After picking it up, the waitress seemed somewhat embarrassed by the object in her hand.
She glanced down at her palm, hurriedly took a handkerchief from the table, and carefully wrapped the object in it. Then she rubbed it through the cloth with her fingertips, afraid that any lingering dirt might get on the nobleman's hands.
The receptionist spread the handkerchief across her palm and held it out to Renato.
"Here, Sir."
Renato lowered his gaze and took the object offered in the receptionist's handkerchief.
It was a tooth.
More precisely, it was a tooth that had long since fossilized. Dull gray-white all over, its surface had a texture somewhere between bone and stone, as though it had lain buried in seabed sediment for millions of years.
It was roughly as long as one segment of Renato's thumb, with a thick root and a narrowing tip. Slightly curved and triangular overall, it had a row of fine, sharp serrations along each edge.
Renato examined the tooth with its stony sheen and noticed traces of blood still clinging to the serrations.
From what the waitress had just said, the blood must have come from the serrations piercing her flesh when she clenched it in her palm.
Renato frowned at the bloodstained tooth in the handkerchief.
Although he had not been in the Sea of a Thousand Islands for very long, he had already browsed many local handicrafts.
Jewelry made from shark teeth was fairly common, so he immediately recognized it as a shark tooth.
White Harbor had a thriving coastal fishing industry, and sharks were just one of the many kinds of fish regularly caught there. A shark tooth alone was nothing special to Renato.
But why would she want to send me a shark tooth? Was it a threat? Or...