If there was a place where all information gathered, then that place could only be one thing.
~The library~
And, that's where Henry decided that would be his next destination after he suddenly remembered he had a bigass library at the mansion which could open this world for him.
So, after returning with Ricarda, he didn't spend the rest of the day at his room like he would have. Instead, he went straight to the library, accompanied by Neila.
"Neila, this may take a while," he said calmly. "You can go back and attend to other things."
She left without complaint.
And, the moment she disappeared from sight, Henry literally dropped to his knees.
'My god…'
'This is the coolest place I've ever seen. I want to live here.'
A simple bookworm reaction.
He had always been addicted to books, though never to novels or stories meant for entertainment. Educational books were his favorite. Learning itself entertained him.
Sometimes Rexy would stare at him in open disgust whenever he suddenly started talking about frogs or some obscure topic out of nowhere.
'Yeah, that bastard...'
This place was paradise.
It was the largest library he had ever seen. The bookshelves towered so high that he couldn't even see where they ended.
Wherever he looked, there were books, endless rows of them.
He felt like he had stepped into heaven.
He might just stay here for the rest of his life finishing all these books.
'I'll definitely find everything I need here. No way a library this big wouldn't have every possible information about this world...'
"But… how am I supposed to reach books that high?"
Henry tilted his head back, staring up. It was completely impossible for someone his size.
Or even to and adult really.
'What witchcraf- Oh! This world has magic! Maybe this is something like that?'
"Come here," Henry said casually, followed by the awkward silent moment of the second hand embrassment of failure and that confidence he had...
He then pouted and slumped into the chair beside him. After thinking for a moment, he started muttering more nonsense, randomly calling out vague commands.
Still nothing. But it was a little fun to be silly. He was eight anyway. So, it's okay.
Finally giving up after the fun, he leaned back and took the moment to think more.
"I should start with myself," he murmured. "No, this family first."
"The Bryxton family."
Henry muttered excitedly, his hopes high as he felt like he had figured out everything in this world already. He can definitely survive here. He is smart enough and there are enough resourses for him to be educated. It was not that hard after all.
Just as he was feeling good, he was startled when he heard a faint sound echoed above him.
There was definetly no other person there. He was dead sure. And...
That sound came from above, so...
Henry, looked up and froze, his mouth wide open, eyes shining.
'What the hell?! This is so fucking cool! Wow!'
Henry wasn't surprised but amused.
Because he had already experienced the beauty of magic.
But this is still so exciting.
He watched as fourteen books floated in the midair, slowly reaching or..dare he say flying toward him, wandering around his hand, like asking to be grabbed.
Encouraged, Henry slowly stretched out his hand and the closest book descended gently into his palm, as if afraid of startling him...
That was enough.
Henry was instantly obsessed.
He guided the remaining books down too and stacked them carefully, his excitement practically radiating now more than he was before about the library.
"So cool! It's like a search application!" he whispered excitedly. "The moment I say what I want, the books come to me! Huh! Isn't this like the coolest thing ever?!"
He laughed alone for so long that his cheeks began to ache. Pinching them lightly, he finally picked up the first book, locking back in as he reminded himself he was not here to have fun.
"Bryxton Curse?"
His mood instantly soured as he read the cover page, taken aback a little.
"… There is a curse after our name? Or...are we cursed?"
Swallowing hard, he flipped open the first page.
A picture greeted him.
It was a beautiful woman.
"No name?"
The text listed her name as No name.
He couldn't tell whether she truly had no name… or whether that was her name, or the person who wrote this book didn't know her name.
He couldn't come to assumptions either as he had only been confused since he grabbed this book. So he kept going on as question after question piled up in his head.
"Agh! What is this?"
Henry flipped to the next page, then unintentionally screamed and flung the book away.
'Fuck! That scared me.'
He hadn't expected anything. He had turned the page carelessly.
And what he saw?
Was a picture.
That's it.
Except, it's not normal.
Very weird, but like...in an unhinged, crazy, disgusting and scary way.
It just a picture but maybe because Henry was the type to get paranoid after watching a ten minute of a horror movie clip so it's kind of fair he get startled like that and see weird shit like pictures moving.
'What in the disgusting fuck is that in that picture?'
