The Library

Whilst having dinner Vera asked "Gerard I hear you will be going on an expedition tomorrow? How about having my father hire a couple of mercenaries from the nearest town to tag along? It'd take only ten days for them to arrive. You and the other guys would be a lot safer if such work was left to the professionals,"

"Vera, you know we can't wait that long, we must leave tomorrow. I too want to play it safe and let mercenaries do the scouting but making haste is of paramount importance." Gerard said.

"Daddy! Daddy! Take me with you! I want to go to the woods as well! Uncle Justin promised me he'd teach me how to hunt the last time he visited." Ryan quipped as stars danced in his eyes. He could already imagine his friends fawning over him after he showed off the prey he hunted.

"Daddy can't take you with him, Ryan, how about you come with me tomorrow? I'd show you around the village and you might help me finish some tasks." Zea knocked Ryan on his head in an attempt to divert his attention away from the expedition, but Ryan only pouted and turned his head away from Zea. Showing his clear disapproval for hitting him but being a bubbly kid, he soon agreed to his aunt's coaxing and discussed how they'd spend the day together.

After dinner, Vera took Ryan to bed. Alaric and Zea returned to their respective rooms and Gerard went to his study to finish some paperwork.

The next day before sunrise, Justin visited them with three other people in tow. One of them appeared athletic, the other two not so much but in good shape nonetheless. One was more on the lanky side of the spectrum and the other was stout and robust, they were Wymond, Euris, and Zeph respectively. Gerard greeted them with a solemn expression. No words were exchanged and he waved his hand to have them follow him, they went to the village hall to access the village storage. After taking out a machete, a huge hammer, two swords, a bow, and some arrows with other necessities they departed.

Gerard handed the machete to Euris, bow and, arrows to Zeph, the hammer to Wymond and, kept swords for himself and Justin.

Alaric, Vera, and other family members of those who left saw them off till the gates and watched their figures disappearing gradually, the lack of sunlight and mild breeze contributed to making an eerie environment. Alaric shuddered involuntarily as if an omen to something bad that might happen shortly.

Without paying much heed to the eeriness, he returned home, he was determined to turn the library upside down to fill in the gaps about general knowledge about the world he was sent to. Although the week he spent in Pehevell was smooth sailing on the surface, he knew better than to not act suspicious. When he was just beginning to climb the tower he made the mistake of being rash and appearing too needy and that led to the difficulty of gaining information and clearing the trial as a whole.

Therefore he waited patiently to ask for his brother's permission for browsing the library. Not wanting to waste any time he hurried over to his home and shut himself up in the library till noon. After eating a quick bite he again buried himself in books till night, tired from all the reading he headed for dinner.

He didn't see Ryan at the table and upon asking he found that Ryan was too tired after accompanying his aunt for the entire day and thus slept early. He ate in silence at first, but seeing that the chatty ladies were silent as well he looked at them. Both of them had worried faces.

"Vera, Zea, don't worry. Although Gerard and others are out for scouting, I doubt they'll go that far into the forest. And if it's something they can't handle they'd return. Gerard might not look like it but he's no fool, he knows he has a family to return to. Unnecessarily worrying about him won't benefit anyone. Be at ease, he'll return in a couple of days." He tried to console them but his words had little effect. Seeing that consoling wouldn't help he said a couple more comforting words and headed to his room to sleep.

His routine continued for a couple of days, and his grasp on the situation grew by leaps and bounds. The library had a wide array of collections including but not limited to the history of the village, the geography of the surrounding areas, speculations about the walls, any people of note present and past, general culture of people of Pehevell and the empire it belonged to, religion and more.

He was surprised to see a portrait of his father and another couple of men, next to the portrait were words written in what was equivalent of cursive "To the heroes who helped to fend off the calamity in life and death. To the heroes who laid their lives to protect the lives of a thousand others and thousands to come."

He was even more intrigued, 'I must make my brother spill whatever he knows when he comes back.' Taking a mental note, Alaric got up and headed to have lunch. He found his lunch served and covered neatly on the table, he knew that Vera would have lunch with her father today and the Aunt-nephew duo was having fun at Zea's workplace. He ate and thought about the information he gained during the past four days.

The empire he was in was called The Felscathor Empire. One of the strongest powers on this continent. The Empire was named after the last name of the founding Emperor Galerus Drayce Felscathor. The Pehevell village was under the jurisdiction of the Hightower house which was once of the founding houses and the head of the house was a Duke of Felscathor. The Pehevell village was located in the southernmost territory of Hightower Dukedom.

He also learned about the names of the nearest towns and cities. One thing that interested him was that his brother's wife Vera was the daughter of the richest man in the village and her father Edwin Dulleye, owned a caravan that traded between the nearest town and the village, creating a monopoly that raked in money like water compared to other villagers.

He was amused to no end by the name of Vera's father, Edwin meaning a rich friend and he was surnamed Dulleye but was keen enough to establish a monopoly over the trade of a village.

'I should pay him a visit, maybe there would be something that I can take advantage of.'

Even though he was engrossed with books, he studied the map extensively yesterday, the map was made up of some sort of skin, it was skillfully drawn and honestly, he didn't believe for a second that something like that could be found in Pehevell, no, it was better to say that something like that couldn't be found in any village, or a town even. One would need to head to a city to have something like that made.

It was clean; it was as old as it was detailed. Not to mention it was at least six square meters and surprisingly durable for something so old. As he was lost in his thoughts he heard footsteps. When he looked at the source of footsteps, he gave an involuntary smile.

Gerard and others were back from their expedition, they looked fine but their faces were crestfallen.