Capítulo 1360: Chapter 1360: The Key of the Earth
Upon hearing the Earl’s question, Shard imdiately denied:
“No, no, I’m just a writer, not a detective. Besides, even if I were a detective, it’s impossible to easily discover such ancient ceteries from before the Era. I just wanted to ask you, when did the Granger Family’s cetery start to be established?”
Such long-standing Grand Nobles usually have their own family cetery, or they set aside a separate area in public ceteries to place family mbers’ tombs.
Earl Granger thought for a mont:
“The current family cetery, together with the Randall Valley Public Cetery, was established around the year 1500 of the Common Era Calendar, with a history of about three hundred years. The previous family cetery was destroyed in the famous Randall Valley earthquake of 1498.”
This earthquake, Shard also heard about when investigating local legends, was the most severe earthquake in local history since records began. However, due to the region’s status as the ‘Material World Heart of the Earth,’ such earthquakes shouldn’t theoretically occur, making the event from three hundred years ago quite peculiar.
“We used to have our own family cetery. The history of that old cetery can be traced back, but I don’t even know. The earthquake destroyed everything, yes, everything.”
“Was there no residue left at all?”
Shard asked, and the Earl shook his head regretfully:
“That place is far from the current city area, and I haven’t been there myself. But my grandfather visited, and according to him, the place is completely abandoned.”
While speaking, the Earl stood up and pointed out the location of the forr Granger Family cetery on a map hanging in the study. It was situated northeast of the city, not in the mountains yet, belonging to the outskirts of the river valley plain, but far enough from the city, though not farther than the Night Shrine located truly in the mountains:
“That land still belongs to our family, I believe it’s…”
Due to having too many estates, he couldn’t rember clearly, so he called the old butler to inquire and found out that the land is now the family forest, providing firewood for winter, with excess wood transported by water north along the Old Continent’s West Coast and sold to the Draleon Kingdom.
“If you’re interested, I can write a letter for you to give to the forest caretaker. They won’t mind you wandering around. Hearing what you said, your grand uncle might have left traces there. Of course, if you’re interested, you can also try hunting there; rabbits often appear in the Woodland of Randall Valley in winter.”
The Earl said with a smile, having a favorable attitude towards Shard due to the matter of the two family emblems Shard brought earlier.
“No problem, if I find further clues, I will inform you imdiately.”
Shard promised, but actually, Mr. Thomas Granger’s remains now lie in the coffin, placed in the Church of the Forgotten. He plans to return the remains to the Earl after all the affairs in the Randall Valley are settled, allowing them to be buried with family mbers, fulfilling his promise:
“Additionally, I want to acquire an antique from you, which might help my investigation.”
He then took out a photograph obtained from the auction house, showing the antique tal key.
The Earl didn’t rember this antique, but after careful recollection, he rembered it was sothing he bought on impulse years ago. Thus, he agreed to Shard’s offer without discussing the price and let Shard follow the butler who held the key to the estate basent to retrieve it, while he attended to the next guest.
Earl Hegel Granger, currently thirty-nine years old, is indeed very busy.
The brass-colored antique key from the Granger Family collection, Shard felt the tal item was extraordinary upon seeing the real thing for the first ti.
The key’s length was about the sa as Shard’s palm and quite thick, ant for very old lock cylinders. Although it’s old, the Earl’s servants seed to know how to maintain such tal items very well, so the key’s surface only had so barely noticeable traces of rust.
It wasn’t a special item and had no elent reactions. The key just had so exceptionally fine patterns engraved on its surface with straight perpendicular horizontal and vertical lines.
Shard was rather sure there really were only horizontal and vertical lines. From an artisanal perspective, it was simply unbelievable.
No evidence could be found, but inspiration was hinting to Shard that he indeed acquired sothing remarkable this ti. Therefore, excitedly, Shard returned to the Wilder Opera House, but Miss Benanis and Miss Lathis weren’t there, as they had gone to find Mr. Lathis’s safe house in the cetery. So, Shard spent the entire afternoon in the troupe leader’s office on the third floor.
As the last faint rays of sunset vanished from the horizon and the snow-laden streetlamp poles began to glimr one by one, the two leaders of Golden Dawn returned to the opera house.
When Miss Benanis pushed open the office door, Shard was standing at the window, holding the key high against the moon.
