Walking on these steps, you have to be very careful with every step, and if you are not careful, you may step into the air. On the dark staircase, Princess Celestia could barely see the path beneath her feet, as if the shadows had suppressed the light, and the light of the lantern could only illuminate the place beneath their feet.

It wasn't just the light that was suppressed, but the Celestial Princess's own senses became dull in the darkness. Time seems to be held back by these darkness, even standing still. She couldn't remember how long she had walked, or how many steps she had taken, and it seemed that there was no end to it, as if it had to lead to the ground, and there was only darkness ahead. All the Celestia could see was Swain in front of her and the lantern in his hand.

"How long is it?" she finally asked Sven.

Swain stopped, because the range of light was very small, and Princess Celestia kept trying to get as close to Sven as possible, not daring to let her body remain in the shadows, as if something would jump out of sight. And because the test was too close, when Swain stopped, the eldest princess directly bumped into Swain's back.

"What's wrong?" Swain held Celestia in his arms, his tone still flat.

Although the tone was no different from the usual Swain, in the atmosphere at this time, Princess Celestia still felt a little creepy. This gloomy place always makes people feel bad, and ordinary people must be afraid of this unknown darkness, even the brave people will get nervous and be careful. But Swain was so calm, as if he were as familiar with the darkness as his own furniture, and in such an atmosphere, Sven's undulating tone was terrifying.

"How long is this staircase, we've been walking for a long time, why haven't we finished it yet?"

"Huh?"

Swain's attitude made Princess Celestia angry, she was scared and angry in her heart, and felt as if Swain was deliberately playing dumb. She wasn't sure if there was anything as weird and mysterious as magic here, and although she had always treated Swain as a monster after seeing Swain's spine-chilling magic, she still subconsciously thought Sven was human.

As soon as Celestia was about to have a seizure, Sven raised his hand and pointed at Celestia's back. She subconsciously looked behind her, the door was still open, and the light was shining through it, although it did not illuminate all the stairs, but the eldest princess could still tell that they had walked straight down twenty or thirty steps at most, and they had not walked much distance.

This took her aback, and it was clear that she had walked a long way, but in reality, they had only been walking for about a minute. Princess Celestia looked at Swain in surprise, her lips slightly open, wanting to ask, but she couldn't find the words.

"You look nervous," Swain held up the lantern so that the light would shine on Princess Celestia's face, "Are you afraid of the dark?"

Katarina's face flushed slightly, perhaps because she was afraid of her heart, and she became even more angry. She knocked Swain's raised hand down, and didn't raise the question again.

"Hurry up!"

Sven didn't ask much, turned around again, and continued to walk down.

Although Celestia's eyes told her that she was not far from the staircase, she still felt that she had indeed walked a pretty bad distance. The inconsistency between the eyes and the sensory feedback caused Princess Celestia to have a strange illusion, and she had a vague sense that there was something strange about the staircase.

So for the rest of the way, she began to count the steps she had taken, trying to figure out whether what she saw with her eyes was true or whether her feelings were right.

However, Princess Celestia counted to about seventy, and they came to the bottom. A stone door stood at the end of the steps, and when she got there, the range of light seemed to widen a little, and she could clearly see the whole of the stone door. There is no decoration on this door, the material seems to be sandstone, the surface is not smooth, the rough feel of the hand touching it, the particles rubbing against the palm of the hand makes the eldest princess can't help but think of the original gate of the palace of Tiamat. The material and feel of this door is very similar to the pillars in front of Tiamat Palace, the only difference is the style of the two, this stone door is too plain, and it is completely devoid of the deliberate pursuit of luxury decoration in the days of Karin I.

This style is supposed to be older than the time of Karin I. Princess Celestia searched her mind for a similar building, but after thinking about it for a while, she only had a faint feeling in her mind, but she could not come up with the outline of the object.

"The throne of Midletus I. ”

This sentence finally lifted the fog in Princess Celestia's mind, revealing the full picture of what she had been unable to think of. Successive kings and emperors have sat on this simple stone throne to ascend the throne, which is almost the oldest treasure of the Guion royal family, but because it is too simple, no one sees this throne as a symbol of royalty.

Princess Celestia thought of what Swain said, "Jericho has hidden a secret for a thousand years", judging from the age of this stone door, maybe Swain is really not boasting, the Jericho family, and the secrets they carry, may really have a history beyond ordinary people's imagination, at least from the same era as Midletus I.

