Two weeks have now passed since I discovered the secret room's entrance.

Being about the size of a small kitchen. The famous no-so-secret-anymore room served two functions.

First, as an extension of the library. The place was, just like the library, packed with books, but unlike the former, the books stored inside the hidden room were the types of books I would consider interesting.

And second, this room served a secondary purpose other than being the second hidden section of the library. In the hidden room, in addition to the six giant straight-lined bookshelves, there were four closets. These closets were far from countaining that which one would expect a closet to contain. Instead, each of them was stacked with various types of weapons, ranging from swords to polearms, shields to bows. In other words, this place also served as an armory room.

Upon stumbling upon the content of the closet, my first thought was that if Maa were to learn of these closets and their contents’ existence, I would definitely be stripped of access to the library until, at the very least, adulthood.

Through the book present inside, I learned a lot of interesting things in the two weeks following my secret room discovery.

First, about this manor.

Apparently, this place was built six centuries ago by a man named "Alphonse Audrey". who I believe is, in one way or another, my ancestor from years ago. And though he didn't have the Aubrecht surname, the Aubrecht surname may have appeared several generations later.

At the time, the Rosetta manor wasn't really a manor yet, but rather a barrack, for this place was once the headquarters for the church's expansion program on the Human Continent, known as the Crusades. The objective of that particular crusade that was to take place in this corner of the world was, of course, to conquer the great forest of Iharana.

Back then, the "ancestor" was a member of the church, more specifically a Bishop. And the title of "bishop" was the fifth-ranked highest title that could be bestowed upon a member of the Church’s clergy, which indicates that he, back then, held quite a high position within the church. But still, he wasn’t alone on this expedition. The expedition was led by three other bishops and an army of quite skilled paladins. The ancestor was merely one of the three bishops sent over to lead the expedition.

It didn't take them long to realize that even with the army they brought over, they were no match for the monster lurking in the forest. The expedition was in no way a real crusade; it was merely an expedition sent to ascertain the possibility of a crusade to the south, so the ancestor and his comrade persisted, but still, the persistence was nothing compared to the relentlessness of the monster's attack. After several failed attempts, with different strategies to exterminate the monsters lurking within just the first fifty kilometers of the forest, the expedition ultimately voted off that a crusade would simply be impossible, and soon enough, after the expansion project was called off and the church’s paladings along with the three mobilized bishops were summoned back to the church.

Only the ancestor who, by the time of the summon had reached them, had developed an unhealthy obsession with the Iharana Great Forest in a short period, wasn’t able to let it go.

He resigned his title of bishop and converted the former barracks into a manor, which he named after his wife, Rosetta, whom he brought him along with several servants to the manor where he would spend the rest of his life trying to uncover the secret of the forest.

"What a mad lad!"

The manor being in the middle of nowhere, I knew for sure that it must’ve also been the case six hundred centuries ago. I’m sure it would have taken a lot of willpower or obsession to voluntarily come live here. After all, this place was utterly isolated from humanity. Here, in this corner of the world, monsters were closer to being neighbors than humans were.

This corner of the library, this hidden chamber, was that ancestor room.

The second intriguing discovery I've made was regarding monsters. Among the many books in the secret room, there were quite a bunch that were solely dedicated to monster studies. Among these books, most were editions of books referred to as "encyclopedias." They were books written, edited, and published by the Church. Every monster species, classification, trait, and weakness ever encountered by mankind was recorded and classified in these book editions.

According to the content of these encyclopedias, there were four types of creatures that could be classified as monsters.

There was, first, the standard monster, also referred to commonly as "Beasts". They were creatures whose shapes and sizes varied greatly, but the simplest way to identify them would be that, appearance-wise, they were generally just abnormally large animals. If one were to stumble upon a 7-foot-tall rat, it would be safe to assume that it’s not just a rat, but rather a beast. However, there are also exceptions. For example, if one were to come across a normal-sized dog with six eyes, it would also be wise to assume it's a beast as well. For there are out there quite a vast majority of monsters whose bodies were no different from your average animal, but the physical abnormalities they harbored pretty much gave them away right away.

Then, there come the high-beasts, which are the second type of monster that can be found beyond the barrier. The only known distinction between beasts and high-beasts would not be their intelligence or any particular physical trait, but rather their ability to use a power known as Aina. A power which allows High-beasts to increase their raw power and enhance their senses.

Then there were the magical beasts, which were far more powerful than the previous two monster variations.As implied by the name, magical beasts were creatures capable of using magic.

"Now, what specifically is magic?" One might wonder.

Magic is a power that creatures with the ability to generate mana can use. Magic being a trait that both Magical Beast and nobles shared, both could create lightning bolts, engulf their bodies in fire without taking any form of damage, and various otherworldly feat that would be unavailable to the most common of mortals.

The only difference between the two would be that Magical Beasts’s use of mana were not as refined as that of the nobility, but they did have one advantage over the nobility. The thing was, magical beasts get better at using their mana as they age, and with their ominously long lifespan, a magical beast has, as long as it survives, an exponentially large potential. But it wasn’t all.

Now then comes the final classification of monsters, which, very differently from the three previous ones, was more of a collection of one-of-a-kind magical beasts than a strict racial classification. While on the human side, they had the Seven Apostles as the ones to have first come into contact with magic. Monsters had one on their side, as the apostle equivalent, Mythical Beasts. There was no strict way to identify a mythical beast since, not so long ago, the term "mythical beast" was updated to include not only monsters that had been there since the dawn of humanity but also those that were too powerful to be categorized as mere magical beasts.

