Chapter 872: Act 50 – Two Letters XV
“Antinna, you open it,” Brendel said, looking at the box.
Antinna was taken aback momentarily, then reacted, gazing at her lord with a sense of emotion, and gently nodded in agreement.
She placed her hand on the cold iron box, suppressing her excitement, and softly recited a spell. Each word flowed from her soft lips, deep and clear. The lock of the box seemed to be lifted by an invisible hand, and then it quietly slid open, finally clattering to the ground. She took a breath and slowly opened the box, revealing a layer of waterproof oilcloth beneath which were three tightly bound packages. The outer layer of the packages was the same material as the oilcloth, and on top of the packages lay a letter, sealed with wax marked with the emblem they had seen before.
After receiving a nod of approval, Antinna broke the seal and read the letter carefully. The content was similar to the will—should someone else find this inheritance, the discoverer should divide it into three parts, with the most substantial portion going to them, while the remaining two lesser portions and some miscellanea would be left for Antinna and Sadi, ensuring that they at least had something to rely on for their lives, and also serve as a memorial. The letter contained some personal words addressed to Antinna, primarily wishing her happiness and seeking her forgiveness for being an irresponsible father.
After finishing the last sentence, the young aide held the letter with both hands in silence for a long while, her head lowered, her thick eyelashes fluttering like feathers.
Brendel exchanged glances with Freya behind her. The future Valkyrie looked at her with sympathy, almost wanting to shoulder the sadness in the aide’s heart by standing in her place. She thought of her own origins and felt a softness in her heart.
After a long moment, Antinna finally set the letter down. She appeared to be unfazed but her face was pale: “My lord, let’s open these packages.”
Seeing her demeanor, Brendel couldn’t bring himself to speak and simply nodded. He suddenly felt that perhaps he truly had come on the right journey. He had thought that the aide had long since forgotten the shadows of the past, but he hadn’t expected such sorrow to be buried so deeply in her heart. Antinna silently opened the largest package, and the glow of gold and silver immediately lit up the faces of the three present. Inside were neatly stacked gold bars and silver ingots, along with some jewelry and a stack of property deeds. She quickly assessed that the wealth here exceeded over a hundred thousand Tor, a substantial sum for a minor noble family—yet this money was prepared by her father for the discoverer of the inheritance. Antinna silently set it aside and opened the second package.
The second package contained similarly themed items, though the total was about half of what the first held—this was meant for her mother, and inside was a letter with the signature of Sadi, her mother. Antinna did not open the envelope but looked at it for a moment before gently setting it down. Then she picked up the third package—this smallest one, about the size of a cosmetic box, was intended for her.
As she held this package, she felt as if she could barely breathe, but still held her breath, carefully opening it. She unwrapped layers of oil paper to reveal a delicate walnut box. When she opened the box, she found a ring and a thin necklace resting on soft velvet inside. At the moment she saw the necklace, tears finally streamed down her cheeks uncontrollably.
Brendel and Freya looked at the necklace in silence. It turned out that the crystal pendant of the necklace was a beautiful recording crystal. When the box opened, light from the crystal illuminated an image of a man and a woman standing side by side. The man had black hair, and his face bore a faint resemblance to Antinna; he smiled gently at her:
“Anna, if one day you open this box with your own hands, I believe I will no longer be in this world. My beloved daughter, I, your irresponsible father, dare not hope for your forgiveness. But please believe that my life has been spent pursuing the most righteous and just things in this world. For I know that those who dedicate themselves and bear responsibility cannot possibly be the sinners spoken of by others. Anna, I hope one day you can see all the truths in this world with your clear gaze, and not be blinded by illusions, for you are so wise, and my lifelong pride—”
“This ring is a token of my engagement with your mother. After gaining her consent, I left it here, hoping one day it could serve as a testament to your happiness and the other half you hold dear.”
“Anna,” a woman with gentle features resembling Antinna spoke, smiling slightly, “I hope one day you can find your own happiness.”
“Liar…” Antinna suddenly choked up, as if the emotions she had repressed for so long finally erupted, like a flood breaking a dam. Her cries turned into loud sobs, wavering like a wounded beast. Brendel had never seen his calm and composed aide reveal such a side, helpless as a child, her fragile shoulders shaking, producing no other sound than her weeping.
