16: My Name

The Royal Guard Knights was reformed, albeit with a small number, as guards were once again put in the office and Gadillas’ room, which made Kuuga a bit relieved.

As Lewis finished the handover process and came under Kuuga, Kuuga became motivated to look around the castle while Gadillas was in the office.

“Divine Beast-sama, is there any place you want to go?”

Lewis asked before Kuuga could tell him where he wanted to go.

[…I want to read a book.]

“?”

Kuuga was able to deal with it up to now, but he’s anxious not knowing too much about this world, this country, the king, and the Divine Beast.

Kuuga, who wanted to study it little by little, wanted to read a book that could describe these topics.

Kuuga didn’t know anything, so if no one would explain it to him, he’d check it out himself. He thought so and tried to convey it, but it still didn’t get through.

Inevitably, Kuuga put his forefoot on the desk of Gadillas, who was working, and tapped on the book placed there.

“…book… do you want to go to the library?”

[That’s it.]

“…you, can you even read the characters?”

Of course, Gadillas couldn’t miss what was happening in front of him and asked in surprise, so Kuuga nodded twice.

Everyone present looked at Kuuga in surprise. Their faces said that they didn’t expect him to be able to read letters, so Kuuga drooped his head.

Gadillas looked at Lewis while stroking Kuuga’s depressed head a little roughly.

“Please guide him to the library.”

“…I understand.”

In this way, Kuuga was guided to the long-sought-after library.

The library they arrived at was on the first floor of the castle, and it was a tranquil place with few people.

According to Lewis, it’s one of the most important facilities with ancient documents, so it didn’t look like a place that anyone could visit.

Kuuga was able to read his long-cherished book, but he was depressed. Both ears and tail were hanging down.

“…Divine Beast-sama, please cheer up.”

[...ahh.]

Kuuga was depressed because of the uproar that happened immediately after arriving at the library.

Even on the way to this place, Kuuga scared knights and servants while passing by, but the reaction of the librarian at the entrance of the library was the worst. As soon as he saw Kuuga, he screamed loudly, and when the knight, who heard the scream, rushed in, they tried to drive out Kuuga.

In response to their insistence that it would be a problem if Kuuga entered the library that handled precious books and possibly destroy it, Lewis explained that the Divine Beast wouldn’t do that. However, they didn’t believe it. When it developed into a dispute, Lewis stopped Kuuga when he tried to leave the library, saying that he would be rejected on this point onwards because of his appearance as a beast.

The Divine Beast could understand everything they said. So Lewis argued that it was so depressed because of this. The knights finally understood when they looked at the too depressed Kuuga.

Although Kuuga got permission to use the library, the librarian was still frightened and hid behind the counter. The knights were also watching without going out. They didn’t completely trust him.

Although Lewis gazed at them with a stern look, he understood their fear of a beast wandering around.

“W-what kind of book do you want to read?”

[…]

Comforted by Lewis,, who caressed his back, Kuuga faced a bookshelf.

Kuuga found the word “history” among the bookshelves arranged by genre, picked out a good looking book, and asked Lewis to pick it up. Kuuga, who was greedy for knowledge, held the book happily.

The information he wanted to know the most was about the Divine Beast, but no book used the Divine Beast as the main subject. Was there not enough information to at least make one book?

He speculated that it was a legend, a myth, or something like that, so he picked books that talked about the origin and folklore, even some books on history and the culture of this country. To be honest, there were too many, and he didn’t know which one was good, so he could only guess.

Kuuga couldn’t sit on a chair to read with his current body, so he brought a lamp to the corner of the library and sat down there to read.

Sitting on the floor to accompany Kuuga, Lewis looked at him with a stern look. When he saw the contents of the books that Kuuga chose, he had a bad feeling.

“…Divine Beast-sama, uhm…there’s no way, right…”

[Hn?]

“Could it be that you don’t know much about this country…”

[I don’t know anything.]

Kuuga nodded because he finally noticed, but Lewis made a complicated face and shut up.

Turning the book was very difficult because he didn’t have a human hand, so Kuuga made full use of his nails to spread the books. He then started looking for topics about mythical beasts in mythological texts.

