Taking the aged notebook handed over by the butler, Liang En flipped through it with curiosity. After a few pages, his attention was captivated by the black and white photographs within the album.
The photographs were of runic inscriptions on a stone monument. Due to having acquired the card labeled "Viking (SR)" earlier, Liang En quickly recognized what exactly the runic carvings on the stone monument depicted.
Carved on the monument was a short poem, narrating the tale of an explorer known as the "Red-Haired Son" who journeyed westward from Greenland and eventually discovered a new land named "Vendland."
However, the story adhered to the writing style of medieval epics, using extensive ink to describe the adventure's origin, the experiences in between, and the fertility and richness of the final destination. Nonetheless, it lacked many specifics.
For instance, a significant issue was that the poem dedicated one-third of its length to describing their ultimate destination, Vendland. Yet, from it, one could hardly discern where exactly Vendland was located.
Although the poem mentioned this place called Vendland, abundant with grapes suitable for winemaking and wood for constructing houses and ships, it wasn't a clear clue.
This was due to the fact that in ancient Viking poetry and legends, both wine and wood held special significance for the Vikings, sometimes even serving as symbolic elements.
For instance, the Vikings considered wine their most essential beverage, believing life to be incomplete without it. A life worth living was one that included the ability to drink wine.
Simultaneously, the Vikings required wood for crafting houses, ships, tools, utensils, and practically everything else. Wood was also crucial as fuel. Hence, wood was as essential to them as food, water, and air.
In a portion of Viking poetry, having ample wine and wood often depicted an individual's opulence or an area's abundance, much like the saying "streets paved with gold" in the Far East.
"The inscription on the stone monument is a poem about exploration," Liang En explained to the steward in front of him after reading the runic writings. "It tells the story of an explorer who set out on a westward journey by boat."
"You can understand runic script—well, since you can decipher ancient Egyptian texts, mastering a few more languages shouldn't be difficult," the steward acknowledged, clearly having been paying attention to Liang En and his recent academic achievements.
Seeing that Liang En could read the text on the photographs, the steward nodded in satisfaction. He then took out a tablet from his belongings and showed Liang En a series of photographed pages.
The content shown in the photographs was a few pages from a diary. Based on these pages, it seemed that the person writing the diary was also the one who took these pictures.
In the diary, this writer believed that Vendland truly existed, and they planned to lead an archaeological expedition from Greenland after the war's end to search for traces of what might have been the earliest European immigrants to the Americas.
"His Lordship, the Count, has a request related to these photographs." After Liang En finished looking at the pictures, the steward spoke, revealing the purpose of his commission.
"Please rest assured, this is an open-ended commission. The task at hand is for you to locate the whereabouts of the place described in this stone monument," the butler began.
Following that, the butler explained the origin of the matter. Since Liang En had previously discovered the remains of Master Dulis, the Count had dispatched his men to follow the traces left by Master Dulis and gather more information about his time in Finland.
Among these clues, the most crucial ones came from a key and a copper badge found on the remains. Following these items, they located this album and another notebook from a safe in a Finnish bank.
The album in question was the one Liang En was currently looking at, and the photographs he had seen on the tablet earlier were related records from that notebook.
Due to the Count's poor health, he wished to do something for his uncle, whom he had only met briefly when he was young, before he passed away. After reading the diary recorded in the notebook, the Count realized he could organize an expedition to prove his uncle's conjectures.
"The old master is in poor health and has no legitimate heir. Therefore, he hopes to accomplish this before his passing and leave his family's name in history," the butler vaguely explained the reason for this task.
Listening to the butler's words, Liang En felt he could understand the Count's motivation. After all, leaving a legacy behind was a common desire, as the saying goes, "A leopard cannot change its spots," and a person's reputation lives on after their death.
"I intend to take on this task, but before that, I have a few questions for you." After thinking for a few minutes, Liang En decided to accept the task. However, before doing so, he wished to gather more information about it.
"The first question is, where is the original stone monument located?"
"The original stone monument has been destroyed," the butler said with a regretful expression.
"In fact, after we found this album, we immediately set out to locate the stone monument. However, we discovered that the stone monument was originally near Viborg in Finland and has been completely lost during the war."
"Well, it would indeed be more challenging without the stone monument," Liang En sighed in resignation. To be honest, the presence of such a monument in Finland was quite reasonable.
After all, the Vikings' activities spanned the entire Nordic region, and the southern part of Finland was one of the several strongholds of Viking presence. Thus, it wasn't strange for someone to record Viking sagas from other regions.
"Upon discovering this item, we also researched information about pre-Christian Vikings in Iceland," the butler suddenly seemed to recall another piece of information.
"Although numerous changes in religion on the island destroyed many ancient records, with our efforts, we managed to find fragments from several parchment documents."
Saying that, the butler opened another folder on the tablet, containing pictures of parchment fragments that appeared darkened.
Though the text on these fragments was limited and quite scattered, this didn't hinder Liang En from piecing together their content.
Just as the butler had mentioned, the text on these parchment fragments echoed the epic on the stone monument, with slight differences in phrasing and sentence structure.
In other words, the stone monument Liang En had seen in the photographs was not an isolated instance. Multiple pieces of evidence concurrently corroborated the existence of Vendland.
This cross-verification lent authenticity to Vendland's existence, transforming it from a mere cultural symbol akin to Shangri-La, which existed solely in poetry.
"I need some time to organize the existing evidence and make a final decision," Liang En concluded with the butler, while also requesting that the butler send the previous images, including the digitized album photos, to his email.