The moonlight splashed down its watery white-silver glow onto the Imperial capital, bathed them, illuminated them.Within the festival hall, a silver moonlight spilled into the room through the windows as though it did not want to miss Shad"s coming of age ceremony either. It really was a beautiful sight.
Currently, Shad was in the dance floor, dancing with a ravishing young lady. Everyone gave them at least three meters of s.p.a.ce.
The young lady"s beauty was peerless to the point that it even brightened the whole room. Even the beauty of the bright moonlight seemed to fade when facing hers.
The girl was around the age of nineteen to twenty. Her features resembled a masterpiece painting, her thinly plucked eyebrows were arched perfectly around her shining crescent eyes. Her lips were like the world"s most delicate petals and her nose was of the most beautiful of sculptured white jade.
" Were you able to decipher the book, your highness?" Asked the young lady as they were dancing gently in the dance floor.
" Unfortunately not, however, I find this mysterious language very intriguing and I hope to decipher it one day," answered Shad as he was measuring the young lady"s beauty with his unblinking eyes.
The young lady"s eye flashed with a look of loss when she heard Shad"s answer and then reverted back to normal in a flash. However, this quick change did not escape Shad"s sharp eyesight.
" you must have been crazy, even if I knew the contents of that book, there was no way I was going to admit it to you. Do you think that I was some idiot." he thought.
This young lady was none other than Lisa the young lady of the Bennett family, one of the four ancient n.o.ble families of the Djage Empire. While Shad was eating and chatting happily with his family, this young lady had asked him to dance. In front of all those people as well as his family, Shad did not dare to refuse, not to mention this young lady wasn"t bad either.
" Too bad because I had three more volumes of the same book in my house but with different contents in them. I guessed we would never know what kind of secrets those book held," she said with a long sigh.
Listening to her, Shad"s heart skipped a bit. A diary was something personal how come there more than one, plus they were written by the same person. Shad began to think that he had been scammed by that person.
" How come there"s more? I thought it was the only one," Asked Shad. His tone was the same as though he was not surprised by this sudden news.
" It"s a long story. After some research, my family had found out that there were four more books like the one we acquired. But soon, we realized that even if the book had the same name on the covers, the contents were totally different."
" How did you guys know they weren"t the same when you could not even decipher them?."
The letters used in the English alphabet were totally different from the ones they used in the Egul continent. They were like Asian alphabet and English alphabet unless one studied them and understood them, it would almost be impossible to know the difference, especially the people living in the Egul continent. It was as though they were a bunch of native English speaker trying to read a Chinese letter for the first time.
" After spending a lot of times comparing each of their contents, we found out the letters in each page were different from one another. Even if some of the words were the same, they were placed on different pages and different sentences. Not only that, some of the books had fewer pages than the others. So we concluded that this book came in volumes."
Her pair of beautiful eyes had peered at Shad as she was explaining all those things. Her eyes were emitting an endless charm like a gravitational abyss that was capable to draw any young man"s attention and thought, making it difficult for them to move their eyes elsewhere while they were in her presence. However, Shad was not affected in the least bit, he was more concerned and drawn to the information he was receiving from her.
" I see! how did you guys acquire them? the others would not just hand theirs to you." Asked Shad. Even though they were unable to read them, they were still considered as Divine Books. Their owners would not give it up just like that.
" In order to have the full version of the book, each of the families that possessed them had agreed in secret to make a copy of their own and exchange it with one another in order to have all the volumes of the book. In another word, even if I have given you the one that we possessed, I still have a copy of it at home just in case."
Shad was becoming more drawn to this young lady"s information. If she did not tell him that, there was no way he would have found out about it. Unless there some discrepancies in the book or some missing chapters would he have ever thought something was off. Now, he could not wait any longer to read that diary and the other volumes.
" I know it"s too much too ask but would it be possible to have look at the others just out of curiosity," Asked Shad with an antic.i.p.ation look on his eyes. Even though he was the 4th prince and his father was the emperor, he could not just order them or confiscated the book from them. The Bennett family was very powerful and their wealth could rival that of an Empire.
"I will see what I can do," she answered with a smile that could move the world.
" I will have to thank miss Lisa in advance," answered Shad with a joyful smile on his face.
After quite some time, the music has stopped and the musicians walked off to take a break. All the people that were dancing went back to their tables while others joined one or the other group of talking people.
As for Shad, he went back to his family"s table, which was practically empty except for his father and mother who had just got off from the dance floor as well.
While shad was on the table thinking about all those information he had gotten from Lina, he had a joyful smile on his face. Even if he hated this kind of gathering and n.o.ble parties, this one had proven quite useful and informative. However, in the next moment, his father"s words erased that joyful smile.
" Thank you all for coming in my son"s coming of age ceremony. As for now, we entered the most important part of the ceremony, the Honored Duel or as most people called it, the first Adult Rite of Pa.s.sage."
" Now, the dance floor will turn into a battle arena where the 4th prince will receive the challenge of three adults at most five years older than him, By winning against two of them, he would truly be considered as a true man." Said the emperor as he smiled at the crowds.
This was one of the things Shad hated the most about this kind of ceremony. They had all this kind of stupid traditions, not even himself could evade.
" What kind of c.r.a.p was that, do I really have to beat someone to prove that I was a true man. Anyway, just bring it on, I will show them how much a man I am by cripple anyone of them that dare to challenge me." he thought with a devilish smile on his face.