Thinking of this, a new question arose in the heart of the eldest princess, if the history of Jericho really has a thousand years, then this family and the secret behind this door are even older than the time of Midletus I, at that time, the Gion family had not even become the king of Deherbas, let alone incorporated Midnight Castle into the territory.

Speaking of which, when did Midnight Castle become part of the Empire?She looked at Swain's back suspiciously, it was clear that the previous Earl was a master of history, but this family did not even have a family tree, and much of the history was vague. The eldest princess has systematically studied the genealogy of all the great nobles of the empire, if the history of the Jericho family is really so long, then it can definitely be regarded as a famous family, but why is this family in the earl's title, after so many emperors have changed, but it has never weakened, nor has it become huge?

The answer to all this should be behind this door. Princess Celestia looked at the heavy stone door and waited quietly for it to open.

Sven put down the lantern, and the light dropped a little. He walked to the door and stretched out his hands, as if he were pushing open a small wooden door in the garden, and easily pushed open the stone door, which looked very heavy.

A blinding blue light dispelled the darkness of the corridor behind him, illuminating every step. This blue light was so bright that she had been walking on the dark stairs just now, and suddenly her eyes were illuminated by such a bright light, and the eldest princess couldn't adapt to it at once, so she could only squint and barely try to see what was inside.

After a while, when her eyes were able to adjust to the light, the eldest princess put down the hand that was blocking her eyes and stepped inside. As Swain said, this is a library, and all the blue glow comes from the books inside. The gilded font on the spine emits a faint blue light, and when it gathers, it becomes a dazzling blue light.

Walking into this library, Princess Celestia is like entering a sea of blue light, and the white dress on her body is also reflected in blue, and everything that catches her eyes is colored by this light.

The whole library is circular, and the bookshelves are attached to the wall, forming a huge circle, as if the library is made of bookshelves as walls. The bookshelves are very high, more than twenty meters long, all the way to the dome of the ceiling. This library is huge, it can indeed be called a big library, and the shelves are full of books, and none of them are vacant, and Princess Celestia can't tell how many books there are here.

While the huge library was indeed magnificent, and the blue glow from countless books was a rare sight to replicate, Princess Celestia was not surprised by these sights. This era has created too many miracles that were unimaginable in the past, and the Royal Library of Deweide is not much smaller than here, and if you want to talk about these strange blue lights, it is possible to do it in the future with modern electric light technology. What really shocked Princess Celestia was not these, but the pool in the center of the library.

The library was huge, barely smaller than the Imperial Hall of the Tiamat Palace, but it was such a large space, with only bookshelves on the walls, and most of the space in the middle was vacated to accommodate the central pool.

It was said to be a pool, but Princess Celestia didn't see water in it, and even the impression of a pool was just her first knee-jerk reaction. In this pool, there was something floating, but it was something that had nothing to do with water, not even a liquid—in it was the pages of a book that flowed like water.

The pages flow in a regular pattern, with an invisible lubricant between each page, all glued together but flat and not tangled. But it seems to be glued together, but from time to time it will be separated and glued back together with other pages. If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, it would have been hard for Princess Celestia to imagine how the pages of a book could flow like water.

Standing at the door, Princess Celestia could still see that there were words on these pages, although she couldn't see what was written on them, but Princess Celestia could see that these words would also float. As the pages rippled, the words also drifted with the current, although the amplitude was not very large, but the eldest princess could still feel that the words did not shake the same frequency as the pages, and even some words would run to other pages, like fish in water, cruising with the current.

She tried her best to see the shapes of the words, but her eyes couldn't keep up with their movements, and when the two words intertwined, she couldn't tell which one she had been staring at.

Princess Celestia looked at Swain, and she noticed that Swain's eyes were also reflected in the blue light of the library, and even as if her pupils had turned blue, as bright as sapphires. Although Caterina was already disgusted by the blood on Swain's body, she still felt from the bottom of her heart that these eyes were so beautiful, just like the night she left Port Leon, when Swain spread her black wings, she was deeply intoxicated by the beauty of this strange beauty.

"Katarina," Swain began, but the voice that came out was not just his, but a mixture of two voices, one Swain's undulating tone, and the other a female voice with a gentle tone, "Welcome to the Great Library." ”

Caterina suddenly woke up from her brief intoxication and looked at Swain in disbelief, she didn't know where the other voice was coming from, it sounded like it was coming from Swain. In his body, Caterina did not feel the original breath of Swain, the aura that was like a mist, sometimes with a faint melancholy smell was gone, and now Swain was like a sculpture, a sculpture that could breathe and have a heartbeat, but did not feel like a living person.

