The Library’s Treasure

Midterms.
That word alone was enough to make any proper teenager in South Korea shudder, academy student or not.
Just as the flowers that had endured winter began to bloom and the frozen earth started to stir awake, midterms arrived.

There was, however, one exception. Even with midterms upon them, Jiri Academy looked no different from usual.
In other words, it was its usual disaster.

“Hey. The president isn’t here today either, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Man. Life’s good these days thanks to a president who’s neglecting his duties.”
“That makes me more nervous, though. Isn’t it scarier when someone who normally doesn’t act like that suddenly starts acting weird?”
“Right. My mom said the same thing when my dad started helping with housework. She was like, ‘Is that man about to die or something?’ Then it turned out he’d been playing the stock market, and he almost did die.”
“Wow. Your dad’s still alive, right?”
“Yeah. He’s hanging on, thanks to six months of allowance cuts.”

The students laughed and chatted idly.
They looked as if exams were the last thing on their minds.
It wasn’t just the students who were a mess.

“It’ll all be from the materials I uploaded.”
“Study on your own.”
“You’ve got old test sets, right? At least look through those before the exam. I made it easy.”
“Let’s not fail, all right? It’s annoying having to come in during vacation.”

The teachers announced the exam scope with tired faces and told the students to study by themselves.
The teachers who ended up at Jiri Academy had all been demoted or pushed out again and again until they landed here, so of course they had no motivation.
Those who had once been passionate and conscientious either became just like the rest after being worn down by internal politics and the reality of the academy, or they left altogether.

This was Jiri Academy.
A place that remained near the very bottom of the yearly world academy rankings and was known within Korea as a dumping ground for deadweight.

But just as flowers could bloom even in a garbage heap, there were still people here who showed real enthusiasm for studying.

‘It’s been a while since I’ve been to the library.’

With a slightly nostalgic look, Ro-un stepped into the grand library.
Since it housed hundreds of thousands of volumes, the library had been built solidly.
And judging by how it still hadn’t sacrificed beauty for sturdiness, the person who first designed Jiri Academy must have been quite talented.

‘What would that person say if they knew this place had gone on gathering dust without a single visitor?’

It had already been close to a hundred years since the academy was founded, so if the person was long dead and somehow found out, wouldn’t they burst right out of their grave?
Praying for peace to the heartbroken architect who might burst out of the grave, Ro-un walked through the library with familiar steps.
Perhaps because he was the only one who ever came here, Ro-un headed straight for the seat he always used.

‘The smell of books.’

The smell of old paper brushed past Ro-un’s nose.
It was a smell that put him at ease.
Sunlight glittered through the tall, narrow windows.
Reaching his usual seat, Ro-un smiled.

‘Even the part where there isn’t a trace of anyone else is exactly the same.’

Even taking both before and after the regression into account, this was still one of the top five places that put Ro-un’s mind at ease, and a smile lingered at the corner of his mouth.
The admirable students of our academy, true to form, were idiots who had no intention whatsoever of studying, midterms or not.

Crush.

The notebook in Ro-un’s hand crumpled.
Ro-un liked printing out materials on paper and organizing class content in a notebook, but the notebook he had brought to study for the exam couldn’t withstand an Awakener’s strength and screamed a pitiful death.

“Hoo.”

You expected this.
I changed because I came back after seeing that mess before the regression, but those idiots don’t have those memories, so of course they’d act exactly the same.

‘Then why do I keep clenching my fist?’

A conditioned reflex?
Analyzing his body’s reaction with scientific detachment, Ro-un walked toward the seats by the library windows.
This was a spot where the sunlight only hit the desk, making it easy on the eyes.
The architect must have taken things like that into account when laying the place out.
After all, for several decades right after the had been driven back safely, Jiri Academy seemed to have been run more or less normally.
Did someone deliberately pull strings to ruin the academy?

‘Being in exam season really does make me think about all kinds of nonsense.’

Letting out a short snort at a phenomenon apparently shared by exam season all over the world, Ro-un sat at the desk and opened his notebook.

“[History of the Otherworld War] goes up to the sealing of the otherworld noble in the latter half of the Age of Upheaval, does it? Looks like the main range is the lead-up to the sealing and the sealing process itself. [Introduction to Otherworld Passages] will probably follow the class materials. [Support-Type Basics] just lifted translated materials from Europe from a few years ago as-is. There are a lot of parts that should’ve been revised. Wonder when they’re ever going to fix that.”

