“Ah… so our little patient is awake already,” the little nun sniffed.

  “Y-yes, mother Olga! We were just helping him settled…” Uric tried.

  “Don’t give me that, boy! I told you to call me immediately when he waked…! And even if I haven’t, you should know better than to made such ruckus at this hour, I am disappointed in you Uricov…. And Zolydane, exactly what part of this whole situation do you find so funny?”

  “Nothing ma’am.”

  “Good. Because as I remember you were also there when I told you two what to do, weren’t you? If you saw your friend was so preoccupied, why didn’t you come to get me, uh?”

  “I… I was sleepy….” Zoly answered in a quiet voice.

  “Now, lady, there is no need to be so harsh with the kids…”

  “While these two go immediately back to sleep, you, mister, put these on and come with me.” She fixed Nate with a glare over her glasses, and threw a couple slippers his way.

  Nate swallowed at the nun’s intensity, and look back to found Uric slowly shaking his head. And so, he wisely did as he was told, following the woman outside and watched the light being hurriedly putted out from under the closed door.

  “Follow me, boy.” She said courtly, guiding him down a narrow set of stairs, but stopping immediately when they found a verry small crying girl hugging a stuffed bunny, “Laura, sweety, what are you doing up this late sitting in the dark?”

  “Mother Olga…” she sobbed,” Mister Bunbun got scared…”

  “And this is why we don’t scream bloody murder in the middle of the night.” She growled to Nate in a low voice, while to Laura said soothingly, “Why, dear, that’s terrible! Tell you what, why don’t you join us at the kitchen so we can get mister Bunbun a glass of hot milk. That’s sure to calm him down.”

  The little girl nodded once, wiped the snot with her sleeve - to Nate’s disgust, and offered a hand to mother Olga.

  They walk together through some passages austerely adorned with what Nate assumed were religious symbols, until they reached a huge kitchen with three iron casted stove-burners and a colossal brick-mud oven. The ceiling was tall and nots of dried herbs and curating meets hanged down from the timber beams.

  “That can’t be sanitary.”

  Ignoring his statement, Olga sat him in a stull next to a curious Laura, who was well pass crying by that point, and now sneaked glances at Nate when she though he wasn’t looking.

  He was about to say something to the girl when the nun came back from the cellar and serv both of them a cup straight from a bronze milk can. By the time she handed it off to them, it was steaming.

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  “Wait, what? Did you just heat the whole can for us?”

  “Don’t be daft. That would be a waste. Now, drink your milk.”

  “Is this even pasteurized…? Fine, fine! I’ll drink it… Sheesh…no need to glare like that…” He then pretended to take a sip, plastering on a fake smile, “hmm… tasty…”

  “What is your name, boy.” The nun asked, unimpressed.

  “Nathan Brooks, ma’am…”

  “Well Nathan, I am Olga Faragas, I am a holy mother of the church of Selene, and I am in charge of this Orphanage. You will call me mother Olga and do as I say as long as you live here.”

  “Ah! Yes that. You see, I am not an orphan, I am not even a kid! I am seventeen and I have lived alone since I was eight! Heck, I skipped a few grades in high school, so I am practically twenty!”

  “Twenty is a lot of lots.” Laura nodded sagely, “I can count to this and I am this old;” she showed seven fingers.

  “You are five, dear.”

  “Oh… like so?” She showed six.

  “Close enough.”

  She smiled, showing Nate his fingers proudly.

  “Yeah, I get why you wouldn’t believe me,” Nate said giving Laura an awkward thumbs up, “But I’m telling the truth here! I was at my home, a seventeen-year-old independent man, then something weird happened and puff! I was at an alley covered in blood in the body of a child speaking a language I never heard before… Ok, now that I say it out loud, I know it sounds farfetched, b-but…”

  She interrupted him by placing a plate of steaming porridge before him. The food looked unsanitary and not particularly appealing, but he had no sooner smelled it than his stomach begun to grumble and his mouth to watered.

  “Look, Nathan, I’ll tell you what I know; a kid appears at the foot of my church covered in blood and with a wound on his head. Now, I am not saying you aren’t telling the truth here but, it seems to me that you might be… confused, after whatever happened to you.” She paused to glance meaningfully at him, “Eider way, as with all the lost children that come into our care, I’ll make sure your name appears in the local newspaper, so that if anyone knows you or your parents, they can come and find you. And, in the meantime, you can stay here with us… How does that sounds?”

  “Well… I guess it sounds… verry reasonable, but can’t you folks just lend me a phone or point me to the nearest computer with internet connection? I can send an email to my dad’s secretary and uh… w-why are you looking at me like that?”

  “What’s an unternet?” asked Laura.

  “You know! Internet! Where woman your age binge watch telenovelas and cat videos!”

  “Nathan, I don’t know what any of that means.” She smiled at him pitifully.

  Nate froze, looking down at the oily surface of his porridge. What on earth was going on here? They dressed straight out of a period movie, they still had zeppelins floating around for some reason, and they had no internet connection… Where the fuck was he?

  “Mister, can I have the rest of your milk?” said Laura.

  “What…? Yeah, sure, knock yourself out… ” he pushed the cup her way.

  “Let me warm that for you dear.” Olga picked up the cup for a moment, and it suddenly begun steaming again.

  “Wait, wait, wait!” Nate jumped off his stull, “The fuck was that!?”

  “Mister Nathan!” Olga gasped while Laura giggled, “That language will not be tolerated here!”

  “No, no, no, no… y-you just… The cup of milk wasn’t… and now…” he mumbled incoherently.

  “Yes, I just used my skill… what has you so scared, child?”

  “You just casually broke the laws of thermodynamics!”

  “The what? Like I said, I just used a skill, and a pretty common one at that. I don’t see what has you so worked up.”

  “C-common?! You just broke physics! That’s not common, that’s magic… wait… noooo… Hold on a second… I-it can’t be….” the pieces of the puzzle started clicking together; his sudden change in appearance, the anachronistic nature of this place, the casual display of magic-like abilities, “Hold on a motherfucking second…! Did I just get Isekaied!?”