The First Patriarch: Streaming My Cosmic Harem

Chapter 26: Chapter 26: The Royal Library

She knew exactly what that token represented.

In the House of Bastet, a pure white jade token with the roaring tiger crest was the absolute highest tier of clearance existence.

It was only ever awarded to individuals the clan was heavily, cosmically indebted to, or to someone the Duchess herself acknowledged as her absolute equal or partner.

In the entire realm, no more than five people possessed such a token.

And now, this mysterious man was the sixth.

Azriel, entirely oblivious to the monumental political weight of the rock in his hand, didn’t show any reaction.

He casually stepped forward and placed the token onto the smooth surface of the white marble altar.

A sharp beam of golden magical light shot out, scanning the intricate lines of the crest.

A second later, a deep, resonant click echoed through the corridor, and the massive marble doors slowly ground backward, revealing the interior.

"Y-You may retrieve your token now, sir," the maid whispered, her voice trembling slightly with newfound awe.

"Thanks," Azriel said, pocketing the jade block before stepping through the threshold.

The interior of the royal library was staggering, maintaining the exact same architectural theme as the rest of the palace.

It was a sprawling, multi-tiered sanctuary of knowledge, designed in blindingly white marble through and through, accented only by elegant, sharp black linings and geometric patterns along the pillars and arches.

’Damn, this castle really loves the color white,’ Azriel thought, his eyes scanning the endless rows of towering structures.

’At least the book covers have some variety.’

Just inside the entrance, sat behind a massive stone desk, was the head librarian, an elderly woman with sharp features, deeply engrossed in a thick, leather-bound book.

As Azriel walked in, she didn’t even bother to look up, completely ignoring his presence.

Azriel didn’t mind the cold shoulder, but looking at the hundreds of towering, labyrinthine shelves stretching into the distance, he knew he needed a starting point.

He didn’t want to waste time blindly wandering around.

"Um... excuse me," Azriel spoke up, keeping his tone polite but firm.

"Where would I find the books covering the absolute basics of this world, the history, and how Awakeners function?"

The old lady turned a page of her book, her eyes never leaving the text.

Without looking up, she simply raised a withered finger and pointed toward the back of the room.

"First shelf at the farthest right corner."

"Thank you."

Azriel turned and walked in the direction she indicated.

As he navigated through the aisle, he realized his estimate was an understatement, there were easily more than a hundred massive shelves cutting through the hall.

When he finally reached the designated section at the dead end, his eyes widened slightly.

The shelf containing the "basics" of the world was absolutely massive.

It was a towering, multi-layered structure stretching all the way to the vaulted ceiling, meticulously packed with thousands of thick, dusty volumes.

Looking up at the sheer volume of text, Azriel couldn’t help but grimace.

’Fuck this shit. I’d be here until next year just trying to pick a starting point.’

But as his eyes scanned the side of the massive structure, a glow caught his attention.

Set into the marble framework of the shelf was a sleek, glowing digital interface.

He walked over to it, blinking in surprise as he realized it was a fully functional, magically integrated touch screen complete with a search bar and advanced filtering features.

’Damn, is this world actually technologically advanced?’ he wondered, genuinely startled.

It made sense why his host body had no memory of this.

The Nocthari tribe spent their entire lives deep within the untamed wilderness of Tartarus, utterly averse to anything resembling modern technology.

They relied purely on primal instinct and raw Aether.

Even after his tribe was massacred and the original Azriel was thrown into chains, he had never been exposed to the advanced infrastructure of the high noble houses.

He had been locked away in a dark, filthy cage, starved to the point where he spent every waking moment sleeping just to conserve his remaining energy.

In short, the original owner of this body had completely given up on life, listlessly waiting for death until the terrifying rumor about Rosalind killing someone because they were unworthy finally broke him, allowing his soul to take over.

Azriel let out a soft sigh, shaking off the grim memory of the host’s past.

Shifting his attention back to the monitor, he tapped the search bar.

The interface was intuitive, and as he typed in the word ’Basic’, a drop-down menu of popular search suggestions immediately populated the screen:

Basics of Aether Manipulation and Core Refinement

The Chronological History of Gorgoroth, the Beast Continent.

Awakening: A Guide to Ranks, Classes, and Bloodlines

Geography of the Domain: From the Pillars of Heaven to the Depths of Tartarus

Recognizing that he needed to narrow things down quickly, Azriel tapped the filter option at the side of the screen.

He selected specific tags: [Aether], [Awakeners], [Classes], and [World Geography].

The digital screen hummed, and the interface quickly sorted through the thousands of volumes, narrowing the list down to a precise selection of about twenty books.

Azriel scrolled through the titles and deliberately selected three that seemed the most comprehensive.

Understanding Tartarus: Continents, Empires, and Races

Aether Dynamics: The Path of the Awakener

The Encyclopedia of Classes and Divine Ranks

The moment he tapped ’Confirm’ on the screen, a soft, golden light enveloped three specific slots on the shelves above him.

With a faint hum of localized gravity magic, the three selected books glided out of their positions and floated gracefully through the air, stacking themselves into a neat pile right in front of him.

’Okay, now this is seriously cool,’ Azriel thought, a wide grin spreading across his face as he caught the hovering stack.

Carrying the books over to a nearby white marble table, he settled into a plush, incredibly comfortable white armchair.

He pulled the first book, Understanding Tartarus, to the top of the stack, flipped open the heavy leather cover, and began to read.