Vol.3 Ch.50 - Ascendance of a weirdo

The Second Floor of Shaid’s Temple was more or less a maze, in that it hadtons of corridors leading to all sorts of other passages and dead ends. Sincethe fear of being buried alive in this dark moist dungeon was ever present,we were in quite a rush to make it to the end of the dungeon in time. The girlswere the ones keeping us calm, surprisingly, as they rationed we mightcompletely pass by our goal (a teleportation gadget) if we panicked thismuch (girls are really good at noticing these small things, so I guess havingthem here is quite the blessing). After that, we decided to still keep our eyespeeled for anything that seemed to stand out, but all the while not run asmuch.This strategy proved quite useful, as we found many more treasures this way,as well as avoided some near-death inducing traps. Out of all the treasuresthough, none struck us as something peculiarly special. There was a lot ofgold, which got us quite excited, but as we kept trying to keep track of how tosplit it all evenly between us, we started to grow bored of just picking allthis gold up.“I can’t believe I’m saying this but,” Miss Dola grumbled, “isn’t there WAYtoo much gold here?!? I swear, if we find any more gold, we might have toleave it. We can’t carry this much!”Myself and the others simply nodded with equally annoyed faces, whichmade for a funny enough situation that eased the tension in the room. I didfind and pocket a pair of diamond rings I found while no one was lookingthough (y’know… for later)In any case, with our bags and backpacks now adequately filled to the brim,barely keeping their shape intact as they swayed us from left to right witheach step, we made our way to the next corridor.“Hey guys,” I spoke up, “I think I see something! Over here!”“WHOAAA!” We all gawked at the sheer spaciousness of the room we hadjust entered.It was a surprisingly tidy room (well, at least in comparison to what we sawof the previous rooms). With walls painted purple and even a rug that wasn’tsoggy, it really did seem like the room we were searching for has finallybeen uncovered. It appeared to be a study or office of sorts, since it had atable in the center with some shelves around it, and a lectern connected to thefront of the table, facing the door where we stood. Although I must say itwas an odd way to decorate a room. If it was me, I’d place the lecternsomewhere next to the shelves, maybe where that plant separated them?Well, who am I to judge some guy’s interior décor from who knows howmany years ago. But I can’t deny he’s a really weird guy. Quickly flippingthrough some of the dusty books in this guy’s bookshelves proved to be moredifficult than I had expected though, as his choice in novels was abysmal.“Reincarnated in a Dif erent World as a Little Sister to an Aristocrat whois also a Demon Lord”? Who would read something as weird as this? Justlook at how long the name is! Plus, the author’s depictions of the LittleSister’s and the Demon Lord’s relationship aren’t quite as wholesome as Ihad originally guessed it would be. It feels more like they’re lovers thansiblings, and the (granted, very well drawn) illustrations aren’t helpingwith that one bit!As I almost puked from the horrid phrases of (not-so-platonic) love thesecharacters threw out at each other, the other party members were moreinterested in the lectern. More importantly, the book that sat atop it. Nomatter how dusty everything else was (even the lectern itself), the bookremained clean and, in fact, looked brand new. We all gathered around it tosee what the book contained, but as we flipped from one page to the next, ourliterary sightseeing was abruptly cut short.“It… only has half of the pages filled?” Old Man Linus questioned.“Seems like it,” Sullivan picked it up from the lectern, roughly flipping thepages once more, “looks like the author didn’t quite make it to the end of thisstory. Maybe he passed before he could finish it?”“But still,” Miss Lionheart inquired as she ran her finger across the table,picking up dust along the way, “why is the book the only thing that looks thiswell-kempt?”We pondered over the mysterious quality of this book, until Miss Dolasuddenly spoke up. She wasn’t at all pleased to hear we’ll be carrying extraluggage, instead opting to reprimand us for being too greedy with thetreasures we found. She even suggested that instead of us all carrying anequal amount of treasure, we would each carry “our own treasure”, that wayeveryone would only be carrying what they found to be interesting orvaluable. I surmise that this is just a way for her to keep all the gold toherself, leaving us with nothing but dusty books, but it’s not like she wasentirely wrong for suggesting it. Maybe being a bit more conscious of whatwe were carrying would do us some good, after all… (but I’m keeping therings! No way am I giving them away, they’re my gift to Cecily!)“Hold on, everyone!” Old Man Linus suddenly spoke up, “Let’s check theother books just in case, maybe this book isn’t even the important one…”His goal was pretty obvious, he just wanted to take a breather. But we didn’tmind, so we got busy reading the other shelved books. Many tales were readon this day, some were average, others would prove themselves asinteresting, but if I were to describe the overarching theme of each story it’dbe…“Little Sisters! Little Sisters everywhere!” Sullivan took the words right outof my mouth, “This Shaid guy is a total Sis-Con! If I have to read anothertrash-tier story about the main character getting all lovey-dovey with hisyounger sibling, I’ll literally gouge my eyes out!”