Chapter 884: Chapter 883: Returned to Its Owner

The development of events was so unexpected that Gawain didn’t react for a whole half a minute.

He stared at the now-opened chest that Noletta had unveiled, where a shield of peculiar design, approximately the size of a medium-sized single-handed shield, lay quietly amidst cushioning material made from some unknown substance. A series of memories related to this shield surfaced in his mind—it was not unfamiliar to him, even though he had long abandoned finding it. This shield was once a personal piece of equipment for the body he now occupied, and the impressions in his mind were deep and clear.

He didn’t expect such a thing to appear before him in such a manner at this particular moment.

Noletta’s voice snapped Gawain out of his momentary distraction: "This is yours, right?" 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"Ah, yes," Gawain blinked and nodded, "the shield of the protector of Anzu Kingdom. I thought I would never see it again in my lifetime. Was it in the hands of the Mithril Vault?"

"If that were the case, we would have returned it to you long ago," Melita shook her head, "we also recently found out about its whereabouts by chance—the Mithril Vault has always conducted business with integrity, and you’re one of our important clients, so we immediately returned it to its rightful owner."

Dragons would not lie about such matters, Gawain was well aware of this, so he quickly believed Melita’s words. He then furrowed his brows and looked at the two agents with curiosity: "Where did you find it?"

"In the elemental world, in the domain of fire elements," Melita said, "an elemental lord secretly hid it away, even making it part of its inner shell. If that elemental lord hadn’t happened to owe the Mithril Vault a debt, a few more centuries might have passed without anyone finding it."

Gawain was taken aback: "The elemental world?! How did it end up there?"

Melita spread her hands: "That’s hard to say—we didn’t expect the elemental lord to secretly hide away your missing item, let alone prepare any inquiries in advance. By the time we discovered it and wanted to ask, the indebted elemental lord was unfortunately unable to answer due to some irresistible event..."

Gawain could tell with just his biceps what Melita’s elegant and artistic words implied, and he looked at the agent Miss with admiration: "When it comes to verbal art, your Dragonkin are indeed impressive."

Melita accepted the compliment with calm elegance, and her smile behind the veil was both graceful and reserved: "Although we haven’t figured out the details, we can roughly infer that the shield was likely stolen from the battlefield by the elemental lord—during your human civil war a hundred years ago. Perhaps some clumsy wizard opened a rift leading to the elemental world, or maybe the elemental lord premeditatedly bewitched an elemental mage to secretly extend its ’hand’ over—your shield carries great power and naturally attracts those creatures who crave magic."

Gawain couldn’t help but sigh: "Such things wouldn’t happen during the Gondor Era... Elemental creatures also adhered to rules."

Melita shook her head: "But the majestic Gondor Empire, which even the elemental world revered, is no more. Nowadays, the elemental inhabitants don’t hold much respect for the scattered humans."

"...In any case, I’m very grateful you brought it here," Gawain set aside his sentiments and earnestly expressed his gratitude to the two high-ranking agents—not because a shield used in battle is as important to him now as it once was, but rather the recovery of an equipment that shared legendary fame with Gawain Cecil was a heartening matter. Especially since the recovery was initiated by two dragons—if appropriately publicized, this could not only boost morale throughout the country but also elevate Cecil Empire’s prestige and influence internationally. Therefore, his gratitude was heartfelt, "I won’t let you return empty-handed—but what kind of reward does the Mithril Vault want?"

"Saying it like that creates distance," Melita immediately shook her head, "Returning lost items doesn’t require compensation, but as an exchange, before returning the shield, we hope to ask you a few questions."

Gawain paused for a moment, surprised at the generous gesture from dragons who typically haggle over even a copper coin, so upon hearing Melita’s "few questions," his attention immediately sharpened—what is free is often the most costly, and there might be some pitfall in the Mithril Vault’s few questions...

The two agent Misses certainly didn’t know what kind of magic-guided train was running in Gawain’s mind, they exchanged a glance with each other, and then Noletta spoke first: "The first question—we want to know the specific origin of this shield."

"Origin?" Gawain furrowed his brow, immediately perceiving something from the first question, and cautiously countered with a question before answering, "Why are you interested in this?"

"...Considering you previously traded ’God’s metal’ with us, I can give you a hint," Melita pointed to the shield of the protector, "Haven’t you noticed the main material of this shield is somewhat special?"

"Material?" Gawain was taken aback, and suddenly, some originally overlooked details in his inherited memories rapidly flashed through his mind. He immediately bent down to pick up the shield of the protector, and amidst the corroded, decayed metal parts and covering material, he saw the most original material of the shield. It was a kind of silver-white metal, its surface flowing with very fine, star-like light points. When he touched it, he could feel a peculiar warmth—completely unlike any conventional metal in the world, "This thing..."

He didn’t recognize this material, but some characteristics of it seemed similar to another material he knew, or they both shared the same "advanced properties," like seeing two bold men in a girly comic world, the former and latter weren’t the same, yet Gawain could still judge they were of the same origin—the art style wasn’t fitting the world’s setting...

The main material of the shield of the protector reminded him of "God’s metal," of the advanced ancient alloy called "Eternal Stone Slate," and of the remnants of weaponry and vehicles that imprisoned the God of Nature in the Shadow Fortress.

He furrowed his brow slightly—the inherited memories were clearly not his own, such detailed impressions had been subconsciously ignored by him.

If he were the genuine Gawain Cecil, he should’ve linked his shield after encountering shards of the Eternal Stone Slate, yet he wasn’t. Under non-essential circumstances, the inherited memories lay quietly archived at the deepest, causing many detailed matters to slip past him.

