I woke up in an improvised hammock with a pounding headache and completely disoriented. I found myself dressed in one of Alice's pajamas. It felt like the hammock had been gently swaying until now, and the current, rather irksome stillness, had woken me up.

"Where am I? Whose garden is this, and why am I wearing Alice's pajamas?"

Too many questions for my poor befuddled brain.

There were a few itchy spots on my skin, and as I scratched them absentmindedly, memories of ants flooded back to me. What did they have to do with the vividly colored sky I recalled? Were there ants in that other world? What other world?

I heard someone groaning nearby and reluctantly opened my eyes to locate the source. With some effort, I made out Hew lying on an improvised bed. His forehead glistened with sweat, and he groaned again while attempting to roll onto his side.

"He'll be okay," somebody reassured me.

I lifted my gaze to see Ju, our elf, standing beside me. Not far off was Tom, sitting in a similar hammock to mine, covered in blankets and trembling, but at least conscious.

"Do you want something to eat?" Tina asked, approaching me with a bowl of soup.

"Could you fetch more dishes? Most of them are in your inventory..." Ju suggested.

His request interrupted my thoughts. I attempted to focus on my inventory but suddenly felt nauseous and began to vomit. I managed to turn my head to the side, avoiding soiling my hammock. As if anticipating this, Ju caught my vomit in a makeshift bag made of grass and expertly flung it away into the distance.

"I guess that's a no," she remarked with a weary shrug. "Your magic must still be too tainted. It seems there's a compatibility issue between our magic."

I snorted and attempted to look around, my vision still sending wobbly images, as if I would be inside the ring's barn.

"Seems to be?" I questioned her overly polite words. My speech came out with difficulty as if driving a car with the handbrake engaged.

"The understatement of the day!" I protested. "Attempting to use your magic sent me straight into Nirvana. What happened? Where are we? Is everyone safe?" I wondered aloud.

They all seemed relaxed, so everything was likely fine. Trying once more to survey my surroundings, I realized it didn't resemble the glade.

"Where's the handbrake for my brain, to release it?" I mused.

She glanced at me askance after my Nirvana comment, then nodded towards Hew.

"Mike's fine, already up and about. Hew's still unconscious from too many ant bites, but he should improve in a day or two. Tom seems to have fallen ill. We're hoping for a speedy recovery," she informed me.

"We're out of the jungle, camping alongside the royal road!" Michael explained, then abruptly asked, "If you're not going to eat your soup, can I have it?"

"It's made with special ingredients for her!" Tina protested, prepared to defend the bowl. "Go ask Alice for another portion!"

As Tina approached me, I wasn't sure what to do. I wasn't certain I could stomach a spoonful of soup, but I didn't want to disappoint her.

"I'm not sure I can eat anything," I admitted.

"Just try a spoonful, okay?" she pleaded with her wide puppy eyes looking hopefully at me.

I couldn't resist that look. I glanced at Ju, who was busy fashioning another grass bag.

"I can't believe you took the time to make those," I remarked.

She shrugged. "It's better than cleaning up the mess..."

I opened my mouth as Tina's spoon drew near and attempted to swallow immediately. To my surprise, the taste wasn't as awful as I had anticipated. It had an intriguing extra flavor, and it warmed my insides pleasantly as I carefully swallowed it.

"Well?" Ju inquired.

"Seems okay," I replied.

Tina beamed. "It's a recipe my mom used to cure magic-induced sickness like exhaustion or mana drain."

"Did you suffer much from such exhaustion?" Ju asked.

Tina shook her head in shame. "Not me, I didn't really exercise, but my sister did. She was incredibly talented, but she overdid it with the training. She suffered from mana exhaustion almost every other day and needed the soup to recover. But whenever she ate the soup, I got my portion too, and I loved it."

"She was?" I asked.

Tina sighed. "She passed away in an accident when I was eleven."

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that," Ju offered sympathetically.

As silence fell and Tina stood there with a somber expression, I changed the subject.

"So, we're on the royal road?" I turned to Michael, who was just returning with his second serving of soup.

"Yes," he confirmed with a grin. "We've already seen caravans passing by. It's only about ten kilometers to the next station. Alice decided to wait here until you recover."

I glanced around. "Where's Mike?" I queried, and then a suspicion dawned on me. "Is he off taking care of business again?"

"Nah," Tom replied from beneath his blanket, showing that he was still tuned into our conversation. "I doubt he's doing that now. He's out there with his new crush."

The elf nodded toward the forest, while Michael started to laugh at my question.

"He's off to fetch a cauldron of water," Ju clarified.

"What?" I exclaimed, half in panic. "He went alone into the woods?"

"Alice is keeping an eye on him," Tina reassured me, shaking her head.

"You can still see him over there..." Michael pointed westward.

Finally, I caught onto what Tom had mentioned. "New crush? When did he have time for that?" I wondered aloud, peering in the direction they indicated. "Is that blue-haired girl his new crush?"

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"She stood tall, a slender figure of about seventeen, clad in shorts and a stained shirt that had long lost its whiteness. What truly set her apart was her vibrant blue hair. Though colorful locks might seem attractive, they often signified a history of famine that occurred after the development of some magical abilities, during her growth years. It was rumored that when the body endured starvation and consumed itself, the magic within was sometimes stored in hair and nails, altering their color. In many cases, even after conditions improved, the hue remained unchanged.

