Before long, I could see a small library at the edge of the hallway. We went in and a dozen book racks filled with hundreds of books entered my field of view. Although the books were coated from old leathers and filled with yellow papers, it still showed that the Brightmoon family was quite rich and powerful.

“Wow! How many years would it need to gather this many books?" I was amazed by the capability of this medieval age family to have a quite big library.

“Hehe~ Lillie’s family had a deep history and record that could be traced to the Great Magus Empire.” Lillie smugly said with a sweet innocent smile before flinching a little. Hmm? Great Magus Empire? Brown and Lillie never told me that before. And why is she flinched after saying that?

With that in mind, I went to scan through the books on the shelf. Beginning with history and geography as that was crucial to know more about those. Fortunately, there were quite a lot of those books. Of course, I had made sure ATHENA to record all the books in the database while also summarized it up for me.

So… the continent that I’m currently at was named Lazaranth Continent, a western continent of the Prime Magical Plane. Prime Magical Plane? Is it because it was flat that it was called so? But It’s weird though that there isn’t much mention of the other continents.

As for the country, there were 9 big empires or kingdoms in this continent. It was divided into two-realms though, namely the Human Realm at the west and the Demi-Human Realm in the east.

In the Human Realm alone, there were 5 nations, which were: Raivia Union of Nations, Gragon Empire, United Kingdom of Zenith & Lunar, Sorin Merchant-State, and Wildrose Empire. It seems that every nation was back-up by a mysterious Magus organization but the book didn’t explain them.

Over at the Demi-Human Realm, there were the rest of the 4 nations, namely: Beastmen Empire, Dwarf Kingdom, Nightfall Empire, and Windreach Empire. Each of them occupied by different races but, weirdly, some of them use race as the name of the nation. Maybe because this book was written by humans? I don't know.

Just when I flipped through the next page of the book, the map of the continent was what met my eyes. Although it didn’t have a clear geography and was very rough, it had a somewhat clear topography of the Raivia Union of Nations. I noticed that the continent was massive and had a unique terrain. For example, there was a gigantic mountain range that spanned across half of the continent which almost split it in half. Comparing the Himalayas to it would be comparing a flea to a sun.

Huh? How come that this continent seems to have quite extreme weather? Here was told that in some places, the extreme cold of a never-ending hailstorm and scorching hot of a limitless desert was present. This... didn't make sense.

Ah… Ridiculous! This world itself wasn’t even spherical and had a foreign law of physics that preside over it. No matter how similar it is to my original Universe, it will never be the same.

After finishing the geography section of the books, I moved towards the history section. When going there, I noticed that Lillie was cutely sleeping on top of a chair and had herself leaning on a table. There was a book below her hands and cheek that she used as a cushion. Hmm… cute

Trying not to wake her up, I reached the history section. Long story short, I realized that the history section was full of knight poems and stories, only some were legit and concrete. Heck, why would they place a knight story in the history section?

Come to think of it, there weren't many entertainment books in this kind of era. Yet, having to read a heroic story while learning history would be fun for people in this world.

By the way, this history section didn't have a book explaining the Razel Dukedom. Since I had taken down their puppet lord, it would be dangerous if they attack me without knowing them fully. Nevertheless, only by knowing oneself and the enemy, would one be able to win a hundred battles easily.

After some consideration, I decided to wake up the sleeping Lillie by gently poking her on the cheek. But no matter how many times I did that, she was still heartily slumbering. Then, a brilliant idea sprung up in my head.

I removed my helmet and had my face approached her ears before whispering, “Hey, Lillie. It’s time for lunch.”

“Eh-ah? Is it time to eat?!” Lillie immediately stood up after hearing the word lunch.

“N-no… You must have heard it in your dreams, Lillie. By the way, there’s drool on your cheek." I tried to divert the conversation by pointing the trace of drool on her mouth.

“Eeh?!” She blushed and swiftly swept her cheek with her sweater.

"Okay, so… is there another place where important books are being kept?"

"Umm… Lillie only have one place in mind. It should be the father's former workplace." Lillie's father's workplace? Is it the lord's office room?

“Well then, show me the place!”

“Certainly! Leave it to Lillie!” She swiftly strode out of the room, leading me to someplace in the mansion.

Finally, I had a clear map of the mansion in my head. The mansion itself had two floors; the hall, the dining hall, the parlors, the servant rooms, and the treasury were on the first floor. While the second floor was filled with all kinds of bedrooms and offices. Shortly, the lord’s office was within sight. We entered the room, only to find that there were lots of hard-cover books on the bookshelves. Obviously, only the best kinds of books were placed in the office room.

Moving to the bookshelf on the right, I picked up an eye-catching book with a red cover. It was a book that explained the hidden power of the Razel Dukedom. Initially, I didn't believe the contents of the book, but overtime cold sweat trickled down my back as I read more.

This… How could this be? Every country under the Raivia Union of Nations was backed up by a strong Magus. Great Magus at the very least… Although they couldn’t destroy mountains and move seas, they were said to be able to level a town with a single spell.

There was even a mention that the enemy of such an existence could be killed from hundreds of kilometers away. They would mysteriously die without even knowing how they died and who was the perpetrator.

Gulp!

At that time, a shiver ran down my spine and I could feel that my heart was racing fast, alarmed by the capability of such an existence. This cannot go on. I wasn’t even a Magus Apprentice… I was only a 1st rank Warrior. If they were to come, all the robots and weapons in my arsenal right now would just be a child’s toy.

It's not that I didn't have any trump card in my sleeve, but that 'secret weapon' should only be used in the most emergency time since it could backfire. Thus, I need to go back and purchase all kinds of powerful advanced weaponry and materials. Only then, I'll be able to make them run away with their tails between their legs.

“Victor… Are you alright?” Lillie’s sudden interruption pulled me out from my pondering.

“Yes, I’m fine.” I gave out a smile and patted her had.

“Fu~ I thought something bad happened to Victor.”

As I continued to browse through the books on the shelf, I noticed something interesting from my helmet's scanner. There was a hidden mechanism on the shelf. I touched the rightest book that had the word ‘B’ on it before drew half of it out. Half a second passed, a click sound echoed from behind the shelf, and the shelf came loose like a door. A small room was then revealed from behind the bookshelf, and there were two wall pedestals with treasures on top of them.

“Wow! Is that treasures?” commented Lillie in enthusiasm while swiftly approaching it.

I wryly smiled upon seeing her childish action before following inside. Only to discover an exquisite-looking sword and a dozen strange collars on top of the pedestals. First, I examined the sword as it was very eye-catching and tried to pick it up.

“It’s so light! What kind of material used to make this sword?”

“Lillie think that it was Lillie’s family heirloom. Lillie had seen father wield that before, and he cut an armor stand in half with just a swing.”

Afterward, I decided to store it and moved my gaze at the strange collars at the side. "Lillie, what are these collars?”

“Lillie don’t know… Never seen those before.” Lillie shook her head fast and tilted it. Maybe it was placed here by Andrei? Interesting…

[Master~, It seems that it was a Contract Collar. A Magic Tool that can form a contract to someone that wears it. It could enlarge and dwindle depending on where it was placed.] ATHENA answered my dilemma with a cheerful tone and emoticon. So, it’s kinda like Magic Slave Collar that Brown previously mentioned, huh? At least this one sounds more humane.

Out of the blue, Lillie tugged my suit and whispered something into my ear. “Hmm? Sure, I'll help you with that after meeting with Brown. In the meantime, let’s just go to the city hall.” She agreed with an innocent smile and we went out of the mansion.