Henry rubbed his chest and thought back to what he saw.
The first thing he noticed was the head..of whatever that thing was.
Then he saw there were four of them.
The heads.
And he noticed, they were four identical female heads, each with the same features but different expressions. Long hair flowed from all of them.
That wasn't the most terrifying part or the weird part.
It was the body, again, of whatever that thing was.
All four heads shared a single body, one that wasn't human at all.
On the left was a human arm. On the right, instead of an arm, there was a human leg.
The illustration stopped at the creature's navel.
And embedded in the center of its chest...
It was a dog's head.
And, Its mouth was open, as if something was dripping from it, maybe illustrated very realisticly...
Henry was already a little weirded out, but then, his eyes just stopped at that dog's head for a little longer.
And that dog's eyes fucking opened!
And those eyes fucking blinked!
Or so he saw...
Terror slammed into him and that's the moment, he screamed and hurled the book away, gasping for breath. His heart pounded violently,
"Fuck! What was that?!"
He now stared at the fallen book from a distance, very hesitant to even go near because he wasn't dreaming now. That shit happened, for real. The weird glued together creature's dog head definitely did that...
But...Henry was also that overly curious guy.
He couldn't ignore it and move on.
He wanted to check it again, despite basically having a mini heart attack...
After a moment, he forced himself to calm down.
This world has magic, he reasoned. Maybe the illustrations are enchanted to look realistic, he reasoned again.
Gathering his courage, he picked the book up again, hands trembling so much.
This time, he grabbed another book and immedietely covered that picture completely before opening his eyes which were squinted trying to avoid the picture as he realised he should first read the description to know what exactly was going on with that.
So he now focused only on the text beneath it, letting out a long breath.
"This is 'It.'
'It' was born from the sins of the people.
To punish them, God sent 'It' to Bryxton.
'It' became the curse of the Bryxton family.
Dukes would die before reaching the age of eighteen.
The curse follows every male with Bryxton blood.
Run, maybe you will survive.
Or, 'It' will kill you."
Henry slowly closed the book and took another deep breath, a frown forming.
'...Now that's even scarier...'
From a logical perspective, it sounded like nonsense.
Yet…
This was a magical world.
And to add to this shit... the original owner of this body actually had died before turning eighteen though not so weirdly.
'I died before eighteen. But it can't be related to this nonsen-...'
Henry somehow hesitated to call this nonsence.
In a world that has magic, anything could happen, anything could exist...He just doesn't know...
And, this...
'This shit is fucking depressing. What do you mean...there is a curse in this family?!'
Henry even regretted a little reading this.
If he hadn't searched for this, he wouldn't have known. And if he didn't know, he wouldn't suffer thinking about it.
And now he has to worry about a damn curse too.
'Wonderful...'
But even so...
He turned the next page.
Eyes squeezed shut, he flipped it, then slowly peeked through his fingers.
This time, the picture wasn't frightening.
It was a boy. A very normal boy.
Henry relaxed.
That boy was young. Smiling. Happy.
And...
He kind of resembled the duke, a lot but Henry was sure this wasn't him. And he was right...
Beneath that image, the text read:
"Felix.
The older son of the fifteenth Duke of Bryxton.
He died on his fourteenth birthday in his bed.
His heart was missing.
Later, it was discovered near Bryxton Lake, pierced by a knife.
Another young life taken by 'It.'"
Henry's breath caught.
"His heart was taken… and found near the lake?"
The scene replayed itself in his mind without permission, making him shiver.
Things were getting weirder and weirder. Scarier and scarier...
Turning the page again, Henry froze, again.
"The mean guy…"
Henry's expression twisted in disgust as he stared at the familiar face.
"Then why are you still alive, hm? According to the curse, every male dies before 20, right? And this guy is definetly past his 20 now."
Henry though as he chuckled sarcasticly.
The caption read:
"The youngest son of the fifteenth Duke of Bryxton."
'Oh. So the first guy was the mean guy's elder brother.'
Henry was now a little intrigued and looked forward to the duke's details more than the others becaue given the information he just read, this guy is a mystery. An escapee from a curse following their bloodline...
"Let's see what this says about you."
Henry started reading.