Northern Central Falano, Flottes.
At midday, in the heart of Flottes—the capital of Falano—the National Museum of Falano stood prominently. Among the many elegant Falano-style buildings, it was an imposing structure, grand and magnificent, adorned with countless exquisite sculptures. Known also as the “Palace of Edicts,” it had once been the in-city palace of Falano’s monarchy, where kings issued decrees, conducted state affairs, and convened grand assemblies. If the Temple of the Goddess of Beauty was the king’s home and garden, then this place was his office.
Following the Cold Moon Revolution, the building had been converted into the National Museum of Falano, now housing relics and archives from various eras of Falano’s history. These ranged from those with no connection to the mystical world to those only tangentially linked to it. Some were native to Falano; others had been acquired from its colonies by various means. Nearly all the documents that Samson previously provided to Dorothy and her group originated from this very place.
Now, at Adèle’s request, one of Samson’s subordinates discreetly led her into the museum. In a small room by the window, she sat alone before an ordinary desk. Dressed casually in bright colors, Adèle crossed her legs as she flipped through a magazine, leisurely awaiting something.
“Miss, the item you requested is right here.”
At that moment, a man in a black suit entered the room. He approached her desk and placed a wooden box before her. The lid was covered in various labels and still bore a thin layer of dust—dust that hadn’t been properly wiped off—indicating it had been sitting in some corner for years.
“According to the archive you identified, the relic stored within should correspond precisely to that record. It came from the late Bourbon period and was retrieved from the Northern Shore of Conquest Sea. Fortunately, it’s been preserved intact.”
After placing the box before Adèle, the man explained. Adèle glanced at the box, smiled, and nodded.
“Thank you. May I take a look inside now?”
“Of course. We've already unlocked it for you,” he replied simply.
With that confirmation, Adèle set the magazine aside and focused her attention on the wooden box. After a quick examination, she opened the unlatched lid.
Inside was a ring of shock-absorbing paper padding. Adèle calmly moved the padding aside, revealing a paper-wrapped item. Upon picking it up, she could feel something hard and angular wrapped within.
“Something feels off… Based on what the archive described, the relic should be slightly larger than this.”
Dorothy remarked via the information channel, watching from Adèle’s perspective.
Adèle also voiced her own doubt inwardly.
“Could something be wrong with it? It’s safe to open it directly, right?”
“Wait just a moment.”
As she spoke, Dorothy directed a small pre-prepared insect to crawl out from Adèle’s sleeve, across her hand, and into the paper wrapping through a small gap. After a moment, Dorothy’s slightly serious voice came through.
“Go ahead and open it.”
Hearing that, Adèle began unwrapping the item. Bit by bit, its contents came into view—a gold relic, angular and solid, with intricate carvings etched across its surface. The overall shape was a triangular prism, with one face engraved with a wide-open eye symbol. Each of its four corners had a missing piece, save for one, which featured a finely-crafted groove.
The moment she saw it, Dorothy immediately recognized it. This was the golden body of the relic described in the records: the “Grooved Crystal-Inset Golden Carved Triangular Prism.” It matched the archive’s sketch almost exactly—except for one thing: the four crystals that should have been embedded in it were missing.
“That’s the one… but the crystals are gone. Look inside the box and see if they’re still there.”
Dorothy instructed via the information channel.
Adèle promptly followed her instructions, searching thoroughly among the filler in the box. Yet after an extended search, she found no trace of any crystals. Lifting her head, she looked toward the suited man still standing nearby and asked directly.
“Is this everything? Are you sure you didn’t bring the wrong item?”
“No mistake. Item B0047—Grooved Crystal-Inset Carved Triangular Prism. This is it. We didn’t bring the wrong one,” the man replied seriously.
“There’s gold, there are grooves… but where are the crystals? Can you explain where they went? Were they perhaps categorized separately in another storage box?”
Adèle’s questioning brought a moment of silence from the man. Just as he seemed to be contemplating a response, a familiar voice sounded in the room.
“They were not separately categorized. What you’re holding is the entirety of that collection.”
Startled, Adèle turned toward the voice—and saw a slightly plump middle-aged man standing there. He wore a trench coat and low hat, leaned on a cane, and had a cigar clamped between his lips. It was none other than Samson, the Fourth Consul of Falano.
Upon Samson’s entrance, the suited men in the room immediately bowed respectfully. Samson responded with a subtle wave of the hand before giving a meaningful look to his subordinates. Understanding the signal, they quietly exited the room and closed the door behind them, leaving only Adèle and Samson inside.
After sending his subordinates away, Samson strolled leisurely to Adèle’s side and sat down at another desk opposite hers. Seeing him calmly seated before her, Adèle spoke in a quiet tone.
“I didn’t expect you, Lord Consul, to have the leisure to come here personally at a time like this. It seems that the political affairs haven’t yet pinned you down entirely.”
Her words carried a clear implication: why was Samson here instead of dealing with the attempted assassination against him or pressing his political enemies?
