Friks looked at the two people in front of him with confusion, 'How could they know my father? The father who has been nowhere to be found for the last ten years, the father whose presence I miss...'.
Friks still remember the memories between him and his father, it feels like it was yesterday.
"Friks, look at that star over there!" his father pointed out the first time he gave Friks a telescope, and that night little Friks went to look at the stars on a small hill near their house, the telescope that later became Friks' only memory of his father.
"What a beautiful star, look I think it is the brightest one!" Friks exclaimed happily, pointing to one of the stars as his eyes continued to peer through the telescope lens, and that night, for the first time, Friks felt he was the luckiest kid in the world, especially because he had a father who cared and give compassion like his father.
"That's called the North Star Friks, usually used by ancient people to find their way at night, a boon for navigators," his father explained.
"I love you dad!" said Friks, hugging his father's strong body.
His father looked at Friks with a strange look, as if there was a burden he wanted to share, but his father said nothing, just stroked his favorite son's hair, maybe because Friks was too young to interpret his father's look.
"Whenever you feel indecisive or lonely, look up at the night sky, look up there, at the stars, let them reconcile and guide your heart, Friks!"
"Yes, father!" Friks nodded and went back to look at the stars with his new telescope.
That night turned out to be the last night Friks had with his father, and when Friks woke up in the next morning, his father's burly figure was no longer there. When he asked his mother about his father's departure, he was met with silence, a silence that his mother has kept to this day.
Since then, every night, whenever there was a chance, Friks would sneak out of the house to the hill where he had last spent time with his father. Friks used to look up at the night sky with his telescope on that hill, a small hill that he called "the hill of the stars".
Staring at the stars that blinked as if they talk to him had become a habit, even though he had to stay up late and was always late for school the next day, Friks noticed several times that the arrangement of the stars changed regularly, even the meteor showers he often saw. Friks often fantasized that he might be able to find his father in one of those stars, but he knew it was impossible. Stargazing had given Friks a new spirit, a spirit that kept burning in his chest, making him feel strong and resilient.
Friks tried to be as strong as his father, he always felt that his father was always with him, like the stars at night, Friks also felt that the stars were much more beautiful when viewed through his telescope. In addition, Friks seemed to have a strange urge to observe the changes that occurred in the constellations, he seemed to feel a longing that he himself could hardly explain in every star he observed.
"To be honest, we didn't know your father very well ourselves." Arthure's heavy, raspy voice broke Friks reverie.
"I met him about ten years ago, I knew him only briefly, but he was a very good man. Had we not been teleported by your father, we might have known what happened to him after the great war." Arthure went on, seeming to remember something, a strange glint in his eyes. A knight's regret at not being able to fight at his comrade's side until the last second.
"But that is not why we are here. Friks, we need your help, AEROS needs the presence of the STAR ARCHER KNIGHTS once again," Kaytrin explained.
"Aeros? The Star Archer Knights...?!! what do you mean?" Friks was confused.
Obviously, this boy has yet to realize and know who he really is, Kaytrin thought. Arthure looked at Kaytrin intently, his sharp green eyes seeming to say, "Tell him, explain everything.
"Friks, you are actually the 44th generation of the Star Archer Knights clan, also known as the Star Archers, you are from Aeros, your father is also a Star Archer Knight, as is your grandfather, your grandfather's father and your other ancestors, they are all from the Star Knight clan that protects this world and Aeros." Kaytrin explained.
For a moment, Friks stared at Kaytrin's story.
"That's impossible! Aeros, I have absolutely no idea where that is, and I'm definitely not a Knight like you said, I'm just a boy who just turned 17? How can I believe all this?" Friks was confused.
"Aeros is the other Earth." Arthure said, his voice sounding heavy, yet calm and firm.
"The other earth...?!" Friks was even more clueless, but he knew from the calm and serious demeanor and the intonation of their voices that the two people in front of him were not joking.
These two strangers who didn't know where they came from might be right, maybe he could find out the whereabouts and meet his father again. Maybe they could answer all the questions and doubts in his heart, but is that possible? Friks thought. But what they said really didn't make any sense, THE STAR ARCHER KNIGHTS, AEROS is the other Earth? What does that mean?
"Aeros and Earth are actually the same, they're just in different dimensions, maybe you could say parallel dimensions."
"Parallel dimension?" asked Friks, now trying to listen seriously to the explanation of Kaytrin and Arthure made.
"Yes, a parallel dimension with a gate that connects every part of this world, a gate that is in the continuum of space and time that is connected to each other. On Earth, that gate is right here in this coffee shop, and Robert is its guardian. He is the Guardios who guards and decides who can pass through the gate, and we, the Knight Clan, with the permission of the Guardios, are the Clan that can pass freely between Earth and Aeros!" Kaytrin repeated.
"I still don't understand." said Friks, his face look very confused.
***