Chapter 67

[“I thought I should stay away because your fate isn’t mine.

But I couldn’t run, and I couldn’t escape.

It was hard watching myself like you more and more.

I didn’t know what to do with my feelings, and the day I said I would disappear was drawing near.

Of course, I don’t regret the feelings I had for you.

I will find a way to return and be by Your Highness’s side again.

……

I’m glad I could at least convey my feelings this way.

I would be even happier if you believe all of this.

And I always keep the bird you gave me. I don’t know how lucky I am that it came with the necklace.

I wish I had left something that could remind you of me, but that regret remains.

Until the next time I can send you news, please stay well.

– With longing, Liberata Bernadette.”]

“Good heavens.”

Jelack read and reread the letter Liberata had left.

He stood as if rooted to the ground. He didn’t move a muscle, barely breathing, until one looked closely enough to see he was still alive.

Only after pondering the final sentence repeatedly did Jelack lean his head against the wall.

“…….”

A letter from Rive had arrived.

Her message had reached me.

Jelack closed his eyes and held Rive’s letter to his chest.

‘That something so impossible could actually… happen.’

Even after reading it multiple times, there was still much he couldn’t understand.

Liberata had always been a woman with a mysterious side.

That had fascinated him and piqued his curiosity.

“Rive.”

She hadn’t run away or left.

Jelack picked up the book and examined it carefully.

“But…”

Though he couldn’t understand it at all, Jelack decided to trust Rive’s words.

No, he had to trust them.

It seemed he had vaguely found a clue. There was someone who knew how to travel between dimensions through books.

Someone knew this fact.

Though the letter said it wasn’t certain, if Liberata had written it, she must have understood the situation to some extent.

Rive was trying now.

She was struggling, trying to return somehow.

I mustn’t just wait either.

In his hurry to leave a letter, he rifled through his jacket and accidentally dropped the thick book he was holding.

Thud.

As he picked it up again, Adrian, who was not far away, approached with a concerned look.

“Are you all right?”

Jelack nodded once.

“……Your Highness.”

Yet to Adrian’s eyes, Jelack did not look okay at all.

“You don’t look well.”

“No, more importantly…”

Jelack raised his hand and asked Adrian,

“Do you have a pencil or pen by any chance?”

Adrian took a sleek pen from his pocket and handed it over.

“Return it next time.”

“I will. Thank you.”

After Adrian turned away with a faint smile, Jelack immediately began writing a letter on the envelope Liberata had left.

At first, he wrote almost as if enchanted, simply because he didn’t know how else to handle the longing he felt for her.

To think that letter would actually reach Rive…

‘Sometimes you learn that you have to act instinctively, intuitively.’

Only after filling the front of the envelope did he let out a long sigh.

He was glad he could reach her this way.

He was grateful that there was a means to convey his feelings.

Jelack pressed his lips to the letter with earnest hope. Then, carefully, he opened the book again and slid the envelope filled with writing into it.

‘I hope this reaches you safely again.’

As he put the pen back in his pocket and prepared to shelve the book, a strange thought crossed Jelack’s mind.

‘If I erase or change the parts written in this book, what will happen to Rive?’

He opened The Tumultuous Renata once more.

The thick book, like an academy textbook, had mostly small text and dense paragraphs, making it difficult to read.

He realized he should have brought it back to the castle and read it properly.

‘Yes, if I start from the beginning, I might understand Rive’s current situation as well.’

His heart suddenly began to race at the thought.

Jelack grabbed the book and hurried down the corridor to where Mr. Clem was seated.

He gently woke Clem, whose head was about to droop to the floor.

“…….”

Clem, seeing Jelack, didn’t appear surprised at all. He simply rubbed his protruding eyes a few times like a goldfish.

When Jelack mimed writing in the air, Clem quickly fetched paper and a pen from his drawer and handed them over.

“How much to buy this book?”

Clem took the book Jelack handed him and slowly flipped through the index.

After a while, he wrote a short phrase instead of a number on the paper Jelack showed him:

“I cannot sell this book; there is only one copy.”

The unexpected answer furrowed Jelack’s brow.

It’s just a common novel that nobody would buy anyway. I’ll pay ten times the list price.

“No.”

Twenty times.

Clem raised his head and looked at Jelack.

With dry eyes, he shook his head.

“Even if you offered a hundred times, I cannot sell it.

I need this book.”

The last words were scrawled almost illegibly.

When Jelack handed them to Clem, he finally let out a sigh of some sort.

He could have just taken the book if he wanted.

Jelack hesitated. After all, Clem was disabled and couldn’t hear or speak.

If he used his authority, taking this one book back to the castle wouldn’t be difficult.

Yet, he felt he shouldn’t do that.

Was there another reason he was being stopped?

“Clem, please. I really need this book.”

Even knowing Clem couldn’t hear him, Jelack pleaded in a serious tone.

This time, Clem didn’t write anything, only shook his head slowly.

Jelack brought the paper back and pressed each word firmly as he wrote:

“This is a matter of life. I absolutely need this book.

Liberata is inside this book.

I must do everything possible to bring her back to this world.

The way might be in here, yet you refuse to sell it.”

His chest felt like it would burst from suffocation.

Then Clem moved his hand again.

“You may take it, but I cannot be responsible for what happens afterward.”

In that moment, Jelack was sure Clem knew something.

Could Clem be the one Rive spoke of?

Jelack closed his eyes tightly, thinking about why he hadn’t suspected him earlier.

Yes, when you think about it, the bookstore owner, Clem, likely knows everything.

“Were you the one who took Rive?”

Of course, he didn’t expect Clem to be so careless, but he didn’t know how else to ask.

Seeing Jelack write, Clem shook his head.

“No.

Even if I were the one who brought Rive into the book, I wouldn’t admit it so easily.”

Jelack cursed his impatience and pressed his dry lips together.

Yet it was certain that Clem knew something.

He had to find out everything he could from him.

“So, do you know who took Rive?”

“I don’t know.”

“She went into this book. Did you know?”

“No.”

“If the owner of this book doesn’t know, who would?”

“I am not the owner. Only the manager.”

“What do you mean, manager?”

“I manage this bookstore.”

“Is there a secret here?”

“I don’t know.”

Jelack felt frustrated communicating with him through writing. He felt like he needed to go outside and scream.

“Clem, please.

Write what you are curious about.

Tell me how to enter in here.”

“Enter in here?”

“Tell me how to enter the book. I beg you.”

His hands began to shake.

If he wrote “I don’t know” again, he felt he really couldn’t hold back.

Clem wrote a slightly longer sentence this time and handed it to Jelack:

“Your Highness cannot go.”

Upon reading the response, Jelack’s heart raced wildly.

“Cannot go” meant someone else had gone.

But why can’t I go?

“Why? Why!”

Jelack, filled with excitement, could no longer hold back and shouted.

The paper was blank, yet Clem knew what he said.

Facing the man whose face was red to the forehead, Clem wrote calmly:

“Because Your Highness is already in that book.”