The Dragon of Dreams

Late Morning - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

"Nice to meet you, everyone. I will be your teacher for the next few years. My name is-" She froze the instant she noticed me, but after a short pause, she managed to continue with a shaky voice. "A..hem, s..sorry. As I was saying, my name is Judy Casas, and I will be your teacher for the next few years. I hope we can all get along!" She put on a forced smile as she finished her introduction.

Surprisingly, she seemed to quickly gain the liking of most of the class, the commoners included. -Even if she favors nobles, she still takes pride in being a teacher, it seems…-

"So how about we start with some introductions? Just your first name and a cool talent or hobby you have." Seeing everyone's joyful expression, her smile slowly turned more genuine. "Well, let's start in the front."

The introductions went smoothly, with all of the students wearing beaming smiles.

The last two to go were Viviana and Lucy.

"My name is Viviana, and my hobby is alchemy!"

"Wow, that's one I haven’t heard in a long time. Maybe I'll have you teach the class one day!"

Viviana immediately got embarrassed. "W..well, t..that's not-"

"Haha, it's okay. I won't make you do anything you aren't comfortable with." Seemingly managing to ignore me, she seemed to be in an improving mood.

"T..thank you…"

"Haha, and last but not least…" As the teacher moved on, the entire class's attention turned to Lucy.

"My name is Lucy, and I have a talent for magic, and as for my hobby…" There was a short pause that filled the room with silence. "I like reading about d..dragons..."

"Oh.. another interesting one. Maybe I should have a history lesson about them later in the year." She paused as Lucy’s cheeks became flushed. "Haha, now that our introductions are out of the way, I will start class."

Some people looked back at me, maybe wanting me to introduce myself, but I didn't remotely care enough to give an introduction.

"So for everyone’s first class, we will start with history from all the way back to the Great War!"

For the next couple of hours, she lectured about very general information regarding the great war and the influential figures on the human side.

She kept the lecture decently interesting and engaging for the students, but.. -Mother already taught me all of this without any human bias…- I was getting unreasonably bored.

After another few minutes, I just gave up thinking that anything I didn't know would come up and decided to just go to the library.

Casually walking up to Lucy, I leaned down and whispered to her. "I'm going to the library. You'll be able to find me there if there is anything urgent."

After she nodded in response, I walked out of the classroom. Miss Judy even stopped her lecture to stare at me, likely thinking I was coming for her because she let out a deep sigh of relief as I walked out.

- Lucy Kaelallan ~

*Click* The moment the door closed behind Vasilias, the teacher let out a deep breath of relief. "Phew.. sorry about that everyone."

"Miss teacher." A young boy in the front raised his hand.

"Yes, Johnny?"

"Who was that boy?" It was a question on everyone’s minds.

"He was..." Before Ms. Casas could say anything, she thought of something that made her face lose a bit of color. "He was an administrator sitting in on the class."

Although administrators did occasionally sit in on classes, they were never so young and wouldn't come around until a few months into the year. -Isn’t that a bit too much of a stretch?-

"Are all administrators as strong as him?" A young girl spoke up this time.

"What do you mean, Anne?"

"He was the one who, um.. handled that b..bully earlier."

"..." The room filled with silence as Miss Casas’s face paled further.

"Miss teacher?"

"Right, ahem, sorry, I just got lost in my own thoughts. He is the strongest administrator here."

"Woahh! Even stronger than the grandmaster?"

"I'm not sure now that you mentioned it." The grandmaster of the academy was Kaelallan's other Nation Rank besides Lawton. A monstrous ranged mage with an insane amount of mana for a human, even if she couldn't compare to Vasilias. "Well anyways, let's get back to class. As I was saying before, the next 100 years after the Great War..."

As she continued once again, my boredom returned.

*tap* As I set my head on the desk, I wanted to fall asleep. -Why did Father make me have a tutor for history when I could have just learned it now…-

Glancing at Viviana, I noticed she was still happily paying attention, leaving me with no one to talk to.

