"What? What does it say?!" Lia asked interestedly.

I just showed her the computer and in it, what Mayura's necklace shone in the night, finally revealing its message at last.

You have cracked this message
And deserve our passage
What we give is power beyond
By finding these treasures three
First, beckoning an appearance
Of beauty that's skin's deep
Second, it dance
In darkness, waiting to be searched,
Third, worn in two sides
Deep inside it bides
Different yet together
Join us three
And light we'll be
To something unimaginable.

"I thought you said you cracked it. Then why am I reading this, just tell me what this all is?" Lia said.

"Actually, this is what I cracked. Apparently I still have a long way to go. Before now, it was in a mixture of Latin, Gaelic and Arabic and after that, there was binary, quinary and octal which led to too much word play. Dunno why but so annoying and after all that, all I finally cracked is a riddle," I sighed.

"But at least you are closer to figuring out all this," Lia shrugged.

I just nodded and read that riddle again.

Three treasures... beauty, that ones Mayura's necklace... dances in the dark, wanting to be searched... two sides, different and together...

"Ugh!" I said, "This will take some time..."

I went to the Mindscape's library where thousands of books of thousands of subjects alerts held. I went to the treasure sections.

"If you are doing that, what am I doing?" Lia asked blandly.

"Well, aren't you going to help me?" I asked.

"Nah, you are the one who wanted to do all this. I just said to let this go it's course but, no. You just want to be paranoid and expect the worse."

"Well, yeah, but at least I get something fun out of it," I said. I knew she was talking about my not really wanting to be in this world and quit. But it was more of a precautionary than anything else. And it's like I said, it's not like I'm not having fun in it.

"If you don't want to help me," I said, "you can just play the computer."

Lia brightened up and just went to it. We shared a few similar traits and one of 'em's the addiction but a bit different.

As I was researching, I heard Lia sigh and squeal.

Probably watching those anime and cartoons or dating sim walkthrough or reading harem stuff.

Lia's my guilty pleasure manifested and thus the type to fangirl charming and mysterious men and read cool harems like Invaders of Rokyjouma. Example...

But what the hey... doesn't affect me. In fact, I'm not ashamed of my guilty pleasures. Except in the real world, it may be ugly used in. There's a line between reality and fantasy...

A few hours, days or months, heck knows how time is in here, I sighed and closed the book while Lia screamed and called me.

"Ro, check this out!" Lia cried.

I didn't mind and headed there. I've finished my research, anyway.

"Look!" Lia pointed at the screen.

By cursory inspection, it was a blog and about otome game, probably a walkthrough. It's title was 'Reach the Stars'.

"So?" I asked. I liked otome games, though this one I never heard of, but what the point now?

"Look at the characters!" Lia insisted.

I did. My stomach dropped.

"Red Drake, Edward Luis, Star Tyke, Clover Fate..." I read out. I was not dense enough to not figure what happened next.

"I'm in an otome game?! I knew it!"

Lia looked at me weird. "How would you know it?"

"Oh Lord! Those guys you met were too handsome for it not to be an otome game. The fact that they are charming and had such personality deep down sealed it. I wasn't exactly sure at first but this confirms it!"

"Personality?" Lia questioned my statement.

"I personally know both Clover Fate and Alex Lye and are they not capture targets?"

"Yep, they are, though Alex is a hidden one. You have to unlock the main targets' routes before you got to his."

"That doesn't matter. We are not playing the game, we are in it! After all this time," I continued bitterly, "All that information was just a few clicks away!"

"You couldn't have known anyway," Lia reasoned.

"Yes, I could. I was this close from finding out where am I from the author!"

<WHAT?!>

The author appeared out of nowhere. We couldn't see their features but I pretty much know their expression must be angry.

"Don't be surprised. It's your fault making an OP character and one of 'em is mind reading. You don't think I would actually fly blind, do you?!"

<Punishment: Remove mind reading from skills!>

...

...

Ting!

A thought came in my mind. It said, 'Mind reading skill removed.' I frowned.

"This is so not fair! You can't do this. Do you know what I was doing?!"

<No, other than reading my mind, which is disrespectful, what were you going to do?>

"I was going to find out whether Alyssa or Riana are reincarnated and I was this close! Mind reading's a tricky business, y'know?!" I said.

<Figures. Now you'll just have to do it the ol' detective style, y'know? G'luck!>

The author vanished. "Hey, wait!"

"Too late, they are gone," Lia said.

I just groaned.

"Never mind about that," Lia continued hastily. "Let's find out more about this otome game!"

So, we did read through. Unsurprisingly, I'm one of the rivals, for the capture target, Clover Fate. It says in the blog that Clover and I are supposedly both infatuated to each other and have both sis and bro complexes. So when one of us are in love with someone that are not ourselves, we try to break it up.

So when Clover fell in love with the heroine, I tried to break them up but went too far. It was not pretty.

