CH 2

“I’m sorry I got you into this mess.”

When I left the staff room, Winds, who was standing aside, apologized to me with a tearful face. This is the kind of weakness that Dobberwin finds easy to put together and play with, I think. But Doberwin did not know, that Winds was a remarkable master of wind type of magic. Well, he is not aware of his own talent, though.

“Don’t worry about it. Fourth period is about to start. Get going.”

Yes, I understand, Winds said, bowing to me as he headed for the classroom.

When I look at him, he looks younger than his actual age. Winds is a mob character in the game [Eleanore], of course. But as a character he might be popular with girls. I thought that as I looked at the back of Winds.

It’s been five years since I arrived in the world of the otome game [Eleonore]. I woke up one morning and suddenly found myself as a boy named Glen Alford. I was confused at first. Of course I was. A salaryman in his forties, with a wife and children, who has always been a company employee, would be confused if he woke up to go to work in a room he had never seen before, wearing clothes he had never seen before, and his body had shrunk.

At first I thought it was a bad dream and I was trying to escape reality, but no matter how I slept or woke up, it would never change to the world I know. I didn’t want to believe it, but I had to accept the reality, the fact that I was living in another world.

“Is this a different world reincarnation heard in rumors?”

This is a story about being reborn and living in another world, which is often dealt with in so-called light novels.

The story of reincarnation in another world. I knew that there was such a genre because my daughter had been reading such books, but I never thought it would happen to me. It was a bolt from the blue. However, there is nothing more unpleasant when it comes to actually experiencing it.

I just don’t remember dying in the real world. I fell asleep while playing “Eleonore” and woke up in this world. In other words, I don’t think I died and was reborn, but rather my soul wandered into this world and “possessed” a person named Glen Alford.

I have a wife and two kids, but honestly I don’t really worried about this one, because the kids are going to leave their parents anyway. But I really want to see my wife Kana. We were in the same grade and married for love. It’s been a quarter of a century since we started dating, but the passion we had when we first started dating hasn’t cooled down yet. I was happy when people told me that we were a close couple.

I’ve only been with one person in my life, Kana. She’s the only woman I’ve ever have. Kana is enough for me. I want to see her. But the only way to see her again is to return to the real world. This is a non-negotiable line, no matter who, what, or how you say it. Since I didn’t die in the real world, there must be a way to return. The question is how to find the way back.

I was shocked at first when I found out that this world was the world of [Eleonore]. Or rather, to be honest, I despaired. Why should I be in a fake world? However, as time went by and I was able to think things through calmly, I began to think that if I could sneak into the school where the game was set, Sarun Afia Academy, the game would start and the “time would move”.

My image of “moving time” is that I am in the middle of loading a game, and just as the real world is the Big Bang, where the universe is said to have been created by a tiny particle expanding at once like an explosion, this Eleonore world is a spinning disk in motion.

In other words, while the disc is spining, the progress of this world wouldn’t move unless the progress of the game [Eleonora] itself moving. Why did it happen? That’s because of the so-called bugs that prevents this game from loading while the disc is spinning. After a long consideration, I came up with a hypothesis.

A person who should be living in the real world is now in the game world, the Eleonore world. At the very least, the fact that I’m exist as conscious body is a situation that should never have happened. As the [situation that should never have happened] = [bug]. I believe that this [bug] is a link between this world and the real world.

Furthermore, [the bug that is the link between the two worlds], which I have taken the liberty of naming [the gate], if I make it appear, [gate] will take me back to the real world through it.

It’s an immature and self-serving interpretation, based on my lack of scientific and technical knowledge, but it’s a far cry from despair. The idea that there is a way back, that there is a chance of seeing Kana again, is enough to inspire me. I’m used to fighting in places where there is little hope. I’ve been an employee of the company for 25 years, and I’ve never had much hope.

In any case, as the progress of game [Eleonore] is running, the time of this world will also moving. So, if I enter the game’s stage, Sarun Afia Academy, train myself, and gather information, I should be able to trigger a [gate] to return to the real world.

As an old man in his forties who has played this game before, the school is a familiar world to me, and I can make use of my knowledge of various games, including strategies.

This is a huge advantage for me, and I can fight well in this area. Once I had my mind made up to that point, I was ready to enter the school, but I was set back from the start.

The reason for this is that I come from a merchant’s family and I had no background in the aristocratic school of Sarun Afia. In a society where one’s status is absolute, a merchant who is not a commoner has little chance of getting into a noble school. In this game, merchants can’t use swords, offensive or restorative magic, so there’s no advantage in attending a school that focuses on these skills.

