Regnum Aetern: Dual Rebirth

Moments later, Adrian was also sitting on the grassy ground, right in front of Sir Avalon.

’It’s finally time.’

He was not the kind of person who could become very enthusiastic or excited about anything, but he had still been somewhat looking forward to today’s lesson. Something like this was already very significant in Adrian’s case.

Sir Avalon was cleaning his gold-rimmed glasses with the edges of his coat. Moments later, he put them on and cleared his throat.

"Ahem, ahem. Now then, child, it is finally time for our first true lesson. There is a lot I can teach you, and I am not sure where to begin, honestly. So, how about you tell me a topic that interests you right now? Today’s lesson will be about that."

It didn’t take Adrian long‌ to answer.

"I want to know more about the legends of the immortal. I have tried searching for it but couldn’t find the book about it in the library. Either the book simply isn’t present in the Ravenshade library, or it is among the books that I’m not allowed to access. That is the reason I don’t know anything about it."

As he finished, he saw Sir Avalon chuckle, which caused Adrian to frown.

’What’s there to laugh about? I don’t think I said anything strange.’

After chuckling for a good few seconds, he finally calmed down and spoke in an amused tone.

"Child, you must not have asked someone about this matter before. Otherwise, you would’ve learned that the legends of the immortals are not something that’s written in books. The book you were trying to find simply doesn’t exist, at least not yet."

Adrian tilted his head.

If it wasn’t something written in a book, then how did everyone know about it? From the way Sir Joran had talked about them, it was as though quite a lot of people knew the legend of the immortal.

"I know what you are wondering about." Sir Avalon continued. "The Legends of the Immortal are not written somewhere; they are like folktales, passed down from one generation to another through word of mouth. And the legend itself is scattered across the whole empire, with people living in different places knowing different parts of it."

’I see, so a folk tale. No wonder people used to believe them to be made-up stories.’

A question suddenly came to Adrian’s mind. He was just about to ask the question, but Sir Avalon seemed to have read his mind and answered it before he could even voice it.

"There is no place where people know the whole legend with all its parts. Every place knows at most three to four parables‌. Though that is not the case for me. I have travelled across different corners of the empire, trying to collect all of them. I have indeed collected quite a lot of them this way, but there are still several parables I don’t know about."

A glint appeared in his eyes, visible even through the round glasses. For the first time since their meeting, Adrian saw the man excited. Sir Avalon continued.

"There are very few things that have ever fascinated me, and these folktales have done just that. The legends themselves are set in a past era that is not recorded in the world’s history. And from what I have inferred, that history is so fascinating."

Seeing his eyes twinkle like those of a child, Adrian felt lost for words. It was clear how eager the man seemed to continue and tell him more.

By now, Adrian, too, had become rather curious. He did read through the history and had a general understanding of the several eras that had come before the present.

But most of all, he was curious about the supposed gods that Sir Avalon had previously talked about.

’If it’s set in a history that was never recorded, that does somewhat explain the existence of multiple gods.’

Maybe they used to exist in a history that was never recorded. Though that didn’t explain everything, and there were a lot of leaps in logic.

Adrian spoke in his usual dull tone.

"Please continue, I am curious to know more."

Sir Avalon smiled in satisfaction, as though he had been waiting to hear exactly that. No, maybe he was indeed waiting to hear that.

"You will learn the details when you attend the academy after you grow up, but the oldest era is said to be the era of terror, where mythical creatures ruled the world and other beings like humans lived in terror, treated no better than livestock."

Adrian nodded.

"I am vaguely aware of that era."

From what he had read, the era of terror was called the first era where the concept of civilisation was largely absent. The whole world was ruled by a few absurdly powerful creatures, and all other beings, including all humanoid races, used to live like cattle, spared only to become food for those creatures and serve them.

That was all he knew.

Sir Avalon continued.

"But according to the legends of the immortal, the oldest era was said to be the era of divide, which supposedly came before even the era of terror. In that era, civilisation was beginning to take shape, and the concept of society had just been invented. That invention caused a massive split as the humans divided themselves into three sides. One side hated the idea of society entirely, one side was all for the idea, and then there were those who simply pushed for something in the middle because they simply couldn’t choose one side."

As Adrian continued listening quietly, he was feeling strange.

’The invention of the concept of society, huh? It sounds so strange...’

Maybe it was because he was a person from Earth and was more used to Earth’s history, where humans evolved from monkeys.

On Earth, the concept of society was never invented, at least not according to his knowledge. Even the earliest human civilisation lived in societies. That is because the predecessors of humans, monkeys, also lived in societies.

But it seems that was not the case in this world.

More importantly, the era of divide supposedly predates the era of terror, where mythical creatures ruled, and humans lived as livestock. But if the era of divide was about early human civilization developing society, what happened between that era and the era of terror that allowed mythical creatures to dominate?

And there was also something else that he found strange.

Sir Avalon mentioned that the invention of the concept of society had caused ‌early humans to split, and some among them wanted the whole idea to be discarded altogether. But... 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"Sir Avalon," he said after thinking for a bit. "Why did the divide happen over something so minor?"

Sure, there could be some who might hate the idea, but the majority of people would probably have no problem with the idea of society. For an entire race to split over something like that, it seemed a bit far-fetched.

"Minor, is it?" Sir Avalon smiled in amusement. "I understand why you would feel this way. As someone born in an era where living in a society is common sense, you cannot fully see its flaws."