Looking through the doorway as it opened, Alisia saw a shoe cabinet on the left side of the entryway.
Further in was a small living room—a sofa, a coffee table, and a long black panel mounted on the wall.
Outside the window, the city’s night view was blurred by the rain, and the glass reflected the warm yellow light from inside.
There were no defense runes, not even a trace of magus flowing.
But it was warm here. It was a warmth unrelated to magic, carrying the breath of everyday life.
Mo Lan closed the door and casually placed the key into the small dish by the entryway.
“First of all… this is my rented apartment.” She turned around, trying to strike a serious pose. “So don’t go rummaging through my room. Everywhere else… well, just use it normally.”
Alisia nodded.
“Okay, I understand.”
Her reply was so earnest that it made Mo Lan freeze for a moment.
Then, Mo Lan noticed something else.
Alisia was completely drenched.
Water kept dripping from the edges of her cloak, and parts of her silver-purple hair were soaked as well.
Rainwater also ran down her sleeves and dripped onto the entryway mat, spreading a dark stain before long.
Mo Lan stared at her for two seconds, then suddenly raised a finger.
“Take it off!”
Alisia’s body stiffened instantly.
“While I may lack common sense about this world…”
She instinctively clutched the fabric of her clothes and stepped back half a step in caution.
“But as far as I know, shouldn’t we maintain some modesty at times like this?”
“…?”
Mo Lan almost had a question mark floating above her head.
“It’s just your coat! Do you need to worry about modesty for taking off a coat?!”
“Why shouldn’t there be modesty just because we’re both girls?”
Alisia said, dead serious.
“People have self-respect too.”
“I’m talking about the coat! The coat! You’ve got clothes underneath, don’t you?!”
“Oh… I thought you meant take off everything…”
“Of course not!”
Alisia finally understood and silently took off her wet coat.
Mo Lan took the coat. First she examined the fabric, then she looked at the uniform Alisia was wearing underneath.
The texture of the material was very unusual, and the tag didn’t match any brand she knew.
Especially the text on the tag—she couldn’t read it at all.
“Wait… what country is this outfit from? Thailand? India? Or some niche production crew’s custom piece?”
Alisia, hearing these two unfamiliar place names, fell silent for a few seconds. Thailand. India. Presumably two countries in this world?
Before she could answer, she noticed Mo Lan staring at her.
The gaze wasn’t malicious, but it made her uncomfortable.
“Stop staring at me.”
“Why?”
Mo Lan tilted her head.
“You’re pretty. What’s wrong with looking?”
“…It’s embarrassing.”
Alisia turned her face away, trying to ease her embarrassment with something else.
So she took out the bag of chips called “Happy Bites” from the plastic bag she’d bought at the supermarket.
The packaging was thin, puffed up, with a large chip pattern printed on it.
Alisia studied it for a long time but couldn’t find an opening. She tried squeezing it and heard a crisp sound from inside, which gave her an idea.
Since the contents inside were edible, maybe the outside could be bitten open too?
She lowered her head to bite the package.
Smack.
Mo Lan chopped her hand down on Alisia’s head.
“Are you a character from some novel? Don’t you know you have to tear it open to eat it?!”
“And…! Wash your hands before eating! Wash them first, then eat!”
“Ow…”
Alisia rubbed her forehead and obediently stood up.
Then she began looking for the sink.
She walked toward the other side of the living room, but before she could take two steps, Mo Lan grabbed her wrist.
“It’s here!”
Mo Lan pulled her to the small room on the right side of the entryway.
The room was tiny, with a mirror, a washbasin, a towel rack, and a white countertop. A metal faucet sat above the sink, its style somewhat similar to the water valves in her world.
Alisia hesitated and turned the valve.
Rush.
Clear water flowed out.
“Oh…”
She reached out to rinse her hands, a hint of wonder appearing in her eyes. No magic. No water element spell. Yet the water simply flowed like this.
‘How amazing… how does it work…? In my own world, I’d need a magic stone for this…’
After that, she casually rinsed her hands and was about to leave.
But Mo Lan, covering her face beside her, was a bit annoyed.
“There’s hand soap right there!”
“Hand soap?”
Alisia looked around the washbasin and noticed a small box with a button. She pressed it, and a glob of white liquid squeezed out from the nozzle.
It smelled nice.
The liquid had a floral fragrance, plus a scent she’d never encountered before.
Alisia leaned in to smell it, and driven by instinctive curiosity toward the unknown, nearly tried to taste it.
The next second, Mo Lan pinched her cheek.
“Don’t eat that! It’s for washing hands!”
“Ow…!”
Alisia lowered her hand and simply rinsed the soap off with water.
Mo Lan: “…”
Mo Lan’s expression was like she’d just died inside.
“That’s not how you use it.”
She grabbed Alisia’s hand, squeezed some fresh hand soap into her palm, and guided her through it. Fine foam quickly bubbled up between their fingers.