"You were gone for more than a day..." Tina said, offering another spoonful of soup. I accepted it, opening my mouth. She beamed at me as if she had just accomplished a moon landing as the spoon landed in my mouth.

"But... but... who... how... what..." I struggled to form coherent questions about Mike's crush.

"It's a girl from a traveling circus or something. They've set up camp about a hundred meters away, behind you, which is why you didn't notice them. There are about six or seven adults and three kids. She's around sixteen, I reckon, and speaks English," Michael explained."

"How come this girl speaks English?" Tom wondered from under his blanket.

"English is the language of adventurers. You have to understand, there were millions of adventurers scattered all over Aldea," Ju patiently explained.

"What happened to them? Did they disappear?" Tina pondered.

"Wait, why only English? Wasn't everyone speaking their own language?" Michael asked.

Ju took a breath and addressed Michael first. "Somehow, all other languages were translated directly to English by the game engine itself, so the player might have thought in Russian or French but spoke English." Then she turned to Tina. "I suppose they're still here, just no longer remotely controlled."

"But how could this remote control work?" Tom asked, shivering under his blankets. "I mean, everything is limited by the speed of light. This place should be light years away from Earth!"

Ju sighed. "I don't know. Maybe there are other methods of communication. I saw it as possession through magic, but that's all I can tell you," she shrugged.

"This was one of the things that made it hard for me to believe this world was real!" I exclaimed. "Tom's got a point. How can this work if it's light-years away?"

Ju shook her head. "Don't get me started on this! I don't want to kick off a scientific debate right now, but I'll just throw out a couple of points off the top of my head to give you some food for thought: It takes eight minutes for light to travel from your Sun to Earth, so you see the Sun in the sky where it was eight minutes ago. But if gravitational pull came from that point, Earth's orbit would be unstable. Gravitational pull actually comes from where the Sun really is, not from where you see it. Your astronomers calculate star orbits as if gravity were transmitted instantaneously, not delayed at the speed of light.

"Furthermore, your scientists think that only 4% of the universe is real matter, with the rest being elusive dark matter and dark energy. But here on Aldea, some scientists argue that everything can be explained by matter and magic. According to Earth's science, there must be a halo of dark matter around your galaxy in the shape of a rugby ball to explain the orbits. But who put the dark matter there? Why does it stay there in that form? And so on. Everything could be explained clearly once you understand how magic flows within and between galaxies."

I let her rant wash over my poor, confused brain as I followed a woman, approximately forty years old, dressed in the typical Guaravian black and red attire, who approached us hesitantly.

As soon as she spotted her, Ju nodded. "Mrs. Tehia!" she greeted. "Are you looking for something?"

Ju's question seemed well-intentioned, but the woman visibly hesitated to speak with her, appearing intimidated by the elf.

"Our lady has recovered. You can talk directly to her," Ju mentioned, nodding toward me.

Our lady? I glanced around, surprised. Was she referring to me? The lady being spoon-fed by a child froze upon hearing this. I raised an inquisitive brow at Ju.

Meanwhile, the woman performed a sort of reverence toward me, careful not to spill the contents of the small bowl she held in her hands. She spoke Guaravi, and it was only now that I realized Ju had also spoken Guaravi. Drats, these things were so ingrained in my mind that I hadn't even realized it!

"Milady, I have taken the liberty to prepare a healing potion for your companion," she nodded toward Tom. "He is obviously suffering from shudderfrost."

There was a brief moment of silence. I glanced at Ju, who nodded.

"I thank you, Mrs... ah?" I prompted.

"Tehia," Ju whispered.

"Tehia," I echoed.

She stood there hesitantly, bowl in hand, and I realized I needed to resolve the situation.

"Michael, could you please take that bowl?" I requested.

He looked surprised, pausing from his soup to comply. Standing up, he took the bowl from Tehia. As she bowed again and began to step away, I turned to Ju.

"What should we do with this? Just spoon-feed Tom until it's gone?" I inquired.

"Mrs. Tehia, how should the medicine be administered?" Ju asked.

"A spoon every arc until it goes away," Tehia replied, bowing once more.

After Ju nodded in understanding and Tehia left, I turned to her with a question.

"A spoon every arc?" I pondered.

"You should know this. One arc is about one hour. There are thirteen arcs that the moon Kragath travels each day through the sky. It divides the day into perfect time slots, twenty-six for day and night," she explained.

"What's with this thirteen division?" I asked.

"The Guaravi count in base thirteen. Five fingers plus one hand make six, two hands make twelve, and thirteen is the whole," she clarified.

"Isn't twelve the whole, or twenty-four?" I questioned.

"Not in Guaravi. Just as one hand is six, not five. Twelve is two hands," she explained.

I rolled my eyes. I knew this already; the memory came flooding back. Couldn't they just count to ten like everyone else with ten fingers?

"So, I'm the lady now?" I mused aloud.

Ju chuckled. "Well, wasn't that the plan? Who's going to be baron?"

Our conversation was abruptly interrupted by a startled cry. We turned to see Mike and the girl nearby. She had dropped the water she was carrying and leaped into Mike's arms, while a figure emerged from the forest.

A monster! But Alice didn't even reach for her bow. It was Lynx, bringing back some food for dinner. I exchanged a glance with Ju, and she returned it with a knowing smile. It was clear the girl was using the opportunity to get closer to Mike, and it seemed to be working as he put a protective arm around her shoulders.

"Children, aren't they sweet, the same everywhere?" Ju mumbled to herself.