I Don't Know My Daughter's Heart
When I opened the library door and stepped inside, the first thing that caught my eye was the harmonious blend of gold and white adorning the interior.
The moment I fully entered the library, the door I had just opened slammed shut with a heavy thud.
Kwoong──!
“What… I suppose there’s no problem.”
The door was shut with remarkable firmness, as if it never intended to let me out. Yet I quickly tore my gaze away from it and walked deeper into the library.
After all, it didn’t look like a door that could be forcibly broken. If necessary, I could simply smash the entire library and leave.
Having dismissed any real concern about the door, I followed the brilliantly shining walls deeper into the library. After walking for about three minutes, I passed a gate that seemed to be about fifty meters away.
A small reading desk came into view, and I let out a soft exclamation.
“This is…?”
A reading desk that already radiated an aura of mystery. On it sat a book thick enough to be several times the size of an ordinary encyclopedia.
Just in case someone else might be nearby, I expanded my senses, but no presence was felt.
“I heard they said there was a librarian, didn’t I?”
The way my voice sounded natural made it clear that no one was around to hear me.
According to the story, a librarian managed the library, so I waited a few more minutes without touching the book. Even so, the surroundings remained silent.
If students were inside, I would have noticed immediately. Finding students who hadn’t yet mastered hiding their presence was as easy as eating a meal, but their absence meant no students were here.
Moreover, there was no exit from this room other than the one I had come through. The path I had walked so far was the only one.
Thus, it was certain that no students were present, and Idea’s words—though boastful—were true.
“If there’s no one here, it’s fortunate. Then I’ll take Idea out right away and head back to the museum.”
Without students, there was no reason to stay.
If she wasn’t here, the students were still in the museum. My task was to move the impatient Idea, return to the museum, and wait for the barrier to break.
I stretched and relaxed my tense body, then turned toward the library entrance with my usual indifferent steps.
“Hmm…”
If it weren’t for the book that bothered me on the reading desk, I would have walked out without hesitation.
“This must be… the book the Record Library keeps?”
The Record Library supposedly held only one book. That was probably it.
This book was said to let the person who opened it experience the history of everyone connected to it.
At the same time, it was the book Idea had stolen from the Undersea Kingdom on the Demon King’s orders. Curiosity turned into genuine interest.
In the game, I had never entered the library, and the setting book didn’t contain proper information about this book. My curiosity had long since peaked.
“Wait, according to what I remember, the setting book originally had content about this book, but it was later deleted…”
I thought back. In the early settings, information about the book existed. At some point, however, all references vanished, and the game company called it a system bug and moved on.
I had been a later user, so I had never read the real content. Now that I believed it was deleted because of a bug, my interest only grew.
A secret setting hidden in mystery—something every gamer would go mad for.
Besides, the settings were meticulously crafted one after another, and my expectations rose even higher.
“Then shall I read it just once…?”
Before leaving, I reached out and picked up the book.
“Long time no see, traveler from beyond the world.”
“…?”
The moment I held the book, I was forcibly transferred into a new space and faced Iriel, the goddess.
Wait, why?
* * *
For my father, I can do anything!
A woman’s eyes sparkled with excitement as she clenched her fists and shouted… No, it was Aria.
Five people locked inside the transparent glass-like space stared at Aria with wide eyes and turned to look at one another.
“Is that… Professor Aria?”
“Yeah… It looks like it.”
“Even so, it can’t be the same person. We don’t think Professor Aria is the same one we know.”
“Maybe she’s just a bit younger… Look at the clothes she’s wearing. They’re completely different.”
“That does seem likely…”
The Aria we knew—perfectionist, strict, always speaking in a cool tone—where had she gone?
With her face the same but her expression bright and innocent, the five of them had no choice but to accept the strange situation.
“But why has she been calling someone ‘Father’ since earlier? There’s no one here but us and Professor Aria.”
“What kind of space is this one where Professor Aria is? It gives me a bad feeling…”
Shocked for a moment by the completely different personality of the Aria before them, Arin watched her shouting toward empty space while Riana frowned at the surrounding blue space and muttered to herself.
