The third prince of the Percivell Empire, Arthur Percivell, sat at his desk. His heart wouldn't slow down as he couldn't believe his eyes as to what he was seeing. He adjusted his glasses, while still staring at the book in his hand. Somehow he could read this extremely old leather-bound book that consisted of symbols rather than common language. The symbols to him made common sense as nearly his whole life, he had been dedicated to study. As though to mock his patience, he could only quickly glance at the beginning page.
He had recently turned 16 years of age, he had short and tidy black hair and silver-frame glasses perched atop his nose. No other qualities seemed to stand out about his face and he was pretty average in terms of looks, even maybe even slightly ugly compared to his two elder brothers.
Arthur was a prince, but it was clear that because he was the youngest, he would not even be considered in the line of succession. Even as this was, he had no interest in becoming king and he was satisfied with learning magic and history. He was quite knowledgeable in this regard and was considered a genius.
Recently he had been offered a opportunity. A letter from the Corrin Mage Church offering him a place as a student under one of their master mages. Arthur was very excited but maintain composure at receiving the letter at his 16th birthday. The Corrin Church was a big entity in the empire as it was the head church in the land. The church had religious power and served as a head for finding and recruiting almost as mages in the empire.
Corrin Church was only rivalled by the Royal Swordsman. These both groups were sworn loyalty to the royal Percivell family and served as the two wings of their army, one of mages and one of swordsman.
Both the Corrin Church and the Royal swordsman were backing the eldest crown prince in the succession, making it almost certain that he would be the new king.
He wrote back to the church, expressing gratitude but setting a condition for him to join them. That his knights would be allowed to search through the recently discovered library beneath the church. The church was obviously very eager to have a royal, a prince no less, of his intellectual genius and they had agreed without hesitation.
Now recently, his team had returned. Deep within a sealed chamber they had found this book which was now in Arthur's hands. It was a relic of early magic dating back over five thousand years but the language in which it was written was unclear.
The church had been excited to see that the knights had found something but then lost interest when the book seemed undecipherable and allowed the knights to take the book.
A polite knock on the heavy oak door behind Arthur broke his concentration from the book. He quickly closed the book, his hand still on its cover.
"Come in," he called out, his voice was shaky and trembling slightly with residual excitement from what had happened.
'Who could it possibly be at this hour?' Arthur thought to himself as he stood up.
The door opened and the second prince, Julian, stepped inside. Julian was a tall and imposing figure with perfectly styled short brown hair. His build was almost perfect and ideal, not bulky that he would be seen as a brute and not too skinny that he would be seen as malnourished. He had a reassuring smile on his face that could put anyone at ease.
"Arthur, still awake?" Julian's voice was warm, and he closed the door softly behind him. "I came to check on you. With Father's anger and… everything, I just wanted to make sure you were holding up alright. Edwin's death has affected us all."
Arthur's face saddened as he recalled his eldest brother's death, almost a week ago. Now it would seem that next in line to inherit the throne would be Julian. Arthur was genuinely deeply sad, Edwin had been a kind older brother, always looking out for him because he was the youngest. Even if Edwin did not share the same academic passion as Arthur he had always made time to listen to Arthur's long speeches on his new findings.
He looked up at Julian with a simple and trusting look in his eyes. "Thank you brother for making time to check up on me. I know that you are busy. I'm honestly okay now, I'm excited more than anything right now!"
Julian's smile seemed to waver just for a fraction of a second. He glanced down at the book on the desk.
"Excited? About what?" He said as his gaze shifted back to Arthur's sheepish, smiling face. He was genuinely curious, what could make Arthur excited and happy when, elder brother who he was closest too, died.
Arthur was usually a weird and emotional kid who used to cry at the smallest things when they were young.
Arthur gestured the book on the desk as he picked it up and held it up under his chin excitedly in a childish manner. "My knights found something incredible in the church's underground library A relic from the Age Golden of Sorcerers, five thousand years old. A book of ancient magic!"
"And they just… let you take it?" Julian asked, his voice was soft as refined but now also filled with amazement and disbelief. He stepped forward and made his way inside the room to Arthur.
"Yes! The church couldn't make any sense of it," Arthur said proudly. "The symbols are all very old, and the magic circles don't match any known magic that is there today. They assumed it was a meaningless historical artifact." He smiled, a truly bright, naive smile. "But they were wrong. I'm sure of it. I'm already starting to make progress."
Julian's gaze went from the book to Arthur's face and he had a complex emotion hidden behind his concerned expression. "Five thousand years old... and you can read it?" he asked, his tone was now blatant disbelief.
Arthur's bright smile didn't fade from his brother's disbelief and he confidently nodded, completely missing the calculating look in his brother's eyes.
"Anyway, Arthur. I have a present for you." Julian then took out a box from seemingly nowhere, though it made sense that he had been hiding it behind him the whole time.
Arthur's eyes opened wide, and he curiously stared that the box. "What's that." He asked.