Camila heard the word “runes” and she focused her attention on the chest, she was also a rune master after all so it was normal for her to feel curious, but after a moment she couldn’t help but frown her brows.
“I can’t understand these runes”, she said in a low voice.
But she wasn’t the only one, Eris stood up from her chair and closely inspected the symbols which were floating around the chest, then she looked at Aster and shook her head.
“Mylene was only half right, some of these symbols are divine runes… but I don’t recognize nearly half of them, and if I’m being modest that’s something hard to see, since my grandmother was the one that taught me rune mastering”.
Mylene shrugged.
“Runes aren’t my specialty anyway, I only learned about it since I was looking for a way to break that barrier of yours”.
“Eris can you tell me what are the runes used for this formation?”.
Although Aster didn’t know how strong used to be Eris, but she came form a higher plane of existence and even with the knowledge imparted to her by an ancestor level figure of her family, she couldn’t recognize some of the runes on the chest, he naturally felt interested in whatever was inside.
On the other hand, he was a bit wary of the situation, since the last time he inspected an “interesting object”, he got trapped inside of the book with a certain pair of twins.
Rya who was watching everything form the mind space found Aster’s caution quite funny.
“With your luck, I would even dare to bet there is a woman inside that chest”.
Aster smirked.
“Could be, I already found a beauty inside of a sword after all”.
While Aster was flirting with Rya, Eris tried to decipher the meaning of the formation which covered the chest, but the more she understood the more she looked fascinated by it, after a couple of minutes she took a piece of paper and wrote her verdict.
“The meaning is a bit confusing since I can’t understand some parts, but among the many protections engraved I found “Lineage”, “Gender”, “Age”, “Location”, which are conditions I have seen in other formations before, but there was one that new to me… “Heart”, or at least it’s related to that, to be honest I’m not sure”.
“What I can confirm is that whatever is inside it’s not something bad, since there aren’t any seal or purifying runes among them, the other symbols seem to complement the divine runes but, in another language,”.
Seeing Eris apologetic expression Aster smiled at her.
“Thanks, at least now we know the contents of the chest aren’t dangerous”.
While the others including Kana which was a little girl seemed to understand, Camila wasn’t following the conversation.
“I don’t know about those “divine runes” you mentioned but the “Heart” part is probably referring to the condition for the supreme elder to offer a patriarch the chance to try opening the chest”.
“Isaac for example never got to know the existence of this chest, because he wasn’t worthy, the condition is “Love for the family” … I decided to bet for someone who can be so ruthless with enemies and still show such a strong care for those who stand at his side and it seems I was right”, she said as she directly looked at Aster.
Lilia which was all smiles a moment ago listening to Camila complimenting her son, suddenly became serious.
“Wait, I get the conditions of lineage, gender and even age, normally the clan head has to be a man, obviously with the lineage of the main branch and the age is always used to measure talent… but the location condition means this thing had to be opened in this specific planet?”.
Eris nodded, “Yes, if one of the conditions wasn’t met, the lock wouldn’t have showed itself”.
…
After a moment of contemplation Aster extended his hand, and inserted the frontal part of the ring on the lock, then both the chest and the ring seemed to change, a little spike appeared on the bridge of the ring, and the runes of the chest changed color from yellow to a red tone.
“A blood test”, he thought as he pressed his finger against the spike so it could pinch him just enough to let out a little drop of blood, the eyes of the wolf lock illuminated and then a little clicking sound echoed through the room.
Aster retired his hand and lifted the lid of the chest, surprisingly inside of the chest there was a map, the worn-out tip of a spear and lastly a small medal with a wolf engraved on it, since nothing weird happened Aster first took the map.
It seemed to be made out of some kind of leather, unfortunately all iconography and the names of places on it were written in the same symbols which even Eris couldn’t understand, so he placed it on the table and then inspected the other two items.
The tip of the spear had a couple of notches a clear sign that was used in a lot of battles, surprisingly the metal was completely clean and the edge was still sharp, he handed it to Eris.
“Can you recognize this metal?”.
Eris received the tip of spear but after a moment she shook her head, this day has been full of surprises for her.
“No, it doesn’t look like any metal I have seen before, the sharpness is excellent, I suggest you to melt it and use it to forge a new weapon”.
The last thing was the medal, which was carved in a white mineral, but he didn’t feel anything special from it, besides the image of a wolf, at the other face it had engraved the initials G.W.
Which didn’t mean anything for Aster but Camila on the other hand nearly fell from her chair.
“Gabriel Wolfstein… that medal belonged to the first ancestor!!!”.
Aster let the medal down and Alice took the map to see it.
“What a letdown, all that for just a map which we can’t understand, a broken spear and an accessory which belonged to a dead man”.
Even Camila felt disappointed, to be honest even she felt tricked, her family branch has been guarding that chest thinking inside there might be a second chance for the Wolfstein family to rise up again, but the reality seemed to be different.
Or at least that would have been the case before Alice took the map which allowed Aster to notice there was something written on the backside of it.
While for others it was just another weird unknown language, Aster’s eyes widened… he cognized it as English, the language of the place in which he lived back on earth.
“Sis, let me take a second look at the map”, he said and Alice handed it over.
The message written was not exactly what he expected, from someone which was supposedly a wise and serious ancestor.
“If you are reading this then it means you didn’t kill my descendant, and for that I bestow you the spear I used and reformed all my life, an adventure to temper you, and my medal which you need to hand over to the one that gave you the chest”.
“By the way, the karma between my family and you can’t be erased, to find the treasure you need the help of someone with from the Exquisite Resonating branch of the family, if you want answers about how I know this language, then find the location indicated in the map”.
“Good luck, Gabriel Wolfstein”.
Aster frowned his brows, if this was some kind of joke then there is no way the note would have been wrote in a language only, he can understand in this whole star cluster, so the message was clearly left for him.
“Well, I guess nothing is impossible in a world where people can destroy planets with just a wave of their hands”, he thought while looking at Lilia.
He threw the map and the spear inside of the chest and then closed the lid, the ring was immediately expulsed from the lock and fell to the table while the mouth of the wolf closed.
Lilia noticed her son now seemed happier which made her understand, whatever was written at the back of the map, Aster could decipher it, her beautiful red eyes glowed but she remained silent, there was an “outsider” here after all.
But to her surprise Aster threw the medal at Camila, which carefully caught it.
“That was left behind by that guy for you, if there is nothing else, we’ll return to our rooms”, he said.
Camila repeatedly nodded, even if the inheritance wasn’t what she expected, as the supreme elder she had a lot of respect for Gabriel so getting something as symbolic as his token of identity is an honor for her.
“Thanks… I’m sorry if the contents of the chest disappointed you”.
Aster didn’t say anything else, he stood up and left the dining room followed by the girls, on the way Lilia couldn’t hold back her curiosity anymore.
“Darling what did the note on the map said, did you give Camila the medal because of it?”.
“Well, turns out we have some karma with the Wolfstein, but that doesn’t mean I’m just going to follow the advice of someone I don’t know”.
Lilia’s eyes glowed, she hugged her son from behind and then said in a charming voice.
“Now that we have settled that, what do you say if we take a bath and then have some fun at the bedroom darling ♥”.
Eris and Mylene blushed a bit.
“I wonder if other dragon women are as shameless as her”, they thought.