-Even if I couldn't talk with Vasilias, at least I could pet Ilios to pass time… I wish I could've gone with them..-

- Vasilias ~

*Click* As I walked out into the hallway, I looked around until I saw a patrolling knight.

"Kid, you should be in your class. Do you have a pass from your teacher to be out here?"

Not wanting to go through any hassle, I just pulled out my ID and showed it to him.

"Oh right, you're him. Please forgive my rudeness just now. Is there anything you may need?"

I was slightly taken aback by his formality. "Actually, yeah, do you know where the library is?"

"Yes sir, go down the hall, take a left and go all the way till it dead ends. Take one more left and you'll see the cafeteria on the right. The library is across the hall from it."

-Man, that would’ve taken me a while to find without help...- "Thanks a bunch."

"No worries. It's a bit of a hike, but you should find it pretty easily. If you need more directions, just ask another knight. Sir Keen has already informed us all about you."

"Sweet thanks. Here, have this." Feeling generous, I pulled out the gold coin I made to show Oliver last night and gave it to him.

"Thank you very much, sir! Please have a good day!"

He gave a deep bow as I left and made my way towards the library. -What a good knight.-

Quickly winding my way down the halls, I was, thankfully, not met with any resistance and managed to get to the library quite quickly.

*Click* As I pushed open the door, I noticed it was quite heavy and nearly 10 centimeters thick, but as I closed the door behind me, the extremely loud chatter from the cafeteria across the hall vanished. -To think the library has soundproofing…-

Turning back to the inside, I noticed the room was also gargantuan, with six floors each lined with 5-meter tall bookshelves.

"Hm?" An old-looking elven man gave me an odd look from behind the desk. "A new face… Are you a newly enrolled student?"

Quickly turning my attention away from the endless shelves, I made my way up to the man's desk. "No, I'm just visiting for a bit."

"Hm, that would explain you not being in uniform."

"Yeah, so, I'm just gonna take a look around." Noticing how laid back he was, I turned to walk towards the lowest level of books, not expecting to be stopped.

"Visitors and new students must stay on the first floor."

I immediately stopped in my tracks. -Well, that's not going to work...- Quickly reaching into my pocket, I pulled out my ID and showed the man. "How about now?"

"Oh, a royal ID." His face quickly lost a bit of color. "Sorry I failed to notice earlier, sir."

"You can speak comfortably. I plan to spend a lot of time here in the coming days."

"I would not dare address your majesty without honorifics." He started to break out into a cold sweat.

"Do what you want, I guess." Not caring what he did, I turned back to the walls of bookshelves.

"I will always be here in case you need anything, sir." His voice carried a bit of disparity like he was desperate to get on my good side.

-I'm really not sure whether he's suspicious or just smart...-

As I walked out of the line of sight, he fell back into his chair. "Phew.." But after a short moment to catch his breath, he hastily pulled out a piece of paper and started writing with a slightly worried look.

-Hm... Maybe I should keep my eye on him...-

Finally moving away from the front of the room, I took my time looking around, but quickly found out that most of the books on the bottom floor were for entertainment, with only a very small number being informational. -I hope the upper floors are better...-

Before I continued upstairs though, I pulled out a few of the fairy tales and skimmed through them.

One was of a hero that, through many trials and hardships, became a god's apostle and killed a tyrannical king to take his position. Another was a similar story, except with a female lead, and another was just about a man's adventures with his dog.

There were countless others as well, far too many to read, but it was genuinely surprising how developed the literature of this world was.

I originally expected the prince charming style of stories, just super basic and cliché but still enjoyable, but was pleasantly surprised by the large variety.

-But that's not why I'm here.- Quickly tossing aside my desire to look through other stories, I decided to move on to the second floor.

Looking up at the several other floors, I couldn't help but be hopeful that I might be able to find some of the information I was looking for, even if the fact that it was a human library destroyed those chances.

-Well, it can't hurt to look around, right?-