We had arrived back at my home and the first thing that struck me was the heat, as usual. I quickly peeled off my jacket and scarf, then tied my hair back up into a ponytail. As we exited the small hut, I sneaked a glance at Masa to see how he would react to the heat. However, apart from him taking off his long-sleeved shirt, he didn't look particularly surprised. He folded his shirt and straightened out the black t-shirt he wore underneath before looking askance at me. "It's summer in Japan right now, so it's just as hot over there," he said with a shrug.

Tch, so he could guess what I was thinking. Oh well.

We decided to leave his swords hidden in a corner of the hut and just have him carry his backpack along. It would be too difficult to explain how he brought the swords through customs otherwise. I showed him to the living room and was just about to look for Muhammad when the main door opened and my parents walked in, followed by the butler carrying some shopping bags. I froze. Why were they back so early!?

"Hey Rynn, we're back!" my mum called out to me. "I wanted to cook dinner, so—wait, who's this?"

My mother's eyes widened while my dad's eyes narrowed as they both stared at Masa. He quickly stood up and bowed while I rushed over to introduce him. "This is Masa, one of my friends from Japan! You'll never believe what a coincidence it was to meet him here, of all places."

"Here? In the middle of nowhere?" asked my dad with a frown.

"Yes—I mean no! I actually met him in town and he wanted to do some birdwatching, so I brought him here," I explained.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr and Mrs Tan," said Masa politely. "My name is Masahiro Tanaka. I've heard so much about you from Rynn."

"Oh, the pleasure's surely ours," said my mum with a chuckle before she sidled towards me and spoke in a loud whisper, "He's so handsome! Is he your boyfriend?"

"Mum!" I exclaimed, rolling my eyes. "He's just a friend!"

"Yes, yes, of course," she said with a knowing smirk.

Masa was giving us a wry smile as my dad continued to scrutinise him. "Anyway," I quickly changed the subject. "He wants to have a look around, so I'll be showing him the garden outside."

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"Sure, go ahead," said my mum, making a shooing motion with her hand. "Just be back in time for dinner."

"Don't wander too far," added my dad as he folded his arms.

"We won't," I promised as we headed out the front door.

Phew, that went relatively well, I thought, sighing in relief. I turned to glance at Masa and he was already scanning the trees in the garden with a pair of binoculars. Wait, where had he gotten those from? Was he actually a Conjurer too?

He noticed me staring and explained that he had brought a pair in his backpack in case he saw some birds in Shyi'eld too. "I wouldn't be much of a birder without a pair of bins, would I?"

"Bins? What?" I couldn't help tilting my head at his words.

"Ah, that's the slang for binoculars," he said, his eyes glued to his "bins". "Cool! A black-naped oriole and a Javan myna. Two lifers in two minutes! Malaysia is awesome!"

I shook my head. It was hard getting used to his dramatic personality shift. "Those two species are common birds, by the way," I told him. "You can find them everywhere."

"That's great, I'm glad such pretty birds are doing well here. Ooh, a yellow-vented bulbul!"

Nope, it was no use talking to him in this state. We ended up just walking one round through the garden and I had to practically drag him inside for dinner. He was all smiles as he showed me his birding record on some app. Well, yeah, having eye-candy was fine and all, but this hobby of his was almost an obsession. I had to admit he was really eagle-eyed though (pun intended). I had no idea how he could spot over ten different species of birds just in and around our garden.

As we stepped into the house, he was ranting about how he wasn't familiar with some of the bird calls or he would be able to identify even more. Could this be why he had Inspect 3?! Did I have to be obsess over identifying stuff to increase my Inspect level too?

Anyhow, I didn't have time to worry about that since we were about to have dinner with my parents. I gulped as I realised I was going to have to tell them about my plan to visit Japan. Would they give me permission to go? Er, well, I was already venturing into another world without their consent, so what was another country, right? And if we were talking about danger, Shyi'eld was far more dangerous, with there being actual monsters and all. Plus I had been all alone there before I met Masa, so no one would have known if I was in trouble there.

As I contemplated these things, I felt a shiver go down my spine, but I pushed the negative thoughts aside. If I hadn't continued levelling, I wouldn't have met Masa or had the opportunity to travel like this. Who knew what other countries were connected via the portals to Shyi'eld? Maybe we could meet other players and join an adventurers' guild to do quests like in the Isekai stories! I hadn't even visited an actual town in the other world yet, so I didn't know how the culture was like there. Would there be other races like dwarves or beastfolk too?

We sat down at the table and I noticed Masa giving me a strange look, but he didn't say anything. Perhaps he was wondering why I was being so quiet. Heh, for some reason, my habit of speaking my thoughts only applied in the other world. It was a good thing too, or my secrets would be out in no time.

The food was served, and I suddenly realised that I was ravenous.