5 I choose you!

The keep was not too guarded as it was already inside the palace walls. There were a few guards at the main gate who quickly opened the gate for them.

Everyone waited outside as Dion entered through the gate with Cilia. There were a few more doors before Dion entered the main hall. There was a librarian seated with glasses and looking down at something. Maybe a book?

They quickly arrived near the red-haired middle-aged man, or so Dion thought at first. After looking at the long and ears of the librarian, he was shocked. The man was too handsome to be alive. Cilia wasn't surprised at this reaction of Dion.

"He is a Fey of fire bloodline, he works for the empire and looks after the books in the library. It's been over five hundred years that he has been working here." Cilia explained to Dion.

"Cilia, my dear. Isn't it a pleasure meeting you?" The red-haired Fey librarian said with a smile as the duo arrived before his desk. "And this must be the new Emperor, nice to meet you, your majesty."

"Nice to meet you too." Dion smiled and returned the greetings.

"You humble servent, Orfin is at your service. How may I serve you today?" Although the Fey librarian who called himself Orfin, seemed pretty polite, Dion could feel a slight unwillingness from his tone. He accepted the fact as he is a new Emperor and didn't do much to gain respect just yet.

"I want to learn more about the world and the empire. Please suggest me the books and their locations." Dion said.

"Ohh!" Orfin looked shocked, "Right away!" He moved away from the desk and opened a register. He then quickly put down a few words at a piece of paper. The process took him a few minutes before he arrived at the desk again and handed over the paper to Dion. "Your majesty, may your reign last an eternity." For some reason, Orfin tone changed this time. He was genuinely respectful this time.

"Thank you!" Dion said and walked towards the inner sections of the library. The overall structure of the library wasn't much different from the ones from his previous world. He can find the books by himself even without Cilia's help.

Cilia followed behind Dion after waiting a moment.

"Look after him well; he is the 'hope,'" Orfin said in a low voice towards Cilia, who was stopped at her tracks and looked at Orfin in surprise. She then nodded with a lovely smile and followed behind Dion.

"So, the time finally has come." Orfin sain in a low voice that no one was able to hear, "Is my luck too bad or good to be able to witness his reign?" He shook his head a few times like an older man and continued his work.

Dion got the first book within ten minutes. Cilia didn't help with the search as Dion didn't ask her about it.

The book was named 'Ten thousand years in Cafeld Empire' written by 'Carodir,' an ancient Fey that lived in the Cafeld Empire for ten thousand years. Dion cannot even imagine how long that must have been. He is only twenty-two this year. How great would it be to live for ten thousand years? Dion imagined as he opened the book. An old smell of paper came hitting his nose. He is not a bookworm, so he doesn't like the smell of old paper.

The letters were tiny, and this made Dion's heart to fall. Considering how thick the book was, this would take him a few days at least to finish from beginning to end. He quickly closed the book and thought of finding other books from the list. He spent thirty minutes searching for the books, but after realizing that the other ones are either same or bigger than the first one, he gave up. He took all of the books to the librarian and asked him if he can take them away for a few days.

The librarian agreed to his request.

Dion and Cilia left the library and met up with the guards who were waiting outside.

"There is no royal family here in Cafeld, right?" Dion asked Cilia.

"Yes, each Emperor gets to choose the test which would select the next Emperor. The Emperors cannot cheat and select their heirs. If they do that, the Heart Crystal will put their souls for eternal torture. So, none of the Emperors before even tried that." Cilia said while walking side by side with Dion, "The previous Emperor even made the test too hard that the Heart Crystal had to bring you from another world to become the Emperor."

"Is it the same for other empires and kingdoms?" Dion asked surprisingly.

"No, the other empires and kingdoms have royal families to govern them. But the countries are different. They do not have any ruler; instead, a few elders take care of the matters together."

"Ohh! So my children will not have any chance of a good life after I die." Dion said with a sad tone.

"Your majesty, you are never going to have any children!" Cilia said with a laugh, "When the Heart Crystal gives the Emperors special powers, they lose the ability to reproduce. No matter how many times you go on about it. It will never be successful."

"What?" Dion stopped at his track. No one told him about this issue. Not that he was very fond of children and might even dislike them, but losing an essential ability like that made him feel salty.

"You have to accept fate. I also did the moment you came to me. Same with my older sister." Cilia touched Dion's shoulder and said.

"You can always have that ability if you leave me," Dion said while looking at her eyes.

"Your majesty, please never repeat this." Cilia said as her voice got heavy, and she almost cried, "My love, life, and everything else belongs to you and only you, from the moment you touched me."

Dion was surprised. Considering how easy it was for him to conquer these two women, this must be easy for everyone else too.

But he was wrong, the only reason they didn't oppose too much was that these two girls were palace guards and long before they put their loyalty towards the throne. Whoever sits there is where their allegiance goes to. Because Dion wished her to accompany him, she did and started to love the feeling of doing so. But this didn't mean that Dion can do this to everyone else. Not everyone was wholeheartedly loyal towards the throne. Not everyone would be willing to sacrifice their lives for the Emperor. And also, not everyone else in this world could similarly do things. That would cause massive chaos.

"I am sorry," Dion said he felt regretful but couldn't find where his mistakes were.

They soon came back to the palace, and Dion returned to his chamber. He started to read the first book as Cilia stayed in the room.

She looked through the window. When Dion looked at her, he found tears on her cheeks, glistering in the shining rays of sunlight. He felt a pain deep inside his heart. He never interacted with women before and didn't understand them. He soon arrived and touched her hands. She suddenly couldn't keep it and cried loudly as she hid her face in Dion's chest.

"Your majesty, you think so lowly of me." She said.

"I don't, maybe things here are different from the world I am in. Guys leave girls and girls leave guys all the time there. I didn't think about it too hard as I thought this world to be similar." Dion said in a regretful tone.

"Your majesty, even if your harem reaches thousands, and even if you return to me one every year, you will always be the only one in my heart." She said without bringing the head out of his chest, "It is also the same with my older sister."

Dion looked at the girl who was still crying. He felt so regretful.

Cilia calmed down after a while. The words that Dion said wasn't the main reason she became so weak at that moment. Her whole life was like this. She had very few people to trust, and very few people trusted her. Maybe things will change after Dion's arrival or perhaps not.

"Can I choose an Empress to sit with me?" Dion asked suddenly.

"Your majesty, yes, you can." Cilia said, "The empress will have power second to you and usually the person who is in charge of the Empire's army."

"How much do you know about fighting?" Dion asked.

"I am a battle mage so that I can fight, and as a captain, I also have a squad of twenty battle mage guards who are under my command." Cilia said with a questioning face. She wanted to ask why he was asking about all this, but she didn't. Dion was new to the world; it was normal for him to ask.

"Okay, Cilia, I choose you." Dion suddenly said with a smile and made a hand gesture as if throwing something.

"Your majesty, I didn't understand." Cilia's heart started racing as she sort of guessed what he meant, but she still needed to be sure.

"I choose you to be the Empress!"