Chapter 25 In the Library

Flying outside during the sunset satisfied Lemmy's desire to soak up the atmosphere that Frostwall now possessed. As he and Ludwig flew to the Grand Library, Lemmy couldn't help but marvel at the city's beauty during dusk. For a split second, he forgot about the reason behind them flying. For a brief instances, all of Lemmy's concerns about young Ludwig actually finding what he had come to Frostwall seeking flew straight out of his mind. He just soaked up the pretty scenery, letting the mental pictures swim around in his mind. Them arriving at the library didn't help much with that either. Blue crystal, glowing with a soft light, was what the library was made of. The light pulsated, looking like the building was breathing in the crisp air of the city. Lemmy could stare at it for hours; the beating blue light was mesmerizing in every sense of the word.

Of course, Lemmy remembered the actual reason for coming here when he saw Smoky, Aria, and young Ludwig approaching the library. Lemmy's heart rate picked up; all of a sudden the tension of the situation was hitting him. The face that young Ludwig made perfectly encapsulated the mood of the scene. He wasn't downcast by any definition of the word, but there was an eagerness and anticipation there. It bled into the surrounding areas, soaking the air with the mood in a way that made Lemmy's heart rate pick up even more. Lemmy didn't dare take his eyes off of young Ludwig; he deserved to have his questions answered. Lemmy had absolutely no idea what the answers to the questions would be, but he knew that young Ludwig needed to find them.

"Well," Aria said just as the group stopped in front of the library's stoop. "Here it is; The Grand Library of all Mushroom World knowledge." She turned toward young Ludwig. "What do you think? Pretty impressive, eh?"

"Yes, very." Young Ludwig practically charged toward the door. "Now come on! We need to go in; we need to go in now!"

Smoky chuckled. "We will. Don't worry son." Young Ludwig sent him a weird look after he said that last word, but Smoky either didn't notice it or completely ignored it. He walked up to the door and knocked. For about thirty seconds, this just left both young Ludwig and Lemmy to stew in the wait. Sure, Lemmy himself didn't mind (mostly because he got to keep his eyes on the city underneath the setting sun), but young Ludwig tapped his foot and had his face in a scowl. Again, Lemmy really wished that the young Koopaling would find the answers he wanted. On some level, it wasn't fair of Bowser and Kamek to erase the information and proceed to lie to him about it. Ludwig was a special, so finding out why he had these powers and what their purpose was was required. Right?

Well, Lemmy would get the answer to that question soon enough. The door to library opened, creaking as it slid outward. Young Ludwig looked like he was going to fly around in excitement. He very clearly did his best to contain himself as a green toad with spectacles came out of the library. The Toad adjusted their glasses as they got an eyeful of the Koopas on the front stoop.

"Do you have written permission from the mayor to access this library?" he asked, his voice a monotone droll.

Smoky nodded. He reached into his hammerspace and pulled out the permission slip, giving it to the toad. Said toad examined it with an uninterested, borderline bored expression. They got out a device, one that looked like a pen, and pressed a button that allowed a light to come out. Lemmy reasoned that this was probably because he was trying to detect a forgery.

After a minute, the Toad turned off the light, put the device away, and looked at the Koopas. "Well. Everything is in check." He gestured for them to follow. "Come with me."

Aria and young Ludwig's faces both rose, with young Ludwig even going so far as to do a fist pump. They followed the Toad into the library, with Lemmy and current Ludwig following them. As soon as they made their way in, the door slid shut behind them, leaving only the inside of the library to see. And, to be fair, the inside of the Grand Library was pretty impressive. The interior glowed blue, just like the exterior did, and boy was it pretty. Inside, surrounded by the brilliant sheen, Lemmy now felt as if he had a stronger connection to the light, like it was calling out to him and telling him that it could make all his dreams come true if he could just stare at it for a little bit longer. Since it was a library, the whole place was filled to overflowing with bookshelves. These bookshelves reached all the way up to the ceiling, which was impressive as the ceiling seemed to be a mile above their heads. These shelves, so high and so closely packed together, created a labyrinth of sorts, a place of winding tunnels and various nooks to run through and hide in.

