Last Chance [Extra #2]

Part 10

Celosia, intrigued by the story about the ancient mages that Edgar told her about, decided to ask him more about them. For some reason, she found his explanation plausible. It would make sense, although there were some things Celosia found odd. If she was indeed part of that mage nation, why was she maladapted to this world's magic? Did it collide with the ancient mages as well? Was that the reason they were obliterated? Could they not handle the magic and thus it was turned into a weapon to use against them?

The woman had so many questions and so little answers. Hence, she turned to the only source of information available, Edgar. "When was the Great War? I mean, when did the first emperor destroy the mage nation?"

"The Great War started in year 75 of the Imperial calendar. And now it's year 1073."

"So it's been almost a thousand years since then..." Celosia sighed, lightly tapping Edgar's shoulder so he could put her down. She needed to think and being in his arms didn't help. She carefully sat down on a fallen log nearby, but not before Edgar laid out his handkerchief for her.

"In two years, there's supposed to be a huge festival to celebrate the foundation of the Empire. The destruction of the Eastern mage nation was the beginning of the Forbandelse Empire. The history books may not give an accurate description of what happened back then, but I can find them for you if you want."

"Thank you," Celosia smiled gratefully.

"Elena never really studied hard, and that's probably why you don't know this, but the first Emperor and the Pope back then were brothers. That's the reason why the relationship between the Temple and the Royal family is so close," Edgar added quietly, making Celosia blink in amazement.

The Emperor and the Pope were brothers? And they destroyed a mage nation? It wouldn't take a prophet to know why they did that. Celosia lived in too many worlds with different histories to not understand what they attempted.

It eerily reminded her of the crusades she learned about in another life.

Knowing how much the Temple liked its power over the Empire's citizens, it would make sense that the Emperor's conquest of the continent was actually a crusade as well. However, Celosia knew too little about the ancient mage nation to understand everything.

"I really need to learn more about this world if I aim to understand it..." she sighed deeply, dreading the amount of books she was going to have to read. As much as she liked reading, doing so for dozens of lifetimes got a bit boring. There was little that could surprise her.

"I can bring you everything you need from the library, or we could check out the books we have at home," Edgar smiled, remembering how much Elena hated studying when she was little. The difference between her and Celosia was staggering. Now that Edgar knew it was a whole another person living in his sister's body, he noticed all the tiny discrepancies between them. For example, whenever Elena sat down, she would always keep her knees together to look as proper as possible, whereas Celosia casually crossed her legs, with no regard to the long dress she was wearing. Also, Elena would never touch things like sweet potatoes or carrots, disgusted by the fact that they grew in the ground, while Celosia ate absolutely everything. She even ate a steak, a thing Elena would never, ever touch.

It was shocking that their parents didn't notice all those changes, but Edgar couldn't judge them. Until he found out about Celosia, he didn't pay that much attention to her new habits either. The thought made him chuckle lightly.

Celosia looked at him curiously, so he explained, "I've just realized how blind I've been until now," he smiled, but Celosia was only more confused. He decided to clarify, "Now that I know the truth about you, I can see all the small differences between you and Elena, but before I found out, I didn't even notice them no matter how stark they are."