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The Novel's Shadow

After dying, I opened my eyes to a new world, the world of a novel. With a new identity of a side character called Keith Devans, I will work in the shadows and help the protagonist whenever it is needed. Even with such a dream, the world of the novel is still dangerous for a side character like me so using the knowledge of the novel and obtaining some skills and talents I will become one of the strongest. Or so I hoped.

Onjou · Fantasy
Not enough ratings
62 Chs

First Day (1)

After escaping from the cafeteria I went straight to my room to finally relax, after taking the elevator to the second floor I arrived at my room in a matter of seconds.

I headed inside and jumped on my bed.

My thoughts were going crazy due to what had just happened.

Lying down on my bed I remembered that I wanted to call my mom, so after standing up, I went to grab my phone, which was on top of my luggage.

One cool thing about the watches was that you were able to transfer all data from your phone into your watch and that was exactly what I did.

After all the data had transferred to my watch I searched for my mom in my contacts and called her right away.

"Hello?"

"Hi, mom"

"Omg, Kei, how have things been at the academy?"

"They have been fine, a little tired though"

"Hmm, that's great, oh I heard that you would be receiving your evaluation how did you do?"

A proud smile flashed on my face.

"A rank is what I got"

Similar to Alicia, my mom kept boasting about how I was so talented and all of that stuff, I also mentioned the SS rank boy and the household successors.

After almost an hour of talking my mom finally saw the time.

"Omg, Kei, is already 10 pm you should head to bed so you can wake up full of energy for your classes", Soon after saying that, I ended the call.

I went and took a shower and after that, I went to bed.

While lying down I suddenly thought of the situation in the cafeteria. While it was enough to make me stand out. But with how I acted they probably shouldn't want to get close to me.

But I also thought of how Keith's memories and personality were fusing with me, as when I was back in my original world I had never wanted anything to do with studying so the fact I was so excited to learn from Monica was probably because of Keith.

I kept thinking about today's event and soon closed my eyes.

ZZZZZZ

...

Waking up, I saw on my watch that it was 5 am, I probably couldn't sleep properly because of all the stress.

After taking a shower and getting dressed up, I left to go to the cafeteria.

Since it was quite early in the morning it was quite empty apart from some teachers and students that will probably go to train early in the morning.

After getting my normal 2 sets of menus, one with pancakes and another with eggs and ham, I ate it all and decided to head into the library.

It was 6 am so I should be able to have 2 hours of reading before having to head to class.

I turned on my watch and searched for the information regarding my schedule it didn't take long to find the application with all the information

Every day from Monday to Friday, the schedule was the same.

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[8:00 am - 8:10 am]Homeroom(For announcements and all of that stuff)

[8:10 am - 10:10 am]Magic Class(Mana, Spells, Summoning, and More)

[10:10 am - 11:10 am]Dungeon Class(Portals, Monsters and More)

[11:10 am - 12:10 pm]Lunch Time(Self Explanatory)

[12:10 pm - 1:10 pm]Demon Class(Demons, Contractors and More)

[1:10 pm - 2:10 pm]Potion Class(Alchemy, Herbs and More)

[2:10 pm - 4:40 pm]Training Class(Duels, Training, Martial Arts and More)

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Soon I arrived at the library and just like Monica said, I had finally had access to the library. Probably it was because of Keith's memories but I was strangely excited to read every single book in the library.

After locking the door, I thought I should practice my magic as well as read the books. In the hallway that is created by the bookshelves, there are 3 tables, showing how long every column of the library was.

I sat down at the first table in the first row.

Using telekinesis, I cover a book with my mana and slowly but surely brought it to me which exhausted almost one-fourth of my mana, and soon after getting it in my hands, I started reading as I was too excited to hold back.

In a matter of 50 minutes, I was able to finish the book which was something incredible and it was all thanks to my skill [Avid Reader]. It was also thanks to this book that I was able to memorize everything that I had written down about the novel back at home.

