He opened the book and browsed through the specific contents that interested him, but even then, most of the information seemed to be useless details. But some of the things were indeed interesting that he did not know about.
In the distant past, something unimaginably large fell from the skies, but it detonated high in the sky before it could reach the ground. On that day, the whole continent witnessed an event that almost destroyed the world itself.
After that thing detonated in midair, countless black pillars fell from the skies across the entire continent. The pillars pierced the ground in various places of the continent, and they were so tall that they almost seemed to reach the skies. Those black pillars were not too wide, but they were so tall that it is said that they may even get above the clouds.
Many years later, beings called 'Seekers' appeared. What are Seekers?
Beings who can grow stronger through specific ways. The path to becoming stronger was named the Seeker's Path.
Unfortunately, there were no more details in the book. Then he moved on to a few books related to politics. As usual, most of the information was useless.
Suddenly, he heard someone knocking at his door. It was Clara who brought some snacks for him. She entered and put the tray on the table. She said to him in a teasing tone.
"Why is the young master reading a white book?"
Axel looked at her, confused, and he asked her what she meant.
Clara sighed and shook her head, "I was joking, young master, you probably don't know, but to us those books seem white and without any writings."
Axel exclaimed, "You're joking, right?"
Clara shook her head, "No, young master. All the books in the library are magically inscribed. Only the patriarch and his heir can read those books freely. Even the librarian can only read the covers, but no one else can do that. Not that many servants know how to read in the first place. Only the butler has access to some books, that's all."
Axel asked in bewilderment, "How can that be? And what's the reason behind so much secrecy?"
Clara hesitated for a moment and said, "Any information related to Seeker's is very strictly monitored. This is also the reason that there are rarely any Seekers from a commoner's background. If anyone from the commoners suddenly becomes too powerful, all the political hierarchy could shift."
She then leaned closer to him and whispered, "The royal family also would not let any noble become too strong that could overthrow their rule."
Axel's expression changed. In the original story, the main character, the royal prince, faced numerous hardships, but he did not endure the collective suppression of the royal family. He could already see countless headaches coming just because of that.
Clara soon left, and he resumed his reading.
After reading some crucial parts of 2 or 3 books related to politics, he reviewed the information he had.
The Suncrest kingdom had three main factions within,
One, the Royals faction.
Two, the Nobles faction.
Three, the Merchant faction.
All three forces form a kind of power balance that prevents any single faction from becoming too strong or allowing it to do as it wishes. This also enables all three forces to strive and continue to strengthen themselves, so as not to fall behind other forces. The royal family holds total governance power. The Noble faction has private armies and territorial influence. The merchants hold economic and trade power.
There was some information about the academy as well. To be precise, it's called the
'Unified Human Academy', the human lands comprise three great kingdoms and other smaller forces. Those three forces together created the 'Unified Human Academy' that nurtures the best talents of the great kingdoms together.
This creates a competitive atmosphere, and it also shows which great kingdom has the best talents for the next generations. It's a friendly way of competition for the three primary forces of humans.
Axel knew that the Humans were by far the weakest race in the entire continent. It's so damn weak that even a small fraction of any forces might just wipe it out, but the powers in the continent simply act as if humans don't even exist. In a way, it makes sense since humans are in the region of the continent with the lowest amount of energy.
If you reside in lands with greater energy, you have a higher chance of becoming a powerful Seeker. At least that's what he remembered. He skimmed through a few more books, but found nothing useful.
He was too tired and went to sleep. The next morning, the usual routine followed: he trained in the morning, and he performed basic attack stances in the afternoon. Browsed some books in the evening, then went to sleep. Even after two months had passed, he had not received any feedback about his training from the Butler or his father, which occasionally worried him.
He asked William many times about it, but the man only gave him vague answers that did not say anything good or bad about him. His body had changed significantly in two months. He had good muscles on his body by then. Chiseled abs were also visible on his stomach.
Coupled with his blue hair and blue eyes, he looked extremely charming. Even he sometimes felt baffled by how good-looking he was when he saw himself in the mirror. Some maids would occasionally peek at him on the morning training grounds, as he had to train with his upper body exposed.
But Axel knew himself too well; he could enjoy himself with any beautiful maid, but he would not be able to stop himself from continuing to indulge himself in pleasure. The beauty of the maids only made the situation worse. Every single maid was beautiful enough to be a model in his old world.
Even his personal maid was so beautiful, he would stare at her with apparent desire without realizing it. But with a firm will, he kept his mind focused on what he was supposed to do.
He couldn't let himself be distracted.
Axel was assigned another instructor, Lex, who would teach him about politics, merchant trading, and various responsibilities. Train him to be the next heir of the Obsidian Trade. The instructor was assigned to him because Axel was continuously reading books every day despite being dead tired.
Axel was looking for specific information in the books; unfortunately, he did not find it.
But now that he had an instructor who would teach him all the economy-related topics, he could get reports about the surrounding areas and maybe the thing he was looking for.
There were two main components he needed to obtain. One was a bloodline source of a demon. Second is a specific demonic plant that somehow aids in integrating with a demon bloodline, thereby hiding the existence of demon blood.
It was called the "Demonic integration plant." Unfortunately, he couldn't get his hands on a bloodline source at the moment; he could only get the plant. Axel only remembered that the plant was near a small rural village in the Dusker dukedom. Thankfully, The Obsidian Trade also operated in the Dusker dukedoms area, where he lived.
After two months of training, his morning exercises became even more rigorous, and in the afternoon, real combat training replaced the simple attack stances with the sword.
The first day fighting against William went as expected. He got beaten like a dog for almost 3 hours until he fainted. The butler came and fed him a potion, then dropped him in his room. He woke up the next day in a panic; he was almost terrified.
He got up and went to the training again, but there was some lingering fear for William in him now. But William didn't care and proceeded as usual. In the afternoon, when it was time to fight William again, he was visibly scared.
William taunted, "Oh, don't be scared, boy. This is nothing much. We're only going to do more and more every day."
After that, Axel fought with all his might against William, but again, he was beaten black and blue. After taking some rest in the evening, instructor Lex came. Today, he taught Axel about the etiquette and culture of the noble society.
But it was only today that Axel finally heard some news about the traces of the plant he was looking for; to be precise, there were some rumors about a particular rural village in the outer areas of the Dusker Dukedom.
The Dusker Dukedom, situated next to the Royal capital, is valued greatly for its agricultural importance. So, the merchants in the area are often tasked with solving agrarian problems because the authorities are always short on manpower for small tasks, and the outer area frequently suffers from similar issues.
Axel was immediately ecstatic when he read the full report. Although the Obsidian Trade wasn't tasked with solving the problem specifically, they could attempt to do so and might receive a reward. He obviously didn't care about the reward; he only wanted to get his hands on the demonic plant.