*Date: January 5th, 2011*
Flipping over to the next page, I heard the slamming down of books, not the kind to indict someone being rude, but rather simply to draw my attention. A classic tactic ever since I took over the duties of the family library, well, to Brockton Bay, the Public Library.
The person who made the ruckus was Taylor Hebert, a regular, sort of, when it came to this place. The books in question were simply Cape History, Parahuman Studies, and so on, most likely for her Parahuman class or whatever it is Winslow called it.
The two words to describe that particular High School would be Rat-Filled or perhaps Kodoku, a poison-filled jar. Something the local gangs used to seperate the desirable elements from the non-desirables.
Perhaps even gain intel on rival gangs' newest recruits, see if they gained potential parahumans, or so forth. No matter, I grabbed my red stamp and was prepared to restamp the due date for the books if she wanted to extend it.
"I hope you enjoyed the books, Ms. Hebert. Do you wish to renew the due date for the books, or are you turning them in?" I asked with an emotionless tone in my voice.
The plain girl with black hair, freckled face, and skinny body is quiet today, perhaps nervous for one reason or another. Probably having a bad day due to the trio's efforts, which happened sometimes, and I wasn't blind to it whenever she came around.
It was quite obvious the girl was being bullied, beyond perhaps gang efforts to intimidate her, even if most of the major powers here left schools 'alone' sarcasm. They always had a way inside, to worm into the system itself and remain relatively unknown.
"Can you speak up, please?" I say trying to be patient, but wanting to get back to reading.
Sure, I could listen to her problems, offer some basic advice, but I was a stranger, barely an acquaintance to her, if anything. Even then, I was quite aware of my own...emotional issues and lack of comfort I could provide even if we were closer.
"Sorry, I would like to renew them." She said, skittish but speaking a bit louder this time, adjusting her glasses.
Nodding, I opened up the books, dabbing the stamp in the red ink and stamped down, noticing bits of damage to teh books that weren't there before. Sighing internally, I ignored it, knowing it probably wasn't her fault but rather just the environment she lived in.
Handing the books back to her, she just nodded her head, putting the books back into her backpack alongside a few other items I could see.
"Have a good day, Mr. Arco." She said and quickly walked away, perhaps wanting to get a start on her homework or something.
Either way, I readjusted the nameplate that told newcomers who I am, Mason Teif Arco, or the poster boy for the Empire 88, regardless of how long my family lived in the US. Now, normally this would make my home and my place of business, that being the 'public' library, even if I simply allowed it to be so.
However, with some basic hypnosis, I was able to convince them to look elsewhere, which didn't stop me from paying them off, of course. Easier to do that than mass hypnotize an entire organization and several criminal capes or villains, as stupid as it is to think about.
Either way, I already knew enough about them not to want to get involved, although I was technically the Second Owner of this city. Yes, this dump was important enough to require someone to oversee it, mostly due to converging leylines that would help any Magus in their research or magecraft.
Then, well...there was an event where my own mind and the conscious mind of another version of me collided, no doubt due to the mischief of Zeltrech. When in doubt, blame him for whatever problem may be vexing you, or well, sometimes anyway.
His memories were interesting, I saw them as our very souls collided and spiritons fused into one, causing untold pain throughout my body and well changing my own magic circuits. An unnatural process that vastly changed the quality of magecraft I could practice and how far into my own research I could delve.
Alongside that, two franchises appeared dominant in my mind, not because they were particularly well-known or well-studied by the alternate me. Maybe not Nasuverse, which had spawned several anime and manga as they are caleld where beings practice Magecraft in various alternate worlds and storylines, including something called 'Fate/Grand Order', which was horrifying to think about.
That alone would get me a Sealing Designation by the Clock Tower or other organizations that praticed similiar things.
But then came the second franchise, Worm, Ward, or Parahumans, as they called it. The first webnovel tells the story of a certain parahuman named Skitter or Taylor Hebert, the young girl who just checked out a few books, the child who is so nervous she can barely look me in the eyes. Yes, that person will become someone important, well, if we were in the original timeline of Earth Bet.
By that, I meant Scion was not the first, nor last, alien entity to land on Earth, as I was now aware of several others. The Spider or Type-ORT who landed somewhere in South America, a place too close for comfort, to me at least.
Sure, some bits and pieces of the knowledge from both would prove useful in the future, but certain bits of the past were already changed. For example, Japan was still around, albeit a tiny bit damaged, with Lung having fled due to cowardice when Leviathan ravaged them.
Sure, he was still feared, but far less respected alongside the fear as well, that is the day, magecraft, or rather magic became known to the world, or at least several governments.
The reason why?
Well thats from a smidge change to the timeline of the war itself, rather than the fifth holy grail war taking place in 2004, it was around the time Leviathan attacked. A few days before the initial attack in 1999.
Maguses everywhere were pissed, including me, and wanted to see who revealed it to the world. Or rather allowed the idea of magic to take root in the minds of the masses once more instead of goign toward scientific explanation for these kinds of events.
Probably one of the servants, although I highly doubt it was King Arthur or Saber herself who did so. Otherwise, I had full confidence another Endbringer would've replaced them soon enough, so perhaps one of the others drove it off, damaging it enough to retreat. At least based on the knowledge from the Worm Webnovel, or rather, the random tidbits I knew.
It didn't matter anyway; history was different then, both presented versions anyway, so the best I could do was research my own Magecraft, or rather, one of the disciplines my family picked up over the years.
Checking my watch, I saw that it was near 4 PM, aka closing time, and so I got up from the front desk, readjusting my glasses as they started to slide off. I also readjusted my own clothing, a nice brown suit and pants combo, classic look for a nonviolent librarian. The kind that screamed, not a threat, and went over to the door, locking it from the inside with a quick turn of my key and switching the sign to closed.
I then began closing the blinds themselves, preferring this next bit be private and far away from the outside world. Going back to my desk, I began checking teh security camera one more time before I began my own nighttime activities.
In fact, I had gained several ideas when I was experiencing all the forms of media my alternate self had consumed. Although I did still have to do a few tests before I could fully dive into my research, mostly into how many circuits I gained or lost, alongside the quality itself, as I was sure it had increased, but I had no idea by how much.
Until I had those bits figured out, I had refrained from diving any further into my research, as I could possibly damage my family's own personal library. Potentially damaging how variosu bits and pieces of knowledge are forcing my descendants to recover it all due to my own personal blunder.
Sighing as I went through them, I saw that no windows were broken, nor were their anymore people in the library, long having gone home. Turning it off for the night, or at least this monitor, I took my glasses off and put them in a black case, sliding it into my pocket once I was done and began walking to the back of the library.
Passing by teh history section, I quietly laughed as I did so, now knowing what I did and along with the fact I was probably one of the few magi in existence to experience a parallel world beyond Zeltrech. At least in this worldline, at the very least, or I assumed so anyway.
Reaching teh back of the library, I pulled back a couple of the books as the mystic code hiding my secret hideaway activated. Something that would only activate under very specific circumstances, and when a certain combination is entered, alongside the person being me.
That isn't to say another Magnus couldn't figure out eventually how to break in, but they would be hard-pressed to do so. Either way, a dark stairway opened, eventually lighting up as I flicked a light switch, turning on teh various lights leading downward and beginning my descent, ready to begin my own nighttime activities before I had to rest for the night.