Most of the children of merchants either attend the National Norden Academy, a business school, or join a family to train themselves. By doing so, they gain knowledge and skills as merchants and make a living. It is a common sense in this world that there is no need to take the trouble to acquire other knowledge, because that is enough to live on. Therefore, there are no merchant pupils in this world who attend the Sarun Afia Academy.

When I thought about it, it was true that none of the characters in the game had the merchant attribute. With this situation, I suddenly found myself in an impossible situation. This situation changed one year ago. In Montserr, where I live, the situation changed for the better when my family’s Alford Trading Company was elected as the head of the Montserr Guild.

The Alford Trading Company is one of the long-established merchant associations that has been based in Montserr, the third largest city in the Kingdom of Norden, for generations. The current head of the company, my father Salz Alford, was an excellent merchant, but he had to handle a lot of chores on his own, and the business had fallen behind.

That’s when I joined the family business and used the paperwork skills I had gained from my life as a company employee to take care of the transaction documents. With Salz concentrating on sales, the company’s performance soared. As a result, the Alford Trading Company gained a large market share in Montserr and became the head of the Montserr Guild.

This position as head of the Montserr Guild brought me good news. Traditionally, the guild had a school recommendation system. The guild had traditionally had a school recommendation quota, but no one had used it for a long time because it was pointless for a merchant to go to school.

However, Salz used this slot for me, which opened the door to the school, and I was able to enter.

When I was admitted to the school, I immediately entered the dormitory on the first day of the ban. The thought of meeting Kana was enough to get my heart racing. I felt that entering the school as soon as possible was the best way to get there, so I couldn’t stand still and went through the admission procedures first thing in the morning.

Since then, I have been in and out of the school’s library almost every day, except for the days I’m out on quests, and have been focusing on gathering information. Needless to say, my goal is to find the “Gate”, a hint to return to the real world from this Eleonore world.

The library of Sarun Afia Academy has a large collection of books due to the fact that the school has been in existence for 350 years, and the only library in the kingdom that has a larger collection than this is the Royal Library, which only the nobility can access. In other words, the library of this school is the largest library that commoners can enter.

This school has nothing for me to learn. However, the fact that there is a library of a scale that is unparalleled is worth it. The library in Montserr is inferior to the school library, and it doesn’t have any information that I want to look up.

It’s no surprise that in this world where there is no Internet, and I have no connections or power, the only way I can get information is from books. I learned about the connection between this world and the real world from past events written in books, and found the “gate” that must exist between the two worlds.

Even if there is no direct mention of such “gate”, there must be stories that give me hints. For example, myths, folklore, records of events, and so on. There must be some form of record. In order to find them, I went to the library as much as time allowed. I was seated at a four-seater desk by the window at the back of the library.

I brought in about ten books that I had picked out from my bookshelf. The way I read books is to put a bookstand on my desk, concentrate on the text without losing my sitting posture, and “follow” each line vertically. This is the way I used to read music scores, and it takes me about 10 to 15 minutes to read through each book.

When I was working in the real world, I used to read documents carefully to find and correct typos and errors, a technique I learned from my work environment, and I also used this speed reading method when I was helping out at the Alford Trading Company, but it may not be the same as the general “speed reading” method.

I was able to handle my work and earn a living this way, but it took a toll on my eyes and I ended up wearing glasses when I was in my thirties. Well, once I became Glenn

“Can I sit here, Glen-san?”

The Dobberwin incident threw off my schedule, but as I entered the library and processed my books in the usual manner, a female student with shining platinum blonde hair and big blue eyes sat down across from me.

Her name is Iris Eleanore Laurent. As her middle name suggests, she is the protagonist of the game “Eleanore! I call her “Airi” for short.

“Yo, Airi.”

I was inwardly nervous when Airi called out to me in her clear, teenage soprano, but I returned the call naturally so that she wouldn’t know what I was thinking and concentrated on the writing table in front of me.

(She’s still cute as ever)

I glanced again at Airi, who was sitting in front of me. She is a beautiful young girl with beautiful platinum blonde hair arranged in a medium length and beautiful big blue eyes. She is only 15 years old, but her beauty is divine. This is truly a goddess.

The aura of a beautiful girl is amazing, though it may be the ultimate in game performance. If I’m not careful, I will be attracted to her. It’s dangerous to continue like this, so I use my social experience to subtly shift my gaze and somehow avoid the aura of killer rays.

The first game character I met and exchanged words with at this school. That was Airi.