Brendel was also choked with emotion; some feelings in this world can always touch the heart, striking the softest spots within, and familial love is undoubtedly one that can never be severed. Regardless of how strong or indifferent Antinna appeared, as if she had long forgotten all past things, before her parents, she cried like a child—not biting her lip, tears brimming in her eyes, but completely voiceless, weeping uncontrollably, releasing a primal wail.
Freya turned her head as well, wiping her eyes.
It was hard to tell how much time passed.
Finally, the aide managed to compose herself. Her face was red, and she tried to avoid looking at Freya and Brendel, seemingly afraid of being mocked. “My lord, I checked carefully, and it seems that there are no remains of Lord Darus in here.” She spoke, her voice so hoarse that it sounded almost like a different person.
Brendel looked at her with concern and asked, “Are you alright, Antinna?”
Antinna shook her head, letting out a light sigh. She felt very confused, unable to say if she was truly alright or not. However, after receiving her father’s belongings, her resentment towards her father, who left without a word, seemed to have diminished in intensity. She thought quietly that perhaps her mother, when she was on her sickbed holding her hand, had long known where her father had gone; they had always known because her father never lied to her mother; they were merely colluding to deceive her. She smiled and shook her head gently, though tear stains still lingered on her cheeks, the aide looked quite charming as she smiled.
Brendel then finally relaxed, glancing at Freya, who also appeared to be relieved.
There were no remnants of Darus in the box, contradicting what the letter stated. This was something Brendel had expected yet hadn’t anticipated. After thinking for a moment, he responded, “Antinna, your father couldn’t guarantee that the one who discovered his inheritance would be you, nor that the discoverer would keep their promise to share the inheritance with you both, so he likely would not put such important items directly in the inheritance.”
Antinna nodded.
“But he clearly wrote in the letter…” Freya asked in confusion, “That’s a private letter; he had no need to lie, did he?” She quickly realized, exclaiming, “I understand now! He didn’t need to place Lord Darus’s remains in his inheritance, but he could leave clues about the inheritance!”
Brendel looked at her in surprise: “…How did you suddenly become so clever?”
Freya glared at him, gritting her teeth.
“If my father left a message in the inheritance, I think it can only be in my package.” Antinna contemplated and answered.
“But your mother’s package might also have something, right?” Freya asked as she turned back.
Antinna shook her head: “My mother’s package is basically filled with valuables, and my father would surely have anticipated the greed of men; only the inheritance left for me consists almost entirely of worthless items, not drawing any attention. Moreover, I had checked my mother’s package, and that letter; there was nothing noteworthy inside.”
“Antinna, you guessed this from the beginning, didn’t you? Your mind is really sharp,” Freya said with a hint of envy. She had never been the brightest in the Knight Academy; one might even say she was somewhat dull, but for genuinely gifted individuals, she felt only admiration, without any trace of jealousy. The princess had told her that her father was Erluin’s most gifted knight lord from the last era, which caused her considerable distress over why she was so clumsy.
The aide smiled slightly.
“Have you checked everything?” Brendel asked again.
Antinna nodded: “I’ve checked the necklace and ring, as well as the box inside and out; I found no clues.” She thought for a bit and said, “I don’t think my father would leave such important information in a conspicuous place; only by dismantling them could we likely find where the clues lie.”
“But those are your father’s last remnants—”
“It’s alright, my lord,” Antinna softly replied, “This is also my father’s wish; he wouldn’t blame us for this. Moreover, if we miss someone, it should be in our hearts, not tangled up with these exterior items.”
She opened the box, but Brendel pressed down on her hand. “Let me,” he said, “Show me the necklace.”
Antinna was momentarily startled, looking at her lord, then nodded and placed the necklace in his hands. Brendel took the necklace and examined it closely, then grasped the pendant and turned it gently. Before long, the pendant indeed loosened. He removed it in a certain direction and carefully lifted it towards the light in the room, pulling out a rolled-up piece of paper from within.
His movements were seamless, as if he had anticipated everything, instantly leaving Freya and Antinna astounded.
“Lord… My lord?” Antinna slightly parted her lips, almost believing her lord was truly an omniscient deity.
