The Second Floor of Shaid’s Temple was more or less a maze, in that it had tons of corridors leading to all sorts of other passages and dead ends. Since the fear of being buried alive in this dark moist dungeon was ever present, we were in quite a rush to make it to the end of the dungeon in time. The girls were the ones keeping us calm, surprisingly, as they rationed we might completely pass by our goal (a teleportation gadget) if we panicked this much (girls are really good at noticing these small things, so I guess having them here is quite the blessing). After that, we decided to still keep our eyes peeled for anything that seemed to stand out, but all the while not run as much.

This strategy proved quite useful, as we found many more treasures this way, as well as avoided some near-death inducing traps. Out of all the treasures though, none struck us as something peculiarly special. There was a lot of gold, which got us quite excited, but as we kept trying to keep track of how to split it all evenly between us, we started to grow bored of just picking all this gold up.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this but,” Miss Dola grumbled, “isn’t there WAY too much gold here?!? I swear, if we find any more gold, we might have to leave it. We can’t carry this much!”

Myself and the others simply nodded with equally annoyed faces, which made for a funny enough situation that eased the tension in the room. I did find and pocket a pair of diamond rings I found while no one was looking though (y’know… for later)

In any case, with our bags and backpacks now adequately filled to the brim, barely keeping their shape intact as they swayed us from left to right with each step, we made our way to the next corridor.

“Hey guys,” I spoke up, “I think I see something! Over here!”

“WHOAAA!” We all gawked at the sheer spaciousness of the room we had just entered.

It was a surprisingly tidy room (well, at least in comparison to what we saw of the previous rooms). With walls painted purple and even a rug that wasn’t soggy, it really did seem like the room we were searching for has finally been uncovered. It appeared to be a study or office of sorts, since it had a table in the center with some shelves around it, and a lectern connected to the front of the table, facing the door where we stood. Although I must say it was an odd way to decorate a room. If it was me, I’d place the lectern somewhere next to the shelves, maybe where that plant separated them?

Well, who am I to judge some guy’s interior décor from who knows how many years ago. But I can’t deny he’s a really weird guy. Quickly flipping through some of the dusty books in this guy’s bookshelves proved to be more difficult than I had expected though, as his choice in novels was abysmal. “Reincarnated in a Different World as a Little Sister to an Aristocrat who is also a Demon Lord”? Who would read something as weird as this? Just look at how long the name is! Plus, the author’s depictions of the Little Sister’s and the Demon Lord’s relationship aren’t quite as wholesome as I had originally guessed it would be. It feels more like they’re lovers than siblings, and the (granted, very well drawn) illustrations aren’t helping with that one bit!

As I almost puked from the horrid phrases of (not-so-platonic) love these characters threw out at each other, the other party members were more interested in the lectern. More importantly, the book that sat atop it. No matter how dusty everything else was (even the lectern itself), the book remained clean and, in fact, looked brand new. We all gathered around it to see what the book contained, but as we flipped from one page to the next, our literary sightseeing was abruptly cut short.

“It… only has half of the pages filled?” Old Man Linus questioned.

“Seems like it,” Sullivan picked it up from the lectern, roughly flipping the pages once more, “looks like the author didn’t quite make it to the end of this story. Maybe he passed before he could finish it?”

“But still,” Miss Lionheart inquired as she ran her finger across the table, picking up dust along the way, “why is the book the only thing that looks this well-kempt?”

We pondered over the mysterious quality of this book, until Miss Dola suddenly spoke up. She wasn’t at all pleased to hear we’ll be carrying extra luggage, instead opting to reprimand us for being too greedy with the treasures we found. She even suggested that instead of us all carrying an equal amount of treasure, we would each carry “our own treasure”, that way everyone would only be carrying what they found to be interesting or valuable. I surmise that this is just a way for her to keep all the gold to herself, leaving us with nothing but dusty books, but it’s not like she was entirely wrong for suggesting it. Maybe being a bit more conscious of what we were carrying would do us some good, after all… (but I’m keeping the rings! No way am I giving them away, they’re my gift to Cecily!)

“Hold on, everyone!” Old Man Linus suddenly spoke up, “Let’s check the other books just in case, maybe this book isn’t even the important one…”

His goal was pretty obvious, he just wanted to take a breather. But we didn’t mind, so we got busy reading the other shelved books. Many tales were read on this day, some were average, others would prove themselves as interesting, but if I were to describe the overarching theme of each story it’d be…

“Little Sisters! Little Sisters everywhere!” Sullivan took the words right out of my mouth, “This Shaid guy is a total Sis-Con! If I have to read another trash-tier story about the main character getting all lovey-dovey with his younger sibling, I’ll literally gouge my eyes out!”

