Monument

The next morning, when Dante walked out of his room for breakfast, he found that the town elder was waiting for him at the inn.

"Town Elder, you are here." Dante greeted him with a smile.

The town elder had a serious and grateful expression on his face. "Mr. Dante, I am thankful for your help in finding out the truth of the matter. I never imagined that my own daughter would do something so stupid!"

Dante shook his head. "Town Elder, I was only doing my job. You don't have to thank me in such a manner."

Town Elder smiled. "I am here to reward you for completing the task successfully. I promised that I would fulfill any one request."

Dante nodded. "I wish to learn about this country, its culture and society in general. I hope that the town elder can help me in this matter."

The Town Elder laughed. "That is something I can certainly help you with. I wouldn't want to brag about my family's book collection, but it is the closest thing to a library you can find in this town."

Dante smiled. "I will be troubling the Town Elder then."

The town elder nodded. "I will inform the butler about this matter. You can freely enter the collection as many times as you want." Before he took of his hat and bowed in a gesture of respect and left the inn.

Dante sat down to have his breakfast before heading out to explore the town. Today, he did not go to the adventurer's guild. For one, he did not wish to meet the receptionist after the previous day's embarrassing incident and secondly, he wanted to explore the town properly.

After a day of running around, Dante was surprised by his observations. It seemed like this town was actually a very old one. It had been here even before the Seolea kingdom existed and even before the kingdom that existed before that. While most of that ancient historical heritage was lost when the town was sacked by the usurpers who would become the new rulers of the land, one single object remained, reminding Lily town residents of its ancient heritage.

It was a pillar made of bronze. On top of the pillar was a bronze carving of an infant who was being fed milk by a gigantic female wolf. The entire structure had turned into a deep shade of black from the bronze oxidizing heavily over time and a patch of barren land surrounded the historical artifact.

As Dante observed this bronze pillar, he noticed that he could see signs of someone having attempted to climb onto it. Looking at the hints of the foot prints and the palm prints, the picture of a gerbil like old man suddenly appeared in his mind. However, Dante was in no mood of interacting with the man he had just hoodwinked yesterday.

"A child being cared for by an animal, also known as a feral child is in fact not an uncommon fictional tale back on earth. Whether it was Remus and Romulus, the brothers who supposedly created Rome, Enkidu - Gilgamesh's feral brother from the Epic of Gilgamesh or Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli, stories of being raised by wolves are in fact not uncommon in history and often mythologized. Perhaps, there is a similar situation here." Dante thought to himself as he circled around the pillar, observing it carefully.

At that moment, a gerbil like old man crawled his way towards the barren area, observing what Dante is doing. When Dante saw Magnus, he inwardly sweared at his poor luck.

"Hoho, the fallen prince is actually observing this pillar?" Magnus asked curiously as he slowly walked over.

"I saw signs of you struggling to climb on top of this bronze pillar and was interested. I wonder what you know about it?" Dante asked.

Magnus' smile did not disappear. "Hehe, I was trying to hunt for treasure to make money off of." He said with a disgusting money grubber face which repelled Dante who turned away immediately and changed topics.

"Who is that child and the wolf? What is the history of this monument?" Dante asked.

"I was studying to be a mage, not a historian. I don't know anything much about this bronze pillar's history. However, our town's traditions do speak about the child and the she-wolf.

The wolf is Lupa, she is Lily Town's goddess of harvest. Our town has only one temple dedicated to her. The child... is said to be the progenitor of a grand empire, an abandoned child of a prostitute who was adopted by the goddess. He is known as Remus."

"....Remus..." Dante mumbled in surprise. What were the odds that a mythological character from earth had a monument dedicated to them in this world? Dante turned towards Magnus. "Who is he...?"

Magnus shrugged. "I don't know. Probably some king from eons in the past and Lily Town was a part of his kingdom. I'm not a historian. His name only survives in the prayers to the goddess of harvest." He explained for Dante's benefit.

Once again, Dante had this feeling of knowing too little, yet at the same time feeling like his hands were circling around some kind of gigantic mystery.

"There really are possibly multiple transmigrators in this world." Dante carefully analyzed. "I need to get rid of these clothes." He looked at his pair of shirt and pants, they were truly too jarring for this town and Dante drew attention wherever he went.

He wasn't sure if meeting other transmigrators at this juncture was a good idea. Unlike say, the potential counterpart like Prince Sid, he had neither money, power, fame nor strength. At this moment he could fool ordinary people of this world that he was from a far away continent, but it wouldn't work against someone who had the same extra universal knowledge set as himself.