Chapter 358 (2/2)
The door was opened.
“What is all this?” Rube, who remained silent since entering the secret place, asked.
I looked back at him while combing through precious stuff and ledgers piled up. At the spot he pointed to was a simple and elegant treasure box engraved with four spears, namely the earliest crest of my family.
“Ah, that’s what I have been looking for, Rube. Thanks.”
I took the box from him and examined its joints closely. Just like I saw it first when I was shown here by my father for the first time, the box had a series of gears with several letters on the joints instead of a padlock.
When I looked at the box which could be opened with the correct deciphering only, I felt it was pretty important. This was the only box that I didn’t know here, and when I asked my father what it contained, he didn’t answer, telling me that I would be able to know when the right time came.
While looking at the box that wasn’t too big, I carefully turned the gears to get the words correct.
<Superbia telli, the pride of the spear>
The moment I got the last word right, the lid was opened with a clicking sound. I tilted my head, looking at the object sitting on the navy blue velvet.
“What is this?”
Inside the box was a small rod made of ruby. As big as my hand, there were lots of small letters engraved on it. With a blue tassel tied on one end, it was beautiful.
When I slowly reached out and lifted the rod, a piece of parchment, which seemed to be very old, fell to the floor. But instead of picking it up, I looked to my side because he suddenly moaned while standing beside me silently.
“Rube, what’s the matter with you?”
When I asked him with a puzzled look, he said with mixed feelings, looking at what I had in my hand, “… Was it what you were looking for? ”
“Well, yes.”
“Why? What do you need for this …”
“Ugh? Do you know what it is?”
When I asked him what made him make such an embarrassed expression, he looked at me carefully and said in a more relaxed mood, “Oh, it seems that you don’t know yet. That’s why you asked me what it was a little while ago.”
“No. What is this?
“Well, I can explain it, but I think it’s better for you to read it yourself. Now, read it. ”
He bent over and picked up a piece of parchment and handed it over to me.
After expressing thanks to him in surprise I opened the parchment.
<I, Abraxas Sol Shana Castina, the ninth emperor of the glorious Castina Empire, grants the Monique family the right to one-time immunity from any crime they make, and I declare that it has been a covenant sworn by imperial blood. 197 by the imperial power. Abraxas Sol Shana Castina.>
My hand holding the parchment trembled. My eyes, which were opened as much as possible, were fixed on the only one expression in the parchment.
The right to one-time immunity from any crime.
“Ha…” I moaned in spite of myself.
Immunity? Our family can exercise this immunity right even in the case of treason? Is it true that our family has kept this right for the past eight hundred years?
Only then did I realize the true meaning of my father’s will, and why the emperor who discovered this felt so uncomfortable.
My father said this would open the way to me when I got stuck in a bog that I could hardly escape. If so, did my father give me this immunity right, in addition to the seal brooch that my ancestors kept secretly for a long time? Did he do it just in case that I should come back to the family as its successor?