“Now, now, don’t do that.” Miss Lionheart gently patted him on the head as she comforted him, “Doesn’t it sound kind of exciting in a way?”

We all suddenly looked up at her with a worried expression. She couldn’t actually be… enjoying these godforsaken stories, could she?

“I mean,” she continued, “it’s forbidden love, no? Don’t they say forbidden fruit often tastes the best? And it’s interesting how the main couples slowly progress and bend their morality in all sorts of fun and interesting ways, often leading to funny interactions, no? But that’s not all, because for all these RomCom-esque situations that make the heart beat in a wholesome pure-hearted way, there is an equal amount of hot and steamy scenes near the end that serve as a sort of finish line for the reader, and the illustrations are pure eye-candy!” She finished off her review with an, “Overall, I’d like to meet this Shaid fellow. He’s got good taste in literature, it’s very manly to love your siblings, and most of the main characters of these books care for them deeply. A solid 9/10 for sure!”

“Stay the hell away from me, heathen.” Linus said, snatching the book from her and tossing it elsewhere, “I have sisters of my own, I’d never even dream of doing these things to them! And didn’t you mention one time that you had a brother? How could you even say such things without being disgusted at yourself?”

“Ew! I’d never do such things with my brother!” She explained, “We’re family, that’s disgusting!”

I’m sensing a double standard here…

Now I’m an only child, as you know. While I did always want a sibling, it was an older brother, quite the opposite of this Shaid guy’s dreams. And even if I had a younger sister, I’d most definitely cherish her in a platonic way, but nothing more! Come on, woman, you’re really outing yourself as a weirdo now, aren’t you?

With this, I guess we found out another interesting fact about a fellow Adventurer and Party Member, but somehow I think we all regret knowing about this quirk of hers. We all decided to slowly switch the topic, since the awkward silence was killing us all from the inside, and we couldn’t take any more. The next person to express their thoughts was the Old Man himself.

“The only books I could say I enjoyed were the ones with motifs of ‘Reincarnation’ in them.” He raised his finger, “The mere idea of life after death is a fascinating and reassuring one. I do hope that when I kick the bucket one day that I’ll be sent to another world, maybe one with rules and gimmicks completely different to ours!”

“What?” Sullivan stared at him weirdly, “Life after death makes no sense, we all either get sent to the Sky realm or we just cease to exist. It’s common knowledge that the chances of getting either possibility are 50/50. There is no ‘Reincarnation’ in this equation, especially not with us keeping the memories of our past lives with us. The mere idea is blasphemy, if not heresy!”

“I get that,” Linus quietly refuted, “but this is fiction! Nay, I might actually believe this, since it’s really reassuring! You’re young, boy, so you wouldn’t understand! When you reach my old age, you’ll start to pile up all sorts of regrets, and this ‘do-over’ will certainly give you the push you need to not make the same mistakes twice!”

“Alright then, riddle me this.” Sullivan smirked as he asked the question, “If you keep your memories, that would mean your mental age is your previous life’s age plus your current life’s age, right?”

“I believe so.” Linus affirmed.

“Then that begs the question: How would you go about romantic relationships?” Sullivan once again smirked while mimicking placing a chess piece as if he was saying ‘Checkmate!’. “Certainly, all these old men inhabiting the bodies of young boys all had girls of similar age to their new life’s years, but isn’t it weird to have a young maiden go out with what is essentially an old man?”

“W-Well no, they’re the same age!” Linus refuted with a weak argument.

“But mentally they’re not!” Sullivan snapped, “The age gap is a real problem! Are you saying you’d go out with a little girl?”

We all turned our gazes to Linus, who had a dark look on his face. He simply heaved a heavy sigh as he quietly stood up and finally said something after a moment of silence.

“If the main character is reincarnated, then there’s a realistic opportunity for the maiden to be reincarnated as well, no?” He said.

This… was actually a valid argument. Since reincarnation was always ‘A Taboo Topic’ in these stories, none of the main characters would tell a single soul about it. But since the stories are told in their POVs, then we have no way of knowing if the other characters are also hiding their previous lives from the main characters themselves. Wait a second, this Old Man is cunning! He’s twisting logic to approach little girls! But he’s such a nice man, this can’t be!

Rapidly switching from wanting to throw him in jail to wanting to agree with him, I finally blew a fuse and just decided to remain neutral on the matter as we finished up our impromptu book club session.

“In the end, we didn’t even read the Mysterious Book on the lectern…” Miss Dola sadly commented.

“Yeah…” I picked up the book to flip through it one last time out of curiosity, “WAIT!” I screamed out.

