Chapter 5: Magic and Mana

After all, it was a language from another world, and its pronunciation still differed somewhat from Earth’s languages.

Lin Yu didn’t think much of it; instead, he eagerly poured some tea and used his index finger to write two Chinese characters.

“Lin Yu, my name.”

“Never seen characters, never heard a language… fascinating!”

The woman named Fulaimei also became interested, immediately writing another line of text, then pointing to the large tree outside the courtyard.

Undoubtedly, this word meant “tree”!

Lin Yu’s eyes lit up; he quickly returned the favor, teaching her the Chinese character for “tree.”

Thus, they set aside the brewed tea and took turns teaching each other the languages they knew.

Time passed second by second.

An hour later, perhaps feeling that writing with tea was too inefficient, Fulaimei suddenly raised her hand; the vast energy within her surged from her palm and wove into a line of blue text in midair.

“Whoa! What is this?”

Lin Yu stared in astonishment at the floating blue glowing characters.

Though he didn’t yet understand them, he could sense that the text was composed of energy identical to that of Longlongyan.

“Magic?”

“Mana?”

Lin Yu examined the blue glowing characters with interest, then frowned at Fulaimei: “If you have such a convenient magic, why didn’t you use it sooner? My tea leaves are precious too!”

“… ”

Fulaimei’s lips twitched; after a moment’s hesitation, she spoke in halting Chinese: “Sorry.”

Lin Yu froze, then burst into excitement: “Exactly! That’s how you say it—you’ve already learned it?”

Fulaimei shook her head, indicating she still couldn’t fully comprehend Lin Yu’s language; she had merely inferred his meaning from his expression.

“Enough, enough!”

“I never thought you were also a language genius equal to me!”

Lin Yu was overjoyed; at this rate, in a little more time, they would master each other’s languages.

With this success as foundation, Lin Yu’s enthusiasm for learning the local language grew even stronger.

Fulaimei felt the same; she had always possessed a fierce thirst for knowledge, and encountering such a mysterious boy speaking an unknown language in this northern plateau forest naturally made her eager to learn his origins.

Thus, the two studied from midmorning until nearly sunset.

Only when Fulaimei’s stomach growled with hunger did they reluctantly stop.

A guest with an empty stomach was the host’s fault; Lin Yu immediately took the deer meat he had hunted the day before, combined it with wild vegetables and mushrooms he had gathered, and prepared a mushroom-based hot pot.

Judging from Fulaimei’s attire, which resembled ancient Greek style, this world was still in its early stage of civilization.

All aspects of life—clothing, food, shelter, transportation—were still underdeveloped; for Fulaimei, enjoying a meal that could be called a delicacy in this primitive forest was a remarkable experience.

After eating their fill, night fell.

Lin Yu warmly invited Fulaimei to stay in his pavilion, but she shook her head and refused.

Honestly, when she shook her head, Lin Yu’s face instantly darkened with disappointment, and for a fleeting moment, he considered forcibly keeping her here.

But thoughts were only thoughts.

No matter how lonely Lin Yu was, he could never harm a human being he had finally found.

Fortunately, Fulaimei had no intention of abandoning communication with Lin Yu.

She used mana to form the number “2,” then gestured that she would return in two days.

Lin Yu nodded in understanding, but a trace of sadness still lingered on his face.

Over the next two days, Lin Yu daily guarded the forest path at the edge of his territory with Longlongyan, and sure enough, on the second day, he spotted that familiar figure.

This time, Fulaimei did not come empty-handed; strapped to her back was a satchel filled with parchment scrolls covered in writing.

So she had gone to buy textbooks!

Lin Yu suddenly understood, and his fondness for his first friend in this world deepened greatly.

As he had expected, the texts Fulaimei brought were the characters taught to nobles’ descendants, containing simple fairy tales.

Thanks to these fairy tales, Lin Yu’s learning speed surged.

He, in turn, copied out the Thousand Character Classic and the Three Character Classic to help Fulaimei learn Chinese more effectively.

Thus, Fulaimei finally agreed to stay in Lin Yu’s pavilion—and she stayed for a full month.

Lin Yu, after all, was a terrifying existence equivalent to a Dimensional Demon God; even now, suppressed by his home universe’s constraints, he was incomparable to ordinary sentient beings.

Likewise, Fulaimei was a once-in-a-thousand-years genius of this world, her intellect far beyond ordinary comprehension.

Thus, within a mere month, the two mastered each other’s languages and could communicate fluently in daily life.

“Finally, that’s settled~”

In the stone pavilion, Lin Yu set down the last fairy tale book and sighed wistfully: “If this world has all kinds of magic, why hasn’t anyone created a spell to translate unknown languages?”

“… ”

Sitting across the stone table, Fulaimei glanced at him and smiled lightly: “Because the entire human world uses the same language.”

“Magic is a world of imagination; without the need for language translation, no one ever thought to create such a spell.”

“That’s not right!” Lin Yu frowned. “You said this world has races like elves and dwarves—didn’t they develop Elvish and Dwarvish?”

“… ”

Fulaimei paused, then mused: “According to your theory of natural selection, if elves and dwarves lived apart from humans, they might indeed have developed their own racial languages.”

“But our world is unusual—we have the Demon Race as a common enemy.”

“Thanks to the Demon Race, elves and dwarves integrated with humans from the start, becoming subspecies of the broader human race, so their racial languages…”

Here, Fulaimei paused, muttering to herself: “No, I seem to recall hearing an ancient language from my teacher—if that was Elvish, then this world must have once had other racial languages… ah, I understand. Perhaps the current Common Tongue is the result of fusion between Ancient Human, Ancient Elvish, and Ancient Dwarvish!”

So that’s how it is!

Lin Yu nodded thoughtfully, then asked curiously: “You said your teacher might know Ancient Elvish—is she an elf who has lived for ages?”

“Not ‘he,’ ‘she.’”

Fulaimei corrected the teacher’s gender in Common Tongue, then smiled: “Yes, my teacher is indeed an elf. How long she has lived? That’s a mystery to me too.”

“So she really is an elf…” Lin Yu asked with interest, “Then what’s her name?”

“You wouldn’t know it,” Fulaimei shook her head, but still spoke: “Saelie.”

“Saelie…”

Another name that sounded vaguely familiar…

Lin Yu automatically nodded, then suddenly froze, as if finally remembering something.

Wait—a teacher who is an elf magic user living for countless years, named Saelie; a student, a beautiful young human magic genius named Fulaimei…

This teacher-student pair feels oddly familiar!

Lin Yu’s lips twitched as he studied the elegant white-robed woman before him with a strange expression.

Especially her long orange hair, and the golden bracelets and collar—these subtly merged with an anime image in his mind…

It matched! Everything matched!

This world isn’t the anime he watched before he crossed over—“Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End,” is it?!

(End of Chapter)