A rubbing of a mural found in an ancient ruin?
When these words came out of Yuri's mouth, Riezel's gaze fell on the emerald green pendant he had placed on the table.
"Ancient ruin again?"
According to Hendrick, Divine Meloe was an ancient mystical treasure unearthed from an ancient ruin, not crafted by any alchemist or Structure System Magician of this era.
Now that Yuri had mentioned an ancient ruin, Riezel couldn't help but react to it.
Lizbeth and Marilyn, however, seemed unfazed.
As Yuri noticed Riezel's clueless expression, she began to explain.
"With the continuous development of magic civilization, it is now confirmed that before the modern magic civilization was born, there actually existed an ancient magic civilization that thrived on the continent for quite a long time."
"Many countries on the Akasha Continent have unearthed some ancient ruins that do not belong to the current era. Some of these ruins have been excavated, allowing these countries to discover many ancient treasures and records of ancient civilizations."
"However, some remain unbreached, and due to technical issues, excavation is challenging. As a result, many mysteries are still unsolved, and some ruins have even posed life-threatening dangers to excavators, ultimately becoming forbidden zones."
Yuri's explanation made Riezel vaguely remember some knowledge about this.
It was, in fact, common knowledge taught at every academy.
Unfortunately, the original Riezel didn't value this knowledge, which meant that even when Riezel searched the original Riezel's memory on the subject, he could only vaguely recall scattered bits and pieces.
"An ancient magic civilization, huh?" Riezel felt a bit interested. "So, the modern magic civilization emerged on top of the ancient one?"
"No." Yuri shook her head. "According to existing records, the ancient magic civilization should have disappeared about 11,000 years ago, and the modern magic civilization was born several thousand years after that."
"Disappeared? Why?" Riezel was taken aback.
"Not sure..." Yuri replied with a frown. "Although the magic world has yet to fully understand the reason for the extinction of the ancient magic civilization, based on the limited records unearthed from the ruins across the continent, the main reason for the extinction of that magic civilization might stem from monsters."
Her words made Riezel turn his gaze back to the picture on the parchment.
On it, the beast-like figures confronting the human-like figures were undoubtedly the monsters she mentioned.
"Murals depicting similar scenes can be found in ancient ruins across the continent. For this reason, experts in the magic field believe that, long ago, the Akasha Continent may have had far more, and much stronger, monsters than it does today."
"It seems they shared dominance of the Akasha Continent with humans, constantly threatening human survival, straining the environment, and leading to frequent wars between humans and monsters."
"Afterward, about 11,000 years ago, it seemed like the monster population had a massive outbreak, turning the entire continent into a battlefield for an unprecedented war with humans."
"As a result, the ancient magic civilization perished, and the monsters suffered heavy losses, their numbers drastically reduced. It was only after thousands of years of recovery that humans regained the power of civilization and reestablished their home on the Akasha Continent."
"Well, I don't know whether it was true or not, but this is the most popular and widely accepted theory in the magic world at the moment."
Yuri picked up Divine Meloe from the table and handed it to Riezel.
"Ancient treasures like this are occasionally discovered from the remnants of ancient magic civilization."
"You know, the prosperity of the ancient magic civilization far exceeds what we can imagine. Not only are the precious treasures from that era, passed down to today, difficult for modern magic civilization to recreate, but their underlying principles are also hard to understand."
"So, anything related to the ancient magic civilization, be it knowledge or items, is exceptionally valuable, making it one of the most mysterious and complex treasures."
"I believe the Hidden Land you mentioned might be related to the ancient magic civilization."
Upon hearing this, Riezel silently took Divine Meloe from Yuri's hand and placed it back on his neck.
"So, you mean, Lizbeth's Moslow might also be a product of this ancient magic civilization?"
Riezel's question made Lizbeth react.
'Is that true...?' Lizbeth thought to herself, feeling confused. 'But... since Moslow appeared on those murals, that's probably true, right?'
"Probably..." Yuri nodded at Riezel's question before turning to Lizbeth. "Your Highness, your sword must have been studied by the royal family, right?"
Needless to say, the answer to this question was a definite yes.
"Yes... When I first entered the palace, Fath—His Majesty took Moslow for a while..." Lizbeth replied hesitantly.
Truthfully, that was a natural development.
