I woke up after a Ray of Light shone on my face. I lifted my body and looked around. A spacious room filled with some furniture, chairs, and a table.
"This is the first time I've slept so soundly in a long while."
I left the large bed and began stretching, when I heard a knocking sound from the door.
knock... knock...
"Sir, it's Mel."
"Come in."
After entering the room, Mel began telling me about my schedule for today.
"After breakfast, I will take you to the Royal Library."
Last night, after cleaning myself up, we were invited by the king to have dinner together.
At the dining table, Cyrus introduced his family, which consisted of a queen, two princes, and two princesses. We chatted about many things with them.
After dinner, I discussed the basic information about this world with King Cyrus, and he told me about the Royal Library. So today I will go to the library to gather information about this world.
<><><><><>
"Here it is, sir."
What Mel showed me was a large building behind the palace—this was the royal library.
At first, Kushida and Fujita also wanted to search for information with me in the library, but it seemed they both wanted to rest. For some reason, they looked tired this morning.
"Well then, I'll be going. Thank you for escorting me."
"It's an honor."
Hearing that, I stepped forward and entered the library. Looking around, I saw many bookshelves with signs above them—labels that explained what kind of knowledge was stored on each shelf.
Because yesterday I had too many things on my mind, I forgot to make sure whether I could read the writing of this world, but seeing the signs on the shelves confirmed that I could also read the writing here.
I began walking, going through each shelf to look for some books I wanted to read.
"..."
"..."
Seeing Mel behind me, I could only fall silent. I thought she would leave after escorting me to the library, but she had followed me from the start.
This is my fault. Seeing this, there's no need to question it anymore. She will keep following me as per the Kingdom's orders to accompany me.
Perhaps Mel knew what I was looking for, so I asked her.
"Mel, do you know where the books about general knowledge of this world are?"
"Yes, I know where you can find them. I will take you there, please follow me."
Saying that, she walked to a certain bookshelf, and I followed her. I noticed the shelf had a label that read [Children's Books].
"These are the books read by the children of the Kingdom. Perhaps what you're looking for is on this shelf."
Mel said that the books on this shelf were used for the education of the kingdom's children. According to her, basic knowledge could be found in these books.
I took one of the books from the shelf and saw that the cover mentioned something about the ecosystem of this world.
This was exactly what I was looking for, so I checked the books and gathered the ones I wanted to read until they formed a pile.
"Mel, is there a good place to read these books?"
"Yes. There are tables and chairs in the middle of this library, please follow me."
So we went to the place Mel mentioned, carrying the books.
I wanted to carry all the books myself, but Mel volunteered to carry them all. She claimed she was very strong because she was a beastman. Of course, I refused, but because of her persistence, I gave her only the ones I thought wouldn't burden her.
<><><><><>
A few hours later, I finished reading all the books and copied everything into the databank of the chip in my head.
"Please, sir."
Mel poured warm tea into my cup. Every now and then, she poured me tea to drink, and even at midday, she took out lunch for me.
I'm not sure where she took all that from, but I suspect she might have something like a storage space, similar to mine.
More importantly, for now, I obtained some information about the geography of this world.
This world, or rather this planet, is called Velantherra and has three main continents: the Urtem continent, the Berflim continent, and the Chasos continent.
The Urtem continent is inhabited by races created by the god of life named Urt, and the Berflim continent is inhabited by races created by the god of death, Berf.
Meanwhile, the Chasos continent is inhabited by holy beasts and powerful monsters, most of which are still unidentified. It is also said that there are small cities of various races there, both humans and demons.
The Urtem continent has four major countries and several small ones.
The Holy Kingdom of Vilmun, the Bermund Empire, the Beastman Kingdom of Fangburd, and the Knight Republic of Armun—these are the four major countries in Urtem. Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Jatumheim is a small country, like the Dwarf Kingdom, the Elf Kingdom, and several other human kingdoms.
The Berflim continent does not have kingdoms like Urtem; it is directly ruled by the demon king alone.
As for the Chasos continent, the books state that it has seven territorial regions, each ruled by a dragon king.
<><><><><>
After a whole day of reading, I looked around and realized it was already evening.
"I guess that's enough for today. Mel, let's head back."
"Mel?"
I spoke to Mel, but I didn't feel her response. I turned to look at her but didn't see anyone.
"WHAT!?"
I didn't know what had just happened—suddenly Mel vanished from her spot, and I could feel magical energy in the room. My knowledge of magic is still very limited, so I didn't know what was happening.
I tried checking my body condition using nanobots but found no abnormalities.
More than that, I was worried about Mel. I tried calling her.
"Mel! Where are you? Can you hear me? Meeell!"
No response at all. I calmed myself and began analyzing what had happened—Mel suddenly disappeared, and there was magical energy in this room... Could Mel have been transported somewhere using magic? I could still feel the magical energy here—wait!
I placed my hand on the table and began analyzing using nanobots.
[Beginning scan__ unidentified]
Why did I assume that Mel was the one who disappeared? Seeing this analysis result, I became certain.
"I'm the one who got transported!"
The magical energy in this room wasn't fading, so I suspected something had happened here. I controlled my nanobots to analyze the table, and sure enough, the table was unidentified by the nanobots—showing that the table was made of magic... No, not just the table, but the entire room.
"Hoho, you're quite smart."
I suddenly heard a man's voice and turned toward the source, but saw no one.
I tried speaking to the voice.
"Um, who are you? Are you the one who brought me here?"
"Hoho, you're quite impressive to remain calm in this situation. Oops, it's impolite to introduce myself without meeting face to face."
Hearing that, I was relieved he was easy to talk to.
After he said that, I felt someone pat my shoulder, so I turned around and saw an old man.
The old man had a long white beard, wore a black robe, and had a tall, strange pointed hat that curved slightly to the side. Stroking his beard, the old man began introducing himself.
"My name is Magnus North, just an old man who studies little tricks. I'm here only because I was curious and wanted to see the destined hero. Sorry for making you experience an old man's little mischief."
"It's fine, this has been an amazing experience for me."
"Hoho, glad to hear it. You're quite different from the other two before you—seems like there's nothing to worry about with you."
The other two before me? Was he the reason Kushida and Fujita looked tired? It seems they both met him, and this old man did something to them.
Magnus might not have done anything bad to Kushida and Fujita, but judging from their condition, perhaps they went through something troublesome like... a test! And this old man came to me to do the same thing.
"...."
I smiled awkwardly as Magnus stared at me, and I could only remain silent, waiting for some troublesome event to happen to me.
But after waiting a while, nothing happened. I only saw the old man staring at me, and after a moment, he began to speak.
"Haa~, seeing you like this, you really are smart. A bit boring, but it fills me with relief."
"Haha."
I just laughed lightly at that.
"This is just wasting your time and also troubling that maid, so I will send you out of here."
Saying that, Magnus suddenly took out a long staff from who-knows-where and tapped it on the floor.
I looked around as the room began to distort, and somehow I could no longer see Magnus.
"I truly have high hopes for you. I won't force you in this matter, but please help this world if it's worth it to you."
After hearing Magnus say that, I could no longer feel the magical energy, which meant I had returned to the library. I could hear Mel's loud voice calling me from behind.
"Sir Fixl!! Thank goodness you're okay, I've been looking everywhere for you! At first, I only looked away for a moment, but when I turned back to you, you were gone! What exactly happened to you, sir? Please tell me!"
I could only give a tired smile as Mel began speaking rapidly like a machine gun.
"Mel, let's go back first. I'll tell you on the way."
"Ah! I apologize for my rudeness just now. Very well, sir, I will guide you back to the castle."
And so we returned while having various conversations.