After being busy with Carol and Miyuki in the real world, I returned to Rocky Ridges to find Ririna. My conversation with Miyuki ended up being more productive than expected. I was thinking about sharing some things with Carol, but I didn’t find her in the dorm. I’m not really in a rush to tell her, so I came to the other world looking for Ririna first.
The situation with Miyuki is definitely weird… She actually ended up remembering far more than she initially told me. I wasn’t expecting much when I asked her about portals again, but to think she’d actually remember when I started probing… The portal really did something to her. I guess that means I could have gotten even more out of her. Maybe she would be able to remember why she ended up pushing me into the portal—what kind of force made her do that.
But I don’t need to know that right now. What I really want to know is what the portals are and what caused them to appear in the first place. If there is someone who has that information, it’s not Miyuki, but someone from the world of the game. The portals are a magical phenomenon, so if I want an explanation, I should look for someone in the world where magic exists. That’s my logic, at least. First things first, I need to find Ririna.
Well, it’s not like I’m looking for her to learn more about the portals. In fact, I don’t think I’m ready to ask her about that just yet. My main reason to look for Ririna is to fix the mistake I made… Last time we were together, Ririna might have been on the verge of confessing her love for me… I like her too, obviously… It was such a lucky opportunity, yet I got nervous and ruined everything. I might be getting ahead of myself, but she said she still wanted to talk. I hope I can make it up to her… I’ll definitely hear her out this time, and if she confesses, then today’s the day my life’s gonna change! I’m ready now!
My first stop is the Gathering of Flowers. I have no clue where Ririna could be, but even if she’s not here, Flanne or Sarasa might be. They should be able to tell me where I can find her.
“Strange… No one?” Well, that was bust… Looking in through one of the coffee shop’s windows, the table we usually sat at was completely empty. Not even Flanne was there… Sarasa always joked about how Flanne didn’t do any work, but she was actually quite responsible. It’s true that Flanne had a lot of free time, and since she liked to live her life peacefully, it was easy to mistake that for her being lazy. Either way, she’s not here today. That’s too bad. Both for me and for her.
I left the Gathering of Flowers behind and took a look around town. I didn’t know every nook and cranny of the town, but I had grown familiar enough with all the major locations over my many visits. I didn’t want to bother Flanne while she was at work, so I didn’t go into the barracks. I looked around the town center and waited near the fast-travel station, hoping that one of them would show up. But after more than fifteen minutes, I gave up.
“Damn… I’m not having any luck today…” I went back to the inn and headed for my room. Inns are very cheap in this world, and the smallest currency I had at the time allowed me to rent the room for multiple days. Today’s my last day with the room. I didn’t need to rent it for that long, but now it’s nice to have somewhere to sit down and rest.
“Where is everyone? Flanne is probably working in the barracks, but what about Ririna and Sarasa?” We probably just missed each other… I wonder if this is a common problem in this world. When other people fast-travel a lot, it’s hard to know where they are unless you’re traveling with them. Is Ririna in the capital? She could very well be somewhere in Rocky Ridges, and I just didn’t see her. It’s impossible to know which one is the case. The flipside is that with fast-travel, it’s easy to cover a lot of ground quickly if you’re looking for someone. In ten minutes, I could go to the capital and check if Ririna’s there. But that would require me to be able to fast-travel there, and I would have to have gone there before for that. How do the people of this world usually unlock new locations for fast-travel? I should look into that at some point.
I opened the door to my room and stepped inside. I was tired from all the walking, and I was thinking of taking a nap, when I noticed something on the table. “A letter?” Is it like, a feedback form? Do they do that in this world? Maybe it’s just a reminder to return the key… Or…
“Ririna?” When I grabbed the envelope, the name Ririna Windfiel was written on the front as the sender. No way! She left me a letter? When is this from? I opened the envelope in a hurry and took out the letter inside. Finally! A hint! “What did she say…?”
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“Tsk… Why has my head been hurting?” Do I have a cold? I told Iroha I’d look for information on this side, but I can’t work like this… Dammit. At least Shinji wasn’t here today. I managed to look at some of his documents without him asking any questions. I didn’t learn anything, but maybe I can get something out of him when I talk to him now.
“Grhh!” I can’t with this fucking headache… I don’t want to have to take a nap… I should take some medicine, but then Hecate will notice and try to baby me all day. “Tsk… It doesn’t hurt. I can put up with it.” I was heading back to the dorm when I heard a sound coming from the trail that leads into the woods. “Iroha?”
“Carol?” She was walking while looking at the floor, and she only raised her head when she heard my voice.
