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Chapter 9: The White-Haired Loli in the Library

A little girl, who looked about the same age as Nanali, sat quietly in a corner of the library, wearing the Alcot Academy uniform and leafing through a book.

Unlike Nanali, this girl’s hair was pure white and, in fact, even her eyebrows were snow-white.

Such hair color was extremely rare throughout the Hedley Empire, though not unheard of; comparatively, Ryan’s black hair and dark eyes were even rarer.

As if sensing Ryan’s gaze, the white-haired girl lifted her head from her sea of books and looked at him.

At that moment, Ryan finally saw her face clearly… her features were youthful yet exquisitely delicate, and her eyes were unexpectedly deep for her age.

If one ignored her appearance and only looked into those amber eyes, Ryan might never have guessed she was about the same age as Nanali.

“Are you here to read?”

The girl spoke, her voice soft and gentle but carrying little emotional fluctuation.

Unlike Nanali’s masked demeanor, this white-haired girl seemed to lack overt emotional expression, relying on those eyes to convey any feeling.

Ryan nodded and said, “I want to find some books related to the past ten years.”

During the past ten years of his knightly career, Ryan had clearly fallen out of touch with society.

Now he needed to know what had happened in those ten years and try to reconnect with the world.

After all, he couldn’t spend the rest of his life as a butler in the Axi household caring for little girls, could he?

“The empire has developed steadily over the past ten years without any major events, so there wasn’t much need for printed books; if you want to focus on this decade, I have plenty of newspapers you can look through.”

Though her tone remained indifferent, the girl spoke at length, making conversation quite easy.

“Thank you.”

Ryan thanked her and approached, and the girl jumped down from her chair at the same time.

It was only then that Ryan realized the white-haired girl was actually shorter than Nanali.

Ryan felt that Nanali was already on the shorter side for her age…

The white-haired girl crouched in front of the bookshelf behind her and laboriously dragged out a box full of newspapers.

Ryan hurried over to help and lifted the box, which was indeed heavy and filled to the brim with yellowed newspapers.

At the same time, Ryan saw a label on the side of the box… 1394.

It was now Human Calendar year 1404, so this must be a full year’s worth of newspapers from ten years ago.

And Ryan still had nine more of these boxes to go through…

At this thought, the corner of Ryan’s mouth twitched slightly.

Carrying the box, Ryan sat opposite the girl and picked up a newspaper to read.

The girl then asked, “Are you from Mingao? In the books I’ve read, only people from Mingao have black hair and dark eyes.”

Though her tone was calm, her eyes revealed her curiosity.

Ryan shook his head and said, “I’m not sure where I’m from, but as far as I can remember, I grew up in Hedley.”

Hearing this, the girl didn’t press further and instead introduced herself:

“My name is Amia Winsor; I’m a student at Alcot Academy and also one of the librarians here.”

Winsor? Ryan remembered that the magic teacher Nanali mentioned also had the surname Winsor.

“My name is Ryan… no surname.”

Amia nodded without saying more and returned to her book as if her introduction had been merely a courtesy.

Ryan also focused on the newspapers, and the two of them sat in quiet concentration without further conversation.

As Amia said, the Hedley Empire had indeed developed smoothly that year without any major incidents.

Unconsciously, Ryan finished reading a month’s worth of newspapers.

After flipping through several more issues, Ryan finally stopped at one particular edition.

[Human Calendar 1394, February 13: The empire established the Darkbite Knight Order under direct imperial control.]

The newspaper included a black-and-white photograph of heavily armored knights standing at attention, and even in print one could sense their elite bearing.

Looking at the image, a smile unconsciously curved Ryan’s lips, and he stared at it for a long while.

Although he wasn’t among the first to join the Darkbite Knight Order, his sense of belonging to the order was unmatched.

“The Darkbite Knight Order is currently the most mysterious order in the Hedley Empire.”

Amia’s voice suddenly sounded: “In ten years, aside from this announcement of the order’s founding, no further information emerged, and many people suspected it had been disbanded.

The order’s name was also odd, since imperial orders were usually named something like ‘Dawnlight’ or ‘Holy Flame’ and used red, blue, or white armor… ‘Darkbite Knight Order’ in pitch-black armor clashed with the empire’s style.”

“The order was indeed disbanded, but only recently.”

Without taking his eyes off the newspaper, Ryan replied with a faint smile:

“As the name suggests, the order never revealed itself to the public and quietly carried out its missions; from its founding to its disbandment, it amassed countless achievements over ten years yet remained largely unknown.”

At this, Ryan suddenly noticed Amia was silent and raised his head.

He saw that she had stopped reading and was blinking her amber eyes at him as if waiting for him to continue.

Meeting Ryan’s gaze, Amia said in her soft voice:

“You seem to know a lot about this order; could you tell me more? I’m very curious.”

Seeing her eager eyes, Ryan smiled and said, “Sure.”

He then collected his thoughts and began:

“Six hundred years ago, the humans, beast race, and elven race joined forces to defeat the demon race, forcing them into a ceasefire treaty that brought the continent six centuries of peace.”

Amia nodded, noting that humans and the demon race still appeared to be on good terms… Alcot Academy even had a demon race noble among its students.

“But that peace was only superficial.”

Ryan shrugged and said, “A little over ten years ago, the demon race began to show signs of resurgence, repeatedly sending small armies to raid our borders.

Since peace was hard-won, and the surface-level harmony with the demon race brought our nation significant benefits, the empire didn’t want to erupt into a full-scale war over these skirmishes.

It was for that reason the Darkbite Knight Order was established.”

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