“Heh… In those matters, I am, for now, in a position of initiative. But that advantage is only superficial. Within Falano’s political arena, my disadvantage remains unchanged. I can’t afford to press them too hard just because I’ve gained some initiative—doing so would only hasten their next move against me. What I need now is to slowly entangle them, use this leverage to win over more allies... There’s no need to rush. And so, I have time to pay attention to other matters.”
Samson’s expression remained relaxed as he answered, then tapped the ash from his cigar into the tray and looked at Adèle again.
“I heard that after I handed you the relic archives, you quickly chose something that caught your eye. I was quite curious—what kind of item could catch the attention of the Heaven’s Arbiter Sect and yet be overlooked by our people for over a century? And now… to think it was this piece…”
“You say that like you know what this is. Do you also know where the crystals that were on it went?”
Adèle asked bluntly, holding the golden base with the missing inlays.
“I do. Due to certain well-known reasons, I’ve done considerable research into Bourbon history—including scattered records concerning the relic in your hand.”
“What is it? Don’t tell me it’s related to Charles again?”
Adèle asked, half-guessing.
“You’re exactly right. It is related to the Splendor King. According to volume fourteen of the Palace Chronicles of Bourbon, when the Splendor King was forty-seven years old, he held a grand celebration in Flottes to commemorate his victory over Pritt and Ivengard during the Northern Shore colonial wars—marking Falano’s dominance in the region.
“That celebration included an exhibition displaying a vast array of spoils taken from the enemy and treasures collected from the north. Charles personally toured the exhibit and awarded some of those treasures to distinguished war heroes and important nobles of the realm. The item you’re holding, known then as the ‘Radiance of Victory,’ was featured as part of that event.”
Samson recounted the tale at a measured pace. Listening, Adèle quickly inferred.
“So you’re saying… the crystals were awarded by Charles? Then why was the golden base left behind?”
“No, that’s not it. Charles did not award this item to anyone—despite many meritorious officials and nobles coveting the exquisite piece, crafted from gold and crystal. He refused them all… because his beloved queen, Maria, had taken a liking to it. Or more precisely, to the crystals.”
“Queen Maria was known for her love of beauty and her obsession with jewelry. She was an avid collector and also a connoisseur of gems. It’s said that when she first saw the crystals on the ‘Radiance of Victory’ at that celebration, she was utterly enchanted.
“She believed the crystals were among the purest and most flawless she’d ever seen. And so, she requested her husband grant them to her so she could have them made into a beautiful piece of jewelry. Of course, Charles could not refuse the request of his cherished queen. He had the four crystals removed from the golden base and gifted them to Maria.”
Samson’s account of Falano’s royal history flowed smoothly. After hearing it, Adèle frowned and asked.
“Wait—she only wanted the crystals? Not the base?”
“Yes. According to the records, Queen Maria felt that, although the gold base was of fine quality, its engraving patterns were too dense and rigid, lacking elegance. The open eye motif at the center also struck her as eerie. She didn’t like it. All she wanted was the crystals—not the base.”
Listening to this explanation, Dorothy couldn’t help but scoff inwardly.
“That woman clearly had no taste…”
To Dorothy, the engravings on the golden base held deep significance. The tightly packed lines radiated a kind of pleasing geometric and mathematical beauty. If she had to make a comparison, seeing it was like a programmer gazing at perfectly clean, well-annotated, bug-free code—or an engineer admiring a precisely wired server room, with dense cables laid out in perfect order. There was a serene aesthetic to it. Everything was beautiful.
“She just didn’t get it…”
Dorothy silently complained.
Back in the room, Adèle also glanced at the engravings on the golden base and said casually.
“Yeah, the pattern really isn’t very pretty… it’s stiff, sharp, not soft at all. No wonder the queen turned it down. So, did she succeed in turning those crystals into jewelry?”
“She did. Crafted by the finest royal jewelers, the four crystals became a necklace named Maria’s Light. Whenever Queen Maria wore it to events, its radiant brilliance always drew gasps from the crowd. That necklace became one of the most famous treasures of the Bourbon royal family among the mundane world—a signature piece of Queen Maria,” Samson explained.
Adèle, her expression now more serious, pressed further.
“Then… what became of the necklace? I remember that Maria died in a shipwreck with Charles. Don’t tell me the necklace went to feed the fish?”
“No. When the Nokdorne shipwreck occurred, Queen Maria wasn’t wearing her prized necklace. She had left it in the Temple of the Goddess of Beauty. After her and Charles’s deaths, their son, Robert—the heir apparent—ascended to the throne. He later became known as the Greedy King. Maria’s Light was inherited by him at that time.
“As for the Greedy King… I suppose I don’t need to elaborate. At the end of his reign, the Cold Moon Revolution erupted, and Bourbon’s treasures were ransacked…”
Samson’s voice grew grim.
Frowning, Adèle asked.
“Don’t tell me that necklace was lost during the revolution?”
“No—it wasn’t lost. It was stolen! Maria’s Light was stolen by some despicable thief right before the great plundering of the Cold Moon Revolution!”
As he said this, Samson’s voice grew visibly angry. He pinched the cigar in his hand, scattering glowing embers and ash.