"It seems you’ve realized," Noletta broke the silence, observing Gawain’s changing expressions, "The primary material of this shield has a connection with the God’s metal known as ’Eternal Stone Slate’—they were made by the same civilization."

Gawain looked deeply at Noletta.

For some unknown purpose, the dragons of Talronde have been collecting "God’s metal," whose "true identity" is the fragments left in this world by the "God-slaying fleet" years ago.

The dragons seem to know some secrets of the ancient God-slaying war, and even the origin of the God-slaying fleet.

However, they clearly do not intend to, nor can they disclose these secrets—he had once asked Melita about this, nearly causing the agent lady to collapse on the spot, and thus deeply confirmed this fact.

Considering that all dragons should be similar, a question capable of causing Melita to collapse should also be capable of causing Noletta to collapse, so he did not pursue the matter of "God’s metal" and the "God-slaying fleet," instead exhaled gently, organized the memories in his mind and then answered Noletta’s question: "I acquired this shield as the Northern expeditionary army crossed the magic scorch mark—its main material was found in a supply warehouse while searching the Wepland Observatory."

Noletta showed a hint of curiosity: "Wepland Observatory?"

"The largest astronomy observation and celestial research center in the northern region of the Gondor Empire," Gawain said, "It was the site of the famous Wepland meteor shower, after which the Gondor people established research facilities to study outer space matter that had fallen to the ground. Years later, they built an observatory, a star-gazing pavilion, and a giant gravitational analysis station known as the ’Star Axis’ on top of the research facilities—of course, all these were obliterated when the chaotic wave arrived, and our Northern forces were merely looking for supplies in the surviving underground warehouses."

As he spoke, Gawain couldn’t help but slightly sigh.

The once Gondor Empire... its technology was far more advanced than even the planet Earth of his previous life. Though due to the focus of their technological developments, the Gondor people at the time had yet to attempt stepping into the universe, the scholars of that era still had a certain degree of understanding of planets, stars, and outer space. But unfortunately, all these glorious achievements vanished with the chaotic wave; not only did the technical talents and materials in the empire’s hinterland fade into dust, even some research facilities set up in remote areas couldn’t survive.

To this day, the Gondor Empire’s understanding of the stars only remains as general concepts like "we live on a planet," "there are other planets beyond ours" among ordinary people, and these concepts are rapidly being obliterated, disappearing, and gradually merging with vague legends.

Fortunately, the resurgence of civilization brought by arcane technology is curbing this decline, and scholars who have been reassembled and inspired are beginning to share the knowledge buried in various mage towers, and are beginning to rebuild modern astronomical observation or research facilities in suitable areas.

Noletta had no idea what Gawain was contemplating; she merely focused on the background of the establishment of the "Wepland Observatory": "So, that observatory was initially designed to study meteorites—the things you found in the warehouse ruins were very likely to have fallen from the sky along with meteorites."

Though Gawain was answering Noletta’s question, he himself also gradually realized the clues behind these questions and answers, many things that he had never noticed or buried deep in his memory began to emerge and form a complete hypothesis—the God-slaying fleet, the Wepland meteor shower, the mysterious metal...

All of this was forming into a massive truth, a truth he never expected to have been always lurking beside Gawain Cecil, hidden in the deepest parts of his own memory.

"What you mean is, the metal we found in the Wepland ruins is part of the ’meteor shower,’" Gawain looked at the Guardian’s shield in his hand, his mind subconsciously recalling the process of crafting (or processing) this shield, "It fell from the sky... no wonder..."

"I’m somewhat curious," Melita suddenly spoke beside him, "You found just a mysterious metal plate back then—how did it end up becoming the Guardian’s shield?"

Gawain thought for a moment and spoke frankly: "None of us recognized this thing—at that time, most of the expedition army came from humble backgrounds, and the scholars, mages, and priests knew nothing about Wepland Observatory, but we found the metal exceptionally sturdy, almost entirely resistant to any magic attack, and it showed no erosion in the chaotic wave environment; plus, its dimensions were perfect, so Charlie suggested attaching a handle to it..."

Melita: "..."

Noletta: "..."

Gawain looked at the two wide-eyed agent ladies and spread his hands helplessly: "You can’t expect the human expeditionary army at that time, with its supply shortages, urgent situation, and lack of high-level technical personnel, to perform better when faced with an unknown metal. We couldn’t form an expert team to slowly research what it was, but the expedition army urgently needed more powerful military strength—a shield that was practically invincible could allow a powerful knight to protect more people through the contaminated zone, while a heavy metal piece would only burden the journey. Of course, ’attaching a handle’ seemed a bit hasty and crude... but Charlie was the one with the most imaginative ideas in the expedition army; everyone had no better plan, and Charlie’s proposal was at least an option."

"We’re just surprised that you dared to turn a piece of unknown metal into personal equipment without knowing whether it was harmful or not," Melita looked at Gawain seriously and said, "As a Gondor, you should at least have some concept of elemental erosion and energy radiation, right?"

Gawain glanced at Melita and suddenly laughed: "More than the elemental erosion and energy radiation of the Gondor wasteland itself?"

"...Indeed."

Melita reluctantly admitted that behind Gawain’s seemingly crude and ignorant approach at the time was actually an afterthought with no other choices, while Gawain looked at the Guardian’s shield in his hand, his thoughts growing heavier—

As he searched Gawain Cecil’s memories with the shield as the keyword, he indeed found a disruption!