The Scarlet Phoenix and the Prince of Winter

Chapter Fifty Seven

The Forresters were indeed collectors of anything antique and valuable. The room where we were now was brimming with treasures and antique collectibles that could only possibly be owned by an affluent and prominent family. The glint from the jewels and gold inside this room almost literally blinded me.

"There are so many treasures here!" I said in amazement. "I don't even know where to look first! Prince Kao, is it really okay for us to be here?"

The Crown Prince nodded. "They already gave me their permission. Millicent's father even offered me anything that I would fancy here in their precious collection, but I told them that I was just interested in the 'history' of the antique."

"You really won them over," I noted happily, and I was so proud that the Crown Prince really earned the trust of the Forresters. Of course, the main reason for this surprising turn of events was because Prince Kao promised them that once he becomes the King, he will do everything in his power to build the seawall that they have wanted for so long. The Forresters must have been touched by what the Crown Prince promised them that they were willing to give Prince Kao anything in return for his kindness. And I was so happy about this development because first and foremost, Prince Kao does not need to marry Millicent anymore, though I suspect that the Forresters still want the arranged marriage to push through.

Prince Kao just smiled at me boyishly and then he went on checking some of the rare items that were here in this room. This was what the rich people call as 'pebble chambers' because usually, rooms like this one are used in storing the coalstones. This type of room is designed and built to stop heat from escaping, thus there is no air vent in here. A lot of horror and tragic stories usually accompany things rooms like this because if you are ever locked in something like this, it would be difficult for you to breathe properly. When I was younger, reports on young children getting accidentally locked up in these rooms frequented the village gossips, earning a bad reputation for these pebble chambers.

"These are indeed interesting pieces of cultural artifacts," said Prince Kao who was now checking a full set of an iron armor that a Royal Guard used to wear before. He was examining the symbols engraved on the chest of the iron armor, making me wonder if that was a lot more important than finding the thing that we wanted to find here.

But I did not want to spoil his fun, so I just went on my own and search for the shield myself instead. Some of the treasures here caught my attention too, just like the round table mirror that had fancy marking around it. When I looked at my reflection in it it would not show me clearly. It was kind of blurred and that intrigued me.

"Do you like that?" said a voice behind me and I immediately turned around to see the Crown Prince behind me smiling as he looked at the weird mirror too. "That's an antique mirror. If you like that, I can ask this as a gift from the Forresters."

"Oh no, you don't have to do that, Prince Kao!" I immediately protested while I blushed profusely. "I just find it interesting because it does not reflect my image well---"

"The old mirrors are like that," he said.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't exactly know the reason behind it, but mirror-makers from ages ago make their mirrors differently than how they make it now. I guess sunlight has to do with it. Now that we don't have enough sunlight in a year, mirrors have to be made in a peculiar manner so that it can reflect our reflections better."

"Oh, I see," I answered with great interest more than ever before. "You are very well-informed, Prince Kao. I like how you know almost everything."

"But I don't know everything," he added. "I just happen to have read a lot of books."

"But that is what I admire about you. You seem to be enamored by learning. I sometimes wish that I was as smart as you so that I would know everything that I need to know about."

He nodded. "Thank you for the compliments, Rainha, but just as what I told you, I don't assume that I know everything. And that is how it's supposed to be. To be knowledgeable means that you are aware that you don't know everything, while to be ignorant is to think that you know everything."

"Woah, that's so profound," I just said because I think I will soon get a nosebleed if I continue chatting with him like this. I know that I will never be able to cope up with how he talks smartly, so it would be better for me to talk to him casually. "By the way, I don't exactly know what are we looking for in this here, but I assume that this is the shield that you were talking about? The one that according to that Tyroh guy you talked with in the dungeon prison, is attached to the Forrester's wall?"

"It is the very same," Prince Kao replied. "They decided to keep the shield here as just a year ago, some thieves tried to ransack this mansion. According to Millicent's father, a lot of their prized decorations and pieces of prized jewelries were stolen, that's why they decided to keep their other treasures in a spare pebble chamber for protection."

"Oh. That's too bad. I did not know that their mansion has been burglarized. They should have installed one of those scent-induced security systems that my ancestral house in Kajos had. That would be very difficult to deal with, in my opinion."