“What are you doing, Iroha? Since you came from that way, are you just getting back from the other world?”
“Yeah… I- I had something to do there.” Iroha crossed one arm in front of her and grabbed her other shoulder while looking to the side.
“I see… Are you alright? Did you get hurt or something?” She is obviously not hurt, but she’s not acting like herself. Iroha jumped slightly when she heard my question.
“N- no! I’m fine… I’m just a little tired. I ended up walking back and forth a bit too much.” And I’m dumb enough to buy that… Okay… “What about you, Carol? You look like you’re in pain.”
“Sh- shut up! Who gave you permission to look at my face anyway?” Was I really letting it show? I can handle a little headache like this…
“Sorry…”
“Tsk. I’m not mad, you idiot. Just like you, I think I’m also tired. Maybe I caught a cold or something… It doesn’t matter. Did you find any leads on the portals? Spill it.”
“About that… I tried to talk to someone, but I ended up not finding anyone I know… Sorry…”
“Ughh… That’s fine. It’s not something we were gonna solve in a single day anyway.” She’s definitely acting weird… She could just talk to me. Why is she keeping it a secret? Fuck… I guess I’ll have to do something about it. “Iroha, come with me to my room. I have something to show you.”
“H- huh? What did you just say?”
“Stop gawking at me and hurry up.” I made sure Iroha was following me before heading back to my room. She’s being more… normal now…? She’s closer to the level of weirdness she’s usually at. Iroha looked around my room with wonder. That’s embarrassing… I should have hidden some of my plushies… “Who said you could look around? This isn’t a room tour, got it?” If she says anything, they’re just for decoration, nothing more.
“A- alright! What did you want to show me?” Iroha stood up straight and stiffly looked at me.
“Take a look at this.” I sat down on the bed and took off one of my socks.
“Wait! What? What are you doing, Carol?”
What’s she getting embarrassed for? If there’s anyone here who should be getting embarrassed, it’s me, not her! “I’m not messing around, Iroha. Take a look at my ankle. Can you see it too?”
“Your ankle? What wrong with your- Ah…” She sees it too… That’s bad… Around my ankle was a weird bracelet tattoo. It shined with a semi-transparent, white glow before disappearing, like it was never there. “Carol, what was that?”
“I don’t know… I thought I was seeing things, but the fact that you could see it too means it’s real. I first noticed it yesterday, but it always disappears after a few seconds.” I took off my other sock, and there was another bracelet there. The same thing happened. It glowed, then disappeared after a few seconds. No sign that it was ever there was left on my skin. Like a tattoo that turns invisible. “What do you think this is, Iroha? Could it be some kind of magic spell?”
“I- I don’t know… It could be, but I really have no idea. I’ve never even heard of anything like that.” So she doesn’t know anything either… “Have you shown it to anyone else?”
“No? Like, what would I even say? ‘There’s some kind of magical tattoo on my ankle that disappears when you look at it.’ They’d think I’m crazy.”
“Yeah… It’s hard to explain these weird things to others.” You would know. “If it is some kind of magic, it’s probably from when you got lost in the Forest of Illusion… Have you felt any changes? Anything weird?”
“No… I’m fine… I mean, I may have caught a cold. Could that have anything to do with this?” Iroha stared at where the bracelets used to be deep in thought. I’m not particularly interested in listening to her talk, but she could tell me what she’s thinking. “It doesn’t matter, though. It’s just a cold. I’ll be fine.” I put my socks back on and got up from the bed.
“Yeah… I hope so too… Uhmm… Carol, I might have figured something out. About the portals, I mean.” Wow, I actually got her to talk.
“What is it?”
“You know the idea that portals are dangerous? There may be something to it. They’re not dangerous per se, but it’s possible they might interfere with the memories of people nearby.”
“I see… What makes you think that?”
“Well… It’s just something I’ve been thinking about… I noticed some of my memories from the day I first went to the other world were a little fuzzy. I might be wrong, though.”
Another excuse, huh? Well, at least she told me about it. “I’ve never noticed anything like that. And I’m pretty sure none of the other girls have lost any of their memories because of portals. They’ve never gone through any portal, but they’ve gotten close to them before.”
“Hmmm… Maybe it doesn’t happen with every portal? Might be because you’re all strong. Maybe the effect is stronger on weaker people.”
“Shinji has also gotten close before, and he’s also fine. He’s not strong, trust me. He would lose in a fight against the average house cat.”
“Are you serious? Then, strength is not a factor?” Iroha was a little shocked when I told her about Shinji. Whatever theory she had came up with probably just shattered. That’s alright, though. It’s just part of the process. Every bit of information is a step taken towards the truth.