Lemmy loved it, a phrase that could probably go without saying. After all…who wouldn't love this scene? Even the smell of the library, with the dust caught on the shelves and in between the pages of the books, was so homey and beautiful. This was another reason why Lemmy wanted to go to Frostwall in the future; he could imagine getting a good tour of this place after getting a mug of the world famous hot chocolate from Freddie's. That would certainly be a full day.

Anyway, the koopas followed the Toad. Like Lemmy, young Ludwig and Aria took in the library's features with looks of intrigue and awe. They were so engrossed in the scenery, as a matter of fact, that they almost ran into the front desk. A good thing they didn't, as the yellow toad with pointed features didn't look like the type of person who would appreciate that action nor react to it in an understanding manner.

"What knowledge do you seek?" the yellow toad asked, their voice sounding just as uninterested as their green brethren.

Smoky gestured for young Ludwig to approach the desk. "Tell them what you want to find, Ludwig."

Young Ludwig nodded and took a step toward the desk. Even though Lemmy himself felt that the toad's hardened gaze was a little intimidating, young Ludwig didn't seem at all bothered by it.

"I want to know about the origin of the special koopas."

The toad raised an eyebrow. They stayed still for a minute before nodding. "Very well. Follow me."

Lemmy's heart rate continued rising as the toad led the Koopas deep into the library. Oh, this was so exciting! It could be argued that Lemmy needed to know the origin of the special koopas just as much as the young Ludwig. Seriously, with how it had been shrouded in mystery up to this point…oh, Lemmy would die if he didn't see what it was! He was going to explode into a glittery mess if his excitement wasn't quelled!

As they followed the group, Lemmy looked up at the current Ludwig in order to gauge if he was just as excited as Lemmy. Lemmy didn't exactly expect that, as he had already lived through the very event that was being seen. That being said, Lemmy hadn't expected the expression that actually appeared on Ludwig's face either. The eldest Koopaling looked sick. His form quaked, squirming as if he had a very nasty parasite residing in his gut. Lemmy blinked, about to question Ludwig if everything was okay, when the Toad spoke up.

"Give me a minute." They dove into one of the shelves, leaving the group to wait. Young Ludwig took deep breaths, breaths that actually caused him to rise into the air. Aria giggled at the sight of this, and Smoky looked quite amused by this sight as well. This, unfortunately, seemed to embarrass young Ludwig, as he sunk back down to the ground. A good thing too, as the yellow toad came back out with a textbook right at that moment.

"Well," they said, "I think that this is where you find the information you seek."

Young Ludwig squinted at the textbook's cover before his face fell. "Uh, no, it won't."

The Toad raised an eyebrow. "Uh, yes it will."

"No, it won't!" Young Ludwig crossed his arms as a scowl grew on his face. "I already checked that book out when I was at the castle. It didn't say anything about the origin of the special koopas!"

The Toad sniffed. "Well then, that just might be because you weren't looking hard enough." Young Ludwig opened his mouth, seemingly to object, but the Toad spoke up before he could. "Tell you what; why don't I show you that it's in this book." The gestured for the others to follow. "Come with me."

Young Ludwig still didn't look convinced, but he did follow the Toad regardless. As he did, he chuckled. "There's not going to be anything there," he whispered to Aria. "That Toad is a pretty bad librarian if they think that there is."

"Hey, we don't need to insult him!" Aria responded. She faced forward. "Let's just wait and see what the book has to say."

Young Ludwig snorted just as the group came to a stop due to the Toad putting the book unto a table. "What's there to see?" he asked as the Toad flipped through the pages. "There's nothing in there, Aria. Absolutely nothing…"

"Here." The Toad pointed to a section on the page. "I believe this is what you were looking for."

Young Ludwig blinked. He approached the table, keeping his eyes on the book as he took a seat. "Wait." His jaw dropped. "This section wasn't in the textbook before!"

