"Huh?" Hao Ren looked curiously at the small wooden box in Vivian's hand. The thing was glowing with a black and red luster. The fine carving on it was of a 300-year-old European style. Due to its age, the edges of the wooden box had some fine cracks. Aside from that, it was not much different from an ordinary jewelry box from that era. "Maybe this is the only valuable thing you had back then, that's why you were solem when you passed it to your servant."
"Yes, I was poor, but I've never really cared about stuff like this." Vivian opened the wooden box and looked at the velvet lining inside. "My main concern has always been filling my stomach. What's so special about this box?"
She put the box under her nose and sniffed it. "There's a slight stench of blood—my own blood. It must be a sign. It's been 300 years, and the stench has thinned out. The runes in the box contain no special information."
Hao Ren took the box in his hand and shook it slightly. Suddenly, a thought came to his mind. "Perhaps there's an interlayer... Do you want to take it apart?"
Vivian was a bit hesitant. Actually, she had this idea a few days ago when she received the box, but she could not make up her mind on ripping the box apart: after all, the item looked elegant. She knitted her brows together as she had been struggling internally for a long time before she finally nodded softly. "Instead of preserving it, I think we may find something by ripping it apart. But, be careful not to break the board. Maybe we could put it back together."
Hao Ren twitched his mouth, knowing that Vivian was experiencing heartache despite saying she did not care.
Hao Ren put the small wooden box on the table, and took out a small guillotine knife as well as a screwdriver. He then pried open the box very cautiously, lest he would damage the interlayer. After removing a few small planks, he discovered something inside.
There was really a hollow layer at the bottom of the box.
"Is something really hidden inside?" Surprised, Vivian extended her nail so that she could reach inside the crevice. She then pulled out a yellow-white cloth, which felt like satin along with a blood-red crystal, which was only a few millimeters thick. It was smaller than the size of a thumb.
Hao Ren looked at it expectantly, he felt that the whole matter was magical: from the three-century-old ancient jewellery boxes, a hidden interlayer, the hidden secret knowledge of the witch, the three-hundred-year-old immortal custodian of the treasure box, and the basement where they did the unboxing; aside from the fact that the witch was a poor bat, everything was jaw dropping.
Vivian carefully unfolded the strange 'fabric'. It was unexpectedly thin and tough, the kind of material which was far beyond the reach of ancient human textile technology. It was nearly three square feet when laid unfolded, letters written in dark red 'pigments' covered a third of the fabric while the rest of the fabric had simple drawings on it and large blank area seemed to be reserved for future use.
"This is... a fabric used by the Egyptian gods. I remember that Horus once gave me something like this and asked me to help him treating a plague." Vivian looked at the three-square-foot 'satin' thoughtfully. "These fabric was not something that humans of that era could produce."
Hao Ren found that the colour of the handwriting on the fabric was somewhat strange and inconsistent, not a one-time writing but was written over a course of many years. "Did you write this?" Hao Ren asked.
"It's my handwriting, and the writing materials are of my blood, otherwise it wouldn't last for so long," Vivian diligently examined the text to find its logical sequence. "...My handwriting at that time was really ugly. It's written in an old language which no one can read today."
Hao Ren: "….."
"This is the beginning," Vivian pointed to the corner of the fabric and slowly read it out. "Some records were lost, disappeared with the memory, and could no longer be found. I couldn't even know for sure what I've lost. Keeping records in a dormant place or burying them was unreliable and unattended. They could be damaged by changes in the natural environment, and I wouldn't be able to remember them after waking up. So I made a duplicate of them before losing everything and put them in custody of my trusted servants, or in a human museum. That way even if I lost my memory, they were at least preserved and might be rediscovered one day."
Hao Ren frowned. "What do you mean?"
"I mean these manuscripts. It seems that I have kept other similar text, and saved copies of them. But each time I woke up I would find some of my manuscripts were lost," said Vivian as she tried to recall her memory. "I tried to keep them with me by burying them underground before I hibernated. But I found out at least that if these manuscripts were left unattended, things would went wrong. So in the end I chose to give them to servants, or induce human archaeologists to put them in museums."
