Raghnall furrowed his brows at her as he tried to fathom what she just said.
"You... Your mind works in mysterious ways, huh."
Inna snorted, taking his statement as an insult while she glared at him.
"Hey, I have my own strange habits and you have your own strange habits. But you never see me complain, did you?"
Raghnall raised an eyebrow at her intriguing statement.
"Me? Strange habits? Like what?"
Inna narrowed her eyes at him as she elaborated.
"First of all, when you take naps, you always scratch your butt in like every twenty seconds. Secondly, sometimes you start talking in your sleep and end up casting some weird shit. I almost died on that one practice session we had where I ended up falling asleep beside you, only to have you blast me flying somewhere. And... Oh, oh! I remember another one! You! You also have that habit of scratching your nut whenever and wherever! You know how weird it is when you talk to me and I see you scratching away? But did you see me complain?!"
Raghnall reddened at her accusations but he tried to keep his dignity and composure by giving out an excuse.
"I… my habits are a normal thing for a guy…"
Inna gave him a look as she echoed him.
"Well, my habits are a normal thing for me!"
Raghnall gave her a confused look.
"Wait, what? Look, that's not how it works. It--"
Inna took a huge swig at her bottle before glaring at Raghnall.
"IT'S. NORMAL."
Raghnall instinctively backed off while raising his hand mid-way.
"Okay, okay. It's normal! It's normal! I concede! So, let's not argue over it anymore, please. We've been bickering almost every ten moments."
Inna huffed as she put the empty bottle down.
"Well, we wouldn't be bickering if it wasn't for your insulting ass. You're the one who always starts it."
Raghnall looked at her with widened eyes as though he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Me? What did I ever do? I'm only asking questions. You're the one reacting--"
"See?! You're doing it again. You really want to pick a fight, huh?"
Inna raised an eyebrow to prove her point and Raghnall couldn't help but chuckle. He raised his hands up in surrender as he spoke with an amused tone.
"Okay, fine… Fine, I'll keep quiet."
And keeping to his word, Raghnall kept quiet as he looked around their surroundings. He didn't know what else to do aside from look at the distance to distract himself from the urge to talk more.
But Inna found the eerie silence around them sudden and strange. So much so that she soon became uncomfortable and unable to focus on anything except the silence.
Then, as she mimicked Raghnall in looking around and breathing in the fresh air that held a pleasant scent of flowers, she realized that it was the first time that they actually sat side by side in silence.
That's because ever since they've met on that opening ceremony, Raghnall and Inna had been either bickering or teasing each other. It's actually pretty surprising how they never ran out of topics to discuss or tease each other with for the past year despite being together nearly every day.
In fact, there was even an instance where they ended up talking for a day straight!
That's quite a commendable feat for Inna since most people would either find her too loud, annoying, or vulgar after talking with her for mere minutes.
And so, Inna couldn't help but be amazed at their friendship.
He… he's really just like her little minions. Only, he's far more talented and capable compared to those three idiots.
Recalling them again, Inna couldn't help but release a sigh.
She missed them.
Raghnall reminded her of them in the way that they always try to pick a fight and tease her in every chance they got. And unlike the majority of her childhood, they never made her feel alone nor lonely. In fact, they almost never left her side.
But she knew that the moment that weird contraption exploded, she would once again be alone.
She wouldn't be able to meet them anymore.
She already died in that world from that explosion. And when she arrived in that hell-like place, Hel Halja, and she realized what happened to her, she understood that she'll never be able to come back.
And so, she just readily accepted that fact and decided to just move on and figure out her present.
There's nothing she can do, after all. She can't change the past and needlessly worrying about the future would only end up negatively affecting her present. So, instead, she busied herself in trying to analyze her current situation.
She can save the sobs for later until she knew what the hell was happening with her and what her options were in that bizarre situation.
But one thing ended up towards another, and without even having the time to process everything yet, she somehow ended up diving in that pool then reincarnating.
But when she regained consciousness in that forest, in her mind, her situation finally dawned in her... That she was alone in a foreign land… Utterly alone… And that's when she knew pure terror.
Hearing the different foreign voices speaking around her, hearing them leave, and being unable to move during that whole time made her feel even worse.
But as those moments of being unmoving began to pass, she immediately learned to mask her terror with a heavy dose of delusional optimism as she tried to go with the flow and look at things practically yet positively. There was also another thing that helped her get through it without breaking down.
Comedy.
That always helped her calm down and not think about things too much. Making bad situations into jokes always helped tried to look at the positive things. And thinking less about it, or thinking less in general, usually helped her, feel less… scared.
Ignorance is bliss after all…
And so, she made light of her situation--of her reincarnation, all the while trying to figure out her situation. And after gathering information, instead of accepting that she was in a land that was completely detached from the world she grew up in her whole life, she tried to delude herself into thinking that she still was on Earth despite being reincarnated.
She tried thinking that she was just traveling in a foreign land. After all, she's been to nearly eighty different countries due to her parents' various business trips and luxurious vacations. And so, she soon felt comfort in that familiar feeling of being in a new foreign land. She soon viewed it as though she was just on vacation and was just lost on her way.
But her delusion slightly blurred out when those… beasts attacked…
Even more so when she was the one who actually killed them through that weird state she switched into…