YSGD 7

Chapter 7

The moment the door opened, a massive cloud of dust and a musty stench rushed out and engulfed us.

“Cough! Cough! What on earth—”

I’d thought I’d built up a pretty good resistance to filthy environments after scrubbing and cleaning the cabin.

But this body was ridiculously weak!

After waiting for the dust to settle a little, I carefully stepped into the library, one step at a time.

Swish!

Moving faster than me, Betty reached the window on the opposite side and immediately pulled open the thick curtain hanging over the largest central window.

The biggest window in the center was made of beautiful stained glass.

Dust motes scattered through the multicolored light, illuminating the interior of the library.

“Wow.”

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Once all the curtains were drawn back, a completely different scene unfolded from before.

“I knew it’d be big, but it’s even bigger than I imagined! It puts most temple libraries to shame.”

Betty, now standing beside me, exclaimed with pure admiration.

I nodded vigorously in wholehearted agreement.

By my standards from my previous life, the library was about the size of a typical school playground.

Graceful arches stretched across the ceiling between ornate pillars.

In the center of the hall, rows upon rows of bookshelves—easily over a hundred—were lined up.

“This place is…”

In a word, it was a bibliophile’s gold mine!

My heart fluttered, and I broke into a beaming smile. Betty smiled along with me.

“Are you really that happy?”

“Yeah! With this many books, I could survive ten years in the cabin.”

“…That doesn’t sound like a good thing.”

“Why not? It’s amazing!”

Hahaha! Ten years, twenty years—who cares?

Time is the one thing I have too much of anyway!

I’ll read every single book here!

I was so excited my body started bouncing without me noticing.

That was when Betty poured cold water on my enthusiasm.

“First of all… we’ll have to clean, won’t we?”

“…Yeah. I figured.”

“Come on, let’s do our best! At this rate, we might finish before spring.”

“That’s way too far off!”

But what could I do?

I let out a deep sigh, then steeled myself again.

Everything is hardest at the beginning.

‘Let’s just get started.’

Future me will take care of the rest!

“Huugh…”

Unfortunately, future me isn’t handling it very well either.

How many hours had passed?

When we left the cabin, the sun had been blazing bright, but now it was slowly fading into dusk.

Even with help from Betty, an experienced maid, all we’d managed was cleaning the windows and just a couple of shelves.

“Ugh, my back.”

“Your Highness, are you all right?”

“Yeah… but honestly, even if the two of us clean every day, I don’t think we can finish before spring.”

“…That’s true. Spring is honestly an optimistic estimate. Please rest for a bit. I’ll handle the rest.”

As she said that, Betty’s eyes looked oddly moist.

Afraid she’d misunderstand again, I hurriedly spoke up.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Betty. This was my idea, so I have to see it through too. You’re the one who should rest. I’ll go take a look around the shelves we cleaned.”

“Your Highness… all right. Please be careful—there could be things on the floor!”

I planned to grab at least one book from the cleaned shelves.

‘I’ll probably collapse as soon as we get back today… but I can read it later when I’m bored.’

Still, the psychological difference between having books and not having them was huge.

As a modern person who’d lived in content-saturated 21st-century Korea, I desperately needed dopamine.

“Let’s see.”

I’d noticed while cleaning, but the shelves were pretty tall overall.

Or maybe… I was just short?

Thankfully, there was a thoughtfully placed footstool nearby.

It was wooden and looked a bit rotten—unstable, even—but good enough as a temporary solution.

I started by slowly examining the books on the upper shelves.

Strangely enough, the language here appeared as Korean to me, so reading felt completely natural.

‘So it’s not a translation—maybe a domestic novel?’

Even better. A full K-romance-fantasy patch.

I still didn’t know exactly what kind of world I was in, but there was no need to rush.

I’d find out eventually, just by living here.

Was that too carefree? Maybe—but still!

“Wahaha.”

With no immediate danger in sight, both body and mind inevitably grew lax.

