Chapter I. The Quiet Waters of Lakewood

A place where ivy covers the red bricks. 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 time-worn campus holds a simple, romantic stillness, far removed from the age of speed.

In this quiet Humanities Building, in a worn lounge at the end of the third-floor hallway, sits a somewhat unique lecturer. Between creaky bookshelves and piles of books, a man steps out with a heavy bag amidst the sharp 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 bob on the lake's ripples rather than engage in fierce academic debate 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 on the edge and he must survive on canned food and his own catches during vacations, his life flows like a quiet, heavy sanctuary found in the pages of Western literature.