The peaceful fleeting moment didn’t last long. Rin sat there quietly until people began to wander into separate rooms. Rin opened her eyes, stood up and scanned the room.

Having either not noticed my existence or deliberately ignored it, Rin walked over to Kara and spoke with her. “Follow me.”

Kara glanced throughout the emptying room, before nodding without speaking and they left together.

Standing up, I hesitated before following after them.

Anyway, it didn’t hurt to follow the two of them. Collecting more information is always a good idea. There little problem in following them, even if I’m found.

Rin led Kara to the hotel and took their related keycards, planned on entering a private room. I watched the process and simply followed the two of them into the elevator.

Neither of them said anything about intrusion. Perks of going unnoticed, I suppose.

Kara seemed to notice the serious attitude from her sister and merely waited for her to speak. When the elevator reached its peak and opened, everyone stepped out and the stressful atmosphere relaxed.

“Rin…” Kara spoke and hugged her sister, before momentarily gazed throughout the luxury suite. Kara paused before inquiring with a more relaxed and peaceful expression, “How have you been?”

Rin staring at her momentarily before shaking her head. “Good enough.”

“What do you think of this Decima game?” Kara quickly inquired, “This seems more like a social experiment game than a fighting one.”

“The game doesn’t matter. Winning is pointless.” Rin shrugged and indicated her distaste for the situation.

Watching the interaction from the side, I frowned as Rin’s words reverberated and repeated within my brain.

I could understand why the game doesn’t matter. Rin should be more focused on saving Kara than winning… but winning is pointless? You need to win to leave.

Unless that’s a lie made up by Schrödinger? Does the portal open and let everyone through regardless of whether they’ve collected 10 points?

The truth was of the situation irrelevant to the current conversation though as the two sisters continued talking.

“I’m sorry.” Kara’s expression turned anxious and pressed her fingers together, “Your message didn’t reach me until it was too late.”

Rin stopped, her expression almost imperceptibly changing. “…What message?”

“You didn’t send me a message?” Kara visibly stiffened and stilled.

“What message?” Rin stopped disguising her stiffness and narrowed her eyes while stepping toward her sister.

“Nevermi-” Kara immediately tried to backtrack the conversation and change the topic.

Rin demanded without hesitation, “Message. Now.”

Kara fell silent.

Meanwhile, I stared at Kara in confusion.

Why would Kara want to hide my message?

Upon pondering, it only took an instant for me to understand cause and effect.

The stem of the problem is the misinterpretation that my message to warn Kara and avoid her fate had to come from Rin.

In the previous timeline, until forced, Kara never wanted to tell her sister about her impending death. If Kara told her sister in advance, Rin would certainly have regrets if she failed to save her. It could be said that Kara resolutely decided to deal with the problem herself to stop Rin from worrying.

Thus, Kara resolutely acted carefree and cheerful to avoid Rin worrying in advance last time.

My intervention in this manner meant that Kara thought Rin foresaw the dangers in advance somehow. So Kara never thought of hiding this matter from her until now… which I mean, Rin technically has. Hiding her upcoming fate from Rin is pointless in the first place.

…But Kara doesn’t know that.

Thus, Kara’s instinctive reaction to discovering the message wasn’t from her sister was to hide everything.

“Message.” Rin repeated herself, no longer giving her sister time to make up a story.

“It’s my mistake, they never actually stated the message was from you.” Kara immediately came up with a plausible and relatively accurate excuse. “The topic’s irrelevant now. The situation already occurred.”

If Rin was a normal person, this excuse might’ve dispelled her doubts and changed the topic. Sadly Kara misunderstood something fundamental to this conversation, Rin had likely gone through similar conversations with Kara multiple times in the past and she’d never mentioned a message.

The very fact there was a difference to her past conversations was enough of an abnormality to create the highest amount of suspicion imaginable.

“Repeat the message.” Rin inquired as she backed up, wolf-ears flinching almost imperceptibly in annoyance.

While I might not have seen Rin in awhile, I could still tell when something bothered her. Apparently this qualified.

“It wasn’t that important, just someone warning me about a potential mistake.” Kara immediately diverted the topic, “Let’s talk about your situation. I heard you’re in Hell Difficulty. How is that going?”

Rin walked up to her sister, and placed a hand on her shoulder. Speaking calmly, Rin asked in a voice that chilled the bones. “Heard from whom?”

“Tobias. That guy the holographic cat scolded earlier.” Kara unhesitantly threw me under the bus, which left me completely speechless.

Seriously? After the trouble I went to help you, you sold me out immediately?

While I was grumbling internally on the sidelines, I actually didn’t care that much. I was only trying to warn Kara. There’s nothing to really hide about the situation.

I was only speechless at the speed Kara abandoned me to distract Rin from the topic she wanted to avoid.

Rin’s brows furrowed and wolf-ears folded inward. “What did he say?”

“Who is this Tobias anyway?” Kara avoided the question and gazed at her sister with a slightly perplexed expression. Specifically Kara was gazing above her head toward Rin’s wolf-ears.

“Complicated.” Rin avoided answering.

“You? In a relationship that’s complicated?” Kara dismissed her statement with a wave, clearly disbelieving the answer. “Just explain who he is.”

