Took a long time for various reasons, changing every box in a table in the previous chapters is one of those.

After Lia entered the room, Abigail quickly closed the door and sat down on the floor, in front of the food and with her right side leaning on her bed. Lia copied her, sitting in front of Abigail, thus having the food in-between them, and leaned her left side on the bed. At first they ate silently, but then Abigail suddenly lowered her head and spoke

"I'm sorry for what my dad said."

Lia looked at her and said "It doesn't matter." before continuing to eat. It made Abigail a bit uncomfortable, but she quickly recovered and spoke once again

"Y'know.. when dad talked to you like that it made me really flare up. I couldn't stand the fact that he was saying such things toward someone he barely knew.. towards you."

".."

Lia stopped eating and stared at Abigail, sensing the seriousness in her voice, and quietly continued to listen

"I suppose you've noticed by now, but I'm interested in girls, I'm lesbian. I'm not really good at this kind of speeches, and I guess you already know what I want to say, but I will say it nonetheless, because I like spending time together with you, I like how you are always calm and I also like your body. I mean.. I like you, Lia, please go out with me."

Abigail was slightly blushing as she finished her little speech, but Lia remained impassible as she reflected on what answer she should give her friend.

"Abigail, you know I won't feel anything for you."

Abigail gently smiled and replied

"Lia, you are such a 'liar' eheh~ .. Ahem, I mean, you said it yourself, right? You only do not feel 'weak' emotions, meaning that you can feel the strong ones like 'love'~"

Abigail nonchalantly evaded the food and leaned closer to Lia, placing both of her hands on the white-haired girl's cheeks

"Don't be afraid, Lia. It doesn't matter how our relationship will develop, be it hate or love, I will stand by you."

Closing her eyes, Abigail slowly reached Lia's lips with her own. Without noticing it, Lia's eyes had widened a bit, while her heart certainly did skip a beat as the two kissed. Intoxicated by the new sensation, Lia didn't even notice closing her eyes and as the two finally separated to breath a little, a translucent strand of saliva momentarily connected the two's tongues before breaking.

As Abigail gazed at her love with an expectant look, Lia could do nothing but accepting her request with a little nod and a mutter

".. Okay."

Their silence after that was interrupted a few moments later by knocks on the door

"Abby, can I come in? I'd like to ask your.. friend for forgiveness."

The strange intonation of Michael when he said "friend" did not escape the two, but they paid it no mind. Abigail distanced herself a bit from Lia and then she let her father enter. Once inside, he wasted no time in saying how sorry he was to have been such an "insensible asshole," and muttering, toward the end, how it was his old age's fault.

With a barely noticeable grin, he stood up and patted Abigail on a shoulder, whispering "Good luck, me and your mother are rooting for you, sweetheart." before leaving.

After lunch, the two girls joined the rest of Abigail's family and talked about various things, like Amanda's work at the dojo, some tournament Michael recently participated in, the curious bits of information Sonia got at her workplace and of course.. about Lia and Abigail now going out.

Interestingly, Sonia was the News Director of a media station which recently (7 months ago, thus 2 months after Hyria was released) started to broadcast various informative programs on the game.

Soon evening came, and the two's time together ended as they heard Lia's mother arriving. Without leaving the car, Elisabeth called out to Lia, who was on the front door standing next to Abigail.

"Come Yvonne, we have to go."

Lia nodded indifferently, but after she took a step forward, she was made to turn around as she was grabbed on her wrist by Abigail and once they were facing each other, they exchanged a quick kiss. Elisabeth was so shocked she didn't notice Lia enter the car.

'Perhaps not all was lost, dear.'

Thought Elisabeth while she barely held in her tears as she remembered the incident from 12 years ago. Her sad mood though was soon interrupted by Lia's question

"Mom, how do I extract the recording of my gameplay from the capsule?"

Elisabeth was a bit startled by the sudden change in mood but still managed to reply calmly

".. I set it so that a 24 hours recording of our gameplay is automatically sent to the computer we have in the living room. What's the sudden interest?"

"Abby's mother asked for the video of me when I first defeated a dragon."

Elisabeth was shocked to hear that, but it didn't slip.

"You already defeated a dragon?"

Lia calmly nodded, ending the conversation as now Elisabeth was immersed in her own thoughts

'I want to watch that video.'