[Melas] - Chapter 97: Meeting People (Patreon)

The Library of Taw had a lot of books. No, seriously, it had a lot of books.

Unlike the libraries of Earth where half the building was just there for show or for other administrative stuff, the Library of Taw was purely a place of books. Rows and rows and rows of shelves stuffed to the brim with leatherbound pages, newspapers, or just articles from the past created a giant labyrinth that I could barely even navigate through.

The print press industry had made reading and writing commonplace in Taw, but I did not expect them to have more books than even a University library!

Also— the fact that the print press already existed meant that I couldn’t bring any inventions to this world! Maybe if I had actually gone to University, and hadn’t been murdered while I was in High School, I’d be able to do something in this rapidly growing world!

So now, I just stuck with what I had to do. And that was to survive. And maybe learn about Space Magic.

Because I had been intrigued by what Elara said; I was not going to… try to get back to Earth. Or at least, go back permanently. My life was already gone.

However, if it was possible for me to somehow cross through dimensions as a soul and be born here thanks to some jerk god, it should be possible for me to at least take a look back, right? Maybe I can check up on my family, see how they’re doing. Will they be 13 years older on Earth right now? Or does weird space-time stuff mean they’re suddenly younger or older? Or how would that work?

It hurt my head, so I didn’t think about it. Instead, I had Gennady lead me through the Library of Taw so I wouldn’t get lost.

“You’re looking for books about space stuff, right?” The Dwarf guided me past a few corners— I was pretty sure we were going in a circle until we came across a large, regal double door. He stopped and gestured at it. “Everything beyond here holds the real academic books and journals you can find in this place. If there has ever been any research into space manipulation through mana tech, it’d be in here.”

“Am I even allowed in there?” I asked, raising a brow.

“Nope,” he snorted and faced me. “Not without me. That’s why I’m here.”

He pushed the door open and entered a small, gilded hallway. The walls were lined with Steel Golems— their decorated plate-like armor gleaming under the golden mana lamp above. A single Dwarf stood up from a cushioned chair and turned to us.

“Halt. Did you read the sign outside? Public visitors are not allowed in this part of—”

“Bah, you still working this boring job Balta? It’s me, Gennady!” My Dwarven companion laughed and stepped forward.

The guard— Balta— blinked. “Gennady? Is that you?”

“Yeah it’s me,” Gennady said, grinning. “This lass and I want to pass through to the private section of the Library. We got some books we’re looking for.” He strutted forward uncaringly, then stopped mid step as one of the Steel Golems lowered their weapons at him. He blinked and Balta bellowed.

“You don’t have a permit, you bloody moron! You’re not allowed in here!”

“I’m… not?”

“‘Course not! You haven’t been part of the MTRD team for a decade. What in Hell made you think you could come in here and not get attacked by our damned Steel Golems?” Balta scoffed, shaking his head. “You’re as mad as you were before you left.”

“Oi— I’ll have you know I’m even more mad than before.” Gennady crossed his arms and gave the other Dwarven man a mock glare. I glanced over at him.

“MTRDT?” I cocked my head.

“Ah, the Mana Technology Research and Development of Taw.”

“That’s one long acronym,” I pointed out.

“Well, it is. And that’s where I used to work. But I guess since I’m not, they ain’t letting me in.” He shrugged and turned around. The Steel Golems relaxed, and Balta shook his head, sighing.

“Are we going to give up and leave?” I wrinkled a brow and eyed my Dwarven companion.

“What do ye want me to do about it. Balta is being a prick—”

“I’m just doing my job.”

“And these Golems won’t listen to me even though I invented them. It sucks, doesn’t it?” He gave me a morose look. I frowned.

“But aren’t you with the government or something?”

“Nope.” He spoke cheerfully. “I’m just friends with Adilet, remember?”

“Mhm. Can’t he give us permission to use the Library though?” I raised an eyebrow and he shrugged.

“Maybe,” Gennady said. “Or maybe not. But we’ll have to go to the House of Or’tag since he oversees those damned pointless debates.”

