There was a moment of stunned silence, where the couple stared at the two angels in shock. Then they looked at each other quizzical.

“This is strange, don’t you think, Skye?”

“Yes. People in this world speak English.”

Her husband’s shoulder jerked in surprise by her statement, and he said wryly, “I didn’t mean that.”

“Eh?” She asked, looking curiously at him. “Then, what did you mean?”

“I meant them suddenly asking us to save this world.”

“Oh. That,” she said, and nodded in understanding. “Yes. It’s pretty strange indeed, but it’s not as strange as them being able to speak English.”

He smiled wryly at his wife’s innocence and commented, “I don’t think they’re speaking English.”

She looked up at him in surprise and asked, “They’re not?”

Leyton shook his head, and he looked at them with a curious expression on his face. As she was watching his face, she saw a small smile form on his mouth and realised something.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh. The usual,” he replied with a cheeky smile. Then he whispered, “Yours are bigger. I’m glad.”

She shook her head exasperatedly and responded with, “Why are you proud of that in this situation?” As he smiled cheekily at her, she sighed and said, “Leyley, get serious.”

“Got it,” he said and nodded in agreement. He looked at the girls and asked, “Excuse me, but can you answer my questions?”

The angels looked surprised before they quickly said, “Yes. Certainly.”

“So, who are you people? How did you know that we’re from another world? And, what did you mean by ‘save your world’ exactly?” Then he added, “One more thing, what’re your names?”

At his last question, they gasped and the white winged angel said, “Please, forgive our rudeness,” and bowed her head deeply to him.

“It’s fine. Let’s just introduce ourselves already,” he said with a carefree smile. “My name’s Leyton, and this is my wife, Skye.”

He had intentionally let out his surname during his introduction because he believed that there was no point in being attached to the family name that died with the destruction of his old world. Skye did notice this, and looked curiously at him, but she did not interrupt him and merely watched instead.

“You’re… married…?” The black winged angel asked in amazement while the white winged angel looked surprised.

“Yeah. Is that something of a surprise?” Leyton asked curiously.

“No. It’s just that we thought the two of you were siblings.”

As he chuckled at her words, and his wife smiled wryly, the white winged angel coughed and introduced herself and the black winged angel.

“Well, my name is Lexi Payne, and this is my friend, Veva Toft. It’s nice to meet you, sir and madam.”

“Same here,” he said with a smile while Skye nodded her head while also smiling at them. “So, with the introductions out of the way, could you please answer my questions?”

“Yes,” said the white angel named Lexi and looked pleasantly at them. “We’re from the Embassy of Light, sent by our High Commander to get you after we received a message from the High One about two individuals that arrived here from another world.”

“A message from the High One?” Leyton asked, looking puzzled. “Are you telling me God messaged you or something?”

“What?! God told them that we came to this world?!” Skye exclaimed, sounding and looking shocked. She peered out from behind his back and asked the girls, “Is that true? Is God the one who told you that? Does that also mean God brought us to this world?”

The two angels looked at the couple with a clear expression of confusion on their faces. Their reaction puzzled Skye while it alerted Leyton, making him feel something was off. When the girl named Veva spoke, his suspicions were proven to be correct.

“I’m sorry, but… who’s God?”

“Eh?” Skye asked, and blinked twice in surprise. “Um…? You… You don’t know who God is?”

“Sorry,” said Veva with a shake of her head.

“Is it someone very important?” Lexi asked curiously.

“Someone important?” Skye asked in a disbelieving voice and looked up at her husband. “What’s going on, Leyley? I’m confused.”

He smiled at his wife’s confused expression and told her, “I don’t think they know what God means. In fact, I think this High One is basically their word for God, except the word ‘God’ probably doesn’t exist in their vocabulary.”

There was a moment of pause before Skye muttered, “Wow. That’s so strange, and they speak English so fluently.”

“They don’t speak English, Skye,” he replied while chuckling at her innocence. Then he addressed the girls by saying, “God is a very important person. That’s the name we refer to him, but in this world, it looks like you refer to him as the High One.”

“Oh…!” They said, blinking in surprise and finally nodding in understanding.

“Wow. So, there’s a clear difference of language between your world and our world,” said Lexi while both of their eyes sparked with curiosity.

Leyton smiled wryly at their reaction and said, “I’m glad you understand.”

At that moment, the smile on his face vanished as he felt a strange chilling sensation crawl down the back of his spine. A feeling of something was wrong made him glance around his surroundings. A moment later, he saw something in the distance from behind the angels that seemed to be moving towards them and it appeared to be very big creature.

“So, this High Commander of yours; did he send just the two of you, or did he send more?”

“No. Just us.”

“Oh. In that case, what’s that?” He asked and pointed his finger into the distance.

The angels looked surprised and turned around to look in the direction he was pointing. They saw a large shadowy figure moving towards them and squinted to see what it was. As it got nearer and came into full visibility, they widened their eyes in shock in recognition of what it was.

It was a large creature with wings beating against the wind while carrying its large body through the air. Leyton could not correctly guess the measurements of the monster because of the distance separating them, but he guessed that it was the size of a small mountain.

“Mmm,” he muttered, eying the monster with suspicion. “That suspiciously looks like—!”

Before he could finish his sentence, his wife exclaimed, “Oh my god! It’s a dinosaur!”

She had exclaimed that with a terrified look on her face, which made him put on a sarcastic smile.

“It’s not a dinosaur; it’s a dragon,” he said simply.

The red, scaly bodied dragon, which appeared to be strong and with a fearsome face, flew towards them.

“Um… Judging by your reaction, that dragon is bad news?” He asked the angels curiously.

“Yes!” They said together with concern. “It’s a dragon sent out by the Embassy of Chaos to destroy you!”

 

==== + ==== + ==== + ====

 

Closing the Book

 

“Oh. Goodie. We get to learn about our antagonist,” the boy said, wearing a bemused look on his face as he reached the end of the chapter. “Still, isn’t sending a dragon a little too much to take care of two people from another world?”

“Well, they must’ve been really powerful for the enemy leader to think of sending a dragon to take care of them,” the old man replied with a light chuckle.

“Really? Because, I’m sure that’s not how story villains operate,” the boy stated. “I was sure the villains would send out their weakest minions to fight the heroes, and unintentionally help them grow, and at the end, have a powerful face off!”

There was a moment of pause before the man said, “You’re talking about a game.”

“Yeah, but games are also based on stories, right?” The boy asked.

“A different kind of stories.”

“That’s the impression that I got from this due to the names of the characters and groups.”

To that, the man sighed and asked, “Do we really have to talk about the author’s weird naming sense?”

“I don’t know, but it gives me these gaming vibes,” the boy replied with a chuckle.

The older man laughed and looked shrewdly at him before asking, “Okay. You got all of that, but it seems to me that you missed out on the comedic effect the author was going for?”

“I got it,” the boy replied, rolling his eyes in exasperation. “It’s just I’m choosing to take your advice and ignore it while continuing with the story, otherwise, I’d be complaining nonstop at how strange the author is in the head to be writing such weird jokes.”

After laughing, the man said, “Glad my advice came in handy.”

The boy rolled his eyes again and asked, “So, since a dragon appeared, does that mean that Leyton will summon a Hero Sword and slay the dragon, officially becoming a Dragon Slayer and a Hero at the same time?”

“That’s quite the imagination you got there.”

“That’s what usually happens in these kinds of novels, but I’m unsure about this one, and that’s why I’m asking you to tell me about it.”

The older man chuckled and said with a serene smile, “I won’t tell you anything. Instead, read the next chapter and find out for yourself. But I promise you, it’ll really get interesting.”