Only I Am A Reader

'Is this nostalgia?'

Riding his bicycle to school early in the morning, Leo couldn't help but question what he felt as his gaze wandered through the streets…

Although he wasn't currently questioning how his resolve to sleep early always faltered before the temptation of reading more every single night, pedaling as quickly as possible to not miss the class, Leo still felt like he missed the familiar ride. In a sense, his trip to 'The Sword Master's Second Life' had changed his whole life overview.

Repeated routine was something that most humans weren't fond of. Most of the time, one's drive for something new would be incomparable with doing something going to school, doing homework, and so on. Even some hobbies started for fun like drawing or writing would grow stale with time, nothing really beat the concept of 'first times'.

However, human emotions were quite complicated. They could feel sick of something yet a week of break would be more than sufficient to reignite their passion. In Leo's case, he basically had a break from every aspect of his life aside from reading and working out, every experience felt both fresh and nostalgic at the same time.

'I wonder if Ria and Annie are doing okay…?'

Having adjusted to his transferred sleeping schedule, Leo had no reason to hurry, drifting into his thoughts as usual. This had been one of the matters that was left unanswered even after he returned. Was the place he went to a real world? Or just a simulation created by his ability?

From a realistic point of view, the only logical explanation was that it was a simple dream, but Leo had long left the boundaries of realism. That being said, there were more than a few 'scientific' theories that were debated around creative material.

Some people believed some stuff could come to existence as long as enough people read or heard about them, while others suggested that all forms of creativity were based on information transfer from places that already existed. Leo didn't agree with either theory, but he leaned towards the existence of the Sword Continent!

While his abilities were definitely miraculous, Leo questioned the possibility of creating such a life-like simulation relying on an energy source that replenished this fast. There was no way to confirm, but he hoped that the 'reality' he read about had actually happened.

"Hu! Let's focus on blending in for now!"

Seeing the gate of 1st Light Highschool, Leo strongly exhaled with determination. His life was definitely turning for the better since he returned, and almost all of his compulsory bad habits were fading away. However, a core habit like overthinking had only intensified further, so he could only do his best not to lose himself to thoughts that often.

Click.

After parking his bicycle, Leo hung his backpack on his shoulder as he slowly walked to class. He was mentally preparing himself for his student role, something he was used to doing so as not to come off as odd.

Most importantly, the process was a bit unusual this time. After all, although his 8 years trip didn't exactly add another 8 years of age to him since he spent most of it in training, his temperament had definitely changed. Thankfully, the image he created for himself was that of a silent and diligent student, so no one was likely to notice the change anyway.

'Let's see, dual…'

Arriving in class before it started was another new experience, but Leo didn't plan to idle it away. He directly took out his phone and started searching away!

Rather than making him complacent, the results Leo obtained the day before only pushed him forward. Driven by the satisfaction of catching up to his old self in terms of skills, he was excited to take new steps!

"Hm?"

Just as he was about to get absorbed in his task, Leo noticed a pair of eyes that seemed to be glued at him… he wasn't especially familiar with the faces of his classmates, but this was definitely a new face.

Leo's confidence in his assumption wasn't uncalled for. While the observers' eyes were blue like one of his, the flowing hair that reached her waist was pure white!

The Skylight Country was founded through the agglomeration of people from all kinds of ethnicities and colors, so non-mainstream hair colors like blue hair weren't that rare. However, white hair was still unnatural to see just like his heterochromia case, at the very least, Leo would still have remembered the existence of someone like that…

'Why?'

He wasn't the only one to come to class early, nor did he forget to put on his blue lens. Most importantly, he was sitting two seats to the front of the close-to-window, corner seat that protagonists usually occupied, so in what kind of way did he attract this unknown girl's attention?

'Heh, Is it love at first sight?'

Leo couldn't help muttering to himself self-mockingly, his looks weren't bad, but it was incomparable to the charm he had as Arthur, Ray's edgy charm was also on another level. The possibility was still there, but the instincts he developed told him that it was something else. In fact, he also felt that the girl seemed interesting regardless of her top-grade looks.

Pretending to casually look around, Leo's gaze met the curious eyes as he confirmed his instincts even more. They were both looking at each other with confused interest, this was not love but unexplainable curiosity.

Ringring! Ringring!

The new girl seemed like she was about to take a step towards him when the class's ring sounded out, prompting her to walk to her seat instead.

'Really?'

After putting away his phone, Leo's eyes almost widened as he took out his books. She was the one that had the protagonist's seat?

"Hello everyone, I hope you had a great break! We have a new student this semester so please help her out with anything she is unfamiliar with. Let's start with the name roll as a form of introduction…"

Falling into thought as the teacher started the class, Leo couldn't help smiling inwardly, something very interesting was in play!