After leaving the children’s room, I headed to the library.
As soon as I opened the door and stepped inside, the distinctive smell of old paper stabbed at my nose.
The library was smaller than I had expected.
It felt more like a private study or reading room than a public library.
Bookshelves lined the walls, packed tight with books, and an old desk and chair sat in one corner.
A few ornaments rested on the shelves, giving the whole place an old-fashioned air.
I walked up to the wall of bookshelves and scanned the volumes on display.
Medical, biology, and chemistry books were mixed together on the shelves.
They didn’t seem to be organized in any systematic way; it felt more like a collection of books someone had been using and then shoved back in place.
Still, despite the small size, there seemed to be quite a few useful books here.
The first thing I needed to do was find material related to neurology.
I had to prepare the documents I’d promised to submit to Dr. Ross at the next examination.
Since I needed to produce material that didn’t exist in this short amount of time, I at least had to build my argument on existing research.
And given the nature of this world, there was always the chance that there was some other knowledge here I didn’t know about.
I began searching by running my hand along the spines one by one.
[Diagnosis and Treatment of Nervous System Diseases - 1965 Edition]
[Brain Injury and Clinical Approaches - 1969 Edition]
[Introduction to Neuropathology - 1971 Edition]
I pulled out every book that seemed remotely relevant.
Just looking at them made me sigh; they were thick and heavy enough to make my arms ache already.
"I haven’t touched a paper book since middle school..."
In modern times, all you had to do was search for the word you wanted in an e-book and the page would pop right up, but of course there was nothing like that in this era.
I had to flip through every page from start to finish and find things manually.
"Damn, I really miss the 21st century."
With a resigned expression, I opened the first book.
One page, two pages, three pages...
I kept turning pages through the endless book, jotting down anything that looked useful before moving on to the next volume.
I read until my eyes felt like they were going to fall out, but sadly, the part I needed didn’t show up easily.
Because the books were so old, there were quite a few differences from the knowledge I knew, and the terminology and phrasing were very different from modern usage. Sometimes the same concept was called by a different name, and I’d wander around in circles for ages before finally finding the connection.
"What kind of battles were old professors fighting back then...?"
Still, it wasn’t a complete waste.
I found a passage saying that early studies from the 1960s had already shown changes in the levels of certain enzymes in serum after brain injury.
It didn’t yet identify exactly which proteins they were, but the researchers had already begun paying attention to the possibility that the state of the nervous system could be indirectly assessed through blood.
If I used that as a foundation, I might be able to cobble together a convincing document with enough of what Dr. Ross wanted.
Of course, the problem was that I’d have to dress up knowledge that wouldn’t be properly proven for decades in the language of this era... but it was still a lot better than having nothing.
This time I dug through the materials on ultrasound.
[The Possibilities of Ultrasonic Diagnostics - 1973 Edition]
When I opened the table of contents, one chapter stood out.
[On the Early Attempts at Ultrasound-Guided Percutaneous Biopsy]
Fortunately, I found the material faster than expected this time.
The gist was that a Danish medical team had first attempted a method of locating organs inside the body with ultrasound and then inserting a needle to collect tissue.
It was still in the early stages technically, but the basic principle had already been proven.
That alone was enough for my purposes.
I sat down at the desk, took out my notebook, and picked up a pen.
There were two documents I needed to submit to Dr. Ross.
One was the validity of measuring the nervous system through blood instead of cerebrospinal fluid, and the other was a protocol for ultrasound-guided core biopsy.
In practice, it was no different from writing papers myself. Two of them, at that.
"Sigh... writing even one paper in college was a pain, and now I have to do double that. My life really is miserable."
A bitter smile slipped out of me.
What was even sadder was that in Umbrella, writing a paper was apparently just part of everyday life, like a factory churning out mass-produced novels.
For the researchers, that was just how they earned their keep, so it was only natural. The problem was me.
Every time I tried to persuade Dr. Ross and the others, I had to propose a new methodology, then find the relevant literature, build the logic, and draft the document.
Which meant even if this job ended, I’d still have to keep repeating this crap in the future.
Just thinking about it made my vision go dark.
But what else could I do? In the end, this crap was directly tied to the children’s lives, as well as my own, so I wasn’t exactly in a position to complain.
I adjusted my grip on the pen.
The task was to cite existing research to build a logical argument, while using knowledge that wouldn’t be verified until decades later and explaining it in the language of this era as naturally as possible.
The key here was not to go too far ahead of the times, or I’d only arouse suspicion, so I had to tune everything to the level of this era as much as possible.
