Upon hearing the Earl's question, Shade immediately denied it:
"No, no, I'm just a writer, not a detective. Besides, even if I were a detective, it would be impossible to find an ancient cemetery that dates back to before the epoch so easily. I want to ask you, when was the Granger family cemetery established?"
Such great nobles with a long history usually have their own family cemeteries, or set aside separate areas in public cemeteries to place the tombs of family members.
Lord Granger thought for a moment:
"The current family cemetery, together with the Randall Valley Public Cemetery, was built around 1500 AD and has a history of about 300 years. The previous family cemetery was destroyed by the famous Randall Valley earthquake in 1498."
This earthquake, which Xia De had also heard of when he was investigating local legends, was the most serious earthquake in the area since historical documents were available. However, due to the local position as the "center of the material world and earth", such earthquakes should not have occurred, so the incident three hundred years ago was very strange.
"We used to have our own family cemetery. I don't even know how long that old cemetery has been going back. But the earthquake destroyed everything. Yes, everything."
“Are there no wreckage left?”
Xia De asked, and the Earl shook his head regretfully:
"That place is far away from the current urban area. I have never been there myself. But my grandfather has been there. According to him, the place is completely deserted."
As he spoke, the Earl stood up and pointed out the location of the former Granger family cemetery on the map hanging in the study. It was located in the northeast of the city. Although it was not in the mountains and was on the outskirts of the river valley plain, it was far enough away from the city. Fortunately, it was not farther than the Night Temple that was actually located in the mountains:
"That piece of land still belongs to our family now, I remember it was..."
Because he had too many properties, he couldn't remember clearly, so he called the old butler to ask, and found out that the woodland now was the family's forest farm, which provided fuel wood every winter. The excess wood would be transported by water to the north along the west coast of the Old World and sold to the Kingdom of Draurion.
"If you are interested, I will write you a letter and you can give it to the forest warden. He won't mind you wandering around. From what you said, it is possible that your great-uncle left traces there. Of course, if you are interested, you can also try hunting there. Rabbits often appear in the woods of the Randall River Valley in winter."
The Earl smiled and said that because of the two family badges that Shade had sent him, he was very nice to Shade.
"No problem. If I can find further clues, I will let you know as soon as possible."
Shade promised, but in fact, the bones of Mr. Thomas Granger are now lying in the coffin, parked in the Forgotten Church. He plans to wait until everything in the Randall Valley is over, and then return the bones to the earl so that it can be buried with his family, which is also considered to be fulfilling his promise:
"Also, I want to buy an antique from you, which will also be helpful for my investigation."
He then took out the photo he got from the auction house, which showed the antique metal key.
The Count did not remember the antique, but after careful recollection, he remembered that he had bought it on a whim. So he did not negotiate the price with Shade, but directly agreed to Shade's offer and asked Shade to go with the butler who held the key to the basement of the manor, while he went to receive the next guest.
Lord Heiger Granger, now thirty-nine, is very busy.
The brass antique key collected by Earl Granger, as soon as Shad saw the real thing for the first time, he felt that this metal object was absolutely extraordinary.
The key was about the same length as Shade's palm and was quite thick. It was a key that would be used in very old locks. Of course, although it was very old, the Earl's servants seemed to know how to maintain this kind of metal products, so there were only some subtle rust marks on the surface of the key.
This is not a special item, and there is no elemental reaction. The key is just a surface carved with extremely fine lines using straight and orthogonal horizontal and vertical lines.
Xia De was quite sure that there were only horizontal and vertical lines. Considering the level of craftsmanship, this was incredible.
There was no evidence, but inspiration was telling Shad that he had really got something extraordinary this time. So in excitement, Shad took the key and returned to the Wilde Opera House, but Miss Bernardess and Miss Lathers were not there because they were looking for Mr. Lathers's safe house in the cemetery, so Shad spent the whole afternoon studying alone in the head of the group's office on the third floor.
When the last ray of the setting sun disappeared from the horizon and the lamp posts surrounded by snow piles began to flash one by one, the two leaders of the Golden Dawn returned to the opera house.
When Miss Benanis opened the door of her office, Shad was standing at the window, holding up the key and pointing it at the moon.
