Sahar finally arrived at the hotel, out of breath. He'd had to ask different people for directions and had been running all this time. He'd lost his way in the big city of Provinäah, and the conversation with this girl, Tornado, had turned him upside down. Although she had admitted asking him if he was from another world as a joke, Sahar couldn't get the thought out of his mind. It was... too strange. The way she'd said it, the earnestness of her face... Something deep inside screamed at him that she knew things about him. That wasn't impossible, after all: maybe she'd sat down to talk to him because she KNEW he was from another world. All these thoughts were racing through the boy's mind. He had to stop worrying too much, or his head would explode.

After panting her way up the stairs, Sahar knocked on her bedroom door. Logically, Az had to be there. The door opened, but the room was empty; well, not exactly. Sahar, still sweating, greeted his "roommate" again.

- Did you run?" asked Azgoria.

- Hehe... Y-Yeah, I got... lost, somehow, kinda.

Sahar entered the room and the door closed behind him. He lay back on his bed and sighed. He thought again of the girl he'd been talking to. That Tornado…

- What did you do while we were gone?

Sahar looked at the next bed, where Az should be. He closed his eyes and answered honestly.

- I chatted with a girl on a bench and then looked at the scenery for a while before coming back.

- A beautiful girl, eh?

Sahar smiled. He couldn't lie: she was very pretty. He thought Nyara was prettier, but Tornado was high up the list too. That long, apple-green hair looked so soft and... silky. If he could, he'd love to touch it.

- Very pretty, yes," replied the boy sincerely.

- Ohoh!

Sahar could hear the man's petty smile. He sighed, his cheeks tinged red.

- I'm not going to go off the deep end for so little, calm…

- Going off on a tangent…

Sahar opened one eye, hands behind his head. Didn't he know that expression? Yet he'd already used it/hadn't he already used it...? In any case…

- What's she like, this girl?" asked Az, curious.

The boy sighed when he saw that the man seemed to think that Sahar had fallen in love with the girl at first sight. He replied all the same.

- A beautiful girl who must be about eighteen, with long apple-green hair. She has two different-colored eyes, one yellow and one red. It's special, but it gives her a certain charm. Her name is Tornado.

Azgoria remained silent. Sahar smiled and stared at the ceiling. Nyara, Harmonie, then Tornade... He'd met three really pretty girls. True, Harmonie was a little girl, so he wasn't attracted by her beauty or anything, but it was impossible for him to deny that she was very cute. Although his idea of a harem no longer crossed his mind, if it consisted of these two girls, he'd be the happiest man in the world…

But he obviously no longer wanted a harem. He would like one woman, one and only one woman. Az still didn't speak, which worried Sahar. He opened his eyes and turned his head.

- Why is he that wordless right now...?

He'd stopped talking directly after the girl's description. Did he have nothing to say at that point? Or—

- She looks... pretty!

Az finally spoke, and his smile was "audible" in his sentence. Sahar also smiled.

- Very pretty, even if Nyara is always the prettiest!

- It's hard to beat Nyara, hehe.

Sahar nodded. Beauty was objective, but how pretty and cute he thought Nyara was! She had that "something" that made her shine in the boy's eyes. Azgoria left again in a long silence. Sahar didn't know what to say. What conversation should he have with the man...? The boy began to think and wondered if it wouldn't be good for him to learn more about how this World worked. Months, how years and hours worked, certain customs... Learn more. It was true that he wanted to experience more action, but at the moment, there was nothing he could do about it. He knew nothing of this World, the one of Duzmog. Afterwards, he was afraid to ask. It was strange to ask the man about months or years. It was as if, on Earth, he asked how the seasons worked. People would think he was crazy. Everyone knew how the seasons worked, especially in his own world. Here, it was the same.

But Sahar was not from this World. He didn't know how many months there were in a year, how many days, how the seasons worked, whether it rained or snowed.... He knew so little that if he were to live alone in this World, he'd probably die within hours.

It was possible that the rain was acidic. It was possible that at times, the star in the sky became so bright that it blinded. It was possible that sneezing without putting your hand in front of your mouth signified a desire to fight to the death. It was possible... that everything.

Unfortunately, Sahar couldn't ask for all that. He had the "Yes, but I'm not from this continent" wild card, but it wouldn't work for everything. At a certain point, Az would have doubts about him and at that point, Sahar wouldn't be able to keep up the charade for very long.

Fortunately for Sahar, Az handed her a pole.

- Do you like our capital and our continent?" asked Az.

The white-haired boy took some time to answer, and for a very good reason.

- It's rather different from my continent, but I really like what I've seen. Still impressed by the Imäa tree.

Sahar hoped Azgoria would ask him how it was different, but he didn't. He wanted to ask the man indirectly about the continent, but this seemed complicated. Sahar wanted to ask the man indirectly for some information about the continent, but this seemed complicated. He decided to be more direct, even if it was more risky.

- Say, is it twelve months ago here?

It was very risky of him. Az had to ask questions, but Sahar didn't feel like beating around the bush for too long.

Despite the strange question, Azgoria didn't react. He answered completely normally, even if there was a little astonishment in his voice.