Having skimmed through the other books in a secret room, I’ve also discovered several interesting facts about humanity.

I used to believe that there were only two kinds of humans, which were commoners and nobles. I was surprised to learn that there were several other layers beneath that.

To classify humanity, several other appellations were used by the church and the nobility.

For the Church and the Nobility, though there were mainly two kinds of humans: commoners and nobles, these two groups could also be subdivided into several sub-categories.

First and foremost, we had normal human beings, also commonly known as "commoners." They accounted for ninety or so of what is known as humanity. They were, as I had described to Maa that day, just the most regular humans one could find.

Then there were the Aina users. Also referred to as commoners, they, just like High-Beast, had the ability to wield aina. There is no known way to predict who will become an aina user. It doesn’t seem to be relying on heredity, for in most cases, Aina users were born from non-aina users' parents. Aina users, demonstrating an overwhelming combat-oriented advantage over any other normal human, are frequently found trying to make a living by working for nobility or the church, for it is the most rewarding opportunity they have to put their gift to use.

Following that were, of course, the Nobility, a group of people born with the ability to wield magic. Nobles were also natural-born Aina users, but in a general sense, they would, in most instances, always prefer magic over Aina.

Just like it was for those referred to as "commoners," nobility was also referring to two subcategories of humans based solely on their birthright.

First, there were the nobles who descended from the apostles.

Pregnancy being a crucial step in a noble’s existence, it must be noted that from the sixth month of a noble's life (pregnancy), a noble would begin to produce mana until even beyond his death. Concerning pregnancy, a noble pregnancy should go smoothly as long as the unborn child's or the mother's mana capacity isn’t too out of sync. If so, two possible scenarios can unfold. If the mother's mana capacity is too potent in comparison to one of her unborn children, the pregnancy will undoubtedly end in miscarriage. However, if, instead, it’s the unborn child's mana that is overpowering the mother's, it will almost certainly result in premature birth, and, in the worst-case scenario, will end the mother's life.

Then comes after, there's the Children of light.

While the first types of nobles were born of noble parents, a child of light was a noble born of commoner parents.Just like Aina users, there is no known explanation for their appearance. It is just that every now and then, a couple of commoners give birth to a child with the ability to use magic. The chance of a commoner couple having a child of light being way down beneath the 1 percent bar, a percentage which was further reduced by the fact that a commoner body was not designed to support the birth of a noble child. Just like a regular noble pregnancy, during these 9 months, two scenarios can happen. The first being that the unborn child's mana remains extremely calm during the entirety of the pregnancy; or at the very least, he only releases a small amount episodically, just enough for the mother to withstand. In this case, both the baby and the mother will survive this pregnancy. The second scenario is that during the pregnancy, the unborn child overburdens his mother with his excessive mana, which in most cases results in the death of both the mother and the child, and in very very rare cases, only the mother’s death. The church or the noble in charge of the domain where the children of light are born confiscates, without exception, all children of light from their parents. It may sound horrible and heinous, and it is, but realistically, there were no commoners that could deal with a hungry child capable of summoning fire or lightning without having any sort of control over it. After being confiscated, these children would be entrusted to a noble family who would foster them until they reached adulthood.

And then, voilà, it was all that was recorded in the book I read these past few days.

So, which of the previously cited nobles categories could I fall into?

None of them, obviously.

I was fairly certain that while my father was, for sure, a noble, I was convinced that, on the other hand, my mother was a commoner.

And yet, as much as I looked into the books, there was not a single mention of a child born of a commoner and a noble. For a moment, I went as far as to theorize that I was wrong, that I could be merely a commoner or a noble.

But that wouldn't make sense.

One, I couldn't possibly be a commoner, for I was, in the same way that a noble child would be, baptized under one of the Seven Apostle Authorities. The Baptismal refers to a ritual performed immediately after the birth of a noble child, which consists of placing the child's umbilical cord inside a small box and casting a curse on it. The curse will prevent the baby from using magic until the curse is, of course, lifted during a coronation ritual held on the noble's tenth birthday. The authority you will be subject to is also chosen during the baptism, which for me turned out to be Djeem the Accursed. So no, I couldn’t be just a commoner.

Two, it's also unlikely that I was just a noble. If I was, which I believe I am not, why would anyone bother hiding me here in the middle of nowhere? By refusing to confirm my mother’s nobility, Maa pretty much confirmed that she was not a noble, but instead a commoner.

And I had no doubt about the identity of my parents, so here I was, not knowing exactly what I was. In any case, the lack of content regarding what I could be led me to three hypotheses.

One: Children born to nobles and commoners were despised and hunted to extinction, leaving virtually no trace of their existence. This was ominously dark and pessimistic, but hey, let’s not judge each other.

Two: There were no cases of children born to nobility and commoners, which would explain the lack of documentation.

Three: All these books just happen to be devoid of information about people like me. This is probably the dumbest assumption I could come up with, but it's the only optimistic one I could think of.

So which one is it?

Sigh.

"I came here looking for answers to what led to the way I was born. And here I am, wondering who or what I might be, and what kind of horrifying potential future awaits me. "