The development of the situation was so unexpected that Gwen could not react for half a minute.
He stared at the big box that Noretta had opened. The strangely shaped shield, roughly the size of a medium-sized one-handed shield, was lying quietly in the cushioning material made of an unknown substance. A series of memories of the shield came to his mind. Of course, he knew what it was. Although he had long given up on finding it, the shield was, after all, a personal equipment of this body. The impression in his mind was deep and clear.
He did not expect this thing to appear in front of him in this form at this time.
Noretta's voice woke Gwen from his momentary daze. "This is yours, right?"
"Ah, yes." Gwen blinked and nodded. "Ansu, Guardian of the Kingdom Shield. I thought I would never see it again in my life. Is it in the hands of the Mithril Vault? "
"If that's the case, we would have returned it to you long ago." Melita shook her head. "We only found its whereabouts by accident recently. The Mithril Vault has always operated with integrity, and you are our important customer, so we returned it to you immediately."
The Giant Dragon had no reason to lie about this. Gwen knew this very well, so he quickly believed what Melita said. Then he frowned and looked at the two agents curiously. "Where did you find it?"
"In the Elemental World, in the domain of the Fire Element," Melita said. "An Elemental Lord secretly hid it and even treated it as part of his elemental inner shell. If not for the fact that this Elemental Lord happened to owe a debt to the Mithril Treasury, I'm afraid that no one would be able to find it for centuries."
Gwen was shocked. "Elemental World?! How did it end up there? "
Melita spread out her hands. "It's hard to say. We did not expect that the Elemental Lord secretly hid your lost item, so we were not prepared to ask in advance. By the time we found it and wanted to ask, the Elemental Lord who owed the debt could not answer because of a little regrettable force majeure …"
Gwen could understand Melita's elegant and artistic words. He looked at the agent with admiration. "You Dragons are the best when it comes to the art of language."
Melita accepted the compliment with an elegant and reserved smile behind the veil. "Although we did not investigate the details, we can roughly guess that this shield should have been stolen by the Elemental Lord from the battlefield, during the civil war of the human race a hundred years ago. Maybe some lousy wizard on the battlefield opened a crack to the Elemental World, or maybe the Elemental Lord had premeditated and bewitched an elemental wizard to secretly stretch his' hand 'over. Your shield has great power, and it naturally attracts those creatures who are addicted to magic. "
Gwen could not help but sigh. "This would not happen in the Gondor era. Elemental creatures also have rules."
Melita shook her head. "But the Kingdom of Gondor, which was feared by the Elemental World, is gone. Now the elementals do not respect the scattered humans."
"… Anyway, thank you very much for delivering it to me." Gawain stopped sighing and nodded to the two senior agents to express his gratitude. Although a shield that could be used to charge and break through enemy lines was no longer as important to him now as it was in the past, it was still an exciting thing to have a legendary weapon like Gawain Cecil back in the day. Especially when the two dragons were the ones who found the treasure. If the news was spread properly, not only would this matter boost the morale of the entire country, it could even increase the prestige and influence of the Cecil Empire on the international stage. Therefore, Gawain's gratitude came from the bottom of his heart. "I won't let you return empty-handed. But, I wonder what kind of reward the Mithril Treasury would like?"
"You're creating distance by saying that." Melita immediately shook her head. "There is no reward for returning lost items. But in exchange, we would like to ask you a few questions before returning the shield."
Gwen was stunned. He did not expect the Giant Dragons, who would not even care about a copper coin, to be so generous this time. So when he heard Melita's' a few questions', he immediately focused. Free was the most expensive. The questions from the Mithril Vault might be a trap.
Of course, the two agents did not know what was going on in Gwen's head. They looked at each other, and Noretta was the first to speak. "The first question. We want to know the specific origin of this shield."
"Origin?" Gwen frowned and immediately realized something from the first question. Before answering, he cautiously asked, "Why are you interested in this?"
"… Considering that you have used the 'Divinity Metal' to make a deal with us, I can remind you." Melita pointed at the Guardian Shield. "Haven't you noticed that the main material of this shield is a bit special?"
"Material?" Gwen was stunned. Then, some details that he had ignored in the inherited memory suddenly flashed in his mind. He immediately bent down and picked up the Guardian Shield. Between the rusty metal parts and the covering material, he saw the most primitive material of the shield. It was a silver-white metal, but very fine, star-like light spots flowed on the surface. When he touched it, he could feel a strange warmth. It was completely different from any conventional metal in the world. "This thing …"
He did not recognize the material, but some of the characteristics of this material were somewhat similar to another material he knew, or they had the same 'advanced' nature. It was like standing in a shonen manga world and suddenly seeing two strong men in Hong Kong manga. The former and the latter were not the same person, but Gwen could still tell that they were of the same origin. The style was different from the background of the whole world.
The main material of the Guardian Shield reminded him of the 'Divinity Metal', the advanced ancient alloy called the 'Eternal Slate', and the wreckage of the weapons and vehicles that imprisoned the God of Nature in the Shadowy Citadel.
He frowned slightly. The memories he had inherited were not his after all. He had subconsciously ignored such details.
If he were the real Gawain Cecil, he would have thought of his shield after coming into contact with the Eternal Slate Fragment. However, he wasn't the real Gawain Cecil. When it wasn't necessary, the memories he inherited could only lie quietly in the deepest part of his mind. Many details were 'missed' by him.
