Chapter 153: Information about the Ancient Empire
Unedited Chapter. It will be edited soon.
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He wanted to find more information, trying to ignore magic for now, as it was too difficult to learn or even understand. Magical logic certainly did not exist in that place.
Little by little, he delved deeper, and before long he was reaching the end of the book. There wasn’t much valuable information, apart from a few more mentions of that Emperor.
"Sigh. It’s really difficult." He sighed and soon reached the last page, where he turned it over, thinking of closing the book.
But then, there were a few words written on a blank page, in the lower corner of the sheet.
They were probably credits given to the author or something similar, but he was curious to see them, simply because he had reached the last page.
There were only three small lines.
But he frowned as soon as he finished reading them.
"The burial place of Emperor Syr?" he thought as he read the information.
It said in the memory of that Emperor, who was buried in the beautiful, distant, and mysterious Mountain of Rínnazort, in the Territory of the Province of Réddish.
The third line read: Last great Emperor of the Ancient Empire, Xóchelts of Vampirea.
Louis frowned; that was too much interesting information.
"Last great emperor, Mount Rínnazort, and Réddish Province." He repeated it in his mind, thinking that he would look for information about it soon.
Now, the magic of the Ancient Empire surprised him, both for better and for worse. It was incredibly amazing and had something to do with the Tower. But it was so complex that understanding it would surely be a complicated challenge, but he thought he had an idea.
"I must begin by understanding those sayings," he thought.
He assumed that the secret behind it all lay in those sayings, which were not really sayings at all, but rather explanations, in a very abstract and strange way, of the system they used at that time.
The problem now was that in order to understand them better, he needed some reference about what the Ancient Empire was and what kind of empire it was, information about its rulers, and anything else he could find.
"For that, I’ll have to go to the Academy Library," he thought, and decided to go the next day, since it was already late afternoon by the time he finished reading.
He ate, read a little more, and did a few things in the House of Shadows before returning, eating, and going to bed.
The next morning, Louis got up quite early and headed for the Academy Library.
Among the academic buildings, this was one of the most visited by those in their third or fourth year of study, as it not only contained information, but also some grimoire-type books on teaching magic. However, first- and second-year students did not tend to come here often.
The library was huge, with columns and rows of books stored and perfectly cared for, but completely deserted.
Someone noticed his presence here, and then he was able to start researching.
After reading through some books, he immediately realized that continuing like this was completely unproductive. He needed the guidance of someone who knew where everything was, so he thought of the librarians and planned to go look for them.
But as he walked down the long hallway he had entered, he suddenly ran into an acquaintance.
"Professor Hardrial," he said, surprised to see him here, surrounded by books.
"Louis? What are you doing here?" he asked, putting his book aside.
"I was taking advantage of my day off to look for some information... And you, professor? Are you an avid reader?" he asked.
"Haha, not so much, but yes. I also came to look for some information. What are you looking for? Maybe I can help you. I was a librarian in my early years here, and I’m also good at history," he said.
Louis smiled. "If so, then I’d like to ask you, what do you know about the Ancient Empire?" he asked.
Hardrial was surprised by that question, although it wasn’t so far-fetched for several reasons.
"All of us who once began to delve into the Tower had that question at some point. Few feel the urge to investigate it, because it’s not that important. But I did investigate it once," he said, sitting up straight and throwing some books on the floor.
"The Ancient Empire, according to my calculations, must have existed before the First Magical Era, more than 1 million years ago."
"1 million years?" Louis almost choked when he heard such an absurd number of years.
What kind of absurd concept was that?
1 million years ago on Earth, a certain group of hominids was barely surviving against the wild!
They strictly had language, but it was unconventional. They had no way of creating weapons, except for stone ones.
Here there were already absurd civilizations, such as an empire with magic more impressive than today’s!
Was this world going backwards?
"Although magic is simpler now, perhaps even more versatile," he thought.
But, based solely on the teleportation magic he had seen, he had a feeling that magic was more powerful in the past, but if there is no information about them, it means that all that magical knowledge was lost.
Hardrial smiled. "Well, it’s just my guess based on my research, but I’m not really very good at it. Still, I have a theory that they were an advanced civilization. There are several clues that make me think the Tower has something to do with them," he said.
Louis nodded, frowning. ’I’m not the only one who thinks so,’ he thought.
He would like to show him the book he got, but he knew he had already shown him too much. Showing him more would only get him into trouble, because the more valuable it is, the more people will want to kill him.
So he remained silent, listening to what Hardrial had to say.
"The problem is that information about them seems to have been erased from history. Although I have my theories, they are not 100% based on anything; many are assumptions. It’s possible that this place never even existed and is just an invention of the tower."
Louis looked at him. "Why do you think that?" he asked.
"The greatest source of information about the Ancient Empire is found in the dungeons and ruins of the tower, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable to think that he created it to increase the mystery surrounding the tower and its mythology," he said, staring intently at Louis. "I don’t think I’m the right person to give you this information, but if you have a good relationship with Lord Dan, you should ask him to let you into the Lockward Library."
"That family’s library is the most comprehensive there is. Not even all the libraries in the Empire combined have as much information."
"The Lockward Library?" He frowned. "Of course, if they are a family of 500,000 years, they surely have information on something so distant," he thought.
Now, that was complicated. Even if he was his uncle, he currently had little control over the family, so getting him to come to the library and investigate their secrets was very difficult.
"It seems I’ll have to put more effort into helping him take control. But I still lack status. Without total control of the Industrial District, it would be impossible to influence the Castles or the Great Houses."
He sighed. "Is there no information about that here?" he asked.
"I don’t think so, but there is information from other eras of the past around here, maybe you can find something there," he said.
"Where are they?"
"Walk to the end, the last four shelves have a lot of information from the past," he said.
"All right, Professor. Then I’ll be going. I hope you get the information you want." Louis got up from the floor and left.
He would spend a good number of hours here today.
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The days pass quickly, and when things are quiet, Louis has little to do but try to understand the magic of the absurd complexities of the Ancient Empire.
He didn’t find the information he was looking for, but he did find some things that interested him.
Among them was a mountain called Dark Tree Mountain, within the territory of Linnava.
Perhaps he would have to visit Linnava sooner than he thought.
Time passed very quickly, without any problems. Jessy’s business was developing well, at a ridiculously fast pace.
He even advised Jessy to slow down some things so that she could control it perfectly while she gained experience.
Now, some things were happening in the North.
Jacob sent him some good information that made him think, and he had to send other people to investigate. Something strange was happening there.
Louis spent the last week of the month improving his magic, but he understood the difficulties of shortening every second. Even so, he managed to create, for the first time, several spells with an Arcane Rhythm, so he was very happy with that, not to mention Laura, who couldn’t stop jumping for joy.
Now that she had plenty of resources, she was able to devote herself to it completely, although to avoid losing customers, she only attended to them on weekends, for a short time.
Thanks to that, she was able to improve quickly and also managed to form her first Arcane Rhythms. But even better than that, she had reached Level 4 Mage.
And when they were so motivated, they tried to create Level 5 Magic.
BOOOM*
A powerful explosion was heard from the classroom. Smoke quickly burst through the windows. The classroom door exploded and two bodies flew out, hitting the wall behind them.