Standing before books I loved, I even found myself humming cheerfully.

I started scanning the titles.

“Looks like this section’s mostly history books.”

『The History of the Rembrandt Empire』
『The Glorious Life of Albert Rembrandt, the First Emperor』
『The Covenant Between Rembrandt and the Dragon』

It seemed the empire was called Rembrandt.

Judging by mentions of dragons and covenants… was this a world with dragons?

But considering that I couldn’t even remember long, foreign-sounding character names in novels—and never tried to—it was impossible I’d recognize the story from just “Rembrandt Empire.”

‘Still, I should probably read a history book, just in case.’

I pulled out 『The History of the Rembrandt Empire』 and was about to leave—

“Huh?”

My casually drifting gaze froze instantly.

There it was.

『The Super Ultra Strong Ultimate Imperial Magic Transparent Dragon Roared』

What the hell is that?

“Now that’s some serious clickbait…”

A transparent dragon? I can’t ignore that.

Just from the title, it reeks of “this’ll be fun.”

‘Hehe. Two books.’

I pulled out 『The Super Ultra Strong Ultimate Imperial Magic Transparent Dragon~』 as well and hugged them both to my chest.

A history book for studying, and a novel—presumably—for entertainment.

Perfect combination.

Ideal for parallel reading.

‘Somehow… my heart feels full.’

When I came back around the shelves, I saw Betty still slumped over.

Judging by the way she was nodding off, even sturdy Betty had found the schedule brutal.

I felt kind of bad.

Sleep should be comfortable.

“Betty, let’s call it a day and head back.”

“Ah! Y-yes…”

She hurriedly wiped her mouth, embarrassed after dozing off.

After being stuck in a dust pit all day, the more she wiped, the dirtier her face seemed to get.

I brushed the soot off her cheek and said,

“Looks like I’ll have to wash you today.”

“W-What?! That’s ridiculous! How would you wash me with those tiny hands? You worked so hard today—I was just about to give you a full-course massage!”

I was joking.

But she reacted so strongly I missed my chance to reply.

Carrying the wooden bucket and rags we’d used earlier, Betty headed for the door, chatting away.

“The cabin bathroom is too cold. There’s a guest bath nearby—would you like to use that tonight?”

“Is that okay?”

The cabin was great and all, but the only heating was the fireplace.

Water had to be boiled over the fire, then cooled with cold water to adjust the temperature.

Every time I bathed, I missed Korea’s heating systems.

Even tiny studio apartments had warm floors in the bathroom.

So honestly… the idea of a proper bath was incredibly tempting!

Seeing my wavering resolve, Betty grinned slyly like a schemer and whispered,

“My lady, you are a Grand Duchess, you know. Would it really be a problem for a Grand Duchess to use the grand duke’s bath?”

…Why did your speech suddenly change?

Still, instead of objecting, I tilted my head thoughtfully.

“Hmm… He did say not to draw attention.”

“You mean the Grand Duke? He’s away at the moment—he won’t be back today.”

“Really?”

And truth be told, I quite liked her scheming tone.

She was telling me exactly what I wanted to hear. Approved!

Up until now, I’d obediently followed whatever that man told me to do.

But thinking about it, wasn’t I unusually well-behaved for a newly possessed romance-fantasy character?

The Grand Duke was ridiculous anyway.

Who was he to tell me whether I could stand out or not? I didn’t want to get involved with him either!

I’d been far too polite until now.

And to be completely honest—

Right now, I just desperately wanted to soak my body in hot water!

As my hesitation dragged on, Betty dropped the final blow, shedding her schemer act.

“If you’re really worried… should we sneak in? It’s in a quiet corner—hardly anyone goes there.”

“What?”

You’re suggesting we steal a bath?!

“…I love it!”

That’s a fantastic idea!

“Haha!”

“Hehe!”

Just as Betty and I giggled, convinced we had a perfect plan, and threw open the library doors—

“Huh?”

An unexpected group appeared, blocking our path completely.