134 Little Rascal and Alex One

Thales sat on the floor, feeling puzzled. He was staring at the girl, whose face was covered with dust. She wore a pair of glasses and was staring right back at him.

"I-I was just looking for someone to ask for directions to the Hall of Heroes, I'm…" He paused for a second, deciding to retain information regarding his identity. He faked a grin. "I just came back to Heroic Spirit Palace earlier today."

"Oh." The girl, who was lying on her stomach, flinched and hummed timidly. She adjusted her dusty, black round glasses on her nose. "I thought no one would be here…"

Those cumbersome glasses were obviously too big for her. They were barely held up by the girl's ears; she looked hilarious with them on her small, grubby face.

"Then… may I know who you are?" Thales stood up, beating the dust off himself. He smiled at her in a friendly manner.

"I-I work here…" the little girl stuttered, overwhelmed with doubt and hesitation. She took a cautious peek at Thales and she appeared a little frightened. The girl was like a tiny squirrel, trying to evade a falcon and hiding in a tree's hollow, shivering in fear. 

"I-I might've heard from someone in the scullery that many people will visit Heroic Spirit Palace these days."

Thales frowned.

'Work here?

'The scullery?

'Could she be…"

A thought fleeted across his mind.

According to a certain delusional teenage girl, if young children randomly surfaced in a strange palace and wandered around an unsupervised area—no matter how dowdy they dressed, or how odd their behaviors were (Thales sneaked a peek at the platinum-haired girl)—their identities were not hard to guess.

"You're from a noble family?" Thales narrowed his eyes, peering at the scrawny girl, who struggled to get to her feet.

Hearing him, the girl was startled.

'Bingo…' Thales nodded to himself. 'That's a typical plot development.

However, the next moment, the girl looked down at her feet nervously and shook her head.

'Huh?'

Thales patted off the dust on his arms, scowling.

'Isn't this how it should play out? A prince loiters around in the Heroic Spirit Palace, gets lost and bumps into a foreign princess. Their encounter is then followed by a string of strange occurrences and all sorts of flirtations… Wait a minute.'

Thales glanced at the books on the ground, then at her glasses. This girl was literate and even understood the ancient language of the Empire.

If she was not of royal blood, she would not have had the chance to access these materials and knowledge. Plus, she would not have severe short-sightedness, much less be able to walk around Heroic Spirit Palace.

Thales smiled again. "Are you a Walton? King Nuven's… granddaughter or grandniece?"

Surprisingly, the girl was terrified. She waved her arms and shook her head. "No, no, I'm just, just a servant. Ordered to… look for something here!"

Thales' frown deepened.

'No?'

As the girl whipped her head, her oversized glasses slid down and fell off her nose! Alarmed, she let out a scream and squinted, attempting to catch the glasses. Her arms flailed as she grabbed the air.

Due to her short-sightedness, her waving hands hit the glasses in her panic, and they swooshed towards Thales as a result.

Startled, Thales raised his hands out of instinct and grabbed the girl's glasses, which was flying straight into his arms.

'Hey'—the corner of his lips turned upwards—'looks like my reflexes have improved.'

"The glasses!" The girl kneeled down. Her eyes were squeezed into narrow slits as she groped the floor blindly. "My glasses!"

"Don't panic. It's with me." Thales comforted her while being driven by curiosity at the same time. He examined the black round glasses in his hands.

The damaged frame appeared to be made out of metal, which explained its weight. The thick lenses were cracked and covered in dust. Thales was uncertain how advanced the knowledge and facilities of optometry were in this universe.

The frame was not exactly round, but rather square with rounded edges. It reminded him of a certain infamous individual…

'Were it to benefit my country…' [1]

*Cough, cough*

Thales shook off the silly recollection.

"Excuse me…" The little girl, disheartened by the loss of her corrective glasses, and vision, lay on the floor with a blank expression. Her hands were groping the floor and inching forward in Thales' direction.

"Don't move." Thales approached the poor squinting child, who was struggling to see what was before her, and sighed.

He squatted down in front of her, and as her hand touched his knees by accident, it shrank away immediately.

"Don't be afraid," Thales tried to sound kind and gentle. "It's alright."

He reached out and brushed aside her platinum, shoulder-length hair, revealing her grimy left ear in the process. His hand felt her slight tremble.

The girl flinched a little and her breath deepened.

The prince unfolded the glasses and carefully positioned them on her ears. With a light press, he secured the nose pads to her tiny nose bridge.

Smiling, Thales let go of her and watched as the girl's eyes slowly widened behind the lenses.

She gaped at the strange boy standing before her.

Through the dirt-smeared lenses, Thales noticed how clear and bright her green eyes were up close.

"Be careful," Thales said, still smiling. "And you should get a new pair of glasses. This one's too big for you."

All of a sudden, the girl regained her composure and got on her feet. She propped up her glasses and looked up at Thales in a daze. She was no longer shivering. The primitive hostility she exhibited earlier had also waned significantly.