Checking the scope posted in the class notices, Ro-un looked over what he needed to study.
It was material he had already mastered three years ago.
High-quality material was rare, and from the perspective of Lee Ro-un three years later, most of it needed revision.

“Other academies would, no.”

What’s the point of thinking about that?
I’m dropping out soon anyway.

‘There was never any chance there’d be anyone here passionate about education in the first place.’

The previous chairman had been too busy chasing power under a fancy title to care about actually running the academy.
At the same time, he’d been busy embezzling anything that could make money, and with the man at the top being like that, the teachers and administrative staff were just as obsessed with skimming off the top.
The principal’s in-law was literally in charge of supplying the academy uniforms.
Judging by the quality of uniforms that wouldn’t even go into an inventory, it was obvious how thoroughly they had bled Jiri Academy dry.
Even with Baek Ho-yeon now serving as chairman, it would take a long time for Jiri Academy to become normal again.

“If I could just see every last one of those bastards get sued before I drop out, I’d die happy.”

After enjoying the thought for a moment, Ro-un returned to the main point.
This isn’t the time for that. If I want the guardian consent form, I need to rank first in the school.
As if sorting through his memories, Ro-un pulled up the classes as holograms and began organizing the materials.

Scratch scratch.

The pen tip scratched across white paper.
The smooth movement of the pen looked almost like a dance.
The black writing filling the paper stamped itself clearly into Ro-un’s eyes.
White paper, the pen moving over it, the blank space being beautifully filled in.
They were all things Ro-un liked.

Rustle….

Ignoring the noise with the concentration befitting an Awakener, Ro-un studied diligently.

Beep beep beep—

“…Ah.”

When the alarm he had set beforehand went off, Ro-un let go of his pen.
If he didn’t set it like this, he would keep focusing without eating or drinking, so he had long ago developed the habit of forcing himself to take breaks while studying.

“It’s already this late.”

Turning off the alarm, Ro-un laced his fingers together and stretched his arms out long.

“Ughghghghk!”
“Uu-uu-uu.”
“?”

What is that sound?
Did some other student actually come to the library?
No way.
Having firm faith in the students of this school, though only in the worst sense, Ro-un lowered his head toward the direction the sound had come from.

“Kya-hah!”
“?”

The white-haired child, meeting Ro-un’s eyes, was bursting into delighted laughter.
At the sight of a child he had never expected to see here, Ro-un’s eyes widened and he reached toward him.

“You. How did you get here this time?”

Relaxing, Ro-un lifted the child who had been crouched under the desk.

“Hi!”
“Yeah.”

At least you’re good at hiding.
You hid in the spring passage until the spirit egg’s purification was finished too.
It was a good ability for one so young to have.
Being able to hide from predators would be good for survival too.

“You did well. Hiding is a survival skill too. This time, grow up healthy without anything happening to you.”
“Hi!”
“Yeah. Have you eaten?”
“Hi.”

Judging by the shake of his head, he hadn’t eaten yet.
Where the hell is Baekdu’s chairman and what’s he doing that he hasn’t even fed his kid?
Holding the child, Ro-un rose from his seat.

“Let’s go eat.”

Ro-un stopped short just as he was about to head toward the cafeteria without thinking.
Wait. If I go eat in the cafeteria like this, won’t the rumor that I’m a father just get worse?
Instead, Ro-un sat the child down right in the seat he had been using.

“Can you wait here just a moment? I’ll go buy a lunchbox.”
“Hi.”

The child swung his legs and nodded.
He’ll be fine by himself for a minute, right?
No one came to the library besides him anyway, so it should be fine to leave him.
Even thinking that, Ro-un’s steps toward the store sped up until they were nearly a run.

Maybe the cafeteria menu had been bad today, because the line at the store was unusually long.
Because of that, buying a lunchbox took a while, and Ro-un hurried back into the library.

“Let’s eat!”

As Ro-un made his way to the desk, imagining the white-haired child on the verge of tears from hunger, what greeted him was a seat already gone cold.

“…Kid!”

Gone.
He’s gone!
Ro-un threw the lunchbox he was carrying down on the desk and immediately went looking for him.

“Hey! Where are you!”

While frantically searching for the child, Ro-un belatedly realized he didn’t even know the kid’s name.
If I knew this would happen, I should’ve asked Baekdu’s chairman.
Running around the desk he had been studying at, Ro-un cursed the useless size of the library.
Belatedly realizing that spreading out his Holy Power would be faster than running around this huge space, Ro-un used it.
A combat-type would have used battle sense, but all he had was brute-force Holy Power, so Ro-un spread that out instead.

