DTBTHS Chapter 4

Ariadne approached the bookshelf and pulled out a book from the very bottom shelf.

Before turning even a few pages, she recognized what kind of book it was.

"It's a fairy tale book."

It had been a fairy tale book she'd enjoyed in early childhood in her previous life.

She put it down and pulled out another book beside it.

"This is also a fairy tale book I've read."

This time she pulled out a book from a completely different section.

"Why are they all old fairy tale books I've read?"

Was it only the lower shelves like this? What about books on the higher shelves?

She tried jumping but it was hopeless. With the height of a seven-year-old, smaller than her peers, she couldn't possibly reach.

Eventually she pulled out books from the lower shelves and stacked them up carefully.

Ariadne climbed the stairs made of books with effort and reached up to the very top shelf. She pulled out any book.

"...A poetry collection?"

It was a poetry collection containing poems she'd read in her previous life.

'Fairy tale books followed by a poetry collection? This bookshelf, could it be...?'

She began pulling out books at random, climbing up and down the bookshelf.

"Mystery novel, history, essay collection, romance novel, science, self-help book, psychology..."

The randomly selected books were all books she'd read in her previous life.

'This is a newspaper article collection? Even articles I saw on the internet are here.'

After pulling out dozens of books like that, she had no choice but to be certain.

This bookshelf was filled with writings she'd read impressively in her previous life.

Writings she'd read enjoyably, losing track of time—writings that made her admire or become indignant, writings that made her cry, writings that made her laugh, writings that were shocking, writings she loved.

Writings that had left traces in her previous life in some way and thus become part of her—they formed the bookshelf.

She had a vague sense of what kind of place this was.

'It's like... my previous life's library.'

She ran her fingertips along the bookshelf. The texture of the aligned book spines felt good.

'What a strange dream.'

She didn't know why she came to have such a dream, but it was a pleasant dream, so didn't that not matter?

Ariadne smiled slightly.

'Can I come here again? There are many books I want to see again.'

What should she do to have the same dream again?

'Come to think of it, what was I doing before I had this dream?'

She couldn't remember well. Somehow she felt reluctant to recall it.

As she struggled, her eyes caught sight of unusual books.

'All the other books are hardcovers, so why aren't these?'

Among the leather-bound or hardcover books, ordinary books with thin covers stood in a row, so they caught her eye.

Looking closely, unlike other books with nothing on the spines, these even had numbers written on them. From 1 to 10.

A long novel series? Ariadne tilted her head.

'There are ten volumes. Did I read such a long novel in my previous life?'

She pulled out the first volume and opened it.

It was a regression fantasy novel.

The story of the protagonist "Axel Valentine," who has the ability to return to the past, striving to save a world being destroyed by the Demon Realm's invasion.

'I remember the plot, so this is definitely a book from my previous life... but why can't I remember where or how I read it?'

She turned pages, puzzled. Her gaze, skimming through pages roughly, became fixed on one spot.

"Eldier."

Ariadne slowly read aloud the sentence she'd seen.

"Duke Eldier accumulated tremendous wealth using Elixir he developed himself."

Eldier. Elixir.

Suddenly, goosebumps rose along her spine. She skipped ahead and skimmed quickly through what followed.

—Elixir was a potion that saved humanity in the war against the Taint.

—There were many who would lick even the Duke's feet to secure Elixir. Even the King watched the Duke's mood.

—There was even a joke circulating that the Duke had nowhere to put his money, so he poured gold coins into the lake on his estate, and the lake filled with gold coins and turned into a mountain.

—However, Axel Valentine headed to the Eldier Duchy not because of Elixir.

—He headed to Eldier to personally verify whether the information he'd obtained was true.

"Surely not, right?"

Ariadne muttered in a trembling voice. Her hands turning pages grew faster and faster.

—Duke Franz Eldier had two children.

His biological daughter who died at the young age of sixteen, Ariadne Eldier.

And his adopted daughter brought from a branch family, Helene Eldier.

—Helene was making a name for herself as a genius Spirit Mage.

—The information Axel obtained was that the spirit magic Helene used wasn't actually her own ability.

Thanks to a special item the Duke created, a person who wasn't even a Spirit Mage was playing the role of one.

'An item that uses a Spirit Mage's soul to enable spirit magic.'

An item that made even someone with no ability receive praise as a genius Spirit Mage.

If this information was true, Axel absolutely had to get his hands on it.

She read through all ten volumes without stopping. There were parts she vaguely remembered, so she could read quickly.

After closing the last page, Ariadne sprawled out carelessly among the open books.

Beyond the glass ceiling, the rooms of golden bookshelves piled endlessly looked distant.

'It's not just the same name.'

She remained there motionless for a long while, then let out a long sigh.

She had no choice but to acknowledge it.

The fact that the world where she was born and raised was exactly the same as the world in the novel she'd just read.

