NoGift

Chapter 140: what was the truth?

"I'M done. Can you see everything?" Argent asked her sister who was on the other end of the line.

She was currently at a corner of a narrow alley. She picked that place so no one could see her using her light brain. She just finished putting up the hidden cameras at the northern area of the city. With this, Argent finally had the whole city under surveillance. Well, not really the whole city since she couldn't really set a camera inside the much more important establishments. Like the Apostolic Palace for example. She could but it would be too risky. She didn't want to do something that might ruin her plan. At least not until the day of the festival.

"Yes, I can see everything clearly," answered her sister's voice.

Aurum was inside her room at Casa Royale, holding her sPhone in one hand and a rectangular device similar to an sPhone but much bigger, that her brother called a tablet, on the other. According to her brother, this tablet was connected to all the cameras she set up all over the city. Using this, they could monitor the things that's happening in the city while they're here. Maybe if they're lucky they could even find the whereabouts of that elf much faster thru this.

While talking, her gaze accidentally flashed to a small, unassuming violet stone attached on the wall atop the bed. Because of her brother's suspicion that Casa Royale had a way to monitor its guests, they swept their rooms as early as the first night and did find a magical tool. It's the stone. It's some kind of tool that could record every sound in the room. That's why they never had a meeting in any of their rooms.

Really, these people from the Temple were nothing but a bunch of snakes who couldn't even respect the privacy of anyone.

"You're really okay just staying in your room this day?" Argent asked.

Her sister volunteered to stay in her room to watch the tablet connected to the cameras Argent set up. While Clay, to her knowledge, went out to search additional information about the elf if ever in the off chance that they couldn't find him in the auction.

"Yes, Brother. I'll be fine here," Aurum reassured her brother.

"Okay, then."

Argent ended the call. She was glad that Aurum seemed to be back to normal. Looked like her worry was unfounded after all. She walked out of the alley. Although she finished putting up the cameras in this area, she hadn't set up the much more important device involved in her plan. She needed to be much more careful in setting that up. She's not in a hurry though. She just have to make sure that she would be able to set it around the Holy Temple before the Festival of Creation.

For now, she's relatively free. So, she's going to do one of the things she had planned to do the moment they got here - read the books in the Temple Library. She heard it had the oldest collection of history books in the world. She might be able to find some of the important information she needed there.

Argent continued to walk and then stopped in front of a building that looked like a Greek pantheon. A very big pantheon. She walked inside the building and she immediately noticed how much bigger it was inside. It had five floors. There weren't that many people around. Most of them were just young priests, maybe some were even priests-in-training. Everywhere she looked, all she could see were books, books, and more books. She inhaled deeply, smelling the scent of old paper.

A small smile crossed her lips. Ever since she came to this world, this had been one of the smell she came to love. Probably because her original world didn't have much physical books to begin with. Long before she was born, almost all the books had been turn into a digital copy. Paper became a rare commodity and having a physical book became some kind of luxury.

She walked towards the front desk where an old man wearing a priest's robe was sitting. He's probably the chief librarian here.

"Good day," she greeted. "Where could I find books about history?"

The old man looked up at her. "It's rare for a young person like yourself to visit an old place like this," he said with a kind and gentle smile on his face.

Argent was quite surprised. This was probably the first priest of the Temple she encountered that didn't seem like a scum of the earth. The old man genuinely looked like he's truly kind and gentle. Maybe that's why he's here looking after all these books instead of being a Bishop or an Archbishop.

"I love reading books," she just said.

"Then you can read all the books you like here. At least before five in the afternoon that is. Because that's the time the library closes," the priest said with a little bit of teasing tone. "The history books are in the second floor. But I suggest you check the card catalog over there first," he said pointing to a row of cabinets with small shelves. "It would be much easier for you to look for the books that you wanted if you check there first."

Argent nodded. "Thank you."

She walked towards the card catalog and searched for the locations of books related to Mythos continent and the war that happened 500 years ago. Because the cards were arranged alphabetically, it wasn't that hard for her to look for the books she wanted. After remembering the locations of the books written on the cards, she climbed the stairs towards the second floor. There were shelves after shelves of books. It took a while before she found the books she wanted. Then she took them to one of the tables so she could immediately read them.

She first read the book titled, 'Mythos: A History'. According to the book, Mythos was a continent personally crafted by Gaia. That's why the three races born there were the ones who received most of Gaia's blessings. The dragons with their unimaginable power and bravery, the elves with their beauty and wisdom, and the beastkins with their strength and their desire for victory.

Before the continent closed off, Mythos was the center of trade in the world. Mainly because they have a lot of resources not available anywhere else and the three races could turn resources into wonderful magical tools. They lived peacefully with humans. Although their population was infinitely smaller, no one could doubt their power. The three races ruled over the world.

The same things were said in two other books she read.

Then she went off and read about the war that happened 500 years ago. In Argent's opinion, most of the things happening to her and her family right now was closely related to the event that happened then. All the three books she found told of one thing. That the war was caused by someone called the Silver Witch.

She instigated the three races into fighting with humans. She used the weird contraptions she made into seducing the three races to be on her side. Then at the end, with the lead of the Temple, the humans won. They burnt the witch alive and the three races closed off themselves inside the Mythos continent.

But were all of these true?

She remembered what the remnant of the dragon king said to her that the reason the war started was because of the obsession of a certain demon. That was so far off from the details she read from these books about the war. Unless the demon was that Silver Witch. Which she doubted.

There was something about this Silver Witch. Something that the Temple was hiding. She's like a sword hanging over the head of the Temple. Like a time bomb just waiting to explode. If not, then they wouldn't hate Silver Corporation just for the reason that Argent had the same silver hair as that so-called witch.

Argent closed off the last book. They said that history was written by the winners. So she couldn't really trust the things written in this book. Especially about that Silver Witch.

So what exactly was the truth?

That's the only thing running inside her mind even after she left the library.