9.4

The rustic smell of inked pages entered John’s nostrils as he stepped foot in the library in search for a way to calm his mind. Books, aside from the boring and redundant ones, had often been the perfect instruments to keep his head clear as they often provided him a form of escapism or grounded reality.

And right now, after talking to Randolph, John’s head space was in need of said books, his mind propelled him to seek an answer to his dilemma regarding Ephinelyth’s situation, about her disappearance.

He can’t help but wonder what has happened to an Elder Dragon as strong and powerful as she was to not fulfill what she had promised him. And what of the reasons that her existence was replaced by Sheila, or the fact that she did not inform him beforehand that she would not return to the academy?

Does she no longer want to speak with me anymore? Or is it that she never liked me…

His head throbbed in pain, he was frustrated, unsure what to think, what to feel and what to do, John ran his fingers through the various shelves while he did his best t maintain a stoic face.

“Dragons, dragons, dragons…”

In search for something that would give him the slightest hint on Evie’s unannounced replacement by the academy, he muttered to himself over and over like a broken record.

After his fifth round of looking through the sections where books on dragons were most likely to be placed in and yielding no results for his tedious labor, John gave up and went to the counter and inquired the librarian who was on duty.

“You are looking for books on dragons, Mister…Sarvod, that’s your name correct?”

“Yes.”

“We have a few of them, let me look it up for you real quick,” after confirming John’s full name, the librarian quickly moved her fingers and started to access the library’s records with its holographic interface, tapping and dragging images before him as she searched the database. “It seems that the one copy accessible to the public is currently borrowed by someone.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t worry, the academy still has a few other books on dragons, but they are in the restricted section. Do you have a specific reason for wanting to read these books?”

“A specific reason?”

“Yes. If it is an urgent matter, I am able to make a request on your behalf to borrow specific titles from the restricted section.”

“I just want to learn in depth about dragons all of a sudden,” John lied naturally, hoping that it was an adequate answer for the librarian.

“Unfortunately, that would not be enough reason to have you borrow a book on dragons in the restricted section today. I can still put your request in, and in three days, if the university staff allows it, you can come back and ask for a book on dragons in the restricted section.”

“Hang on, isn’t wanting to learn things in depth a good enough reason?”

“I am sorry Mister Sarvod, you do not have clearance from the academy to access the restricted section, unless you have the approval from someone who is able to enter the restricted section by the academy, this is the quickest way for you to borrow a book from there.”

“That’s blasphemous,” John complained, almost spitting his words at the librarian. “The library has but one book on dragons for regular viewing, on dragons, something that’s been told in stories since the dawn of time! And one copy—”

Before his voice got even louder, John felt a hand on his shoulders, the touch was enough to calm his unfounded outrage before it got out of hand.

“John, I get what you are feeling, but she is just an academy staff.”

“Angeline!?” his eyes widened.

“Ta-da!” Angeline who was wearing a cherry dress moved her hands in the air, announcing her presence. “What a coincidence, just when I had a feeling I should visit the library, you happen to be here, John. I thought you were with that caramel red haired beauty, or something happened between you two,” Angeline poke her elbow at his sides.

“C-caramel— Even you, Angeline? Are you sure it’s not a silver haired girl?”

Angeline cocked her head one side, “Silver haired? Who? I’ve never seen you with a person like that. I am talking about that other dance partner of yours, you know the girl you always talk with whenever you are not with us—"

“L-lady Angeline,” the librarian bowed her head deeply when she saw Angeline’s energetic face.

“Hello, Amy. I see you have been well, how is your family?”

“They are doing fine. I-I did not know you would be here today, if y-you have said so, I could have prepared something for all the help you’ve given me.”

Angeline swatted her hand and disregarded Amy the librarian’s offer. “You don’t serve the Grisst family anymore, just calling me Angeline would suffice.”

“Y-yes, I understand. How may I help you today, Angeline?”

Angeline put a hand on her cheeks, “Originally, I was here to check up on how you’ve been doing after you’ve left the Grisst family and browse for something interesting. Since John is here, I might as well accompany him to the restricted section.”

“You overheard?” John asked.

“Oh yes, I recognize your intense speech immediately. The accent you have is quite different from most Dezarithians, you know?”

“R-right…”

“But that was uncalled for John. I know it is ridiculous that some books have only a copy, but Amy here doesn’t have anything to do with it. What if she gets mad at you and blacklist you from the library?”

John clenched his jaw, his gaze turned to the ground in shame for not having realized it.

“I wouldn’t do that La— Angeline,” Amy the librarian said with a meek expression.

