Capítulo 8: Lyl Tallat
Milia brought me to the Hero's Party without a word of complaint. After all, why would she complain? I spared her friend, and all she had to do was escort me! I had offered her with a bargain too good for her to refuse!
She left me right before we reached the quarters of the Hero's Party. I asked why she couldn't bring me any further, but she said that for security reasons, only authorized servants could enter those quarters. I found her claim skeptical and frankly somewhat odd, but I let her go anyway. I had already achieved my objective. There was no reason to hassle Milia any longer.
I entered the quarters to find the students lounging in a large circular room. The sheer wealth of Durham Kingdom was apparent in this room alone. An ornate dome of stained glass enclosured the entire room, with the light from the Sun sprinkled across an intricate mural that stretched across the entire floor. The mural seemed to depict a rather strange scene, with a handsome and lean silver-haired man kissing a beautiful golden hair woman in a white linen gown while he was drowned in blood. And they were kissing in something that had to be akin to a Colosseum. And the crowd was throwing stones at them too.
Yeah.
Very odd indeed.
But nevertheless, it was magnificent work of art. Almost too magnificent. So magnificent that it seemed to come alive while I stared. None of the art in this palace looked this extravagant, not even the stained glass work in the throne hall.
Why had they decided to build it here? Did the kingdom value the Hero's Party that much?
"My prince. Your room is waiting."
I tilted my head towards the sound the voice. To my surprise, I saw a servant bowing his head towards me, a middle-aged man with well-trimmed greyish-black mustache. Interesting. At least this servant was respectful.
"Lead me." I said, trying to add a touch of self-possession into my voice. If I needed to act like a prince, I might as go all the way with it.
"Of course, my prince." A servant replied. "Follow me."
I followed the servant to an arched doorway on the far side of the room, entering what seemed to be a hallway running through a garden. I was instantly mesmerized. Light shone through the stained glass in a seemingly coordinated fashion, accenting the beauty of the foreign fauna. The crystal stone walkways and the walls weaved naturally throughout the gardens as if it had sprung out from the Earth itself. The rest of the palace was certainly regal, but this… This garden was otherworldly!
"Do you finally admire the Lyl Tallat Gardens, my prince?"
I jolted upright to the sound of the servant's voice. I was studying the gardens so intently that I completely forgot that I was supposed to follow my escort.
"It's quite…stunning…isn't it?"
I nodded. There was no need to hide my feelings this time.
"Yeah…it is."
I heard the servant hum softly in response.
"You never used to appreciate the gardens, my prince. Perhaps…perhaps you are finally beginning to mature…"
My face turned to stone. Had I just given myself away? Had I-
No. Not yet. Act naturally, Emmett. No need to be paranoid. I can use this to uncover more information. Just act naturally.
"Maybe I am." I responded thoughtfully, trying to sound vague with the tone of my answer. "It is…glorious. I cannot imagine how the architect managed to even conceive let alone build such a marvelous garden!"
The servant hummed sorrowfully.
"I don't either, my prince. No one does." He said softly. "It is truly shame that we cannot replicate this work with our own humanly hands. A remnant from a long by-gone era, I'm afraid. They say that this garden was built when the Draconic Overlords ruled the four corners of the World. We think this garden magnificent, but it is told that once, structures much greater and more magnificent than this garden used to exist across the entire land, bringing joy and happiness to all the races that abode in them. But the Overlords and their secret arts are gone, and many of their cities are in ruin, consumed by the monsters that live in them…"
I was still reeling in information by the time the servant finished speaking.
Draconic Overlords? Did that mean there were other peaceful races besides humans at one point?
And what was he saying about the fall of the Draconic Overlords? If they were so powerful, then how did even go extinct?
I really wanted to know the answers to these questions, but it would have to wait. The answers were almost certainly common knowledge in this kingdom, so I was confident that asking the wrong questions would definitely make me look very suspicious. But that didn't mean I shouldn't ask any questions at all. If Hermes didn't care at all about these gardens beforehand, then I could surely pull off a few inconspicuous questions, right?
"Who…do you know who built this garden?" I asked, giving my strategy a shot. "Surely history remembers him, whoever he may be."
