The book Nada was holding was clearly the book about the outer world Demae that Aefia was currently reading. She wasn't sure whether she should restrict Nada from reading or persuading her to read more.
While Aefia couldn't make her mind up, Nada was done with the data entry which made Aefia jolt back to her senses. Knowledge can't be restricted. If she learns about outer worlds, it will benefit her somehow.
After they left the library, they boarded another bus to the intersection and walked the remaining way back to the office. The blue moon was rising while the sun was setting creating a green and purple hue in the evening sky.
When they entered the office, no staff were there to greet them. They are probably busy taking care of other things right now.
While Aefia and her team members were talking, Ms. Avry stampered around looking for someone. She had a worried look on her face, alarming Aefia by a bit.
"Students, you will all have to go back to your rooms without further question. If anyone asks you what is going on, say 'There is an emergency meeting among the mentors'." Ms. Avry said while walking towards the elevator.
"Sure, we will take note," Anasiy replied. She turned to the look at Aefia and the others, "Before we leave, can we set a time at which we all can meet in the meeting room? I feel like the time was a bit messed up today."
"Yeah, I prefer at ten in the morning. It will leave us some time to prepare for the class at least. I am not sure how you guys used to do that back on Earth." Aefia spoke.
"Then ten it is. But how do we even know the time? The only one who has a watch is Aefia." Nada asked.
"We can tell Aefia our room numbers and she can come find us when she wakes up." Anasiy replied.
"Actually, I will only agree to wake one of you up and the person I wake up will wake the other person up. That way, we are not busy wasting time finding rooms after rooms." Aefia spoke.
"Alright." Nada answered. "My room number is 008." As they were both best friend for a long time, they both developed a secret language from which others won't know what they are talking about. What Aefia really meant was 'I wish not to violate anyone's sleep. I am not the housekeeping staff from hotels.'
Aefia nodded. She took out her pocket watch and looked at the time. "It's currently five o'clock, I will have to head back to my room. I have a bunch of reading to catch up with."
"Alright, good luck with your studying!" Nada waved her a goodbye. While Aefia was boarding the lift, she could hear her teammates voices from the distance,"I wonder how the other two teams are doing," Nada had said.
"Why are we to worry? Ms. Avry said our team will get the most attention due to Aefia. I think we should be happy that because of her, we are advancing faster than the other teams. I heard that they are only learning about their skills the day after tomorrow." Anasiy had replied.
***
Aefia walked through the lone corridor while looking at the cover of the book she was holding. Protests and birds flying freely, back on Earth, I had heard it symbolizes the fight for freedom.
She reached the threshold of her room and hesitated to open the door for a few minutes. She wondered what other twisted stories she will come across today. When she reached into her pocket to search for her key, she noticed that her notebook and pen was left at the meeting room before leaving for the training centre.
Although she wasn't worried about anyone coming across that notebook, she was worried if anyone had the power to resist the notebook's blurring effect and read the contents.
At first she thought about going to retrieve the two items but then thought that she could go retrieve it the first thing in the morning.
She opened her room's door and looked at how messy her table and bed was. On Earth, her maid servants would clean and tidy up her room before she came home from school. Now she had to do it all herself until she fulfill's this random competition's goals to return to Earth.
She put down the book and closed the door. I don't think there is a way for me to obtain a broom and a dustpan to sweep the floor but I can surely, just make the bed and clear the table. That would have the room organized enough to live in.
She pushed the books onto the back of the table and used a handkerchief to clean it. After which, the blanket was folded and the pillow was puffed. The bed sheet was pulled to the edges and tucked in.
After the cleaning was done, she sat at the table and looked at the pile of books she had gathered. The stack had an order of colours starting with red, green, blue, and yellow.
She then took out the green book and read the first page while thinking about taking notes on her system's notepad function.
The history of this world was far more intricate and compelling than that of the others she had studied. She continued reading one chapter after the other until half the book was complete.
When she checked the time, it was already ten at night and she had not written anything onto her system's notepad. Was I that concentrated into the story that I chose to continue reading and forgot to take notes?
Since I am already too far into the story to start taking notes, I will just continue reading until I feel like I have read enough for today. Then I will quickly jote down the main points onto the system and go to sleep.
She reopened the book and continued reading until the short hand line of the watch was pointing at one.
***
The world of Hellas, was one of the twenty most politically powerful planet in history. It's King was said to be kind and didn't accept the act of harshness against other planets. It's downfall caused a huge impact in history.
Hellas was well-known for it's harvest and agricultural contribution to other planet's economy and population's health. Hence, it was given the name 'Hellas', which in ancient Aglic translates to the 'planet of Agriculture'. Therefore, their King was called 'King of Agriculture'.
Everyday, it's people would harvest vegetables for cooking from their backyards. Due to the overwhelming amount of harvesting they would do every week, meats were off-limits in markets since it would only be a huge waste while the plants rot and turned into fertilizers.
