"Talk? What do we need to talk about? And stop hitting me with the ball!"

Amber rubbed her forehead as she grumbled in annoyance, but I just shrugged.

"What we need to talk about is how you might've messed things up worse than we already thought."

"What do you mean?"

Putting away my status to get a clear look at her face, I pointed directly at her.

"I mean that when you messed up my getting to this world, you didn't only make me lose my supplies. You also took my cheat skills, you inconsiderate woman!"

Confronted with my finger pointed in her direction, Amber slapped it away.

"A cheat skill? Like in a video game? And how was I supposed to know that you were trying to go to some fantasy world, anyway?! You were jumping off a bridge, for god's sake!"

"I don't know, maybe because I told you?"

"Yeah, because it's so believable when somebody about to hop off a bridge tells you that they want to go to another world, but not die. You're right, my bad. I totally should've just let you do it!"

As the volume escalated, tears began to form in the corners of Ambers eyes.

Thinking more calmly, there was no doubt this was all extremely stressful for her. While I'd been preparing for this for years, she'd suddenly lost her home world, her normal life, and her family. To be honest, she was handling it remarkably well.

I sighed deeply and backed away.

"You know what, it's fine. I was only planning on using a cheat skill as backup anyway, it's not like a really need it. The most annoying part of this is probably the fact that one of my titles it now [Pity of the Gods], in all likelihood because you messed up my travel here. Now the fact that I'm pitiable is engraved on the world itself"

I spoke gently and chuckled, trying to calm her down and keep her from crying. However, in the end, tears began to pour down her cheeks.

"Hahaha, are you kidding me? That's hilarious! You totally deserve it, you dummy!"

She laughed and cried at the same time, tears pouring down her cheeks. This kind of thing... I didn't know why, but it made me feel uncomfortable. I guess I really wasn't the kind of guy to let a girl cry. Putting my hand on her head, I spoke quietly.

"It's gonna be ok..."

Giving up on the facade of laughter, Amber suddenly pulled me into a tight embrace and began to sob.

"Are we ever gonna- sniffle- be able to go back?"

Between sniffles and sobs that wracked her body, she managed to speak. Though she held me tightly, I was uncertain of what to do. In the end, I gently rubbed her back.

"I... In all honesty, I don't know. I hadn't thought about that in my calculations to come here."

Amber looked up at me from my chest where her head was, her eyes glittering. faced with the cute sight, even I couldn't help but blush and look away.

"B-but- sniffle- they summoned us here, right? Can't they send us back?"

"I'm sorry, Amber, it's not that simple..."

I shook my head slowly as I spoke. I felt like it was unusual how close we were at this point when in reality we should be strangers. I guessed it was because I was the only one from her world around here, so she had no choice, but I couldn't deny that it felt good. I hadn't actually spoken to somebody in... well, a long time.

"But I'll work hard to find a way for you. Though I have no plans of returning myself, I'll make sure you stay safe until we can get you back to Earth."

"..."

Amber didn't answer for a minute and simply held onto me, her tears making my clothes wet.

"...Dummy."

"Seriously? I was trying to be nice!"

Though I acted annoyed at her one-word comment, there was no bite behind my words. In response to them, she just squeezed me tighter for an instant before releasing me and turning around, hiding her puffy eyes.

"What can you do, anyway? I'm the one with the cheat skill after all, aren't I?"

Though I couldn't see her face, I could tell she was smiling. Seriously, what fate did I have to make me end up with this crazy girl?

As these thoughts went through my head, I smiled lightly.

---

We spent the next hour or so inspecting our statuses, though it took a while for Amber to get used to doing it despite the fact that it was basically just saying the word "status" in your head.

After toying around with everything a bit, I learned that it was possible to select things like skills and titles and learn deeper information about them. For example, the basic skill [Throwing lv. 1] had a description like this:

[A skill for using projectiles. With higher skill levels, the accuracy, precision, and strength of throwing techniques increases.

Current lvl: 1]

Of course, I tried to look at my titles, but the one I was most interested in, [Pity of the Gods] provided little information. Anyways, my titles looked like this:

[Self-Proclaimed Hero: One who calls himself a hero]

[Otherworlder Without a Cheat Skill: A unique existence, the first person to cross between worlds and appear without a designated Cheat Skill]

[Pity of the Gods: The gods of the world pity your unfortunate fate and hope for your success]

Yes, I'm well aware that the latter is extremely ominous. It isn't up for debate that it makes it sound like I could die at any moment, but I wouldn't permit that seeing as how I finally ended up in another world! Hell, there's a stunning blue-haired princess in this very castle!

As for Amber, her status was a lot simpler than mine. She had one title, [Otherworlder], which just identified her as somebody from another world. I suppose the most interesting thing was her Cheat Skill: [Valkyrie]. Though for some reason it seemed that the description was unnecessarily vague (it only said that it "gave access to the strength of the Valkyrie), it was a cheat skill so there was no doubt it was powerful.

After messing around with my status for a while, I ended up unlocking another basic skill called [Tinkering lv. 1]. Though it was a simple enough skill with the description of [improves understanding of systems for construction and dismantling], I found it interesting that Amber didn't manifest this skill even though she'd been experimenting as well. This system certainly warranted further investigation...

In the end, Amber and I decided to table the discussion for tomorrow. At that time, we would test out our abilities and find out what exactly we could do. For now, the two of us got dressed and prepared for the banquet.

"You look nice, Amber..."

I laughed a little as I spoke.

Amber wore a beautiful, flowing, strapless red dress that accentuated her figure. The blood-red color of the dress contrasted with the emerald of her eyes, making her beauty skyrocket. I couldn't help but stare for a few seconds, my eyes lingering on her collarbone.

"H-hey! Don't look at me so close!"

Amber blushed and gently shoved me away. Ah, cute.

Sure enough, we soon heard a knock on the door.

Opening it while expecting to see the platoon of maids again, I was surprised to find it was Elena. Her light blue hair cascading down her shoulders, she wore an elegant black dress with a v-line revealing some of her ahem plentiful figure, and her big, ruby-red eyes seemed to glitter like stars. Her beauty was definitely a match for Amber, and just the same I found myself unable to look away for a few seconds before catching myself.

Coughing and looking away, a straightened the tuxedo I was wearing and bowed to Elena, who curtsied to me in turn. A second later, Amber realized what was going on and curtsied too.

"You look beautiful, Princess Elena."

I took her hand and kissed the back of it and, unlike the overreactive Amber, Elena seemed totally unfazed. As expected of a princess who likely experienced stuff like this all the time, she simply nodded and turned around leading us out the door.

"Thank you, Jonathan. We should get going now, the banquet cannot start without its guests of honor..."

As we walked on, what I didn't get to see was Elena's bright red face as she held it in her hands. In fact, though kissing the back of the hand was something that was done in this world, it was a sign of asking for an engagement in the same way getting on one knee with a ring was on Earth. Though Elena knew that it was most definitely a mistake, she couldn't help her heartbeat from increasing.

Oblivious to the two girls staring at me from ahead and behind, I walked in the direction of the banquet while observing the palace's tapestries.