"Eh… I thought it would be more magical," Trevor admitted, and Lucius laughed before replying, "Haha, it's more practical this way," then extinguished his lantern and guided Trevor toward the center of the enormous underground archive where a stone pillar stood with a large, thick book lying open on top of it. "This is the index," Lucius said, pointing to the book. "Everything down here is cataloged," and the book was enormous, heavy, and filled with names Trevor didn't recognize, though while Lucius spoke, Trevor began observing the place around him — shelves packed with ancient books, glass jars containing potions of strange colors, skulls from unknown creatures, and even complete skeletons of certain monsters — and he felt an enormous surge of curiosity, so he began walking around the place.
That was when he noticed something curious: several paintings were hanging on the walls, old portraits of members of the Belmont family, and Trevor started examining them one by one until he noticed something that completely surprised him — some of those faces were extremely familiar: Leon, Trevor Belmont, Christopher, Simon, Juste, all the Belmonts he knew from the games, and if before everything had seemed like nothing more than fantasy to him, now it was reality. Lucius walked up and stood beside him, saying, "This is the history of our family," as he looked at the portraits, "Each of them faced Dracula and protected humanity," and the two remained silent for a few minutes, watching the heroes of the past, until after a while Lucius spoke again. "Come," he said, pointing toward the other side of the archive, "What I wanted to show you is over here."
Lucius walked to a bookshelf and after searching for a few seconds found a large leather-bound book, picked it up, and announced, "This is our family's bestiary," handing the book to Trevor. "I thought that now that your studies are progressing, you would need something more detailed than just slides and lessons." Trevor held the book carefully and said, "Thanks, Grandpa," then opened the bestiary, but soon frowned because he couldn't understand absolutely anything. "What's written here?" he asked, flipping through a few pages. "What language is this?" Lucius smiled when he saw his reaction and answered, "Latin." Trevor sighed and said, "Why not English?" looking up, "And how am I supposed to read this?"
Lucius explained calmly, "In the past it was customary to write everything in Latin," crossing his arms, "and over time Latin became a dead language, so it was decided to keep the bestiary this way — it prevents the text from needing updates if modern languages change." Trevor already knew what was coming next, and he wasn't disappointed, because Lucius then said naturally, "Of course… you're going to start taking some Latin lessons," and Trevor's eyes widened as he exclaimed, "More classes?!" He was definitely not excited about the idea of losing even more of his precious free time, for Trevor wasn't the biggest fan of studying, but Lucius simply laughed and said, "Haha, relax. You'll like it," before beginning to walk toward the stairs and adding, "Now let's head back. It's almost time for dinner."
After that, the two returned to the mansion and the routine continued, the lessons becoming a little harder as Mr. Hans began teaching Trevor how to throw daggers and how to fight using them, while Trevor also started his Latin lessons and, surprisingly, quickly became interested — which, of course, had absolutely nothing to do with the beautiful teacher his grandfather had hired, but somehow Latin suddenly seemed far more interesting now. Meanwhile, Lucius continued the whip training, and it was impressive how quickly Trevor was improving, almost as if using a whip truly ran in the Belmont bloodline, though there was one small incident — if it could even be called an incident.
One night Trevor couldn't sleep, so he did what he usually did in situations like that: he got out of bed and went to the mansion's library to read for a while, since normally that helped him relax, but as he approached the library, something caught his attention — the lights were already on. Trevor frowned, and when he entered the room, he saw a man sitting in an armchair, a tall man wearing an elegant black suit and a black tie with a red handkerchief in his chest pocket, his black hair reaching the back of his neck and his eyes brown. Trevor became alert because he didn't recognize that man — he wasn't one of the servants, nor did he seem to be one of his grandfather's hunter friends — so he asked, "Excuse me… what are you doing here?"
The man took his eyes off the book he was reading and looked directly at Trevor, and for a brief moment a look of recognition passed across his face before he returned to his calm expression and answered, "I'm a friend of your grandfather. He allowed me to stay here." Trevor didn't remember Lucius mentioning any visitors, but he decided not to question it, simply grabbing another armchair and sitting down. "Nice to meet you. My name is Trevor," he said, and the man smiled slightly and replied, "The pleasure is mine. My name is Adrian." He tilted his head slightly and asked, "Young Belmont, what brings you here tonight?"
Trevor replied, "I couldn't sleep," picking up a book from the table beside him, "so I decided to come here and read for a bit. That usually works." Adrian observed Trevor for a few seconds before asking calmly, "Trouble sleeping? Did something happen recently?" Trevor didn't know that man, but strangely he felt calm around him, so he decided to vent a little — he would probably never see him again anyway. "I… have been dealing with some problems lately," he said, looking at the floor, "Sometimes it feels like the weight of the world is on my shoulders."
Adrian smiled with understanding and replied, "Don't worry about that. Being the heir of a clan like the Belmonts is no small thing." He continued, "When I was younger… I also felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders," looking down at the book in his hands, "I thought I had to deal with everything alone. That everything was my responsibility." He sighed and went on, "I ended up isolating myself from everyone," then looked back at Trevor and added, "But later I learned that it didn't have to be that way." He smiled and said, "There were other people I could rely on."
Trevor nodded slowly and said, "Yeah… I guess you're right," staying silent for a moment as he thought about whether he should ask the next question, but he decided to ask anyway. "There's something else," he said, taking a deep breath. "I'm not sure what I should do. I know bad things are going to happen." He looked at Adrian and finished, "But I still have doubts in my heart about whether I should interfere or not."
Adrian remained silent for a few seconds before replying calmly, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing — Edmund Burke." He then looked directly into Trevor's eyes and said, "Young Belmont… I know you have a good heart. So don't let those doubts interfere with your decisions." Adrian smiled slightly and added, "Deep down… you already know what to do." Trevor nodded, his face no longer showing any doubt, and said, "Thank you again, Adrian. You're really a good advisor." Adrian replied, "You're welcome," opening the book again, "Whenever you need to talk… you can come to me. Remember what I said — you're not alone."
Trevor stood up and said, "I think I'm going to sleep now," yawning before adding, "That conversation helped a lot." Adrian nodded and said, "Good night, young Belmont," and Trevor returned to his room, finally managing to fall asleep, though the next day when he asked his grandfather about Adrian, Lucius didn't say much — only that Adrian was an old friend of the family and that Trevor should treat him well. Curiously, after that day, whenever Trevor had trouble sleeping, he went to the library, and Adrian was always there, the two eventually becoming good friends who sometimes talked about books, sometimes discussed their opinions about the stories they were reading, and many times Trevor simply vented while Adrian listened patiently and offered advice. Trevor had been wrong to think he would never see that man again, but he was glad to have met him. Even so, there was something strange, something that bothered him — a strange feeling, as if he had met Adrian before.