Soon enough, the amount of food produced per year started to exponentially grow. The King then decided to open Hellas for other outer worlds to visit and during that visit, the Kings and Queens of that world would make a trade before leaving Hellas. For which, the problem with food had been solved.
The trade would often be gold for food. When a huge number of worlds started to make a trade with Hellas, gold lost its value there. Gold was used to carve everyday objects like chairs and tables and sometimes even drainage systems, but the King still didn't change the rule of the trade.
It was said that the King had probably conquered another world and was using Hellas to run the other world, although there weren't much proof or evidence that world existed. Day by day, the trade's rate increased and the food ration decreased.
When the people of Hellas went to complain about their problems to the King, they were showed a blind eye and was turned away. If they begged hard enough, it would result in their death. The death too was a gruesome one. The person's family members would have to cut down their head, or else that family member would die too.
The situation worsened in Hellas when one day a group of people went out in a protest to fight for their rights and wanted a better solution. That day, the King's arrogance was discovered and so was her greed.
The King started to overwork her people by turning them into her slaves as a punishment while avoiding contact with the outer worlds whom had made a trade with her. Her negligence turned away many Kings and Queens while the people of Hellas continuous worked to provide food for no one. They weren't even allowed to feed themselves.
Hellas grew more in power while the other worlds went into poverty. The people of Hellas decided to come together and form alliance with the outer worlds, becoming citizens of that world. The outer worlds agreed and trillions left their homes and fleed to those worlds while the King was unaware of their movements.
When the people of Hellas went to the outer worlds, they contributed to help that planet's economy to get revenge against the King of Hellas. After some time, the outer planets were ranked higher than Hellas, while the King was busy being arrogant about her gold.
Hellas fell in political rank until it hit rock bottom and no other worlds wanted to help the King with her world anymore. They would say that no one stayed in that world and contributing to its history would bring disgrace to their status.
The King's arrogance and greed led the Torture Cell to her destination and when she objected to her world being destroyed, she was killed instead. The King's title was then erased and rewritten as 'King of the Fallen World'. For the first time in history, a huge population of people were happy about something the Torture Cell had done.
But the people of Hellas didn't know that the Torture Cell's main target was them. The worlds on which they had moved to were destroyed and the Kings and Queens were killed. The remnants of the destroyed worlds were used to make a seal to protect the arrogance and greed of the fallen king.
The arrogance and greed was turned into an item used for evil ritualistic magic. One example included Black Magic. Due to its uncontrollable properties, the item had to be sealed and kept in-between a glass case made of destroyed worlds.
The item was named 'The Sacred Key' since it was used to unlock evil in someone's soul and it can unlock the power on someone, with a specific skill, to destroy the Conspirational Creature who is the King of Destruction.
***
Aefia rubbed her eyes at what she had written. All this doesn't make sense! Could I have done some mistakes while reading the book? Or is it just my tiredness overacting? I am pretty sure it's too early to adapt to this world's timing already.
She pushed away the green book as far as she could and avoided looking at it. While regretting that she had borrowed this book in the first place, she thought of how twisted the other stories were too.
Why does every story have to do something with the world being destroyed?! It's already getting not interesting. If it were a genre, I would instantly drop it.
Aefia got up and paced the room like she usually did to recall what she had read and learned. It was a trick her science teacher had taught her to help her memorize the three laws of motion.
After doing so, she took off her cloak and hanged it on her chair and slammed onto her bed like she does when she was tired. She wore the pocket watch as a bracelet before falling asleep as a reminder to wake up by ten the next morning.
I have found out a lot about other outer worlds like Demae and Hellas, but I haven't gotten into any context about Earth. That just delays my goal of finding a way to stop the destruction and the 'Great Yearly Catastrophe'.
***
When Aefia opened her eyes again, the first thing she saw was the watch, it's short-hand was pointing to nine and the long-hand was pointing to thirty. There is still thirty more minutes. I can sleep in.
When she reopened her eyes again, the short-hand was pointing in between ten and eleven while the long-hand was pointing to twenty. She quickly hoped out of bed and rushed to Nada's room to wake her up.
"Aefia, you are late, and I am already awake," Nada replied while opening the door.
"Sorry, I overslept. Did you wake the others already?" Aefia asked while wiping her eyes.
"Yes. They are waiting in the meeting room." Nada replied. "I suggest you get ready and come to the meeting room soon. Class starts at eleven if you remember."
"Yes I remember," Aefia replied while running through the corridor to her room to grab her cloak and strap her weapons before heading to the meeting room.
When she glanced at the green book on her table, she recalled a phase that she had read before going to sleep.
'Only the person with the Elemental Absorbtion skill has the power to use The Sacred Key to destroy the Conspirational Creature who is the King of Destruction.'