Treasured books

I went to my father and asked him if he had any books with him.

He thought for some time.

[Books…. Yeah, I got some books from my father-in-law as a wedding present.

I didn't read them as they were on some boring topics.

I think they are being kept in the treasury.

They are the only remains of the Blaine kingdom. After the kingdom perished, I felt it was necessary to keep it safe.

I think the only books in our entire kingdom are those in the treasury. I know little about our people, though maybe some merchants in our kingdom may have one or two.]

How did the entire kingdom perish, what the hell happened there?

[What happened to the kingdom, dad?]

[I don't know son, it was one of our closest neighbors. When I heard the news, your mom and I went there, but it was desolate. The entire kingdom was nowhere to be found. Only sand dunes covered the area.

I sent some men to check in the dunes, but they couldn't find anything.]

Grandpa Max is dead here too. In my world, my mother's entire family died in a car accident.

When they were returning from an important function on a mountain, Grandpa Max was riding the car along with grandma Linda and aunt Susie and a truck just tucked the car out of the road and the car rolled to the bottom of the hill.

Everyone died on the spot.

My mom alone survived, as she didn't go in the car, as she was pregnant with us, and it was nine months; a few days before our delivery.

After hearing the news, she went into labor, and we were born.

But here everything was different, and my grandpa was also a king and his entire kingdom perished. What a sad story.

And what is up with everyone in my family being royals? Does this have something to do with my reincarnation here?

(Sage, do you know anything about the perishing of the Blaine kingdom?)

(Yes, But I cannot answer this question, as you have to find it on your own. I don't want to ruin all the fun for you by giving you all the answers.)

I get crazy when someone does this to me, not giving proper answers to my questions and someone is doing that, staying inside my head.

I thought for some time; I hated this icky situation.

And I wanted some answers.

[What about the people in our kingdom, dad?, are people not interested in learning and living better lives?]

[Most of the people in our kingdom are illiterates, with no knowledge to read or write. So they have no needs for books.

As there are no schools or magic academy here, they consider themselves as human resources with very less value, and they survive by extracting liquid black fire, owning shops, selling on stalls and being as labors.

The only reason they are staying in our kingdom is out of loyalty to our family and also because very low tax is getting collected from them. They also don't have to worry about the noble and commoner bullshit, as I treat them equally here.

If they go out of our kingdom, they can't survive well as they can't afford taxes, and they don't have enough skills to do jobs there, they get admitted at works as low-paid laborers.]

These many problems ...

(Sage, are there are schools outside?)

(Yes, there are schools out there and children and anyone above the age of 6 can learn in them if they are nobles.)

(What are they taught there, Will it be like a normal school? Or would they teach magic at school?)

(No silly, they don't teach magic at school, then why would they build a magic academy to teach magic.

If you are 18 or above, then you can probably enter these magic academies and learn magic and swordsmanship.

Once you complete learning, they register you as a mage in the academy and guilds and with that ID; they accept you in any kingdom as an adventurer or whatever else.)

That is exceptional to hear, but what about my kingdom?

I wanted to ask dad about it.

[Did you try anything to help the people grow and did you try to build a school, dad?]

My dad looked at me with a sad face.

[I spent most of my time as King doing things to help them. I pooled up a tremendous amount and tried to build a school to make them learn. But no one came to study. They simply lacked interest and never attended it, nor did they let their children go for it.

The children were rather interested in fighting and working, and some joined the military at a young age and some became laborers.

Some children came to the school, but they also left after 2 or 3 days.

I couldn't stop or force them, as it was their wish.

I hired fifteen instructors from Cozer Kingdom to be a teacher at the school, paying them full payment for teaching 15 years in that school to make them come here, and I even gave them magnificent houses.

It was no use, so I had to use one of the instructor, Mr. Carl, to teach you both and send the others away. It was a direct hit on our economy, and it made us further poor.

The debt prices increased heavily......sigh, and we had to increase further extraction of the liquid black fire. ]

Poor kingdom... Foolish people....... Wastage of natural resources available.... Argh! It's making my head hurt. I got to figure out a lot of things to keep my promise.

I didn't want to waste time anymore, and I got to the point quickly.

[Dad, Can I read the books in the treasury]

My dad looked at me, slightly confused.

[I allow you to take the books from the treasury, but make sure you return them.]

[Sure dad.]

He brought me the key for the treasury.

[I feel sleepy, just take it from the treasury, lock it and have the key. I will get it from you in the morning.]

I bid him goodnight and went to the treasury along with the maid.

She brought me to a very normal room, and told me to open it.

I opened the treasury and lit the lanterns inside and a very meager amount of gold and some strange staffs, boots, swords and armors where inside it.

No one would believe, if they saw the sight in front of them, that it was a Kingdom's treasury because it didn't match one.

It was not a vault; it was a normal room with a normal lock. I didn't waste my time thinking about these stupid things.

I went in and found the books. Even though it was not fit to be a treasury, the room was spotless, well lit and gave a feel of a silent library.

So I decide to read the books sitting inside the treasury in the night's dead. I kept the door open and said the maid to keep watch.

The maid was staring at me and her eyes nearly almost popped out, when she heard the words,

I didn't mind her gaze.

I slowly propped myself in the room's corner and started reading.

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