He opens the first textbook with the solemnity of a knight drawing a blade. Equations bloom across the page like unfamiliar constellations, and for a moment he mistakes their symbols for ancient sigils laid down by patient gods. The apartment around him remains plain, but the desk lamp warms the paper into something almost holy. He feels the old fantasy grumble in protest, yet he keeps reading, discovering that the real world has its own brutal, elegant spells.

Hours pass in a haze of scratch marks, crossed-out answers, and the faint sting of effort. Outside, the city moves with indifferent purpose, buses sighing at corners and neighbors laughing through thin walls, all of it becoming background music to a quieter battle. He begins to understand that this is not a lesser quest but a stranger one, requiring humility instead of bravado. The moon remains far away, but now it feels less like a dream and more like a destination with a map hidden inside the work.