Father Doesn’t Understand His Daughter’s Heart

When I opened the door of the library and stepped inside, the first thing that caught my eye was the interior of the library, harmoniously decorated in gold and white.

And as I fully entered the library, the door I had opened closed by itself with a heavy sound.

Woong──!

“Well… there shouldn’t be any problem.”

The door closed quite firmly as if it would never let me out, but I soon took my eyes off the door and moved further inside.

It didn’t seem to be a strength I couldn’t break anyway, so if necessary, I could break out along with the library.

Therefore, without much worry about the door, I continued walking deeper into the library along the brilliantly shining walls, and after walking for what felt like about 3 minutes, passing through a gate that looked to be about 50m long, I let out a short exclamation at the small lectern I saw.

“This is…?”

A lectern that felt mysterious at a glance. And on top of this lectern was a book with a thickness that seemed to be three or four times that of an encyclopedia.

I expanded my perception to see if there might be someone else around, but I couldn’t sense any presence.

“Didn’t I hear that there was supposed to be a librarian?”

Seeing that my speech was coming out normally as I thought, it seemed that there really was no one within earshot.

I had clearly heard in the stories passed down that there was a librarian managing the library, so I waited for a few more minutes without touching the book, but still, the surroundings were quiet.

If the students were inside here, I would have known right away. Finding students who weren’t yet used to hiding their presence would have been as easy as eating cold rice, but the fact that they weren’t visible meant that there were no students inside this library.

Moreover, there was no path in the library after this room, so the path I had walked so far was everything.

In other words, it was certain that there were no students here, so I could tell that Idea’s words were just a bluff that seemed like the truth.

“If they’re not here, that’s good. Then I should go out right now, move Idea, and go back to the museum.”

If the students weren’t here, there was no need to stay here any longer.

If they weren’t here, it meant the students were still in the museum, so what I had to do was move the bound Idea and return to the museum to wait for the isolation barrier to break.

Therefore, I stretched out my body that I had tensed for a moment, and then walked towards the entrance of the library with unhesitating steps.

“Hmm…”

If it weren’t for the intriguing book placed on the lectern, I would have walked away without hesitation.

“This must be… that book the Library of Records is said to be keeping?”

Since it was said that there was only one book in the Library of Records, this was probably it.

This book was said to allow one to experience the history of those related to the person who opened it.

At the same time, it was the book that Idea had come to steal from the underwater kingdom on the Demon King’s orders, so I was not just interested, but my curiosity was overflowing.

In the game, I had never entered the library, and even in the setting book, there wasn’t proper content about this book, so my curiosity had long since exceeded its maximum.

“No, if I remember correctly, I think the content was erased from the setting book…”

Come to think of it, I remember there was content about this book in the initial setting book.

But from some point, that content disappeared from the setting book, and even related documents all disappeared, so I heard that the game company said this was a system bug and concluded it.

I was a user who joined after that, so I had never properly read the content, but thinking that it was content that had been erased due to a bug made me even more interested.

Secret settings with mysterious content hidden – it was something that would drive any gamer crazy.

Moreover, each and every setting in Formcolor was so meticulously crafted that it was especially exciting.

“Then shall I try reading it…?”

So I reached out to pick up the book, intending to take a quick look inside before going out, and.

[It’s been a long time, traveler from beyond the world.]

“…?”

As soon as I grabbed the book, I found myself forcibly moved to a space where I faced Goddess Iriel.

No, why?

---

<I can work as hard as I need to for Father!>

The woman… no, Aria, shouting with shining eyes and clenched fists.

At that sight, the five trapped in a translucent glass-like space watching Aria looked at each other in bewilderment.

“Is that really the Professor Aria we know?”

“Yeah… It definitely seems to be her, but…”

“No matter how I look at it, could it be someone else? I can’t think that this Aria is the same person as the Professor Aria we know.”

“Well… Maybe it’s because she’s still a bit younger? Look, even the clothes she’s wearing are different from now.”

“It does seem that way…”

Where had the perfectionist Aria they knew, who always spoke in a stiff tone and gave off a cool vibe, gone?

It wasn’t strange for the five to have this conversation at the sight of Aria looking so innocent that she could be said to be a different person with just the same face.

“But where has she been looking and calling ‘Father’ this whole time? There’s no one here except us and Professor Aria.”

“First of all, what is this space where Professor Aria is? It doesn’t feel very pleasant…”

However, after being surprised for a moment at seeing Aria with a completely different personality from now, Arin burst out with a question looking at Aria who had been shouting “Father” towards the air, and Riana squinted her eyes and muttered to herself looking at the blue space surrounding them.

Aria had been looking up somewhere and calling out “Father” for a while, but there was no answer coming from that being she was calling Father.

And this space of pure blue surrounding them.