"You are right, but that would also be unnecessarily troublesome as the Forresters usually let a lot of people inside their mansion, especially when it's the Ruthless Blizzards season."

"Well, there's that. I guess being rich is a pain in the ass, then," I quipped and the two of us laughed. Then we went on looking for the shield. I found various treasures and then I stopped when I saw something very, very familiar. I could not even move when I saw it.

"What's the matter, Rainha?" Prince Kao asked when he noticed that I was not moving. My eyes were fixed on the thing that was attached to the wall in front of me and Prince Kao stood beside me to examine it too. "Woah, that is some huge chunk of gold right there," he said, impressed that the thing attached to the wall was made of pure gold. "If my guess is right, that is a ship's steering wheel made of gold."

"It is," I replied and I felt that the Crown Prince were surprised that I was able to confirm his guess to be correct.

"Wait, you know what it is, Rainha?"

I nodded. "It's the wheel that steers a ship, right? The one which is a part of the helm."

Prince Kao's mouth was now gaping wide often and I guess I could not blame him. Even I was surprised that I know information like that. "Oh... I'm sorry... I did not know how I knew that... but I am correct, right?"

He nodded, still in shock that I know something about a ship's parts. Of course, everyone would be surprised that an ordinary girl would know something like that, since ships and other water vehicles have been non-existent in Aure for as long as we could remember!

"You are right, but how did you---? Wait, did you read it in a book? Have you ever managed to find a book about ships?"

I shook my head. I wanted to tell him that my knowledge about it came from that weird dream of mine where I was Alfiora, but I did not want to tell that to him for some reason, which confused me. "I think I heard it from s-somewhere?"

I could sense from his facial expressions that the Crown Prince was still skeptical about my response. Of course, it might be difficult to convince him that I just heard it from somewhere. Information about things that are now only part of our history usually is not available to the public. Who would talk about parts of a ship when it has been over a hundred years ago since the oceans, the rivers, and the lakes here in Aure had been frozen solid? Who would build a ship and what for when there is no body of water here where you could use a ship over it? That's something that is just part of the past now.

It's one of those things that people have already forgotten over time, much like how we don't know what flames look like or how it feels like... But if what I dreamed of was true and if those incidents really happened, then I guess I could say now that I know how the fire looks like. Or that I know how it feels when you are near with flames, or what it looks like when a volcano erupts. My perspective and imagination would change if what all I witnessed in that dream turns out to be true. But right now, now that I still have no proof that I somehow was able to go back in time before the eternal winter happened, all I have are theories.

"I don't know where you got that information but that's something that you don't hear everyday, Rainha," he finally said. "I was not even sure if I was right that it is indeed a ship's steering wheel, but you just confirmed it so casually as if you had already seen one. But that's impossible, as there are no more ships here in Aure. Books about ship-building and the likes are also rare these days... so I am very suspicious about the fact that you know something about it."

I wanted to tell him so badly that I knew about it from that dream, but how could I explain to him how was I able to dream about something like that in the first place? How can I tell him that there was a golden ship in the bay of Plumba and that it got sliced in half and then sunk into the bottom of the ocean together with the two deities who were trapped in there? How can I tell him that without him suspecting that I am not normal?

The Crown Prince was waiting for me to defend myself, I guess, but I remained silent so he took a deep breath before deciding to talk about it later. "Let's find the shield first before we talk about that."

I nodded nervously and we proceeded on looking for that shield. I was feeling guilty that I did not tell him anything about that dream though. It felt like I was betraying him, but still, telling him about it right here would only confuse him more than he needed to. I want us to finish what we needed to do here so that I could finally go to where my brother is.

And there it was. Prince Kao yelled in shock and I saw him holding what appears to be an enormous shield. It was partly made of gold too, and was twice as big as the shields that the ordinary Royal Guards own. In addition, this shield had markings on its steel plate and that Tyroh guy was right. The markings carved on its side was identical to the ones which were on the bracelet that we found in our ancestral house in Kajos.

"Finally! I found it!" the Crown Prince sounded so ecstatic as he held the shield with both his hands. We both examined it and I gasped when we looked at its back side. There was indeed something drawn in there. "There it is," he said with joy.

"Is that what I think it is?"

He nodded. "It is. That's what Tyroh told me. It's a map."