“Careful now, Ririna. We’ll have to sneak around soon.” I held Ririna’s hand for support as we passed through the portal. Seeing a portal for the first time surprised her, but even then, she reacted way better than Hecate.

  “Sneak around? Are we not allowed to be here?” Ririna looked around as the four of us stopped near the portal.

  “Believe it or not, we’re in someone’s backyard right now. There’s a building nearby with the rest of our allies, but they don’t know about your world. We have to keep you a secret from them for now.”

  “I see… Alright… I’ll try not to be too loud.” Ririna nodded.

  “Let’s go then.” I said to everyone. “First thing we need is a new set of clothes.”

  We walked through the forest toward the dorms, and Ririna followed closely behind. “Good call, Ririna would stick out like a sore thumb walking around with that.” Carol looked over her shoulder at Ririna.

  “Really? Do my clothes stand out that much?” Ririna asked, touching the leather jacket she was wearing and her red potion pouch.

  “I mean…” She looks like a cospyer. “It wouldn’t give your identity away, but you’d get all sorts of weird looks. It’s better if you change first.”

  “Fine by me, but… I thought I looked pretty normal… The clothes you wear are fine in our world… It’s a bit skimpy, but it’s not weird.”

  “Skimpy…?” Suddenly, my face goes red with shame. How can she deliver such a devastating blow so casually? “Wh- what about you, huh?” I pointed at her. “Your skirt is super short, and you show off your legs all the time too! Isn’t that skimpier?”

  “Wait, did that upset you?” Ririna was surprised and sorry. “I didn’t mean it like that, okay? I wasn’t trying to criticize you…”

  “That’s right, Iroha…” Carol spoke up with a tired voice, like this was barely worth her time. “Did you forget who’s here with you? Do you seriously think any of us here dislike the way you dress?” Eh? Is that a compliment?

  “Love is blind, as they say. No matter what you wore, I’m sure you’d look great. Even if you happened to be covered in blood.” Hecate nodded confidently.

  “Great… Now you’re making me embarrassed for different reasons…” Turns out showering others with love is easier than being showered… Who knew…?

  “Also, calling your dress skimpy is just Ririna’s opinion. If she sees you that way, that’s because that’s what her perverted mind focuses on.”

  “Hey! Now you’re putting words in my mouth!” Ririna’s looking at me that way? “Iroha, why are you looking at me that way? It’s not like that, okay? I’m not a pervert, I swear!”

  …

  After a conversation that turned half our group into tomatoes, the dorm was finally in sight. We peeked in through some bushes, pnning our approach.

  “Oh, I left the window to my room open… I think we can enter through there undetected. I can carry Ririna with me.”

  “That should work… Doesn’t seem like Narumi or Katja are around, so go for it. Me and Hecate will stay here in case they show up.”

  “Wow! Your room is in that building? Is that supposed to be a house? It looks so strange… Are all houses like that in your world?!”

  “A little louder, and you would have lost the bet right away. What happened to not being easily impressed?” Carol grinned at Ririna.

  “Shut up! I would never freak out over a building!” Even though it wasn’t that far… “I just didn’t expect houses would look so different in your world… Sorry for making some noise, Iroha.”

  “It’s alright… It wasn’t loud enough for anyone to spot us. Are you ready?” Ririna nodded. “Come with me. Let’s get closer first.” We kept our heads low and approached the window. Once we were close enough, I swept her off her feet and carried her in my arms.

  “Ah!” She gasped, then I jumped to the window with Agility Burst.

  “We’re here.” I bent over and let her down.

  “Ahahaha… That got my heart racing…” Ririna fanned herself with her hand. “Is this your room? Our worlds really are different… It’s so simple, yet I see so many things I don’t understand.” Furniture isn’t really exclusive to us, so she’s probably referring to the mp on the desk and other things like that.

  “This isn’t really my room. It’s my room, but it’s not my main room. Carol and Hecate’s group lent me this room, but I have a different pce where I actually live. That’s why I don’t have a lot here.”

  “Hmm… Is that so?” Ririna took a look around with a smile on her face. She was clearly enjoying the novelty.

  “Now, what are we gonna do for clothes?” I just stay here sometimes, so I don’t have a lot of them here. I got my uniform from yesterday, and for Ririna… Hmm… This should do, but… we should get her something else ter. “Here!”

  It was a bit embarrassing, so we turned our backs to each other while changing. “Done! What do you think?” Ririna held out her arms and spun to show off her clothes. She was wearing a simple white t-shirt with denim pants. It was simple but looked surprisingly fresh on her. There was only one problem.

  “It looks great, but you gotta take all of those belts off.” After changing, she put on the pouch and her other belts carrying her alchemy stuff. Sorry, but that’s not going anywhere.

  “No, Iroha! You can’t!” Ririna resisted when I tried to take them off. “An alchemist can’t go outside without her tools! It’s not right!” Sorry, no can do. You’ll have to leave these here.

  “There. Much better!”

  “You’re so mean… Iroha…” Ririna whimpered while looking at her things spyed across the bed. “Is that what you wore when we first met? Now that I’m thinking about it, I think there was an academy in Azcester that used simir clothes as a uniform.”

  “Well, this is a school uniform.”

  “Wait, you’re a student? I thought your job was to fight monsters.”

