Father Doesn’t Understand His Daughter’s Heart(8)

The past Aria is denoted as ‘Aria’.

(Please read the afterword)

For a moment, everything froze.

The five who were discussing, the five sitting at the table in the cabin, and the librarian watching this situation from somewhere.

They all froze in their last movement due to a woman who appeared by breaking the barrier without any warning.

Their frozen appearances seemed as if time had stopped, with no movement, but in the quietness where not even the sound of words or swallowing could be heard, the faint sound of breathing that could be heard proved that time had not stopped.

However, even so, everyone was in a situation where they couldn’t utter a word and were flustered.

Rather, it was natural. Suddenly there were two Arias when there had only been one, so how could they not be flustered and unable to speak?

But even in such a situation, there’s usually someone who can speak normally.

Naturally, the first to open their mouth in this situation was Aria.

No, to express it more correctly, the two Arias opened their mouths simultaneously.

“…Me?”

“…Hm?”

‘Aria’, who was sitting with her siblings at the table, and Aria who had just fallen while breaking the barrier.

Both look at each other and open their mouths making different sounds.

‘Aria’, who was standing with her siblings, pointed at the fallen Aria and muttered, and at that muttering, the fallen Aria raised her head with a short sound.

And only after the voices of the two broke the frozen state did the others around who had been frozen as if stopped begin to move, each coming to their senses.

“A-A-A big sister Aria is two?!”

“No, more than that, who are those guys?! When did they come to our house…!”

“Everyone calm down for now. I understand it’s bewildering, but in this situation, we need to calmly…”

“Wait a moment, Professor Aria?”

“Why are you here? No, how did you come here?!”

“Before that, why is the barrier broken? It seems those professors over there can see us now?!”

The five sitting at the table in the cabin were flustered seeing Aria who suddenly appeared and the students wearing school uniforms, and the students were flustered at Aria who suddenly appeared and the broken barrier.

As they began to blurt out all at once the bewilderment equal to the time that had suddenly stopped, the surroundings instantly became chaotic.

There were no answers coming back, just a confused situation with questions flying around. And what resounded in this chaotic situation was the footsteps of the two Arias who had opened their mouths first.

Boom──!!!

“Everyone be quiet! I just came to take you all, so don’t make a fuss!”

“Everyone be quiet! Even if you’re flustered, calm down and organize your thoughts first! Speaking comes after that!”

Though their words were different, they each shouted to calm the students and siblings standing behind them.

This seemed to be effective, as the voices of the two shouting along with the footsteps that shook the blue space cut off the words of those who had been making a noisy fuss.

Then silence descended on the area once again.

However, while the previous silence had stemmed from bewilderment, this time it was a silence born from organizing thoughts, pressed by the aura of the Arias.

And in this silence, the two Arias who had created the silence turned to look at each other without anyone taking the lead.

“……”

“……”

Completely identical faces, identical clothing, identical swords. The two were identical from head to toe without a single difference.

Their appearances were so identical that even their siblings couldn’t tell them apart, like doppelgangers, and even the tone of voice heard just now was nearly indistinguishable.

To put it simply, a perfect copy of Aria had suddenly appeared.

At this, the two looked at each other with a subtle atmosphere, and after an exchange of gazes that lasted for several tens of seconds, the one who first voiced was ‘Aria’ who had her siblings behind her.

“Who are you? To be honest, I don’t want to believe it, but you look exactly like me…”

“Even if you ask like that, honestly, I don’t understand the situation well yet either.”

As they conversed using the same voice and the same tone, the subtle atmosphere that had been flowing only between the two spread to those around them as well.

If there was anything good about it, it was that the two Arias weren’t hot-tempered or impulsive enough to fight just because they looked the same.

At that appearance of trying to resolve things calmly through conversation, the nine outsiders who couldn’t easily intervene quietly focused on the conversation between the two, and this time the one who opened her mouth first was Aria who had the students behind her.

Aria pointed to the students behind her and said:

“I just came to take these students of mine.”

“Students…? I, no, you teach students?”

“Yes, for now I’m a teacher at the academy. Do you happen to know the Library of Records in the underwater kingdom? We came here after reading a book from there.”

“Library of Records…?”

It was an awkward conversation between the two who looked completely identical, but it was continuing somehow.

And at Aria’s mention of a book from the Library of Records, ‘Aria’ tilted her head with a face that seemed to almost remember but not quite.

At such an appearance of ‘Aria’, Meiyel standing behind her opened her lips.

“Sister… the library in the sea that we destroyed… it’s that place…”

“Ah, that place.”

‘Aria’ let out a small exclamation as if she finally remembered at Meiyel’s words.

However, before ‘Aria’, who understood Aria’s words, could say anything, Meiyel, who had reminded her, glared at Aria with serious eyes she had never shown before.

“I know that the books in the library show the past of those who are connected. And I know who those students of yours are.”

