Chapter 180 (1/2)
After half a day of gathering information, Hao Ren and the gang regrouped on the steppe outside Lamberg.
As there was still an hour to go before the supposed rendevous time, and Becky was no where in sight, the group exchanged whatever information they had managed to obtain thus far…
Vivian had gone up to the highest available point in town, and upon perching on the parapet, she found where the church lay. The Disciples of Glory was a prominent religious body across the three continents, especially in the Kingdom of Holletta where it was founded. Their church was visible in any town that was of a decent size. Posing as a visitor, Vivian took the chance to mingle with the clergy there. Her experience as a poor wanderer, and existing oral skills served her well in gleaning some information off the gaudy clergymen.
“Letta runes are no longer in use here.” Vivian’s first string of information had already shocked Hao Ren. “The people here treat is as a lost ancient language or something like hieroglpyhs… I spoke to some of the priests in church about the runes, and they don’t even have a clue on how to use it. The clergy are usually the most educated lot in a medieval society. If they don’t know how, the commoners won’t either.”
“A lost language?” Hao Ren was genuinely surprised. “Then…what were those runes in the town?”
“Prayer for good luck…” Vivian shrugged nonchalantly. “The writings itself are wrong and the structure’s all over the place. That, I managed to discern. The people this age don’t even know what or how to properly write Letta runes anymore. What they did was simply just trace the symbols from whatever source that remained, either from ruins or ancient tomes. They probably thought the characters brought auspicious meanings, and they’ve been using them since. Something like a protective charm not unlike those you can find in the houses of Chinese villages. Letta runes have pretty much degenerated into this form. I suppose the people on Earth were much, much better at preserving their knowledge. At least, the demon hunters have some knowledge of the runes.”
“Wait a minute… Letta runes… Kingdom of Holletta…” Something dawned upon Wuyue as her expression changed. “Oh, right!! When I was in town, I overheard something by the school. They were talking about the Kingdom of Holletta being a direct line of an ancient civilisation. Could it be that the Letta runes were one of the remnants of that civilisation? It’s even in the kingdom’s name.”
“Possible.” Vivian nodded. “I didn’t have the time to probe for more boring information but, from my meeting with the priests, I can tell that they hold the Kingdom of Holletta’s ‘doctrine’ and ‘ancientness’ with the utmost importance. This kingdom is probably the most ancient of kingdoms in this world. If you think back to the apocalypse a few milleniums back, it’s not beyond reason that the Kingdom of Holletta is a remnant of an ancient civilsation.
“They may have simply inherited something from the lost civilisation, rather than having remnants,” Y’zaks quipped.
“What have you heard?” Hao Ren raised at eyebrow.
“The Kingdom of Holletta has a history of about 3,000 years. That means it was established much more recently than when the apocalypse happened.” Y’zaks laughed. “The founders of the kingdom probably stumbled across something in the ruins and used it as a basis of their rule. Anyway, I’m not going to proclaim if they are indeed a remnant of the past civilisation… Those are just details. I have good news, we don’t have to worry about money for a while now.”
As the great demon grinned, he pulled out a bulky sack and presented it to Hao Ren and the group. In it, a whole load of various, shiny currencies could be seen. Some of it, Hao Ren recognised as the local Denars, some were thin, copper coins, and there was a piece of clearly valuable, gold currency. The sudden appearance of so much shiny metal almost blinded all who were present. Y’zaks laughed again. “I don’t know if I got scammed but, these look like they should last us for a while. That fat merchant was even grimacing when he took out his coin purse…”
Cold sweat appeared almost instantenously across Hao Ren’s forehead as he eyed the giant hulk of a demon suspiciousy. “You didn’t resort to highway robbery, did you?”
With Y’zaks’ “good guy” nature, this was obviously out of the question but, the shock from the giant coin was palpable. Aside from robbery, Hao Ren really could not figure out how a person, who had no idea about the basic functions of this society could possibly make such a huge sum of money in such a short time. Perhaps, deep down, all demons would not say no to easy money.
Displeasure immediately appeared on Y’zaks already scary looking face. “Who do you take me for? As an upstanding person, I’ll never do such a thing. This was from the sale of weapons.”
“Weapons?” Hao Ren’s eyes widened in surprise.
Y’zaks took off his bagpack (Hao Ren was indeed in charge of the luggage but, the practical demon still lugged his own by habit) and pulled out two odd-looking, short swords. “These.”