If Riezel and Yuri could discover the anomaly of Moslow, how could the royal family not have noticed it?
Hendrick must have had doubts about the origin of Moslow and would naturally take it away for research, which was perfectly normal.
"Regarding that, I found the records of the royal family's research on Moslow in the palace library."
Yuri told Lizbeth something she completely didn't know.
"The records showed that the royal family had summoned twelve court magicians, along with three professors from Spriller Academy's alchemy department, to analyze and investigate Moslow. In the end, they ultimately confirmed it as a magic weapon left over from the ancient magic civilization."
"However, when they were getting ready to analyze its materials, effects, and structure, they ran into some difficulties."
"No matter how powerful the magic they used or how special their magic items were, they couldn't get Moslow to react even a little bit. They also couldn't detect any magical energy from it; it was just like a piece of ordinary iron, making it impossible to scrape off even a little metal for research."
"However, they eventually discovered something."
Saying this, Yuri took out another piece of parchment, but this time, it wasn't a rubbing of a mural but a finely drawn map.
"Do you two know where this is?"
Yuri pointed to a spot on the map marked with a red 'X'.
Riezel naturally shook his head, and Lizbeth looked just as clueless.
Only Marilyn, after glancing at it, provided the answer.
"It's the border between Jinas and Reiburg, a neutral city called Sinielle."
Marilyn recognized the place at a glance.
A neutral city was referred to as a place without borders, not belonging to any country, self-sufficient, and having absolute autonomy.
Sinielle seemed to be such a neutral city, located at the border between Jinas and Reiburg.
Regardless, while Sinielle could be described as neutral, self-sufficient, and having absolute autonomy, harshly speaking, it was just surviving in the cracks.
Of course, being able to remain neutral at the border between two countries without being affected by them meant this city must have its own strengths.
"The city lord of Sinielle is a well-known Sword Saint who doesn't belong to any country. It's said that he comes from a small country, and after his homeland was destroyed by war, he claimed land directly on the border between Jinas and Reiburg, establishing this neutral city."
Yuri pointed out the fundamental reason why this neutral city could exist.
Since a Sword Saint was stationed there, while it was impossible to challenge two countries, surviving wasn't too hard.
Unless there was enough cause, no one would provoke a Sword Saint for no reason.
However, the problem was—
"You suddenly bring up this neutral city... Could it be because Moslow is connected to it?"
Riezel asked this question, starting to understand Yuri's meaning.
"Yes."
Yuri nodded calmly and began to explain.
"Because an ancient ruin was discovered near Sinielle, both Jinas and Reiburg sent personnel to check it out. However, since it was within Sinielle's territory, they couldn't conduct large-scale excavation work."
"Nevertheless, the personnel sent by Jinas to explore the ruin discovered a hole in the deepest part of the ruin that seemed to have been made for inserting a sword."
As soon as Riezel heard this, he knew what Yuri was getting at.
"Are you saying Moslow is the sword that goes into that hole?" Riezel asked, narrowing his eyes.
Yuri, however, neither confirmed nor denied it.
"At least, based on the records left by the court magicians and the professors from Spriller Academy's alchemy department, they all agreed that the blade of Moslow fit perfectly into the hole in that ancient ruin."
Since that was the case, the connection between that ancient ruin and Moslow was undeniable.
"However, I heard that when the ruin was discovered, the hole was already there, so Moslow probably wasn't originally placed there and taken out by someone."
Yuri continued to share what she knew.
"When the royal family learned about this, they planned to send someone with Moslow to see what would happen if they inserted it into the hole, but something serious happened at that time, leading the royal family to ultimately abandon this idea."
As for what the so-called 'something serious' was, Yuri didn't know.
It seemed that the matter had been personally buried by Sinielle's city lord, so aside from a very few people, no one knew what had actually happened.
Hendrick might know the ins and outs of the matter, but strangely, he didn't speak out or show any intention of investigating it, ultimately returning Moslow to Lizbeth.
Since then, Moslow had never left Lizbeth's side.
"If you want to know Moslow's origin or where the Hidden Land is, maybe you can start from there?" Yuri suggested, looking at the map. "Well, all of this is the only lead I could find anyway."
Upon hearing this, Riezel glanced at Lizbeth.
"..."
Lizbeth fell silent, not speaking for a long time.