“So, the reason this place is so highly protected and restricted is because of those efforts? How is it fair for the dead people who protected these records with their hands in the past? I bet they would feel rather angry with their records, not being read by the whole humanity of the present.” William says with a critical idea of what came to his mind within a few minutes of hearing Ellie's reasonings. The whole premise of this history is very confusing to him. Same with the credits and payments to know about it.
He is not entirely wrong, but the situation is much more complex that he would guess.
The current humanity essentially has no need for such historical records.
Take the past, for example. Most average people at the beginning of the 21st century. Someone like that was in the middle of the technological advancements times of humanity. A time when prosperity and living conditions were better than in the further past. One did not seek out the thousands of years of the past, nor cared too much before the age of their own parents.
Perhaps a few decades, but nothing too far, or meaningful, would come to know it.
Simplicity in ignorance led to a gradual point in history, where only a few were interested in history. Few thousand or more such people? No one really guessed the number of historians, but they surely existed and led their lives with their desired feelings of knowing the past, so they would not lose the future of it. Or it could be just their naked curiosity? Who knows?
Not many. At least in the current age of the 22nd century of the Dark Age. The time with a lot of fewer people.
Yet, here stands the Grand Library of the Federation. A place that holds the records of the past, even though the need for them is even more diminished than in the past.
People as well as historians who are keen on the past still exist, otherwise, they would not build this library in the first place.
William glances at the many shelves and the books within them. Going from each to the last, with more rows of them in the next corridor.
He could not read it all, but he could get to know enough.
“Hmmm...” William stops himself before one bookshelf.
Above it is a sign.
World war 1, and World war 2 respectively.
“Oh, interested in the beginning of the 20th century?” Ellie asks with interest.
“World war? Are you serious about this name?” William asks.
“What? Never heard of this major advancement in humanity, which led to the millions of deaths?”
“Are you serious?” William glances at Ellie, who remains serious.
She points to one particular book in one corner.
“This one. Read this one. It is a collection of historians through about that time period, while the second half is going through the effects through the following decades until the start of another century.”
William reluctantly takes the book and the pages flow between his hands with some scepticism.
They were old, yellow-ish dry sheets of paper. Some had holes, but with ink, that remains even after a long time has passed.
Still, this book already lived past a few lifespans of its makers. William keeps reading, with an expression that sometimes changes, while he remained silent.
Old picture, articles from newspapers, and so on, litters the pages. Stories, facts, and logic flow through them. William understands quickly that he is more ignorant than he assumed.
“This stuff really happened?” He glances at Ellie, who remains standing aside. Leaning on a shelf as he watches his reactions.
“Yes. It is a tragedy that led to better times.”
“Better... What time would be like without those wars of absolute mad people?”
“No idea. The questions of what if, are just speculations. It happened, and the facts of the past that followed after the wars led to better times. Advancements in medicine, and everyday lives through the technologies what followed with the research after the wars.” Ellie explains the little good that came afterward. It all is only a drop of it, after the darker times in human history.
“This logic... I still dislike this... So brutal and illogical. The idea that this stemmed from Europe is even more strange. I thought that continent had it always easy since it's so far away from America.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Again with your thoughts and guesses. You are standing in a few rooms in a world that can answer and change your views.” Ellie argues.
William shuts his mouth before arguing with her about it, since she is right, and even if he wants to retort her words, he could not.
He returns to reading the book and continues with a few others that follow.
Depressing, tragic, and totally inhuman are only a few words that come to his mind, as he put the book about strategical warfare back on the bookshelf.
“Is the history so grim-looking? I think the world we live in is not much different from the beginning of the 20 century.”
“Tragedy is an everyday thing of the past and present. Humans are always like this. Emotional and brutal. One of the few beings in the evolution, what could really be called mad creations.” Ellie says with unlike stern-sounding words. She stops smiling while frowning with a heavy expression.
“Wanna know why I keep going, even after knowing a lot about this past?” she asks.
“Because you want to go forward? Like every human, what went through similar lives throughout the Dark? It sounds weirdly... similar to the world war, but not as...”
“...real? Yes. That is because humanity lost against the Dark Age, while we battled against one another for stupid reasons.”
