After dinner, they went back to their own rooms, doing their own things. From what William knew, Sarah liked to write and read a lot. He and Eve used to read a lot, too, but with them becoming more and more busy, they hadn't had the time to properly read any of the new books. What he didn't expect was that Sarah liked to write as well. While asked to show him her works, she just blushed and changed the subject.

  He shook his head as he walked into his room. The guitar was where he left it, right next to the violin. His desktop was right next to them, fitting between his personal storage, which was more of a space he just threw stuff into, and his closet. In the other corner, was where his bookshelves, his Game Boy, his other past time objects like a chess board, and gifts given to him by Eve and Sarah, like a personally curved wooden sword from Eve, were stored.

  He walked over to that corner, where the books were. He ran his fingers along the spines of the books as he observed them. He had plenty of books, many of which were of different genres. Fantasy, science fiction, technical books, comics, manga, and many, many Star Wars novels.

  How long had it been since I've read a book just for fun? Around 3 years now, huh? He smiled. He decided to change that. He picked up a book and read the blurb. It was a story about a child being reincarnated as a slime??? This is definitely a light novel. He thought to himself. He checked it. Heh, it is indeed a light novel. Let's have some fun, I guess. I wonder how many volumes there are for this one?

  He read through the book. It was... fun. He could see the effort the author put into the magic system to be consistent and the worldbuilding to be amazing. While the characters were barely good enough, it was still at an acceptable level. The plot made logical sense on a fundamental level, and the world didn't need to be bent unnaturally for the plot to work.

  He continued reading it. The first book or volume had around 60,000 to 65,000 words. He finished reading it in four and a half hours. He closed the book, satisfied with reading it, though he was left feeling hollow by the cliffhanger. He was curious. This story was quite good. Why didn't it become popular in his past life? It was clearly not Tensura, but a different story focused on a reincarnated slime that became a godlike entity. He opened his laptop and searched the internet. It turned out that there were five more volumes. And it had a sizable following.

  He started frowning. Why had he never heard of this before? If it were this popular, he would have at least heard of it in his past life. Has the butterfly effect started taking effect? How could my activity here in the States influence a light novel from Japan... And I only started making major moves last December. And this light novel was released 4 years ago...

  Could there be other factors I'm not aware of? He started looking through his memory. Not from what I can tell. What about before I was here then? He was not well-versed in history. Well, he was in his past life. It was his pastime, as he would usually watch a video of Oversimplified or read some ancient translated book to pass the time, but ever since reincarnating here, he hadn't even touched history. That's an oversight on my part...

  He became silent as he read through Europe's history first. What the actual fuck is going on? With such a divergence in timeline, how did most events remain the same? He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. It doesn't make any sense at all. A significant change like this should have changed the world significantly, from borders to technology to religions to nations to even languages. How is this even possible? For the first time in a long time, his confidence was shaken. Could this be a joke? He shook his head. No, this is from reputable sources. It's not uploaded on April 1st either. That means this is real. Could I be dreaming? He clenched his fist. No, I'm not dreaming...

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  He closed the laptop and walked upstairs to the roof. He took a deep breath. The air had a slight tinge of the beach, carried by the wind. He leaned on the railing, looking out into the city. He took another deep breath to calm his racing heart. After a minute or so, he calmed down. There's no use panicking. History remained the same, despite massive changes. That means there must be something fundamental that is making history stay the same... Or it could be other factors I don't know about yet... He analyzed what he had read. It's not like nothing changed either way. While Christianity remained the dominant religion, the cults from ancient times seem to have survived, even if only in small numbers of a few million in Europe.

  What he read was truly astonishing. The Roman Empire actually survived longer than it actually did in history. It survived a century longer. At least, the western one. The Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire actually survived well into the 1600s, before finally falling to the Ottoman Turks. And all of these changes could be traced back to one man. Augustus Romulus Rufus Claudius of the Roman Empire (405AD - 477AD). He reigned as the Western Roman Emperor for 7 years before reuniting the West and the East and ruling for 65 more years as Augustus.

  From what William had read, the emperor claimed to be a demigod child of Vesta, being born by a virgin birth. Of course, this was considered propaganda by modern historians, just like Julius Caesar's claim of being a descendant of Venus. But due to his rise, the cults of Roman gods weren't outlawed. It was said that even now, the sacred fire of Vesta still burns in the temple of Vesta in Rome.

  What truly astonished him was that despite this massive change, history still flowed identically. The Roman Empire was still inevitably split again. The West fell to the barbarians, and the East survived till the Middle Ages. What was interesting was that there were some changes. For example, the Byzantine Empire briefly returned in 1916 during WWI, after Greece conquered the Balkans and Anatolia. Though it was dismantled in WW2 as the Germans conquered most of that land, and by the end, Greece was returned to its former size, with Turkey, Bulgaria, Albania, and Yugoslavia being liberated.

  He sighed. History wasn't the same. That means future events could change too, even without my interference. And with me here, it'll be derailed even more. He started having a headache. Fuck, man. Why did this guy have to appear? He had an idea as to who he was. He's most likely like me. A reincarnator. That would make sense. Maybe he played too much Imperator Rome and got reincarnated. He has too much knowledge of future technologies not to be like me.

  A few examples would be this guy's understanding of maths, physics, and chemistry. It is said that he even attempted to create gunpowder, though he failed.

  William sighed. It seemed he would have to adapt. Things were much more complicated than he had first thought, and it seemed like the world was about to get even more complicated for him. If this Romulus guy were like me, then could others like me exist? He looked up at the moon.

  If Romulus was really a reincarnator, how many are there now? How many have there been? Despite history being messed with to this extent and still for it to remain similar to my previous life, there must be a reason. It's either that someone is intentionally making everything back to what it should be, or the fundamental forces of the universe will make history stay the same. Both of these are too far-fetched, but those are the only two that make sense with current information.

  He kicked himself. I can't believe I missed something this major for 18 fucking years. Fuck me, man. I'm getting sloppy. He looked up at the stars again and reached out his hand. I must be more careful from now on. According to my theory, now that I'm actively interfering, history might really change, at least for the short term.