Alisia looked down at the bubbles.
“So amazing…”
Mo Lan sighed, rinsed her hands clean with water, then dried them with a towel.
“Okay. Now you can go eat your chips.”
The two returned to the living room.
Mo Lan skillfully tore open the chip bag, picked out one chip, and brought it to Alisia’s lips.
“Here, eat.”
Alisia carefully bit off half.
Salty, crispy, with a hint of grease and potato flavor blooming on her taste buds.
She leaned in again and ate the remaining half. Not used to the distance, she almost touched Mo Lan’s fingers.
Mo Lan instantly pulled her hand back, her cheeks slightly flushed.
“What are you doing!”
“Isn’t this how you eat it?”
“Eat the chips, not my hand!”
Alisia thought seriously for a moment, then picked out a chip from the bag and brought it to Mo Lan’s lips.
“Then you eat too.”
Mo Lan stared at the chip, then at her overly serious eyes, and the roots of her ears turned even redder.
“Y-You eat it… It’s getting late… I need to go cook!”
With that, she turned and fled into the kitchen.
Alisia held the chip bag, puzzled, and sat down on the sofa.
People in this world were hard to understand.
But the chips were delicious.
Before long, Mo Lan poked her head out of the kitchen, picked up the long black object on the coffee table, and pressed it at the black square panel on the wall.
Alisia flinched.
The black panel on the wall suddenly showed people, sound, and light.
Her instinct was to reach for her greatsword, but she remembered it was still leaning against the entryway wall, so she could only freeze on the sofa.
“Watch some TV for now,” Mo Lan said. “I’ll go cook.”
“TV…”
Alisia stared at the screen.
A news report was playing.
A girl lay on the ground, the surrounding light harsh, the edges of the frame deliberately blurred. A line of text ran along the bottom—
Say No to School Bullying.
Alisia ate her chips, her expression gradually darkening.
The people on the screen were saying a child named Xia Yin had been bullied.
Then the speaker said those people had fed her food with malicious, prank-like intent, causing her physical discomfort and distress.
Alisia’s fingers tightened around the chip bag.
She felt a tightness in her chest.
Alisia picked up the long black object and pressed it.
The volume suddenly jumped.
“!”
Mo Lan immediately ran out of the kitchen.
“What, what? What happened?”
She looked at the TV, and the expression on her face also fell.
“Ah… that poor kid.”
Alisia handed her the remote control.
“I pressed this just now, and the black screen’s sound suddenly got louder. I hadn’t used it before.”
“This is called… a remote control.”
Mo Lan checked it, then placed it back in Alisia’s hand.
“Just don’t press things too much.”
After the news ended, the screen suddenly flickered.
Several lines like file numbers appeared on the screen.
037 Xia Yin.
041 Wang Ming.
076 Zhang Feng.
Alisia frowned.
She tried pressing buttons to change the screen, but it didn’t work.
Then, the screen suddenly turned to static.
Gray-white noise covered the entire picture.
In the center, a line of unfamiliar text appeared.
Ήμουν πάντα να σε παρακολουθώ
Alisia couldn’t read that phrase.
Yet a chill ran down her spine.
“Mo Lan…!!”
She called out immediately.
When Mo Lan ran out, the screen had already returned to the weather forecast.
“What’s wrong…? Did some storm warning appear?”
“Just now it turned into a blurry gray-white block, and there was a strange line of text.”
“Maybe it’s signal interference… Try changing the channel.”
Mo Lan picked up the remote and pressed a few buttons, but nothing happened. She looked down at it.
“Oh! The remote’s battery is dead. Hang on, I’ll swap in new batteries.”
Alisia watched silently as she opened the back cover and inserted small cylinders.
This thing… could malfunction from “dead batteries”?
Another mechanism she couldn’t understand.
Once the remote was fixed, the TV returned to normal.
The weather forecast warned that a heavy storm was about to hit their city.
Alisia looked out the window.
Rain slid down the glass like countless fine threads.
Her gaze then landed on the greatsword by the entryway.
Mo Lan noticed it too and immediately walked over.
“Don’t just leave your cosplay prop lying around next time.”
She reached out to move the sword.
But the sword didn’t budge.
Mo Lan: “…?”
She gave it another hard tug.
Still didn’t move.
“S-Such a heavy model…”
Alisia got up, walked over, and lifted the greatsword with one hand.
Without magus reinforcing it, the greatsword was indeed much heavier than usual, but it was still within her control.
Mo Lan was dumbfounded.
“How are you so strong?”
“I did a bit of training before, and I’ve helped people carry things.”
“Is this really a model?”
“Yeah, it really is. It’s even custom-made.”
Alisia placed the sword into the small closet Mo Lan pointed at. The closet clearly wasn’t designed for a greatsword, and the hilt nearly got stuck as she put it in, but she managed to force the door shut in the end.
“Just put the greatsword away… My pot’s about to burn!!”
With that, Mo Lan hurried back over.