After questioning the Innkeeper, they learned that there was a library in the city, though it was quite pricey since it contained Magical Spells, Skill Books, and such things. Of course, it was divided into sections so unless they were looking for spells, they had a good chance at getting off with a cheap price.

The library was in the middle of the city, showing the owner’s wealth and glory. But in fact, the owner was none other than Rhoderick, the greedy merchant. Or so they had heard. Without looking up, Elena kept dodging the people coming her way as she counted the coins in her hands.

“It’s getting quite busy here. Carriages everywhere, youngsters with guards behind them. I guess this must be a place for the rich,” Jake said in a low voice.

Turning around, Elena placed fifty gold coins and a few silver coins in his hand. A smile formed on her face as she said, “That’s definitely the case. Take this. We have two hundred gold coins plus a few more and five gold coins worth of silver coins. Although we don’t have bronze coins, it isn’t necessary since our lodging in Woodland Inn costs silver coins anyway.”

After looking around carefully, a tiny black hole appeared in front of Jake. Sticking his hand into it, the coins disappeared when he pulled out his hand. “I’m a fabulous illusionist!” he chuckled, sticking out his chest.

Laughing at his one-man play, Audrey said, “You are, but try not to show off your skills in such a crowded place. Also, we have arrived,” she tapped Elena’s left shoulder.

“I know,” she mumbled, looking up at the white and circular building. It had a large and expansive dome shaped roof, with vertical grooves in it. Under the roof was an open hall and people could look inside from the streets. There were long shelves of books, but a tiny layer of barely visible Magical Wall was separating it from the outside world.

Long pillars held up the roof, made from the same kind of white stone as the rest of the building. There were carvings covering each pillar, showing one person in different stances. Her hand on her chin, Elena muttered,“That’s interesting. It must be some kind of Martial Art, but we should get our hands on the full list of moves if we wanted to do something with it. Unless it’s as simple as those twelve stances but is hard to understand.”

“Now that I think about it, my movements are really simple and shitty… I should learn to use my dagger. Jake knows the most among us when it comes to a fight of skills, which is surprising.”

“What? Why would that be surprising? I wasn’t a soldier for nothing. Although the only old-style weapons we used were knives, the knowledge I have of them will definitely help me understand how to utilize my Uchigatana. I could teach you, girls, if you want to become better. I am definitely not a master, but I know more than you,” Jake said with a serious face, offering his services.

“We will do so in the near future, but I have a bad feeling. It might have to wait,” she replied, brushing her black hair to the side.

“Why so?” Audrey tilted her head to the side.

“I don’t know. I just have a bad feeling for some reason. My instincts are sharp. I’m not a simple creature like humans. Let’s hurry up before something bad happens,” Elena answered, picking up her pace.

There was a huge doorway connecting the library to the streets. On its two sides were two statues, portraying the same person as the twelve pillars. It was a person wearing seemingly fine clothes, a high-end sword in his hands.

Not caring about such things, Elena just walked through the doorway. She noticed an old man sitting on her left, reading a book. “Good afternoon. I’m new in the city, so can I ask you where and how can I get my hands on some history books?” she asked, stopping in front of the desk. Taking his legs off the table, the old man furrowed his brows as he looked at the new faces.

Clearing his throat, he leaned back as he said, “Welcome to Atelon’s Archive. The scrolls you are looking for are on the ground floor. Since there is nothing important on this level, it will cost only twenty bronze coins per person per hour. Knowledge is still worth money, after all,” he winked at the group.

“I agree with you on that,” Elena replied, giving him one silver coin. It’s really handy that not even this monster can sense Dred, she thought, looking at his level, which was above three hundred.

“The shelves are organized alphabetically. Look for H as History of Atelon. It is what you are looking for,” he said when they started walking, realizing that he almost forgot to point them towards the right way. “I’ll count those minutes, so don’t overstay your welcome,” he warned.

“Thanks,” Elena said without turning around. Thanks to his guiding, all it took was one minute to get to the scroll. Unrolling it, her shadows crept up and covered the scroll. Knowledge about the kingdom entered her mind. As she finished, she opened her eyes to look around, only to see Audrey and Jake copying her. Although they were a few seconds slower, they too read everything.

“Now, this clarifies what’s going on here,” Elena said with a smile on her face.

“Since we have the time, why not going through everything? Everyone is going to the upper floors anyway. I wonder what kind of spells are on those floors,” Audrey made a mischievous face and rubbed her palms together.

“I like the way you think.”

After going through hundreds of scrolls, they felt their heads starting to hurt. There were twenty-two minutes left from their time, but they couldn’t go on this way. It was too much information in a short amount of time. Even if their brains were way better than simple humans’, it was impossible to process.

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They learned that this kingdom was called Atelon, which is the name of the current king too. This was an old kingdom with a long history, but that didn’t really matter to Elena or her plans. The only thing that mattered that this new king was at the four-hundred and thirty-sixth level, which was the highest in this kingdom.

The only problem was that he got drunk on his power and started abusing it more and more as time passed by. He made rules which made it possible for him to legally take anything from anyone. Elena almost laughed when she read such a thing since it made no sense to her.

Worst off was that nobody was strong enough to fight him, so he continued his rule up to this day, renaming the libraries, schools, and everything that was a commonplace.

She also learned that there was a Magical School in the capital, which focused on leading the new generation of talented children. Only the best of the best had a chance to enter the school where they could freely learn powerful spells and techniques. There were both Physical and Magical classes, preparing every student to any environment they could meet.