  “It’s both, actually. Here, everyone our age is a student by default.”

  “Oh, oh… Really? How does that work?” I’ll tell you ter. For now, we shouldn’t linger longer than we have to.

  …

  I carried Ririna again and took her outside. We met up with the others and then sneaked out of the House together. We didn’t want Katja or Narumi to spot us, so we cleared the area as fast as we could.

  We walked with Ririna between us, whose head didn’t stop moving. The feeling of the surfaces she walked on, the shapes and colors of the city surrounding her, the noise… Everything caught her attention. We answered a lot of her questions, and after walking on the sidewalk for a while, it finally happened.

  “Huh? What’s that sound? I- is that an enemy? Woah!” A car whizzed past us. Not extraordinarily fast, but enough to scare Ririna, cause her to jump back, and nd on her butt.

  “Ha ha! You’re out!” Carol grinned while pointing down at her. “I told you you wouldn’t st long before freaking out. Now you owe me a kiss, Iroha!”

  “Yeah… Ahahahaha! That was a pretty big reaction. Are you alright, Ririna?” I extended a hand to help her get up.

  “Grrr… That was unfair! What the hell was that? Did you set that up?” Ririna clenched her teeth while looking at Carol.

  “No… That was just a car, Ririna… It’s not the kind of thing Carol could set up. They’re just out on the streets like that.”

  “Wait… That’s it? The things you said were everywhere? They’re huge!”

  “You say that, but aren’t carriages bigger? They’re practically the same, except cars are faster.”

  “I guess you’re right… Cars are not alive, right? If that’s the case, it’s incredible that they can do the same as a carriage with that size… How did the people of your world come up with something like that? I’m really curious to see how they work…” Is she thinking about her alchemy? Our world must be a goldmine of ideas for her. “But why do you need so many of them? Can’t you just walk?”

  “Not always… Sometimes things are too far away to walk. That’s when the cars come in.”

  “Why don’t you just fast-travel at that point?” Ririna tilted her head innocently. How hopelessly spoiled their world is. They can fast-travel everywhere and never learned the pains of travel.

  “Fufufu… You’re about to glimpse the hell we live in, Ririna.” Hecate smiled, predicting the shock to come.

  “Hell?”

  “That’s right, Ririna.” I continued. “In our world, there’s no fast-travel!”

  “No… Fast… *Gasp!*” Her hand covered her surprised mouth. “What? Are you serious? How do you people go to other cities? What if you need to buy something in another pce? What about work?”

  “It’s hell… Just like Hecate said, pure hell. Anytime you wanna go somewhere, you gotta sit in the car and do the whole trip. Every. Single. Time!”

  Most people from her world only went on long trips a handful of times in their lives. They know how hard it can be, so it’s easy for her to imagine what life would be like without fast-travel. “Th- that’s sounds like hell…” Just imagining it was enough to make Ririna sad.

  “Right?”

  “How does anyone survive in this world? Not being able to go to a different city is hard, but what about things? How do you get anything? You probably can’t even get half of the things you need to survive…”

  “For that we have these things called trucks… They’re kinda like big cars that just transport things, and there are always tons of them moving around back and forth. Transporting things from one pce to the other and keeping everything stocked up everywhere.”

  “I can’t even imagine how many carriages that would take us… Are you messing with me? It would take a lot of them… Is that even possible? Seems so inefficient…”

  “It’s possible, and it’s just as bad as you think. It’s not like anyone knows exactly how many trucks there are, but they exist.”

  “*Sigh…*” Ririna dropped her shoulders. “I don’t want to offend you three, but I’m sorry, your world makes no sense.”

  “Ahahahahah!” We could help but ugh at least a little. “Your world makes no sense to us either… Don’t worry about it.” Ririna smiled again, deciding it wasn’t worth to dwell on it for too long.

  “By the way, Ririna.” Said Carol before we started walking again. “That counts as you freaking out again so that’s a second kiss for me.”

  “Huh? Since when?”

  “Don’t py dumb. You completely lost it after Iroha said we didn’t have fast-travel.” It was true. Ririna had no choice but to clench her fists. She may have already lost, but she can’t let Carol get even more ahead of her.

  “So, where are we going?” We’d been walking this whole time without a goal in mind when Hecate brought it up.

  “First things first, I’d like to get Ririna some proper clothes.”

  “To the mall then?” Carol said, and I nodded back. “Do we walk there, or…?”

  “It’s a bit too far, and we gotta make the time count.” Ririna didn’t really know what was going on as her gaze bounced between us in a haze.

  “Shall we take the bus then?”

  “You think that’s a good idea, Hecate? Ririna will die from shock the moment she takes a foot inside.”

  “…” Ririna only understood what was going on when Carol underestimated her. “No, I won’t! I can handle it… What’s a… bus… again?” That question didn’t inspire any confidence after she acted strong…

  “It’s like a big car that transports lots of people… Like Carol said, it might be too much for you, so we can walk if you want. It will take a little longer, but you have a long day ahead of you. No need to make things harder on yourself.”

  “No, don’t worry about me. I already said I’d be fine. Besides, after talking about it so much, I wanna see what it’s like to travel by car.” Ririna leaned forward, eager to take on the challenge.

  “Okay! We’ll go by bus then. I invited you to learn more about our world, so no point in holding back. Let’s go!”

  Bam100