Now, for the heroine, it came as a surprise but it was Alyssa!

Seriously, I thought it might be Milan. In fact, she seems the type. Innocent, naive, pure hearted, light user, positive and happy go lucky. Milan screams all that.

Alyssa, however, was more responsible and down to earth, less green as Lia recounted the chilling way she dealt with the assassin.

But in the blog, here was the proof that Alyssa was the heroine.

I wonder what the game producers were thinking...

Lia and I both took some time to search more about the otome game and put it into a file called ReachTheStars-otomegame.

"OK, that's enough..." I said. Through making that file, I was astonished with all the info in my hands. At least I'm not flying blind anymore and can avoid what is deemed dangerous.

Unfortunately, there's plenty that could be deemed dangerous.

"I know that I want to be loved by someone but some are ridiculous!" Lia said, agreeing with my thoughts.

Like all books before this, being in an otome game means landing yourself to crazy capture targets, and it does not matter whether you are a villainess or heroine, death flags or unending love, it will just not end well!

In my opinion at the least, so...

Why the heck am I reincarnated?!

...

...

...

-Fine, don't answer me! I've better things to do!-

"So, any game plan just to avoid the crazy ones?" Lia asked.

"Too late to avoid them at all costs. You just met them and the rivals, which are even more crazy," I huffed.

True that, lots of people say they are bitches, most 'bout rivals of otome games.

"So..."

"We still stick with the original plan, find the quit button and get out when things get out of control but this time, tread lightly around them. Don't add fuel to the fire, right?"

Lia nodded, agreeing with me.

"Then, we can explore all around, find the right, non-crazy man and fall in love with him..." Lia fantasised. She's still a romantic after all.

"Yeah, yeah," I grumbled. Lia laughed.

"So, have you found out about the riddle?"

"Yep," I said, handing her two books, the corner of the desired page was folded bookmarked to be found, "I am certain that these are it.

Inside those two books are about two treasures. There was a black ring called Noir's Ring where if worn will give needed knowledge to the beholder. A myth though, but the treasure is not. Having been seen and owned but lost in time for now.

The second was the Pisces bracelets. One white and one black meant to contrast each other that was said sent from an entity made by both God and the Demon to represent balance.

Unlike Noir's Ring, there was no evidence of the sort that it actually exists and is said to be a total myth.

Lia closed the books and said the most obvious question, "And how are you so sure?"

I took out the necklace and showed her something on the chain. Next to the big gem, on the chain was a symbol that looked like Mickey Mouse. Two ears, a face and a black nose, no eyes.

"I never noticed that symbol." Lia said. It was very small, who can?

"I was lucky," I shrugged and in the pictures and drawings of the other treasures have the same symbols. "And to double confirm it, once I steal it, I'll just have to shine it under the full moon. This is so Kaitou Kid!" I squealed.

Lia nodded vigorously, agreeing with my statement.

"So when are you going to steal them?"

"As soon as I get an inkling of where it is," I answered.

"And the necklace?"

"Keeping it. I'll send a fake tomorrow. They will never notice the difference. Remember?"

Lia nodded. A few times, for fun, I switched treasures with a fake and they still never noticed. The real ones, I sold for gold and charity for poor. The treasures were nice but carrying them will lead me to arrest. Definitely don't want that...

"Ro!" That was not Lia.

"Oh, I'm going to wake up!" I exclaimed.

"Well, have fun," Lia cheered.

"Haha. Hopefully..."

And those were the last words I said before I was shook awake by Clover saying, "We are skipping training today," once he was certain I woke up.

"Why?" Master Mason never makes us skip training. What the heck is going on?!

"Remember yesterday?" Clover gave as an answer, he continued, "We are supposed to give our statements to the CB along with the others after the past events. Afterwards, Alyssa wants up to meet up in her castle for special business. No one objected to that and since you and I were there, we'll have to go," He sounded pleased enough with these arrangements. Probably he was happy to escape Master Mason's training.

As for me, I slowly shook my head, processing the information. Lia's memories were invading my brain for clearer confirmation of those past events. But I just woke up and this was so sudden, the only word that came out was a shocked "What?!"

"Yep," Clover nodded, "Hurry up and get dressed. The law waits for no one," he left while smiling and shaking his head.

I changed as he asked. What the heck is going to go on? Knowing games, this feels like a big event, being invited to Alyssa's palace with everyone else.

Alyssa has been assassinated by an unknown assailant, all the capture targets and rivals, a few mob characters in the mix, were involved. We were invited the next day. I tried to find any events recently read that tallied with this. It came out blank.

I should have known better though, the events have changed here and there due to some circumstances and any events of the past did not tally whatsoever with the events of the otome game.

However that does not mean I escaped any danger. Any event is dangerous and must be weighed reasonably.

I must be careful.

So very careful...