This Novel is not my Novel

"Senior Karvaldr... are you really so certain that Senior Reisir will figure out my identity?"

"Didn't I figure out your identity?"

"Oh, come on~, that's a different case. I had information I wanted from you, and to get it, I had to admit my identity and agree to a deal, right? But I don't have any more information I want to get from Senior Reisir, you know?"

In other words, Pret was saying that he had done a sufficient background check on Reisir, and in the process, he hadn't found any questions or unknowns.

If he had known about 【Truth-Reading Eye】, he never would have shown such a reaction.

It also meant he was completely unaware of its existence.

"Whether you admit your identity or not is not very important. No matter how much you deny it, the suspicion about your identity itself won't disappear."

"Now that you mention it, that's true."

"If you understand, then stop interrupting someone's rest and quickly go do what you need to do."

"If I had my way, I'd love to talk with you more... but I don't want to look like I'm slacking off and putting my work aside, so I suppose I must."

Pret deliberately spoke in a voice full of regret before taking his leave.

Only then, with no one to interrupt me, could I sink comfortably into my thoughts.

"Being out here like this is pretty nice. It's a good change of pace."

"Geureureung, gororong~."

Feeling the gently blowing wind and the soft touch of fur wrapped around my fingers, a sense of leisure and peace naturally came to mind.

If only it hadn't been chilly due to the low temperature in early March.

I might have sat there indefinitely, losing all track of time.

"Shall we go now...? To the library."

"Yaong~!"

My resolve had been made long ago.

But as I tried to put it into action, my peaceful mood vanished without a trace, and tension washed over me.

As if sensing this, the Baby Dragon patted my shoulder with one small hand while giving me a thumbs-up with the other.

It was not only incredibly cute and lovely, but also dependable and encouraging.

Thanks to that, courage welled up within me, and my resolve solidified.

I shook off the tension and boldly moved forward, arriving at the library.

When I opened the heavy door and stepped inside, silence greeted me.

I saw Lissy sitting beyond the information desk, reading a book.

I didn't deliberately approach and greet her, but simply walked past and headed toward the area with the tables.

Most of the seats were empty.

It was only natural. After all, it was the beginning of the semester, and today was the first Sunday since it started.

It seemed everyone had chosen to go out and play with their friends instead of being cooped up in the library reading books.

Or perhaps they were sleeping in after having fun yesterday.

Thanks to that, finding Reisir was quick.

He had a stack of four books beside him, with one book and a notebook spread open in front of him.

He was holding a pen in his hand.

Just looking at him, you'd think he was studying so diligently...

As you can tell from me having this thought, Reisir was having trouble concentrating on the book's contents.

How did I know? Because he kept snickering.

Unless he was the type of person who derived pleasure from a burning zeal for learning, there was no way he could be laughing while looking over difficult materials.

Therefore, that protagonist of someone else's novel must have been thinking about something else right now.

As expected, while I moved closer and closed the distance, not a single page of the book in front of him was turned.

The pen in his hand just twirled around and around, not leaving behind a single letter.

This is actually better. If he had been engrossed in his studies, I would have felt sorry for interrupting.

Still, it wasn't as though he hadn't studied at all. Up close, I could see that his notebook was filled with content related to bio-signals.

I supposed I had simply arrived just as his concentration was waning.

Coming to that conclusion, I tapped Reisir's shoulder with my index finger.

Reisir looked up with a puzzled expression, which briefly turned to surprise after he recognized my face.

Then he showed his trademark, annoyingly smiling eyes.

Just seeing that look, I knew what he wanted to say.

That's the face of someone whose mouth is itching to spout nonsense about how I wanted to play with him after all.

The conversation hadn't even started yet.

I already felt like giving up, going back to my room, and resting.

But if I missed this opportunity today, it was obvious that I would keep making excuses to myself and procrastinating on carrying out the plan.

Instead of leaving the library, I turned and headed toward the novel section.

Very slowly, for about five steps.

Looking back, I saw Reisir hastily tidying up his spot, even though I hadn't told him to follow.

By the time I had taken another five slow steps, Reisir had caught up right behind me.

I picked up my pace and entered the space between the bookshelves packed with novels.

And after we had rounded about three corners, a small laugh, "Pfft-!" escaped Reisir's lips.

