93 – The Sun"s Progeny
Serpentines were commonly used in the Steel Ridge Kingdom and as the Steel Ridge Kingdom"s ancillary state, the Sapphire Grand Duchy also used Serpentines.
In addition to the Serpentines, there were still many other languages on the continent, such as the Eagle Kingdom"s Windlect, the Blast Furnace Kingdom"s Rockscript, the Unsetting Radiance Empire"s Highertext, the Blue Dragon Empire"s Dragonlect, and so on and so forth.
Liszt"s predecessor had didn"t knew this foreign language. Therefore, he had no knowledge these strange symbols. If fact, upon a careful look, rather than calling them symbols, it would not be wrong to call them distorted, little drawings of people
“The [Diary of Philip Sunprogeny], what a strange name. Old Phil, what language are these symbols from?” Inquired Liszt.
“I don"t know, Sir Lord. In fact, I can"t read them. This book is a keepsake of an indigenous person from the Dodo Island. He was my good friend. We rode the canoe together, but he died in the sea, leaving only this book behind. I kept the book as a keepsake.”
“So its a keepsake and has sentimental value, then I"ll return it to you once I"m done reading it.”
“No, no, no, Sir Lord reading my book makes me honored. I wish that you keep it. Thanks to Sir Lord, the leathersmith shop does much better now.”
“Alright, then I"ll buy it.”
“I wish to give it to Sir Lord as a tribute.”
“I accept your tribute, but I"ll still compensate you for it.”
Liszt returned to the castle with the diary.
He instructed Carter to take out three silver coins and hand them to Jesse. No matter how expensive, a book would not cost three silver coins. However, it was a keepsake and had sentimental value, after all: “Jesse, give these three silver coins to Old Phil as a compensation for the book. Also, tell Old Phil that I liked his story very much. He can supplement it at anytime if he wants to.”
“Yes, Master.”
Liszt didn"t immediately open the book once Jesse left and instead summoned the smoke mission.
After a while, faint smock appeared before his eyes and twisted into Serpentines. Liszt was pleasantly surprised as well as apprehensive; the Serpentines no longer conveyed the usual meaning.
Changing to.
“The mission has changed.”
The Serpentines lasted for a few seconds before the smoke slowly twisted and formed new Serpentines: “Mission: unlike safety, the thorns sprite worm"s worm stalk doesn"t enjoy an abundance of nutrients. It had already lived for eight years and is about to get old. However, it is still unwilling. Please supplement its worm stalk"s nutrients. Reward: a new type of thorns.”
His apprehension faded, with only the feeling of pleasant surprise remaining.
He had taken a bit of risk by stirring trouble with the smoke mission to make a statement – he was not just a puppet led by the strings. But inside, he was really worried that this would make him lose the smoke missions. Whether the smoke missions were a cheat or the manifestation of some kind of backstage manipulator, it wasn"t something he could refuse.
Moreover, there was no need to refuse it.
So far, the smoke missions only had advantages, helping him to grow quickly. Even if there was a backstage manipulator, he probably couldn"t resist them.
If he couldn"t resist, then why not enjoy?
He even had a despicable thought lingering in his my mind: “If I can ride a dragon, then even if I were to sell myself to the backstage manipulator, so what? Backstage manipulator, so long as you let me enjoy glory, splendor, wealth and rank, then I am willing to do your bidding!” There was no response. At times, he felt like the smoke missions were very low-key.
Now it seemed that.
Even if he stirred trouble with the smoke missions, the smoke missions would not stir trouble with him.
It also proved that the mission rewards were not creations of the smoke missions.
That they existed all along.
At most, the smoke missions took advantage of favorable trends by fiddling with the threads of karma and nudging their trajectories for a short period of time. Alike a gust of wind, they gently blew at the long river of fate, giving rise to wave spray. But no matter whether the wave spray was rotated to the left or moved to the right, it would ultimately fall back into the river and return to tranquility.
“Maybe one day, I will understand the meaning behind the smoke missions… But for now, enjoying the cheat is just fine.” With an optimistic att.i.tude, he shook off the unnecessary worries.
What remained was joy.
He looked at the new mission reward and the familiar wording – ‘a new type".
Previously, there were two instances of missions mentioning ‘a new type". The new type of tulips brought about the magic ingredient Black Tulip and the new type of mushrooms brought about the magic ingredient Flame Mushroom.
What kind of magic ingredient would the new type of thorns bring about?
“It lacks nutrients? Then tomorrow, I"ll let serfs transport fine compost to supplement its worm stalk"s nutrients!”
He was a bit regretful, though.
The thorn sprite worm had lived for eight years, which meant that it only had two years left.
“It seems that I have to find a way to come up with another thorns sprite worm… The Tulip Castle seems to still have a young thorns sprite worm. I wonder, when will I be able to purchase it?” Thorns were just small, weed-like shrub, so there was not much use to thorns sprite worms. Consequently, they should not be too expensive.
He scattered the smoke Serpentines with a wave of his hand.
Liszt regained his focus and then cast his gaze back to the [Diary of Philip Sunprogeny]: “Philip Sunprogeny, his family name is rather domineering. A retainer knight of my is also called Philip, but his family name is ‘Wool”. Compared to the author"s family name, the disparity is as obvious as that between a chicken and a phoenix.”
Turning to the first page, the first thing that caught his eye was a very abstract picture of the sun.
As it was drawn by hand, the outline of the sun was not quite round, the surrounding rays of light were triangular smears, and the interior of the sun was filled with various messy stripes.
It looked like doodle"s of a seven-year-old.
Below the drawing were Serpentines, which might be a prose.
“Such a tattoo was on my grandfather"s back.”
“He said that his father also had such a tattoo on his back.”
“I asked him why my father and I don"t have such tattoos on our backs?”
“He said that the ancestors have abandoned us and that we no longer could inherit it.”
“I didn"t understood what he meant by that.”
“My grandfather said that we were exiled from our home into this land of sin and could only return five hundred years later.”
“There would be big ships sailing in the sky to welcome us back under the sunshine five hundred years later.”
“Five hundred years have pa.s.sed, but there were no ships in the sky.”
Looking at the prose.
Liszt found it quite interesting. The content of the prose was roughly the following – the author"s ancestors were sinners exiled to the Dodo Island for five hundred year. They would tattoo designs of the sun, which represented their bloodline, on their backs. However, five hundred years later, the ships in the sky, that were supposed to come for them to take them back, didn"t came.
As a result, the author"s grandfather felt abandoned and thus didn"t give his son a tattoo.
“Progenies of the sun…”
“If what is written is true, then the Dodo Island"s indigenous people should be the progeny of the continent"s greater aristocrats. Only greater aristocrats, especially the offsprings of the royal family, would be exiled as a consequence of wrongdoings, while lesser aristocrats would be directly executed. However, without the habit of recording history, the royal family would probably forget all about the exiled offsprings about one hundred years later.”
The first page was a drawing and a prose.
The second page was a preface.
“My name is Philip and I am twenty six years old. I have just returned from work outside the island, but I don"t intend to leave the island anymore. Although it is quite bustling outside, but life is also difficult there. I am going to stay on the Dodo Island and marry Walissa, with whom I"m going to nurture a son. I am a carpenter. Therefore, I can build a big house for him to live in!”
“From today on, I will keep a diary, so that when I"m old, I won"t be like my grandfather, who forgot our story and where we came from. My son, thanks to my diary, will be clear about his father"s experiences.”
“However, I don"t have much thick bast paper or ink, which is why i will have to wright sparingly. Oh, I will wright the symbols smaller.”
“Philip Sunprogeny.”