Villain's Second Chance

3 - Knowledge And Power

I sat in the library, reading a book about the civil war of Seinaru, one which had taken place a few years ago. I hadn't known of such a major event of our neighboring nation, but that doesn't exactly surprise me.

Astanatus, the continent we live on, is made up of five different nations. Four which live on the main body of land, while the final resides in the floating islands that the main body of land "wraps" around.

There is our nation, Yatager, which worships the God of Fire. We border Seinaru, which worships the God of Water. They're our main source of trade, a reluctant deal inbetween the two of us.

There has always been a rivalry between Yatager and Seinaru, due to the eternal conflict and struggle between our gods.

Seinaru also borders Tristique, which houses the worshippers of the God of Wind. Next to Tristique is Viventium, those of which worship the God of Rock.

And on the floating islands of Tiānshān are the worshippers of the God of Lightning.

All my life, I have been here in Yatager. Never once have I set foot outside of this desert of our nation. And even then, most of my time has been contained within the city of Solus.

Yatager consists of a desert in the upper left corner of Astanatus. One major river flows through the nation, and Solus is situated right next to it, in the middle of the desert.

The desert is a dangerous place. It contains bandit encampments and ruins of some former civilization. And it's filled to the brim with lesser fire Astrals.

Astrals are those which have descended from the Astral Plane, just as our gods. However, they are much weaker in comparison to the five gods. When it comes to us, they are more than deadly.

The ones which reside in the desert are beings made of astral fire that will scorch you alive at a moment's chance, leaving nothing but ashes behind. It's why the desert is rarely traversed, and the reason for the walls around the city.

Even trading only occurs by using the river. No one dares to cross Yatager's desert.

As for the ruins, they are mostly unexplored at the moment. And they will stay that way for a few years. However, I do remember that they will start to be investigated in the future.

I don't remember if there was anything major discovered from that, however. Perhaps the investigations were fruitless. Or perhaps I simply hadn't cared back then.

It easily could've been either. I'll admit, the prospect interests me more this time around rather than in my last life.

Such is the same with books. I had little interest in them in my last life. Even when I had finally been taught how to read, I only used it when necessary.

The wonder of books was lost on me. There are those with fascinating facts and others with wonderfully intriguing stories. I had thought I'd be bored when trying to read, but the end result was the opposite.

I've begun to read about random things instead. I have consumed the words of more books in the past week after my "awakening" than my whole past life.

I've stuck myself in the library for so long that rumors have started to circulate around the servants. Eman has been dutiful in telling me about them in detail.

They can speak as they wish, there is no help in trying to correct wrong ideas. Instead I can continue to further my knowledge in this library.

I do have the whole place to myself. I have not seen a single soul in here this past week other than Eman. And the only reason he's here is because he is my personal servant.