This is not the date I wanted.

"So, we are now inside the 'Divine Eclipse Volume'?"

"Well... although it's not right, it's not far off."

Erya shook his finger mysteriously.

"This is not the interior of the 'Divine Eclipse Volume', but a small space similar to the Neighboring Realm created by it between the real world and the Neighboring Realm. However, it is only similar in form, and it is completely different from the Neighboring Realm."

"I see... Then what's the matter with the clothes we are wearing?"

"Hmm... I only have a vague understanding of this ability. But judging from the current situation, the so-called [Illusionary Library] should be a space built based on the stories known to people. The 'Divine Eclipse Volume' mixed the collected 'stories' together and then locked us up to play roles in them."

"I see……"

Shidao could not help but realize that as the original owner of the "Divine Eclipse Volume", Niya's opinion was obviously quite credible, and her statement also had many similarities with his own speculations.

Shidou couldn't help but turn his gaze to the other side. At this time, Yoshino and Tohka were teasing the big bad wolf with cat grass like teasing a cat.

"Big Bad Wolf—sit down!"

"Ow~"

"hand!"

"Ouch!"

"Oh, Tohka-chan is so handsome!"

"Amazing……"

To be honest, Shidao was a little bit unbelieving. The big bad wolf, who had just eaten one of Tohka's glutinous rice balls and threatened to eat them with a ferocious look on his face, was now sitting on the ground and wagging his tail flatteringly at Tohka, like a husky.

(Should I say he is indeed Momotaro?)

Shidou thought with a puzzled look.

Unlike Shidao and Yoshino, Tohka wore a gorgeous Jinhaori and a kirishi, leggings, a samurai sword on her waist, a ponytail and a knot tied on her forehead.

And it is true that Tohka plays the role of Momotaro, the protagonist of a fairy tale known to every household in Japan. The balls used to tame chickens, dogs, and monkeys seem to have the special effect of taming wild beasts here.

"Speaking of which, Erya, what role are you in?"

Turning back to look at Nia's decorations, Shidou showed a puzzled expression.

Unlike recognizable fairy tale characters like Momotaro and Little Red Riding Hood, Erya wore a tight gray military uniform and a cool black coat. His long and short black leather boots were obviously not a common style in the real world. There were two silver pistols hidden in the holsters on his waist. It seemed that the shots that hit the Big Bad Wolf at the beginning were undoubtedly the work of Erya.

Although Nia called herself a witcher when she appeared, Shidao thought about it but couldn't remember which fairy tale she had seen this character in.

"Oh? This one."

Seeing Shidou's question, Nia smiled slightly, stood up and showed off her battle uniform, and answered very proudly.

“This is Fatima from Silver Bullet.”

"Sliver...Bullet..."

Shidou repeated the title of the book that Nia had mentioned, and it took him a moment to react.

"Isn't this the name of your comic?!"

"Hehe. There is no barrier between the works. Of course, the more famous the story is, the more likely it is to appear. So the probability of these folk legends and stories appearing is relatively high. My situation is special. It was materialized under the guidance of some kind of fate through the author and the 'story'."

"Is this even possible..."

Shidao was skeptical, but after a moment of hesitation, he finally accepted this statement. After all, the idea that the Illusionary Book House used "fairy tales" to build the world was just his subjective judgment.

"Wait... if what you said is true, what if there is a comic book story with extremely high combat power. For example, "Dragon Beep", "A Certain Magical Book Beep Record", "Fate/Stay Beep Night"... if we encounter enemies in this kind of story... what should we do?"

Suddenly thinking of this question, Shidou asked anxiously.

"Forehead--"

In response to this, Erya, who was originally very proud of himself, suddenly froze up, and a large amount of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.

"Hate, hate it, boy. I told you I'm just a special case. No matter how much the Illusionary Library makes the story realistic, it would never choose to summon the enemy of that story... Okay, I was wrong. I feel like this will become a dangerous flag. Boy, next topic, what should we do now?"

"Yes. Anyway, let's look for clues and reunite with everyone else. I'm worried about the others."