The skill [Avid Reader], allows me to contain all the knowledge I have read from a book, that was why after writing the book, I read it afterward to be able to memorize all the knowledge. The only restriction I found from the skill was the fact that it only recognizes something as a book if it was long, so just writing 50 or so pages wasn't enough.

Since the book I had written about the events wasn't needed anymore, I burned it down using a fireball, while it might have been in English which is not a language from this world and others might not understand it, I still decided to do so as someone reading the book might find it weird and suspect me for something like being a demon contractor.

Anyways, after reading the entire book I had this strange urge to continue reading so I did the same as before and used my telekinesis to bring another book towards me, once again draining one forth of my mana.

After an hour or so I was finally able to finish the entire book, and the urge to continue reading was still burning inside of me, but a loud beeping sound returned me back to normal.

It was an alarm for 7:55 am, and after it went off, I turned it off, returned the books back to their original place, and left the library to head to class.

After opening the back door I was able to see all the students in the class surrounding the four big shots of the academy. Ciel, Aso, Arthur, and Noel, were all sitting at the front desks near the front door.

I decided to head to the corner desk next to the window like the typical loner.

Soon the front door shot open and Monica walked inside the room and headed for the podium.

"Everyone on your sits now", She said in a menacing voice.

She stood at the podium and stared at the 25 students in front of her, pausing on the big 4, before pausing for a second after looking at me.

"Okay, since everyone is sitting down, I will be calling your names and when you are mentioned you say 'here', understood?"

At her menacing words, everyone didn't have any other option than to nod.

"Arthur Drajar"

"Here"

"Aso Embers"

"In the flesh"

And it continued like that for everyone else.

...

The academy actually functions differently than most of the other schools, as instead of having multiple teachers teach different subjects, you would actually have only one teacher that would be together with you.

Not only that but the teacher would remain to teach this class for the next 3 years that we would be staying here. This is actually a method of making students attach to that teacher so the academy could use that connection years later when some become famous.

But having to teach all subjects also shows how skilled the teachers are in this academy.

Not only do they teach magic, but they also teach swordsmanship, spearmanship, how to use a bow, and more. They also teach you about herbs and all of that stuff while not being alchemists themselves while also teaching things like demons and dungeons, which show how experienced they are in the field. And even after all that, they are still able to teach more than any other could in fields that their professions don't focus on.

For example, Monica is a mage but she could still teach the big 4 and the other students in the class some of the most impressive skills regarding their talents.

...

After all the classes relating to studies were finished It was already 2:10 pm.

"Please line up in a line as we will be going to the training for today's training class"

Instead of forming the line, I was planning to leave through the back door.

Noticing me, Monica gave me a glare.

"Keith Devans, where do you think you are going?", She asked, almost sounding like a mother.

"T-To the library", Due to her scary eyes and presence, I was not able to speak without stuttering.

"And can I ask why?, She said as it seems she had forgotten about one of the benefits of joining the library committee.

"W-well, due to joining the library committee, I have a perk that allows me to skip physical training, and that's why I'm on my way to the library".

She clicked her tongue, and then asked, "Don't you think you should at least train your body?", while flashing an irritated face.

But I had the perfect excuse for this sort of question.

"Uhm, I have never been physically fit, and even after years of training I have not been able to improve my stats regarding my physical body past the rank of G-, and the only reason I was able to join this academy was due to my academics and my intelligence stat, so I wish to refrain from physical abilities", I said with a smug look on my face.

Seeing this, Monica showed me an expression that said 'how dare this little kid' and decided to head to the training grounds without me.

Mentioning my stats, made me remember how I had forgotten to check them as I hadn't really done any sort of training until now.

