I still had the bookcases from my previous house set up. For now, they would have to do the job as, as I mentioned before, I still didn’t really have had much time to go and buy new furniture. This did make the reading room seem somewhat empty at the moment, but it would do for now. I had some seating set up close to the heating unit next to the window, it was going to be cozy nonetheless.

“What would you think of custom-made bookshelves, Rora?” Ria asked as she browsed the manga, looking for ‘Throw These Fists’.

“Uh, I don’t know, what exactly do you mean?”

“I saw an image in one of my parents' home decoration magazines and they had these bookshelves that were custom-made to fit the exact dimensions of the room. They can even go around the windows!”

I took a step back and tilted my head as I looked around the room. “So, like every single space on the wall covered with bookshelves like you can see in some movies?”

“Yes!” Ria replied, at the same time also fishing out the volumes of the manga she was looking for. “Wouldn’t that look cool?”

“Hmm… It would… It would…” I put my hand on my chin and nodded. “That’s not going to be very cheap, though. And I will need a lot of books to fill it up with, too. But the money part is already not an issue and the book part can be solved after some time, it’s not like we are pressed on time for collecting books, are we?” I smiled.

“We can fill it all with manga!”

“Well, you can definitely have a side, but not the entirety, that would look a bit too colorful.” But then again… Wouldn’t it be better to have a separate room for manga, that way it would at least fit together more thematically.

“But colors are good, Rora.” Ria pouted.

“We’ll see what happens later, but first, let’s just read a bit, okay?”

“Yay!”

I sat down in one of the larger armchairs and patted my thighs. “Come, that way we can both read it easily together.”

Ria didn’t let my invitation go cold and quickly sat down on my lap. As I pulled her closer to me by wrapping my arms around her waist, it was quite easy to look over her shoulder and read the manga together. Especially with my strength, having Ria on my lap wouldn’t really make me tired, nor annoyed, even with extended reading sessions.

And as such, we started reading the first volume of this manga. The story was rather cute, the art style as well was a pleasant surprise. Instead of the typical ‘moe-style’ you’d find in most manga nowadays, this style seemed simpler, less ‘cutesy’, but nonetheless very refreshing and pleasant on the eyes. Even more so, I found that the drawing style really fit the characters quite a bit. And now that I had read it a bit, I did find that the main character bore some similarities to me, so Ria’s comment from earlier wasn’t too far-fetched.

As for Ria, the happy humming meant she was having a rather good time too.

It took us two hours and a half to get through the four volumes the manga consisted off. We’d read it all in one sitting.

“Awh, I’m sad it’s over… I really like it a lot.” Ria commented as she took the last volume and looked at its cover again. It featured the main couple having a picnic together.

“It could have gone on some more, just some relationship fluff, but I do think the ending was good. I want more because it was good, but it also doesn’t leave me hanging. If that makes sense…” I took the other volumes in my hands and looked through them as if they were playing cards. I’m really happy I picked this one up, and it deserves a prominent spot in the collection, that’s for sure.

“I know what you mean.” Ria leaned back into me. “It’s like finishing a satisfying dinner, which tastes so good that you want more, but on the other hand you are not hungry anymore.”

“Like the kebab from earlier?”

“Yeah!”

I laughed. “Well, I do think that’s a rather good comparison.” I put the manga on the little table next to us and then hugged Ria by her waist. Looking out of the window, I could see the orange sheen of the street lantern nearby. The snow-whitened roof of a house on one of the right flank of the square contrasted by the pitch black sky. “Aren’t you tired yet, it’s quite late already?”

“Do you want me gone already,” Ria turned her head so she could look at me.

“Of course not.” I chuckled. “But you generally aren’t this energetic this late in the evening.” I booped her nose with mine. It felt a bit cold to the touch.

Ria rubbed the tip of her nose with her right hand and then sniffed. “I’m just a little bit tired. But I don’t feel like I want to go to bed yet…” She admitted. “But I also don’t want to read manga anymore, either.”

“Yeah, I feel like I’m done reading for myself, too.”

“Then what should we do?” Ria looked at me with demanding eyes. “Because I don’t really have any ideas.”

“Hmmm. Good question.” I started looking through the room. “I have another question for you. Where did Shima disappear too?”

“She’s sleeping under the chair.” She replied matter-of-factly.

“Really?”

“Mhmm. Look.” Ria pointed down at the left leg of the seat, a striped cat tail just swooshed underneath the seat as I looked down. “What a weird cat, there’s so many things she can lay down on, but then she just chooses the floor.” Although, that kinda does sound like normal cat behavior now that I think about it for a bit longer.

“Must be nice and warm against the radiator.

“You can always join her if you want.”

“No, I think I’ll just stay here. Rora is warm enough for me.”

“Haha, feel free to do so. But that doesn’t solve our little conundrum.”

We continued thinking about what to do this late in the evening, but every idea ended up being a dud. In the end, I proposed to head outside for an evening stroll, but Ria didn’t really like that idea too much, at least not at the moment. She was already a bit too tired for that, even after I offered to princess carry her around. It’s only embarrassing if someone sees you, but that point was also met with quite a bit of criticism.

It was a call from Emma that finally ended our stalemate. The sound of my phone buzzing, akin to a trumpet of a relief army that was about to break a siege.

“Em, you are also still up?” I answered the phone.

“The people are finally gone.” Em sighed, she did sound different from usual, a bit more muffled.

“Are you sick, Em?” Ria had also picked up on the difference.

“No, I’m just taking a walk through the garden.” She replied. “I’m using the microphone of my earphones. Do I sound weird?”

“No, just a bit different.” I replied. “I offered to take a walk around town too, but Ria didn’t want to.”

Em chuckled.

“If I weren’t tired, I would go out immediately!” Ria pouted.

“Well, you heard her.” I chuckled as well. “We finished reading a manga and weren’t really sure what to do right now.”

“Yeah, I know the feeling. Sis got tired of reading too and she’s now setting up her telescope to do some stargazing. I helped her carry it out.”

“Ah, so that’s why you are in the garden.”

“Hehe, well, it’s nice and quiet here. I could use a bit of fresh air too.”

“Did your parents go to bed already?”

“No, they are watching us from the living room. They still don’t quite trust us going outside by ourselves, but I’m not too scared after Aileen gave her word to us that we’d be safe.”

“She might have hired a veritable army of mercenaries to keep your house safe, if you peek inside of one of the bushes you might be able to find one.”

“Oh, then I should probably make some coffee or soup for them, shouldn’t I?” Em laughed.

“Definitely.” I laughed back. At least we could laugh about it all a little already. It was good to not have to be all doom and gloom about it all the time.

“Tomato soup?” Ria asked.

“Is there any other?” Em chuckled once more.

“Ria, you are not gonna tell me you are hungry again, right?” I asked.

“Maybe a little, there’s always more space for food.”

“Ria…”

“Auro, what do you expect, it’s Ria we are talking about.”

“Em, I swear to the Goddess, you didn’t see the size of the döner kebab she ate, it was humongous.”

“It was big, but it wasn’t too big.” Ria replied.

“In my opinion, that’s pretty much debatable. I swear that you have a wormhole in your stomach that leads directly to the cat's disappearance dimension. There’s no other explanation.”

“That seems scientifically solid to me.” Em confirmed.

“Moh!” Ria pouted, which quickly led to the three of us laughing together. Our problem had been solved, just talking together with the three of us was plenty entertaining enough.