Chapter 22- A cousin’s fearsome state

Earlier, in the living room, where Riyoko continued to have a mental breakdown.

Ding* dong*

The door suddenly rang, bringing him back to his senses, "huh? who could that be?"

Riyoko stood up and went toward the door. as he was about to reach for the doorknob, he suddenly paused for thought, "wait a minute… is it ok for me to…"

DING DONG DING DONG DING DONG*

Suddenly, the doorbell rang multiple times, giving Riyoko shivers down his spine as he felt incredibly disturbed.

KNOCK* KNOCK* KNOCK*

Followed by loud consecutive knocks, Riyoko stepped back with a pale expression, "w… what's with this incredibly ominous feeling… Who the hell is standing behind that door!?" he thought.

Suddenly, it went silent.

"I heard your footsteps you know… how long are you going to keep me waiting?" a familiar voice said in a plain and regular tone.

"That voice!"

Hearing the incredibly familiar voice, Riyoko quickly walked back toward the door, feeling relieved.

"Reine! So it's just you! You scared me for a bit there," he said, opening the door.

Opening the door to see her, Riyoko was suddenly struck with shock, stunning him as he looks deep into Reine's blank expression with deep lifeless eyes.

"Why the hell are YOU here…?" Reine asked with an incredibly suspicious tone.

Feeling a strong sense of danger, Riyoko instinctively closed the door without saying a word.

A short silence occurred, making Riyoko realize what he has done, "I'm dead… I don't know why but I feel like I'm…"

Suddenly, the doorknob turned.

"Ah…"

SLAM*

The door was forcefully opened, pushing Riyoko by the wall, sandwiched by the door.

As Reine slowly entered, Riyoko fell to the ground grabbing his head in pain, "ughh…"

Opening his eyes, he was shocked to notice Reine, staring at him deep in the eyes as she crouched in front of him, placing her head near his with their nose barely about to touch.

"Why did you close the door on me…? That's a rude thing to do, you know? Cousin…"

"S… sorry…"

With Riyoko shivering with fear, Reine placed her finger on top of his lips, "let's continue this in the living room while we wait for Arisa…"

Back to the Present…

"R…Reine? Why are you here?" Arisa said, smiling with anxiety, "and what's with this mood…?"

Reine stared deeply at Arisa with her blank expression and deep lifeless eyes, as if she was holding back a strong emotion that was leaking out from within her.

"Hm…? I just felt like passing by so I decided to see if you were here… And to my surprise, Riyoko was the one who opened the door,"

She obviously observed Arisa's whole body, "this is quite unexpected for me you see… I'm quite shocked…"

"Umm… Reine," Arisa said nervously with a faint voice.

"Crap… I think I know where this is going!" she thought, slightly flustered with a mix of fear and nervousness.

"Hey… why did you take him here with you?" Reine said with a cold tone as her voice began to sound deeper, as if the cutesy filter she usually applies to her voice is slowly disappearing, "you bring him over then refreshed yourself with a bath and came out looking all cute and appealing… I certainly didn't expect this from you…"

"Wait! I'm telling you it's not…"

"what the hell are you planning to do with my sweet and innocent cousin, huh!?" she said intimidatingly with large threatening eyes.

"DAMN IT! PLEASE LISTEN!!"

Somehow, with Arisa unexpectedly screaming back at Reine with an incredibly cute and flustered expression, Reine stopped as she let Arisa explain herself. Meanwhile, Riyoko sat still, stiff as a rock in confusion and lasting fear of the situation.

After a short moment…

"I see, so that's what's going on," Reine said, sounding back to normal as her voice completely turned back to being all cutesy.

Arisa covered her face in embarrassment as she blushed so hard it was as if smoke was coming out of her head.

Reine smirked, "Your pride as a woman eh… though I didn't think you would compete with men too…"

"It's because you made him prepare so well!" Arisa complained and began ranting, "and it's not that I was competing! Well… kind of… But that's not the point! I'm a woman, of course, I can't let myself be outdone so much by a man in looking and feeling appealing! I felt so insecure all of the sudden because of the way he dressed!"