“I’ll meet you there after I’m done.” I glanced around at the vast library behind me. “I’ll take a look around to see if I can find anything.”

“Good luck, and don’t get lost. Find a librarian if you do— they’d be wandering around somewhere.” Gennady turned and waved at me.

“I won’t,” I promised, knowing full well I wouldn’t be able to keep it.

“And… I was right.” I sighed, running my hand against the wall. Except, it wasn’t a wall. It was a shelf full of books that extended up two dozens of feet up to the ceiling. And it covered the entire wall. “I’m lost.”

I pulled my hand back as I came by a ladder. It was made of wood, and it followed the length of the wall-shelf full of books, presumably allowing someone to climb up and grab the book they wanted. It seemed dangerous at first, however, I saw a Dwarf using it and it was safe because of the mana tech built into it.

Apparently, there was some kind of tinkering done which made it so it couldn't fall off the ladder. Some kind of gravity runes inscribed into the mana crystals protruding from the bottom and the top of the ladder. And the main reason why such a complex tool was built to keep someone from hurting themself from just climbing was because it wasn't just used for climbing—

I pushed the ladder and it wheeled forward. No matter how you look at it, this is not stable at all. But mana tech was like magic. And with magic, one would be able to keep themselves from falling even when being pushed around while on a tall ladder.

It was an overly complex tool though, that much was true. I shook my head and muttered under my breath. “Why couldn’t they just build this place like a normal library…”

“It’s because Dwarves hold their crafts to high esteem,” a smoky voice said.

I turned around and blinked. A man stood before me— a scraggly old man. Probably in his 60’s. He was dressed in a loose fitting brown suit, and his tie was disheveled. He had messy gray hair, and while he didn’t have a beard, it only revealed his wrinkled cheeks for all to see.

His left shoulder leaned into his right as he hobbled over with a hunch; the most proper thing about this man was the regal cane he used to support himself with his right hand. His other hand held a thin black pipe with a scentless smoke wisping off it.

And while these were all quite notable features, I didn’t really pay attention to it. In fact, the only thing I really took notice of was the fact that he was a Human.

I didn’t hold any pointless conversation or pretend to be dense. I simply eyed the man and spoke up. “You’re… Bertrand?”

He paused mid step and waggled his brows. He laughed heartily and took a puff of smoke from his pipe. “Why yes I am. It seems my reputation precedes me. And here I thought I’ve done a good job keeping my face off the media.”

“Oh I didn’t recognize you or anything. I just knew that a Human Scientist worked for Taw, and that you frequented this library.” I spoke truthfully— there was no reason for me to lie, after all. It was rather obvious.

“Ah… of course,” he laughed, shaking his head. “And you, you’re Melas, correct?”

I narrowed my eyes. “I am,” I admitted. “How do you know about me?”

“I’ve heard a little bit about you. From Adilet.”

“The King? Wait—” I paused. “How much did he tell you.”

“He told me about your circumstances. About your… secret.” Bertrand smiled kindly at me; I took a step back, however he waved a hand off. “Oh don’t worry about that. I am not prejudiced against such trivial matters. That had been one of the reasons I left the Holy Xan Empire.”

“And not for any other reason?” I gave him a dubious look. He just shrugged.

“Perhaps there were other disagreements. However, not all of them are very flattering. I’m sure Gennady has told you himself.” His eyes twinkled and I stared.

“Wait, how did you know?”

He smiled and I smacked my forehead.

“Right, the King.”

“Of course,” Bertand said and placed both his hands on his can just under his chest. “So, Miss Melas, I heard something about being lost. Might I help you with finding your way through this labyrinth?”

“Oh, you’ll do that for me?” I asked, suddenly feeling embarrassed with how rude I just had been with him. So much for trying not to be so paranoid. Gennady had talked quite a bit about why he didn’t like Bertrand, but he never called him an evil person once. Or warned me about him. So why did I have to be so suspicious?

