Normal POV
The next day when I woke up on the couch I reached up to wipe away at my face before lazily turning off the television.
"So...it really wasn't a dream," I muttered before looking at my flip-phone, the time read as 8:50am, Saturday.
"Right well I should go wake the little guy up for breakfast before making my trip to the library. Hopefully miss Harper won't mind watching over Nate for a bit," I remarked out loud to myself.
Miss Harper was a kind old lady that lived in the apartment across from us and had been good friends with the original Rigel's parents.
Stretching with a groan, I stood up and shuffled toward the small bedroom at the end of the hallway. The door was cracked open, letting a thin band of soft morning light spill across the old carpet.
Inside, Nate was curled into a tight little ball under his dinosaur blanket, messy black hair sticking out from the top like a rebellious shrub.
I smiled softly "oh...little star, it's time to wake up," I murmured, gently ruffling his hair.
He grumbled, buried his face deeper into the blanket, and mumbled "five more minutes big bro."
"Nope," I said with a chuckle, scooping him up with practiced ease "come on, breakfast time. Then I've gotta run an errand. Miss Harper will keep an eye on you."
That woke him up a bit, his sleepy purple eyes blinked up at me "miss Harper makes good cookies..."
"I know she does," I replied with a teasing grin, while carrying him over toward the kitchen "which is why you'll behave yourself with her, yeah?"
Nate nodded with the seriousness of a child accepting a sacred mission.
Breakfast was simple scrambled eggs, toast, and a sliced apple but Nate ate like it was a gourmet feast.
At around nine-thirty, I walked him across the hall and knocked.
The door opened almost instantly. Miss Harper stood there in her favorite knitted sweater, gray hair rolled into its usual neat bun.
"Oh! Rigel, dear. And good morning to you too, Nathaniel."
"Good morning, Miss Harper..." Nate shyly greeted.
"I am so sorry to bother you so early in the morning Miss Harper. But would you mind keeping an eye on him for just an hour or two?" I asked "I've got some things to do at the library."
"Oh of course dear I don't mind at all! Here come in, sweetheart. I just baked some lemon biscuits with a bit of tea."
Nate lit up like a small sun and vanished inside "awesome!" he yelled.
"Make sure not to eat so much buddy or you'll spoil your appetite!" I quickly shouted.
"M'kay!" Nate replied from the apartment.
Miss Harper gave me a knowing smile "alright then you take your time, Rigel dear. Try to relax a little."
"I'll try Miss Harper. Hopefully I won't take too long but if I don't come back by 2pm try calling me," I said with a weak laugh.
With that, I tugged on my coat and headed outside.
The city felt crisp cool air with a faint drizzle hanging in the clouds. My apartment was only a few streets away from Big Ben, so the familiar chimes echoed softly through the morning air as I walked.
There was a nearby library near said tower so I decided to head there and see if maybe they had any actual hidden books on real magic or something.
I mean what would be the point of me having a witch factor in this world if there was no secret supernatural world hidden from this version of Earth.
The closer I got closer to the library the more I began to notice something off. There were quite a few people who would give me nods of greeting before moving on their merry way. Now at first, I thought nothing of it, they were probably just polite Londoners being polite.
But after the fifth or sixth nod, I frowned slightly.
Something was definitely up...I just couldn't prove it yet.
Shaking off the unease, I stepped inside the stone-faced library. The warm smell of old books washed over me. The librarian at the front desk was a thin, graying man with round glasses and the expression of someone permanently unimpressed by life.
I approached the desk carefully "um... good morning sir. Do you, uh...perhaps happen to have any books on the basics of... magic?"
I put extra emphasis on the word magic, hoping that maybe just maybe this was one of those hidden-in-plain-sight places that actually had the real stuff.
The librarian stared at me.
Long and hard.
Then he sighed as though he had aged ten years in a single breath "oh great... another one," he muttered "you must be one of those new idiotic magi wandering out of the woodwork."
My eyes twitched "I am sorry, what?"
"Alright come on brat," he grumbled, standing up and motioning sharply with two fingers "since you're clearly as ignorant as a baboon, I'll show you before you wander around asking something stupid again."
I followed him through two aisles then another until he stopped at a section I swear hadn't been here before.
Like the shelf had been...hiding.
He tapped the wooden edge irritably "Basics of Magecraft - Beginner Section."
I blinked Mage... craft?
Something about that term seemed familiar to me.
The librarian leaned in with narrowed eyes "listen up since you're obviously new and clearly attending the Clock Tower. You should know one thing above all else no one outside the moonlit world must ever know about magecraft. Not unless you want to be hunted down and killed for exposure. Understood?"
A chill crawled up my spine.
I nervously swallowed "s-sure. Right but uh don't you mean magic-?"
"It's magecraft," he snapped, "magic is something entirely different, far above the likes of someone like you. Now I don't have all day to babysit you, boy, so just ask your professors or read one of the damn books before you embarrass yourself further."
He turned to stomp before swishing back with a finger, "one more thing," he quickly grabbed my arm and with a jolt I felt something pleasantly cool and hot rushing through my body.
