The Royal Library stood at the quietest edge of the castle, far removed from the busy courtyards and ceremonial halls where nobles spent their evenings boasting about victories and politics.
By day, the enormous chamber served as a place of study where scribes copied historical records and advisors searched through ancient volumes for guidance.
At night, however, the atmosphere changed completely.
Lanterns hanging high above the vaulted ceiling burned with a dim blue glow that barely reached the far corners of the room. The towering shelves filled with centuries of records rose like silent walls of forgotten knowledge, surrounding anyone who wandered too deeply among them.
Lucius moved carefully between those shelves.
His steps were slow and deliberate as he passed through narrow aisles where the scent of aged parchment lingered in the still air.
The castle had already fallen into the deep quiet that came after midnight. Even the servants working late in the kitchens had retired to their quarters, leaving the library wrapped in a silence that felt almost abandoned.
That silence suited Lucius perfectly.
The reason he had come here tonight was not something he wished to explain to anyone.
For weeks, a quiet doubt had been growing in the back of his mind.
It had started the day of the summoning.
The court mages had explained that an error had occurred during the ritual.
A mistake.
Five people had appeared inside the summoning circle when only four heroes had been intended.
At the time, the explanation had seemed reasonable.
Everyone in the room had been eager to move on from the inconvenience of the extra arrival.
But the more Lucius thought about it, the less convincing the explanation became.
The summoning ritual was not some hastily written spell scribbled in the margin of a mage's notebook.
It was an ancient ceremony refined over generations, a complex structure of magic, the kingdom had relied upon for centuries whenever it needed champions from another world.
Spells like that did not simply misfire.
And the idea that such a ritual would suddenly produce an extra person by accident felt increasingly unlikely the more he considered it.
If the ritual had produced five people once…
it might have done so before.
And if that had happened…
someone must have recorded it.
That was why Lucius now searched the oldest sections of the library.
He moved deeper into the neglected corners where the kingdom stored records few people had reason to read anymore.
The polished shelves near the front of the chamber were filled with beautifully bound histories celebrating the victories of past kings and the heroic deeds of warriors whose names had become legend throughout the land.
Lucius did not stop to examine them.
Stories written for admiration rarely contained the truths he was looking for.
The deeper he moved into the library's annexes, the older the shelves became.
Dust gathered thickly along the spines of forgotten books, and some of the wooden racks leaned slightly beneath the weight of records that had not been disturbed in decades.
The lantern light grew weaker in those areas as well, leaving entire rows of documents resting in dim shadows.
Eventually Lucius reached a smaller chamber set apart from the main library.
The floor creaked faintly beneath his weight, and the shelves held ledgers rather than storybooks.
These records were bound simply, the sort used by scribes who cared more about preserving information than impressing readers.
It was in the centre of that room that he found the ledger.
The book rested on a wooden table worn smooth by age.
Its thick leather cover was reinforced with iron strips that had darkened over the years until they appeared almost black beneath the lantern light.
At first glance, it looked no different from the other administrative records surrounding it.
But the faint title stamped into the leather caught Lucius's attention the moment he brushed away the dust.
Record of the Fifth.
Lucius opened the book slowly.
The pages inside were brittle with age, but the handwriting remained neat and methodical.
Summoning Year 120Four heroes confirmed by the Orb.An additional individual appeared within the circle.Designation: Unnecessary to the kingdom's purpose.
Lucius turned the page.
Summoning Year 245Four heroes recognized by the Orb of Selection.A fifth individual manifested outside expected parameters.Designation: Unwanted.
His eyes moved across the pages one after another.
Each entry described the same sequence of events.
Four heroes acknowledged by the Orb.
A fifth arrival dismissed by the court.
Lucius turned another page.
Then another.
The pattern never changed.
The ritual had never produced an error.
It had always summoned five people.
The kingdom had simply chosen to recognise only four of them.
"You have finally found it."
The quiet voice came from behind him.
Lucius turned.
An old man sat in a tall wooden chair near the wall, his thin figure half hidden in shadow.
The robes he wore marked him as one of the castle's archivists. A strip of cloth covered his eyes, suggesting he had long since lost the ability to read the records he protected.
Yet his head was tilted toward Lucius as though he could sense him perfectly.
"You must be the current fifth," the old man said calmly.
Lucius studied him carefully.
"You knew someone would come looking."
A faint smile appeared on the archivist's face.
"It happens every time," he replied.
"Sooner or later, the extra one always finds their way to that ledger."
Lucius glanced down at the open pages.
"So it wasn't a mistake."
"No," the archivist said quietly.
"The ritual has never failed."
The old man folded his hands together in his lap.
"I have lived long enough to watch five summoning ceremonies take place within this castle," he continued.
"And each time the same story unfolds."
"The Orb recognises four heroes."
"The court celebrates them."
"And the fifth…"
He paused.
"…is quietly forgotten."
Lucius closed the ledger slowly.
"They called us mistakes."
"They called you unnecessary," the archivist corrected.
For a moment, the lantern light flickered between them.
"The court does not like things it cannot categorise," the archivist continued.
"The Orb identifies four individuals who match the kingdom's idea of a hero."
"Anything beyond that does not fit the pattern."
"And when powerful institutions encounter something that does not fit their expectations…"
The old man's faint smile returned.
"…they pretend it does not exist."
Lucius considered those words carefully.
"So the kingdom simply ignores the fifth."
"That is the simplest way to explain it."
Lucius turned away from the table.
The explanation no longer felt mysterious.
The kingdom had not summoned him by mistake.
It had simply decided he had no purpose.
"The heroes will remain in the castle for some time," the archivist said behind him.
Lucius paused.
"The royal knights are still overseeing their training," the old man continued. "It will be several months before the kingdom allows them to leave the capital."
Lucius understood immediately.
The heroes were still preparing for the battle beyond the Cursed Lands.
And until their training was complete…
The kingdom had no use for any of them outside the castle.
Lucius stepped quietly back into the darkened aisles of the library, leaving the forgotten ledger behind.
Months of training remained before the heroes would leave the castle.
Months where the kingdom would continue pretending the fifth hero did not exist.
Lucius walked slowly through the silent shelves.
Because now he knew the truth.
If the kingdom believed the fifth hero had no purpose…
Lucius would simply find one of his own.