Chapter 1-1: Sent to Another World Along With a Grimoire[1]
With a cooling moisture, and tranquil silence in the air.
On a calming Sat.u.r.day evening, I―― Kazami[2] Ayame was doing my usual routine, pa.s.sing the time by reading in this city’s largest public library.
The weekend, it was still a little past noon on Sat.u.r.day. On days that it neither rains nor snows, I almost always end up coming here.
The moment I had realized the magnificence of the typing press was, if I remember correctly it was five years ago. Back when my sparkling[3] middle school life should’ve began, I was 13 years old at the time.
My old man bought it for me as a gift so I reluctantly read it, a mystery novel about the adventures of the world’s most famous detective.
That novel was translated into easy to understand words so that even children could read it. I thought it was just a pile of paper filled with only words that I wouldn’t find amusing or enjoyable, but that that book gave me dreams and ambitions.
From then on, I was completely absorbed into the world of stories.
At first I only read detective novels that were translated from overseas but, after I had graduated middle school, my hands reached out to all sorts of historical novels like The Three Kingdoms, and publications known as Light Novels where people like aliens and espers and time travelers appear[4].
After entering high school, during my breaks, instead of deepening my relationships with my cla.s.smates, I preferred to continue reading day in and day out.
Thanks to this, three months pa.s.sed by without me even realizing. I was completely isolated from the rest of my cla.s.s.
I loved books.
I didn’t want a best friend who would understood my hobby.
I was like an extremely biased omnivore, additionally the genres that I read would constantly change in rapid succession.
Even if someone specifically went out of their way to match my thinking I doubt they would be able to break into my world while I’m concentrating. That being said, I can’t stand having to match other people’s hobbies.
――That’s why, the reason why I am always alone is because I myself wish for it.
Having persuaded myself thus, my lifestyle of not being concerned about other people briskly began five years ago.
18 years old during the Spring of my third year of high school―― Five months ago. I had finally, I began to slowly recognize the situation that I had left behind.
That situation was that even though everyone else was caught up with college entrance exams, I have been read nothing but light novels so I was not caught up with my studies.
As for people who could offer to help my study, I didn’t have any friends willing to teach me.
More precisely, I didn’t have any friends.
By now I’m panicking saying “What did you say!?”, I had become enlightened to such an unfavorable course.
「Fii[5]――, Calm down.」(Ayame)
I believe people have various different places where they calm down but, as you would expect, the moment where I feel the most calm is when I visit the library.
While being surrounded by countless books, my most favorite thing is to leisurely dive into a mountain of these treasures.
No one would complain about you spending your time silently reading, and as long as you observed the closing time you could read as many books as you like.
「Well then, what should I read next」(Ayame)
Having immersed myself in satisfaction after reading a revolutionary detective novel that was narrated by the culprit himself, for the sake of once again finding a brand new novel, I headed towards the bookshelf.
I wonder what genre of novel I should read next. Just the thought of it was exciting.
「――Hmm?」(Ayame)
While taking a peek around before placing the novel I had just finished reading back on the bookshelf, a single book with a tinge of color I have never seen was resting there.
With an iris color, it was a book given simple decorations that looked at a glance like a memo pad.
It’s thickness was about the same as a shounen manga tankoubon but, it’s dimensions were a little smaller than twice that of a shounen magazine.
I have never been involved with age-restricted comic books before but, if I remember correctly, I think that the size should be similar to that.
I wasn’t particularly curious about it, but before I realized my hand was reaching out to that book.
「The t.i.tle is…… What’s this, which language is this?」(Ayame)
It didn’t resemble English or j.a.panese, a strange language was written on the front cover. Rather, I wonder if these are even truly words.
If an earthworm squirmed around, I think that it would look a little bit more like words, but.
「The contents are…… Yup, I can’t read a single thing.」(Ayame)
With diagrams I absolutely couldn’t understand, and resemblances of sentences. As for the pages, the paper’s color and condition were unusual, the penmanship was also a bit different from handwriting.
The result was the same but, no matter what page I opened up, being the genuine j.a.panese male that I am, it was completely impossible for me to read anything.
「Maybe someone accidentally left it here. For now, let’s bring it to the counter.」(Ayame)
For the time being I left the book in my hand on the shelf, and took one more look inside the iris colored book.
Yea, can’t read a single thing. Moreover, it would be scary if I could suddenly read it.
Closing it with a *Patan*[6], I sharply sighed.
Thinking something like perhaps a child had left behind their sketchbook, while wanting to hurry up and finish delivering it I took one step forward with my feet and――
All of a sudden, the s.p.a.ce before my eyes split open.
「――Ah?」(Ayame)
My field of vision began to violently warp, I began to lose my sense of balance. Instinctively I reached out my hand to try and grasp the bookshelf but, I wasn’t able to grab onto anything in the surroundings.
The background was being enveloped in dazzling white light, it was a mirage that seemed like it could burn your eyes.
「――This is bad!」(Ayame)
I had absolutely no idea what was happening but, I could understand that I was being wrapped up in an abnormal situation.
While my whole body felt the strange sensation of being suspended and falling down, I desperately squirmed through the empty air.
「I, I’m falling~! No, I’m sinking? I, I’m being swallowed!?」(Ayame)
While plummeting down, as if I was sinking, with discomfort starting to welling up in my stomach, I slowly lost consciousness.
Extra TL note: Hahaha, from one cliffhanger to another…
Extra TL note #2: I love Ayame’s character. Reading about this “book loving otaku” was absolutely hilarious. Especially the “having deceived myself that I wanted no friends” part.
1.
TL note: Grimoire is actually [魔導書] or “Book of Magic”. For now I’ll leave it as grimoire for thematic effect but who knows when I’ll get lazy.
2.
TL note: For those who care, his last name is spelled [風美] meaning “beautiful wind” p.r.o.nounced “Kazami” (his entire name is quite feminine)
3.
TL note: Originally [ピッカピカ] which is a sound effect for “sparkling”. It has the connotation of “fresh/new” and “bright”
4.
TL note: Reference to Haruhi/”The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”. As such, I used the “official” translations for “special power-users” and “people from the future”. Also if you didn’t know, there were actually 4 things Haruhi mentions in her introduction, the fourth one being “people from a different world”. *wink wink*
5.
TL note: Fii~ was originally [ふぃ――]. It’s Ayame sighing/taking deep breaths.
6.
TL note: Patan is the sound of “shutting a book”