"Alright, this is your home now," said Hana with a gentle voice while pointing to a modern minimalist style house standing firmly in front of them.
The house had a simple yet elegant design, with clean white walls combined with brown wood accents in several parts. The front yard was neatly arranged with small ornamental plants and a natural stone pathway leading to the main door. Although not too large, this house was very comfortable and suitable for living.
Of course this was a house Hana bought with the results of her hard work.
Nova blinked his white eyes several times, trying to process the view in front of him.
"Waaaah, this is quite big for a dwelling," he exclaimed, his small head looking up to see the entire building structure around him.
Hana couldn't hold back a warm thin smile seeing Nova's innocent and enthusiastic expression.
"Come on in, let's see the inside," she invited while stepping toward the entrance.
The two of them walked side by side with relaxed steps toward the entrance made of dark brown solid wood. Hana took out a house key from her pants pocket and opened the door.
Hana pushed the door slowly, and the door opened. Once they were inside the still dark house, Hana's slender fingers felt along the wall beside the door with movements she had memorized, looking for the light switch that was usually in the standard position.
*Click!*
In the blink of an eye, the room that was previously pitch dark was now brightly lit by warm LED lights. A spacious living room opened before them, displaying simple interior. A comfortable cream-colored sofa was placed in the center of the room, facing a medium-sized television mounted on the wall. In the corner of the room there were several ornamental plants.
"Come sit here first," Hana pointed toward the soft sofa that looked very comfortable to sit on.
Nova nodded slightly with an obedient gesture. With slightly hesitant steps—still not used to the new environment—he walked slowly toward the sofa. His small fingertips touched the sofa surface carefully, feeling the soft fabric texture before finally sitting in a somewhat stiff position.
"What will we do now?" asked Nova, his head slightly tilted to one side with a movement like a kitten, looking at Hana.
Hana observed the mysterious child for a moment with a thoughtful gaze.
"You wait here first, okay? I'll be back in a moment," she said while pointing to the sofa with a clear gesture, giving a signal for Nova to stay in place and not wander around.
"Alright, I'll wait here," Nova answered with an obedient tone without protesting.
Hana walked toward the wooden stairs on the side of the room. She began climbing the stairs. After reaching the second floor, she entered one of the empty rooms.
Nova waited quietly and patiently, occasionally his empty gaze explored every corner of this strange room.
Not long after, the sound of footsteps was heard coming down the stairs. Hana appeared again carrying a stack of books in her arms. The stack of books was quite thick and heavy, some covers looked colorful with interesting illustrations, while others had plain covers with simple titles written in easy-to-read fonts.
"Alright, let's start the learning session," said Hana while carefully placing the stack of books on the coffee table made of glass with a wooden frame.
Nova extended his small hand with a curious gesture, taking one book from the top of the stack. His tiny fingers rubbed the colorful book cover with pictures of numbers and letters arranged in attractive and educational patterns.
"What is this really?" he asked.
Hana took a seat next to Nova, ensuring the right distance to supervise the learning process well.
"Listen carefully, okay? This is called a study book or textbook," she explained.
"Since you don't know much about various things in this world yet, let's start learning from the easiest material to understand first."
Hana's fingers moved, stroking the book cover. Hana found this collection of books in an empty room on the upper floor of the house. The books had been there since before she started living in this house. It seemed those books belonged to someone who had lived in this house before.
Nova nodded.
"Let's start with books for seven-year-old children, then gradually continue to higher levels," said Hana while opening the first page.
"Alright," Nova answered with a slightly serious expression on his innocent face.
◇◇◇
One hour later...
Hana stared at Nova with wide eyes, her facial expression showing extraordinary shock. Her mouth opened slightly, too shocked to be able to say a single word. Her tongue seemed numb, unable to process what she had just witnessed. The stack of books that had been neatly and highly arranged was now scattered around them, not because they were messy or disorganized, but because they had all been read, studied, and completed by Nova perfectly.
*What the hell is this? This is really beyond human reason!* Hana's thoughts screamed. *This is very unreasonable for a child Nova's age. How could he finish all this learning material so easily? As if all that information was directly absorbed into his brain without needing normal digestion process. What is this child's brain made of to be able to do something impossible like this?*
Nova, who noticed Hana's intense and unblinking stare, slowly lifted his face from the last book he was reading with high concentration. His eyebrows furrowed faintly showing confusion.
"What's wrong? Did I do something wrong or strange?" he asked.
"No... nothing's wrong," Hana answered with a stammering voice, her tone slightly trembling because she was still in shock.
"You did it very well. Even too well for normal standards." She tried hard to hide her deep shock, although it was clearly visible from her facial expression and body language.
In a very short span of time, just one hour, Hana had taught Nova various complex learning materials. Starting from learning to recognize letters and numbers, how to write by hand, techniques for spelling difficult words, basic mathematics like addition and subtraction, to various other lessons that usually take months to master. What was most shocking and unreasonable was that Nova managed to complete everything in just one hour. All those study books now looked like light reading material for him, as if their difficulty level was equivalent to children's comics. From books for seven-year-old children to fifteen years old, he had mastered them all perfectly without a single mistake. Something very unreasonable, considering his physical appearance was like a six or seven-year-old child.
*This child is really extraordinary, even beyond the genius category,* Hana thought, still unable to fully believe what she had just witnessed with her own eyes.
*He could learn and understand all that material in just one hour? Not only that, he also read at an extraordinarily fast speed, almost like a scanner machine and understood perfectly every piece of information in those books, even though he had just learned how to read a few minutes ago. This child clearly has very extraordinary abilities, no, more than just smart or talented. This is already in the supernatural category. What else should I teach him? All the books in this house have been studied by him. But I think this is quite good too, I don't need to bother teaching him basic things anymore, right?*
Hana glanced at the antique wall clock hanging on the living room wall, its hands showing exactly 8 PM.
"Wow, it's already this time! Time passed very quickly today!"
Hana's shop closed at 7 PM.
"Alright, let's stop here for today," said Hana while getting up from the sofa with slightly stiff movements. She stretched her body that felt sore and stiff after sitting in the same position for quite a long time while supervising Nova's learning process.
"Besides, there's no more material I can teach you. You've mastered everything."
Hana walked with relaxed steps toward the kitchen located at the back of the house.
"I'll prepare dinner for both of us," she said while opening the clean white refrigerator door.
"Nova, you go take a bath first, okay? You already understand about bathing and personal hygiene, right?" she asked without turning around, both hands busy sorting through various fresh food ingredients stored neatly in the refrigerator.
"I already understand everything," Nova answered.
"I'll go take a bath first then."
Before Nova could step toward the bathroom at the end of the corridor, Hana paused momentarily from her activities. She closed the refrigerator door gently and walked toward a small cabinet in the corner of the kitchen, a storage place for various household items. She took a clean light blue towel that was still neatly folded, then walked over to Nova and gave it to him with a thin smile.
"Here, use this towel to dry your body after you finish bathing," said Hana.
Nova received the towel with both hands and looked at it for a moment with a curious expression. His small fingers touched the soft and smooth towel surface. Thanks to the knowledge he had just absorbed at extraordinary speed, he immediately nodded understanding the function and usage of the towel.
"Thank you," he said, then stepped with small steps toward the bathroom at the end of the corridor.
Hana watched Nova's small back slowly moving away with mixed feelings.
*I really don't know where this child actually comes from, and what his real identity actually is. But... well, thinking about unclear things like that won't provide any answers now. What's important is that he's safe and healthy. Let's focus on making delicious dinner.*
She refocused on the task in front of her, starting to prepare various food ingredients to make nutritious and delicious dinner for both of them.