"So, you're really just a servant?" Thales raised an eyebrow and shrugged. He decided not to pursue the matter.

The little girl pursed her lips and nodded. 

Thales stared at her and sighed once again. "In that case, can you give me the directions to the Hall of Heroes?"

The girl lifted her arm. "Walk out from here, go straight, turn right, turn left, go downstairs, turn right…"

Her instructions caused Thales to become flummoxed.

"Stop!" Thales snapped. He sighed and said, "Never mind. I better figure it out on my own…"

The little girl lowered her head pitifully. "I'm sorry…"

"No, it's not your fault. It's on me. I have no sense of direction… Wait a minute." Just as Thales was preparing to leave, he noticed what lay underneath the girl's torso. "You're reading…"

His facial expression turned grim.

"What book is that?"

He spotted the page she was on. 

His heart sank.

"Uh, this?"

The girl pulled out the hefty book with a glum look and closed the book, showing Thales the front cover.

Thales helped her carry the book.

"That's 'The Dawn of Heroes'!"

In an instant, the girl's eyes glimmered behind her thick lenses, and her utterances became fluent and full of confidence. "It tells the stories of a few human leaders during the Battle of Eradication. The stories are written by an elf named Cahill Yarrow!"

Thales gawked at the girl as her timidity dissolved into crazed enthusiasm.

'This kid…

'Wait, let's get back to the matter at hand.'

"The Battle of Eradication, huh…?" Thales took a deep breath. "Lots of books recount this event, where unnamed monsters aided by traitors of humanity started the war. It also recounts how our people fought back…" His stare sharpened. "What's so special about this one? It probably also talks about the enemy's invincibility, the ordeal of war, the sacrifices we made, and the unexpectable victory in the end, just like the 'Battle of Eradication Chronicles'…"

"You've read the 'Battle of Eradication Chronicles'?! I heard that it went out of print. It was written by someone from the Empire! You can only find it in Constellation's archives in the south." The girl's eyes lit up. Her lips curled and a dimple appeared on her left cheek. "As for this book, it touches on lots and lots of interesting things!"

Thales seemed intrigued.

The girl's eyes were brimming with passion and excitement. "Well, for instance, it states that at the dawn of the war, nations from the east to west were trapped in the endless conflict and they conspired against one another. Not even the Church of Holy Sun could resolve the internal strife, not until the apparition of the Holy Sun God eventually put an end to it.

"There's also a record of Prince Tormond—later the King of Renaissance—who made a controversial decision to cast the old feud aside. He enlisted the orcs, the Barren Bone people, the merfolk and many other immortal races to unite against the enemy's troops. This order ultimately led to discontent among his own people and he was stripped of his right to command.

"One record reveals that General Feuille D'érable of Hanbol spent most of his time retreating rather than fighting during the war. Those who battled against the mystic army were Prince Sheng Xuan and Senjem. General Feuille D'érable on the other hand, hid in the east for six years with his remaining troops. Surprisingly, through years of careful scheming and ambushing, the army grew stronger over time. 

"And… the legendary Senjem, the King of Mountains reportedly used to be a prisoner of war, who was incarcerated in the Capital of Triumph. The night before the war broke out however, a suspicious individual barged into the prison and freed Senjem as well as his comrades.

"It's also said that during the most critical time of the war, someone unlocked the gateway to hell and made a pact with the Seven Kings of Hell. Thus, we were allied with the demons to fight against the calamities."

Bombarded by a series of new information all at once, Thales kept his main objective in mind. He remained composed and asked, "Did the book mention where those monsters— the calamities— came from?"

"They're known as the enemy of God. I don't know about that specifically." The little girl patted the book cover and blushed. "The book says there's nothing that can defeat those monsters."

Thales was burning with curiosity at this point. "How did we win the war then?"

The little girl continued excitedly as though she did not hear the question, "It says here in the book that in the beginning of the war, we never really stood a chance against those undefeatable monsters—even though their powers or abilities are never specified. The soldiers gave up their lives while the enemy continued to advance. They were hoping to buy a little more time, until the invention of a destructive weapon…"

The prince sighed.

The girl pointed at one of the pages as her eyes gleamed. "Then, an ally of the enemy switched allegiance…"

Thales' chest tightened!

"It was a group with similarly unbeatable power…

"And they joined our side."

Translator's Note

[1] "Were it to benefit my country I would lay down my life; What then is risk to me?" Original quote: 苟利国家生死以,岂因祸福避趋之is extracted from a poem written by Lin Zexu, courtesy name Yuanfu, a Chinese scholar-official of the Qing dynasty best known for his role in the First Opium War of 1839–1842. This quote, then, was used again by Jiang Zemin, a retired Chinese politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002 and the central character of Moha Culture (an internet meme spoofing Jiang Zemin's behavior and past statements). Thales'"certain infamous individual" refers to Jiang, who also wore black and thick glasses with a square frame, which was round at the edges. The English translation is taken from the official website of China's Central Compilation & Translation Bureau. http://www.cctb.net/bygz/zywxsy/201510/t20151019_330016.htm