Ariadne went up to the bookcases and took out a book from the lowest shelf. After flipping through some pages, she was able to recognize it. “It’s a fairy tale.” It had been one of her favorites when she was a child in her past life. She set it down and pulled out another. “I’ve read this one, too.”

She took out the next book from a completely different shelf. “Are all these storybooks from when I was younger?” she wondered. Were only the lowest shelves like this? What about the higher ones? She tried to reach for those to no avail. The shelves were too far up for a seven-year-old short even for her age.

Eventually, she pulled out all the books from the lower shelves and stacked them. Though it was difficult, she determinedly climbed the makeshift steps and reached for the top shelf, pulling out the first book she touched. “A poetry collection?” It was an anthology containing a poem she had read in her past life.

From fairy tales to poems? What on earth were these bookcases? Wait... Could it be? She started pulling out and opening all the books that she could reach. “Mystery, history, essay collections, romance, science, self-help, psychology...” Ariadne read aloud. The books she randomly pulled out were all the ones she had read in her past life. A collection of newspaper articles? There are even ones I read online.

Ariadne was certain, after reading through multiple books, that these bookshelves were filled with writings that had an impact on her in her past life. Ones she’d been sucked in by, ones that had impressed or infuriated her, ones that made her cry and ones that made her laugh, ones that shocked her, and ones she loved. In one way or another, each had left a mark and had become very important to her in her past life. Those were the ones that made up those bookshelves.

She had a faint idea of what the place was then. It’s like... a library of my past life. Ariadne brushed her fingertips curiously over the book spines. The neatly organized books felt amazing. What an incredible dream.

She didn’t know why she’d come to dream such a dream, but it was a happy one, so maybe that didn’t matter. She smiled a little. Can I come back here? There are lots of books I want to read again. What should she do to dream this dream again?

Come to think of it, what was I doing before I came into this dream? It was difficult to recall. For some reason, she felt that she didn’t want to remember. As she struggled to summon the memory, Ariadne saw some books that were different. The other books are all hardcovers, so why aren’t these?

It was hard not to notice the stack of plain, paperback books in between the leather-bound and hardcover ones. Upon closer inspection, unlike the other books which didn’t have titles, the simple ones had numbers written on them from one to ten. A series? Ariadne tilted her head curiously. There are ten whole books. Did I read a series this long in my past life? She opened the first book.

It was a fantasy novel. A story where the hero Axel Valentine, who could go back in time, fought to save the world collapsing under the evil realm’s invasion. Seeing that I can remember the plot, I must have read this in my past life... But why can’t I remember when, where, or why I did?

Confused, she turned the page. After flipping through some more, a word caught her attention. “Eldier,” she read aloud. Then, with a clear voice, she read out the rest of the sentence. “Duke Eldier came to great wealth using the Elixir he created.”

Eldier. Elixir. Suddenly, a shiver ran down her spine. She hurriedly skimmed through the book, skipping past whole paragraphs.

—The Elixir was the magic potion that saved the human race from the war against the contamination.

—Many were ready to be the duke’s loyal dogs if it meant they could get their hands on the Elixir. Even the king himself was wary of him.

—Some even joked that the duke ran out of space to store his money, so he poured all his gold into a lake and turned it into a mountain of gold.

—But the reason Axel Valentine was headed to the Eldier Dukedom was not because of the Elixir.

—He was headed there to check if the information he’d received was true.

“It can’t be...” Ariadne mumbled in a trembling voice. The speed at which she turned the pages increased.

—Duke Franz Eldier had two children. Ariadne Eldier, his biological daughter who died at the young age of sixteen, and Helene Eldier, whom he adopted from a distant branch of the family.

—Helene was famed for being a genius elementalist.

—But according to the information Axel received, the elementalism Helene was using was not her own. It said that thanks to a special item the duke made, someone who wasn’t even an elementalist was going around acting like one.

“An item that harnesses the soul of an elementalist to allow its owner to use elementalism, you say.”

An item that turns a nobody into a genius elementalist. If that was true, then Axel had to get his hands on it.

Ariadne read all ten books nonstop. Thanks to some of the things she remembered, she was able to do so quickly. After reading the final page of the last book, she lay down among the scattered collection. The rooms lined with golden bookshelves, north of her, seemed endless.

It’s not just the name that’s the same. After lying still for a while, she let out a long sigh. She had no choice but to accept that the world she was growing up in was the same as the one in the novel she just read, and that she had been born as that “Ariadne Eldier.” Rather calmly for the circumstances, she thought, I’m screwed.

