CH 182

“I see. History between races. Then I think this might be good…”

I pull out books and pile them up.

From what I can see, I can read them. Actually, it’s more like the letters automatically turn into Japanese, like a subtitle track is overlaid on top of them.

This book here is less about races and more about the structure of the Beast Kingdom. The Beast Kingdom’s name changes frequently depending on the king.

But one thing stays the same, no matter who’s king, and that’s how the king is chosen. Their ideology dictates that power is everything, so they hold a fighting tournament to decide who will be king, and award that title to the winner.

Back before that land was a country, it was dominated by monsters before it was eventually developed. That’s why it has a history of valuing strength.

It’s currently called Beast Kingdom because a beast person has been king for hundreds of years. This also encourages beast people to flock there from all sorts of places, making its population seventy percent beast people. And since it also attracts people who are confident in their strength and want to be king, it’s said to be the best in terms of fighting strength.

So if it was ruled by someone who excelled in war it’d be called something like Military Kingdom. And apparently there was a time when the king was a great sorcerer, so it was called Sorcery Kingdom.

“Are you reading that~?”

Someone asks me while I silently read, and I nod.

“The book’s number is on the spine, so when you finish reading it, please put it back in the appropriate place~.”

She says before going to the counter in the back, sitting down, and starting to read the book in her hands.

I guess I’m supposed to go there and ask, if I need anything.

I can’t speed read or anything, so I’ll just read them one at a time. Some of them have a table of contents, so I can leaf through parts that don’t seem relevant to me.

Each book doesn’t have a lot of pages either. They stand out with how thin they are.

After picking up the twelfth book, my eyes are tired. I can’t even massage my eyes because of the mask, so I need to get up and relax my stiff body.

After that small break, I open a book about demons. It’s pretty thin, because there isn’t a lot of information about them.

This book starts by asking what are demons. They are a race that has a long lifespan and worships the demon king, not the goddess. It’s speculated that they are the product of a mixture between people and monsters. This idea comes from survivors of the battle against the demon king who saw demons transform into demon beasts.

But this book notes that this is all conjecture.

What stands out to me the most is the last page.

What are they doing and where do they go when there is no demon king?

If that was known, there would be demon hunts like witch hunts. There are very few of them compared to people.

But… That makes me remember Ignis, his power, and his ability to fly. I don’t think hunting demons would be feasible.

I read a few more books, and then I pick one that doesn’t have a title, and looks more like a notebook with a completely black cover.

It grabs my attention for some reason, but when I turn the page, it says.

『About hero summoning.』

The page after that has a lot of considerations by the author.

The concept of summoning heroes is a miracle granted by the goddess for the sake of the people suffering under the hands of the demon king. Heroes are given immense power via the divine protection granted directly by the goddess, and after the demon king is defeated, they are guided by her back to their original world.

But as I keep going through the pages, I see things contradicting what’s written at the start.

There is a method written here that supposedly lets people summon heroes by their own power. I don’t know if it’s real or not, but it’s here.

It says it needs things to act as mediums, high quality magic stones filled with magic energy. But what’s actually needed is just magic energy, so anything can be used as long as it has a lot of it.

It’s also said that heroes fought in wars. That idea comes from descriptions of damage caused in war and disastrous scenes caused by people with inhuman strength.

I keep reading until I find a page that was torn. It’s kind of wrinkled, like it was torn off in a hurry.

“What are you reading~? Oh, that~?”

I was so focused on this that I didn’t hear her walking this way.

“That’s a pretty famous scholar that was president here some generations ago~. It’s said that in his final years something took over him or something and he went mad~.”

“So what’s written here isn’t true?”

“Who knows~? There’s a lot that we don’t know if it’s real or fake~.”

“So is it a good idea to leave it out here as a document? What if people believe it?”

It seems kind of careless.

“Ah~. That’s all right. It’s pretty well known that he was crazy~. And I warn the ones that don’t know~.”

Like what’s happening now. Don’t show me something dangerous like this at all.

“You’ve been reading a lot, but did you find what you were looking for~?”

“I’ve read a lot of interesting stuff, but I didn’t see anything about elves. Isn’t there anything here about elves?”

“Hn~. I thought there was~. But why do you want to know about elves~?”

She asks with a probing look on her face.

“I’ve never seen an elf, so I want to know what they’re like. I’ve been told that no one’s ever seen one in years. I was thinking that maybe if I learned their history, I could find out where they live.”

“…Hn~. I don’t see anything~. Sorry~.”

I guess there really aren’t any then. But the others aren’t here yet, so maybe I’ll read something else.

They finally get here an hour later, but they look tired. I’m curious, but maybe I’ll refrain from asking what happened.