The old man nodded. “Are you looking for anything in specific? As you said, I frequent this library, so I know how to navigate around it like it’s my own home.”

“I, uh, sure. Thanks—” I bit my lower lip and managed to muster up an apology. “And sorry for being rude earlier. It… happens sometimes.”

Bertrand chuckled. “A few words aren’t enough to hurt me. I know I may look brittle now, but I’ve weathered many verbal storms throughout my life. And I’m still here.” He gestured for me to follow him. “Now what were you looking for?”

“Uh… about that…”

I told Bertrand that I was looking for books about Space Magic— he didn’t seem prejudiced against spellcasters, and he already knew my secret. He inquired why I needed such books, but I did not elaborate.

“I know of some books here, about runes that could affect space itself. But only a few of them are publicly accessible.”

“Could you show them to me?” I asked uncertainly.

He smiled. “Of course. Come, I’ll bring you to them.”

I bowed my head gratefully at him and slowly walked next to him. He didn’t exactly have a limp, however he didn’t exactly walk quickly either. Eventually, we reached a section of the library I didn’t recognize— the walls were no longer lined with books, and this looked more like a modern library. As in, very minimalistic.

“Here,” Bertrand said and pulled a book from a gray shelf. “This has to do with enchantments that can alter space. Nothing too drastic— it contains things like expanding a small area of space within a certain boundary or linking two different places in space to each other.”

“Wait, do you mean things like creating dimensional storage or teleportation?” I blinked and stared at him.

“Yes, it is a rather advanced theory on tinkering and enchantments. You’ll need a little bit more time to study it— perhaps ask your friend to teach you some things. But you can bring it back with you, to borrow.”

“Haa… a little advanced?” I sighed but steeled myself. I held the book to my chest and bowed at him. “Thank you, Bertrand. For your help.”

“Anytime, Miss Melas. If you’re ever interested in chatting, you know where I frequent.” The Human Scientist nodded my way and turned to go.

I watched him leave and looked down at the leatherbound book in my hand. Space, Dimensions, and its Applications. I sighed.

“Time to read I guess.”

A few hours later, I left the Library of Taw with the book in a bag and headed for the House of Or’tag. I was stopped by the guards on the way in, but when I told them I was with Gennady and said my name, they let me in since he told them I was coming.

I strolled through the halls of what was the main governmental building of the Taw Kingdom. It was dimly lit for whatever reason— only a few mana lamps placed every so often to give a light ambience of illumination. It was dark now. The sun was setting and I was very much lost.

Until I heard the booming voice escape from a large set of double doors just up ahead.

“Order! I said order you bloody fools!”

Wait, is that…? I recognized the voice; it was almost unfamiliar, however I knew who said that.

I peered through the cracks of the door and saw an expansive room filled with tables and desks set in opposing sides of the room. In the center was a podium. Or a kind of nave. And there stood Adilet, the king of Taw.

“Settle down, and we can have this meeting adjourn at a proper time!”

A babble of voices slowly quietened and I spotted Gennady sitting in a corner with his arms crossed. I didn’t know he was into politics— or wait, is he? He seemed like he was accompanying someone, rather than actually participating in any of the arguments and discussion going on.

A voice broke up and a woman stood up, raising her hand.

“Your majesty, I must interject—”

“Sit down, Kamshat— and no, that’s not because you’re a woman. You do not stand when I’m standing!” Adilet spoke over her, his voice reverberating throughout the room.

The woman, Kamshat, blanched and sat down with a harrumph. Another Dwarf sitting behind her shouted.

“Oi you bloody twat, you can’t just dismiss the Farmers Party like that!”

Adilet frowned.

“You do not use that language while in the House of Or’tag, Anuar! The Farmers Party may have sway over the Builders Party, but not over me!”

There was a cheer— a babble of arguments. But Adilet swung a hammer down, loudly banging against a metal plate. I winced and covered my ears. That’s not a wooden hammer, that’s literally a smithing hammer!