She smiled and leaned against the door fra, saying to Shard:
“The girls I t just now said you skipped into the opera house this afternoon.”
“Was it that exaggerated?”
Shard turned his head to ask and saw that Luviya was also at the door.
“I just happened to et them, so I ca along.”
The four of them had dinner together, and upon returning to the opera house, Shard ntioned the key.
The three won checked the key one by one, but just like the statue in Osenfort and the vase in the statue art museum, nothing unusual was found. But Shard was quite certain this was the item he was looking for:
“Rember, why do we think this key might be related to the Heart of the Earth?”
He asked, then answered himself:
“This antique key, discovered in the Common Era Calendar year 1800, which is 54 years ago, was found at an underground temple in the northeast of Randall Valley.”
“Yes, similar to the Moon Worship Ruins you discovered near the Osenfort Estate, the Night Shrine in the Ruins Mountain are all old god temples of ancient eras. Currently, it’s unclear who the temple belongs to, but it should be related to the Old God of Earth. This key ca from that temple.”
Miss Benanis said, and Luviya added:
“The information I found in the local association suggests that the temple might even directly belong to the most ancient God of the Earth, the Ancient God [Earth Mother Goddess], but there’s no evidence to prove this. According to the church’s inspection and confirmation from half a century ago, the temple itself, as well as the many items found inside, are all just ordinary items.”
“The church was not the first to discover the underground temple, and so thieves’ remains were found inside. So of those remains don’t even belong to the Sixth Era. The key was found on one of them, so it’s unclear if it belongs to the temple itself.”
Miss Lathis added the final comnt:
“The excavation and inspection at the ti were presided over by the local Peace Church. They, according to protocol, let the discovered items sit for a ten-year period, confird them to be safe, then gradually entered them into the ordinary people’s market. That’s why the key appeared at an auction more than ten years ago and caught my father’s attention.”
“But what exactly is it? Shard, what did you discover this afternoon?”
Luviya asked, and a smile appeared on Shard’s face:
“No matter which of my Spirit Runes I used to stimulate it, it had no reaction. I even tried to destroy it, and unexpectedly succeeded. However, no matter how it was damaged, it only broke along the surface lines and couldn’t be lted or deford. In other words, the key can only be disassembled, not completely destroyed.”
Luviya lightly tapped Shard, scolding him for consuming his lifespan again.
“But besides this, in the end, I noticed sothing odd about it. I’m sure it is related to the Heart of the Earth, so following this train of thought, finding the right power will definitely cause it to resonate.”
“I recall that you don’t have an Earth Spirit Rune.”
Miss Benanis said, and Shard nodded:
“But I have this.”
He took out the Earth Rune Stone obtained from the [Plague rchant] that could enhance ‘Healing Aura’. The Rune Stone made contact with the key, and at the contact point, an earthy yellow glow flowed along the key’s surface lines, like a power from the Rune Stone pouring into the key.
In just half a minute, the entire key was completely ‘illuminated’. When Shard separated the two, the key was already infused with pronounced Miracle Elents, and even when he let go of the key, the glowing tal floated directly above his palm.
After a full five minutes, the glow disappeared, and the elental reaction on the key also vanished:
“See, there it is.”
“Why do you always ss around with such bizarre things? I rember this past winter, you had
co to your house at night to see so flying Stone Tablet.”
Luviya said with a smile, then took the key and tried to divine with the Obsidian Pendulum she obtained on the night of the Eldron Lake incident.
Miss Benanis then said:
“Since it has been proven that this key is extraordinary, but what is it used for?”
“A key, of course, is used to unlock.”
Shard concluded with certainty:
“There must be a lock locally that it can open. And if my guess is correct, behind that lock lies the answer I’m looking for.”
The Witch raised an eyebrow:
“So, the search continues.”
“But I can feel that this is already close to the end point.”
“Next is to find a lock or a door… What will you do? Do you have any leads now?”
“Of course, I do. Miss Benanis, Miss Lathis, and Luviya, have you noticed that the clues I currently have about the Guardian, the legendary Heart of the Earth, and even about The Chosen One are mostly related to the Granger Family?”
The three won nodded suspiciously:
“You don’t an to suggest that Earl Granger is the one hiding at the end and will jump out with a party popper once you find the door and tell you all the truth, do you?”
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