King Ghidorah looked calmly at the chirping old man in front of him. This guy had been talking for an hour.
Lavas stood in the center of the hall, with an ancient book spread out in front of him that was so thick that it could be used as a pillow. The pages were yellowed and brittle, and the edges were damaged. Many places had been carefully repaired with transparent silk paper.
His fingers moved quickly on the page, from one paragraph of text to another, from one line of markings to another, and kept popping up words one after another that King Ghidorah couldn't understand and didn't want to understand - "ancient runes", "suspected relics from the ancient era", "may be related to a certain ancient saint" and the like.
His tone went from a calm statement at the beginning, to an excited trembling in the middle stage, and now to a state of near madness.
The light gray pupils behind the lenses sparkled with the kind of fanatical light that only a true scholar can have when he discovers what he has been pursuing for his whole life.
King Ghidorah probably understands it too.
Any one of those piles of gadgets can be considered a priceless treasure.
For example, that small glowing ball - only the size of a human palm, with fine lines on the surface, and light blue light flowing in the lines - the energy contained in it is likely to exceed the total magic power of Master Eighth Tier.
And that level of energy is concentrated in a small ball that can be thrown casually... an ancient grenade?
For example, the scepter inlaid with black gems - the base of the gems is made of dark silver metal, and the surface is engraved with fine lines that spread like plant roots - it is suspected to be the object held by an ancient saint.
Lavas turned to a certain page in the ancient book and showed him the picture of the scepter compared with the illustrations in the book.
The illustrations are crudely drawn and have simple lines, but the outline of the scepter, the position of the gems, and even the direction of the lines on the gem base are all highly consistent with the real thing.
He turned to a certain page and said that these were the notes of a certain high tower master. That master had never seen the real thing in his entire life. He only saw similar images on the murals of some ancient ruins, but he never drew them in his entire life.
Lavas is still talking. King Ghidorah no longer wants to hear it.
The left side of his head moved slightly, and his forked tongue poked out from the corner of his mouth and flicked in the air.
The tip of his tongue accurately wrapped around the small glowing ball, rolled it around the tip of his tongue, and then rolled the whole ball into his mouth.
Gudong.
The hall was quiet. It was so quiet that you could clearly hear the sound of the quill in Sangis's hand slipping from his fingers and falling to the ground.
Lavas's fingers were frozen on the page, and his mouth was still open, maintaining the same arc as when he spoke just now, but the sound had disappeared from his throat.
His eyeballs moved slowly and mechanically in their sockets, moving from the page to the treasure pile - the original position of the ball was empty, not even a speck of dust was left.
Then it moved to King Ghidorah's mouth - a golden mouth. There was a trace of light blue light slowly dissipating at the corner of the mouth. Then it moved to King Ghidorah's throat - that thing was no longer there, it had gone down.
"Your Majesty... Your Majesty?" His voice was very soft. It wasn't fear, it was the first syllable that a human's brain would utter after a brief freeze when faced with something completely beyond the scope of understanding.
"Huh?" King Ghidorah's middle head tilted slightly.
"Did you... eat that thing...?"
"Yeah." King Ghidorah's telepathy sounded.
This thing has energy. You said it has energy, but I ate it. It's a very reasonable logical chain. It doesn't need to be explained. Even if I explain it, they won't understand it.
Lavas seemed to hear the sound of his heart breaking. He opened his mouth and moved his lips several times, each time as if he wanted to say something, but every time the sound got stuck in his throat.
His fingers slipped from the pages, and the ancient book, which was so thick that it could be used as a pillow, lost its pressure, and the pages slowly turned back one by one.
Master Lavas took a deep breath, then another breath, and his chest rose and fell violently several times.
His face turned from pale to flushed, and then from flushed to livid. Sangis felt that he was going to faint in the next second.
Sangis's head was sweating. She quickly walked down the steps under the throne, walking quickly and silently, walked quickly to Lavas, and reached out to hold his arm.
The old man was shaken by this support, like an old tree bent by the wind.
"Master Lavas, Your Majesty didn't mean that..." She didn't quite believe it when she said this, "He just doesn't know the value of that thing--"
"I know." Lavas's voice was very low, so low that only Sangis standing next to him could hear it, "I know your Majesty doesn't understand, but I can't pretend not to understand."
