A week latter, Professor Orpheu took a leave of absence. He was out to find the real Castle of Novak. His research led to an unpopulated world called Land of Eternal Sun. It was a world which was a complete desert, because the planet was bathed on the light of two suns and had no nights.

Apparently, that world used to harbor life much similar to earth until the second sun appeared and destroyed all life on it. Fossils and DNA evidence showed that the humans on that planet were close relatives of the humans on Earth. That led many scientists to believe that interplanetary travel through gates was, in a distant past, available on Earth before the appearance of the gates 140 years ago.

That meant that, in some point in Earth's history, there was mana on Earth and it vanished for an unknown reason. This was corroborated by the finding of residual mana in artifacts dating to medieval times and older.

Matthew was feeling a bit down since Vanessa was out doing her own thing, and Paula and Michael were still with Eric's guild. The last weekend, Matthew stayed at home training on his own since the girls were also doing their own stuff.

Professor Claude, who was filling in for Orpheu while he was away, gave a lesson on holy mana for the first period and on the second period they had another introduction to law class with Professor Lydia.

By lunch, Matthew saw himself alone with Helen in the cafeteria.

"Where are the others?" He asked Helen sitting down in front of her at the table.

"Rin went to the library, Lynn had something to talk with Professor Claude. And Mia went home. She wasn't feeling well." Helen answered while eating.

"Is she alright?" Matthew asked concerned.

"Yeah. It's just…" Helen stopped herself before she could finish and rephrased. "It's a woman thing."

"I see…" Matthew didn't see, he just said anything to hide his awkwardness.

"And how are you?" Helen asked cleaning her mouth with a napkin.

"I'm all right. You?"

"Me too…"

Both of them realized they hadn't much to talk about without the others and a moment of silence fell between them.

"I saw that on your shield." Matthew broke the silent after finally finding a subject to talk about by pointing at a necklace that Helen wore with her family's horse on it. "What is that?"

"This?" Helen looked down at her necklace. "This is a Táltos Steed. It's a mythical horse from Hungarian culture. White, six legs, wings… It's my family's seal."

"That's so cool." Matthew said getting closer to her and looking at the necklace with greater care. "Your family name is Táltos too, isn't it?"

"Yes. My family were the first awakeneds in Hungary. So we ended up being called Táltos from mythology. With time, it became a family name and the horse became a symbol." Helen explained. "We're an old family of adventurers."

"And you're here now?" Matthew asked curious.

"I am. My dad and mom too. The rest of the family is still in Hungary. I got a scholarship for Laufgraan and mom and dad came with me." She rolled her eyes. "Not like I couldn't handle living alone, but they just didn't trust me."

"Well. If it is any consolation, I too live with my parents." Matthew laughed.

"No it isn't." Helen laughed too. "Mom and dad are both powerful adventurers, so they can easily earn a living anywhere. Then they decided to live here with me. They really didn't need to!" She complained.

"But you go inside dungeons with your father, don't you?" Matthew interjected.

"Yeah. When he wants to assess how I'm going." Helen pouted. "He's too powerful. Dungeon diving with him is almost useless. Our level difference is too great."

"Can I ask what level he is?" Matthew couldn't hide his curiosity.

"Of course. Dad is level 36. Mom just got to 30."

"Wow." Matthew exclaimed.

"Matt." Helen blushed a little. "Since we're on the subject. What you're doing this Saturday?"

"I have nothing planned." Matthew said with his heart beating faster. Was she going to ask him out too?

"You see…" Helen played with her fork fiddling with the bones on her plate. "Mom wanted to get to know you."

"What? Why?" Matthew blurted out in surprise.

"They ask me about school and one day I told them about you…" Helen said her voice getting lower with each word. "They already met the others… And they were curious about you." The last words were almost inaudible to Matthew.

"So you want me to meet your parents?" Matthew asked trying to understand.

"It's not like I'm into you or anything." Helen dismissed him blushing. "They just like to know my friends."

Matthew took a good look at Helen. She had a very muscular body and large shoulders. With her short hair, one could mistake her for a man if looking at her from behind. But her face was really beautiful and, now that he was seeing her blushing like that, he found her cute.