“Yes, they’re faces we can’t not know.”

Yujia nodded affirmatively at Meiyel’s words saying she knew the students behind Aria.

Yujia looked at each of the students’ faces in turn, then folded her arms and said:

“There’s no way we wouldn’t know the children who became our foundation. I couldn’t see their faces properly at first because I was flustered, but now I can see clearly.”

“Foundation…?”

Riana narrowed her eyes and muttered a question at Yujia’s word ‘foundation’.

But before such a question could be uttered, the flow of conversation was taken by Meiyel, who had briefly had her words stolen by Yujia.

“I can believe that if there’s our past in that book, those students on your side who are related to us can see it. But if you, who looks exactly like big sister Aria and is working as a professor at the academy, are connected to us… I can only say it’s extremely suspicious.”

Especially since there’s no way big sister could do something like being a professor at the academy.

Adding that, Meiyel glared at Aria with sharply shining eyes.

And Meiyel threw the last word, the word asking for the most important answer for them, to Aria.

“Who are you?”

“Who are you?”

It’s extremely bewildering.

‘Hmm…’

This is no joke, I was really in an extremely bewildering situation right now.

In the first place, they seemed very flustered when I first fell here, but it was the same for me who had fallen.

Just a moment ago I was talking with Iriel and suddenly fell here, and seeing the students I thought would be in the museum and my avatars that weren’t me moving, how could I not be flustered?

Even though I pretended to be calm on the outside, I was constantly gaping on the inside at the sight of my avatars moving with perfect selves that were clearly not just copies.

‘Of course, I didn’t think a situation like this would happen.’

Who could predict such a situation?

I was flustered to the point of near panic at this perfectly unexpected situation, but with the unique judgment ability that had grown dramatically since coming here, I could at least figure out what the current situation was.

The first clue was that I came here after touching the book from the Library of Records.

The second clue was that I found the students, who I had assumed were still in the museum, here – more precisely, after breaking the barrier that was here.

Lastly, the word “librarian” that Iriel mentioned.

Considering these, the only conclusion was that the students really came to the library and entered the story in the book, and I also followed into the story that the students had entered, led by Iriel.

‘Just that the story…’

The only problem, if it was a problem, was that the story the students were reading was a story related to my past, of all people.

I didn’t do the stupid thing of asking why. Because the Meiyel on that side had explained everything about this question.

And now I was continuing to ponder, keeping my mouth shut, at the last question Meiyel had thrown at me.

Pondering over the simple question of who I am.

The reason I was silent and pondering over this question was not because I had nothing to answer, but because I couldn’t answer.

‘Because I can’t tell them…’

It’s already half certain, but if this is really inside the story of my avatars’ past, then I’m no different from their master.

My characters that I directly created, dressed up, and raised through the character creation screen.

However, I couldn’t carelessly reveal this to the five students behind me.

Because this was a secret that no one should know except for an extremely small number of people.

And because of this, as I kept maintaining my silence, suddenly a voice completely different from the voices of these people that had been heard so far resonated in the air.

“I know it’s very rude, but I’ll interrupt the conversation for a moment.”

“?! Who is it this time?!”

“More and more new ones keep coming out.”

“Who is it? Where…”

The five of my past avatars tensed up again and became wary at the voice that resonated from the air where the location couldn’t be specified.

I also looked around slightly warily, searching for the owner of the voice, and perhaps seeing our appearance, the unidentified voice greeted us with a self-introduction.

“I am the librarian of the Library of Records. There’s no need to be so wary.”

“Librarian?”

“Does that mean you really came from the Library of Records…”

“Then what business does the librarian have suddenly?”

“An order has been issued from the master. An order to prepare a more comfortable place for the traveler from beyond the world. Therefore, I will take out the original five who entered the book.”

“Huh? Us?”

“W-Wait a moment, suddenly?!”

“We haven’t even finished the conversation with the professors yet…”

Whoosh──!

The questions from the other Aria at the librarian’s introduction. To that, the librarian disappeared from here with the students behind me without hesitation, along with the words of the order.

The appearance of the students who disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The five also seemed not to understand the situation for a moment, but soon they must have organized their complex thoughts, as they turned their eyes back towards me.

Now that even the students who were behind me have all disappeared with the librarian, the gazes of the five are all focused on me.

They were quite burdensome gazes, but on reflection, this was rather better.

“Now that unnecessary people have disappeared, I’ll ask again. Who are you?”

Meiyel asking the previous question again, looking straight at me as the students behind me disappeared.

This time, I could answer that question with certainty.

Who am I to these five? There could only be one answer to this.

I looked at each of the five slowly, one by one in turn, and then introduced myself to them without any hesitation.

“I am…”

Showing the warmest smile I could make.

“Your father.”

“I’ll kill you────!!!!”

However, seeing Yeonhwa rushing at me, it seemed to have been an answer even worse than I thought.

…Why?