Chapter 186 – Discussion

"We can go to the pool. Or we can play some football with my friends. Ah, if you don't want that, Olivia, we can also play some games."

Her mother had to intervene at that point.

"Don't stay inside too much during vacation, kids."

Olivia thought about it and answered.

"Well, I can at least be the referee if you want to do some sports."

"Come on, you can play too. We all know you so no one will mock you even if you suck."

"Ugh, I know I don't play sports a lot but you don't have to be so blunt."

"Sorry, sorry. I have some other ideas of stuff we can do but let's talk about it later."

Her mother intervened here.

"Kiana..."

"W-what?"

"Don't make your cousins do something foolish this time."

"Yeees."

Halle sighed, pretty sure she would end up in trouble sooner or later, as usual. The problem was that their little group was a bit unbalanced. Even though Olivia often tried to stop them whenever they were doing something stupid, the duo of Kiana and Chloe wasn't something the timid girl could do much about. Kiana always proposed some terrible idea which the younger and curious Chloe happily went with and the best Olivia could do at that point was some damage control.

"Kids, why don't you all spend the vacation together?"

From her point of view, that would be the best to avoid the girls getting into trouble. However, their response was fierce, starting with Kiana.

"No way I'm going shopping with them."

"Yeah well, no way I'm playing football with girls."

Ray retaliated immediately and Halle could only sigh again at the failed attempt. She would have to prepare some punishment in advance for her daughter since she couldn't go too hard on her nieces. Even though Clare said it was fine to scold them if necessary, she knew she didn't like it too much when it happened. That's something she understood well because it was the same for her. No matter how unruly her daughter was, there was a world of difference between her rebuking Kiana and other people doing it.

Kiana and Ray frowned at each other for a while but soon turned back to their respective discussions about things to do. The meal ended like this and as soon as they were done eating and cleaning up everything, the children went to do their stuff. Benjamin told Ray he wanted to have a chat just between them and they went out to find a place where they could talk without anyone bothering them. They settled for talking while having a digestive walk in the surroundings.

Benjamin was happy to see his cousins, even if they were different from how he remembered them, but there was also another reason why he wanted to come here. Since he arrived in this world, he had been doing a lot of thinking but he never shared his thoughts with anyone. He wanted to talk about a few serious topics with a male of his world but never had the perfect interlocutor so far. His friends at school were nice folks but in the end, they were still people he had just met a few months ago and he wouldn't talk about such things with them just yet. On the other hand, his cousin was the perfect interlocutor. No matter what subject he would touch on, he was a nice guy, his family, and someone he could trust.

"So, why so tired?"

"What else? It's Kiana being a pain in the ass, as always."

"I see. Can't you do anything about it?"

"Temporarily, yes, but you know her, she's persistent. She always manages to get what she wants because people are so annoyed by her that they relent in the end."

"True."

They continued with their light talk and news sharing from lunch for some time until Benjamin finally asked a more serious question.

"Ray, what do you think about this world?"

"That's a pretty vague question. Can't you be a bit more specific?"

"I'm talking men and women and the relationship between them. I have my opinion on the subject but I wanted to hear someone else's point of view."

"Hmm, so, is there anything wrong with it? Are you talking about the recent masculist movements? Or the fact that men are getting more rights recently?"

"Not really. See, I've been thinking recently but don't you think the world is somewhat unfair to women?"

"What? I never thought you'd say that, Ben. Especially since you always complain that it's painful to have six females around you all the time."

"Yeah. But let's forget about me. What do you think about it?"

"Let's see... The world is unfair to women, you say? Hmm, I don't think that's the case. The people in power are still mostly women and men are far from being able to get into high-level jobs and positions as easily, right? On top of that, there are still some salary differences between men and women even if they have the same job. You could say the world is actually unfair to men, even if it's slowly getting better."

"What about how women are biologically so, well, horny all the time and there's nothing they can do about it?"

"I wish it wasn't the case, really. This is more of a pain to deal with for us guys. I'm sure you've been bothered by girls all the time at school too, right? That sucks, I wish they'd just leave us alone."

Ray's opinion was very interesting because it reflected something he had heard a lot from other males in this world. Of course, he was still a teenager and wasn't very empathic about women's issues, focusing more on his side of the problem. He also didn't have Benjamin's experience of women in this world and a way to compare with another world where things were the reverse from here.

"What about from women's point of view? Don't you think it's painful for them to have such strong urges all the time even if they don't want to?"

Ray looked at him, lightly surprised, before thinking about it for a moment.

"I've never thought about it this way. I guess there might be some women who are bothered by it? Well, if you think about it, you could say that history has been built because women were chasing after men aggressively all the time. No doubt the world's population would be a lot lower if that wasn't the case!"