The cat-and-mouse game between the heroine and villainess still continued.

The people that they passed by were confused, but they were trained not to make any ill comment, so they went about their usual day right after witnessing the strange occurrence.

Those who knew who they were and the reason why they were there—though fabricated, as in Ann being someone who needed a ‘treatment’ from the saintess—simply thought that the patient was scared witless and tried to escape, while the saintess only wanted to catch her.

 

Eventually, Ann turned around and then went straight away into a vacant room that was opened. Laura clearly saw Ann making a turn to that room. But oddly enough, when Laura opened the room after Ann closed it, there was already no sign of Ann at all.

Laura blinked several times.

She didn’t hallucinate things, did she?

She was pretty sure she saw Ann entering this room just a few moments ago!

 

Then…

If it was true, there could only be one reason: Ann was hiding somewhere in this room!

Realizing this, Laura calmed herself down and took a deep breath.

Then, with a teasing and loud voice, she said, “I know you are here~”

But there was no response.

So, Laura began walking around the room and looked here and there.

 

While looking, she continued to make noises just in order to scare and alert Ann. She felt like this kind of teasing was fun, too!

“Come out now~”

“There’s no use hiding~”

“I will find you~”

“Giving up earlier will save you from suffering later~”

“I know you are there~”

“I promise I won’t hurt you, so just come out now~”

“Hey, you!”

“Come out now!”

 

But every word that she tried to utter would be replied with silence.

Laura went silent for a while, for she couldn’t find where Ann was, somehow.

Behind the sofa, under the table, inside the wardrobe…

There was no sign of Ann at all!

As if she had magically disappeared…

 

But it couldn’t be.

She should be there somewhere that Laura didn’t know about.

Laura heaved a long sigh and it seemed as if it was very heavy for her to muster up her next words.

 

“Ann?”

“Oh Ann, come out.”

“Annnnn!!”

The hiding Ann was surprised to hear the heroine finally calling her name, so much that she almost let out an audible gasp.

But luckily, she managed to stop herself from doing so.

Even if Laura were to sweet-trap her by calling her name for the first time, she won’t fall for it, hmph!

Anyway, Laura’s the heroine, not the love of her life!!

Why would she be affected or have her heart thump from hearing the heroine call her name?!

 

Thus, Ann managed to continue hiding safely.

“Ann…,” Laura was tired from calling Ann’s name to no avail, so she sighed again before continuing.

“The hiding Ann, come out…”

“The hiding… Ann???” Laura seemed to have thought of something, as if she had just realized something.

With a slightly mischievous tone and a gaze that seemed proud of her words, she exclaimed to herself, “Good grief, don’t tell me I need ten years to discover you, oh Ann?!”

Though Laura was sure nobody else would get her joke, she was pretty proud of herself for coming up with that reference.

 

There was a famous light-hearted comedic tale in the modern world where she came from. Many would know the series. Even if they didn't watch them personally, they would get the references as the series became a meme that was shared everywhere.

In that series, the main heroine was Annie who had a childhood sweetheart. Due to their childishness at that time, they played the game of hide and seek with the loser having to do as the winner wished.

Wanting to win due to their high competitiveness and in order to use that bet to make her childhood sweetheart her lover, Annie took it very seriously and went into hiding from her childhood sweetheart for ten years, despite them living close to each other and even enrolled in the same school...

In short, it was the peak of absurdity.

 

But contrary to Laura’s expectations… Knowing the reference in Laura’s sentence, Ann couldn’t help but think that it was really a good joke, so her brain worked very hard to come up with a counter to this sentence.

In a speed faster than her logical brain processing power, her mouth blurted out, “That’s Annie. I am not Annie, I am Ann! Close enough, and what a joke you have there!”

Then, silent engulfed them again.

 

Ann was silent as she grabbed her mouth with her hands. She was surprised that her retort actually came faster than her logical brain processing power. The moment she could understand her situation, it was already too late. Laura would know her location for sure…!

At this time, Ann’s brain hadn’t processed about how she just made sure that the heroine was indeed someone from her world…

 

Meanwhile, Laura was stunned. She clearly used a reference that only people from the modern world—from her original world—could understand, and to think that Ann knew right away what she had referenced…!!