“Now, now, don’t do that.” Miss Lionheart gently patted him on the head asshe comforted him, “Doesn’t it sound kind of exciting in a way?”We all suddenly looked up at her with a worried expression. She couldn’tactually be… enjoying these godforsaken stories, could she?“I mean,” she continued, “it’s forbidden love, no? Don’t they say forbiddenfruit often tastes the best? And it’s interesting how the main couples slowlyprogress and bend their morality in all sorts of fun and interesting ways, oftenleading to funny interactions, no? But that’s not all, because for all theseRomCom-esque situations that make the heart beat in a wholesome purehearted way, there is an equal amount of hot and steamy scenes near the endthat serve as a sort of finish line for the reader, and the illustrations are pureeye-candy!” She finished off her review with an, “Overall, I’d like to meetthis Shaid fellow. He’s got good taste in literature, it’s very manly to loveyour siblings, and most of the main characters of these books care for themdeeply. A solid 9/10 for sure!”“Stay the hell away from me, heathen.” Linus said, snatching the book fromher and tossing it elsewhere, “I have sisters of my own, I’d never even dreamof doing these things to them! And didn’t you mention one time that you had abrother? How could you even say such things without being disgusted atyourself?”“Ew! I’d never do such things with my brother!” She explained, “We’refamily, that’s disgusting!”I’m sensing a double standard here…Now I’m an only child, as you know. While I did always want a sibling, itwas an older brother, quite the opposite of this Shaid guy’s dreams. Andeven if I had a younger sister, I’d most definitely cherish her in a platonicway, but nothing more! Come on, woman, you’re really outing yourself as aweirdo now, aren’t you?With this, I guess we found out another interesting fact about a fellowAdventurer and Party Member, but somehow I think we all regret knowingabout this quirk of hers. We all decided to slowly switch the topic, since theawkward silence was killing us all from the inside, and we couldn’t take anymore. The next person to express their thoughts was the Old Man himself.“The only books I could say I enjoyed were the ones with motifs of‘Reincarnation’ in them.” He raised his finger, “The mere idea of life afterdeath is a fascinating and reassuring one. I do hope that when I kick thebucket one day that I’ll be sent to another world, maybe one with rules andgimmicks completely different to ours!”“What?” Sullivan stared at him weirdly, “Life after death makes no sense, weall either get sent to the Sky realm or we just cease to exist. It’s commonknowledge that the chances of getting either possibility are 50/50. There isno ‘Reincarnation’ in this equation, especially not with us keeping thememories of our past lives with us. The mere idea is blasphemy, if notheresy!”“I get that,” Linus quietly refuted, “but this is fiction! Nay, I might actuallybelieve this, since it’s really reassuring! You’re young, boy, so you wouldn’tunderstand! When you reach my old age, you’ll start to pile up all sorts ofregrets, and this ‘do-over’ will certainly give you the push you need to notmake the same mistakes twice!”“Alright then, riddle me this.” Sullivan smirked as he asked the question, “Ifyou keep your memories, that would mean your mental age is your previouslife’s age plus your current life’s age, right?”“I believe so.” Linus affirmed.“Then that begs the question: How would you go about romanticrelationships?” Sullivan once again smirked while mimicking placing a chesspiece as if he was saying ‘Checkmate!’. “Certainly, all these old meninhabiting the bodies of young boys all had girls of similar age to their newlife’s years, but isn’t it weird to have a young maiden go out with what isessentially an old man?”“W-Well no, they’re the same age!” Linus refuted with a weak argument.“But mentally they’re not!” Sullivan snapped, “The age gap is a realproblem! Are you saying you’d go out with a little girl?”We all turned our gazes to Linus, who had a dark look on his face. He simplyheaved a heavy sigh as he quietly stood up and finally said something after amoment of silence.“If the main character is reincarnated, then there’s a realistic opportunity forthe maiden to be reincarnated as well, no?” He said.This… was actually a valid argument. Since reincarnation was always ‘ATaboo Topic’ in these stories, none of the main characters would tell asingle soul about it. But since the stories are told in their POVs, then wehave no way of knowing if the other characters are also hiding theirprevious lives from the main characters themselves. Wait a second, thisOld Man is cunning! He’s twisting logic to approach little girls! But he’ssuch a nice man, this can’t be!Rapidly switching from wanting to throw him in jail to wanting to agree withhim, I finally blew a fuse and just decided to remain neutral on the matter aswe finished up our impromptu book club session.“In the end, we didn’t even read the Mysterious Book on the lectern…” MissDola sadly commented.