She was definitely screwed. In-another-dimension screwed. This novel doesn’t have a happy ending. This ten-book fantasy series concluded with the hero’s failure and the end of the world. The overpowered hero goes back in time over and over and suffers so much… Just for the story to end like that. She thought she knew now why she could remember the plot, but not reading it—her past self must have hated this ending so much that she wanted to erase the memory of ever reading it.

And the reason this series still occupied a corner of the library of her past was likely due to that same shocking ending. Going back in time is a trap. Once you do it, you’re doomed to fail. And though he was headed for the bad ending from the moment he first turned back time, the unknowing hero struggled to try to save the world, dying countless times in the process. What kind of nonsense is this? All the suffering the hero went through was just pointless? That’s so cruel.

In the end, when the hero was filled with the ecstasy of success, he realized that all his efforts so far had in fact just been a part of the process leading to the end of the world. The final scene of the series was of the despairing hero laughing like a madman as he looked upon the total destruction of the world.

Sure, the ending was foreshadowed, but still, what kind of hollow, backstabbing ending is that? The more she thought of it, the angrier Ariadne became. After glaring at the ceiling for a while, she covered her eyes with the back of her hand. Now’s not the time to feel sorry for the hero. I’m the one in trouble right now.

It was bad enough that she was born in a novel like this, but to make things worse, she was that “Ariadne Eldier.” According to the original plot, she was destined to live as her father’s lab experiment until she turned sixteen. Enduring the experiments through all those years, and dying at such a young age, regardless. Fated to live on as an object until her soul was finally extracted.

A nightmare. Ariadne raised her sleeve and examined her right arm, which was covered in grotesque scars. The action reminded her of the situation she had been in before she stepped into the dream. The pain of “contamination” was so great that it masked the one from the wound. Just thinking of it brought tears to her eyes and made her shiver.

“Urk.” Ariadne curled into a ball and gagged. Before receiving the memories of her past life, she hadn’t realized how serious her situation was. Because she was young. Because she didn’t know what a normal father was like, nor did she know how her mother would’ve felt when she saw what those “special lessons” were. She was just a little girl who wanted to be praised by her father and believed that he loved her. So she’d trusted her father’s words and tried to better withstand the pain.

But now that she had remembered her past, she knew the truth. In her past life, Ariadne had been an adult who’d gone to college and then joined the workforce. She knew well what was normal and what wasn’t. Special lessons, my ass.

“These lessons are absolutely necessary”?

“They’re all for your own good”?

“I love you”?

Disgusting. Ariadne clenched her trembling hand forcefully. What she’d been put through was human experimentation bordering on torture. I won’t be able to stay sane living like this. The Ariadne Eldier of the novel had died at sixteen. It wasn’t clear whether she had been murdered or had died from the side effects of the experiment, but whatever the reason, the cause was surely the duke.

I don’t want to die like this. She had no time to be stuck on useless thoughts like “How could this happen,” “Why,” or “Why me.” She had to find a way to survive. She wanted to live. If nothing else, then for her mother, who had tried so hard to save her.

Mom… Ariadne remembered the sight of morning glory flowers shriveling and falling to the ground outside the shut window. Even in the novel, the duchess had died at an early age. The exact timing hadn’t been mentioned, but judging by the circumstances, it was probably around now.

So she did pass away. Her mother’s health had never been the best. But she’d just had a delicate constitution, not any sort of chronic illness. Fighting with the duke over the special lessons, going on a trip without even saying goodbye to her daughter, and the duke’s attitude when he separated her from the vine...

Did Dad kill Mom? It was a suspicion born of instinct. The novel had never mentioned anything of the sort, and there was no evidence, but Ariadne couldn’t help but wonder. If she had remembered her past or discovered that this was the world of a novel any sooner, could she have saved her mother?

It’s already too late. Ariadne stared blankly into the distance and bit down on her lip to suppress the emotions roiling inside her. It was useless to fall into despair thinking about the what-ifs. It was already too late, and she was too young. Right now, she didn’t even have the power to protect herself. It was a suspicion she had to bury until she could survive.

And yet. If that man really killed Mom... A blue flame of determination came to life in her glazed eyes. If that’s true, then I’ll kill him with my own hands one day.

Franz Eldier.

She no longer wanted to call him her dad.

Be it her life or the end of the world, she couldn’t let things go according to the plot.

I will survive. She would survive, grow her power, and uncover the truth.

And then, with that power, she would change the ending of this godforsaken novel.