William gulps down with a tired and dry throat while ignoring his bamboo bottle for the past few hours. Thirst and anxiety totally get to him and refrain him from drinking.
“Humans can be monster too.”
“Of course, they can.” Ellie agrees.
“Alright, stop with this pessimism. I have not shoved this to you to get you depressed. It is a piece of history and lesson that is not bad.”
“I don't feel sad or depressed. Just angry that it even happens in the first place. Humans... I am one, but I feel like there is much to us?”
“We live in a bubble. Our lives are ours. We are not too different from animals, but we butcher them to get so much-needed food. What does it make us?”
William frowns because he knows it all too well. He killed countless old chickens and rabbits, not because he wanted to, but because the need for it was too heavy. Camp would not ask for the sparing of any kind of food and that includes any wastage.
A sudden realization comes to William. A lesson, what could shape him up to be a better person or even a basic human in this society.
“Thank you for showing this to me. I will definitely not forget this.” William resolutely says with determination, and unknown though to Ellie's eyes.
“What do you want to know? We have much more wars to go through in this alley.” Ellie chuckles in helplessness as he shows many more signs with more names that follow beyond the shelves.
Sighting, William rather moves to a different location. One which would not be as depressing. Talking about the two world wars is enough for him.
Instead of that, Ellie shows him around the more sections of the bookshelves, with general historical books of the nations he is interested in, or continents with detailed explorations from her previous world one floor below.
3 hours follow, with books and talk that Ellie doesn't enjoy, nor hate.
It is a much-needed kick to an ignorant and clueless William who does not know enough.
William keeps thinking, and reading, while going through the book about the very importance of America's colonization within the 18th and following 19th century. He already had this book in his hand for the past hour.
The history of his home is also within, with a depiction of Canadian borders that were different, and historically, not as deep as the USA, but still impressive tales nonetheless.
“People were settled for hundreds of years in the wild. No electricity, no technology. Just food, farming, killing for food, and drinking the mountainous waters from lakes and ponds. Those are truly different kinds of life. They sound honest, yet almost foreign to me.” William mutters with insight.
“Not as much as the Camp outside, is it not?” Ellie asks.
“Not really. At least the one I was in had electricity for a couple of hours a day for almost all refugees. The military provided solar and wind turbines to the camp, or did other samaritans do that to us? I don't know.”
“We even had some machinery, through some old people who learn through the crafts from other old people in the past. It is like a cycle, where the old teach the young, and years will follow the young until it is their time to teach the next generation.” William explains the simple thinking, which further changes to words, that he was unsure he understands himself.
Ellie understands it since she knows pretty much the same amount of information about the camps since it is a topic of the Library as well. But that would come into further restricted places on the fourth and fifth floors.
“You see? Humanity will prevail. We can if we can. Even if humanity has lost a lot, we are not so easy to die completely.”
“I know. Are... are there information about the beginning of the Dark age?” William suddenly asks the important question that he is most curious about. The piece in the 21st-century history that changed the world the most in the past centuries.
Not even the 19th or 20th century matters too much to him, even if their advancement means the current technologies they have in current times.
Helicopters are one of them, while medicine and everything are still around. Although, not that great, and with lower qualities and quantities. It is enough for the small population of humanity.
Ellie frowns upon hearing his question. This is within her knowledge, but still further up in the letter of importance.
She ponders a bit about it and decided to let it be.
“There is, but not here. It will come later.”
William scowls inside, and casually tosses the book into the bookshelf.
“Then, let's keep going with whatever you are leading me with,” William speaks his mind while walking away. They both left, to the 4th floor, and soon returns through the massive earth's globe back to the exhibitions.
A book that William half secured on the bookshelf falls down to the wooden floor by his small mistake
Unfortunate, and sad, with its open, old pages. Something mysteriously picked it with an invisible force, and the pages close on their own. It is then put back in its rightful place on the bookshelf as if nothing happened.
Nothing and no one is in this room. In fact, William notices no one in the 4th or the restricted rooms on the 4th and 5th floor the whole time.
He does not even question it or realize it himself.
They are being followed, or perhaps William is the only one being followed.