“Hahaha, I know that. I was just trying to get him to see it, his face sometimes becomes very serious despite how he really. John is a nice person when you get to know him, rather, when he is familiar with you. You know, he even saved my life on the last mission with the hero’s party…” Angeline started boasting to Amy on what happened during the hero’s party’s last mission, “…after escaping, he also figured out… Then, he placed himself in front of me…”

Seeing how highly Angeline held him in regard made John awkward for his harsh towards Amy the librarian earlier. In the first place, the librarian was just a messenger for the academy, she was there to carry out her tasks according to the rules and had nothing to do with Evie’s disappearance. Shouting at some stranger because things did not go his way would not get anything done for him.

“…M-my bad,” John said in the softest tone as he looked away from them.

Angeline let out a smile when she heard it, “See? I told you.”

“I believe you La—Angeline. I have granted him permanent access to the restricted section, he should have no problems entering and exiting whenever he wishes.”

“Thanks! I’ll come visit you again on one of your other shifts again!” Angeline quickly said before she naturally slid an arm under John and yanked him bringing him to their destination.

Granted Angeline was moving with great excitement, it did not take long for them to the very end, where the restricted section of the library was, guarded by two 5-meter tall doors.

Due to what dangerous knowledge that were written in the books that the restricted section contained, only a selected few were permitted to enter freely. It was also why the walls that guarded the entrance of the restricted section were reinforced by such strong magic that the efforts of a dozen of tier three mages would not be enough to leave a hole in its walls—as per Angeline’s explanation.

And by some luck, John was permitted to enter it. He looked towards Angeline who was brimming with pride for having taken him by his arm travelling this far. John hadn’t said anything about her casually interlocking their arms while they walked their way here, but if it were not for her timely appearance, he would have no choice but to stop his information search today.

As gratitude, he figured that she was allowed to lock arms with him for a short while and put up with it.

While they stood before the humongous doors in silence, John cleared his throat and spoke, “What did you say to her to get me inside?”

“It’s simple, as a member of the hero’s party, I automatically have access to the restricted books. I used the last mission we did and convinced her that you are one of us too, even though it isn’t actually true.”

“You lied!?”

“Ehe. Lying is a strong word, it is called, strategic phrasing,” Angeline rubbed her own head tamely.

“It’s not like I am complaining or anything, in fact, it’s very helpful. I assume I can enter and borrow books whenever I want?”

“Of course. And I got some enjoyment out of it too,” she gave John a small wink before she released his arm. “Now, for you to test if you are truly given access,” Angeline then gave a light shove to John, causing him take a few unsteady steps towards the door.

“Hey!” John stumbled forwards with a grunt, fortunately his reflexes were quick and he managed to stabilize himself the moment his two palms made contact with the large doors.

Creeaak.

The doors responded to him and opened a path for him.

Angeline clasped her hands together, “It worked. Let us enter, shall we?”

“You’re coming too?”

“Why wouldn’t I? I was here to read up on shapeshifters and earthquakes, you and I just happened to have the same destination. Don’t think of me as some kind stalker, okay?”

“If you hadn’t said that last sentence, I might have not. But now that you have…”

“Stop teasing me, John. You know how that messes with my heart.” Angeline’s face became red, she punched at his forearm, before he ran off into the restricted section. “J-just call me if you need help on finding any books you need.”

“Angeline,” John called to her as she was about to leave.

“Yeah?”

“About the Ball of Paragons… I still haven’t clear things up with you. I am still unsure about…”

Angeline raised a hand and paused him before he could go any further, “I admit it was sudden for me to confess to you back then, I understand if you can’t accept now. You may be a rascal, but you are a very, very thoughtful one, it was unfair of me to drop such a one sided love onto you when we barely knew each other that well.”

“Then…”

“But John, these feelings… It is a first for me too. I was never one that understood them when I was a child, even now as an adult I could barely think about things like romance,” she admitted with a straight face. “I understand there’s a lot going on in your mind, you always have this solemn look when you start thinking to yourself, haha.” Angeline shyly tucked her hair behind her ears as she continued, “That’s why I am not asking an answer from you, I’ll wait for your answer when you are ready, not because you want to answer me out of obligation.”

Angeline leaned in to his cheek and gave him a light peck before she ran off on her own, hands on her heated cheek.

“T-this is just a friendly kiss o-okay? L-let’s just get along with each other as usual until you r-respond to my feelings,” her voice dwindled as she scuttled away from him.

“This girl…” John rubbed his cheeks and shook his head. “She’s not going to take no for an answer huh?” John decided that he’d put the matter of telling her to put her romantic emotions for him aside for another day.

With the matter with Angeline sorted for the time being, he hastened himself to the nearest magic orb, activated the device in search for any crumb of information that could give him an insight on the missing Ephinelyth.

Following the instructions on the magic, he navigated himself through a handful of shelves, passed through them, made a few turns, and finally he arrived at tea table that was gathering dust by a corner.

