A Tale To The Future

I pictured a King as more distant and standoffish, but Claudio is really easy to talk to, huh.

Yeah, and he's really friendly too.

Hm?

Claude? What's up?

...Show more respect.

Huh? What's that?

Wait, have we... Are you mad at us, Claude?

I guess we have been pretty casual talking about the King of your whole country...

And he's your ancestor... Uh, honored ancestor, too. Sorry if we upset you.

......

Whoever left this book here needs to show much more respect.

Huh? Book?

Books are delicate and require precise caretaking. Not only dust and bookworms, but even humidity and heat are the enemies of preservation.

Books ought to be placed with enough space to breathe, but not enough to lean or otherwise distort. Direct light can contribute to fading and is best avoided.

After all...a paper book is an incredibly delicate object.

Oh...uh, sure.

Who could have left this here?

There's no name written in it... There's a man with a bow and a dragon on fire on the cover. Is it an adventure story, maybe?

It's called, let's see... "The Dragon That Swallowed The Sun." That's pretty intense for a short story.

Hmm. Most likely, this is...

Aaaaah! There it iiiiiis!

Thank goodness... I worried I'd lost it.

I see, so this book is yours. I am pleased to see that you appear to be a book lover.

But you ought to take more care with the things you love.

Of course...it's just as you say. When I got back to the stocks and saw I was missing a volume, my blood ran cold.

I'm glad you found it again.

Thank you. Now I just need to find the rest!

Wait, you're missing more?!

I'm the Royal Library's Librarian. We're evacuating books from libraries in polluted districts to safer locations, for storage. Books are a type of bond, you see, from the past to the present... and even to the future.

It's just, there are so many to carry, and I seem to have dropped a few...

I appreciate your passion for books, and for the power they hold.

These seeds of wisdom require rescue, and I, a lover of the written word, shall not deny them my help!

Right. More pairs of eyes will help the search go faster.

Thank you so much. Let's split up and search inside the palace, shall we? If you find any books, bring them right here and we'll collect them.

Hey, isn't this one?

Hm, there appears to be a magical code stuck to it.

A magical code?

A method of storing text and numbers as visual data, commonly used in recordkeeping and inventory. This one specifically mentions the Kelkale Royal Library. This is one of the books we are seeking.

There's one down here, too. "Saint Casimir and the Dragon." Kelkale sure does love its dragons.

So much so that the foundation myth involves the slaying of a wicked dragon, yes. The founder is said to have been bathed in the dragon's blood, and his royal line has carried the blood since.

Does that mean you have dragon blood in your veins?

Naturally. All kingdoms by definition are ruled by a royal line, but only Kelkale's rulers are so glorious.

Amazing how you say that without even a single blush...

I am proud of my bloodline. I would never be ashamed of it.

"Secrets of the Royal Kitchen (As Told By A Royal Chef Of 20 Years)." A curious title.

Is it a cookbook? No way that's a library book.

Hah. I see you do not fully grasp the purpose of a library, Aldo. A library is a font of wisdom from ALL sources, barring none! All books are worthy of its shelves.

You may have no use for it yourself, but to humanity as a whole, all books hold value immeasurable!

I-I see. Books really are something.

That's most of the palace covered.

Yes. Let us reconvene with the good man from before, and return to him the books we've found.

He said to meet up where we ran into him before, right? Let's go.

Ah, welcome back!

How did it go? I found two lost books, myself.

We located three. Is that all the lost books?

I-it is! Thank goodness we found them all!

How can I possibly thank you?

We need no thanks. I could not leave a fellow book-lover in such a conundrum.

No, that just won't do. I know! Since you love books... I'll give you this one.

"The Dragon That Swallowed The Sun." It's the very first book we found.

Are you sure we can have this?

Yes, I found an additional copy just a little while ago... And the stocks in the palace aren't as spacious as the Royal Library, so we have no space for duplicates. I would hate to dispose of it, so please take it. It's yours.

If you insist, I will gladly accept it. It shall have a place of honor under my bed in my Kelkale Collection.

After all that talk about how books are delicate, you're not going to put it on a bookshelf?

......Hmph. My castle is limited in floor space. There's nowhere to put a bookshelf.

It must be pretty cramped.

They may not rest upon a decorated shelf, but I take the greatest care of each of my books. It shall not suffer even the smallest dog-ear under my watch.

I couldn't be happier to hear that. With more copies stored in different places, the chances of this story surviving to the future only grows.

I promise you. No matter what may come, this volume, at least, shall survive to see it.

It now carries with it all that I have gained from meeting with a fellow book-lover, after all.