“Yeah…” I picked up the book to flip through it one last time out of curiosity,“WAIT!” I screamed out.Did I just see Carter’s name in this book? No, Carter’s a common enoughname, it couldn’t possibly be talking about him… Even still, I decided togive the chapter where I saw his name a good read.***“This chapter tells a story of the main character and his friend Carter savinga young baby girl from a burning building in the middle of a fierce fire. Themain character was the one to blame for the fire, but no one yet knows this.After recouping with Carter and jumping from one window to the next,slowly making it down from the top floor, a beam from the walls suddenlyfell and hit Carter on the head, knocking him unconscious. In his finalmoments of life, the dying boy gave the child he saved the name Nelly andpushed the main character out of the building, before falling down into thefiery pits below…”“This story… it’s of me.” I said, shaking as I barely mustered the strength tohold the book.Before the other party members could say anything, I quickly put the bookdown and ran outside the room to throw up. Just having someone remind meof either Carter or that day made me tear up, but having to relive it fully likethis (with vivid details) really made me sick to my stomach. Coming back tothe study room, everyone glanced at me with a confused face.“Lune, what the heck happened?” Miss Dola helped me to the office seat togather my thoughts.“Hmph! To think you were this egotistical!” Snorted Sullivan, “Why, or heck,even how would a book from who knows how long ago contain the story ofsomeone as random as you?”He was holding the book in his hands, meaning he probably read throughsome of the story himself. “You see the word ‘Adventurer’ and immediatelyassume it’s you without even reading it through until the end! It’s obviouslytalking about me!” He said, showing me the book’s contents once more, “Seehere, it says the main character was born to the parents Laura and Eldrid.Those are my parents’ names!”“Are you illiterate?” I asked him very seriously as I pointed to the line hewas referring to, “It says here the parents’ names were Ella and Lock!”He looked just in case, but ultimately couldn’t see just how stupid of amistake he made in the heat of the moment. I honestly think he’s just beingstubborn about not being at the spotlight, but he just won’t admit it.“Guys, guys, you’re both wrong!” Miss Dola stepped in, “I guess reading allthese books made you a bit woozy, since it says here the main character is agirl! And the parents’ names were Milena and Jonathan!”After bickering amongst ourselves a bit more, we finally started to connectthe pieces together on the mystery behind this book. It was a magical bookthat told the story of the person reading it. This is also why only half of thebook was written, as the person reading it hasn’t died yet (not that he’d beable to read it then anyways).Miss Lionheart got a bright idea, and suggested we each open the last pagewith stuff written on it. The page was different for each of us, suggesting wecould calculate how long we had left until our time comes. For example,Linus’ page was almost nearing the end of the book, Miss Lionheart’s is justbefore the middle of the book, whilst mine, Sullivan’s and Miss Dola’s wereall basically just finished with their prologue chapters (in other words, wejust barely started for real). We were ecstatic after having found such anamazing piece of treasure, this would definitely fetch for a high price! No, ifwe give this to the ITA, maybe we can go home early? Oh, but we mustn’tget complacent, the ITA is a picky bunch, maybe they won’t acceptanything else than the teleportation gadget? Gahh!I tried my best to weigh down our options, but ultimately failed and justended up asking the other party members about what they thought of doingwith this.“Amazing!” Miss Lionheart cheered, “The final page actually spoils what’sgonna happen next!”Huh? What are you talking about?“I’m gonna kiss Sully!” She proclaimed loudly, before looking at the book.“HUH?!?” He suddenly jumped. “W-Well, I a-appreciate the sentiment…”He said before quickly fixing himself up.“Shut it! I’m reading!” She stopped him before reading aloud what the bookwas writing in real time.“The main character shares a passionate kiss with Sullivan. It changes theteam dynamic, making the future floors easier in the process…!” She readwith an excited tone before looking back up at us, “Now check this out!Ahem: I will NOT kiss Sully!”She claims the book suddenly started erasing the words it just wrote, insteadreplacing them with the following:“The main character opts to not share a kiss with Sullivan. This leavesSullivan a tad dejected, but he ultimately learns to cope with it. This choicemay complicate things in the future…”We stood there in awe as she figured out where this book’s use truly laid.With this, we could simply say something to the effect of “We’ll go thisway!” when facing a fork in the road, and just read where it leads us, then notgo there if it’s not the right path! Incredible work, Miss Lionheart! But Ithink you hurt Sullivan’s feelings a bit…“By the way, I wasn’t planning on actually kissing Sully, that’d just beweird.” She said as she closed the book.Sullivan was quick to laugh it off with a “Yeah that’d be really weird haha!”,but while no one was looking I caught a glimpse of him tearing up. I’ll treatyou to some of my mom’s cooking, my guy…