The two looked at each other and then tacitly skipped the topic.

——————————————————————I am the dividing line for transferring scenes————————————————

On the other side, at night, in a snow-covered city, Kotori Itsuka was squatting deep in the alley, wolfing down cookies and donuts, high-calorie foods that were the natural enemies of women.

There was nothing she could do. She had been freezing on the icy and snowy street for several hours. Her thin clothes could not withstand the severe cold. After her physical and mental exhaustion reached the limit, she fell into the snow and fainted.

To be honest, if she hadn't been woken up at the critical moment, Kotori felt that this sleep might have become an eternal sleep.

"Oh... Is this the magic item that makes fantasy come true? It's amazing."

"Curious. What an incredible phenomenon. Could it be that there is something in gunpowder that can cause hallucinations?"

Next to Kotori were twins wearing the same style of boy-girl clothing, Yamai Yakuya and Yamai Yuzuru. It was they who found Kotori unconscious in the snow and lied to her that Shidou was here to perform CPR and artificial respiration on her, which woke her up.

At this time, the two people were taking matches out of the basket and lighting them one by one. In the space illuminated by the fire, various decorations such as skull necklaces or dresses could be seen.

Phantom matches - this is the only prop that Kotori brought with her after coming to this world. Although the objects transformed by the fire are so realistic that they are indistinguishable from the real things, they can neither fill her stomach nor keep her warm, let alone exchange for money, so penniless Kotori almost starved to death on the street.

By the way, according to Yui and Yakuya, these sweets were broken off from a candy house in a forest outside the city. The old woman in the house originally wanted to invite them into the house for dinner, but because the other party's attitude was suspicious and her appearance was too ugly, the Yami sisters rejected the old woman's request, picked up the sweets and ran away.

In fact, their choice was correct. If Kotori's guess was correct, the old woman's purpose was probably to fatten up the Yamai sisters and then kill them and eat them.

("The Little Match Girl" and "Hansel and Gretel"... the imaginary space created by the Eclipse chapter... is it intended to trap us to death in it?)

Despite the lack of sufficient intelligence and evidence, Kotori's intuition and judgment as a commander allowed her to come to a conclusion that was close to the truth.

After swallowing the last donut, Qinli licked the sugar on her hand with her little tongue and let out a satisfied breath.

"Huh... I'm alive. Although it would be nice if I could have a lollipop after dinner... well, now is not the time to force it, so I'll just have to make do with a strawberry flavor."

Kotori took a stick without a candy ball and put it in her mouth, swinging it as if she was tasting a candy ball. The action was so realistic that the Yami sisters were amazed.

"I saw it. I saw a lollipop that didn't exist!"

"Wow. The air is twice as good!"

The exaggerated reactions of the two made Kotori smile bitterly.

"What are you talking about? Well, we're saved anyway. Thank you, Yakuya, Yui."

"Kuku - don't mind it. Such a small matter is not worth mentioning to the Son of Hurricane."

"I agree. We should help each other when we are in trouble."

After solving her stomach problem, Kotori finally had enough energy to think about what to do next.

"That being said... the situation hasn't gotten any better... If this is really the world in the book, then we must find the base as soon as possible."

When they were swallowed by the huge book summoned by Westcott, Kotori heard the alarm in the base. She thought Westcott was leading the magicians to attack Ratatoskr. Kotori was a little worried that the magicians outside might be fighting with their subordinates for Fraxinus EX.

"Ask a question. What should be done specifically?"

"Well... I'm not sure. But since we've all met like this, there's a high possibility that the others are somewhere in this world. I believe everyone is trying to meet up with us, keeping an eye out for clues related to Shidou and the others, spreading their information here, and looking for ways to leave here..."

Then, just when Kotori was halfway through her words, the sound of a carriage passing by and the voices of pedestrians chatting were heard at the entrance of the alley.

"——Tsk, there are so many carriages today, what happened?"

"You didn't know? There will be a ball in the castle today, and a shocking announcement will be made there."

"Shocking news? What? The king's illegitimate child?"

