Chapter 61: The Vorath’s Original World

Arlo kept his head bowed until the king disappeared from sight, his eyebrows still furrowed in confusion.

[Strange.]

The golden notification panel flickered in and out in front of Arlo as his eyes sparkled with light.

’It’s truly strange. Really strange, to be honest. But I don’t know if it’s thinking the same thing as I am...’

"In what way?"

Arlo asked the System, wanting to check if it had reached the same conclusion as him.

[There is no doubt about it. He definitely knows a thing or two about what your real body is.]

[He might even know that you’re a half-Fallen Angel.]

The System’s response caused Arlo to give a small nod of approval.

He would be stupid not to realize that the king definitely knew something about his body, something that even he himself might not be aware of.

He couldn’t help but turn his attention toward his pale white skin and feathery wings. King Eboncrest had said they weren’t there merely for decoration.

It was safe to assume that his strange bodily attributes possessed some type of power he didn’t know about yet, but one important enough to make the king leave his castle specifically to tell him about them.

"Whatever it is, I’ll find out soon," Arlo whispered to himself before turning his attention toward the fallen tree.

Then, he once more sat down cross-legged and continued training his Dark Magic Manipulation.

While it might take others years to properly develop the ability, Arlo could gain an advantage over them simply by leveling up his Dark Magic Manipulation Skill, making his connection with Mana feel closer than ever.

"It’s almost like an unfair cheat. What would take others years would only take me a few Ability Upgrade Cards..." he mused as he continued meditating, the ball of Mana above his hands slowly but surely changing its form.

When the rays of the sun shone the next morning, he met Princess Milliani once more.

Shocked to find that he had spent the entire night outside, she was immediately coerced into directing him toward the library.

From then on, Arlo spent his days inside the library, devouring everything he could learn about the Vorath settlement, while his nights were dedicated to practicing his Vorath Mana Manipulation.

And so, the remaining days quickly passed by, almost as fast as a shooting star.

____________

Six days later...

The castle’s library was a sanctuary of ancient Vorath knowledge.

Shelves lined with books of all sizes and colors stretched from floor to ceiling, creating narrow aisles that invited exploration. The scent of aged paper and wood polish lingered in the air.

Near a large window that allowed streams of natural light to enter, a young man sat in an overstuffed armchair, absorbed in the book in his hands.

The sunlight cast a warm glow over his face, highlighting his focused expression, while the table before him held a stack of books waiting to be explored.

Occasionally, his fingers turned a page with a soft, whispering sound.

"For a second, you remind me of Demois..."

The gentle voice rang throughout the library, its source being none other than a light-brown-haired beauty approaching him from the distance with a small smile gracing her lips.

Arlo looked up and bowed his head.

"Queen Isadolla..." he greeted respectfully, earning a nod from her.

Throughout his stay in the palace, he had often been accompanied by the Queen during his reading sessions, and she occasionally helped him with questions he had.

She would also revise his knowledge by asking him questions about the books he had read.

"Even though the castle could almost rival a hundred normal settlements, you have only ever been in the library or outside in the garden."

"Don’t you feel exhausted? It’s been almost a week, after all..." Queen Isadolla said, her worry as clear as day as she came to sit beside him and placed the tray she held down.

It contained a cup filled with a nice-smelling brown liquid.

She had found the boy interesting ever since hearing his tale from Demois, yet his stay within the palace had only amazed her further.

The young man’s strict schedule of cultivating through the night and reading throughout the day for almost an entire week without a single break had left her speechless.

Such a level of focus and dedication was rare even among adults, much less in a sixteen-year-old boy.

But what was even more shocking was the young man’s speed when it came to devouring knowledge.

He could read entire books in mere hours, and when asked questions from anywhere within them, he could perfectly state the answers from memory, rarely making a single mistake in the process.

She could have perhaps believed that the boy possessed some strange memory ability that allowed him to never forget what he read, but that wasn’t the case.

The young man didn’t simply spew out answers directly from the book.

He was able to explain his own understanding of what he had read, and although some of his interpretations were occasionally wrong, she could then correct him and explain things further.

It brought Queen Isadolla great joy, as it was almost as if she had returned to the time when her own son, Demois, had developed a strange obsession with reading before his duties as a prince eventually cured him of it.

"The test is only a day or two away, and I can’t afford to fail it. Especially not when I am participating under the royal name of the Eboncrest family..."

Arlo replied after taking a sip of the coffee.

He had been reluctant to accept it on the first day she gave it to him, but as time passed, it had become part of his routine, and he had learned to accept it from her.

"You’ve already read all the materials that will be covered. Personally, I think you’ll do just fine."

"Well, it never hurts to know a little something more..." Arlo replied.

"For the royal name of the Eboncrest family, huh. I wish that roughneck down there could think like that..."

Isadolla said as she looked toward the wall of the library, her eyes seemingly piercing through it and another ten walls before settling on a room where a girl could be seen sneakily tapping away at a human phone underneath her bed.

"Tsk, that roughneck..." she grumbled before turning her attention back to Arlo, who slowly laid down the book he was reading, having clearly finished it.

Now, he was done with the extra books he had thought were relevant to him.

If there was one place Arlo loved the most in the Vorath castle, he would say it was the library.

It was a place where he could learn about the ancient secrets of the Vorath, and from within it, he could even learn about the planet from which the Vorath themselves had once come, the Elmoran Planet.

"Something is bothering your mind. Why don’t you share it with me?" Queen Isadolla suddenly said, almost as if she could read his mind.

Arlo had noticed the Queen’s strange behavioral patterns, such as constantly staring through walls, her ears perking up strangely, or sometimes her lips moving despite no words coming out, even though he later learned that she was talking to someone around three blocks away.

Such things only showed Arlo that he was currently sitting before an entity hundreds of times stronger than him.

And now, it was almost as if she could read his mind. In short, her observation skills were top-notch.

"I was just wondering what Elmoran looks like and how it compared to here... Earth."

Arlo’s words caused Isadolla’s eyes to flash with memories.

"Many of our kind would argue that it was the greatest place to ever exist."

She paused before continuing.

"I, for one, am among the very few people who were able to witness Elmoran in its true greatness."

"There was no war, nor had there ever been one, and Mana was more than abundant."

"Furthermore, the settlements were complete in number, unlike now, when we have been reduced to just four..." she said as Arlo nodded.

Through the ancient pages, he had learned that the Vorath were actually made up of a total of seven major families, each of them being Vorath but possessing their own special and distinctive features.

But when the cataclysm came, they were divided, with only four of the seven coming to Earth while the remaining three stayed within Elmoran.

"But is there at least a possibility of us being able to return to Elmoran?"

"Such a place with such beautiful memories should be somewhere we strive with every living breath to find once more, don’t you think?"

Arlo said, but Queen Isadolla sighed.

"It’s impossible to return to Elmoran, Arlo."

"When we arrived on Earth, we did all we could to find a way back using every resource we were able to salvage from the humans, along with our own knowledge."

"We spent two hundred years researching it, and all it did was lead us to a single conclusion. We would never be able to return."

"So, you then changed your plan to dominate Earth and turn it into the new Elmoran?" Arlo asked, almost reflexively.

And in that moment, the world stilled into silence as the golden notification panel flashed before him in bold letters.

[TO ASK HER SUCH A QUESTION... HAVE YOU GONE MAD!?]

Arlo didn’t notice it. He never thought of the question twice before he asked, only realizing after it’s already done.

Slowly, he turned his head to look at Queen Isadolla.