Blue-Greenish lines traveled down my arms to my palms "seriously all it took was one bloody look at ya to see you still hadn't unlocked your circuits. Anyways congrats third-rate you've got a total of 25 circuits of average quality," the old man grudgingly said before walking away "next time don't expect me to help ya out so much," he grumbled.
"Woah," I whispered, inspecting the lines which slowly started to vanish away along with the cooling-hot sensation.
As the glow faded, I flexed my fingers experimentally. My palms tingled like they'd fallen asleep and were just waking back up.
"...That was sick," I muttered under my breath.
"Bloody hell," I murmured, rubbing my arms as if I could still feel the lines beneath my skin "this is really happening..."
I turned back to the shelf the old man had pointed at.
My fingers brushed along the spines the guide to Magecraft Fundamentals, The First Step: Od and Mana, The theory of Analysis and Reinforcement, Book of Elements, Understanding the Origin, and A History of Mystery.
There were so much more that I just wanted to grab and read all at once but knew was impossible.
So instead I grabbed History of Mystery, Magecraft Fundamentals, and the book of Elements.
Sitting down at a nearby table I started off by skimming a bit on the history of Mystery and Magecraft fundamentals.
When I came across a section that talked about the age of the gods and the name Kischur Zelretch that's when it all clicked.
I WAS IN THE NASUVERSE AND I HAD JUST ACCIDENTALLY STUMBLED INTO THE LIBRARY FOR CLOCKTOWER STUDENTS!!
Paranoid now I glanced around but didn't see any one else around.
I quickly started taking pictures of some of the text pages with my flip-phone before putting all the books back.
I decided to leave before I accidentally encountered a psycho magus looking for a new guinea pig to use as their experiment.
Just as I was about to leave my eyes caught sight of a title which read 'Mysteries behind the Stars and Constellations,' and I certainly was a bit of an astrology nerd back in my past life....so to see something related to them here for magecraft caught my interest a bit.
Actually come to think of it, didn't that one chick...uh what was her name again? Shoga? Bulga? AH! Wait yeah Olga Marie Animsuphere also use astrology for her magecraft.
Thinking about the director of Chaldea from FGO suddenly made me shudder...what if I had accidentally ended up in the FGO-timeline? Shit maybe I should try to find a way to get myself enrolled into the Clocktower and get into a class taught by El-Melloi and Marisburry Animusphere.
If only to get information of how events of the 4th grail war went down and see if Marisbury fought and won.
It would at least reassure me that I wasn't in the FGO-timeline.
But it's too risky.
What about Nate? How would I even balance working? The bills? Clock Tower tuition for classes? Babysitting? Avoiding being kidnapped by some lunatic who thinks turning me into a homunculus pancake is a fun weekend hobby?
My brain spiraled until my chest tightened.
"Okay, okay, calm down Rigel," I whispered to myself, pressing a hand against the shelf for stability "think logically. One thing at a time, no panicking in the mage murder-library."
I inhaled then exhaled and instead turned my attention back to the book that had caught my attention.
Bringing out my flip-phone again I opened up the book and started taking about fifty screenshots of its contents.
My thumb ended up sore from how long I had been holding my phone up.
Stuffing the book back I quickly walked out of the library with the old librarian ignoring me for his newspaper.
I was completely lost in my thoughts and anxiety as I rapidly pressed on the cross walk.
My feet unintentionally moved before the crosswalk even gave the signal for me to pass by. I hadn't even noticed the black car until it was too close.
A horn screamed and then a slam of metal that sounded like the world itself folding. Pain erupted across my ribs, a white-hot line that stole the air from my lungs. Everything blurred as I was sent spiraling backwards.
I tried to roll, to push myself up, but my limbs were heavy lead. Every breath was a ragged, noisy thing like a dog. Words formed in my mouth but came out as wet, mangled syllables.
"h... help...," I tried to force out, my throat raw.
The sound slurred into nothing, a childish plea that failed to climb free.
From above, a dark shape leaned over me.
A face, no rather a man with shocked black eyes appeared over me with an expression like he'd swallowed a cold wind. He shouted something I couldn't make sense of but his voice was thin and panicked.
The man had some age lines on the sides of his eyes, long black hair, and a bit of a stern aura to him....actually he kind of looked like an adult Waver Velvet from the Case Files.
Another figure moved beside him.
She was smaller, wrapped in a black-gray hood, the edge of a pale jaw and a single green emerald eye peeking out as she bent down.
Gray.
For a split second I had caught a glimpse of her face, easily recognizing her as Saberface.
The hood shifted and a sliver of her face showed.
She looked up at me before glancing at Waver who was panicking his ass off, but in that single flash she looked kind of cute.
The faint slope of her cheek, the damp hair plastered to her forehead, and the way she stared down at me trying to speak.
I was in so much pain.
This was probably even worse than being stabbed to death. Seriously God what kind of shitty luck did I have? I inwardly cried.
"Kid! Can you hear me?" Waver shouted again, voice laced with panic "shit we need to bring him with us Gray come help me out here!" he quickly instructed his apprentice and assistant.
No it's not that my luck was shitty but rather that...my stars were bad.
Yeah that seemed fitting I thought before falling into a familiar dark abyss.
-end of chapter two-
Hahaha I made him say the thing!
Anyways let me know your thoughts please.