After listening quietly to Lina read, I wasn't sure how much time had passed until she finally closed the book.
"I'm done," she said.
"Have some water," I replied, placing a cup in front of her.
Lina conjured up water to fill it, then drank deeply, gulp after gulp. I opened the window—soft light was already seeping through—and sat back down on the chair.
I stared at the book, trying to recall its contents. The country names were too difficult to remember, so I came up with another way to summarize them. The story went something like this:
In an Age of Prosperity, every nation thrived. People knew nothing of poverty; the average lifespan was eighty years, and each nation had populations exceeding ten million.
But there was one exception—a small nation of only a million souls: the Demon Kingdom.
The Demon Kingdom had long been under attack by its neighboring nation, the Kingdom of Futility. The reason was simple — the Demon Kingdom's lands were rich in resources, filled with endless metal and delicious food.
Unable to seize the land through force, Kingdom of Futility proposed an alliance with the surrounding nations, promising to share the conquered territories. Tempted by the offer, the nations sent their armies, forming a coalition of 1 million soldiers.
When all troops gathered, Kingdom of Futility launched a massive assault on the Demon Kingdom.
At that moment, a man appeared in the Demon Kingdom. He cast a spell unlike anything the world had ever seen — and half of the enemy soldiers vanished in an instant.
Then, with another spell, the entire battlefield fell silent; not a single soul remained alive.
After that, the man began walking toward the Kingdom of Futility.
When the king of the Kingdom of Futility heard of his army's defeat, he realized—how fitting the name of his country was. He had poured countless soldiers into the war against the Demon Kingdom, only to lose everything.
Suddenly, a man appeared in the royal palace. In a single instant, he slew the king.
Then he sat upon the throne and declared to all present that he was the Demon Lord.
From that day onward, the Kingdom of Futility became a territory of the Demon Kingdom.
The neighboring nations were enraged by Kingdom of Futility's fall. In a frenzy, they united and sent armies to destroy the Demon Lord. But they had no idea how powerful he was—all their forces were obliterated in moments.
The Demon Lord grew increasingly irritated by the constant stream of challengers disturbing his peace. In his frustration, he resolved to rule the entire world. Gathering an army of demons, he began his conquest.
Under his command, the demons became stronger and stronger, crushing every other race with ease. Kingdom after kingdom fell before them, none able to resist.
Within a single year, the Demon Lord had brought the entire world under his control. He enslaved all non-demon races and forbade them from learning magic—thus began the Dark Age.
Dark Age lasting 156 years. The global population declined, cultures vanished, and only the Demon Race flourished.
Until one day, in a remote place, ten young people encountered a god. The god told them they had been chosen as Braves, destined to defeat the Demon Lord and save the world.
The god revealed the Demon Lord's attribute—Dark Magic—and granted the heroes enhanced bodies, Light Magic, and each a unique ability.
The ten who received the power began to use their abilities to fight back against the demons, killing them and driving them out of the region. The people who witnessed their actions thanked and worshiped them.
The ten Braves gathered together to discuss their next course of action.
To save the world more efficiently, they decided to split into pairs and act separately.
Each Brave grew stronger on their journey to defeat the demons and learned many kinds of magic along the way.
After three long years, the ten Braves finally completed their respective missions and stood before the Demon Lord.
After a fierce battle that lasted an entire day and night, they at last defeated the Demon Lord.
After the Demon Lord was defeated, the ten Braves decided to return to their homelands.
On their journey back, they saw people freed from the rule of the demons, who expressed their gratitude to the Braves for defeating the Demon Lord.
They also heard rumors that ten dungeon had appeared across different regions.
Intrigued by this, the Braves decided to challenge those dungeon.
In the end, they conquered all ten, discovering many valuable materials within them.
The ten Braves, having witnessed the poverty-stricken society along their journey, decided to establish kingdoms around the dungeons they had conquered.
The people gladly accepted them as kings, marking the beginning of the divine calendar — Fatelis Year 1.
Within a year, ten great kingdoms rose, prosperity followed, and poverty gradually disappeared.
Since literacy had been lost during the Dark Age, the heroes created a new written language—the Melbusoda Script. Civilization began anew, though the world never returned to the Era of Prosperity. This era became known as the Era of Equilibrium.
The general story content is roughly like this.
I remember the legend of the Brave — every hundred years, a Demon Lord would appear, and then a Brave would rise to defeat him. The cycle has continued endlessly.
I looked at the calendar; it's now the year 2008 of the Divine Era. By that count, the previous century had the 20th generation of Braves. Now that the Demon Lord has already appeared, perhaps the 21st generation of Braves will soon emerge.
I thought about the other books in the study. I couldn't always have Lina read to me.
"Lina, teach me how to read," I said.
"But how should I teach you?" she asked.
"Hold on."
I rushed to the study, searching for blank paper and a pen. I found a bottle of ink, opened it to check if it had dried out. I dipped the pen inside and pulled it out—the tip turned black. Fortunately, it hadn't dried yet.
Then I returned to the desk and began copying different Melbusoda letters from the book, leaving a little space beneath each one.
After that, I started asking Lina the meaning of each character. It took quite some time, but at last, I finished asking them all.
"Karen, what did you write? I can't read it."
Under each Melbusoda letter, I had written Chinese characters—my native language. So I told Lina,
"This is a script I invented. Do you want to learn it?"
Of course, I couldn't tell her it was actually my mother tongue. To Lina, the Melbusoda language was supposed to be ours.
She picked up the paper and glanced over it a few times.
"Karen, I've learned it."
"So fast!"
Is Lina's genius truly limitless? She can even learn the writing of another world in an instant. Is there anything she can't do?
Suddenly, a beam of light streamed in, and I saw my shadow stretch across the floor. I turned toward the window—it was already morning. The dazzling sunlight made me raise my hand to block it, and just then, I heard the crow of a rooster outside.
I glanced at Lina. We'd been awake for quite a while, yet I hadn't even greeted her.
"Lina, good morning."
"Good morning, Karen."
Lina answered with bright energy, her voice filled with life. My stomach grumbled softly.
"Let's wash up first, then have breakfast."
"Okay."