"Woah… only a handful of you girls are like that, hardcore girly, aren't you?"

"Says the woman who acts and looks all cutesy all the time!"

Reine smiled with a wink, "Thank you!"

"I didn't mean that as a compliment!"

"Hehe! But good for you, huh? cousin," Reine said, looking at Riyoko, "it seems you can look great if you try!"

"Jeez… yeah, why don't you have some more confidence and dress up a little more. The clothes you had back when we went out with Reine here and the clothes you had when we saw each other in our world weren't really bad… but,"

"They were rather lifeless, huh?" Reine added.

"Yeah, that," they both nodded.

"So have a bit more confidence in yourself,"

"I… Is that so? Thanks," Riyoko said with a small smile.

"Well, it's not that I have no confidence in myself…" Riyoko thought, "it just goes to show how much I don't care about how other people think or think of me… though I did feel good for myself when I saw my reflection in the mirror earlier. Maybe I will dress more decent next time, just for self-satisfaction…"

"Anyway, if you two are already prepared, then I can," Reine raised her hand in a familiar form as if she was about to do something again.

"Wait! Before you teleport us, can I at least dry my hair for a bit?"

"Ehh… how troublesome…" Reine said with an irritated tone.

"Oh come on! Surely you can relate, right!?"

"I prepare myself with magic so I only take quite a short time to fix myself up," she said proudly, putting her hands on her waist while letting out a smug smile.

"Eh!? You got to teach me about that sometime!" Arisa said, grabbing her blow drier as she began drying her hair.

--------------------------------------------------------

Later, inside some sort of massive facility.

The second Arisa finished drying up her hair, Reine quickly teleported them to their designated destination.

"So this is where we're supposed to go?" Riyoko said, observing the area.

Arisa nodded, brushing her hair with a comb she brought from her spatial sack.

"This is where we will take our test as travelers. they will record our magical capacity up to our capabilities once every week, it's not really obligatory, but they are only available once a week so people usually go every week,"

"I see, so that counts to you as well?"

"Not really…"

"Arisa hasn't been here too long. I think it's only been… three months? Right?" Reine said.

Arisa nodded in reply.

"Yeah. the first month, she was eagerly pushing herself and kept coming back every week to test herself, then on the second month she piped down a bit,"

"I was just carried by the momentum back then… I realized how counter-productive and stupid I was back then,"

"You sure adapted and learned quick though, that's why I found you interesting!"

Arisa let out a small smile and averted her gaze, feeling a little shy.

"Anyway. Hearing that, you should take care a little, cousin. No matter what the results of this first test you do are,"

Riyoko nodded, feeling a little more motivated, "all right… I'll keep my heads up no matter the result!"

"From my experience of lone gaming in RPGs and reading manga, I learned that every stat could lead to greatness as long as you use them right! Like having a shield for a weapon and still being stronger than a spear, sword and etc… or maxing defense stats to the max and still being stronger than those with balanced stats!" he thought.

Reine smiled at Riyoko as she notices his expression, "that's the spirit, I wish you luck on your test, little cousin!"

"Eh? You two aren't coming with me?"

"There are different areas of tests depending on the travelers level, Arisa's level is quite high for someone who just started three months ago, so she's going on a higher level than here, you'll be going over there,"

Reine pointed to the single door on their far left.

"I see… what about you, Reine? You're not going for a test?"

"Eh?" Arisa tilted her head in confusion, "Reine going for a test…? Riyoko do you not know- "

"Ahhh- we'll talk about that later!" Reine said, interrupting her, "we already wasted enough time thanks to a certain someone's pride here!"

Reine then pushed Arisa to the right and waved goodbye, "you better get going too, cousin! Good luck!"

"Ah… mhm…"

Riyoko nodded, feeling confused as he began to walk to his destination.

As he walked forward he began hearing murmurs from the people around him.

"Did you hear that…? She said cousin…"

"No way, so Mrs. Reine has a cousin here?"

"So that's why Mrs. Reine is with a guy like him…"

Riyoko let out a sigh, "and here goes my dark reality skill… sharp ear for gossip!" he thought.

"I guess Reine really is some sort of big shot… not sure how I feel about that,"