Perhaps concerned with Kuuga turning the pages one by one with shaking hands, Lewis offered to help but was refused since Kuuga wanted to do it himself.

[…! There it is…!]

In the third book, Kuuga finally found the words Divine Beast and read the detailed chapter.

Sent by God, a Divine Beast would choose a king, protect the king, guide the king, and live with the king. The king selected by it would be the same as chosen by God.

It was said that the chosen king would live a long time with the Divine Beast and that the country would continue to prosper as long as that king sat on the throne.

The Divine Beast didn’t always exist, and the conditions for it to appear were unknown. Only a priestess loved by God could know when the Divine Beast would appear in an oracle.

The mark of God’s seal would appear somewhere on the body of each candidate, and the Divine Beast would choose a king from among the candidates.

During the ritual, the beast would try to make eye contact with the selected candidate. It should not be resisted.

Despite it having the appearance of a creature, it had no fixed form, and the Divine Beasts that had appeared so far had the bodies of horses, cats, and cows, but they all have God’s seal on their foreheads. It seemed like some of these beasts were able to transform themselves into humanoid forms.

The Divine Beast has excellent physical abilities and was said to be able to use magic without using blood. It’s also said that he could see the floating island where God lived somewhere in this world.

In summary, such a thing was written.

[...only this?]

Kuuga sighed disappointingly at the content that ended in about two pages.

The only useful information for Kuuga was the fact that he could change into a humanoid form and that he could use magic. But he didn’t know how to use it.

Also, what’s the floating island where God lives? Nobody said anything about that… when Kuuga first saw this world from the church, he felt like he saw islands of various sizes floating in the sky. He skipped it because this might be a fantasy world where an island floats, but he wondered if that’s something that ordinary people couldn’t see.

In the first place, did God really exist in this world? The fact that a priestess obtained an oracle meant that a person was conveying it… he wondered who they were.

Lewis stared at Kuuga, who was thinking with a frown.

Kuuga put those thoughts aside for the time being then started researching about this country.

The name of this country where Gadillas became king was said to be Ragra. Located on the south side of a large continent, it’s a country facing the sea and where fishing and trade were active.

It’s an area that’s neither big nor small in the continent and seemed to be where the first Divine Beast appeared.

Beasts called demon beasts settled in the large forest near the northern border and occassionally appeared in nearby villages to attack livestock and people. Some creatures also attack people in the sea, and it seemed like the port was often damaged.

Kuuga was in the office and observed that Gadillas often dispatched subjugation squads to such places, but he didn’t really pay attention.

If he looked at the history books, he might be able to know the origin of this country, but he didn’t feel like reading too much into the topic.

Kuuga felt like he’d be able to know about this country just by reading the things he was interested in.

Rather than reading it, he skimmed through it, and after looking at the characters this much, he would somehow be able to understand the how it’s written. Instead of focusing on how to write it, he thought that knowing the grammar came first.

Kuuga suddenly decided to close the books and lined up several books in front. He made a sign with his forefoot and looked at Lewis,, who tilted his head curiously.

He then stretched out his nails and pointed to the desired letter from the titles of the books. Kuuga was a little worried if Lewis would get the pronunciation he wanted.

Lewis, who was looking at the characters Kuuga pointed at with its nails, assembled the characters in his head and seemed to have somehow guessed Kuuga’s purpose.

“Ku…ga…? …Kuuga?”

[Ohh! That’s right!]

Kuuga was so glad that it was transmitted as expected so he nodded many times. Lewis was relieved, but also confused.

Realizing that he didn’t know what it meant, Kuuga spread the book and searched the right words, then pointed to a phrase with his nails.

“…my name? …me? …could it be Divine Beast-sama’s name?”

[That’s right.]

“Eh, did you have a name!? Eh, ah, uhm, Kuuga-sama?”

[It’s finally transmitted!]

For the first time in this world, Kuuga was satisfied with being called his name and nodded many times. Contrary to Kuuga, who started to reread the book in a neat manner, Lewis was deeply thinking about something.