Despite trying my literal best, I couldn’t find anything deep on Askavan. All I found was common knowledge.

Askavan stopped the warring races, forged continents, and ushered a new age. But there was no mention of wars or trickery or even the god who claimed to have slain Askavan. There was no mention of the last brutal war either. Actually, all history books barely even mentioned there was a war let alone three brutal ones or the thirteen heroes or the sea demon Zal something.

Hmmm… but I could have sworn I read about that somewhere. What was that book’s name? The writer?

Argh… seriously, my memory sucked.

“Stop groaning. You’re disturbing others,” The librarian said. She was sitting just across the table, helping me decipher the book.

“Do you know any books with previous wars and reputable history?”

“I’m not sure what you mean. Everyone knows, the victor writes the history. So history is hardly reliable or reputable for that matter.”

“I know that but…” I sighed. “Sar-Sarton!” I almost jumped up. “His name was Sarton. The writer.” My memory actually worked for once!

“Sarton? JRRS?”

“Yeah!”

“That guy was a scam artist,” she shook her head. “All his books were mere fiction.”

“Really?”

“Yes. None of the other books ever agree with the history he’d written. And even his own books often diverge from his promises.”

Huh. “But you have his books, right?”

“I Had his books. I ended up burning them,” she shrugged.

“What kind of librarian burns books you imbecile!~” I shouted louder than I intended and caught attention of quite a few students. “Sorry…”

She grumbled. “Get back to work.”

“Yes, mam.”

Should I make up my own history then? No… let’s keep looking.

The next day, when I reached the library, the Librarian wasn’t here. Apparently, it was her off day. She only took five days off every year and today was one. There was a book on the table. I guess she never put it back- no cover or title.

Sarton.

Written by JRR S Sarton.

I read the first page and yup, this was the name book Mom had read to me. Burned them she said.

No, maybe she was just being careful. That’s right if they found out someone bashed the holy church, didn’t matter how, they were going to screw that person. The church was killing kids just for being ordinary after all.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

I read and refreshed my memory.

The book was a fairly simple and short read. And just as I remembered it was the most neutral one there was.

Almost all books on Askavan were either borderline flattery or absurdly critical. But even the critical sides weren’t necessarily about the church or the god, they were about the people. And speaking of the gods, despite trying to find out more, I couldn’t find anything on Askavan other than the fact that he was a Dragon. I couldn’t find much on gods either.

That was it.

Rexen’s a dragon too though, right? Probably not. He was clearly a lizard. But he could manifest wings. Maybe I could fly someday too? I stared at Rexy and she twisted her head like a baby snake. Aww you cute little thing. Kinda scary… Never learn to laugh like daddy. I didn’t have the courage to say it out loud though.

***

Apparently, the reason why the librarian took a day off today was simple: the festival would be starting today evening.

It was going to last the whole week. All the roads and houses had lanterns on display and on the seventh day they would just let the lanterns take flight and pray for good luck to Askavan. It was a central event.

I hadn’t seen anything like that back home but probably because Mom didn’t give a fuck about the church or the god.

It wasn’t evening yet, and I could see even from the dorms how the people were setting up the stuff. Apparently, the whole city practiced this ‘event’. Which was good cause I was missing some entertainment in my life. I didn’t have games, I didn’t have light novels and I didn’t even have Anime. Honestly, I was surprised that I wasn’t missing them extensively.

Technically I am living the anime life so maybe that’s why?

“Hey Sol,” someone shouted from below.

Shia.

“Yeah?”

“Let’s head into the city. Some good places open up today.” She yelled.

“Sure.” Not like I had anything better anyway. The library was closed and most students were also going out.

Shia had been carrying little kitty everywhere with her. Almost always on her person. “Here,” she gave me the cat and stole my lizard. Rexy didn’t really like Shia all that much but I never saw her misbehave, ever.

The kitten didn’t misbehave either. It had mellowed down a bit too much. To the point where I was kind of concerned about his health. “You alright? Do you want to drink some milk?”

“Mew.”

I guess that was a yes? I couldn’t tell.

“I just fed him ten minutes ago.”

Okay, so that was a no?

“Mew.”

“Guess he wants more.” Anyway, with the little cute underlings in toe, we headed for the city. I kept an eye out for milk vendors and yes, they were a thing here considering so many of the city’s residents were kids.

Like us, many of the students were out here watching the residents set up lanterns. Some students were also setting up lanterns of their own. Mike was one of them. He had nine lanterns set up and he was walking our way now that he’d spotted us.

“Amazing, right?” Mike said.

“I guess?” Even most nobles only had two, at best five lanterns, not nine. Apparently these things were expensive? “You sure you have money to spare?”

“I could always ask for more,” he shrugged.

“The moment you get out, you can’t really ask for money anymore, you know.”

“I could just make more.”

“And die trying to go on jobs with an empty stomach?”

All of a sudden, I felt maybe his courage was just blind obsession with living alone. And he hadn’t thought that well ahead after all. He mentioned he had some fuzzy memories of his last life but he just laughed when I said I had that too. Meaning, he was probably just joking to begin with.

“Well, it’s my dream. And if you aren’t prepared to die for your dreams-” he made a smug face. Punchable.

I sighed, and quite loudly too. “Look, dying for your dreams isn’t new. People die for their dreams and beliefs all the time. If you’re really a man, live for them. Suffer through, and make them a reality.” I was way more triggered than I thought possible; I guess I saw myself in him. He said some really weird shit my past self-had said at one point and tried to kill himself when things went super shit. I didn’t want him to go through that. But I guess coming off as that aggressive wasn’t a good idea either. “Sorry dude. Let’s go Shia.”

“Uh-huh,” she rolled her eyes, unconcerned.

Meanwhile, Mike just stood there, in a mild daze. I guess I hurt him.