"By the way, Undyne, could you let me take a look at Alphys's history books?" Linde took a sip of tea.
"Ah... of course!" Undyne walked into her room with a smile and came back carrying a stack of books.
Linde picked up the first one and looked at its title-
"A Magical Girl's Reincarnation in Another World"
Linde: "???"
Why did this feel a little dubious?
He hurriedly opened it to check. Fortunately, only the title seemed off. The manga inside was much like a slice-of-life anime.
He held up the manga and began reading. Honestly, Alphys really lived up to her title as the Royal Scientist-even the magic in her books could theoretically be reproduced.
With that thought, he began trying to reproduce it. His void soul could replicate the magic power composition of any monster he had seen, so he could work out every kind of monster magic.
"But... I can understand Toby and Flowey... why can I work out Gaster's magic but not the Bone Brothers'? They should all be skeletons..." Linde couldn't make sense of it.
But then it clicked. Gaster wasn't a skeleton; he'd just let fanon get into his head. In his previous life, Toby had hinted several times that skeletons were either an extremely unusual kind of monster or weren't monsters at all.
In that case, the Bone Brothers' origins really were mysterious...
Still, he stopped dwelling on it and continued reading the manga, trying to work out the magic within.
Meanwhile, Frisk was having an interesting time. With nothing else to do, she had also begun flipping through the manga. "Undyne, have you read all these books?"
"Probably not?" Undyne thought for a moment. "I always just bring a huge pile of books over from her place, then take my time reading them one by one."
Frisk's mouth twitched. Alphys really had some nerve letting Undyne take these. She had just spotted a book whose title couldn't possibly be misleading-it was definitely something weird!
"The Magic Warrior and the Crest of Taint"
Especially that last part, "the Crest of Taint"-seriously! Frisk's face flushed quite a bit as she imagined what might be inside.
Without a second thought, she quietly slipped the book off the shelf. Alphys, I'm saving you here.
Frisk had seen certain things on a certain computer before, so she was something of an expert herself. It would have been a lie to say the book didn't interest her, but she still felt it wasn't quite appropriate. So, for the time being, she tossed it into her inventory and left it alone.
She seemed to have forgotten, however, that Linde could see the inventory too.
Linde tried circulating the magic power within his body, imitating the way it flowed in the manga. His eyes instantly turned golden.
[Eye of True Sight]
Sure enough, Linde spotted Chara's remnant soul lingering in a corner not far away.
As though sensing his gaze, Chara floated over to him. "You definitely saw me just now..."
Linde did his best to let his eyes go unfocused, pretending he had neither seen nor heard anything, but it didn't seem to work very well.
"All right... I did see you," Linde answered helplessly.
Chara nodded in satisfaction. "Good. You didn't keep pretending. Looks like you've got some brains after all."
Linde couldn't seem to sense any malice from Chara, which left him a little puzzled.
Chara keenly picked up on his confusion. "I know what you're wondering, Linde. I've been drifting around the Underground for two hundred years. I let go of my hatred for humans long ago."
"And... back then, you asked me for a favor." Chara sighed. "Come with me."
Linde felt helpless. Apparently, his future self had traveled back into the past and done something again.
After letting Undyne and Frisk know, he left Undyne's house and went around to the home of the little ghost, Napstablook, nearby.
Linde stared, dumbstruck. He could clearly see a building shaped like a stable to the left of the little ghost's house!
Although he knew a lot, he had never heard of this building. (This was the room where "REDACTED" appeared in the original game, though apparently it could only be seen by editing the save file.)
Linde pushed open the door and walked into the room.
A white, indistinct figure stood silently inside.
"All right, my turn." With that, Chara flew a few circles around the white figure, doing something Linde couldn't identify. "I'm heading back. I still need to keep nourishing my soul through Frisk's, after all. People with the same kind of soul are far too rare..."
With that, Chara flew away, while the blurry figure before Linde gradually grew more solid.
Before you continue