As soon as they entered from outside, the atmosphere changed immediately. Naro unknowingly gulped at the solemn and quiet air, as if entering a disconnected world. Certainly, libraries seemed to have similar atmospheres in any world.
The Lupel Library displayed grandeur from its exterior to a degree that immediately made clear why it was featured in the guidebook. However, the unique sense of openness and orderly atmosphere that could be felt inside was also impressive.
The Lupel Library was basically freely accessible to anyone regardless of status. However, the people who mainly used this place were only academy students, professors working at educational institutions like the academy, and some nobles.
Commoners usually didn’t make good use of this place because they were too busy making a living without even having time to spare to come to such a library to read books and examine materials.
The Lupel Library was a five-story building in total. Part of the first floor and the second and third floors stored various books and materials befitting a library, and one side of the third floor had a lounge prepared where those books and materials could be comfortably read. The fourth floor was mainly a space where academy students and professors could gather to study or hold discussions, and the fifth floor was the office space for staff working at Lupel Academy.
Naro came up to the second floor with Ray. He needed to find books or reference materials about the Dragon Tribe, but the space was so vast beyond expectation that he couldn’t get a sense of where to start. It felt like searching for a needle in the desert.
“Ray, let’s split up and search. You look around the second floor. I’ll search on the third floor.”
He spoke thinking it was a reasonably rational method to reduce search time, but for some reason Ray was quiet.
He looked at Naro, who was suggesting they split up, for a moment and then slowly opened his mouth.
“I don’t want to be apart.”
At his words, Naro paused. There was a crack in Ray’s brow that hadn’t been visible earlier. It had been quite a long time since Ray had acted as if throwing a tantrum like this. Naro tried to persuade him that it would be more efficient to search separately, then gave up.
“Then let’s search together.”
“Yeah, good.”
It was because Naro already knew well that when Ray threw a tantrum like this, he couldn’t be easily persuaded with any words.
Fortunately, unlike what he’d worried about, they could find the section where related books were gathered quite quickly. The innermost bookshelf among those located on the second floor. And even within that bookshelf, books about the Dragon Tribe were inserted in a corner.
There were three related books in total. Thinking about how the Rodelus Village library had only a few pages at most about Dragon Tribe content, it was definitely a relatively large amount. Naro and Ray took the books they’d found and entered the lounge prepared on the third floor.
The lounge was a space where various books and materials could be freely read. Moreover, unlike the solemn and quiet library atmosphere, it seemed voices could be freely made here. That said, of course they couldn’t be noisily chatty.
“Let’s read one book at a time together.”
“Okay.”
The two began opening the books they’d brought one by one. The first book they opened was closer to an essay recording a scholar’s views on the differences between humans and the Dragon Tribe rather than stories related to the Dragon Tribe. It didn’t seem like they’d be able to find any particularly meaningful information, so they read the remaining two books with concentration.
After reading those two books, they learned quite a lot of information.
The Dragon Tribe was a species with a history as long as humans, and were highly intelligent beings. This could be understood just by looking at Ray. After all, Ray not only learned human culture but also grew to an expert level in just a few days after starting to study Imperial language, which was said to be difficult to learn.
Just as humans had their own unique culture, so did the Dragon Tribe. The most well-known representative characteristic of the Dragon Tribe was that they lived in closed groups. The book explained that expressing this in human language, it could perhaps be called ‘conservative.’
What was even more surprising was the fact that something similar to ranks existed even within the Dragon Tribe. Of course, it wasn’t subdivided like humans into ‘slave-commoner-noble-royal.’ Even among fellow Dragon Tribe members, there were some individuals that were particularly revered as sacred, and they were respected for having robust bodies and strength that could be counted on one hand even within the Dragon Tribe.
Just as kingdoms were ruled by kings and empires by emperors, the Dragon Tribe also had a leader who encompassed the group. Naturally, not just anyone could become this leader. Only sacred individuals born with special power could become leaders who led the group. This leader could be hereditary or could be taken on by an entirely new individual.
