"Who would've thought that Lyon would be one of the few," Arthur said, walking from an aisle between two large shelves with a thick book in his hand. Smirking as he got closer to the two.
"G-g-good Morning Commander!!" Alister immediately saluted. As he stopped his hands from feeling the wall.
Arthur walked closer to them and stood beside the princess as he stared directly at the wall where the path should've existed. Arthur on the other hand started to giggle immediately dropping the book, leaning forward and backward with his hands on his chest and stomach pressing against his long-sleeved shirt. Tears formed in his eyes as his giggles became laughter that echoed throughout the large library.
"You helped him, didn't you!! You helped him!!" He screamed.
Alistair and Jiniya were baffled by what he just said when suddenly the ground began to shake, dust came down from the ceiling causing Arthur to laugh much louder. To the two he seemed like a psycho but there were things that they had no knowledge of. Arthur's face suddenly changed, he snapped his fingers before looking at Alistair.
"You are to return to your post by dust or you will be relieved of duty…" Arthur said with a serious tone.
Alistair felt shivers down his spine and looked at the princess. Her face was filled with sorrow as he bowed his head and left the two, from the halls outside the library marching could be heard. Suddenly numerous maids had entered the room and rushed towards the princess.
"If your father was to see you here, he would be displeased"
Jiniya could not do anything as she was pulled away by her maids, before turning to the aisle she saw Arthur waving his hand with a smug look on his face. Knights wearing full-body armors stood in front of Arthur crowding the aisles, Arthur started to order them pointing at where they should be guarding and in a matter of minutes the whole library was transformed.
The large shelves were all moved to the side creating a large open area in the middle 10 knights stood in front of the forbidden library's entrance while the others stood in the corners of the rooms, in front of the door both inside and outside. The whole library was quarantined and no one could enter except for the King. Captains were halted from going near the entrance and could only watch as Arthur would be the one to leave the room and meet them.
Despite the current situation, there is not a single sign of the entrance opening anytime soon. But Arthur cared less, he wanted to know what knowledge Lyon had acquired inside the forbidden section of the library, the place where only the Queen had access to. Arthur sat down on a wooden oak chair crafted by the most brilliant furniture creators in the kingdom. His leg was becoming restless as it moved up and down from waiting for too long, an hour had passed but there was nothing. Another hour went by but still no sign. He had enough, he threw the tea glass he was sipping on before flipping the table he requested to be placed in front of his chair.
"LET HIM OUT ALREADY!!" Arthur let out a terrifying scream that caused the knights to suddenly tremble. He stared at the ceiling but there was only a chandelier that could be seen.
The ground once again began to shake, it was ferocious that some statues outside the palace were destroyed. Arthur gave a smile that reached both his ears when the King suddenly entered the room. The knights kneeled in sync as their eyes turned towards the door that swiftly swung open. Arthur greeted him as he lowered his torso and head to around 60 degrees, with his left arm pressed against his abdomen.
"Good day, your Highness"
"How long has it been since someone had entered the forbidden section of the library"
"It's been 13 years since her highness had last entered and 5 years since the last knight was sent inside the library…"
"Is that so?" The king said as he glanced at the upside down round table that looked like it was flipped.
The king looked around the room and saw a knight staring at him with trembling knees, he gestured his hand telling the knight to stand up, he pointed to the other knight beside the one that met with his eyes telling him to make him stand up as well. The others stood as well and the king gave the knight a smile and a thumbs up once he lowered his hands. The king walked towards the wall and placed his hand against it, he felt it slowly becoming moist despite the room not having any source of water. Rubbing his hand against a small cloth he took out from his pocket, the king walked back towards Arthur and placed his face beside his ear.
"Don't do anything stupid…" the king said before leaving the room.
Silence devoured the large open room, breathing could be heard like words being spoken. The air inside the room had started to turn dense, knights started to breathe heavily, while the others were already gasping for air. As knight's they are under no circumstances allowed to decide their movement when a higher ranking person is with them. So even with their current problems none of them were capable of removing their silver colored metal armor. Suddenly a few knights began to drop like flies. The sound of armor hitting the floor echoed throughout the room, the knights outside listened in horror as they started to feel the air around them turning dense.
Arthur clenched his fist and stopped his right foot, the air had suddenly gone back to normal. He looked around as knights dropped to their knees and were gasping for air, he clicked his tongue before leaving the room. Immediately, the knights removed their helmets and armors to get more air, the others outside rushed towards those who were laying on the floor unconscious.
