The Traveler Chapter 94 – The Iceberg General’s Collection
What was this, a suspicion? Klein looked Edwina straight in the eye, not averting his gaze, not flickering.
Knowing that Daniz had revealed to the “Iceberg Admiral” that he had sacrificed himself to Kavituva before his death, Klein had prepared himself accordingly, and if he were not standing on the side of the ship but sitting on the sofa, he would have teetered on his right leg, leaned back, and answered calmly and comfortably.
A little smile spread over his face, he raised his left palm and introduced himself in an easy tone:
”My glove is called ‘Creeping Hunger’.”
Klein believed that Daniz, who had witnessed his own battle, must have already informed his captain of the specific details, so it wasn’t hard for “Iceberg Lieutenant General” Edwina, who was known as “Hurricane Lieutenant General” Tsilingus, to guess that she had obtained the “Wiggling Hunger”. “Creeping Hunger”, in that case, take the initiative to disclose obviously more psychological advantage than being revealed by the other side.
He suddenly mentioned this matter contains a two-fold intention, one is to implicitly tell the other party, there is an organization behind me, an organization that can kill “Hurricane Lieutenant General”, direct the fall of Kavituva and respond to the believers in its place, and the second is to warn Edwina not to try to investigate, do not go deeper into the understanding, or else, “Hurricane Lieutenant General” will be able to kill him. The second was to warn Edwina not to try to investigate or go deeper into the matter, otherwise, the fate of “Hurricane Lieutenant General” who was killed in seconds would be an example to follow.
At a time like this, Klein, still mindful of Germaine Sparrow’s persona, didn’t open his mouth with a direct threat, nor did he play along, but simply responded in a tone that was a statement of insanity within a bland statement.
Edwina Edwards nodded gently and suddenly changed the subject:
”I intend to provide some assistance to the resistance in the Rothschild Islands, mainly food and cloth.”
Aid? The forces behind her were hostile to Rune, or did she purely want to disgust the Storm Church? Klein tightened his smile and replied calmly:
”This has nothing to do with me.”
I won’t leave a bit of leverage behind …… he added silently in his mind.
Edwina tilted her head sideways and raised her arm to point at “Flame” Danez, who was drinking and peeking in this direction:
”I will entrust him with full authority, including contacting the Resistance, setting the time, arranging the private harbor, and I expect you to provide some protection.”
Pfft …… A golden waterfall erupted from Daniz’s mouth.
Haha, poof, thump thump thump! The two pirates sitting next to him laughed so hard they bent over and pounded up the deck, spitting out the beer they had just downed.
One of them had a dark complexion that looked like it was covered in layers of iron, one had a rather thick waist, and overall, while not fat, they had no lines to speak of.
Edwina withdrew her gaze from looking past them, and added, not too quickly, before Krynn could speak:
”You’re an adventurer, I don’t think you’d be averse to a well-priced hire.”
That’s an excellent excuse for me …… Klein replied with a smile:
”Of course.”
He didn’t ask the other party what the exact pay was, and Edwina seemed to have forgotten to mention it.
The intellectual and beautiful pirate general said in silence for a while:
”Seniol sent word that he is willing to pay 5,000 pounds for the key I found earlier that belonged to the giant.”
This refers to the massive black iron key that was proclaimed the “Key of Death” and nearly cost Daniz his life in Bayam, which Klein suspects not only originated in the dark Second Age, but also has some connection to the Giant’s Court.
The implication was to ask if I want to make an offer? Klein was stunned at first, then dawned on him and couldn’t help but mutter a few words in his mind:
”Five thousand pounds? I don’t even know if that key works and if it really involves the Giant’s Court! If it doesn’t work, can I return it?
”And there’s no front information about this at all, so even if I get it above the gray mist for divination, I won’t be able to get a valid revelation.
”Well, a simple reasoning is that if it doesn’t involve the Giant King’s Court, and it involves another treasure that I don’t even know about, then I can’t use it even if I buy it, and the only benefit is that it destroys the plot of the ‘General Above Blood’ to the detriment of others, and if it involves the Giant King’s Court. ‘General above Blood’ even if he buys it, there’s a high probability that he won’t be able to find the target location because it’s in the ‘God Forsaken Land’, and my plan is to hunt him, and at that time, without spending any money, I’ll be able to get the key, which is equal to him buying it for me and keeping it for a period of time.
”Such an idea, while idealistic, is not without possibility of realization ……”
Klein mused for a few seconds:
”It could be harboring a great secret.”
He intentionally mentioned this so that the “Iceberg Lieutenant General” wouldn’t be able to sell that huge black iron key to the “Blood General” Seignior, lest the latter would be rapidly strengthened by obtaining the treasure in the first case and step into the demigod realm, which would bring about a great disaster.
Edwina listened quietly and did not continue the topic, half-turning her body and pointing to the entrance of the cabin, she said:
”There is breakfast for you.”
”Thanks.” Klein removed his hat and saluted.
As he followed the “Iceberg Lieutenant General” towards the cabin, he quickly replayed the conversation he had just had, searching for Edwina’s true intentions in inviting herself over for a meeting.
”From the question of Germaine Sparrow’s identity, to the magical item suspected to be the ‘Creeping Hunger’, to the sacrifice to Kavituva and the fact that the ‘God of the Sea’ who should have fallen is still responding to the believers, all of these things strung together do indeed make it very easy to conjure up the idea that there is a hidden organization behind me with an unknown purpose.