I reflexively stopped in my tracks and turned my head toward Reisir.

Seeing the grin on his face, I started to suspect that he had now acquired a way to tease me without even speaking.

"In case you're getting the wrong idea, I'll say this in advance... I did not come here to spend time with you."

The sparsely populated library was exceptionally quiet.

So I had to lean close to his ear and lay out my excuse.

"I just came to the library thinking I'd borrow a novel to read during my break, and I happened to see you. You looked like you couldn't concentrate on your studies and were lost in other thoughts. 'If he's going to be like that, wouldn't it be better to just read a novel and relax?' That thought crossed my mind. And then I remembered that I'd promised to recommend a novel to you..."

Strange.

I was certain this would be a plausible enough justification.

But once I spat it out, it sounded like an incredibly lame excuse.

What's more, the longer I spoke, the more pathetic it felt.

The usual Reisir would have thrown his head back and let out a huge laugh, his uvula on full display.

But since this was the library, he couldn't bring himself to do that now.

Instead, he covered his mouth with his palm and shook, which was just as stimulating to my sense of shame.

I glared at that protagonist of someone else's novel, then sharply turned away and strode deeper inside.

I couldn't say I wasn't doing this out of embarrassment, but that wasn't the only reason.

I still hadn't reached the bookshelf where the Special Character Novels were, so I needed to move farther in.

If we're going to talk comfortably, it's better to go all the way to the end before starting.

It was a fact I knew from experimenting with Yor, but the deeper one went into the novel section, the more distant the sound became.

To be precise, sounds from the area with the general fiction still sounded normal.

It was from the moment one passed the first bookshelf with the Special Character Novels that things changed.

The space was connected, so if someone shouted, another student in the library would hear it.

But in any case, with the physical distance and the sound-absorbing properties of paper books...

A normal speaking-level volume was completely buried.

"Hey, Karvaldr?"

"..."

"How long are you going to keep walking without a word?"

"..."

Around the time books with pen names made of special characters started coming into view, Reisir began whispering to me, but I simply ignored him.

There was still a slight trace of a smile in his voice, so it was obvious that he would tease me if we resumed the conversation now.

And we were still in a location where we had to be careful with our voices.

But when we rounded three more corners, even though we were still a long way from the end of this path, a situation arose that made me stop once again.

Because—

"But you know."

"..."

"This path, don't you think it's too long?"

—that was the reason I heard those words.

"From the outside, it only takes about a dozen steps to get from the start of the novel section to the end, but strangely, when you come inside and walk along the path, it feels much longer, you know? At first, I just thought I was mistaken because of this 'ㄹ'-shaped structure..."

"It's not a mistake. There are ten rows of bookshelves visible from the outside, but we've already turned thirteen corners. And isn't there still a lot of path left?"

The Library Club Member from Chapter 9.

In other words, Lissy had no questions about this space.

That was why I couldn't simply brush off Reisir's words.

I also lowered my voice and responded.

"Karvaldr, you noticed long ago and counted accurately, didn't you?"

"You guessed that, but didn't even think to check it properly and just kept guessing?"

"Hmm... now that you mention it...? Why did I do that?"

As if he couldn't understand himself, Reisir tilted his head with a puzzled expression.

Unlike Lissy, who didn't even realize this space was strange, he did perceive the problem, but...

I suspected he was being blocked from digging into it further at an instinctive level.

Still... considering he's aware that this space is strange, and he can bring up the relevant topic first...

It was certain that Reisir wasn't completely trapped within the framework of a "character in the novel."

As I felt relieved by that fact, a question suddenly popped into my head.

"Reisir."

"Uh-huh...?"

We were currently standing between the bookshelves holding the Special Character Novels, and we had even exchanged words about this space not being ordinary.

Therefore, I was confident that the original author couldn't observe us now.

And yet, my throat felt tight with tension, so I moved right next to Reisir, lowered my voice as much as possible, and carefully asked a question.

"How did you end up coming across the Special Character Novels?"

To find these novels, one had to go far past the bookshelves holding the general fiction.

I could understand someone wandering around at random, seeing a pen name written in special characters, and picking up a book out of curiosity.

But the content was so unfamiliar that it would have been normal to put it back on the shelf and lose interest.

How on earth did this guy end up finding Special Character Novels fun and steadily reading them?