Most of the nobles resided in the capital, along with the best craftsmen, masters, and teachers. People had Epic ranked weapons and armors, while some of them managed to get their hands on a few pieces of Legendary equipment. Even the Magical School was renamed to Atelon’s Academy two years ago.

Rolling up the last scroll she had read, Elena rested her forehead on the table, while the others leaned on it. Closing her eyes, she thought, So the City Lord probably wants to rebel against the king. Gautama was probably Atelon’s spy, along with those two black clothed people, who died.

Based on what Jake told me, Hoa seems to have no place in the picture, but we don’t know enough about her. Supposedly, she was just an employee and her master was none other than the vice-captain of the guards, Sally Felicita. I assume that the gang should be some kind of secret force, considering that the guards don’t attack them.

If that’s the case, the City Lord sacrificed a few of the common people and their money for a greater good, which could be counted as a good deed, based on how I look at it. I guess if they robbed the powerful nobles, it would have been too obvious.

In this country, there are five huge cities, all ranked based on their most powerful members. These ranking matches are held every five years. So Gautama has been here for such a long time yet he found out what was the City Lord planning only now. There is another vice-captain and there is also the guard captain, whom I’ve never seen or met before.

Sally is the only well-known captain, at least, that’s the case for us what? But considering how the guards revered her, I’m quite sure that such has been the case in the last few years if not for even longer. Anyone who manages to get into the Magical School will have a bright future unless the other ‘geniuses’ crush them. They have a high standing in this society since all of them get a noble rank to their school badge again, what?. The better they are, the higher they get.

The king keeps them close to his feet by petty rewards, he steals from other people with his retarded rule. Of course, he would force himself on women too since why not… I imagine that place as something I should eradicate by all means, along with the shitty geniuses. Well, I shouldn’t make assumptions, I’ll try to meet a few of them to see how they behave.

But I ain’t gonna enter that place as a student. I don’t need schools. Although the idea of learning martial arts is good, I’d rather find a normal person. I have a feeling that even the teachers think highly of themselves. I hope that I’m off, but based on what I’ve experienced when greed, money, glory, and humans were combined… I wouldn’t bet my neck on the opposite of my thoughts.

Strange, I wanted to destroy this city originally, but it might be the only place I’ll leave intact in this shithole. I hope that I’m right. It will come with a few casualties, but I’ll have to get to the top-dog of these gangs to find out the exact truth. These scrolls could have been modified or replaced for all I know. In case I find my points correct, I’ll destroy that king and help these people. If I was wrong, I’ll have to rethink my course of actions.

Not to mention that I don’t even know what the City Lord looks like, what’s his name, what kind of person he is, and such. I shouldn’t let a similar person get on the throne in such a kingdom or my efforts would turn pointless. Haha, my original mission was to simply devour everything. But not even the ancestor can control me! I know that there are many bad things in the world, but I’ve found good things too. It would be bad to devour all of those.

Such was my decision and I’ll keep it as long as I see fit. If the ancestor disagrees with it, it will come down and do whatever it wants. Can you hear me?! Meh, it won’t answer so early in my life. I have to get stronger, it seems. Anyway, it’s good that I’ve read those history books on Kriton. They help me a lot in connecting the dots, though maybe I shouldn’t have read those erotic things… damn it, they polluted my mind. B-But I shouldn’t let any man touch me.

I’m still interested… ARGH! I should just abandon my human body and look for something less perverted. I was too young to read such things and this is all Audrey’s fault. Why did she have such books in her room?! I’ll question her when we will be alone. She should reflect on her actions.

“ena”

“lena”

“Elena!”

“Huh? What is it?” she raised her head from the desk, hearing Audrey repeating her name.

“Finally. You passed out. Even after shaking you, you didn’t move or respond. You really scared me. You shouldn’t have read this last scroll. What was it about?” Audrey asked, holding Elena’s forehead. “You don’t have a fever.”

“I don’t have such things as fevers. My body looks like humans’ only on the outside and now yours is the same. By the way, the last scroll contained information about the Magical School, its location, its tutoring system and such. It was helpful, so I don’t mind this short pass-out for such a good thing. But we should really go now. That bad feeling is getting stronger in me. The shadows are restless. They protect me and they want to tell me that something bad is coming for me,” Elena whispered in a low voice as she stood up and made her way towards the exit.

Audrey stood up with a dumbfounded face and followed her as she mumbled, “I never knew that she had such an ability.”

“Maybe because she never needed it before,” Dred commented on her words, going back into Elena’s shadow. Thinking back, she realized that his words were indeed true.

“Let’s leave the city for now. I think that we shouldn’t stay here any longer. We will visit Clementine at night,” Elena commanded, rushing towards the gate through the alleyway, as soon as she left the library, surprising the librarian.

It’s beginning. I have no place at either side. I don’t want to partake the side of an evildoer, such as Atelon, and I definitely can’t join this side either. Not in public. I’ll lead them from behind. That’s what my kind is the best at. It was way too boring nowadays anyway. I’ll show them the capabilities of my evil race. The Devourer! She thought with excitement, a grin splattered on her face.

“Your bloodlust is so strong that you are panting…” Audrey remarked as she too transformed into her shadow form.

Straightening up her back, Elena shrugged her shoulders, "Well, I'm a bit of a hypocrite, haha."

"...."

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