A room of similar design to a university lecture hall echoed with monotone words. One would think that a robot was reading a speech word for word from the outside.

There sat many oddly dressed robots malfunctioning as they took in the speaking voice’s words. Leon and Nick were two of the mentally numbed robots. “This lecture is drier than a desert,” one of the bored individuals whispered. Similar comments were made every once in a while as they all sat through their crash course of the Leqan language.

The language lecture was exhausting but it was indeed fruitful. Thanks to the skill, [Adept Tongue], the lot of them caught on relatively quickly. Unlike before, a word only needed to be said once or twice with its meaning or English counterpart attached to stick in their brains.

Surprisingly enough, the session ended sooner than expected… or perhaps some people dozed off and time seemed to fly by.

Students of various ages flooded out of the room. Amongst them, Leon and Nick were toward the last of them to exit. Leon glanced at his friend, noticing that his initial fervor of going back to school had left his… along with his soul.

Leon laughed at Nick’s expense as they walked back to their dormitory. Their amazing language teacher of exceptional youth and stature informed them and the others that they’d receive some books to study the next day, so they didn’t have much to do except look around the grounds or relax.

Many had taken notes during the lecture with supplies given by the academy in the lecture hall. Fortunately, and unfortunately for others, it was a near useless thing to do. Leon realized halfway through that he didn’t need to write the words down as they came naturally two him after a few seconds of mental recitation.

Now, Leon and Nick had somewhat useless papers in their hands. Not knowing where to throw them away, they carried them back to their rooms. ‘It doesn’t hurt to save them just in case,’ Leon thought.

Arriving at their dormitory, Leon broke off from Nick. Storing his few lecture notes in his desk, he made his way out of the dormitory and towards the front gates of the campus premises.

Leon wasn’t confident in his Leqan speaking skills but what he now knew would have to do as his mentor had called for him to visit her at the castle. The academy guards simply nodded at him when he had left the grounds. On the streets now, he recalled the route he took with Kassandra. The memories resurfaced as he tried to find the landmarks that Kassandra had pointed out… which were almost every establishment on the street.

Finding the correct avenue, he walked down the path recognizing the many places she rambled about. The journey was peaceful for Leon with the exception of occasional interactions where a vendor or something of the sort approached him and attempted to sell him something. He’d be lying if he didn’t get a heart attack every time he heard someone say “hello!” Or some type of greeting, followed by many words that he didn’t understand yet.

The castle of his origin into this fantasy-esque world came into view.

The front gates entered his line of view. In preparation, Leon pulled off his ring with the crescent moon design on it and morphed it back into its original form. He wanted to avoid any potential problems, so this action made the most sense in his mind.

Approaching the guards, Leon gave his best Leqan greeting and showed his engraving. Leon smiled awkwardly as one of the two guards silently leaned in slightly to observe the item in his extended hand. Every passing second building up more anxiety in Leon. ‘I’m holding the right one, right?’

Leon leaned his head slightly to check the symbol on the ring still on his hand, regretting that he extended the hand with his remaining ring on it. With the ring’s design coming into view, he suddenly straightened up. The first guard had pulled back and looked at his partner. With a nod and some unknown words exchanged, the men stepped aside, opening the gates.

Restrengthening his smile, Leon gave them a small head bow of appreciation before hurrying inside. Upon entering, he surveyed his surroundings. The general direction of Kassandra’s study came to mind. Leon strolled through the castle’s gardens looking for the familiar entrance to the inside.

Racking his brain, Leon stumbled upon the entrance at the side. He walked through the sheltered corridor. There was more garden to his left alongside the pillars that held the roof. To his right, there were numerous doors.

It was at this moment that something rather prevalent struck him.

“What door was it?”

All of the doors appeared similar with their arched-shaped tops and wooden material. Leon hadn’t counted how many doors he passed when he had left the first time and he wasn’t keen on knocking on all of the doors and hoping that he’d find the right one. ‘If I pick the wrong door and someone opens it… then I’ll end up asking for directions. I remember how that went last time,’ he thought, recalling his unintentional fearmongering of the servants.

Luckily for the anxious young man, he found an open door as he scrutinized the many doors looking for a small dent or something unique to Kassandra’s door that his mind hopefully would recognize.

