Alarm clocks exist in this world, too.
This is thanks to the creation of various convenient items for daily life, all under the name of ‘Aether Engineering’.
Of course, you can’t enjoy all the products of modern scientific civilization here, and even the most trivial items tend to be extremely expensive.
Still, aside from alarm clocks, there are a few products that are almost identical to their modern counterparts.
‘Honestly, you don’t even need to talk about modern science or Aether Engineering to make an alarm clock—a simple wind-up mechanism would do the job just fine… Still, buying an expensive item enhanced with Aether Engineering is probably considered a noble’s luxury.’
Anyway, the reason I’m suddenly talking about alarm clocks is twofold.
First, to sneak in a little world-building explanation.
Second, to clarify that the reason I was able to fall asleep at 2 a.m. and wake up at 6 a.m. was thanks to one of these alarm clocks.
Now, to get to the point, the reason I woke up early today is because I had a packed schedule planned.
“Familiar. Your big brother is going to wander around the academy to get used to the layout, then head to the library to look something up. After that, I’ll probably visit the commercial district. I need to eat, and there are a few bookstores I want to check out. Plus, while cleaning yesterday, I noticed there are quite a few things I need to buy. But before I leave the academy, I’ll stop by the room for a bit, so don’t get too lonely and wait patiently, okay?”
I placed my hand on the Familiar Egg and spoke as I infused it with today’s portion of Aether.
I heard that talking to it more doesn’t make a stronger Familiar hatch.
But since I have to mimic the possessed body’s speech patterns outside, I felt like saying something before I left the room.
That’s all there is to it.
There’s no grand reason.
‘At this hour, is the protagonist training in the communal training ground?’
I did suggest we treat each other like background characters, but I never got an answer.
Honestly, it would be awkward to run into him.
So today, I decided to avoid the training building altogether.
‘Come to think of it, I should be training too… But isn’t wandering around this vast academy campus a kind of physical training in itself?’
Still, I didn’t feel like running around everywhere.
‘If someone saw me doing that, they’d find it weird, so I compromised by walking briskly instead.’
That way, I could cover more ground in the same amount of time than I would by just strolling along, so it was a win-win.
***
After wandering around for quite a while, my legs started to ache.
Proof that this body I possessed had been neglecting physical training.
Of course, compared to my original self who just sat at home writing all day, this body was far better in both age and activity level.
But with Demonic Realms about to appear all over the world soon, it was hard not to worry.
Thinking of it as exercise, I kept walking without rest, and before I knew it, it was almost time for the library to open.
Still, I wandered a bit more before heading to the library.
There’s a theory lecture building right next to the library, so I waited until Supplementary Classes started to avoid running into Reysir.
‘My legs hurt, so let’s sit down for a bit.’
As soon as I entered the library, I went to the bookshelf with Aether-related books, pulled out five volumes, and sat down.
In this world, research on Aether is so active that ‘Aether Engineering’ exists as a field.
Even excluding the books I’d read at House Austri, there were a ridiculous number of books I needed to check.
There was no way I could read them all thoroughly.
So I quickly skimmed through the tables of contents, then picked out only the chapters that seemed relevant to me.
***
After that, I returned the books I’d brought and grabbed another five, repeating the process three or four times.
For the record, the reason I went back and forth like this is because of the library rules: ‘You can only have a maximum of five books stacked at your table at once, and can borrow up to four books at a time.’
Anyway, now it was time to check out the infamous novel section.
I decided to start from the innermost part, so I walked along the L-shaped Path created by the arrangement of the bookshelves…
‘Why does this path feel so long?’
It wasn’t just my imagination because of the unique structure.
From the outside, it looked like there were only about ten rows of bookshelves, but I’d rounded far more corners than that and still hadn’t reached the end.
It was unmistakably long.
‘Did that guy Reysir really just stroll through here, borrowing and reading books without a care?’
‘Shouldn’t he be acting more like a novel protagonist—getting suspicious and digging into mysteries?’
Feeling absurd, I kept walking until I finally reached a dead end.
So the passage made of bookshelves didn’t go on forever.
‘So, not every web novel from my old world exists in this library.’
There are so many officially monetized web novels that it’s impossible to count, and if you include the non-monetized ones, it’s truly endless.
If every web novel had been turned into a physical book and placed here, I’d have surrendered before ever reaching the end of the aisle.
By the way, this isn’t really related to the main story, but since ‘monetization’ came up, let me add a brief aside.
《Nas-e》 was an entry in a contest on some platform.
I found the novel while browsing the contest submissions.
‘It didn’t rank high, but the early chapters followed the academy-growth genre, so it caught my eye…’
After the contest ended, I don’t know if the author never got contacted by a publisher, or if they refused.
I’m not sure about the details, but afterward, Senna, the author, continued to serialize the novel for free and irregularly.