The Toad sniffed. "Again, you probably weren't looking hard enough."

Young Ludwig shook his head. "No! I…I looked at this exact page!" He gripped the edge of the paper. "H…how…?"

Aria approached. "Well, what does it say Ludwig?"

Lemmy beamed. Finally, they were going to find out the origin of the specials! His excitement was through the roof!

At least, it was. As young Ludwig read through the text, Lemmy's spirits sank below sea level.

"The special koopas originally came into being during the Koopa Mushroom War. Five years into the ten year conflict, the Koopa Kingdom realized that they were losing the war, as well as the fact that they had no hope of winning the battle through a war of attrition. So, King Monger needed a solution. He eventually settled on getting children involved in the conflict."

Aria and Lemmy blinked at the exact same time. "Children involved in the conflict?" Aria asked. "As in, turning children into soldiers?"

Young Ludwig continued reading. "King Monger had his magikoopa advisor, Gamma Neckbleed, enchant unborn koopas with a highly experimental spell, one that has since been deemed as illegal by King Doragon. These spells altered the genetics of the unborn babies, giving them superpowers designed specifically for combat scenarios. When these children turned five years old, they were sent onto the battlefield as living weapons, attacking the enemy troops with powers they had been granted. While this development ultimately helped the Koopa Kingdom to win the war, many of the special children died in the fight, with some even going so far as to use their powers in kamikaze maneuvers." Young Ludwig's eyes were wider than the sun. "Those who survived managed to pass the special gene onto their children, although since there was no armed conflict to worry about, most second generation specials were unable to use their powers for their intended purpose and thus had a set of unique challenges they had to deal with while in possession of their unique genome."

With that, silence. The excited humming of Lemmy's heart now slowed down to a deathly standstill. Lemmy looked up at current Ludwig in a similar way to how the whole group exchanged looks with one another. Nobody could speak, nobody so much as made a sound.

It was Aria who ultimately broke the silence. "That's awful!"

Smoky shook his head. "Sending children off to die in a war…" he spoke with a soft volume, as if he was afraid that saying it too loudly would cause something terrible to happen.

Young Ludwig kept his eyes on the page, looking like he was going to be physically sick. "I…I can't believe it…" he whispered. He put his hand on the textbook. "This…this isn't real…"

Aria, with her face painted over with sympathy, went up to young Ludwig and put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Ludwig."

Young Ludwig, still shaken, didn't even dare rise from his chair. "Is…is this my purpose in life? To act as a weapon, to kill people?"

"No!" Aria protested. "Of course not!"

Young Ludwig turned toward her. Lemmy squirmed when he saw flames forming around his hands. "How do you know? It says it right here, it's written in stone!" He rose from his chair. A tear formed in his eye, sizzling as it fell from his face onto his flaming hands. "I'm a monster. I'm a weapon…"

"No!" Aria hugged him, not even worrying about the flames. "Ludwig, you're so much more than that…"

She couldn't even finish her sentence, as the flames grew to cover young Ludwig's entire body. She shrieked and backed away, staring at the young special in fright. Young Ludwig's eyes glowed white as the entire library seemed to quake.

"Kamek and Bowser lied to me!" He shouted. "They went out of their way to hide my true purpose from me!" He looked back down at the textbook, his brow scrunched. "I bet they wanted to use me like King Monger used the specials here! They were waiting until I was old enough so that they could turn me into the super weapon that I'm supposed to be!"

Aria shook her head. "Ludwig, that's not what's happening…"

Young Ludwig screamed as the bookshelves shook. "I hate this! I absolutely hate this!" In a flurry, he picked up the textbook and tucked it under his arm. He flew toward the door, with Smoky and Aria calling out to him. With a pit forming in his stomach, Lemmy followed him. When they exited the library, a strong sense of dread filled him. For the first time in this dream, he worried about what was going to happen next as opposed to anticipating it.

"Master Ludwig!"

That dread seemed to be well placed, as Kamek was outside the library descending down to young Ludwig on his broom. Lemmy felt a lump form in his throat.

This is not good.