Lavas swallowed back the sour, burning emotion that surged from his stomach, straightened up, and pushed the slipped glasses back up the bridge of his nose.
His fingers were still shaking, but his voice was steady.
King Ghidorah watched the old man's expression change. The head in the middle tilted slightly, and the other two were also looking at Lavas at the same time.
Well, it seems like I went too far.
"Just eat it." King Ghidorah's telepathy sounded, and his tone was still as calm, but his speaking speed was a little slower. "Tell me which one else can be eaten."
Lavas's expression is very complicated, like a child who has been robbed of candy and is asked "Which other candy is delicious?"
His lips trembled, and he wanted to say "Don't eat any of them", but his eyes had already quickly scanned the treasure pile, and he mentally divided the items into three levels according to "His Majesty must not touch them", "It might be fine if you touch it a little", "Maybe you can take a risk and try it".
He took a deep breath and bent deeply towards King Ghidorah.
"Your Majesty, each of these treasures is priceless. Their value does not lie in how much energy they contain, but in how much history they carry.
They are witnesses of the past of this world and the last voices left to us by those Civilization that have disappeared.
Please allow me to take them back and study them carefully. Once I find out their uses and origins, I will report to His Majesty."
"Okay. Take that pile of stuff back and let me study it slowly. Let me know when the research works."
Lavas was stunned for a moment. He thought he would have to waste more words. He thought His Majesty would ask "how long will the research take?" and thought that the treasures would be taken back and locked in some royal treasury that he couldn't even enter.
But His Majesty didn't ask. He didn't even look at the treasures, as if the pile of treasures that could make all the countries on the mainland break their heads were not treasures, but just a pile of old clutter that he was too lazy to clean up and had just been cleared away.
Lavas saluted quickly, so fast that the hem of his robe almost tripped his feet. When he bent down, the white hair on his temples slipped from behind his ears and hung down on the side of his face.
"Thank you, Your Majesty. I will honor your orders."
Later, we must call a few old guys and those people in white clothes. Your Majesty can no longer let these be eaten as snacks!
He couldn't watch the Civilization legacy of this era being swallowed one by one by a dragon.
History cannot be digested and memories cannot be eaten.
Lavas straightened up, walked to the treasure pile, squatted down, and began to put the treasures back into the box one by one. His movements were very slow, even slower than when he took them out of the treasure pile.
Each item must be picked up, looked at, touched, sighed, and then put in.
Sangis stood by and watched, wanting to help several times but not knowing where to start. Her hand stretched out and then retracted, retracted and then stretched out.
In the end, I stood aside and watched, watching the old man put the treasures that were more valuable than his life into the box one by one, watching him lock the box, and watching him carefully put the key into the inner pocket of his robe.
Sangis waited for Lavas to walk out of the hall and returned to the throne, unfolding the pile of documents he had prepared in his hand.
"Your Majesty, the envoys of Karelia, Saint Junxi and Vostok are about to arrive. Your Majesty, do you want to see them?"
Sangis looked at the three heads of King Ghidorah.
The envoy of Karelia is already on the way, led by their Foreign Minister Robert Burton personally; the envoy of Saint Junxi has arrived in the capital Valerilus City, and is still waiting for the date of meeting; the envoy of Vostok is the slowest, having just set off from the capital, and it will probably take a few days to arrive.
"Where are the others?" King Ghidorah asked, "I remember there are many other countries."
"Most of them are still on the road." Sangis's tone was very calm, but he spoke a little faster, "The distances from the capitals of various countries to Vagrian are different, and the speeds are also different.
The farthest one, based on the current itinerary, will take at least three days to reach."
Vagrian is too far for mainland countries. For those inland countries that are not close to the sea and do not have strong air transportation capabilities, just walking to Vagrian requires breaking several legs.
"Then let them wait until everyone is here." King Ghidorah The head in the middle yawned.
We'll wait until everyone gets together. It doesn't matter if they don't. He's not in a hurry anyway.
Sangis Keep this in mind and turn the pile of documents to the second copy.
"Also, the Protector left the territory without permission yesterday and went to Forbidden Land."
King Ghidorah tilted his head. "Oh, he went to see his old boss? What's wrong?"
"Do you... need to punish him?"