After the training to stand and talk, Zaos planned to increase his endurance, but in the end, trying to walk when he was one year old was too much. So, while he waited for his body to grow up, he decided to learn more about that world. Still, he couldn't just ask everything to his mother. So, one day after lunch, Zaos decided to put his plan into action.
"Mama," Zaos said while pointing at some books that Lyra had in her room.
"You can't play with these, Zaos," Lyra said. "Those are magic books. If you want to play with a book, something of this level is probably more suitable."
The words magic book echoed through Zaos's head, he felt like he should understand what that was supposed to mean, but he couldn't. Regardless, he could always ask his mother some other day.
While Lyra decided to let Zaos just play with an old book, in the end, he made her read the book for him. Naturally, it was a kid's book filled with drawings, so Zaos didn't learn anything. However, Lyra had a pretty decent collection, so now and then, Zaos made her read the books for him. At the same time, he was slowly learning how the words in that world could be written.
For some reason, Lyra had too many fantasy books on her bookshelf, so it took Zaos quite a while to choose a book that would teach him something. Much to his surprise, the book he chose when he was around nine months old didn't have a single word on the cover, but it had an emblem that was identical to the ones he found in the armor and weapons that could be found around the mansion.
"This is the emblem of our family, Zaos," Lyra said while she was pointing to a triangular shield in the cover. "We are the Sielders, one of the most distinguished families of the kingdom. The left arm of that serves the royal family and the shield that have been protecting them for thousands of years. When you become big enough, you will also join the royal guard and work like your father and serve our king."
As expected, Zaos's family was well off for a reason. He had imagined he belonged to a pretty distinguished family of nobles, but he didn't expect they were that close to royalty.
Although she hesitated since that book was pretty thick and only talked about the heads of the Sielders' family, Lyra decided to read it since it talked about Zaos's ancestors. Weirdly enough, that book had been impressed, and the last writer had been Zaos's grandfather. For some reason, the register of the life of the head of the family was done by the newest head. So, the last register had been written by Laiex.
Apparently, Zaos's grandfather died when a group of assassins sneaked up on the castle and tried to kidnap the current queen. They failed since he stood on their way, but he died due to the injuries.
"Your grandfather was a tall man who had light brown hair and eyes," Lyra read. "While he wasn't that skilled, he became a fearsome hammer user and it is said that the assassins that faced him became unrecognizable due to the power of his hammer."
Zaos wanted to say that probably wasn't something you should tell a kid, but he stayed quiet about it. In the end, Lyra read the book backward since the recent stories seemed more interesting and fresher.
"This book only talks about their deeds and their fighting style…" Zaos thought. "I guess I really belong to a militaristic family."
Zaos didn't know how to feel about that. It looked like his grandfather didn't even reach his forties, so perhaps his new life won't be that long. Regardless, occasionally, while Lyra was mentioning the deeds of Zaos's ancestors, the name of another person would pop up. The name of the person varies, but the name of the family was always the same… Seres.
"Seres…" Zaos said soon after his mother mentioned that name a few times.
"They are another important family that is as old as ours," Lyra said. "Most of their heads turned into famous generals that kept our kingdom at peace for many generations."
If the Sielders family was like the shield that protected the royal family, the Seres family was like the spear that eliminated the enemy. It seemed like a pretty exciting combination. No wonder the heads of both families worked together many times, and that was registered in that book.
Aside from some history, Zaos learned how some words were written, and thanks to it, he decided to practice reading by himself whenever possible. On a certain day, Zaos decided to skip his afternoon nap and just pretended that he had fallen asleep. While his mother was indeed sleeping, he grabbed one of those magic books that she had mentioned. He couldn't let that opportunity pass since it was rare for his mother to grab those and read to pass the time while Zaos is sleeping.
Although the book was quite heavy, Zaos not only managed to grab it from the other side of the bed silently and also managed to open it. At the cover, Zaos found what seemed to be a stick that created a ball of fire. His mother had mentioned one of those before when she was reading some fantasy stories, those were called wands. Those were rare to come by since most stories, only warriors were mentioned, and mages were few always support characters.
"… I can't read this," Zaos thought.
The letters were way too different from the ones he was learning… in fact, they were more like drawings than letters. It looked like it read that one had to learn a new reading technique, or maybe there was some other secret. While Zaos was trying to figure out how to read the magic book, the room's door suddenly opened, and he saw his father. The very moment he saw the magic book in his hands, his expression darkened.