Living on Borealis-9: The Story Of A Reincarnated Human

Chapter 3, Part 2: Library

The Library was a pretty nice place. It was a formerly two-storied house that had been hollowed out, with no interior rooms or floor separators. From the floor to roof, there were several logs that had been roughly stripped of their bark by hand axes, making them look kind of rough, irregular, and angular. Along each column were lanterns pointing in the four cardinal directions, alongside several bookshelves that went off to create neat alleys and corners. There was only a long, large 'hall' that had been created by the columns that we could walk down, which led to a small seating area that had four tables with four chairs each. At the end of the 'hallway' was a table with a person hunched over, hard at work as they sorted books and library cards.

The person in question was a Human...Was. They seemed more like a mutant, really, since they had 14 arms on one side of their body, and a very long, snaky arm on the other. And I don't just mean the arm was very long and thin, it was literally snaky. Their skin was replaced with scales on that arm. Actually, I saw that their arm was almost three metres long, as they grabbed a book from a table that was a few paces away from us. Freaky. They looked up, revealing a single lime-green eye that was bloodshot. It gazed around at us hungrily, like they were a Cyclops looking around eagerly for a meal.

The librarian said something in a deep, rumbling language I couldn't understand. It honestly sounded like he was grumbling more than anything. But it did answer one question for me: I do not suddenly know every language in the world. I just...happened to know this world's language-equivalent to French. Understandable. The same way that 5D Chess with Time Travel is understandable.

After watching the two rumble on for a bit, the librarian handed Mario a couple of books and a few serviettes, then went back to filing their stuff. Just another day, huh? As I sat down with Mario and looked at my wreath of bread. As I took a bite, I could taste what I think were cherries on the inside, along with nutmeg and a buttery crust. Oh, the crust! I used to know a bakery that made croissants, filled with chocolate, that were so delicate and crunchy you had to handle them with care. They were nothing compared to the crunch from the wreath. I loved it. And the thin layer of baked dough between the crust and cherries? It was so buttery, I had to check that it was not possibly cheese. Rich and flavourful, along with the cherries, nutmeg, and crust's crunch...The bread was a dream to eat!

Before I knew it, I had devoured the entire thing, as well as the paper bag that it came from. Even the paper tasted good, as it was real paper. Not waxed or anything similar, it was clearly made from trees. And real paper soaks up butter really well, so it tasted good.

Oh, yeah. Did I not mention I was French? Technically, I am an American by birthright, since my mom came from there initially. My dad...Well, I guess he came from France while he was on Earth. Day by day, I think he's a god or something. Anyways, yeah. He raised me in France most of the time, though we did bounce around Europe a lot. One month in Germany, another month in Czechia, then Polska and across the Baltic Sea to Sweden. I grew up in a lot of places, and know a lot of stuff. I can recite fourteen separate national anthems by heart accurately. I speak seven languages, not counting my mother tongue. I know the Latin, Cyrilic, and Greek alphabet. Well versed, I think.

Yeah. Sorry to leave that massive detail out, my bad. When I told Mario about Earth, and how Europe is laid out, he nearly fainted from how much stuff is going on there. Maybe, if I can get my hands on some paper, I could write a book about World War 1, and peddle it off as a fiction book on this planet. Based on what I understood about the place, people would see it the same way people saw 'Game Of Thrones'! Yeah!

"Man, that was good! What even was it called, I want to know the name so that I can get some later on!" I said, joyously savouring the taste.

"It's an Ade (Pronounced Ah-Dee-Uo) Bread." Mario simply replied with a slightly shocked look, having barely taken three bites from his own Ade Bread.

"Nice. Sorry I ate so quickly, I was just really hungry."

"Very well then. I suppose that makes sense, for you to have unhinged your jaw like a snake." Mario said. "The books on the right of the table are yours to read, and the ones on my side are mine."

So, leaning forward, I grabbed a thick, leatherbound copy of 'The Book Of Boreal History'. Thank god the people here seemed to use the Latin Alphabet.