Innocence

Chapter Two

That evening, I was walking passed the doors of the library. Walking in the moonlight perhaps wasn’t so bad, after all. The gleaming and flawless light, it was reflected by the moon, and how lucky it was for me, to see the beauty Allah Swt had created for us. The marble floors of the hallways, were pale and cold as usual, but the candles surrounding the hallways made it warmer and made the marble looked like cream, instead of light grey. I gazed at the night sky through the gigantic windows, and thought of something for awhile. It had been about three days I’ve been awoke for hours passed my usual bedtime routine, yet I wasn’t sleepy enough to go to sleep and I wasn’t intended to go to sleep. I’ve had no idea of what was wrong with my sleeping, and I wanted to know about it. But by the end, I’ll find a way to bring back the normal sleep I used to have.

If Mother saw me at this time, she would be mad and she would gave me her usual counsel; the long but mocking ones. The Palace was hollow, and at this hour, some of the adults were still awake; whether it was because of sleep disorders or something I don’t want to know.

Bored, I walked towards the doors of the library and one of the guards of the doors opened it for me. As the doors opened, I walked in. I grew up among intelligent people who dedicated their lives to their works, and they introduced me to reading books. I could finish about 3 books in a week, and Mother told me that my habits of reading so often, was just like the habits of a bookworm. Every time she walked pass the library and found me behind the books, she would said, ‘Aye a bookworm!’. As for Father, he would closed my book and said, ‘Oops’. Then he will ran off, laughing while I was frustrated to look for the page I was reading. He inherited his mischievous habits to Ethan. But Ethan, he was cruel, than mischievous.

The library was black, with horizontal golden lines on the walls. The floor was carpeted in red. The shelves were made of fine wood, with thousands of books on each shelf. There might be about twenty to thirty shelves in the library. The library was opened for public, and sometimes we have a feast together with the peasants. They were welcomed here. The tradition started when the Household was created or when Islam was established. The people were happy about it, as we gave them crops for free if they visited us. My Kingdom was famous because we produced the finest crops in the continent. By that, our economy was quite balance, but sadly, the politicians were actually corruptors. We might be wealthy, but we were struggling against the corruptors.

The shelves of the library was arranged in a formation of a square, surrounding an area in the middle. The area was made for the tables and armchairs, with a huge crystal chandelier in the ceiling. The library had two levels, the ground floor and the first floor. To get to the first floor, people must climb up the stairs in either side of the library. The library was as big as the Ballroom. In the north of the library, there were gigantic windows; where people could see the entrance of the Palace. Unlike any other windows, the windows had no curtains to cover them in the night. The library was like the heart of the Capital, huge, welcoming, and wonderful. People called it the Library of People. Once I got lost in this library when I was a child, then Father found me. Ever since I was lost, the library had been one of my favourite places of the Palace.

“How do you passed the guards, Your Highness?”, the Librarian asked. His name was Sir Umar Malik, he was a Knight. But after his children Jannah and Hasan, were killed by the Black Shucks in a Cavalry, he turned himself against Knighthood, breaking his oaths, and demanded my father to make him useful. So he made him our Librarian. He was about my father’s age. Then, he was leaning against his desk. “They just let me in, apparently”, I tilted my head towards him.

He nodded. “My apology, Your Highness, but.. you shouldn’t be here by this hour”, he informed me.

I lifted my left eyebrow and hummed for a second, “And why is that?”.