Chapter 18: A Visitor From Another World

Somewhere, someone was calling Qiu Nuoya’s name.

He had to wake up.

He needed to get up quickly or something terrible would happen.

But he was so sleepy.

His body felt unbearably heavy.

It felt as though something enormous was pressing down on him, making it impossible to move.

"...So... heavy..."

The moment Qiu Nuoya opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a broad and muscular chest right in front of him.

He had no idea what was happening.

His thoughts spun in confusion.

Then the arms around him tightened even more.

"Guh!"

A frog like croak escaped his mouth as the crushing embrace squeezed the air out of his lungs.

The powerful arms wrapped around him were painfully tight.

To make matters worse, the person holding him rolled over in their sleep, dragging Qiu Nuoya along and pinning him beneath their weight.

"Nngh!"

"Oh, you’re awake?"

Qiu Nuoya struggled desperately to free himself from the iron grip.

Just then, the mountain of muscle lying on top of him rolled over again.

The heavy body that had been crushing him like a giant weight was pushed aside.

The one who rescued him was not an angel, although he certainly looked like one.

Standing there was Viktor, whose handsome face was as breathtaking as ever.

"Igor has terrible sleeping habits. Are you all right?"

After finally crawling out of Igor’s strong embrace, Qiu Nuoya nodded with the feeling that he had already finished a full day’s work before breakfast.

Apparently, Igor had been using him as a body pillow.

Meanwhile, Igor himself was still fast asleep.

Morning sunlight had already begun streaming into the room.

Qiu Nuoya blinked his eyes toward Viktor.

When had he come back?

Qiu Nuoya had not noticed his return at all.

"Good morning, Viktor."

"Good morning. You certainly wake up quickly, Nuoya. Unlike Igor, who is always half asleep after getting out of bed and is completely useless until he wakes up properly."

"I see..."

That certainly seemed true.

Even after all the struggling inside Igor’s arms, the man was still fast asleep.

He really was devoted to his sleep.

"It looks like you wake up early too, Viktor. But you came back late last night, didn’t you? Did you get enough sleep?"

"Yes, I’m fine. I got some sleep. Thank you for asking."

Viktor smiled as he answered, but Qiu Nuoya could still see a trace of exhaustion on his face.

He had no idea what time Viktor had returned, but it was obvious that he had not slept very long.

Sleep was important.

People needed to rest whenever they had the chance.

"Did you finish what you were investigating yesterday?"

"Eh... Ah, yes. At least, I found out enough."

Viktor’s reply lacked its usual confidence.

Perhaps he was still tired.

"Nuoya, there’s something I’d like to ask you. Is that all right?"

"Huh? What is it?"

"I’ll ask you directly. Are you... perhaps someone who came here from another world?"

The unexpected question left Qiu Nuoya speechless.

Viktor was absolutely correct.

However, Qiu Nuoya had no idea how Viktor had reached that conclusion.

"Um... why would you ask something like that?"

"There are several reasons," Viktor replied. "But the biggest one is the non attribute magic you showed me yesterday."

Huh?

Hadn’t Viktor insisted yesterday that non attribute magic did not exist?

Or perhaps what he had actually said was that non attribute magic could never produce that level of destructive power.

"The magic you showed yesterday the first time was truly incredible. But the basic spells you used afterward were, frankly speaking, nothing impressive. They were exactly what one would expect from a complete beginner. That contradiction kept bothering me. To begin with, someone who could barely use magic having a mana capacity of twenty thousand was already strange. Was he simply born with an extraordinary amount of mana? But if that were the case, it made no sense that he had never received even the most basic instruction in magic."

Viktor spoke calmly, laying out his reasoning one point after another.

"Then I remembered an old tale. It is a fairy tale that has been passed down for generations. Long ago, when this world was still shrouded in chaos, magic was a special power that only a handful of people could use. But one day, a human with immense magical power conducted countless experiments and established the study of magic arts." He continued. "Magic arts spread even to those who had never been able to wield magic before, bringing countless benefits to everyday life. In time, they became the foundation of the magical society we know today. That is the simplified version of the story. No one even knows for certain whether such a person truly existed. It is only a legend, but it is the widely accepted origin of magic arts."

Viktor paused briefly, choosing his next words carefully. "However, the elven village preserves a more detailed version of that legend." His voice grew quieter. "It says that this person was actually someone who suddenly appeared in this world from another world. And that person’s name was Qiu Tailang. He shared the same family name as Qiu Nuoya."

Qiu Nuoya’s eyes widened.

So there really had been someone else.

The God had mentioned before that another person had been sent to this world long ago.

But this... This was far beyond anything he had imagined.

That person had not simply lived in this world.

He had completely transformed its civilization.

And on top of that, his name was Qiu Tailang! It sounded so obviously fake that Qiu Nuoya almost wanted to call it out. Then again, maybe it had actually been his real name.

"Could you perhaps be connected to this Qiu Tailang in some way?"

"No, not at all."

To begin with, Qiu was one of the most common surnames in his previous life, second only to Wang, Li, and Zhang.

"I see..." Viktor fell silent for a moment before continuing. "Magic arts certainly made magic easier to use by organizing it into a proper system. But in ancient times, magic was a special power that only a select few could wield. According to the legends, this Qiu Tailang was already capable of using extraordinary magic even before magic arts were systematized. Magic on par with the spells we use today."