Chapter 13

I woke up that next morning feeling refreshed. We had a lot we wanted to get done today. We would go to the adventurers guild and ask about the library. Maybe they had one and if not maybe there was a public library somewhere in the Capital. We went downstairs and had a quick breakfast. After breakfast we headed to the adventurers guild. Once we arrived we went inside and saw Katherine standing behind the counter. We walked over to her and she asked if we needed anything. We told her we were looking for a library. She told us that yes there was a small library in the guild that we could browse but the city had a large library. It was located in the noble district so we would need to pay to reach that area of the city. The toll was set up to keep the commoners out of the noble district. Though if you could afford to pay you were welcome. We asked her to escort us to the guild library and she told us to follow her. We went down a hall behind the bar and were soon led into a small library. There was a large desk at the far end of the room as well as a few comfortable looking chairs. The walls were built in bookcases. There were many books here. Hopefully we will be able to find the information we were looking for. I didn't really want to go to the noble district. I really didn’t like nobles. If it came down to it I could put away my prejudices. I had been living with a princess after all.

Katherine told us we could browse through any of the books we liked. She only asked that we take proper care of the books and leave them as nice as we found them. Sora and I each took a side of the room and began pulling books off of the shelf and looking through them. We were looking for information about monsters or any mention of a Demon King. Most of the books that we came across were either works of fiction or histories of the kingdom. I stumbled upon a book of general monster knowledge. It gave descriptions of the common monsters you may come across in the wild. Sora had better luck than me and found a little bit of information on the demon king but it read mostly like a fiction novel. We kept looking but didn’t find any real information about the demon king. We did find multiple books on the monsters that were common in the area and the ones adventurers commonly come across. Well it seemed we would have to make a trip to the noble district after all. We put all of the books away and made sure the room was in the same condition as when we had arrived and then left the room. We told Katherine thank you for letting us use the library and we made our way out of the guild. We went to a nearby food stall to get a snack while we planned out what we would do next. We would head into the noble district and find out where the library is.

We headed deeper into the city. We finally came across a wall that blocked off the main city to the noble district. This was where all of the nobles lived as well as where the King's castle was located. It was much better guarded than the rest of the city. We made it to the gate and had to wait in a short line. After only a few minutes' wait we were asked to show identification and to pay the toll. We showed the guard our adventurers placards and paid one bronze apiece to be allowed to enter this section of the city. The price was steep for entry but we really wanted to find some information about the Demon King. We asked the guard where we could find the library. He pointed us in the direction and we headed out. The noble district looked quite a bit different than the main section of the city. The architecture was much nicer. The area was covered in sweeping arches and pillars. We walked around looking at everything as we passed. We needed to hurry though. We didn’t have too much time because we couldn’t afford the price of staying in this district. The prices here were exorbitant. Just look at the toll to enter. It was ten times the cost of just entering the city. Soon enough we made it to the library of the Capital. It was a huge two story building surrounded by tall white pillars on all sides. It was a very imposing structure in the middle of the city. It looked as if it could withstand a siege.

We made our way towards the entrance and went through the doors. We walked in and went to the front desk. There was a librarian standing behind a large counter sorting through a pile of books. He noticed us as we approached. He Smiled politely and asked “Is there anything I can help you with?” I thought for a moment and then came right out and asked. “We are looking for any information on the Demon king or ancient history of monsters.” Another thing occurred to me and I blurted out “Also anything you have concerning dragons.” He looked thoughtful for a moment and then said. “It may take me a while to find everything you asked for. Would you care to take a seat while you wait?” He motioned to an area with tables and chairs that I assumed was used for research. We nodded our assent and made our way over to one of the tables that were unoccupied. There were a couple of tables that were currently in use by others so we decided to move to a more isolated table so as not to disturb the others. We sat down and chatted quietly for a while. It took an hour before the man showed up with a stack of books. “These are all of the books we have concerning the Demon King and dragons. I also have one book on ancient monster history. I hope this will have what you are looking for. If not please come and find me and I will be happy to assist you in searching for more information.

We who serve the God of knowledge live to help those that seek to learn.” I was a bit taken aback by his words. It wasn’t that uncommon for people to worship the divine. I myself had grown up in an orphanage that worshiped a goddess. Though I didn’t hold any faith in Gods or Goddesses. I had lived too hard of a life to believe in such fancies. I knew there was magic in this world and that if you could find someone to teach you almost anyone could learn and people thought that power came from the gods. I didn’t hold such views. I thanked the man anyway and started looking through the books. We each grabbed a book and started searching. The book I started with was called “History of Dragons” and it looked pretty promising. It explained that there were dragons in the world though they lived far away to the north deep in the mountains and that people didn’t really see them that often. It spoke of dragons' love for treasure and power. It also said that dragons were one of the most ancient races and were said to have the power to change their forms to a more human appearance. It explained how there were many types of dragons and that depending on the color of their scales they would have a different element associated with them. Such as red for fire and blue for water. What the book didn’t say was where the dragons came from or anything about the first dragon. That was what I was most interested in. I wanted to know more about Kalastrovax. Today didn’t seem the day to acquire that knowledge though. I would have to ask Kalastrovax himself about the past and where the dragons came from. I set that book aside and reached for another. It was a generalized history of monsters. This book did contain some information that we had been looking for.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

