The mining shift didn't take long at all. There were several oddities surrounding the area, oddities he was sure to have contributed to.
For one, about a dozen more warriors were guarding the mine's perimeter. He could tell instantly which ones were new, seeing as they still had a bit of colour and frustration on their faces. All of which would fade after a while of guarding it.
Guard duty for the mine was the worst, since no one dared to attack it in the first place.
'Well, after yesterday, not anymore.'
Others noticed the new guards as well, probably wondering the reason for their presence, but saying nothing. Elias knew. Melchior realized it upon seeing it.
He was more of an asshole. Frowned more, glared more, snapped more. Generally just being himself to a larger degree. It appeared like he wasn't happy with the decision to include more guards on the roster.
Luckily, that seemed to take his mind off Melchior's presence for that day. He said nothing more than the usual 'maggot' when he saw him.
That allowed him to go in and complete his and Erin's ore quotas without any issues at all. He finished that in a little less than two hours, leaving him with quite a bit of time for the rest of the day.
Standing at the edge of the forest, he contemplated a bit.
"Eh, I don't want to go meet Dad just yet,"
It was a bit too quick, and he didn't quite want to see Zale's face so quickly for the second time that day.
After some thought, he decided to head to the library. There was still some stuff he desperately wanted to know. One thing in particular stood out to him.
Runo and Velor.
The two extremely powerful brothers engaged in the battle that sent him to this world. It occurred to him that no memories of their names even existed in his counterpart's brain. That was the first blind spot he had encountered in terms of knowledge.
Blind spots in history often meant something disastrous took place. The same could be said for this as well. So he needed to confirm his suspicions and fill those blind spots as quickly as possible.
Now was as good a time as any other.
So, he quickly ran to the centre of the town where the library lay. The interior of Blackmount was less heavily guarded than the outskirts where the mine lay. There was probably a reason for that, but for now, Melchior didn't particularly care.
He assessed the environment before stepping in. It was quiet and serene, with only a few people here and there. Somewhere he'd love to stay at in his previous life. Even now, he was tempted.
Melchior went in and came upon a small old lady sitting behind a desk.
"May I help you?" she asked, peering at him.
As she asked that, he realized he had no way to describe what he was looking for.
"Uhh, something about a Runo and Velor?"
The woman's brows arched slightly, causing Melchior to cringe a little. Judgement from an old lady was something he feared more than any attack with Spirit Energy imbued within.
But luckily, she didn't seem to find anything wrong with his statement.
She looked down, eyes gleaming with a strange blue light for several seconds. A small breeze picked up where she sat, making Melchior realize it was Spirit Energy or at least a Spirit at work.
"Shelf 2 on the Historical Section; Establishment of Modern Elgross, Brief Overview of the Centuros Kingdom, and The Founders. Those were all the books we have here that matched those terms you gave."
He stood dumbfounded for a bit. Even this old lady was a Bonded. And he didn't realize Spirits could be used in such a manner too. There was a lot he had yet to scratch the surface of in Elgross.
But no time to waste. He quickly thanked her and headed over to the section she specified and got the books out. Each of those books was quite small so he luckily didn't have to spend a lot of time on them.
Small and short books weren't necessarily a good thing either, though. That usually meant a lot of omissions and revisions were involved in the re-tellings. But, he tucked the thought away and continued to read as usual.
The first two books only mentioned Runo and Velor once each, and never went into any detail about them. It was only the last that contained any relevant information at all. And that information was far too significant for him to ignore.
"2000 years ago, The Founder—Velor—defeated his younger brother in a duel that would forever determine the fate of our planet…"
He paused on the first two words alone.
2000 years. That had been how long since Runo and Velor fought. But… it didn't make any sense.
"It's only been a few days," he muttered to himself, grabbing his hair. "How can it be 2000 years since then? That makes no sense…"
Then what did that mean? His mother and Lora. Did that mean he wouldn't be able to see them ever again?
Melchior felt himself collapsing at that moment. All the mental walls that he had built up to cope with the issue all began to fall violently. It hurt a lot.
A second later, he calmed himself down and closed the book. If there was anything he learned from science fiction, it was that time moved differently on planets far away from each other.
'They're fine. They're fine.'
He took a deep breath and a sharp glint appeared in his eyes. It felt like a dam was about to burst within his body, but he held it in.
A small bit leaked out in the form of white energy. It was barely noticeable, but he stopped himself.
He closed the book and gathered himself. This was all he needed to know from this book.
Perhaps it wasn't as great a decision as he had initially thought. The information he'd gotten satisfied any curiosity he had left.
And while he had come to a logical conclusion, he just wanted to forget it in the first place.
"Yeah, I think I'll go meet Zale now...."