Chapter I. The Quiet Waters of Lakewood

A place where ivy covering red bricks changes color. On the outskirts of Lakewood, a tranquil city surrounded by lakes and forests, stands St. Charles University, where even the flow of seasons seems to pass by leisurely. The campus, bearing the marks of time, holds a simple and romantic stillness far removed from the era of speed.

In an old lounge at the end of the hallway on the third floor of this quiet Humanities Building, there is a somewhat unique lecturer. Between creaky bookshelves and piles of books, a man steps out with a heavy bag amidst the pungent aroma of coffee from a moka pot—this is Professor Austin Parker.

"It took Tolstoy several years to write <War and Peace>, so surely a week or so isn't such a big deal, is it?"

A comparative literature lecturer who recites three languages while casting an old bamboo fishing rod. Preferring to watch a float bobbing on the lakeside ripples rather than engaging in fierce academic debates or tenure competition, he is a deep and kind adult who knows how to simply listen to others' pain.

Though his bank balance is always precarious and he must survive on canned food and fish he caught himself during vacations, a quiet and heavy sanctuary flows through his life, like a page from Western literature.