Usually, the Dragon Tribe had strong loyalty, so they had no hesitation in believing in and serving the leader who led the group. Therefore, depending on what disposition of Dragon Tribe member rose to that position, the atmosphere of the entire species could be influenced.
Besides that, there was diverse information about the Dragon Tribe. They were highly intelligent and tended not to engage in meaningless killing, and surprisingly were omnivores who didn’t discriminate in what they ate. Among their senses, their sense of smell was particularly developed, and content was included stating they had near-perfect bodies that could adapt well and survive in any extreme environment.
There was also a brief explanation about the power dragons possessed, which was that while dragons had strong physical strength, individuals with special power among them were capable of ‘humanization.’ However, it was written that dragons did not bother to show or reveal their humanized form to those who were not of their own kind or to the outside world.
Naro, who had carefully read through to the last book, looked at Ray.
“How is it? Do you remember anything?”
Befitting books preserved in a prestigious library, the characteristics of the Dragon Tribe were listed in quite detail. Naro learned these facts for the first time now.
Ray was lost in thought for a moment. Naro waited quietly without rushing him so as not to be a disturbance. So that Ray could grasp even a small clue.
“I’m not sure. It doesn’t really resonate with me.”
But after thinking for a moment, Ray shook his head from side to side.
“Sorry, Naro.”
“No. Why are you apologizing, Ray?”
The person most frustrated by not remembering was none other than Ray. As it was, his face even looked slightly tired now.
Ray sighed and pressed his eyes firmly. It was an action Ray always did when tired while studying Imperial language late into the night when they stayed at the house in Rodelus Village. When he first saw that, he’d been amazed thinking that dragons also felt fatigue.
“You’re tired, right? Let’s stop here for today and go back to the inn.”
Naro organized the books he’d taken out neatly. None of the goals of finding Ray’s lost memories or learning in detail the inside story of the incident that had occurred in the past had been resolved, but there was no need to move around while overworking their bodies.
“I’ll put these away and come back.”
“Let’s go together.”
“You sit and rest even a little. I’ll go put these away quickly and come back here again.”
Naro insistently sat Ray, who was lifting his bottom, back in his seat and headed to the area for collecting read books. In the connecting corridor, he occasionally encountered people who appeared to be academy students or professors, and they exuded an unmistakably intellectual atmosphere.
Taking them in with his eyes, Naro suddenly thought of Jerian. Looking only at external aspects, he had such outstanding looks that it wouldn’t be strange at all if he went up on a theater stage to perform in a play. Perhaps because of that, he didn’t particularly give off an educator-like atmosphere.
Naro arrived at the collection area and placed the read books one by one in the empty space. While doing so, he recalled the information he’d read earlier.
It was said that the Dragon Tribe had a leader who led the group. If most of the Dragon Tribe had been exterminated around the time of the raid incident, did that mean the dragon who was serving as leader at that time also died? The possibility that Ray, the mastermind of the original work, had been the leader couldn’t be ruled out either.
Perhaps the latter was more likely. And if that was really correct, the incident 25 years ago could be seen as an invasion led by the king who led the dragon species.
But nothing was certain yet. Though he’d learned information about the Dragon Tribe that he hadn’t known, he still didn’t know at all what had happened that day.
“Haah… It really isn’t easy.”
He hadn’t expected the investigation to go well, of course, but still, realizing that firsthand, he couldn’t help letting out a sigh. Even though he didn’t know why Ray had suddenly decided to find his memories, either way, if the speed of finding information became slower than this, he might get exhausted.
Because groping for memories where not even a clue remained, starting from zero, would be a very difficult task.
“Huh? Are you perhaps Naro-ssi?”
As Naro was about to turn around after finishing organizing the books with energy completely drained from his hands, a familiar voice was heard from the side.