'Status'

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[Name: Keith Devans]

[Overall Rank: G]

[Strength: G- (Potential: C)]

[Agility: G- (Potential: C)]

[Endurance: G- (Potential: C)]

[Magic: F+ to E- (Potential: A+)]

[Inteligence: D+ to C- (Potential: S+)]

[Luck: C+ (Potential: Unchangeable)]

[Charm: D (Potential: Unknown)]

[Talents]

-[Magician]

-[Telekinesis]

[Martial Arts]

-None

[Skills]

-[Truth Eyes]

(Description): Allows the user to view the overall current rank and future potential of individuals. Allows the user to appraise objects and artifacts.

-[Avid Reader]

(Description): Allows users to easily retain the knowledge of any book and increase the speed at which the user reads.

-[The Hawk]

(Description): Increases the users' sights.

[Artifacts]

-[Glomer's Gloves]

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It seems that learning how to use telekinesis allowed me to increase my magic stat, and my intelligence stat probably increased due to me reading many books.

...

I headed to the library and opened the doors, and left them unlocked as others should be coming to the library at later times.

Since I was in charge of the library I just grabbed around 10 books relating to mana control and headed to the reception that is located to the right after entering the library.

I just kept reading and using telekinesis to lift some of the books now and then to practice my mana control as shown in the books I had just read. While my mana control is superior to others my age thanks to my artifact, it can still improve and that's my main focus right now, as just by learning and using magic and things related to it, I can easily increase my stats although it would probably not increase in a while even after repeating this for many days.

Even while focused on my training I still did my job as a librarian correctly and registered books that were being borrowed and help others find books they needed thanks to [The Hawk].

Before I even noticed it was already 9 pm, time to close the library, using my improved eyes, I was looking to see if there was anyone inside the library, and to my surprise there still was. A girl with black hair, black eyes, and glasses, she had a ponytail and overall she looked like a nerdy girl.

I used [Truth Eyes], and I was able to find her name, 'Angelica Raven, with an overall rank of G but a future overall rank of S+?'. Her blue uniform indicated that she was a first-year student but apart from the big 4, there was no other student that had achieved such a rank.

Could the orb perhaps have graded her incorrectly, or maybe she wasn't present during evaluation but that wasn't possible as she would have been expelled and I remember not having heard a single person not be present. After thinking about it, I came up with two hypotheses, one is that the orb was faulty and two is that the girl has no talent for anything and she is pretty much just a stat monster, the second hypothesis being more probable.

I approached her slowly but even so, she was probably too focused on reading for her to notice me.

I tapped on her shoulder and after 5 taps she finally snapped out of her trance and gave me a shocked look.

To find out more about her I decided to introduce my way in a unique manner.

"Hello, I'm Keith Devans from class S1 and I have an A rank potential talent"

She probably didn't think much about it as she instantly responded.

"Ah, y-yes, I-I'm Angelica Raven, from class 2B and I have a potential talent of B rank", she said while stuttering and she was probably flustered at my sudden appearance.

She was probably a loner just like me and that made me empathize with her a little bit but soon after her introduction, I laughed a little bit.

"Hehe"

"Uhm, may I ask what's so funny"

"Nothing I would like to apologize"

"Okay"

"Well, anyways as I said before my name is Keith and I'm also the one in charge of the library, that's why I would like to inform you that it is already closing time for the library"

She went to check her clock and noticed it was already past 9.

"Omg, I'm sorry for the trouble", after saying that she started to pack her things quickly.

But before she could go, I opened my mouth with a big smile.

"There is no need to be in such a hurry, I can always empathize with a book lover just like me, oh and by the way, I always come to the library at 6 in the morning if you wished to read anything as I will leave the door open at that time"

"Thank you very much, I will be taking my leave now"

"Goodbye"

After she left I understood that it was probably the second option as having an S+ potential be transformed into a B is probably due to her lack of talents. I could just search this information in the student forum, that is why such information is trivial and can easily be shared.

I can probably use her in near future as part of my group, I just have to reel her in slowly by using our shared interest in books.

Then I packed up my stuff, went to my apartment, took a shower, and went to sleep.