Recording crystals have a physical property: their crystalline structure is hollow. When Brendel checked the necklace, he first thought of this. He tried to remove the pendant and succeeded, thus stumbling upon the key. He handed the necklace back to Antinna and couldn’t help but smile wryly as he explained the reason. Antinna then understood but still looked at her lord with great respect; she was engaged in research on magical constructs and was most familiar with various crystals. However, recording crystals are a niche subject, as they are a type of artificially-created magical power crystal. Very few understand their physical properties—only her lord, learned nearly beyond recognition, could maintain such composure.
The three opened the paper only to find it covered with strange symbols, resembling a child’s doodles. Brendel and Antinna didn’t immediately understand what it was, but Freya exclaimed softly, “Ah, this is military cipher.”
“Military cipher?” Brendel raised an eyebrow; he knew that in military contexts, there are often secret messages requiring transmission, and each country has its own set of secret symbols derived from ancient runes. He was familiar with Erluin’s military ciphers—be it the ‘Anson Cipher’ from thirty years ago or the new ‘New Cipher’ post the frost transformation—but clearly, this was none of those. He turned to Freya beside him for clarification, and she nodded affirmatively.
“This is the Crusian military cipher, and it’s the old one from half a century ago. I happened to study it at the Royal Officer Academy.”
As she said this, Antinna reacted. “Right,” the aide responded as if remembering something. “When I was little, my father taught me some parts of this cipher, but he never told me what it was at the time.”
Brendel was taken aback that Freya had learned the Crusian cipher. He immediately asked, “Can you decipher it?”
Freya read through it carefully before nodding: “It shouldn’t be a problem, Brendel; it seems to be a map…”
…
“What are these?”
In front of Freya lay three items: a pale gray crystal, some reddish-brown stone chips, and a rough map sketched on papyrus—these three items had all been taken from the same iron box after she cracked the cipher, retrieved from beneath the floor of an old house in the Hood District. And of course, she recognized none of them.
Brendel had taken measures to let Dian spend a bit of money to sneak Antinna’s father’s inheritance out of the graveyard. He cast a protective spell on the box so that those people couldn’t open it. And since there were many ‘posts’ going in and out of the graveyard, those practicing black magic in secret wouldn’t easily transport bodies one by one, so using a box wasn’t strange; Brendel had initially worried it might raise suspicion, but he underestimated how commonplace such matters were in the eyes of grave robbers.
After the grave keeper received a sum of money from Dian, he patted his chest, assuring him that he wouldn’t just send out a box, but could even lift a few coffins from the graveyard without a hitch. Then he found some quick-handed workers who, in Brendel’s eyes, bear some resemblance to thieves’ guild members. Ultimately, with their help, the box was successfully smuggled out without any setbacks; the people hauling the box had been doing this kind of work for years, treating that box filled with gold and silver as if it were merely a stone.
Brendel couldn’t help but feel lucky that he had been clever enough to cast a Wind Wing spell on the box. Otherwise, with the experience of these people, they might have discovered the weight was off as soon as they touched it.
By the time they returned everything to the manor and went back to the Hood District to retrieve Antinna’s father’s final remains—or perhaps better said, the remains of the Sword Saint Darus—the evening was approaching. Brendel opened the box in his study, taking out the items one by one, leading to the scene described earlier.
However, in contrast to Freya’s confusion, Brendel and Antinna appeared to have differing expressions.
“My lord, these stone chips…” the aide sharply recalled, “I think I’ve seen them before. When my father first bought some from a traveling merchant, it was as if he had gained a treasure; after that, he continued to purchase these stones from various places. I remember for quite a long time, he was always fiddling with these stones.”
“Did he tell you anything?” Brendel’s gaze was fixed on the gray crystal, questioning without turning his head.
Antinna recalled for a moment but shook her head: “I was too young then; I vaguely remember my father mentioning it a few times, suggesting these stones were like keys to something, but after that, they gradually disappeared from my sight. I thought my father had lost interest in them, but I never expected he kept them.”
“Antinna, have you not thought that these items might actually pertain to my grandfather?” Brendel replied.
“Perhaps so, according to the letter, this box contains the relics of Lord Darus, along with fragments of what my father called a ‘landscape’—is this referring to these stone chips?” Antinna asked, somewhat doubtfully.
But Brendel did not respond.
He stared intently at the gray gemstone.