The servant gave out a hollow laugh before responding.
"Is that a rhetorical question, my prince? If so, your jest is crude! Our people name these gardens after Lyl Tallat, the name inscribed on the mural of the Hero's Lounge, yet only the Goddess knows if this person is truly the builder of these gardens."
I perked my eyes up as I heard his answer. A rhetorical question? Did I miss something? I only asked a basic question! And that mural was also supposedly built by these Draconic Overlords? How did he know that? They must have built the king's palace around this ancient structure, right?
I had too many questions, and it was frustrating me. A lot. This world was proving to be much more foreign and otherworldly than what I had originally expected.
And I couldn't just ask away like the other heroes!
No!
That would be WAY too easy, am I right?
Instead, I had to carefully consider every single word like a paranoid idiot and pray on my fucking life that I didn't accidentally reveal that I'm some betrayer of the world or something like that! What a joy! I could not be ANY MORE HAPPIER! PRAISE GOD! MY LIFE IS-
Shit. I sighed aloud. I couldn't descend into a mad rant right now. I needed to find out more information. As much as I hated it, I needed to ask sneaky questions. After all, I didn't have much of a choice, did I?
"His name engraved on the mural in the room behind us?" I asked, trying to continue the conversation at hand.
"Precisely." The servant replied. "Although many bypassers fail to recognize it, these gardens and that room, which has been converted into a lounge for the Heroes, are both built by this mysterious Lyl Tallat. Which is interesting. Very interesting."
I looked back at the servant in genuine confusion.
"In what way?"
The servant did not answer right away, instead stroking his long mustache in thought for a few moments.
"You should know this already, but I like to read, my prince." The servant began. "Often more than not, whenever I am relieved from my duties of protecting you, I find myself scrolling through the works at the Royal Archives. And a few weeks ago, I accidentally stumbled upon an old work written in the Golden Age of Durham Kingdom, coincidentally writing about these very two rooms. Interestingly, its contents were borderline heretical."
"Heretical?"
"Yes. It was heretical. I'll explain. Every citizen knows the legend of Sailing Ruler, the first king of Durham who sailed from Southern Continent in order to escape from the hoards the Xryns, the fabled ant kings that dominate over the Great Desolation. The story goes that upon reaching this land he arrived at the gardens standing alone on a hill, he was astounded that its fauna needed no trimming, and its stonework needed no repair. The King immediately praised the goodness of the Goddess and at that moment, decided to found his kingdom on that very hill. Or so the story goes."
"And what did the account say?" I interjected, trying to appear outwardly interested so that he would give as many details as possible.
"According to this account I read, something very different happened. It says that the King never even entered the gardens, in fact. Instead, he entered what is now the lounge, stared at the mural on the floor for a time, then spat on it! Then, he left the structure, only to never enter it again. It was only years later when his grandson now ruled the kingdom that he rediscovered the structure and decided to establish the royal capital around it. A very story different story than what we are told today, don't you agree?"
I nodded slowly in agreement, still mulling over the information that I had just been given. It seemed that my desire to understand this world, its customs, and its history would take a long, long time.
I'll give an analogy to explain.
I felt almost as if I was wadding deep in a dark ocean. I continued to keep swimming forward, trying to find the light, yet the further I swam, the more vast the ocean became in my mind.
That is what I felt like right now. I was trying to find answers, yet at every question I had answered, three more popped up!
"My prince?"
I jumped up as I returned back to reality.
"Ah…yes…I do agree." I replied, quickly regaining my composure and continuing my self-fabricated impersonation of the third prince. "That is quite interesting. But that also raises the question. What story is true?"
The servant immediately scoffed at my question.
"My prince! Your jest could anger the heavens themselves! Do you worship the Goddess, my prince?"
The servant asked the question in a such way that it seemed like he only wanted one answer, so I decided to ignore my confusion and go along with it.
"Of course."
"Then you already know which story is true." He said, turning away from me and continuing the walk through the garden.
"Come, let me lead you to your new quarters, my prince."
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
NotBlind
NotBlind A bit of world-building here. The plot will begin to pick up soon, I just need to set the scene first and foremost before getting into the revenge.
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder