Not So Special

Elin leaned forward and hummed. "Where are you from Nori?"

Shit. She's suspicious, isn't she? Damn it!

I turned to face her, forcing myself to meet her eyes as I smirked. "Like I said, I'm from far off lands."

Like the many times I trolled her whenever she asked me this question—though the timing this time was awfully uncanny—she huffed in annoyance and folded her arms.

Moving my hands from my back, using my body to hide the act of taking something out of the Inventory, I tapped the basket lightly over her head. Making a sound of amusement when she gave me this disgruntled look, I waved the basket in front of her until she unfolded her arms.

"Here," I started as I handed her a package of takeaway, "in return for one of the many meals you've given me the past few weeks."

"You would probably die from forgetting to eat otherwise and I do not want to clean up a corpse," Elin brutally snarked before she looked at the contents with a thoughtful frown. Then she looked at me in curiosity. "I never met someone who liked the company of books more than myself before you, Nori."

I sat on the table while Elin took out a cake and started nibbling on it.

Well, I had the incentive to read all those books. Partially because the organization of information on magic was still horrific compared to other subjects. It was obvious that magic, as a specialization, was still very much a master-student art. A majority of the books and papers in the archive were personal journals and notes either found or donated from wills.

The lack of standardization was annoying but expected. After all, one could basically do anything with mana if they had the control and power to do so. If there was an idea, magic can somehow manage it if only the user can pull together the right formula for the results they wanted.

I haven't actually experimented too much just yet. The grimoire granted me a rather exhaustive compilation of everything I read and, even if it was automatically organized, I still would need to go through the information again before I started messing around with the lab part of the Grimoire menu. The most I did was break down the wind drake's breath attack—it was one of the components from there that I used to cut those apples earlier.

"So who was the other man? I don't think he's one of the regulars or am I wrong?" there was a possible chance, since I spent more time in the magic section than the area Elin tended to haunt.

"No, you're not wrong. He was one of the members that came here for the Conference from the south. The group he's part of rushed to Crown City when their King went missing. Have you heard of Arend Raske?"

Brows having furrowed overhearing another missing person that was a VIP, I glanced at Elin when she asked me a question. "Oh, that guy? The self-declared Hero-King?"

Elin rolled her eyes. "Not self-declared anymore, though I admit he did call himself a hero before he became one on record. He defeated the kraken that was terrorizing the southern coasts which was also why be became a King."

"Yeah, yeah, I know what happened."

"Well, since King Raske is missing, that man was asking as to the protocol and laws that may be involved in this case. The coastal city King Raske ruled does fall under the Westrian Alliance Agreements and Crown City keeps all the various laws in order. Apparently, their archives are a mess."

I smirked as the young woman had the most offended sneer on her face, half-ruined by the fact she had a smear of sauce on the corner of her lips from food.

What she didn't point out was that the Westrian Alliance Agreements actually had clauses so the individual races could police themselves as long as they upheld certain standards. It was probably why Shamaness Verk being missing still wasn't being circulated through the academic grapevine just yet.

"Anyway, enjoy your lunch, I'm going back to my research!"

"Get some sleep!" she only returned.

The amusement from the conversation with Elin soon left my system as I headed back to the magical archives.

I recalled what Ing said about Verk Unodhim's disappearance. That she went missing because of a 'cosmic phenomena' which I understood a bit more now with all the reading about mana and different magic systems. It also made me wonder if Ing might have guessed something about my origins.

Now, Arend Raske, the most famous man in Westria, was missing too?

There might be different reasons that a King might suddenly disappear but let's set aside the potential political maneuverings and subterfuge for a moment. If Arend Raske had also disappeared through a cosmic phenomenon…

And the only possible method I found as to how I found myself waking up in Gaellia was also 'cosmic'-level in the weeks I've searched.

'Hey, Thirty-Seven?'

[Yes?]

'Do you have any siblings wandering around Gaellia?'

I felt the AI's confusion. The emotion was probably over the concept of having "siblings" at all, I would guess. [Siblings? I… Well, there are a number of other foreigners to this world wandering around, if that is what you're asking, Nori.]

Somehow, I'm not that surprised. 'I knew it,' I sighed.

He was called Program N-37. I did not forget that. That it was "37" implied there were other versions or that there were more of them, as if from a model line.

So, I was not surprised I was not special (would be rather egotistic of me to think so, really) in the world-traveling sense.

As to why a number of aliens to this world was here, bonded with AIs? My partner said he was tasked with keeping the Gaellia from destruction.

Me?

Gaellia was fine at the moment. The others probably could handle whatever problem it is.

It was best to just lie low for now.

With this decision, I returned to what I've been doing the past month: reading.

Time passed…

…

…

"Hey," I muttered as I stared at the book I just closed and then looked around me.

Read that. Nope, read that too. Read. Read. Read—

"D-did I just run out of things to read?" I asked myself in disbelief.

It hasn't been that long. How did I go through the Library's entire stock of books already?

"What?" Elin sounded incredulous. She walked over to a shelf, grabbed a random book, and asked, "Have you read this?"

"Yes."

"But do you know—"

"One of the sections that stood out was Inheritance Rights. Or, actually, the lack of it. Most people try to dispute disagreements using higher authorities and they make decisions but, technically, what they are doing are not mandates but suggestions. This rather nebulous lawlessness is because of the Eastern Kingdoms' influence."

"..."

"..."

"You can still read the content of the other archives."

"Yes, I suppose I can."

But I was only allowed an hour's access a day!

What am I going to do now? I suddenly found my schedule completely free.

[Nori.]

'What is it, Thirty-Seven?'

[You can always do the Quest that has been waiting.]

At the same time, the Quest Menu lights up and pops open by itself. The HUD had gone through several upgrades thanks to the AI's own studying.

'I told you, Thirty-Seven I—'

My eyes caught the reward for completion and I stopped mid-sentence.

Fiction from Earth.