Eternally Regressing in Another World

Chapter 24: Square 19: A Technique Beneath Cavemen

Dinner turned out even more lavish than lunch had been. A warm herbal soup made from flame grass. Carpaccio made from king fish, something like an arapaima. Roast beef made from a monster called a hell crocodile. Dish after dish, each one more visually striking than the last.

”I hear you were making quite a racket in the library. What exactly were you up to?”

”Mmgh!”

I nearly choked on the soup I’d just swallowed. Somehow I managed to hold it in and force it down.

”...Wh, why do you know about that!?”

”How many servants do you think work in this mansion? You’d do well to assume that pretty much everything gets seen or heard by someone. As for the library, apparently that maid over there heard it all.”

Elizabeth gestured toward a short maid standing nearby. Except she seemed to be dozing off, her head bobbing up and down. Her headband looked ready to fly off at any second.

”So? What exactly were you doing? Find some particularly interesting book?”

”Well, yeah, I guess I just got a little too into it. I’ll be more careful next time.”

I wasn’t technically lying. I steered the conversation elsewhere while bringing another forkful to my mouth. After finishing off the after dinner wine, I got up from my seat.

”That was great. Hey, Elizabeth.”

”Whaf ish ith?” (What is it?)

Sure, it was my fault for talking to her mid bite, but I still think she could stand to eat a little more elegantly. I was about to say exactly that, but then I noticed a sauce stain on her tie, so I quietly wiped it off myself to avoid getting talked back at, swallowing the comment instead.

”So, um, I’m going to borrow the library again, that alright?”

”Ash long ash you don’t geth ith dirthy, thath’s fine.” (As long as you don’t get it dirty, that’s fine.)

”O... okay, thanks.”

I honestly couldn’t tell what she was saying anymore, but she probably wasn’t refusing, so I thanked her anyway. I went to grab the bag I’d left in my room and headed back to the library.

”Alright then, let’s not get sidetracked this time, focus, focus!”

According to Elizabeth, I could only stay until tomorrow morning. Which meant tonight was my last real shot. This time, I really wanted to find something solid, something that could actually tell me what this world was. Right now, more than anything, what I wanted to know was history. Even something like a fairy tale would do. If there was any kind of clue connecting this world to my own, there might even be a way back home.

”...There might be something around here.”

I made my way deeper into the library. This far back, it looked like cleaning hadn’t happened in a while, and the air was a bit dusty. While browsing through several shelves, an oddly colorful section caught my eye. I picked up a book at random and flipped it open.

”The text is pretty huge, is this for kids?”

It was closer to a picture book than an actual novel. The story followed a girl with a white bandana who got lost in a witch’s forest and escaped with the help of a young dragon.

”Is this whole shelf just picture books?”

At a glance, there had to be at least a thousand of them. Reading through all of these would take way more than a week. For now, I picked out about five thicker looking books. ...While picking, I noticed an old handwritten book titled ”Elizabeth’s Adventure” and chose to pretend I never saw it.

Thirty minutes later. I’d skimmed through all of them, but nothing useful turned up.

”Somehow they all kind of blend together.”

Grumbling about the children’s books, I put them back on the shelf. Further back than this were books of obscure poetry, speeches from royal courts, philosophy, and religious texts, the kind guaranteed to put anyone to sleep. I had zero intention of touching any of those.

”...What’s that book?”

What caught my eye was a brown book with no title printed on the spine. Unlike the other books, the wear on it looked completely different. The cover was starting to peel away, clearly showing its age. It sat on the very top shelf, but I managed to just barely reach it.

”Something like ’The Eyes of the Six Sided Form’... what even is this book?”

I gave it a quick read right there. The contents read less like a novel and more like scripture. Passages about how a god had done this, how a god had spoken these words. Text like that stretched on for over five hundred pages. Something about a warrior god king, something about a witch named Elvira, something about a demon lord of the end. I’ve never been great at reading stuff like this. I quietly put the book back where I found it.

”No good... I’m never going to find anything this way.”

If it were organized properly by category, like an actual library, this would be a lot easier. But at the end of the day, this was just someone’s private collection. Not exactly kept in perfect order. A book on ”the difference between monsters and insects” was mixed in with cookbooks, and right next to a book called ”The Refined Lady’s Etiquette” sat one titled ”How to Choose Seductive Underwear.” At a glance it looked tidy, but looking closer, barely half the shelves were actually properly sorted. I was starting to lose hope. That’s when my eyes landed on a book called ”Magic Even a Goblin Could Understand.”

”...Just a little. I’ll look for ten minutes, then get back to searching.”

No matter how much of an adult you become, there’s still something irresistible about flashy magic. Just the thought that I might actually be able to pull it off made it impossible to hold back my curiosity. Even a grown man would get a little giddy at the idea of shooting fire from his hands or summoning a weapon out of nowhere.

”Let’s see, apparently people have an affinity for a particular element. Uh huh. Fire, water, wood, lightning, spirit, five types total. I see, I see. The opposite of your strong element becomes your weak one, so it might not work well there. Ohh. So my daikon sprout incident happened because my strong element is fire, which made wood magic tricky. That’s why it didn’t work out!?”

Anyway, let’s just try it. But if I cast this and a fireball shot out the moment I said the incantation, that’d be a disaster. Opening the window and aiming the spell up at the sky should be safe enough. I opened the window right away and drew a magic circle on paper, same as before with the wood spell. Then I clenched my palm and channeled magic into it! And then, the incantation!

”Answer to my name, gather in the blazing sky that lights the earth, Vernofeld Inferno!!”

A faint red glow lit up from my right arm.

”Nnnnngh...OOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAH!!!!”

”Come on, come on, come on, come ON... HHHHHNNNNGH!!!!!”

”Heave, ho, come on, heave, ...SOOOOYAAAAAAAA!!!!!”

”AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!”

It’s not coming out!!!! The fire magic isn’t working at all!!!! After thirty minutes of struggling, all I managed was a little smoke from my fingertip.

”Worse than a caveman, seriously, idiot!!”

I ended up yelling even though no one was around. Well, someone was, actually. A maid was staring in through the window. The headband girl from earlier, the one whose head had been bobbing. She was just silently staring at me without a word. Blushing hard, I shut the window. In the end, my flushed face ran hotter than the fire magic ever did.

”...Guess I’ll try a little more.”

In the end, I ended up testing the most basic spell for every single element. Here’s how it went. Fire element: a little smoke from my fingertip. Water magic: hand sweat that looked about ready to drip but never quite did. Wood magic: a daikon sprout grows. Lightning magic: a slight tingling in my fingertip. Spirit magic: the area under my fingernails got noticeably cleaner.

With some indescribable expression on my face, I went back to my room and curled up under the covers. The maid who passed me around that time later described my expression as looking like someone taking a brutal body blow while chewing on a bitter bug.