Chapter 61. Azulon.
The tournament began in the morning and ended by lunchtime. Only those without significant responsibilities could eat in peace that day. They had no reason to rush around seeking information about the green fire, the mysterious aristocratic family closest to the royal family, or the background of their newly revealed representative.
"Good day, Minister Qin, alas," the palace librarian dramatically spread his hands, "those records were already taken by General Ming." He pointed to the departing general, anticipating their struggle for the needed information.
Many young families lacked records or mentions of such a family in their libraries—if they even had libraries. Thus, any place with books suddenly became popular, and some people took advantage of this.
One such incident occurred at the city library.
"Ah, my head is full of holes! I just can't remember where that book is," the elderly librarian lamented, shaking his head. His staff looked at him skeptically. "But I think I recall something," he added, causing the nervous admiral standing nearby to hold his breath. "The trouble is, my thoughts are muddled because the building needs renovation—it's so old. And we can't afford new books," the librarian explained. The admiral immediately understood.
"How can we not support a place that holds the history of our glorious people?" the admiral said glumly, gesturing to a subordinate and calculating how much the cunning librarian would demand.
Everyone scrambled to uncover even a shred of information. They needed to understand how to interact with the new person in the Palace, whose appearance was no longer questioned. Azulon's demeanor was too striking, and older families had shared some details about the offspring of the family in question.
Families who remembered the clan dug through their historical records. They needed to determine if they had clashed with the "greens" or done anything harmful to them. Some panicked, already plotting how to discreetly eliminate the unwanted person, while others sighed in relief, grateful to have been allies of the family.
*
People quickly learned where I lived, and everyone wanted answers. But I needed silence—time to sit and prepare for my conversation with the Fire Lord. Thankfully, the guys I promised to tell everything later kept the crowd away.
I was lucky that some bodies from "my" family were never found, and all the servants, some also missing, were presumed dead. This forms the basis of my story: my grandfather, then a child, was saved and sent to the mainland with some servants.