"Are you sure this is the place?"

"That’s what it says on the school pamphlet. This should be the academy library... I think."

"Maybe we should ask someone?"

"We can ask someone inside, come on."

Two young girls stood in front of a massive building located close to the large central fountain in the Verati Magic Academy. The two girls were first-year students who had only just enrolled in the Academy, and they had come together to find some of the textbooks that they would need for their classes. One of the girls had long blonde hair and blue eyes that shone in the bright afternoon sun. She was wearing the uniform of Verati Academy, a long black robe with silver trims around the collar and wrists, and she had a youthful, beautiful face that would make anyone call her cute!

The second girl had reddish-brown hair and dark eyes. She was also wearing the same uniform, but there were two cat ears sticking up from her hair, and a tail swung back and forth behind her to show that she was not fully human! This girl was a member of one of the many races of demihumans existing in this world, a lynx-human hybrid.

All around the girls, multiple students moved through the academy courtyard as they either made their way to class or towards their dorms. The Verati Academy was one of the first academies in the world that permitted the enrolment of demihumans, so there was a massive variety of students across the school! Minotaurs and centaurs moved together with human friends, and there were werewolves, lamias, and many other races spending time together around the water fountain!

Just ten years ago, a scene like this would have been unthinkable in the Kingdom of Aquinas, and the reason for this was because of the Great Demihuman War that swept the entire kingdom in one of the darkest periods to ever exist! The war had been between the humans and demihumans, who had not been able to see eye-to-eye back then! There were entire factions of demihumans who had risen up and tried to enslave the humans that they saw as an inferior species. This action led the humans to retaliate by attacking multiple demihumans wherever they saw them, and things only snowballed from there as the relationship between the humans and the demihumans grew worse.

As the war continued, it became obvious to the humans that they did not have the ability to win against the demihumans. Not only did the demihumans have superior magic, but they also possessed genetic advantages that allowed them to surpass the humans in nearly every aspect! The demihumans could see in the dark, so their ambushes at night were always successful. The demihumans could hear better than the humans, so it was impossible for the humans to sneak up on them! Every attempt to win this war by the humans was met with fierce resistance and retaliation from the demihumans, and it was only a matter of time before the humans fell!

But then, he appeared.

No one knew who he truly was or where he came from. The only thing people knew was that his name was Verati, and he was the single greatest miracle the humans had ever witnessed!

From the moment Verati appeared on the battlefield, the tides of war changed completely in favour of the humans. Verati possessed an arsenal of spells, runes, techniques, and curses unlike anything anyone had ever seen!

Fire spells that could burn for a hundred days and nights!

Wind spells that could cut through the thick hides of the Elemental Dragons!

Earth spells that could shift the tectonic plates!

Runes that could rearrange the atmospheric conditions of the entire mainland!

His power was great enough to overthrow the entire continent, and he channeled all of it towards supporting the humans and pushing the demihumans back! Every battlefield Verati appeared on immediately tipped in favour of the humans, and none of the demihuman generals were capable of doing anything to defeat him!

As time passed, the entire battle began to tilt in the favour of the humans once again, and it was obvious that it was only a matter of time before the humans eradicated them!

But all of a sudden, in a move that shocked nearly every person in the kingdom, the dragon king leading the demihuman race surrendered and announced that he would be calling back his army to avoid any more bloodshed! He asked the humans to do the same so that they could end the war, but there were many reluctant humans! The hatred between the two races had already gone too deep!

But then Verati stepped in and shocked them even more!

Verati accepted the dragon king’s surrender, and he asked the leaders of both the humans and the demihumans to forge a peace treaty that would allow both races to live in harmony once again! It was one of the most surprising moments for both the demihumans and the humans! The humans had thought all this time that Verati was trying to forge a new world for them, and the demihumans believed that Verati hated them, so neither race expected him to stand up for the demihumans like this!

Verati’s actions proved to be the catalyst the world needed in order to begin healing! If someone as powerful as Verati could advocate for peace, then was it not best for them to put down their arms and accept each other once again? The humans and the demihumans found peace together for the first time in nearly three decades, and the first thing they did as a sign of their newfound harmony was to create the Verati Magic Academy to honor the man who had given them this peace and to give the future generations a chance to grow closer as they grew stronger.

After the war ended, Verati vanished from the public eye. And since no one knew who he was or what he looked like, there was no way for them to find the legend who had saved their kingdom, and they could only honor him by ensuring the peace he created remained intact!

The two girls standing in front of the massive building headed towards the double door and pushed it open slowly before entering the building!

The inside of the building completely blew their minds!

If they thought the building was massive from the outside, then they couldn’t even describe how large it was on the inside! The ceiling stretched for more than a mile above them, and the walls were built in a circular pattern so that they were standing inside a massive cylinder. Along the walls, there were millions of books arranged on shelves that stretched up toward the ceiling. Multiple walkways were arranged in intervals along the walls so that people could reach the different shelves! A few older students were standing on the various walkways and looking through books, and no one bothered to pay the girls any attention.

This was the largest building the girls had ever seen, and they couldn’t keep their mouths closed as they looked up in awe!

"Whoa."

The lynx-girl called out in surprise, and her tail swished around in excitement as she enjoyed the view of the giant library, but the blonde girl tapped her to draw her attention and pointed towards a golden statue in the center of the library.

The statue was of a man wearing a magnificent robe that looked very similar to what the students were wearing. He stood gallantly like a hero, and held a large book open in one hand and a sword in the other. His face was covered with a plain black mask, and both girls felt awed the moment they recognized who this was!

"Verati!"

The girls called out in excitement as they moved towards the statue! The statue was placed on a large stone platform, and it was so enormous that the girls couldn’t even reach Verati’s feet! They had to crane their necks just to look up at him!

On the stone platform, there was a golden plaque with a message engraved on it.

[There is no power without knowledge. Those who dare to dream must first dare to know.]

[Verati – The Hero of Aquinas.]