By the time several hours had passed, the rough drafts of both documents were complete.
"Ughhh... my brain is melting, it’s melting, ahh, uhh..."
Was this what it felt like to be infected with the T-Virus and turn into a zombie...?
By overall progress, I probably hadn’t even reached 1 percent yet, but people always said the beginning was half the battle.
I closed the notebook and stretched.
Then, suddenly, my gaze drifted deeper into the room.
A large framed picture hung on the wall.
It was an old portrait.
Inside the portrait, a woman was depicted seated in an elegant pose within a golden frame.
The hem of her dress spilled down toward the floor, and her expression was calm, yet somehow cold.
And at the bottom of the frame, there was a small nameplate.
[Veronica Ashford]
I stared at the name for a moment.
Veronica Ashford... the Veronica from the Veronica Project.
The original Alexander had tried to create a genius heir using this woman’s DNA, and that was why Alexia and Alfred had been born.
I looked at the portrait for a long time.
Maybe if this woman had never existed, those children would never have been born.
Lady Veronica’s eyes in the portrait reminded me of Alexia.
Calm and cold, yet with something hidden inside them.
I supposed that was exactly what made her look like the original mold for Alexia.
I finally looked away.
I decided to stop here and organize the rest in my office.
As I was putting the books I’d taken out back onto the shelves one by one, a blank space caught my eye.
It wasn’t where I had pulled a book from.
Looking at the numbers on the books on either side of the empty slot, I saw that volumes 1 through 3 were lined up in order, and the next space was missing.
Had someone taken it?
I checked the numbers again.
[Museum Compendium Volumes 1, 2, 3]
And the slot for volume 4 was empty.
"Ah, right. Come to think of it, Alexia asked me to, didn’t she?"
I remembered that Alexia had been reading volume 4 and had asked me to bring her the next one.
I reached out and picked up volume 5.
[Museum Compendium Volume 5 - Classification and Records of the Flora and Fauna of Central Africa]
I stared at the cover for a moment.
It was definitely a book I was seeing for the first time... and yet the title gave me the strange feeling that I’d heard it somewhere before.
I think I heard it in the game, but which part did it appear in...?
I racked my memory, but nothing came clearly to mind.
It felt like a name I’d only glanced at in passing, but maybe not.
"Well, it’s probably just my imagination."
I shook my head and tucked the book under my arm.
What mattered right now was getting this book safely to Alexia.
With the notebook and books in hand, I left the library and headed back to my office.
When I returned to the office and set the notebook down on the desk, I checked the clock.
It was 8:50 p.m. Dinner was already almost over.
I had no excuse to go up to the children tonight and talk with them for a long time.
But since I wanted to see their faces before bed, I picked up Museum Compendium Volume 5 and stepped back out into the hallway.
After stopping in front of Alexia’s door, I knocked.
"Come in."
When I opened the door, Alexia was seated at her desk, still reading volume 4.
As soon as she saw me, her gaze dropped straight to the book in my hand.
"You brought it."
"Yeah."
Alexia took the book and glanced over the cover once.
Then she quietly set it down on the corner of the desk.
"Thank you."
It was a short line.
But inside it was something like a resolve to get through tomorrow.
I quietly closed the door.
Out in the hallway, I paused for a moment in front of Alfred’s room.
I knocked twice.
"...Yes."
It was a weak, barely audible voice.
When I opened the door, Alfred was lying on the bed with Museum Compendium Volume 1 resting on his chest, his eyes half-closed.
He looked almost asleep.
"Were you sleeping?"
"No... I was just lying here."
Alfred forced his eyes open and tried to sit up.
"Just stay there."
I sat lightly on the edge of the bed.
Alfred hugged the book tightly to his chest and looked at me.
"Tomorrow... do you think I’ll be able to do it?"
It was less a question than a murmur to himself.
I looked at him for a moment.
"You don’t need to try to do it well."
Alfred blinked.
"Just endure it. And if it gets hard while you’re enduring it, I’ll be right there beside you."
Alfred said nothing for a moment after hearing that.
Then he gave a small nod.
"Okay."
I stood up.
"Sleep well."
"Yes. You too, Father."
Just as I was about to close the door—
"Father."
I stopped.
Still hugging the book to his chest, Alfred closed his eyes and said,
"Please come tomorrow too."
"Yeah. I’ll definitely come."
I quietly closed the door.
Left alone in the hallway, I stood there for a moment.
I closed my eyes and opened them again at the realization that there were only a few hours left now.
Then, to finish the rest of the work, I headed back to my office.
It looked like tonight was going to be a long one.
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