……

‘Above!’

At the faint presence he sensed from above, Ro-un jerked his head up.
Standing in the open center of the library, Ro-un looked up, and the child, having sensed his Holy Power, poked his head out over the railing.

“That’s dangerous! Stay right there!”

At Ro-un’s shout, the child quickly withdrew his head.
Having found him, Ro-un sprinted up the stairs.
His body moved as though he had forgotten that one was supposed to be quiet in a library.

‘Thank god. He was still inside.’

Unlike moments ago, Ro-un smiled with a face full of relief and joy.
A moment later, having reached the floor where the child was in a single rush, Ro-un steadied his breathing and approached him.

“Where did you go? You had me worried.”
“Hiii.”

As if he understood he had done something wrong, the white-haired child lowered his head with a sullen expression.
Lowering himself to the child’s eye level, Ro-un patted his head.

“You came all the way up here by yourself. That’s impressive.”

The child blinked, apparently having expected to be scolded and not praised.
His soft white eyelashes fluttered like little wings with each blink.

“You’re hungry, right? Shall we eat?”
“Hi!”

The child smiled brightly.
Ro-un took his hand to lead him downstairs to eat, but the child tugged him somewhere else instead of toward the stairs.

“What is it?”
“Hi!”

The child pulled him as if there was something over there, and Ro-un let himself be led.
The child pointed somewhere on the shelves.

“That? You want to look at a book?”
“Nnno.”

The child fussed as if to say that wasn’t it.
I don’t know what it is, but I should pull it out for him first.
Seeing him hop on tiptoe because he couldn’t reach, Ro-un lifted him and moved toward where he was pointing.

“This book? Is it this one?”
“Hi!”
“A little farther?”
Following the child’s directions obediently, he finally reached the book the child wanted.
The moment the child’s hand touched it, the old tome slid out of the shelf on its own.
The ancient book floated gently through the air and settled into the child’s arms.
Reflexively, Ro-un checked the title.

“What language is this?”

The book’s title was written in an unknown language.
He tried using the D-Watch to interpret it, but even the D-Watch couldn’t translate it.

“That means it’s a book that came through a passage. I did hear that our school used to collect items that came over from the otherworld.”

Since it was an academy, he vaguely remembered hearing that they had collected otherworld items for research purposes.
He had never expected one to still be in the library.

“I thought the principal and chairman had sold off everything worth money.”

It could only be considered lucky that a book from the otherworld was still left in the library.
After all, they hadn’t even managed the basic academy maintenance or curriculum updates that should have been standard.
Maybe it was only because no one had come to the library all this time.

“Looks like even the chairman and principal never came here.”

For once, Ro-un was grateful for the students and staff having no interest in academics.
The child stuck his face out as if asking whether he’d done well.

“Hi?”
“You did well. Really well.”
“Kya-haha.”
“You did great. The best.”
“Kyarurururu!”

Ro-un rubbed the child’s head roughly.
Despite the roughness of his hand, the affection in it couldn’t be hidden, and child laughed as clearly as bursting droplets.

“Let’s go eat. You’re hungry, right? I bought the most popular lunchbox, and luckily I got the last one. Let’s eat.”
“Hi!”

Carrying the child back down, Ro-un moved his notebook aside and opened the lunchbox.
The moment he lifted the lid, the food, warmed just right, appeared with steam rising from it.

“Aaaah!”
“Don’t jump around on the chair. It’s hot, so I’ll cool it down for you. You can’t eat with your hands! It’s hot!”

Apparently dragons and humans were the same when food was in front of them, because the child tried to grab the rice with his bare hand, and Ro-un stopped him.
Though he obediently lowered his hand, he opened his mouth as if demanding food immediately, so Ro-un blew on it to cool it and fed him.
The two of them looked like a pair of close brothers.

“…Looks like the reason the president’s trying to drop out really is because of the kid.”
“Seriously. I didn’t believe the diligent president had knocked someone up before marriage, but now I’m starting to.”
“Same here.”

Students who had unintentionally come by using the hole in the wall near the library stared blankly after catching sight of Ro-un and the child together.
The student council president becoming a father!

Keywords that belonged in dramas or novels filled the students’ heads.
Their misunderstanding of Ro-un only deepened.