We planned to go to the old mansion via the teleport at the Singapore portal. Masa was thoroughly enjoying his second visit to the botanic gardens since we entered as soon as the gates opened. It was so early the birds were still in the middle of their dawn chorus and he pointed out the calls of the different species to me. He must have done his research, since he hadn't been able to identify this many on his previous trip to Malaysia. We headed to the forest area and caught another glimpse of the Hooded Pitta before I dragged him into the portal.

The scenery at the grasslands remained unchanged and we simply used the teleport we planted there the last time. Back at the mansion, we repacked our groceries by stuffing all the food into my Void. I found that I was able to pack more than I could previously, maybe because of practice or better visualisation. It had risen to Class 3, but I wasn't sure what this Class thing meant anyway. Was it something like proficiency? Or did it mean that I was able to do more things? But there were only limited aspects, right? Hmm… Where was the walking tutorial when I needed him? Oh well, I had pretty much given up on meeting Feyril again and so far I hadn't been desperate enough to contact him for any reason either.

Masa and I went towards the garden to enter the small hut there, but just before we opened the door, we heard voices. Very familiar voices. My hand froze on the doorknob.

"I still think this armour thing makes me look fat."

"Look, everyone wears stuff like that, so you'll fit in better with that on. You don't want people noticing you're not from there, right?"

"We're not there yet, so I could just turn around and leave, right?"

"W-wait! Didn't you agree to go with me?"

"Yeah, but not to wear this ungainly thing… Uh-oh. Someone's on the other side of the door. My Presence Sense is pinging like crazy."

There was a short silence, then I turned the knob and opened the door to glare at my parents, who were dressed in somewhat dated fantasy-esque clothing. My dad gave an embarrassed cough while my mother just sighed and nudged him.

"You knew all this time and you didn't tell me?!" I accused them.

"Look, I can explain, girling," said my dad, holding up his hands. "Calm down and let's find somewhere to sit down and talk things out."

"Ooh, Masahiro is here too," remarked my mum as she noticed the equally-stunned Japanese boy behind me. "Thanks for taking care of our Rynn."

"Uh…it's not a problem, Mrs Tan, although I am a bit confused as to why you are here," admitted Masa. "And from your Levels, you are clearly not new to Shyi'eld."

I shot a glance at him, then inspected them right away.

Eve Tan/Lim Yi Wei

Race: Human | Age: 42

Level: 81 | Condition: Normal

Attack: 18XX

Endurance: 20XX

Agility: 14XX

Speed: 17XX

Intelligence: 22XX

Mana: 23XX

Skills:

Presence Sense, Evasion, Cooking, Bargaining, Arithmetic, Laundry, Cleaning, Throwing

Magic:

Transformation, Class 4

Conjuration, Class 6

Fred Tan Fye Ren

Race: Human | Age: 44

Level: 87 | Condition: Normal

Attack: 20XX

Endurance: 17XX

Agility: 19XX

Speed: 27XX

Intelligence: 19XX

Mana: 16XX

Skills:

Sword Mastery, Dagger Mastery, Stealth, Spatial Sense, Far Sight, Identify, Arithmetic, Negotiation

Magic:

Transportation, Class 5

Adaptation, Class 2

Well…they had slightly less skills than Grandma, but their statuses were impressive nonetheless. I could also see more numbers in their stats, which was probably due to my Inspect gaining a level. I sighed. Maybe I wouldn't have been so surprised if I had thought of inspecting them before this? Well, Masa clearly hadn't thought to inspect them either, and he was usually the more cautious one. So it wasn't just me, right? Right?

All right, all right, so we were dumb for assuming that adults were dumb and had no secrets to hide from us. Or we were too busy hiding our own secret to notice any clues. Anyway, we proceeded to the living room where my mum took out an entire set of chairs and a coffee table from her Void like it was normal and we sat down. She then placed a pot of tea (still steaming hot) and cookies on the table for us to snack on as we talked. How thoughtful—no! That wasn't the point!

There were so many questions running through my mind that I didn't know what to start with and just sat there biting my lip. Masa glanced at me and my parents, then just drank his tea quietly. Maybe he thought it wasn't his place to interfere. My dad and mum exchanged glances and my dad finally started speaking first. "To properly explain things, we have to go back to when I was growing up."

"That far?!" I couldn't help bursting out. Everyone stared at me and I clapped my hands over my mouth. My dad raised an eyebrow, but continued his story.

He was brought up by a single father who was rather eccentric and had unusual friends. Apparently the man lived in both worlds, and often brought his son to the other world as well. As a child, my dad hadn't realised the difference and assumed the worlds were just different countries. He grew up learning the sword and magic, and his father often asked him to test the swords he made. The grandfather I never knew even credited my dad for giving him interesting ideas.

At this point I was starting to have a terrible suspicion, and it only grew as my dad regaled us with tales of how his father made swords. I held my tongue, however, until Masa slowly turned to stare at me. I could almost hear his neck making a creaking sound. To confirm my hypothesis, I took out the only proof I had and laid it on the coffee table.

The moment I let go of it, the sabre's obnoxious voice rang out.

"Hey, it's Fred! How nice to see you again!"