Inside the forbidden library on the other hand, Lyon was laying down on a small puddle of blood that he had created above the cold stone pavement. He had fallen unconscious from blood loss, his body laid perfectly still, moreover he looked like a lifeless body as his skin color had gone pale. He was then awoken by a gentle touch on his back, stroking his spine from his neck down to just above his buttocks.
Upon opening his eyes, he saw nothing more than a blurry red vision. The room was still dim but despite that he could visualize a faint image of a person right in front of him. He was spun around and his head was placed above a pair of soft thighs that had cloth covered above it. He could only open his right eye as his left eye continued to ache, continuing to visualize who it was he saw the person having long hair that touched his chest as the person leaned closer.
A faint sound of a female entered his ear saying, "this will hurt a bit…" as she placed what seemed to be a cloth dipped in liquid. As the cloth touched his eyelids, he immediately felt a painful sting that made his body twitch. The woman shushed him whispering words straight to his ears, he could feel her cold breath heading directly towards ear drums. The woman continued to clean his eyes, wiping the blood that covered his entire face, slowly his vision had become more clearer.
But before he could figure out who it was, she had already finished patching up his eyes. In a blink she had disappeared, Lyon's head dropped right on the blood puddle as he tried to assess the situation.
"Who was that…" he asked himself.
Minutes passed and finally he could move his body, he slowly picked himself up and sat down, leaning his back on the stone podium. He looked around the empty, it had no entrance nor an exit, no windows for air to enter, yet, he could breathe like normal. There were molds on the corners of the room, starting from the flooring climbing up towards the ceiling. He lifted his hand and reached the book placed above the podium, he closed the book and grabbed its hard cover that was made out of wood, before pulling it from its place.
He started reading the book, he flipped through pages but couldn't understand the language used. It looked ancient as it contained characters that were not part of the alphabet nor any language the continents used in both writing and speaking. But at the very last page was a map torn in half. It contained lines that led towards the Gluttire forest but its paths were not there, as he flipped the page the book suddenly dissolved right in front of him. He was shocked, confused and was speechless as he held tightly on the paper that looked like a map.
It did not disappear though, it stayed firmly straight between his fingers before suddenly bending to the side. The other page was instantly revealed once the paper had bent, there was a sentence written in a normal language but was cut after the first two words because the paper was ripped in two.
"Follow it…" he read.
He tried to flip the paper again thinking that there were other messages, he lifted it up with both his hands and tried to find something like invisible ink but there was nothing. It was a piece of plain paper that became two after being ripped. Lyon stood up and looked at the podium and was shocked to find the book sitting above the podium. He tried grabbing it but it wouldn't budge, opening it was also not an option as it stuck like it was glued together by the stickiest glue to ever exist.
He took a step back, held his hand towards the book and tried to use magic but it was ineffective. He tried various spells but he could use fire magic inside the room, he looked around the room one more time and saw a single piece of brick that had a color dissimilar from the rest. It stood out like a sore thumb, he walked towards it and stared at it along with its surroundings. After concluding that it was not a trap he gently placed his palm above it, he accidentally pressed it causing the room to violently shake. It felt like an earthquake that could sharter the kingdom into pieces as Lyon was thrown all around the room like a stuffed doll. Eventually the ground started to be covered in darkness and before Lyon could react he was already sent back to the darkness that once devoured him when he entered the entrance.
"Goodluck" A faint voice called out to him.
He was then pulled by a force towards a light that seemed to have come from a tunnel. Thrown out like a piece of paper Lyon came flying out of the library straight towards a table where knights were taking their break. Everyone was shocked to see Lyon, he looked around and saw everyone looking at him.
"What should we do?" one of the knights asked.
"Should we inform the commander?" another replied.
Lyon immediately hid the paper in his hand inside his pocket and stood up like nothing had happened.
"What are you guys fussing about?" Lyon asked.
"Well you see… today is the tournament day, and the commander told us to inform him if you were to come out of the library, but if we were to tell him now he might postpone the whole tournament" the knight explained.
Lyon's eyes widened as he realized what day it was. Five days had already passed since he had entered the forbidden library, without hesitation he rushed outside of the library leaving the knights standing like fools. He went straight towards his room and changed into his uniform. He took the piece of paper out from his pocket and placed it on his uniform's pocket before running outside towards a large stadium where the tournament was being held.
Chapter End.