"Who are you?" she asked warily, there were so many incredible things in this library that Caterina couldn't trust her eyes anymore, especially after the encounter on the stairs.

"You can call me Atropos. This time Swain didn't speak, the voice came from the entire library, and a soft female voice echoed through the empty library, "Karin, you don't have to be afraid, although many people are afraid of me, but it is only because they don't understand me that they will do what sealed me here." I can see that you, like Swain, are able to accept my existence, and that your generation has been able to truly recognize the shape of this society, unlike the fools who claim to be wise and only deny what they cannot know because of ignorance. ”

"What the hell are you?" Caterina's eyes widened, staring at each book. She didn't understand Atropos' words, and it seemed that there was a lot of information contained in it, but the eldest princess remained vigilant, lest she fall into the trap of the invisible mind.

"I don't know what you're talking about, and how dare you say you know me so well. Before you launch a tirade, it's best to make it clear where you are. ”

"I am right here, right in front of your eyes, at your feet, and by your side. If you have to say, then this library is me, and I am everywhere. ”

Although she had vaguely guessed it, Caterina shuddered when she actually heard Atropos say that she was the library. In her senses, Atropos was not so much the library as it was something like a ghost, possessed by the library.

"What the hell is this? Tell me everything, and we agreed that you should tell me the truth. Caterina looked at Swain again, talking to Atropos made her feel uncomfortable all over, she was not a timid person, but he was still scared of such an invisible and unknowable thing.

"Atropos is ......"

Swain walked slowly towards the pool, and Caterina had to follow him closely, now she didn't care about her dislike of Swain, and only Swain, who she knew better, could give her a slight sense of security.

"The goddess buried in the deepest part of midnight, the one who cut the thread of death in fate. If you're going to ask what Atropos is, the ancient myth of the Maudes is the only thing you can find. Of course, the Atropos in this library is not actually the same person as the mythical goddess, the name is only Tulajan's name, the so-called Atropos ......" Swining paused, but because Caterina was standing behind him, he could not see his expression, "It is our own creation, a will that enslaves us." ”

"Let's be clear. Swain's words made Caterina hear in a fog, and she could only guess by imagination that Atropos was not a physical, ghost-like thing in the first place, but Swain's will, she still couldn't imagine how the will could be a being.

"I existed in this world before your nation was built. When the primitive clan was still drinking blood, and the relationship between people was stuck in the most basic communication, I was already observing you. I know how to move you into the future, out of barbarism, into civilization, and I have been helping you in this way. Under my guidance, the primitive tribal clans established the state and built the framework of society, and as their understanding of society gradually deepened, some intelligent people you would call wise men also discovered my existence. ”

Catalina immediately thought of Trajan, and she suddenly understood why a great philosopher would not have left a name in history. If the people Atropos and Swain say don't understand Atropos and seal it here are Trajan, then this so-called wise man is likely to be a magician like Swain.

"They were afraid of me, and when they realized that I was the one who led humanity into civilization, they were crazy to deny that fact. These people feel that if I have brought civilization to them and have been manipulating their society in this way, then they cannot be regarded as people in their understanding, but puppets, and they would rather die in their mistakes than lose their freedom, so they sealed me. ”

"They sealed you in this library?" Caterina still thought it was incredible, according to Atropos, it should be disembodied, and there was nothing discouped, how could it be discovered and captured?

"No, not in this library. Sven shook his head, his body slumped slightly, "It's sealed in the middle of the night." ”

"In the middle of the night?" Caterina repeated Swain's words, which seemed like a dumb riddle for her to guess whether this midnight meant literally, or meant one.

"The title of Earl of Midnight. Why do you think a small midnight count would be so valued by the Emperor, because the title is not just a piece of territory, but the seal of Atropos. ”

Caterina looked at Swain in a daze. "You mean, it'...... Sealed in your body?"

"To be precise, every person who succeeds the Earl of Midnight is the seal of Atropos. That's why my grandfather couldn't let Viscount Jericho inherit the title of Earl of Midnight, he was no longer qualified for it. ”

"Why?" Caterina still didn't understand, "he's your father, isn't your grandfather's son?

"The Seal of Atropos is the title of the Earl of Midnight, not our Jericho. It is because of our role as the Earl of Midnight that we are the keepers of this seal. However, if you want to carry this burden, not everyone can do it. Sven stared at the pool, the blue light in his eyes flickering as the light rippled. "In carrying this burden, we have to be conscious to give up something, and you see, as I am now, has lost our freedom. ”