“A General Study of Dragons… A General Study of…” he moved his eyes as he tried to locate the book along the shelves that were hid behind the dusty tea table. “…Oh! It’s there!”

In his excitement, he wasted no time in lifting away the tea table with one hand—along with its dust particles—and drove his other hand straight for the said book title, retrieving it from the shelves.

It was then, a parchment fell to his head from the dusty tea table that he lifted with his arm.

“!”

The yellow piece of parchment became stuck to his hair, causing John to place the tea table to the floor in a hurry to remove the parchment stuck on him.

“Just when I changed into cleaner clothes—” he stopped himself when he saw the title, The Nature of Elder Dragons.

“What’s this doing here.” Retrieving the bulky book A General Study of Dragons, John can’t help but to stare at the parchment and stared at its inked words, unlike most books that were printed and written with magic with perfect fonts, the parchment in all of its imperfections screamed at him for his attention.

With the bulky book and dusty parchment in his hands, he got to the nearest study table and started to read the parchment’s article with full focus.

What are dragons? In various mythology, be it children literature or legends from ancient times, they have always been the symbolism of power and greatness. It is unfortunate but a quirk of the society we live in at the same time that they are often depicted such that dragons would eventually be slain by some hero or an underdog who wishes to obtain ultimate power.

Reality, however is different.

Dragons, whatever class, age, or gender they belong to, are the ultimate threat to human society. Within hours of their birth, the presence of newborn dragons are able to cause the king of all beasts, the White Tigers to bow their head in submission.

Their strong sense of loyalty is something that no amount of gold could be bought, despite their given stigma to hoard mountains and mountains of gold—which undoubtedly they all have, in some way shape of form—should a permanent bond is formed from with a dragon, not even death would allow them to betray such principle of theirs. They are as noble as they are fierce, and they expect no less from anyone who dare interact with them, and by some chance if one manages to earn a dragon’s trust, it is the greatest honor that could be bestowed upon oneself.

A dragon’s power stems from their ambition. Such an ambition could be said is the purpose of their life. Though the historical records of dragons indicated that a dragon’s ambition are slowly cultivated through their lives, there are also testimonies and rumors that some are born with an immutable purpose in their life.

Such dragons that bore an innate purpose belong to a level completely above from any conventional dragons. Possessing a higher aptitude, higher intelligence, a stronger vision, a far aggressive nature, cutthroat, cunning, for they are the most superior version of all dragons.

From the day that they are born, such dragons are said to be born as the rightful rulers of this world. If they have their eyes set on a goal, it was considered a done deal.

They are the exceptions of all dragonkind, their individual mindset are what sets them apart from all the others. And as such, they are deemed to be Gods of all dragons, their words are law in dragon society for they are born to bring change to this world.

These are Elder Dragons.

Creatures who bore the power to bring the world to ruin should they feel like it, creatures who do not forget, creatures that brings forth a new age in a world that has stagnated for centuries. They are no doubt, creatures whose innate values are as unshakable as the mountains, creatures who have unbounded intelligence and wisdom that the wisest of kings could only hope for.

A millennia ago, the Great War has taken out a significant of them, but the time that the presence of their descendants won’t go unnoticed draws near.

Pray for their mercy, beg for their grace, wish for their greatness.

Lihirzt Meldord – Dragon Researcher

A hard gulp formed John’s throat when his eyes reached the end of the article he found. This was the first time he ever saw the words ‘Elder Dragon’ appeared on any of the materials in the restricted section of the library.

It bore the many elements from other books where each of them had stated dragons were driven by the ambition that they cultivated, to which was their source of power.

Although the other books had described dragons as selfish, power hungry, rigid, suborn and other worrisome traits that an unstable individual would have, but those were merely speculation and based on folklore that were passed down from generations to generations of people. The popularized image of dragons being the beast that only the worthy can defeat were more so a presentation than reality.

But this piece of article that John had on his hands was the most objective record that he read in the restricted section—in comparison to his own experience. The fact that he himself had encountered not one, but two Elder Dragons during his lifetime, attested that those were cold hard facts.

Though the two dragons he met in his life had zero similarities, each of them gave him the impression that they were in a prolonged search for something to give their life meaning.

The magma dragon who mercilessly executed Alwin Zinrelle wanted to use John for his so called ‘potential’; Ephinelyth, who had out of her own interest taught him magic without asking for anything in return.

As per the dusty piece of parchment before him mentioned, both of them seemed to be biding the inevitable moment that they could pursue the ambition that was laid deep within them from the day that they are born.

To what end?

John’s throat became raspy the more the thought about what Elder Dragons and their ambitions truly meant. A tool to carry out the desires of the world? A symbol of an impossible force? Or perhaps…

“Power control the world? To rid all living things?”

John placed a hand under his chin, he shook his head.

