“Tobias?” Rin called out, questioning my sudden silence.

I had closed my eyes and turned my head away, apparently causing Rin to turn concerned about my behavior.

While the realization about her attitude caused a painful sorrow to lurk inside my chest, this was a public area and Kara stood nearby. It wasn’t appropriate to be bringing up sensitive topics.

“Nothing… I’m fine.” I shook my head and replied, and subtly brushed the corner of my eyes with my arm.

Rin noticed and followed my subtle gaze toward Kara, sighed softly and quietly shook her head. “Kara, wait outside for a minute.”

“Beat him up, Sis.” Kara gazed in my direction with a smirk and scooted out the door.

After Kara had resolutely left and shut the door behind her, Rin indicated to the grassy floor and said. “Sit.”

I sat down on the floor and gaze back toward her. As I was looking at her from the floor and she stood upright, the upward perspective of her body was a little strange. Fortunately, there wasn’t much awkwardness as Rin wore regular pants with an adventures T-shirt.

The odd perspective didn’t last long as Rin was intent on solving this immediately and imitated my sitting action, softly seat herself on the grass next to me.

“Do you want to explain now?” Rin leaned backward and stretched out her hands, she spoke in English instead of the usual universal language.

“Not really, but I’ll explain anyway.” I swallowed back my nervousness, and replying back in English to keep our conversation private. “I’m not worried about Kara… Well, I am- but… more that it feels like we’ve drifted apart.”

I letting out a breath of air, and gazed toward her.

“It has been a long time.” Rin nodded her head in acknowledgement,

“I don’t mean that... Look at me.” I asked, subtly turning toward Rin.

Rin obliged by my request and turned her gaze toward me.

“Who am I from your perspective?” I swallowed nervously and carefully asked this question.

To be perfectly honest, I already knew the answer… Rin had already answer this question.

“Husband.” Rin answered without hesitation.

“I see…” I sighed and closed my eyes.

From Rin’s perspective, I’m her husband…

I wasn’t paying attention properly when she mentioned it earlier.. The strangeness in her gaze that pierces might be because Rin perceives me for who I was or could be… and not for who I am.

While I felt like I understood the truth, God-hunter seized the opportunity to interrupt my brooding with a stern tone. Apparently deciding this was moment to get involved in this conversation.

Aren’t you being a too idiotic with the self-loathing? Not everything is about you, nor is it healthy to read into every word someone says… Besides, aren’t you at fault for instilling that mindset into her?

To be honest, God-hunter’s sudden interruption with harsh words left me stunned. I didn’t understand what she meant by Rin's mindset being my own fault.

When did I impart that mindset to Rin?

Your insistence that all versions of you are the same would obviously create a mindset where she considers the past version of you the same as the current version.

God-hunter’s words rang throughout my head, I opened my eyes and looked at Rin with a strange gaze. The realization left me in a daze.

You mean… it’s my fault? Is it a misunderstanding?

Not a complete misunderstanding. Mom is more distant than before… but you are overthinking things. Just talk to her.

I bit my lip and silently agreed with God-hunter’s thoughts. I probably was overthinking the situation.

Utilizing my new stubbornness, I outright stated my earlier problem. “From my perspective, we have never gotten married.”

“Doesn’t matter…” Rin shrugged and picked at the grass in a cute manner. “Husband and wife, always and forever.”

“Husband and wife, always and forever?” I mumbled to myself, my gaze turned absentminded.

Those words stuck out in my mind in a strange manner. It almost sounds like… wedding vows?

A slight dizziness over took my mind. If that’s true, Rin’s mindset is my own fault. I cannot really blame her for my own past-self’s stupidity.

I looked toward Rin and outright stated. “Rin, I can only be who I am… nobody else.”

“I don’t understand.” Rin looked confused, she had swapped to universal language and the confusion on her face seemed genuine.

“Uhhh….” I tried to think of the right words to say and decided to be extremely blunt. “When you look toward me, it feels like you are looking through me… well- it’s just unsettling.”

“Ah…” Rin fell into thought.

I silently waited and gave her plenty of time to think. She seemed to be seriously thinking about the situation and it took a few minutes for her to properly respond.

Rin replied with a nod, “I’ll work on it.”

“Alright.” I would accept her answer for now.

I vaguely felt that she was hiding something, but decided to simply trust her. Everyone kept secrets.

“Relax, this is a vacation.” Leaning toward me, Rin tapped my shoulder with a tilted head.

I laughed and snorted, lightly flicking Rin’s forehead causing her wolf-ears to flick to the side. “As if you know how to relax. Your idea of a vacation is practicing archery.”

“I can relax.” Rin smiled, snuggled into my arm and leaned her body against me. Her warm body pressed against my own.

While the atmosphere between us still felt slightly tense, it had dramatically improved in comparison to before our conversation.

“How long is this vacation going to last?” I softly whispered and attempting to adjust my body without disturbing Rin.

