Chapter 56: I want my peace…
"Come, sit down."
Today, I’m with Elder Hume, the person in charge of the Palace library and all the books inside our treasury.
"Yes, elder."
He was reading a new book right now, just like how I always see him every time I come to the library.
-Shrrr.
-Scrrrt.
I sat down on the chair beside him and glanced through the book he was reading right now.
It was on the alchemical harmony of acidic and mana-sensitive materials. I knew about the theory, but I have never actually seen this particular book.
"Seems like you can read High Elvish as well."
"I’ve learned a little of it."
Being a professor, having knowledge of the mainstream languages of the world was a given task. To hold that position, we needed to know a lot more things than what the teachers of a regular academic field were aware of.
"A little, huh? Well, you surely know more than a little. I know what kind of books you usually read, mister."
He was old and had a long beard. At the same time, he had long ears, making his elvish bloodline obvious.
Still, he wasn’t a pure blood elf, beings who live for thousands of years. He was a half elf, someone who had been around for a millennia and half.
"Then there’s no hiding things from you, it seems."
Of all the elders in the family, he was perhaps the only one who had been in the position that I held in my past like: the position of an academic professor at Stanox.
He had retired a long time ago, but he had seen more of this world and the history of this world than what I will ever be able to.
Being around for so long had also given him a certain sense for the mysterious things that happen in the world.
"Hmmm..." With his deep golden eyes locked on me, he stared deep into my eyes.
Then, it seemed like he was analysing something, reading through my being like a book.
"You have a soul much older than your age." He concluded at the end of his analysis, frightening me for a moment.
However, I have thought about a situation like this, a situation where someone figures out about my sudden changes.
"You’re not a prophet. You’ve lived the future."
From the look he had in his eyes, I felt like he wasn’t seeing someone like me for the first time. For some reason, it seemed like he had met a regressor like me in the past as well.
"Hmmm. That explains a lot about your changes." He nodded lightly, and then went back to reading with a calm smile on his face.
His green hood was still covering his head, but I could see his old face illuminated by the light of the lamp sitting on the table before us.
"As you can tell, I’ve met someone like you in the past." I didn’t even have to ask him.
The elder spoke as if he was aware of my worries and curiosity. And he didn’t seem to be interested in hiding his past.
"It was too far back into the past..."
The lantern flames flickered before us as the Elder’s expression turned melancholic.
"You know I wasn’t always in the family, yes?" He asked me the question, but to avoid worrying me, he simply kept his focus on the book.
"Back in the days, the world was quieter. Dangerous unlike right now, but better to live in."
None of the elders I’ve met until now have talked with me like this. He didn’t even talk about the acknowledgement or about me leaving the house.
If anything, he seemed happy to find out I was an older person.
"Have you heard of the (Folklore of the Golden Knight)?" The voice that questioned me contained a certain anticipation.
"Yes." And my positive answer brought a new smile to that saddened, old face.
"I see..."
A long time ago, there lived a hero in the far west of the continent. He was but a mere boy in his younger days, but then, one day, he rescued a small puppy from a ferocious boar and brought it home.
It was a little creature with silver fur and yellow eyes, but, as days past and the boy got closer to the beast, the people around them started noticing certain things.
’What seemed like a little puppy at first had grown to the size of an adult in a few mere weeks.’
And before a year had passed since the boy brought it home, the creature was a beast the size of an antler.
’Then, the people recognised the beast.’
A ferocious Silvermane Wolf, a dangerous creature that was said to kill any and all beings with its sharp weapons.
’The folklore explores how the boy and the beast escaped before the villagers could kill it, how they lived in dangerous places avoiding the humans, how they trained together for years while watching the knights who used to train in their forest, and then, as the climax arrives, the boy becomes a man in the presence of the kingdom knights.’
He saves the knight commander from a crazed bear, using the very swordsmanship that the knights used.
’The lore explores the rise of the knight, his exploits, how he saves the people of the world with his treasured companion by his side, and the heroic tale ends with the expression of the knight’s honour.’
Just like how the boy had saved a puppy, the man that is now a knight in a golden armour, saves a ’beast’ who has taken revenge against the ones who conspired against his friend.
’The knight parishes, and following his dying wish, the wolf dedicates his life to the people of this world... the good people of this world.’
It was a typical heroic tale of the west, but I don’t understand why he brought it up right now with such emotions behind it.
"It’s good that you know about it."
The elder nodded with a smile, and then continued on reading as if he was done with everything he wanted to say.
"Umm..." I thought it was a dramatic long silence and couldn’t say anything for a moment but, I couldn’t take it. "Is that it?"
Why did he bring up something so specific? What was the connection of that story with me coming back to the past?
Am I missing something right now? Was I supposed to understand some hidden truth from that clue?
"No, that’s all."
The mysterious smile still lingered on his bearded face. I could tell he was having fun with someone that must seem like a baby in his eyes.
"Prism, dear child of tomorrow."
-Sturrrrd-Tak.
He finally closed his book and looked at me with a genuine seriousness.
"What is it that you want to achieve with this chance?"
"What I want to achieve...?"
Hmmm.
I want to teach better, I want to save my people, I want to grow as a tamer this time, I want to prevent the misfortunes that drove this world to its end, and I want to do a lot more things this time.
Can I do it all? Perhaps not.
Will I try everything I can to achieve that? Yes.
’I’ve asked myself what I’d do if I cannot achieve even a few of those things this time.’
And every time, I have reached the same conclusion: it will be alright.
Knowing myself, I will dive into any situation that might definitely kill me, but at the same time, it might also prevent many worse things from happening?
’I’m not some saviour of the world or a hero. I’m merely supposed to be a teacher.’
I did whatever I could last time, and I will do everything I can once again.
But if I must answer the elder’s question...
"I want peace, Elder Hume." It was a silly, almost fantastical answer. And yet, I knew what I wanted in this dangerous, less peaceful world.
"I want my peace."
If not an ideal one, at least the one that I have in my mind and heart.
A world where the creatures aren’t killed for merely existing and a place where the so called ’wolves’ aren’t always seen as dangerous, almost heinous creatures.
I love this world, and I love everything that makes up this world.
"Peace, is it?" There was neither happiness nor disappointment. He simply thought the answer to be an interesting one.
"How familiar..."
While he nodded with a nod of his head, he opened a new book from the pile of six that were still present in his stack for today.
I don’t know if he liked the answer or not, but he did not say anything after that.
-Shrrrr...
Under the light of the lamp in this vast, silent library, he just sat there, reading page after anew, going through his books, gliding through the world that he might have already lived through.
"Haaaa."
I don’t know what he wanted or what I’d have to do to get his agreement, but, the atmosphere right now was pretty nice.
’I should rest a little.’
There were some interesting books present on the table right now. So, I picked one from the pile of the elder’s finished side, and dived into it.
"Meow."
"Chirp?"
Felix and Nyx found my new silence difficult to understand, but they went off on their own little adventure in the library, leaving us older folks alone with our peaceful stack of wordy worlds...