Then, they posted a notice of indefinite hiatus—a de facto announcement of discontinuation—and disappeared.
Honestly, the ‘monetization’ keyword was just an excuse.
As someone who only writes healing novels, you might be wondering how I ended up reading a discontinued killing novel, so I thought I’d share.
Now, back to the main story.
‘Do novels that aren’t here simply not exist in this world? Or could I find them in a bookstore outside?’
As I pondered various possibilities and retraced my steps, I suddenly stopped.
A title of a novel I’d read before caught my eye, but there was only volume 1.
Even though it had been completed long ago and had over 400 chapters.
Since there were no empty spaces on that shelf, it didn’t look like someone had borrowed the next volume, either.
A hypothesis popped into my head.
And to see if it was true, I recalled the titles of other completed works I knew and checked the shelves.
To get right to the point—some series were present all the way to the final volume, and some weren’t.
‘Does this place only have the web novels that Senna has read? Are the incomplete ones the series they dropped partway through?’
It occurred to me that even these details of the author were reflected in the construction of this world.
Surely the original author didn’t specifically think, ‘What if I make it so that in the world of my novel, only the web novels I’ve read exist, and the protagonist happens to love them?’ or anything like that.
Still, it’s clear that some element of the author influenced things here.
‘Is it okay for me to learn something like this at this point?’
It’s still just a superficial understanding, but it’s knowledge that could be called ‘the hidden truth of this world.’
In isekai possession stories, the focus is usually on the plot related to the original work, and the secrets of the world are only revealed around the middle, at the earliest. Isn’t that the unspoken rule?
But I’ve only been possessed for not even two months, and only met the original protagonist for the first time yesterday.
As a web novel author myself, I can’t help but wonder, ‘What’s going to happen to the story’s progression from here?’
And as a web novel transmigrator, I started to worry, ‘Is my lifespan just really short, so I’m getting to the key information too soon? Am I going to die soon?!’
‘Should I keep digging deeper, or not?’
Even as I wavered, I randomly grabbed a physical web novel off the shelf.
Then I carefully picked three Aether books and headed to the information desk by the library entrance.
“I’d like to borrow these books.”
“Yes, just a moment.”
When I handed over the four books and my student ID, the library club member—who had been deep in a book—set her book aside and answered.
It was the same library club member who’d kicked me and Reysir out yesterday.
I wondered if she’d say something about that, but it was just my imagination.
The unnamed library club member entered the borrowing information into what looked like a ledger without saying much.
I quietly watched her, and as her hand paused, “About the place where this book was, didn’t you think something was off?”
I tapped the cover of the book I’d brought from the novel section and asked in a low voice.
I made sure to point exactly at the author’s pen name, which was replaced with special characters, so she’d know exactly where I meant.
Even if she pretended not to know, if I mentioned it was where I was before getting kicked out yesterday, she’d figure it out.
“The novel section? The bookshelf arrangement there is a bit unusual, I guess. Why it’s set up like that, I—ah, I don’t know.”
“That’s not the only issue, is it?”
“If not that, then what?”
“The size of the space…”
“…?”
I was about to say, ‘Isn’t the area of the space different from reality?’ but stopped myself.
Even though I’d mentioned the keyword ‘space,’ the library club member just blinked, looking like she had no clue.
That look meant she really didn’t know anything.
‘Is it just that she never noticed anything strange because she’s not interested, or is she literally incapable of perceiving it…? If it’s the former, it doesn’t matter, but if it’s the latter, I’ll just end up looking crazy.’
Anyway, her expression had already told me what I needed to know.
I let the question drop and moved on to something else.
“Other than me and Reysir, is there anyone else who borrows books like this?”
“I can’t tell you who borrows what.”
Does that mean someone does borrow them, or is she saying she can’t even confirm if anyone does?
As I tried to figure out what she meant, she slid the ledger with the borrowing records under the table.
Then she pushed the four books and my student ID toward me.
It was clear she wanted me to take my things and leave, and that she wouldn’t answer any more questions.
‘With that attitude, she probably wouldn’t tell me when or how the physical web novels were brought in, either.’
Instead of making a scene like, ‘Do you know who I am?! I’m a member of the Austri Ducal Family!’ I quietly gathered my books and student ID and left the library.
I didn’t want to cause trouble for no reason, and it didn’t seem like it would work anyway.
It would be against the academy’s rules, so I’d just get demerits without getting anything I wanted.
‘Reysir probably just read the books that were in the library, so I thought maybe I could get some information through the library club member…’
With things as they are, there’s only one option left.
I’ll have to become a library club member myself.
But for now, that’s impossible.
I know because I’ve memorized all the major club information at Valhalla Academy: the library club only recruits at the beginning of each year.
So am I disappointed? Not at all.
Actually, I feel relieved. For some reason, it feels like my lifespan just got a little bit longer.