Vivian nodded her head and continued. "Well, though humans are short-lived, they preserve their inheritance in a way better and more reliable than otherworldlings. At least ... it's more reliable than my memory. Human archaeological system seems to be a good way to save the relics."
Hao Ren said wryly, "Nowadays, yes. But might not be the case in ancient times. Have you not seen the burning of books and burying of scholars, and fire in the Library of Alexandria?"
Vivian's mouth twitched. "I've seen fire in the Library of Alexandria, but the burning of books and burying of scholars wasn't as serious as said. When Qin Shi Huang burned the books, the only extant copies were spared—he hid them in his library."
Hao Ren: "Let's us read your last words... err, manuscripts."
Sitting at the table, Vivian worked hard to read the ancient texts written hundreds, or thousands, or even tens of thousands of years ago. No one could understand the symbols. They might be hieroglyphic writing of the early humans, or mysterious text unrecorded in history and only Vivian could remember they were originated from a certain tribe or god. Of course, it also included a small part of Letta Runes. Due to the fact that Letta Runes was not suitable for record-keeping purpose, this language formed just a small part of the manuscript. Vivian knew the meaning of these words, but couldn't tell where they originated from. It could be said that this was a secret letter that only one person in the world could interpret, it would become a sensation if it had landed in the hand of the archaeologists.
But that was destined to not fall into the hands of those experts. Now the author was struggling to recall the meaning of those words and interpret them piece by piece:
"... The following are copied from other old manuscripts and recalled from memory. They may not be as accurate, and the earliest ones could no longer be recalled."
"...Awakened in the wilderness, the place where the sun rose is a beach, and where the sun sets is a mountain range. The glacier has receded and the earth seems to be recovering, breathing more comfortably. Walking in the direction of the warm breeze, you can see the grasslands and the trees are waking, and traces of humans in stone piles. They have survived the winter and are now hunting. I'm regarded as a goddess and received food offerings and began to restore strength.
"...as two hundred seasons went by, the tribe began to fear my longevity and strength. So I left. I moved in the direction of the sun, scaled over the mountain, flew over a vast area, and met the white tower and palace. This place is beyond human skills could attain, perhaps it is a place for people like me to stay.
"The people in the tower did not welcome me, so I left. I met Amon and Osiris in the wilderness. They were traveling to a place with a large river. They invited me to join them. But I was sleepy, I needed to find a place to rest. Also I have been irritated recently and had been inexplicably fighting with someone, it was best not to join anyone in their journey.
"Found a safe cave, I laid down a defence perimeter and ready to drop. The final night was a night of full moon. It was bright but I had no energy to watch it."
"...waking up in the cave, cold and snowing outside. Hopefully not a long icing season again. Traces of human settlements were found outside the cave. There were some abandoned stone houses and tools. It seemed that a tribe or a small kingdom had appeared during my hibernation. This time I moved toward the direction of where the sun set and found a large plain with a large-scale human settlement. They were tenacious.
"Physical strength has recovered. The sense of weakness after a period of slumber had receded. Heading towards the direction of the cold wind, more memories about my strength has come back to mind which seemed to be a good thing. Met Zeus and Hera who was an interesting couples quarrying on the mountain. They were thinking of herd group of humans, but they did not know how to go about it.
"Physical recovery has been quick. It seems that it has returned to its heyday and has easily defeated a group of beasts and skeleton warriors. But after that there was a strange sense of anger lingering on as if the herds and the masters behind them were my enemies. Probably related to some lost memories....The power continued to increase and finally destroyed the lord of the skeleton warriors that invaded the territory. The anger had slightly subsided, but the drowsiness took over and I needed to find a sleeping place. This time I have chosen to sleep on a hill."
While translating, Vivian added his own speculations. "The beginning was the late glacial period or later, and the second time was like seven or eight thousand years ago... Zeus had not yet created Mount Olympus. He only paid attention to the human kingdom several thousands of years after that."
"It seems to be a diary for every time you woke up and hibernated." Hao Ren's brows knit together. "What did you keep recording that?"
Vivian shook her head. "I don't know ... let's keep reading for now."