I Refuse To Be A Character In A Novel - Chapter 30

For a few days now, Erna had been secretly studying in order to apply for a teacher position in Ludemia academy.

She needed to stand on her own two feet and there was no better way for her to do so than to have a job.

One that was both respected and earned well.

After she decided to go through with the divorce, Erna had to consider all possibilities.

No matter how much her parents loved her, there was a high chance that they would object to her divorce.

After all, Erna had no reasonable argument to ask for a divorce, and the bonds her marriage was built on were too complicated to break solely based on her feelings.

To make matters worse, the plot of the novel depended on her death.

However, Erna had already decided that she didn’t owe the world a debt.

She wasn’t an orphan girl with no one to care for her, or a wallflower in society.

Erna Tersia Heissenetein was well known throughout the kingdom, she had many friends who cared for her and parents who treasured her.

‘How could no one realize that I wasn’t the same person?’

Let alone notice, her parents didn’t even visit her in the last 6 years.

Aside from a few letters every now and then, it was like her presence was completely erased.

Even if the story hadn’t started, the novel described Erna perfectly.

‘A side character that no one remembered or longed for.’

Bearing such thoughts in her mind, Erna vowed that she wouldn’t live according to the plot of the novel.

If there was one shred of guilt left in her, it would be towards her son.

Regardless of how afraid she felt at first, Erna came to love her son.

The more time she spent with him, the more familiar he seemed.

Strangely enough, his familiarity was incompatible with the memories she had of him.

Nonetheless, the two images overlapped, and now, Erna no longer felt the need to care for Jonas in a sense of responsibility, but because she treasured him as her son.

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When she was about to head back to where she had left Jonas, Erna paused at the staircase leading to a room she had never been to before.

‘There are already books in almost every topic on this floor, I wonder what more could be in there.’

Led by her curiosity, Erna ascended the stairs holding a pile of books she had picked to read back in her room.

As she set foot on the second floor, she was welcomed by a distinctive scent of old books.

Unlike the first floor where the library was wide enough to the point where one couldn’t see the other side, the second floor was considerably smaller, darker and cool enough to store important books and documents for a long period.

It also had a unique architecture where the walls served as bookcases.

Erna walked straight to the large window and pulled the red curtains that covered it each to one side.

The sunlight that poured through the glass made the small library look like a sacred room as the golden pattern on the bookshelves lit with brilliance.

“Waa~ I didn’t even know there was such a place!”

On the other side of the window, Erna stared in awe at the large training grounds that extended all the way to the wall surrounding their estate.

‘I should definitely take a walk around there later.’

After admiring her surroundings, Erna walked along the bookshelves as she ran her fingers through the books that were lined on it.

“Oh?”

While reading the titles engraved on the sides, a certain book caught her attention.

‘There’s no title’

It was evident from the cover that it was a book old enough to tell the history of the kingdom.

However, what was inside was far more interesting than history.

Magic.

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While he searched for his wife between the bookcases all the way to the end of the library, Zachary heard a humming.

He quietly followed the sound upstairs where he found her.

Instead of a chair, she sat on the table.

Her legs swinging back and forth as she held an unusually large book in her hand.

She was either deeply concentrating or deafened by her own voice that she didn’t hear him approach even as his shoes made tapping sounds on the floor.

Zachary halted his steps at a short distance from the table.

‘What is it?’

‘What’s so interesting?’

He then remembered a few books Dylan mentioned that she had ordered.

‘She must be reading another novel.’

‘Do you like it that much?’

Zachary’s gaze touched the book she held in her hands.

Once again, his wife betrayed his expectations.