“No, no, no. I am getting off topic. I should be thinking about what happened to Evie’s disappearance. Let’s try this again…” he stretched his neck both ways, twisted his torso before he sat up straight before he continued with his train of thought.

“First, dragons are powerful, even if she is younger than me, Evie’s powers should be a small fraction of a God’s, that much is a given. At the same time, she was born as a telepath, that means she is highly skilled in matters of the mind, such as mind control, memory manipulation…” John’s face frowned before he could lay out the rest

“…”

What if she did a widescale mindwipe, something that removes everyone’s memories of her replacing them with someone else.

The thought suddenly appeared in his mind.

John shook his head, “No, no, no, that’s not right, she did say she would come back yesterday, she promised, and to dragons of any kind, loyalty isn’t a thing treated lightly...”

But there will be no disloyalty if she mindwiped someone without them noticing, his thoughts disputed.

The nerves on John’s neck tingled, cold, sharp chills ran down his spine, electrifying him to attention. Beads of cold, clammy sweat started to appear on his body the more his mind came to a seemingly possible scenario.

“T-that’s can be possible, but she told me she won’t do something as cruel as that to me, she said so.” John argued with his inner thoughts.

He knew that words would become meaningless when someone had decided on a whim that they no longer want to honor a promise, a bond, a friendship, or even Soul Oaths. Such was the case between him and the Elven Princess.

The memory from when he was exiled from A’vetheas was all the proof all he need to justify this statement. Alwin, who had been his friend since he entered the Elven Tribe, turned out to be someone who cared only for self-gain and was only friendly with John to get in Raina’s good graces.

Alwin might have attempted to save him from the ruthless Elder Dragon back then, but John was willing to bet everything he had that Alwin only did that thinking he would be rewarded once they survived.

If he was so noble, he wouldn’t have started a fight with me in Reperane Woods, called me a demon, pushed me around when he brought me from the prison cell to the Queen. And Raina…

John was breathing heavily as his thoughts spiraled further, the thumps to his heart became stronger with each passing thought. He tried calming himself, assuring that it was all just his overactive mind, that it was all in the past.

Evie is different, she can read minds, she would know how terrible it is to do something like that to me…

“But why doesn’t anyone remember her?” John laid his forehead on the table, all the energy he wanted to use on researching dragons earlier was now gone. “Maybe her magic failed to alter my memories because of [Heal]…”

His trust, his adoration, his hopes to the Elder Dragon started to crumble as the realization nestled in his heart. Turning into something that caused his heart to ache.

There was one conclusion that John could come to.

John had secretly hoped that Evie would prove him wrong like the elves, that with her noble ideals and personality, that she would somehow be reliable, be true to her words, be someone who was willing to reciprocate his feelings in kind….and perhaps eventually becoming the person who he would figure out life itself with.

Like that day he encountered the enhanced undead in Kershent village.

Reality was different from what he knew.

Let alone coming back to Moxnet as she promised, she had failed to inform him of why she was not returning to Moxnet.

“Ahahaha… She never saw me as someone worth interacting with, all her words, they all mean nothing…”

Ephinelyth had never intended to stay for long in Moxnet academy, she had been here for her own goals, and nothing more. Her meeting with John was no more than a coincidental attraction that both of them felt, this innate attraction caused her to pity him who was yet fully recovered from his emotional wounds that A’vetheas had left him.

She never saw him more than a mortal who dwelt in the human society. It was natural for someone like her to leave him in the dust without telling him why.

After all, who would want to have anything to with John, who was as powerless, as stubborn, as prideful, and as weak as they come? All John had was his good for nothing [Heal] spell, if not for this one magic that he could use, he might as well not exist in this world.

It was his fault for even expecting such a marvelous encounter to happen in his life. His life never went the route he wanted, it was not the case with A’vetheas or his parents, nor will it be any different with Ephinelyth.

In the very beginning, Elder Dragons do not have the time nor patience to partake themselves in societies where Lower Races reside in. In the eyes of the Higher Races, no matter how much he tried to contribute and integrated with their lifestyle, in the end, he was just a human who was never meant to be living with them.

The Elven Tribe was such, and no doubt an Elder Dragon like Ephinelyth thought any different.

Raina… Evie… Why do they have to be like this?

For all the talks of loyalty and dedication from her, all of it meant nothing when it came down to someone like John who was no more than a human.

I just want to be understood…to be appreciated… I never asked for more…

In the end, John Sarvod was just an ignorant fool who placed too much trust into others and expected the same in return. He will be damned if anyone in his life came close to sticking by his side for a prolonged period of time.

Is that so much to ask for?

Silent tears dripped from his eyes as he pressed his face on his arms, shielding his face from the world where he no longer. He hated this feeling, he hated this emotion of being lied to, his heartstrings being toyed with, his trust thrown aside for reasons unknown to him.

“What do I do, Kahnira…?”