worth of memory together with Riel.