- Not at all. The months here are based on the seasons. There are only five months here... On the other continent, are there twelve...?

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Sahar nodded.

- Another lie…

He didn't really have a choice. He wanted to know more now and had to keep going. Lie about who he really was, where he really came from... Not reveal to them that another world existed. He had no choice... Except to lie.

Sahar listened attentively to what the man had to say.

- Strange, all that... he says. Anyway, you don't know anything about this continent, do you? You look totally lost.

Sahar nodded. He knew nothing about the workings of this continent... or this World, really. Az simply explained in brief.

- Here, there are five seasons: warm, neutral, snowy, rainy and invisible.

Sahar wondered about the last name. The "invisible" season…? The rest seemed normal, though…

- Months are simply seasons, but sometimes one season is longer than the other depending on the year, so we've decided to create months that are specific days to understand where we are in the year. Today is the 19th of Neytralora, in the neutral season. Sometimes it's bright sunshine, sometimes it's gray rain. There's never any snow, except sometimes at the very end of the month, well, the last two or three days. Isn't it like that where you come from?

On Earth, there were only four seasons and it didn't work like that at all. On this World, Duzmog, was there a season only with snow? One with only fog and another with sunshine all the time? Sahar wasn't going to like the month when it was only foggy…

- For us, a season is three months…

In reality, it was four months, but he wanted to get closer to the way Duzmog worked. If there were five seasons and every three months the season changed, that would mean there would normally be fifteen months. However, this was just a detail and Azgoria didn't seem to want to know any more. He thought so... Sahar always felt rather bad about this... about having to lie—

- Really? Do you count a year in 419 days too? Azgoria asked.

Sahar seemed to "bug out" for a few seconds before replying with a simple "Yes...". On this World, things were... different, that was for sure. 419 days on Duzmog, 364 or 365 on Earth. It wasn't a big difference, but Sahar would probably feel it. Besides, how was Sahar really going to count his age? Would he have to count every day and "celebrate" it according to planet earth?! His birthday was August 18, which meant... it should be... He didn't feel like calculating and sighed, which challenged the man in front of him, who nevertheless remained silent. In any case, he was going to have a hard time knowing WHEN to celebrate his birthday. He had been looking forward to turning nineteen... He felt that the milestone was more important than turning eighteen. Azgoria waited for the boy's answer, and he finally spoke.

- Y-Yeah... Same.

- Ooh, I see. But then, your place looks quite different from here. It's... interesting.

- I'm going to have to get used to this new place, hehe... Sahar let go.

- Well, I don't think that'll be a problem. You should be able to get used to it pretty quickly!

Sahar wasn't so sure, but grumbling wouldn't change the situation.

He had no way of getting home.

Earth was inaccessible to him and he didn't know how to get back. He didn't necessarily want to go back in any case, but at least to tell his friends and family that he was all right... He'd like to do that at least. Maybe bring some things back to this World and find out about the manga he loved...... He'd probably love Duzmog, but Earth had some pleasures he was sure to miss. Nevertheless, he had to make do. Finding a way to return to Earth temporarily would be one of his future goals, but for the moment, he didn't want to think about it too much: he had to make the most of his time here. Who knows, maybe he'd be sent back to Earth in a few days...? He'd be surprised, but it was possible that he'd been teleported to this World to fulfill a certain objective. Once this had been achieved, he would return home. Since he didn't know who had "summoned" him, he couldn't know his objective, nor whether his theory was correct. Sahar didn't want to know, in fact.

Azgoria tilted his head and stared at the boy in front of him.

- Say.

- Yes... ?

- ...... On the other continent, do we sometimes talk about... the ten?

- ... ?

Sahar had no idea what he was talking about, and Azgoria didn't seem to want to say anything more. Ten of them? What did it all mean? The ten what?

- The ten...?

- ... Never mind, never mind.

- But…!

- It's no big deal, hehe.

Sahar bit his lip, but didn't try to find out more: Azgoria didn't seem to want to elaborate. Now that he'd mentioned the ten, the boy's curiosity would only grow and grow. He should try to find out more as soon as possible...! Maybe ask Nyara or the Tornado? It was a possibility! Just as Sahar was about to ask a few questions about politics on this continent, a knock sounded at the door. Azgoria got up from the bed and went to open it, only to be pushed back violently against the wall. Sahar got up from his bed to find out what was going on. He gasped and backed up to the end of his bed until his back touched the wall behind him. In front of the boy was Nyara's cute, excited face. Her eyes sparkled and she seemed to be impatient.

- Sahar, Sahar!

- W-W-What...?!

- Let's go for a walk tonight in the city !!!!

- Er…

- THE CITY IS soooo BEAUTIFUL THE NIGHT!!!!

- All right! OK!!! OK OK!!!

She straightened up and shook her hair before showing the boy her thumb. She left the room, closing the door. Sahar blinked several times before hearing Azgoria sigh.

- A real child…

- I... see that.

Sahar smiled. He liked this kind of behavior, this energy emanating from Nyara.

He was sure he would get on well with her.