Did I just see Carter’s name in this book? No, Carter’s a common enough name, it couldn’t possibly be talking about him… Even still, I decided to give the chapter where I saw his name a good read.

***

“This chapter tells a story of the main character and his friend Carter saving a young baby girl from a burning building in the middle of a fierce fire. The main character was the one to blame for the fire, but no one yet knows this. After recouping with Carter and jumping from one window to the next, slowly making it down from the top floor, a beam from the walls suddenly fell and hit Carter on the head, knocking him unconscious. In his final moments of life, the dying boy gave the child he saved the name Nelly and pushed the main character out of the building, before falling down into the fiery pits below…”

“This story… it’s of me.” I said, shaking as I barely mustered the strength to hold the book.

Before the other party members could say anything, I quickly put the book down and ran outside the room to throw up. Just having someone remind me of either Carter or that day made me tear up, but having to relive it fully like this (with vivid details) really made me sick to my stomach. Coming back to the study room, everyone glanced at me with a confused face.

“Lune, what the heck happened?” Miss Dola helped me to the office seat to gather my thoughts.

“Hmph! To think you were this egotistical!” Snorted Sullivan, “Why, or heck, even how would a book from who knows how long ago contain the story of someone as random as you?”

He was holding the book in his hands, meaning he probably read through some of the story himself. “You see the word ‘Adventurer’ and immediately assume it’s you without even reading it through until the end! It’s obviously talking about me!” He said, showing me the book’s contents once more, “See here, it says the main character was born to the parents Laura and Eldrid. Those are my parents’ names!”

“Are you illiterate?” I asked him very seriously as I pointed to the line he was referring to, “It says here the parents’ names were Ella and Lock!”

He looked just in case, but ultimately couldn’t see just how stupid of a mistake he made in the heat of the moment. I honestly think he’s just being stubborn about not being at the spotlight, but he just won’t admit it.

“Guys, guys, you’re both wrong!” Miss Dola stepped in, “I guess reading all these books made you a bit woozy, since it says here the main character is a girl! And the parents’ names were Milena and Jonathan!”

After bickering amongst ourselves a bit more, we finally started to connect the pieces together on the mystery behind this book. It was a magical book that told the story of the person reading it. This is also why only half of the book was written, as the person reading it hasn’t died yet (not that he’d be able to read it then anyways).

Miss Lionheart got a bright idea, and suggested we each open the last page with stuff written on it. The page was different for each of us, suggesting we could calculate how long we had left until our time comes. For example, Linus’ page was almost nearing the end of the book, Miss Lionheart’s is just before the middle of the book, whilst mine, Sullivan’s and Miss Dola’s were all basically just finished with their prologue chapters (in other words, we just barely started for real). We were ecstatic after having found such an amazing piece of treasure, this would definitely fetch for a high price! No, if we give this to the ITA, maybe we can go home early? Oh, but we mustn’t get complacent, the ITA is a picky bunch, maybe they won’t accept anything else than the teleportation gadget? Gahh!

I tried my best to weigh down our options, but ultimately failed and just ended up asking the other party members about what they thought of doing with this.

“Amazing!” Miss Lionheart cheered, “The final page actually spoils what’s gonna happen next!”

Huh? What are you talking about?

“I’m gonna kiss Sully!” She proclaimed loudly, before looking at the book.

“HUH?!?” He suddenly jumped. “W-Well, I a-appreciate the sentiment…” He said before quickly fixing himself up.

“Shut it! I’m reading!” She stopped him before reading aloud what the book was writing in real time.

“The main character shares a passionate kiss with Sullivan. It changes the team dynamic, making the future floors easier in the process…!” She read with an excited tone before looking back up at us, “Now check this out! Ahem: I will NOT kiss Sully!”

She claims the book suddenly started erasing the words it just wrote, instead replacing them with the following:

“The main character opts to not share a kiss with Sullivan. This leaves Sullivan a tad dejected, but he ultimately learns to cope with it. This choice may complicate things in the future…”

We stood there in awe as she figured out where this book’s use truly laid. With this, we could simply say something to the effect of “We’ll go this way!” when facing a fork in the road, and just read where it leads us, then not go there if it’s not the right path! Incredible work, Miss Lionheart! But I think you hurt Sullivan’s feelings a bit…

“By the way, I wasn’t planning on actually kissing Sully, that’d just be weird.” She said as she closed the book.

Sullivan was quick to laugh it off with a “Yeah that’d be really weird haha!”, but while no one was looking I caught a glimpse of him tearing up. I’ll treat you to some of my mom’s cooking, my guy…