Standing on the wooden veranda, Ivette looked at the white-haired girl of unknown origin and fell into a long silence, unsure whether she should pretend not to see her.
Just then, the waitress who had just left suddenly came rushing back with a series of thuds, flung open the door, and said anxiously, "I'm terribly sorry, guest. I assigned you the wrong room. Your room should be the one next door!"
At the sound, Ivette saw the white-haired girl lying by the bath stir slightly. She slowly turned around and met Ivette's gaze.
Her eyebrows and eyelashes were white as well, as pure and eye-catching as fine snow drifting down from the sky.
But what drew even more attention was her gaze. There was almost no emotion in it, making her seem like a lifeless doll.
Ivette was very familiar with that sort of gaze. Before coming to this world, during the thousands of years she had lived alone, she often wore that same hollow expression. She only occasionally noticed it in mirrors or reflections on lakes. But since coming to the Radiant Continent, she had shown that look far less often.
Whenever she wore that hollow expression, her mind was generally empty. In ordinary terms, she was spacing out—was this mysterious invisible girl the same?
She promptly withdrew her gaze and calmly replied to the waitress, "Is that so?"
"Um—guest, is there someone else in the room?" Seeing Ivette standing beside the sliding door leading to the outdoor hot spring, the waitress asked nervously.
Ivette turned her head, sweeping her eyes across the outdoor hot spring and past the girl's emotionless lake-blue eyes. "No," she said casually.
"That's wonderful—" The waitress let out a relieved sigh.
Ivette shut the sliding door, cutting off the invisible girl's stare, and asked