"Besides. We all know you're and Lynn are practically a couple." Helen added trying to divert attention from herself.

"What?" Matthew exclaimed. "Me and Lynn?"

"Didn't you two kiss?" Helen asked confused.

"We did. But it was just because she was under the influence of the demonic mana. We didn't do anything after that." Matthew said as if defending himself from a serious accusation. "And how do you know that?"

"She… Well, Rin told us. But she told Rin."

"Does Mia and Tina know?"

"Oh yeah." Helen nodded vehemently.

"Can I ask you something?" Matthew said as if thinking to himself.

"Sure."

"Does Lynn really like me?" He blushed a little when asking.

Helen laughed out loud with the question.

"It's obvious she does. She's just too shy to show it directly. Now…" Helen's voice got conspiratorial. "Do you like her?"

Matthew got flustered with the question and looked around as if finding a place to hide.

"Well?" Helen urged him to answer.

"I… Do." Matthew said slowly and unsure. "I think." He added.

Helen laughed softly at that.

"I see. It's still too soon for you." She said putting a hand on his shoulder understanding his hesitation. "Anyway." She changed subjects. "Want to have lunch at my house Saturday? Don't worry, it's not a date. I'm calling the girls too. Mom is going to cook her goulash for some friends. You should come."

"Sounds great. I never had goulash before."

"Then it's settled. I'll send you the address later."

After lunch they went to training. Today Matthew was training his swordsmanship with Firynn. Faralynn missed training that day, something very rare for her. Matthew felt a bit lonely without her there, but focused on his movements.

Firynn approached him looking at his footwork intently.

"Training with Geovanna really helped your movement." The master complimented him.

"Thank you, master." Matthew said taking some time to breathe.

"Professor Lydia said you were looking for a Ranger to train you?" Firynn asked sitting by his side.

"Yeah. You know my unique skill, don't you? I have the Ranger class." Matthew explained.

"I see. I don't know any Ranger on Earth. But on Nuilynn I have a sister who delves in a similar skill." Firynn said taking out a scroll from his Inventory. "I wrote her about you and she sent me this. I don't know if it will help you, since we don't have the System in Nuilynn and our way of using mana is different than yours. But take a read and try it out. Slowly." He warned.

"Really?" Matthew said with a huge smile on his face. "Thank you so much, master! I'll be safe, I promise."

After training Matthew hurried home treating the scroll Firynn gave him as a sacred text. He clenched his bag on his lap paying extra attention to his surroundings to keep it safe.

When he got home, he rushed upstairs. He sat down by his desk. Opened space to unroll the scroll moving his keyboard to the side. Open the scroll slowly afraid to damage it. He never read a scroll before. His hands shook a little with excitement. His fingers traced the first words on the papyrus.

The scroll was in elvish.

Of course it was.

Didn't Firynn know that Matthew didn't speak elvish? Or he wanted to make Matthew learn it with this? Or it simply didn't cross his mind the language barrier?

Matthew tried translating it with his phone, but the translation turned out really bad, he couldn't even understand the first paragraph.

Just when his frustration led him to take his hands to his face, his phone buzzed. It was a text message from Faralynn.

"Matthew. Helen told me you're going for lunch at her house on Saturday. Do you confirm?" The text read.

Matthew laughed at her way of writing. He texted back to her that yes, he would be going to lunch at Helen's.

"I will be going too." Faralynn sent another text.

Matthew smiled. She was too cute even in text.

That's when it hit him.

"Lynn, you read elvish, don't you?" He texted her.

"Of course. I studied it since I was very little. I'm very well versed in elvish." She texted him.

Matthew couldn't contain his laughter. Was she trying to be formal? She didn't speak like that at all.

"Master Firynn gave me scroll to help me with my Animal Companion skill, but it is in elvish. Can you help me?"

"I can."

"Thank you! How about Saturday before lunch we go to the library together and you translate it to me? We can go to Helen's together from there. Is 9am ok?"

There was no response for several minutes. Matthew could picture her blushing reading that message. Was he too direct? He was only asking for help, not a date. It wasn't a date, was it?

"I'll be there." She finally texted him back.

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