Laura marched towards where she had heard Ann’s voice from, this time with a hint of urgency in it.

She opened the wardrobe that she had previously opened—it was indeed empty like before… But when she looked closely, there was a barely noticeable door at the wall of the wardrobe.

Laura opened the door inside the wardrobe to find Ann who was crouching at the small space in the wardrobe, with her hands holding her mouth.

 

Ann’s expression was exactly like a mouse that was caught in action.

“Uhm…”

Since she was found out already, there was no use in hiding. Ann went out of her hiding, and Laura backed off to give Ann the space to walk out.

The two eventually faced each other.

Then, the two of them silently pointed at each other with an expression of disbelief.

 

“How did you know that?” “Did you understand what I was talking about?”

Laura and Ann spoke exactly at the same time, and it was also the same probing sentence.

Ann had already thought that perhaps the saintess was also a transmigrated person like her, but she didn’t think it’d be true. What a coincidence would it be if it was true?

 

But alas, it was true…

And usually, stories like this would have a bad saintess who was a transmigrated person and therefore, the villainess would be doomed… Based on what she had experienced, it seemed like the saintess was a bad person, indeed, but…

But the excitement of finally having someone from the same world was also there. Now that it was confirmed, it’d be nice if they could get along instead…?

 

This time, Laura put aside her bad impression towards Ann and quickly said, “I thought I was going crazy since nobody but me knew about things like that! So, you really know about it too, right?”

“Uhm… Yes…,” Ann was unsure on how she should respond.

“Alright, do you know anything about… computers?” Laura asked again, unsure if they were from the same generation…?

“Heck, of course! What do you think I am, a granny?!” Ann quickly protested.

 

“Good. What about the internet?”

“Hey!!! I know the series 'Annie's Hide and Seek', and it's even aired in the era of Internet, so what do you mean?!” Ann seriously wanted to smack Laura.

“Okay, make sense, but you can still be a granny at that time,” Laura's tone was full of excitement by this point, but the last part of her sentence would easily be misunderstood as teasing...

“Hey, of course I know that! And I am young!” Ann said with pride and then irritation.

 

“Oh, do you know about the pandemic, then?” Laura was hopeful.

“The pandemic? You mean, the Spanish flu or something?” Ann tilted her head in confusion.

Laura’s hopeful face fell.

“No, I mean the ‘rona! Ring a bell?” Laura asked.

“What ‘rona? No, I don’t know anything about it,” Ann looked at Laura as if Laura was speaking nonsense.

“Aaah…,” Laura hung her head in disappointment.

 

“Hey, are you okay?” Ann asked.

“Man, how did you not know about the ‘rona at all? Corona? Covid? Nothing?” Laura asked.

“Nope, what is that?”

“Oh my god… Nobody that lives in the same era as me that doesn’t know about the famous ‘rona!!” Laura was frustrated.

 

“Hey, but I don’t know! So, you’re from which era?!” Ann asked.

Could it be that she’s from my future?! Dang, will everything be okay?

Ann started sweating in uncertainty of her fate…

“Oh dang… You might as well be my grandma if you don’t even know about it… What a generational gap…,” Laura said, sighing.

“How rude!” Ann protested.

 

“Alright, granny. Why don’t we sit down and talk more? It’s my first time meeting someone that comes from the same world as I did. Although it’s sad that you’re way older than me, but we can manage…,” Laura said.

“Don’t come to a conclusion without confirming the facts first!” Ann protested, but she knew she couldn’t say that who knows Laura was the one older than her… since she didn’t know of something that Laura knew.

 

“What? I already stated the facts!” Laura said without an ounce of guilt or respect.

“Fine! Is that how you speak to your elder, then?!” Ann puffed out her chest.

“Pfft, so you finally admit it!” Laura couldn’t help but laugh.

“Hey! Respect your elder!!” Ann couldn’t make Laura change her mind about calling her ‘granny’, so she’d just use that to her advantage!

 

The two didn't realize that as they spoke, the hostility or any ill impression they had towards each other started to decrease...