Peering in, he found a familiar chaotic wasteland. ‘Unless every scholar who works here leaves their room like this…’ Leon thought, stepping inside.

To his relief, Kassandra was seen hurrying between tables with a parchment and glass vial in hand. Leon didn’t want to interrupt so he looked for a place to patiently wait. The mattress was still on the floor, indicating that Kassandra had been too busy to put it away.

Leon sat atop the mattress while Kassandra continued. Their eyes met momentarily but Leon simply waved her off and with that, she attempted to finish what she was doing.

Five minutes later, Kassandra had completed flaring up a heat source with a magic circle. She let out a huff, enjoying the short pause. Turning to Leon, she smiled lightly.

“Morning.”

“It’s the afternoon, I think,” Leon retorted, still not having a clock or a watch.

“Ah, my apologies. Anyways, your books are over there,” Kassandra said, pointing to another corner. “I still need to finish this up but feel free to ask me any questions.”

Leon nodded and made his way to the books. Picking up the top book of a pile of three, he ran his hand across the cover. The cover had scribbles written on it. Leon assumed it was the title and took a moment to decipher it.

A Dummy’s Guide to Leqan, it read. He found the title quite funny considering its legibility. Opening the book, Leon sat down on the floor.

“Kassandra Belleck?” He asked aloud, finding her name on a page.

“That would be my name,” Kassandra replied as she stared down some glass containers of odd liquids.

This wasn’t the big question on his mind, but he did enjoy knowing her full name. The real question he had was how had she made this book? He skimmed through the pages and saw that almost every page was filled with words. ‘How did she make a language textbook in English in such a short span of time?’

Following up on his first question, Kassandra just laughed it off. “I have my secrets.”

Leon didn’t pursue the question, writing it off as probably something to do with magic. He glanced at the other two books in the pile. They were much more professional looking but had much less… English. Leon guessed that they were standard books teaching Leqan to people who already knew some Leqan.

Opening the self-made journal by Kassandra, he started studying.

Time flew by as the sun began to set. Kassandra had finished her experimentations and duties a bit earlier and spent the rest of the time tutoring Leon. Thanks to the [Adept Tongue] skill, he had very little trouble committing the words to memory. The grammar and sentence structure took him a bit longer though.

The most difficult part was deciphering the scribbles. Leon didn’t tease Kassandra on it since it was extraordinary that she could even write his language already on top of taking the time to make a whole book. Leon knew he was in a privileged position as his fellow otherworlders like Nick had to wait until the next day to get a book and he doubted they had a cheat sheet like Kassandra’s journal.

With Kassandra’s vocal explanations towards the end, his learning speed increased significantly. He cherished the hard work put into the scribbles… but nothing beat just being told things.

Their session ended with Leon saying goodbye to Kassandra in Leqan. With his Leqan study journal in hand, he made the trudge back to his dormitory. With minorly incorrect pronunciation, Leon told the castle guards to have a good night as he walked toward the main street.

It was a different experience seeing the street at night. The street was alit with colored vibrancy and varying hues of lights. It was almost just as lively as it was with the sun out. If Leon didn’t know any better, he would have thought that some of the glowing wisps floating through were fireflies. Kassandra had explained to him that they were a type of condensed mana as he’d been curious since the first night at the castle.

Much of the activity in the area had found its focus more centralized than before. Taverns and places of relaxation seemed to contain most of the residents. Drunk shouts and cheerful bellows accompanied the clattering of plates and stumbling of persons.

Once past the liveliness of the street, the rest of his walk was peaceful. Being just him and a soft breeze.

The academy guards stood in front of the gates as he arrived. With yet another short interaction, he made his way inside and eventually arrived at his dormitory.

The building was relatively quiet with the exception of a few people talking in the common area beside the fire. ‘Looks like they’re practicing,’ he thought. Leon respected their efforts but found it odd since he didn’t struggle with the repetitive part of learning another language.

‘Perhaps my high intelligence stat!’ Leon internally proclaimed. The thought was a good motivator… fuel for the fire.

Making his way to the second floor, he approached the door of his room. Leon placed the journal on his desk and flopped onto his bed as he entered his residence. Before he knew it, he was out like a light.