And the fact that she'd been born as "Ariadne Eldier" from the novel.

Ariadne thought calmly.

'I'm screwed.'

Screwed. And on a world-wide scale at that.

'This novel has a bad ending.'

The conclusion of this ten-volume fantasy novel was the protagonist's failure and the world's destruction.

'An overpowered protagonist who grinds through repeated regressions... and the ending is this terrible.'

She seemed to understand why she remembered the content but not the memory of reading it.

Her previous life self must have wanted to forget the memory of reading this novel itself because she hated the ending so much.

Nevertheless, the reason this occupied a place in her previous life's library must be because of that shocking enough-to-want-to-forget ending.

'The regression itself is a trap, so it's structured so that regressing inevitably leads to failure.'

A protagonist whose bad ending was determined from the moment of first regression.

Not knowing his fate, he struggles desperately to save the world, repeating death countless times.

'What kind of nonsense is this? All the protagonist's suffering was completely meaningless? That's too much, seriously.'

At the final moment, at the moment filled with the euphoria of finally succeeding, the protagonist learns that all his efforts up to now had been part of the process destroying the world.

The despairing protagonist laughing madly while looking at a world with nothing left—that had been the final scene.

'There was foreshadowing. Yes, there was foreshadowing, but even so, what kind of hollow ending backstabs you like this?'

The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. Ariadne glared at empty space, then covered her eyes with the back of her hand.

'...This isn't the time to sympathize with the protagonist. I'm the problem right now.'

Being born as a character in such a novel was absurd enough, but of all people, "Ariadne Eldier."

According to the original work, she had to live being subjected to human experimentation by her father until she turned sixteen.

Even if she endured those spine-chilling years, only death awaited. Even after death, her fate was to have her soul extracted and become an item.

'The worst.'

Ariadne lifted her right arm, rolled up her sleeve, and checked her forearm.

An arm covered with wounds to a hideous degree.

Finally, she recalled what situation she'd been in before having this dream.

Pain from the "Taint" so overwhelming that she couldn't even feel the pain from the wounds.

Just recalling that pain made cold sweat flow and tears well up.

"Ugh."

Ariadne curled her body and dry-heaved.

Before her previous life's memories revived, she hadn't really known how serious her situation was.

Because she was young.

Because she didn't know what a normal father was like, what feelings her mother watching her might have.

She'd just been a little child who wanted to receive her father's praise, who wanted to believe her father loved her.

So she'd believed her father's words. She'd tried to endure better.

But now that she'd recalled her previous life, she could know for certain.

Her previous life self had been an adult who'd graduated university and worked at a company.

She knew very well what was normal.

'Special lessons, my ass.'

Absolutely necessary lessons? For your sake? I love you?

Disgusting.

Ariadne clenched her trembling hands tightly.

What she'd been subjected to had been human experimentation close to torture.

'If I keep living while being subjected to this, I'll go insane before long.'

Ariadne Eldier in the novel died at only sixteen years old.

Whether she was murdered or died from side effects of human experimentation wasn't stated, but either way, it was clear the Duke was the cause.

'I don't want to die like that.'

There was no room to fall into nutritionless ruminations like "how could this happen," "why," "of all people, me."

She had to find a way to survive first. She wanted to live.

For her mother who'd struggled to save her, if nothing else.

'Mom...'

The morning glories withering and falling outside the closed window came to mind.

In the novel too, the Duke's wife died young. The specific timing wasn't given, but based on circumstances, it must be around now.

'So she really did pass away.'

Her mother hadn't been the healthy type. But she'd just been physically weak—she hadn't had any particular chronic illness.

The fact that she kept quarreling with the Duke over the special lessons problem, that she departed on a journey abruptly without even a word of farewell to her daughter, and the Duke's attitude as he tore her away from the morning glory vines.

'Did Dad kill Mom?'

It was an instinctive suspicion.

It was a part not shown in the original at all, and there was no evidence whatsoever, but she couldn't help suspecting.

If she'd realized her previous life's memories, realized this world was inside a novel, just a little sooner, could she have saved her mother?

'It's already too late.'

Ariadne stared blankly at empty space, then bit her lip.

Despairing while supposing "what ifs" was meaningless.

It was already too late, and she'd been too young. Even now, she didn't have the power to protect even her own life.

It was a suspicion she had no choice but to bury for now, when she was too busy just surviving.

Nevertheless.

'If that man really killed Mom.'

A vivid blue flame lit in her eyes looking at empty space.

If that's really true, someday I'll kill him with my own hands.

'Franz Eldier.'

She didn't want to call him Dad anymore.

She couldn't let things flow according to the original. Neither her life, nor the ending where the world was destroyed.

'I will survive no matter what.'

I'll survive, build strength, and reveal the truth.

And after that, with that strength, I'll change this goddamn novel's ending.