She smiled and leaned against the door frame and said to Shade:
"The girls I met just now all said that you skipped into the opera house this afternoon."
“Is it that exaggerated?”
Shade turned around and asked, then saw that Luvia also appeared at the door.
"I just happened to meet them and came here together."
The four of them went to have dinner together, and only after returning to the opera house did Xia De mention the matter of the key.
The key was examined by the three ladies in turn, but like the statue in Oxenfurt and the vase in the statue gallery, nothing unusual was found, but Shad was sure that this was the object he was looking for:
"Remember why we thought this key might be related to the Heart of the Earth?"
He asked, and then answered on his own:
"This antique key was discovered in the year 1800 of the Common Calendar, 54 years ago, in an underground temple northeast of the Randall River Valley."
"Yes, similar to the Moon Worship Ruins you found near Oxenfurt Manor and the Night Temple in the mountains, they are all temples of the old gods from the ancient era. At present, it is not clear to whom the temple belongs, but it should also be an old god related to the earth. And this key came from that temple."
Miss Benanis said, and Luvia also said:
"The information I looked up at the local association showed that the temple might even belong directly to the most ancient god of the earth, the ancient goddess Earth Mother, but there is no evidence to prove this. According to the inspection and confirmation of the church half a century ago, the temple itself, as well as the many items found inside, are just ordinary items."
"The church was not the first group to discover the underground temple. Some thieves' skeletons were also found in the temple. Some of those skeletons did not even belong to the Sixth Epoch. This key was found on one of them, so it is unclear whether it belongs to the temple itself."
Miss Lathers made a final addition:
"The local Peace Church was in charge of the excavation and inspection work at the time. According to regulations, they left the items found in the cave for ten years. After confirming that there were no problems, they released the safest items one by one into the market for ordinary people. That's why the key appeared at the auction more than ten years ago and was noticed by my father."
"But what is it, anyway? Shad, what did you find this afternoon?"
Luvia asked, and a smile appeared on Shade's face:
"No matter how I stimulate it with any of my spirit runes, it doesn't react at all. I even tried to destroy the key, and surprisingly it succeeded. However, no matter how much I damage it, it only breaks along the surface lines, but it can't melt or deform. In other words, the key can only be disassembled, not completely destroyed."
Luvia patted Shad lightly, blaming him for wasting his lifespan.
"But besides that, I finally found something wrong with it. I am sure it is related to the Heart of the Earth. So according to this idea, finding the right power will definitely trigger resonance with it."
"I remember you don't have the Earth Spirit Rune."
Miss Benanis said, and Shade nodded:
"But I have this."
He took out the earth rune that he had obtained from the plague merchant, which could enhance the "healing aura". The rune touched the key, and at the point of contact, a stream of khaki light flowed along the horizontal and vertical carvings on the surface of the key, as if some kind of power in the rune was infused into the key.
In just half a minute, the entire key was completely "lit up". When Shade separated the two, the key was already attached with quite clear miracle elements, and even when he let go of the key, the glowing metal actually floated directly above his palm.
After five full minutes, the light disappeared, and the elemental reaction on the key also disappeared:
"See, that's it."
"Why do you always bring such strange things? Last winter, I still remember you asked me to come to your house at night to see some flying slate."
Luvia said with a smile, taking the key again and trying to divine with the obsidian pendulum she had obtained the night of the Eldron Lake incident.
Miss Benanis said:
"Now that this key has been proven to be extraordinary, what is its use?"
"Keys, of course, are used to open locks."
Xia De said with certainty:
"There must be a lock in this place that can be opened by it. And if my guess is correct, the answer I'm looking for should be behind the lock."
The witch raised her eyebrows:
“So, the search continues.”
“But I can feel that this is getting close to the end.”
"The next step is to find a lock or a door... How would you do that? Any clues now?"
"Of course, Miss Benannis, Miss Lasers, and Luvia, have you discovered that most of the clues I have obtained about the Guardians, the legendary Heart of the Earth, and even the Chosen Ones are related to the Granger family?"
The three ladies nodded doubtfully:
"You don't think that Earl Granger is the one hiding at the end, and will jump out with paper firecrackers after you find the door and tell you all the truth, do you?"