It had been one hard decision for Elmer. He’d had to choose between going to the Black Market to stumble upon anything he could learn on the world of Ascenders—including finding a person willing to teach him Enochian—or heading to Ur’s central library at the Corporate District, and finally picking up a bulky book that maybe had the history of Fitzroy and its cities recorded in it.

Well, his choice had been made.

After he had confirmed that his location was free of any familiar individual, he’d waltzed through the grand portico of a somewhat posh building with a deep, weathered red brickwork, and into the never-ending bustling ambience which filled its cramped foyer.

A library was meant to be home to a tranquil state, where the only noises heard were the rustles of the pages of books being flipped, and silent murmurs of knowledge being passed across two different individuals. But when it came to the free lending library section of Ur, that was all unattainable.

Regardless, it had been the best of his options.

His other had been to walk into the main library building which was of two towering spires. A place home to a plethora of books, ranging between nothing less than the number three thousand and above, unlike the one he was currently in, which only had at most a thousand books.

However, doing that meant he would have to pay a monthly subscription of ten mints, and also offer an identification slip to prove that he was who he was, and a member of the middle class or higher.

Having known that neither of those were things he could do, he’d settled on the lesser of the libraries, one which required no subscription fee and was not barred by social classes.

But still, he could not help but feel a deep rooted longing for the peacefulness of the main library. Not even taking into consideration the concentrated stench of sweat mingling with that of the faint scent of old papers and wood polish, the fact that a bench meant to take ten people was taking twenty disturbed him highly.

He did not have his privacy to leisurely read through the bulky book of history he had found, owing to the fact that he’d arrived early, and was instead constantly trying to push snores and loud mumbles from forcing their way into his ears. It was a lot of work, but gladly he was almost done now; it was just a matter of time before he left.

Maybe I should find a way to forge a fake identification slip; it will be very handy… I’ve not really run into anything urgent that requires it yet, but what if that happens later on…? Mmm-hmm… I should probably look for a way to get one…

Elmer sighed, dropped the pen he was holding, and stretched his body a little, doing his utmost best to avoid hitting the people moving behind him where he was seated.

After he was done with that he shifted his pen aside from covering the words highlighted in his pocket notebook, and went ahead to carefully read through each.

He had decided to jot down his learnings first without paying too much attention to them, and come back later to carefully scrutinize each one. Though, even with the rushed process, he was sure that he had not come across anything related to the supernatural written in the hard, tomebound book of history.

Well, he did not come to the library for them after all. It was his interaction with Miss Rachel Swole, his apparent neighbor, which had compelled him to want to learn about the other cities, and as well whatever little glimpses of history his puny brain could grasp.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Later on he would try to pay a visit to the Black Market and search for a teacher on the Enochian language there; surely he had to find one in such a place. But, sadly, that day was not today. He had a few other things planned once he’d left the library—things he believed to take precedence over learning a new language at the moment.

Alright… Elmer huffed out a breath as he dropped his elbow on the large trestle table before him, demarcating himself from the elderly man sleeping and snoring beside him. He then flipped back to the first leaf of his notebook, just after the one bearing the translations he had long done for Col’s journal, and focused on the bullet point there, along with the words following it.

The bullet point bore information on the beginning of the Fitzroy empire, summarized by Elmer to only touch upon the main elements on how it was founded.

Emperor Athelstan Fitzroy, who was the first emperor and founder of the empire of Fitzroy, was the son of King Basil the fourth; the one last king of the western kingdom, Aflorere, which had served as the base for the current empire of Fitzroy.

King Basil the fourth, a man who had lived long enough to hate the results of war, relished in peace. And because of the scars the past battles he’d faced caused, he preferred to avoid mindless slaughtering of humans in any way he could.

But his only legitimate son had been of a very different sort; Athelstan was a young man who relished in power instead, and was willing to seek it as much as he could.

And that vast difference in mindset resulted in King Basil disagreeing and choosing not to tender his army for Athelstan’s plans of amalgamation regarding the kingdom of Aflorere with that of the southern kingdom, the eastern kingdom, and the nation of Ertus, the desert kingdom to the north.

Athelstan was not pleased with that outcome. Left with no choice, he hastened the death of his wrinkled old father by personally serving him the deadly nightshade poison after mixing it within his night milk.

As King Basil’s only legitimate son, and having already been anointed crown prince, no one in the court could go against Athelstan’s words. And he made quick his coronation by forcing the grand savant to crown him king on the same night he’d killed his father; a night which had happened on the thirtieth of June, year 102. A night which was forever regarded as the silent night due to King Athelstan making sure not a single soul wept for the death of his father King Basil.

He had said that if anyone had tears to shed then it was better for them to be shed joyously for his coronation, and not sorrowfully for his father’s death.

A month later, on the first of August, year 102, he set his plan for marching and conquering Aflorere’s neighboring kingdoms into motion.

The eldest three of his six children, Aria, Elsa, and Canadra, he deployed as spies each to the southern kingdom, the eastern kingdom, and the northern nation.

He made sure they understood that they only had until the first of August, 103, a year from their deployment, to relay to him decisive information on the kingdoms they were to infiltrate, unless he would disown them and count them no different from the citizens of those kingdoms.

The younger three of his children, the twins Ceferina and Giselle, and the last born, Cedric, remained with him in Green Valley, the castle of the royal family, along with his wife, Queen Giselle, who named the youngest of her daughters after herself.

King Athelstan Fitzroy the first had never tasted war due to his father making sure peace in his kingdom never faltered, but the people of Aflorere were never once scared that their kingdom would fall to the hands of the other kingdoms when words of their king’s plans reached their streets and taverns. Rather, they were scared of what barbaric methods he would use to usher in the new empire he had in mind.

In only the month since he’d been king, he’d changed the kingdom wholly, ruling it with an iron hand.

Crimes were lowered significantly as he did not hesitate to have the head of even a child who stole a loaf of bread, or a pregnant woman who, whether unintentionally or intentionally, threw slurs at the name of the royal family.

Nothing was tolerated; nothing at all.

He was further termed as the Unhinged King, and he proved the citizens of Aflorere right when he turned his own daughters into spies, disregarding the dangers of the missions he’d sent them on.

It was all for the greater good, King Athelstan always said to his council members during the meetings of the small council; it was all for the greater good. A smile was also never far from his face with those words.