Aria had been staring upward since earlier, calling out “Father,” but no response came from the being she addressed.
Around them was this uniform blue space. It wasn’t nauseating or repulsive, but it wasn’t pleasant either—exactly as Riana had said.
It gave a faint, unpleasant sensation, as if something were brushing against the body.
In the midst of this confusion, each person stared at Aria while scanning their surroundings. Suddenly, a voice echoed from empty space.
“It seems this place is the space where the swordswoman named Aria was created. Judging by the fact that it keeps appearing, I’d say it’s her home.”
“Kyaa?!”
“Is that the librarian?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Kana jumped at the sudden voice and flinched. Arin immediately guessed who it belonged to.
She had been hearing it since earlier.
Upon confirming it was the librarian, Arin searched for her face, but she was nowhere to be seen.
Arin tilted her head in confusion. The voice came from empty space once more.
“I am the narrator who came here with all of you. Although I’ve moved with you, as a narrator I’m in a different space. You’ll only hear my voice.”
“A different space?”
“Yes. That transparent rectangular prism you’re standing on is the space. It’s a kind of barrier meant to hide my appearance while following the story’s owner.”
The five of them reached out to touch the transparent barrier the narrator called a barrier.
As a test, they knocked on it. A clear, transparent sound rang out, audible even to Aria.
Yet Aria didn’t react, still happily chatting to herself. The five of them nodded, believing the narrator’s words.
The narrator continued in a calm voice.
“You are in a readers’ space. I am in a narrator space. To put it simply, the readers enter the readers’ space, and the narrator enters the narrator space. As a narrator, my voice will naturally reach you clearly.”
“Ah, so that’s how it is.”
“I understand.”
“So that’s a barrier…”
The five of them nodded one after another, helped by the narrator’s easy-to-understand explanation.
Once the explanation of the barrier they were trapped in ended, Riana raised her hand slightly.
“Then could you tell us where we are? This place is completely new to me.”
Riana hadn’t traveled every world, but this blue space felt unmistakably alien.
Even magic could hardly imitate it.
Naturally, Shaty and Arin echoed Riana’s question to the narrator.
“This place is the space where the swordswoman Aria was created, as I mentioned earlier.”
“Created…? Does that mean the teacher is some kind of… homunculus?”
“No. The swordswoman Aria is a perfect human.”
“Then what does ‘created’ mean…?”
“It simply means the place where the swordswoman Aria was created. As a single human.”
Shaty asked if Aria might not be human, just in case. The answer came back negative.
Even so, they still couldn’t understand the vague phrase “created space.” The five of them had no choice but to feel lost.
“I still don’t understand.”
“Professor Aria’s past… what exactly happened?”
“Since we can’t understand it anyway, we’ll just watch her actions.”
“A good decision. It seems the swordswoman is about to leave this place too.”
If they couldn’t understand, they would simply observe Aria’s actions.
The five of them turned their attention back to Aria. The narrator, who was also present, spoke up.
“The blue space began to shatter.”
At the same time, their vision blurred and slowly transformed.
“What is this?”
“The space is changing.”
“This is a change of viewpoint from the readers’ perspective. If the next story is about to begin, the space will change like this. It’s better to get used to it now.”
Unlike the intense light and distorted spaces they had seen before, the space itself melted and painted over with new scenery.
After the narrator briefly explained the change, the five of them focused on Aria now clearly visible in the new space.
Suddenly the scenery shifted completely, and the surrounding landscape expanded in an instant.
“Huh, this place is…”
“No way…”
“It’s a very familiar landscape.”
Arin, Shaty, and Pina all let out exclamations at the same time.
The newly changed landscape was the vast plain just outside the Phra Kingdom, far from the capital.
“The first quest to enter the academy is to collect ten horns of the unicorn! This is a complete beginner NPC quest. It’s easy!”
In the middle of the plain, Aria stood with fists clenched, shouting in a fighting stance.
“Quest? NPC?”
Words they didn’t understand.