Only I Am A Reader

'...Again?'

As Leo's eyelids fluttered, the first thing that appeared in his sight was a ceiling that he had become familiar with in the past. It had only been less than a week since he returned, but he was somehow back at the town's clinic.

'So, this was the cause?'

Touching the unfamiliar bandage covering a bit of his neck, Leo understood why he had lost consciousness. The assassin's dagger didn't seem to have anything on it, but it was probably laced with colorless poison. Due to the heat of the situation, he seemed to have been grazed by it when he made his first move.

However, Leo wasn't alerted by his discovery. After encountering two such accidents in a row, he was now confident that the intruders' target wasn't to kill him but capture him. The assassin's words and actions proved it, he most likely drew the dagger closer to Leo's neck to knock him out.

'But why?'

Leo was confused but not totally clueless. At this point, it would be stupid to deny that Arthur was special in more than one way, whether it was the abnormality of his 'ascension', or being targeted by someone, he at least deserved to be a side character in Leo's opinion. Otherwise, it didn't make much sense for Arthur to get this much 'screen time'.

Even then, Leo couldn't understand why Arthur had died in the novel if his assumption was correct. Was it due to his existence that something changed? Or was the world not identical to the one in the novel?

'If 'they' he spoke of are who I think they are…'

As curious as Leo was, he didn't feel particularly stressed about it. At the very least, he confirmed that he was the main target rather than his 'siblings'. Now that he had finished the first stage of his plan, he was only bound to grow stronger as time went by. As such, he had some confidence in protecting himself considering his knowledge advantage. Besides…

'Then I will be able to find out about it sooner or later.'

In reality, the situation this time was far from a close call. Compared to the first incident, it was nothing but a breeze that he was ready for, fainting was merely due to a simple misjudgment. If he was to be shaken by an event like this, Leo wouldn't find himself deserving of his identity as a 'Reader'.

"Big Brother?"

"Annie?"

After Leo analyzed the incident in his mind, he finally paid attention to his surroundings. Just beside him, a little Annie who seemed to have been crying for a long while was sitting on a long chair, it seemed like she just noticed that he came to.

"Big Brother! Haaa…"

Screaming out loud, Annie almost jumped out of her chair as she took Leo's head into her embrace and started crying. Leo sympathetically patted her, staying silent as she let out all of her emotions. Compared to him, Annie was an actual child who experienced a horrifying situation. He could only pray that she wouldn't develop trauma from this incident.

"I'm okay… What about you? Did you get injured?"

"I'm…hh fine, but I…hah… ran away, and left you alone…hha.."

'Ria sure did bring them up well.'

Even when she encountered such a close death situation, Annie wasn't crying because of her encounter but because she abandoned Leo and ran away. Once again, Leo was happy to have been the person to stop the deaths of his family.

"It's okay… it's okay…"

"You really do visit often, don't you?"

In the midst of calming Annie down, an elderly man approached the bed with a smile, it was the town physician that Leo was already familiar with. Behind him, both Crane and Ria stood silently, worry visibly apparent in their eyes.

"I guess so…"

"Well, there's nothing to worry about in your case. You have been poisoned, but it was just some heavy anesthesia from this dagger. The bed should be empty by tomorrow morning."

"Thank you, and sorry for always occupying the bed."

With his hand atop Annie's head, Leo turned to the elderly physician and gave a thankful nod while scratching the back of his head using his other hand. However, his eyes froze for a second.

The elderly physician was holding the assassin's dagger, but the way he handled it triggered Leo's recently sensitive movement observation. His skill with the dagger was above the norm!

Moreover…

The vivid image of two snakes that chased each other's tails shone like a beacon in Leo's field of vision, this was something that peeked out of its hidden position under the elderly physician's sleeve, this was also something that Leo deeply recognized!

'Poison King?'

The inscription was undeniably the trademark in the poison king. In the novel, the Poison King's gender, age, and appearance weren't described, but the modified ouroboros insignia was accurately mentioned. Leo was simply disoriented by his discovery.

'...Should I say as expected Ray's hometown?'

Compared to Crane who was a friendly character highlighting the start of the novel, the Poison King was a terrifying enemy at one point in the future that Leo didn't expect to meet this early. Although it was revealed later that he didn't attack Ray by his own will, he almost took the protagonist down with him if not for his plot armor…

"Are you okay? Arthur?"

Taken out of his thoughts by Ria's worried voice, Leo pretended that he noticed nothing as he smiled at Ria.

"Yeah, just like the doctor said, I'm just slightly more sleepy. This time…"

While Leo usually didn't do this, he wanted to somewhat explain the situation since Annie was involved this time, but Ria only gestured to stop him as her lips curved into a proud smile.

"It's alright, you did the right thing."

"Good job!"

As Crane followed Ria's example to praise him, he exchanged gazes with the elderly physician before thoughtfully glancing at Ria.

"Right, even if you are just sleepy, you should get more rest. We will come back tomorrow to check up on you if you weren't out by then."

Picking up little Annie, Ria patted her back before she turned to the door alongside Crane, leaving only Leo and the elderly physician within the clinic.

'Nothing…?'

Opening up his 'Personal Book', Leo was surprised to find no addition to it. This event definitely wasn't part of the story, but it didn't trigger any 'plot changes'.

However, he could understand this to a certain point. The reason this incident occurred was due to his success in uprooting the event at the very start, which had already triggered the 'impossible' rated 'Counter Elimination'. Since this was a branch resulting from it, it made sense to cause no reaction, and it also made sense why he received such a large number of points from this particular 'plot change'.

'I should get going.'

After lazily lying in bed for the following six hours, the lethargy that Leo overtook Leo had long faded. Stretching his arms around to make sure he wasn't too weak to walk, Leo carefully left the bed.

"Oh, you are leaving?"

Leo's expression grew firm upon hearing the elderly physician's words. He had been pondering over his discovery for the last six hours, and he had finally made his decision. He would give the elderly man his advice as a 'Reader'.

Although this was bound to have some effect on the world's course of events, Leo didn't want to ignore the old man's tragic death knowing that it would take place, even Ray had mixed feelings after coming to know of his situation.

While this man was the fearsome Poison King of the past, he had disappeared from the world of conflict, wanting to redeem himself by helping rather than hurting. His tragedy was also somewhat similar to the one Ray was supposed to experience.

"Yes."

Nodding in affirmation, Leo smiled as he walked to the door. However, just before he stepped out, he briefly turned to the elderly man.

"Oh right, I met someone who seemed to know you outside of town. He had a message he wanted me to deliver for him."

"Oh?"

The elderly man's gaze grew sharp, but he was still calmly seated in place, he appeared to be eagerly waiting for Leo's next words.

"He said, 'Being away doesn't help, it's better to keep those we care for close so we don't end up regretting our decisions later as time goes by.' "

Not bothering to receive a response, Leo had already walked out of the clinic.. Since he wouldn't be able to explain himself, he could only give the man a hint. Whether he acted upon it or not was all up to him…