Kaiser's POV
Once again, I was trapped in an impossible situation, and this time I couldn't just sit on my hands and wait for things to calm down.
"If I get the chance, I should probably just kill that bastard…" I muttered, face dark, as I left my room.
I had to find a way, any way, as long as it guaranteed my survival. At first I seriously considered running away from Paragon County. Did I have no shame? Where had my knightly pride gone?
Screw all that nonsense. I'd lived long enough in my original world to know that fake pride only existed to entertain the crowd. Dying as a hero while trying to save characters from a novel who saw me as nothing but dead weight? Why the hell would I do something like that?
But the situation was more complicated than I'd thought. There was no guarantee that leaving this place would let me live, and even if it did, it would ruin my long-term plans… In the end I had no choice but to fight for my survival. Who ever said life was easy?
Letting out a sigh, I moved quickly, walking through various rooms in the mansion. Thanks to the memories of the previous owner, navigation was easy and I avoided unnecessary trouble.
After a few minutes of walking, I finally reached my destination. What better place than the family library to learn more about this world? Who knows, I might even find something useful in there.
Pushing open the large door, which creaked as it slowly swung inward, I stepped inside and entered the grand Paragon family library.
The room was even bigger than my bedroom. Gigantic columns stretched up to a ceiling completely covered with carefully arranged books. The sight was breathtaking; calling this place a bastion of knowledge wouldn't have been an exaggeration.
After a few seconds of admiration, I calmly walked toward a small, neatly organized desk in the corner, equipped with a lamp and a chair that looked very comfortable even from a distance.
I didn't particularly like reading (except novels, of course), but I had to make some compromises. If I wanted to survive, there was no other choice… Well, unless the asshole who transported me here gave me a damn system that could make me strong overnight. That would change everything, but until then I had to stick to the traditional method and hope it worked.
On the desk, a few books were already sitting there, and judging by the thin layer of dust covering them, they'd been untouched for a while.
"Fuuuu."
I picked up the first one and blew on it, trying to clean it as best I could. The language they were written in was foreign to me, yet somehow I understood it perfectly. The first book, bound in leather and smelling of old paper, seemed to be about the history of the world.
I opened it and decided to skim through it. I already had considerable knowledge of this world (after all, I'd read the novel), but who knows, I might find something interesting… So I started reading.
There were six continents in this world.
Island Mist, the foggy continent about which almost no information existed. At one point the empire, wanting to explore it, sent warriors whose strength was far from negligible, yet none of them ever returned. Sometimes ignorance is the safest path, and the empire learned that lesson the hard way.
Then there was the Elven Continent, divided into two kingdoms: the Kingdom of Yggdrasil, formed around the ancient tree of the same name. The forest stretched as far as the eye could see and was considered sacred ground its inhabitants would defend to the death. To fulfill that duty, they had split into four clans: Sol, Luna, Spina, and Aqua…
The names were absolute garbage. The author must have either been exhausted or completely high as hell when he picked them.
Directly opposite the Kingdom of Yggdrasil was the Kingdom of Babylon, home to the dark elves. Unlike their cousins, their realm was mainly industrial and divided into three towers: the Tower of Fire, the Tower of Alchemists, and the Tower of Witchcraft.
Next was the continent we knew the most about: the Human Continent, where the Empire of Alexandria stood, the very place I was in right now.
It was a mostly human theocratic empire ruled by the emperor, beside whom stood the six legendary bloodlines; he himself being the seventh of those legendary families. If I'd been reincarnated into one of them, I'd never have these problems. Power was everything in this damn world.
The demi-human continent, Arcadia, was basically one giant supermarket, except instead of fresh vegetables, the empire (or rather human mercenaries) regularly went there in secret to enslave beastmen. There were many tribes, about thirty, all enemies of one another. It was a feast for those barbarians; they captured them and resold them here in Alexandria through the illegal slave trade.
My nanny, Ruby, was one of those slaves torn from her homeland. And it was exactly this same slave-trade bullshit that threatened to get me killed before I could even make my debut in this world.
Finally, there was the continent nicknamed "hell on earth," Tenebris, home to various monsters that wouldn't hesitate to kill even their own parents. Truly a creepy place.
After an hour spent poring over the information in that book, I decided to take a break. My eyes had had enough of the black letters, and the yellowish light wasn't helping at all.
Leaning back against the chair, I stared at the ceiling, letting my thoughts drift as I slowly closed my eyes.
End of POV