It wasn’t to the extent of causing nausea or disgust, but as Riana said, it wasn’t exactly a pleasant space either.

It was a space that caused a slight discomfort, as if something was brushing over one’s body.

As they were each watching Aria while looking around in this situation where questions were bursting out, suddenly a voice was heard from the air.

“It seems this is the space where the swordswoman called Aria was created. Judging from how it continues to appear later, we could call it her home.”

“Kyaaah?!”

“Is this voice the Librarian?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

At the sudden voice, Kana jumped in surprise, her shoulders twitching, and Arin quickly guessed who the owner of the voice was.

It was a voice familiar to the ear from hearing it continuously until now.

And when an affirmative answer came to the question of whether it was the librarian, Arin looked around trying to find her, but the librarian’s figure was not visible.

At that, as Arin tilted her head, the librarian’s voice was heard from the air once again.

“I have entered with you all as a narrator. Although my body has moved, I am in a different space from you all as a narrator, so you will only be able to hear my voice.”

“A different space?”

“Yes, that translucent cuboid you are all standing in. That is the space. It’s a kind of barrier to follow the owner of the story without being seen.”

At the librarian’s words, the five reached out to touch the translucent glass, or barrier as the librarian called it, surrounding them.

When they tried tapping it as if knocking, a clear and transparent sound that could certainly be heard by Aria rang out.

But even so, Aria didn’t seem to hear this sound, as she continued to chatter excitedly to herself, and seeing that, the five nodded their heads, giving credit to the librarian’s words.

Then the librarian continued speaking in a calm voice as if explaining:

“To put it simply, where you all are is the reader’s space where readers enter. And where I am is the narrator’s space, where the one explaining the story enters. As I am the narrator, you should be able to hear my voice clearly.”

“I see, so that’s how it is.”

“I understand.”

“So it’s a barrier…”

Although it might not matter, the five each nodded their heads at her words, which helped their understanding with an easy explanation befitting a librarian.

And as soon as the explanation and understanding of the barrier they were currently trapped in ended, Riana raised her hand slightly and asked a question next.

“Then can you also explain where this place is? I’ve never seen a place like this in my life.”

Of course, it’s not like Riana had been around all the hidden scenic spots of the world, but this blue space could definitely be called alien.

To the extent that one might doubt whether even magic could imitate this.

Naturally, to Riana’s question which couldn’t help but raise doubts, Shati and Arin also agreed and asked the librarian in succession, and to these questions, the librarian gave an answer after a moment of silence.

“The place where you are currently is, as I said earlier, the space where Swordswoman Aria was created.”

“Created…? Does that mean the teacher is some kind of homunculus-like being…?”

“No. Swordswoman Aria is a perfect human.”

“Then what does it mean that she was created…”

“It means exactly what it says, the place where Swordswoman Aria was created. As a single human being.”

At the words that this was the space where Aria was created, Shati asked about the possibility that Aria might not be human, just in case, but a negative answer came back immediately.

However, even though she was human, they didn’t understand the meaning of the ambiguous phrase “space where she was created” that the librarian had used, so in the end, the five couldn’t help but rack their brains properly.

“It’s all incomprehensible words.”

“Professor Aria’s past… What on earth is going on?”

“For now, since it’s impossible to understand, let’s just watch how she acts.”

“That’s a good decision. The swordswoman is about to leave here now.”

If we can’t understand anyway, let’s at least observe Aria’s actions from now on.

At Riana’s opinion, the five focused their attention on Aria again, and the librarian in the role of narrator also said it was good timing.

And along with the librarian’s words that they were leaving this place, the blue space began to shatter, and at the same time, the five’s vision shook once and slowly changed.

“What’s this?”

“The space is changing.”

“It’s a change of perspective from the readers’ point of view. If there are times when we move on to the next story in the future, the space will change like this, so it’s better to get used to it in advance.”

Unlike the spaces that had changed with intense light blocking the view until now, the space itself melted away and was painted over with a different scenery.

The five, who had heard a brief explanation about this change from the librarian during the spatial change, focused their attention again on Aria, who was faintly revealing herself in the changed space, and soon the scenery completely reversed and spread instantly to the surroundings.

“Oh, this is…”

“Could it be?”

“It’s a very familiar scenery.”

And then, at the surrounding scenery and Aria’s appearance that became clearly visible, Arin, Shati, and Pina burst out with questions simultaneously.

That was because the newly changed scenery was none other than the outskirts of the Phara Kingdom, a prairie not too far from the kingdom.

<The first quest to enter the academy is to obtain 10 horns of hornrabbits. This is completely a beginner NPC quest. This much is easy!>

And in that prairie, Aria was shouting with her fists clenched tightly in a fighting stance full of energy.

“Quest? NPC?”

Along with words they didn’t understand.