"Don't talk nonsense! I heard this from a friend who works in the city. It seems that someone found the legendary mermaid and wanted to present it to the king. Then, the king, who was interested in this, held this ball and invited the nobles to enjoy the mermaid's performance together."

"Mermaid? Really? Such things don't exist."

"It's true. It's said that he can sing 'Darling~ Honey~ Where are you~'."

"........."

This seemed like a blatant rumor that could be told to them, and Kotori and the other two looked at each other in bewilderment, and they couldn't help but think of a certain person in their hearts.

“…………What do you think?”

"Ah...how can I put it..."

“I’m ashamed. Although I’m very surprised, if what they said is true, that mermaid must be——”

Mijiu!

18 The World in Books (Part )

==============================

“—Wuwuwu, A-choo! Aaaaaaaaaaa—A-choo!!”

Erya opened her mouth wide and sneezed several times without any ladylike manner.

"Niya, are you okay?"

Shidou asked worriedly.

"It's okay - that's a weird thing! Why is it so cold here?!"

Erya complained with a grim face.

Not long ago, when Shidao and others were discussing how to find the remaining companions, the tamed big bad wolf volunteered to help.

According to it, the "foreign objects" coming from the outside world like Shidao have a "smell" that is incompatible with this world, and it can find the lost spirits by smell. After Shidao and others discussed it, they felt that the big bad wolf who ate the meatballs could be trusted, so they accepted its proposal.

So, under the guidance of the wolf, Shidao went northwards, and after crossing a mountain, he came to a street under the city. According to the wolf, there was a smell similar to that of Shidao in the castle.

The moment you enter the street, day turns into night, sunny days turn into heavy snow, spring turns into severe winter, and time, weather, and seasons change dramatically in a way that cannot be explained by the natural laws and common sense of the real world.

"What about Tohka and Yoshino? Are you cold?"

"Don't worry, Shidou! It's totally fine!"

"Yes... I'm used to the cold..."

Tohka and Yoshino both nodded to show that it was okay, and seeing how energetic they looked, it didn't seem like they were trying to be brave.

"Ah... Why are there such differences between the same elves? Is this the difference between the outdoorsy types and the stay-at-home types..."

Folding his arms and shivering, Erya muttered in confusion.

By the way, the wolf was called back to the forest by Tohka because it was inconvenient to bring it into the street, and Niya took the conspicuous puppet costume that Shidou took off as a blanket and wrapped it outside. Although this did not match her handsome (middle school) style of clothing at all, Niya said very straightforwardly, what is handsome? Can it be eaten?

"Damn it... We need to reunite with everyone and find a warm place to keep warm. Okay, let's go!"

Looking at Niya who was walking quickly in front of them to urge them, Shidou and the other two looked at each other, smiled bitterly, and quickened their pace to catch up with Niya.

And then, after walking for an unknown amount of time, Shidou stopped at the castle gate.

The reason was simple. He saw Kotori and the Yamai sisters arguing with the guards at the city gate.

"Kotori! Yuzuru! Yakuya!"

"Shidou! It's okay... What are you guys wearing?"

Hearing Shidou's voice, Kotori turned her head in surprise, and then when she saw the four people's strange outfits, black lines suddenly appeared on her forehead.

"Well... it's hard to explain. What are you doing?"

Shidou walked up to Kotori with a wry smile and asked in confusion. To this, Yakuya replied with a dissatisfied look on his face.

"You've come at the perfect time, Shidao. I was just planning to go see the mermaids in the castle, but was turned away by the guards."

"Mermaid?"

"Note. It's a strange beast that can sing with the call of 'Darling-honey--'."

"what……"

After hearing what Xixian said, everyone immediately understood the true nature of this mermaid.

"Um... how can I get into this dance?"

Looking at the guard at the door who looked difficult to talk to, Shidou walked up and asked cautiously.

"No! Today is a ball where all the nobles are gathering in the city. How can we let poor people like you in?"

As he said that, the guard glanced at Shidou and the others and added with disdain.

"And it's weird."

Ah... that's true. Shidou thought with a smile on his face.