บท 27: Some answers
Rows and columns-
Loads of them-
Stacked-
Ready-
A bona-fide library.
She’d missed that papery smell…
“Why’s everything floating?” Maria asked.
The books and the shelves were floating. Stationary but they did bob up and down a bit.
“Oh, it’s more convenient for us…” Risa answered.
Just behind them, two thin men stood quiet. Both wore robes and both had glasses on. Scholars.
Which did answer one of Maria’s question- there were glasses in this world.
“I see, you can leave now.”
Though a royal library, the room wasn’t that big. And the number of books was close to one hundred, not enough…
The books themselves were thick, and made from skin rather than paper?
Was there even paper in this world?
“Huh? But-” Not just disappointed, almost hurt-
Risa wanted to stay here too!
“I’ll call you once I’m done.”
Almost sniffing-
She left.
The two robed fellows didn’t.
“Alright-” Maria paused, sitting down behind a table. “Sit.”
The men bowed and sat down.
No one else in sight.
‘As I thought-’ She breezed through a book. About twenty pages but it was still thick.
And-
She could read.
She could understand.
But-
“I’ll ask some questions and whoever answers the most before the other- will get a prize at the end. But to answer you’ll have to raise your hand first.”
The concerned robed fella’s faces lit up.
All this time they were anxious as to what was even happening.
But now- they almost found new light.
“First- what’s an Owen Noble.”
They put their hands up like children.
“Yes, you-”
Both had similar looks but one, in particular, had three scars on his face.
And that one-
Was the one answering- “Descendants of the prime dragon. They’re said to be half-dragons and half-humans.”
“Go on-”
“To us, they’re a deity of sorts, ranking much higher than demigods and just below gods.”
“Angels-” Maria mumbled.
But were angels ranked higher than demigods?
“Yes.”
“Alright, next question. How many worlds are there?”
Both scholars looked at each other- awfully confused.
‘So, they don’t know?’
In the end, the scarred face reluctantly put his hand up. “Three my lady.”
“Do you need an invitation to go on?” Flat.
Ahem! “The mortal Plains: Entrokia, the land of the Dragonborn and others. The dead zone: Nasth, home to the demons. And the bountiful Ocean: Labalia, home to the merfolk and various other oceanic races.”
A sigh. “I meant worlds, as in another world or something like that.”
“Oh… in that case, plenty. We’re not quite sure how many. I thought you wouldn’t ask something so-”
“Stupid?” Maria asked.
“Simple.” He again cleared his throat. “The next question, my lady?”
“Objectively, what do you think of the demons and the humans and this war?”
This time, the other one shot his hands up first.
“I think the demons are wrong. Let me explain; we all know, it was men who first captured their cities but when they recaptured the cities and even some human cities- they refused to give them back. Even after centuries, they refused to have peace talks and just continued with their subjugation. And now when they were backed into a corner, they suddenly wanted a treaty that incited quite a few lords but the other races were still obliged to actually sign a treaty. However, due to a tragic incident, things didn’t quite work out and we declared war on the demons.”
“I see. What kind of tragic incident might I ask?”
“The demons had murdered a high-ranking noble. Now, normally this wouldn’t have warranted war but due to the circumstances- it was unavoidable.”
For some reason, Maria didn’t like this.
Something-
Something was bugging her. However- “Alright next question, what do you know of the undead Queen?”
“The Undead Queen is said to be one of the strongest mortals- or former mortals in existence.” The man with scars went on without even attempting to raise his hand. Perhaps he’d seen through the farce.
“As I said, do you need an invitation?”
Frowning. “I’m sure my lady already knows of this, but then why is she asking such simple questions?” He said, clearly unsatisfied.
What he spoke so far, was perhaps just common knowledge for the people of this world.
“Jill-” His partner hissed. “You’re being rude-” He cursed under his breath.
“I know Bill…” A sigh- the scarred face kind of slouched. “I’m sorry, it’s just… I thought it was my chance to shine for once… to prove my academic abilities weren’t just for show and… I might have wanted to brag to my peers that I won your quiz…”
“You’re actually on the lead. My questions are simple but that’s because I’m only testing you. Besides, my questions may be simple but- I trust your answers won’t? After all, if you can’t sophisticate a simple answer and provide additional details, what sort of a scholar are you?”
The man with the scar cleared his throat. “The Undead queen originated somewhere around eight hundred years ago. It was said, she overthrew several demigods and gutted them for their blood.”
And he took Maria’s bait almost like a well-trained dog.
“Why?”
“That we’re not certain of but if I had to make a guess, I’d say she wanted to achieve divinity. And our sources support as much. However- she couldn’t.”
“Because the gods stepped in?” Maria took a guess.
“Correct.” And it was a hit. “The gods cursed her with immortality. Now granted, one of her goals was immortality but- but she wanted be a god too. And with that failed, she cursed the heavens and the mortals and started laying waste to everything. She couldn’t die but she couldn’t quite live her dream either; all that remained in her wake was nothing but death and the soldiers of death. The term Undead Queen was a great fit.”
“I see…” Maria shut up.
She thought hard.
But no matter what she thought of-
A lot things were still not making sense.
But one thing did-
As things were-
She couldn’t even try to go against the queen-
“The Hero Summoning requires sacrifice, correct? How many?”
“Ten for each, and depending on the race of the sacrifices, we can surmise how many mages we’d need.”
“What if the number was doubled or tripled for a single summon?”
“Hmm…” The other one wondered. “What’s an interesting question. In most cases, it should fail. Any number higher than 10 effectively halves the success rate. So, if it’s 11, there’s a 45% chance the ceremony would succeed. And for 12, a whole 22.5%.”
So, to summon someone with 940 people… ‘Wouldn’t the rate be much less than 1?’
In fact, much, much less…
Didn’t that make her-
An extreme anomaly?
“Let’s say Hypothetically, you can summon someone with 100 sacrifices, how strong would that individual be or what sort of potential would they hold?”
“At the very least they’d be three or maybe even four times stronger than typical heroes; and heroes themselves are far stronger than a typical soldier. Since we don’t have much data past 16 sacrifice summoning, we don’t know. With how taboo a subject of sacrifice is- we can’t really experiment with it either.”
“If a summon fails-” Maria paused.
She considered the possibilities and when the answer arose on its own… she couldn’t put them into words.
“The sacrifices just turn to mush and perish…”
“I see…” She mumbled. “What happens to the sacrifice in case the summon is successful? What happens to the people’s souls?”
“We’re not certain but we think it’s possible the souls themselves turn into mana capacity and bodies become the body of the new host from another world. The souls burn and give new powers to the individual and that’s why they’re so strong. Of course, that’s just our theory.”
‘So that’s why…’
“Alright, that’s all. You win-” She stared at the scar-faced scholar. ‘Wait, don’t I have to reward them now?’ She might or might not have thought about it. But in the end, she again took a gamble. “You can come out now.”
Why?
It wasn’t because she could see a foot just behind the door or something.
Certainly not because she could see some locks of hair poking either.
And definitely not because she noticed the Dragonborn staring at them this whole time.
No, no, certainly not because of those.
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