"It seems that you have figured it out." Noretta saw the change in Gwen's expression and broke the silence. "The main material of this shield is related to the Divinity Metal called the 'Eternal Slate'. They were made by the same civilization."
Gwen took a deep look at Noretta.
For some unknown purpose, Tarlonde's dragons had been collecting the 'Divinity Metal', and the 'true identity' of the Divinity Metal was the fragment of the 'Godslaying Fleet' left in this world.
The dragons seemed to know some secrets of the ancient Godslaying War, and even the origin of the Godslaying Fleet.
But they obviously did not intend to and could not tell these secrets. He had asked Melita about this, and after the agent almost died on the spot, he was deeply convinced of this.
Considering that all dragons should be the same, and the question that could kill Melita should also kill Noretta, he did not ask about the 'Divinity Metal' and the 'Godslaying Fleet'. Instead, he exhaled slightly, sorted out the memories in his mind, and answered Noretta's question. "I got this shield when the Northern Expeditionary Force crossed the Magic Scorch. Its main material was found when we were searching a material warehouse in Vipranton Observatory."
Noretta showed a hint of curiosity. "Vipranton Observatory?"
"The largest astronomical observation and astrophysical research center in the northern part of the Kingdom of Gondor," Gwen said. "The famous Vipranton meteorite shower once happened there. After that, the Gondor people built a research facility there to study the outer space material that fell on the surface. A few years later, they added an observatory, astrology hall, and a giant gravitational analysis station called the 'Star Axis' to the research facility. Of course, these things were all destroyed when the Demonic Wave came. Our northern troops were just looking for some supplies in the remaining underground warehouses."
As he spoke, Gwen could not help but sigh in his heart.
The former Kingdom of Gondor … technology was even more advanced than that of Earth in his previous life. Due to the emphasis of the technology tree, the Gondor people of the past had not tried to step into the universe. But at that time, the scholars still had a certain degree of understanding of the planets, stars, and space. Unfortunately, all these brilliant achievements were lost with the Demonic Wave. Not only were the technical talents and technical data in the hinterland of the empire gone, even some of the research facilities in the remote areas did not survive.
Today, the Kingdom of Gondor people's understanding of the stars was only left with the superficial common sense that "we live on one planet" and "there are other planets beyond this planet". And these common sense concepts were quickly annihilated and disappeared, and gradually merged with the vague legends.
Fortunately, the resurgence of civilization brought about by magical technology was curbing this decline. The scholars who were once again gathered and encouraged began to share the knowledge that had been buried in various mage towers, and began to rebuild modern astronomical observation and research facilities in suitable areas.
Noretta had no way of knowing what Gwen was feeling, but she immediately noticed the background of the Vipranton Observatory. "In other words, the observatory was originally used to study meteorites. The things you found in the ruins of the warehouse most likely fell from the sky together with the meteorites."
While Gwen was answering Noretta's question, he gradually realized the clues behind the questions and answers. Many things that he had not paid attention to or buried in the depths of his memory slowly emerged and connected into a complete conjecture — the Deicide Fleet, the Vipranton Meteorite Shower, the unknown metal …
All these were connecting into a huge truth. He had never thought that the truth had been hidden beside Gwen Cecil, hidden in the deepest part of his own memory.
"You mean, the metal we found in the ruins of Vipranton was part of the 'Meteorite Shower'?" Gwen looked at the Guardian Shield in his hand, and could not help but think of the process of the shield's creation (or processing). "It fell from the sky … No wonder …"
"I'm a little curious," Melita suddenly said. "What you found back then was just a metal plate of unknown origin. How did it end up becoming the Guardian Shield?"
Gwen thought for a moment and frankly said, "None of us knew this thing. Most of the people in the expedition at that time were of low birth, and only the scholars, mages, and priests knew nothing about the Vipranton Observatory. But we found that this metal was very strong and could almost completely resist any magical attack, and there was no sign of erosion in the magic wave environment. Plus, its size was very suitable, so Charlie suggested to install a shield …"
Melita: "…"
Noretta: "…"
Gwen looked at the two ladies who were staring at him, and helplessly spread his hands. "You can't expect the human expeditionary force to perform better when faced with an unknown metal. We couldn't form a team of experts to slowly study it, and at that time, the expeditionary force was in urgent need of more powerful combat force. A shield that was invincible at that time could allow a powerful Knight to protect more people through the contaminated area, and a heavy metal plate would only slow down the journey. Of course, I admit that 'installing a shield' was a bit sloppy and crude … but no one in the expeditionary force had a better idea than Charlie. So, Charlie's plan was more or less a choice. "
"We're just surprised that you dared to make an unknown metal into a portable equipment without knowing if it was harmful," Melita said as she looked at Gwen solemnly. "As a Gondor, you should at least have the concept of elemental erosion and energy radiation, right?"
Gwen looked at Melita and suddenly laughed. "More powerful than the elemental erosion and energy radiation of the Gondor wasteland itself?"
"… That's true."
Melita reluctantly admitted that Gwen's seemingly crude and ignorant approach was actually a choice after careful consideration. And Gwen looked at the Guardian Shield in his hand, and his mind became more and more solemn.
When he searched Gawain Cecil's memories using the shield as a keyword, he found a gap in his memories.
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