It talked about how the first Demon King came about and that from him came all of the other monsters that still plagued the lands. The evil God Maverkesh had created him to destroy the human world many millennia ago but he was thwarted by a hero that killed the Demon king and brought peace to the lands. This was also not the last Demon King that would be spawned. Apparently it had happened many times. With Mavrekesh raising a Demon King whenever he thought humanity was weak enough to conquer. This sentiment did not bode well for humanity. If Maverkesh thought humanity was weak we were in for the fight of a lifetime. Many times throughout history the book claimed He had almost won. Though it stated that every time when humanity was on the brink the Gods would get together and choose a group of heros to lead the fight against the Demon King. That was interesting but it read more like a fiction to me. I didn't believe in all of the God nonsense. Sora wasn’t having any luck with her books. It was mostly fiction or someone's theory on the Demon King, nothing concrete. We kept looking and didn't find anything else of use. We had spent hours looking through these books and it was almost time to head back to the Inn. We had managed to find out a little bit. So we took the books back to the librarian and made our way outside.

We walked and talked about what we had read and made our way through the gate without issue. With our research completed we would spend one more night here in the Capital and then get a new contract and head out for a while. We made it back to the Inn just as the sun was setting .We went inside and had some supper before retiring for the night. It had been an exhausting day doing all of that research. Neither of us had any experience with that kind of research so it had been difficult to read through all of that information. Tomorrow we would grab a new contract and head out for another adventure. We went up to our room and talked a bit about the plan for tomorrow. We agreed that we would head to the adventurers guild just after breakfast and pick up a contract. We wanted to do one that was a little harder and maybe would require a little bit more travel. We wanted to start having bigger challenges and longer journeys. We needed more experience to advance and the only way to get that experience was to complete contracts and grow our reputation. I went to sleep while thinking about the future. What was odd about this sleep was that I was once again surrounded by darkness which I knew was the sign Kalastrovax wanted to talk.

“So you want to know about my past? I guess you've earned a little bit more information. As I’ve said before, I am the first dragon. Much like the Demon King I am the progeny of a Goddess. The Goddess that created me is known as Veraxas. She is the goddess that all of us dragons worship. I sense in you a disbelief in the Gods but let me assure you they are quite real. Everything in this world was created by a God. Though that isn’t the story being told now. I was the first dragon to be created. Along with me Veraxas also created my mate Relsatarx. From us all of the other dragons were born. I am a black dragon and Relsatrax is a white dragon. I controlled the element of darkness and she controlled the light. Together we gave birth to dragons that could control all of the elements: fire, darkness, light, water, wind, and earth. Some of our children were so exceptional that they could control multiple elements. For a while it was a peaceful existence. We lived in solitude just growing our family. As you know nothing good lasts forever. Soon we were approached by humans that approached us and tried to kill us to make use of our bodies to construct weapons and armor for their warriors. Obviously this wasn't something that we would stand for and we attacked the humans back. For years we fought with the humans. Though their numbers never ended. They breed like rabbits and there are always more to replace the last. One day the one you call the Demon King approached me with an idea. Join him and we would wipe out the humans. I accepted his assistance. I had lost many children and even grandchildren in the never ending battle with the humans. We joined the Demon King's army and attacked the human cities. Long story short, one day the demon king betrayed me to the humans and I was trapped in this necklace. There is more to this story but this is all I will tell you for now. Some things are too personal to share. Though I can see from the books you read that at least a few of my descendants still live. If we ever travel in the lands to the north I would hope you would meet them so that I may see them. For now I must go back into my prison. The next time I appear will be with information about how to release me. Go to sleep now, I will contact you again soon.” With that he disappeared and left me with even more questions than I had before. There was nothing I could do now. I had a better grasp of who he had been in the past. It was nice to know that he hadn’t been truly evil; he had just been trying to protect his family. It was a little disconcerting that he said the Gods were real. I would have to come to terms with that eventually but not without proof. I drifted off to sleep with thoughts of Gods and dragons.

When I woke up I told Sora everything that I had heard in my dream. “Of course the Gods are real. Everyone knows that. They are the ones that created us and this world. This information from Kalastrovax is very interesting. We should look into tracking down the dragons at some future point. For now let's go have some breakfast and then go pick out another contract.” I nodded to her and we headed downstairs. We sat down and the maid brought us out a plate of eggs and bacon with some biscuits. With breakfast out of the way we headed out. We had just resupplied the other day so we didn’t need to worry about getting anything. We could just head out after we got our contract. We made our way over to the guild and it was so early that no one else was there though Katherine was in her normal spot at the bar waiting to help anyone who came in. We walked up to her and asked if she had any interesting contracts for Iron rank adventurers. We also said we were hoping for a contract that had a lot of travel and would be more exciting than just killing goblins. “I actually have just the thing. It's about a week's travel from here. There have been people going missing in a town to the east. They haven't been able to find the bodies of the missing people. So they don't know if it's a human or an animal or even a monster. The local guards haven't been able to come up with anything so they have called on us for help. This is just the sort of thing that an up and coming adventurer could use to make a name for themselves.`` Sora and I glanced at each other and shrugged. It sounded as good as anything we could be expected to do. It required a lot of travel and it even seemed pretty interesting. We told her that we would take the contract and headed back to the in to grab our gear. There was no reason to wait. It was time to head out for another adventure.