Angry voices came from the Farmers Party— and what I presumed was the Builders Party. Some called him out on his use of vulgar language just beforehand, however he swung his hammer again and they silenced themselves.

“You lot are overly excitable. Especially over this contested topic on what we should do about the Puer Kingdom’s infractions over our land. We shall adjourn this meeting and finish this discussion tomorrow. Dismissed!”

With a final swing of the hammer, Adilet turned around and left the room. There were some protesting voices— minor quibbles breaking out as the members of the House of Or’tag began to pour out of the room. However, the meeting ended and they did as they were told.

I stepped to the side as Dwarves of all kinds began to exit from the double doors. There were a few Humans and Goblins, and a single Beastkin. I raised my eyebrow at that— however decided it wasn’t too unusual for such a vast city like this to have at least one anomaly in it.

They all gave me weird looks as they passed through, but I heard a handful— one of  them being the Dwarf woman from earlier, Kamshat— point at me and whisper my name. A few of them gave me dismissive looks, others sympathetic, but Kamshat and what I assumed were the members of the Builders Party glared at me.

Not everyone likes spellcasters then. Gennady, Adilet, and Bertrand are just weirdos. But they were good weirdos. And I appreciated them for it.

I caught Gennady as he left— being one of the last people to exit with his friend. He smiled when he saw me. “Oi Melas. Meet Erzhan. And Erzhan this is Melas— the one who Ginah’s been talking about.”

“Erzhan?” I blinked then quickly bowed my head. “Thank you for helping out Ginah. Seriously, I appreciate it.”

The Dwarf— one of the younger ones I had personally met, but still looking at around 50 years old— smiled. He had bright orange hair and deep green eyes. As well as a shorter beard than most. “Ah, Melas. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

He held out a hand and I took it. “It’s nice to meet you too.”

“And I’m sure we’ll be able to acquaint ourselves much better in the future. However, as of now, I have to go. My lovely Bakyt is waiting for me at home, and this meeting ran rather late.”

Gennady snorted. “You can say that again.”

I waved goodbye at the Dwarf man then followed Gennady as he led us out of the House of Or’tag. “I overheard some of the conversations in there. Is something happening with the Puer Kingdom?”

“Bah, those madmen. We’ve never had the best relationship with them, fighting border skirmishes from time to time. But they’ve been extremely aggressive against us as of late.”

“Why is that?” I asked, peering at him.

“We think it’s because things are getting unstable with their current king. People aren’t liking how things are, and he’s losing influence. So he’s trying to use war as a means to unite the country together by making us, an old enemy, to be the bad guys.”

“That’s bad, isn’t it?” I pointed out the obvious.

Gennady nodded, a grim look on his face. “Indeed. And what makes it even worse is that some people in the House of Or’tag are suggesting we use the Mana Bomb— that super weapon Bertrand has been developing— to test out its efficacy on them. And maybe prevent war altogether. But they don’t know how many dead innocent civilians that would cause.”

“I’m assuming it’s the Builders Party and Farmers Party suggesting that?”

“Uh, yes.” He furrowed his brows. “How’d you know that?”

“They seemed to be the type.” I shrugged. “Well,” I said and looked heavenward, “I hope things don’t turn for the worst.”

.

.

.

That was definitely not going to happen. So I quickly changed subjects to something else so as to not jinx myself.

“By the way, I met Bertrand in the library.”

“Wait, what?!”

Author's Note:

Just a heads up, but I've decided to place Melas Book 1 into Kindle Unlimited next week just to see how it does. If I'm not happy with it, I'll pull it from KU and restore the chapters onto RR, SH, and my site. But until then, I'll see how it goes.

Sorry for the late chapter. Been busy doing all that stuff.

THIS WON'T AFFECT RELEASE SCHEDULES OF MELAS WHATSOEVER. IN FACT, IF IT DOES WELL, IT MIGHT MOTIVATE ME TO WRITE EVEN FASTER THAN BEFORE.