”The forces to which the ‘Iceberg Lieutenant General’ belongs are very wary, very vigilant and very interested in this, so I asked her to test me face-to-face to see if she could gain anything.”
”They are still relatively goodwill, to provide assistance to the resistance is an expression, seems to be more inclined to do a certain degree of cooperation with the organization behind me, of course, the unknown always makes people afraid, not enough to understand the case without a certain degree of certainty, ‘Iceberg Lieutenant General’ their hands may be very low, very low.
”Hehe, if they know that the hidden organization behind me has only been established for a little more than half a year, counting the ‘world’ and Miss Hugh who has established a connection but never pulled in, the members are not more than ten, will they be angry enough to directly lose control… …”
As his thoughts raced, Klein entered the cabin, traveling down a dimly lit aisle and through a wooden door.
He followed Edwina up the steps to the brighter second level.
Before entering the pirate’s dining room, they passed a half-open room.
Klein casually glanced inside and noticed the huge black iron key sitting so casually on a wooden table.
”This is the proof of our haul from all our treasure hunts, some of them are just souvenirs, some have yet to show their worth and are yet to be studied.” Edwina seemed cold, but explained in great detail, with a spirit of fear that the other party would not understand what was going on.
And when she mentioned the word “research”, her light blue eyes that looked like clear spring water brightened up a bit.
Proof of a treasure hunt? Klein couldn’t help but look inside for a few moments.
At that moment, Edwina took the initiative to push the door of the room more open and stepped inside, casually introducing herself:
”This one is a gold coin from the Solomon Empire of the Fourth Age.”
Klein’s eyes then turned over and saw a coin placed in a picture frame.
It was dark gold in color, as if it was made from two half-circles of different sizes, extremely asymmetrical, and its surface was engraved with a pointed crown, very similar to the one on the head of the “King of the Five Seas” Nast.
Like a master who likes to show off his collection, Edwina introduced the items in the room in turn, which made Klein think of an acquaintance, that is, the “Wisdom Eye” old man, the great detective Eisinger Stanton.
”Showing off the collection this point, they are very similar to …… Is it that people with rich collections have such a fetish? Wait, Mr. Stanton went to Lemberg to study for four years, and the description of the ‘Lieutenant General of the Iceberg’ includes ‘Edwina Edwards from Lemberg’, which …… Lemberg’s capital city is the home of the Church of Knowledge and God of Wisdom Church’s headquarters, and Mr. Stanton has admitted that he converted to the ‘God of Knowledge and Wisdom’ during his study abroad period …… Could the power behind ‘Lieutenant General Iceberg’ be them? ” Klein listened thoughtfully until Edwina stopped in front of the huge iron black key.
Like what she had seen in her previous dream, the key was the size of a seven-stringed lyre, which a normal human would have to hug to hold, and was overall dull and ancient in form.
The pattern on the surface was similar to the style of Silver City, with obvious giant system characteristics …… Klein nodded and was about to withdraw his eyes when he heard Edwina speak:
”You can study it.”
Let me study it? You probably don’t know how many potential problems I’ve triggered, let me let go of my research, I’m afraid that I won’t be able to see the “Golden Dream” ship later …… Klein spat out a few words to himself, and stretched out his right hand, reaching for the black iron key that belonged to the giants.
He felt that it was cold to the touch, and no matter how much he poured his spirit into it, it had no effect whatsoever.
Unfortunately, it can’t be brought directly above the gray mist to study …… Klein withdrew his right hand and shook his head slightly invisibly.
His eyes shifted and he saw another parchment-bound tome on the same table, the dark brown cover with a line in ancient Versak on its surface:
The Travels of Grocer.
”This came from an undersea shipwreck, submerged for 165 years and still undamaged.” Edwina describes, “It contains the story of a giant named Grosel who decides to go to the Frost Kingdom to hunt the ‘King of the North’, a powerful frost dragon, and on the way, he meets a company of female elves, pious ascetics, nobles of the Solomon Empire, and There were soldiers of Ruin, and the story just progressed to the point where they encountered the ‘King of the North’ head-on only to stop abruptly, not that it didn’t, but the next few pages were difficult to open by all means, so you can give it a try.”
Not a travelogue type note, but a novel? This novel was kinda strange, putting together characters from different eras of different times, it should be a recent product …… Klein flipped the book over, letting the tawny paper slide through page by page.
The content inside wasn’t too different from what Edwina had described, but the storyline seemed abrupt and cutthroat, always making Klein wonder if he was missing a paragraph, for example, where the protagonists went from unfamiliar to familiar all of a sudden after their encounters.
Soon, he skimmed to the last few pages and realized that they were really sticking together, and he couldn’t get them apart.
This kind of effect, on top of the gray fog should be able to deal with …… I do not know what will happen …… Klein looked sideways at the “Iceberg Lieutenant General”.
Edwina was silent for a moment and said:
”If you want, I can sell it to you, I have been studying it for many years and still no luck.
”But I have one condition.”
”What condition?” Klein asked rhetorically.
Edwina pursed her lips and said:
”If you have researched something, please make sure to tell me the results so that I will no longer wonder.
”As long as you agree to this condition, I can sell it to you very cheaply.”
Klein was suddenly interested:
”How much?”
”Eight thousand pounds.” Edwina said with a calm face.
”Well ……,” Klein pretended to ponder and nodded indifferently, “I’ll think about it.”
Consider it how to pretend it’s not the case …… he thought silently.