“My husband… technically.” Rin’s face blush as she averted her gaze.

“Hu…” Kara’s inhaled as her brain stopped functioning. The expression on her face projecting an aura of disbelief and speechlessness.

Pinching my eyes closed, I sighed and shook my head.

Seems I missed my own wedding.

Oi, past-self... why couldn’t you not get married to her if knew you were dying? I’d have preferred if you had waited until it was my turn.

Not that I’m surprised. I would unhesitatingly make the same decision in his place.

Lucky bastard.

“You’re married?” Kara’s shocked expression indicated her inability to accept reality.

Rin’s red-tinted face shook, “It’s complicated.”

“Hold on. You cannot just say you are married and provide no details.” Grasping her sister’s arm, Kara stopping her from avoid the topics.

Watching the scene, I felt chilled. Kara shocked expression and questions certainly were attention grabbing, but what actually made me chilled was Kara’s ability to direct the conversation and change the situation around so she was demanding answers from Rin instead of the other way around.

Mere moments ago, Rin seemed about ready to kill someone with her icy expression and now she was a red-tinted embarrassed mess.

Whether Kara’s curiosity was natural or artificial, her ability to distract Rin through decisive questions is fearsome.

The scary part was that Kara had directed the conversation completely naturally by asking a few questions. If it weren’t for looking at the situation from an outsider’s perspective and understanding her motives to shift the conversation, I wouldn’t even know that she’d done it.

Rin was helpless in this situation and could only provide her sister with about vague details about how we met and interacted. She avoided mentioning her ability or time shenanigans and only gave a vague recollection of the situation.

At this point, I’m relatively confident that Rin is not purposefully ignoring me and simply hasn’t noticed I’m standing next to her. That’s certainly good news.

“Regardless, you said that you saw him earlier?” Rin reverted the topic, after speaking for awhile. Whether she noticed her sister’s manipulation of the conversation was uncertain.

“We briefly chatted in Hard Difficulty.” Kara calmed down from the earlier surprise. “I never expected him to be married to you. It’s only been a year… He wouldn’t have cheated you into it?”

“Do you think I’m that easy to take advantage of?” Rin rolled her eyes, before sitting down on a chair.

“Maybe not in a fight!” Kara protested before leaned forward, “-but in matters of the heart…”

“Get out.” Rin pushed her sister out of her face.

“Fine.” Laughing before Kara quickly turned to another method of teasing instead, “So when are you going to officially introduce me to him then?”

“Later, I still need to speak with him myself.” Rin brushed off her sister’s insistence.

Hearing that my eyes lit up.

Speak with me herself? At the very least that’s a better situation than before where Rin completely denied that I’m real. I’d love to take the opportunity to chat with.

Of course… at this point, I’m a bit too embarrassed to admit that I’ve been listening to their conversation this entire time.

Although I’ve been pretty blatantly in my eavesdropping, at this point I couldn’t say that they hadn’t noticed me. I’ve had plenty of opportunities to speak and haven’t… so dialogue will have to wait until another time.

“Onto the next important topic…” Kara moved forward next to her sister.

Rin’s eyes flashed with puzzlement before clarity and turned flustered, trying to interrupt her sister. “Wait-”

Ignoring her, Kara swiftly reaching toward Rin’s wolf-ears and stroked them while inquiring, “When did you get these ears?”

As Rin’s wolf-ears were mercilessly played with by her sister, Rin’s body shuddered while her voice cried out in protest. “Don’t…”

“They’re so soft…” Kara completely ignored her sister’s protest and continued her physical exploration of Rin’s wolf-ears.

Watching the interaction, a sour expression appeared upon my face.

Despite my previous interactions with Rin, I never got the opportunity to play with Rin’s wolf-ears and yet Kara managed it mere minutes after reuniting with her.

The unfairness of it soured my expression. I wanted to play with real-life kemonomimi too.

While a sense of injustice and jealousy roared up within me, Rin’s wolf-ears twitched in every direction whilst she instinctively trying to push her sister away. Rin didn’t use enough brute force to escape and instead merely shuddered with each touch whilst verbally protesting. Whether her lack of force was out of caution for her sister’s safety or weakness from the sudden incapacitation, I couldn't tell.

With a sighing, I knew that repeating the same feat of forcibly touching Rin’s wolf-ears was basically impossible for me.

…I didn’t dare to forcefully touch Rin’s wolf-ears like Kara was currently doing. Asking for the opportunity to touch them was also impossible. That would be way too embarrassing.

Thus, I could only emanate jealousy and sigh helplessly as the situation unfolded.

In Rin’s movements to avoid her sister’s caresses, Rin managed to fall out of the chair and escape from her sister’s grasp.

Glared at Kara with faux anger, Rin emotionlessly asked. “Finished?”

“Yep~” Kara cheerfully smiled and leaning over her, “Seems they’re decently sensitive.”

With a huff, Rin regained her balance and returned to her seat. “I could’ve easily told you that.”

“More fun to explore myself.” Kara shrugged, showing zero remorse for her previous actions.

Listening to Kara shameless statement, I nodded in silent agreement. Almost always better to learn through personal experience than hearsay. I certainly didn’t have the courage or shamelessness to take such extreme actions, but that only made me appreciated the guts such an actions took.