“Not long.” Rin replied with a slight sadness. “I’ll reload before tomorrow’s challenge. After that is the earliest time problems occur.”

Rin had reverted to speaking in English, likely as a precautionary measure against the holographic cat watching over us.

“You plan to reload without attempting to save Kara?” I frowned as I realized what Rin meant.

Rin’s wolf-ear flicked, she turning to face in my direction. Rin’s eyes turned depressed and she shook her head. “It’s that I don’t want to save Kara… but it gets depressing if you cry at the end of every vacation.”

“Okay…” I sighed and nodded in understand.

Rin probably choose to use this place as for a vacation because her sister was here. Leaving early was an understandable choice, watching her sister constantly die would be a depressing occasion to end a vacation.

“That certainly messes up my plans.” I sighed, and stroked Rin’s head. “You should’ve told me earlier.”

I took the opportunity to subtly brush my hands against her wolf-ears whilst stroking her head. The wolf-ears had soft, warm furry texture that was flexible and interesting to the play with.

“What was your plan?” Rin had closed her eyes and pushed her head upright into my hand.

Since Rin seemed to enjoy the feeling, I continued stroking her head.

“Err… Well, it went through several iterations.” I felt slightly embarrassed, as I thought my current terrible and vague plan.

“My first idea was trying to find a healer to save Kara… but the healer was untrustworthy and unwilling to help.” I explained and shrugged, “After that I thought about making a healing artifact, but vastly underestimated the difficult of that feat... so that also failed.”

Rin hummed in acknowledgement and inquired. “So… your most recent plan…?

“Ah… well, I- uhhh…” I rubbed the back of my neck, “It was to create a plan to save Kara.”

Rin let out a small smile, “That’s the same as having no plan.”

“I suppose.” I sighed.

“If you can get into contact with her, preventing Kara from entering the Decima game has the highest probability for success.” Rin subtly shook her head to get comfortable, and continued to lean into me.

While I agreed with Rin’s assessment, I didn’t know how to feel about everything I’ve done in this timeline disappearing forever. Rin must’ve made such a decision multiple times, so I didn’t feel like I had a right to interfere.

If Rin felt it necessary to reload, I would accept her assessment.

Several minutes passed by, with we were both sitting in silence. I began thinking about the future, or past... and what exactly I should do afterward.

Everything is going to be reset.

Assuming Rin reloaded to the fourteenth day… That gave me an opportunity to complete my promise of teasing Stanley, although it would have to wait until he met up with Tracy.

In the meantime, I would be able to work on killing that panther and the other monsters in the illusionary realm at night instead of forging.

Whilst I was thinking, Kara opened the door to the archery training room. “Have you finished beating him up?”

Moving subtly from the noise, Rin turned her gaze toward the door. “We have finished talking, you can enter…”

Receiving permission, Kara entered the room and her expression turning sour. “I thought you were fighting.”

Kara had noticed our close proximity and, apparently, didn’t like the fact it was happening.

“Merely talking.” Rin responded with a shake of her head, whilst continuing to lean against me.

I merely sent Kara an innocent smile and pleasantly stroked Rin’s hair and wolf-ears in front of her.

For some strange reason, Kara was provoked by my entirely innocent actions and began to cry wolf. “He’s clearly bullying me!”

“I’ll deal with it later.” Rin hummed noncommittally in response, she had closed her eyes and was enjoying the sensation of my hand against her head.

Kara glared at me and threatened me. “I might not be able to beat you, but I can certainly cause you trouble. I’m the leader of a powerful guild.”

“Good luck with that.” I calmly responded, resolving the situation peacefully like an actual adult.

My attitude was dismissive for several key reasons. Each of those reasons made it completely impossible for Kara to cause me any trouble.

Firstly, Rin planned on reloading tomorrow.

Secondly, I would be ecstatic should Kara actually inform her guild and cause me trouble. Kara successful delivering on her threat would mean this situation had been solved and her death had been averted. Her successful return to the Residential Zone would certainly be worth celebrating.

Finally, my own strength limited the amount of trouble Kara could cause. I doubt King’s Prophet could cause me any major trouble. While powerful, they weren’t strong enough to cause anything other than a minor inconvenience to my current self. Whether their power was considered in terms of political influence or actual strength.

All those factors meant that Kara’s threat was empty to begin with.

Of course, the most important was factor was Rin’s plan to reload.

Since everything would be reset, I didn’t particularly need to care about remedying Kara’s attitude and could continue teasing her mercilessly… Err- I mean… innocently cuddling with Rin (uhhh- quick! random distraction!).

Hey, isn’t this archery range nice?! I wonder how it was made!

An indoor archery range with grass and dirt for a portions of the floor is particularly impressive. If it wasn’t for the walls and obviously artificial lighting, I might even consider myself outdoors. The target being in the shape a person is useful too!

Yeah, it’s a nice archery range.