Chapter 188: 124. Relative Years
Looking at the photo in hand, the relationship between the Healing Room and Muxi became clear, just like when she sent back the iron box inscribed with Healing Room vocabulary into the sea, proving that Muxi had indeed been here.
But the question before Fisher now was whether Muxi’s disappearance could be related to the Healing Room.
“Fisher, Aunt Muxi has been here, and someone took a photo of her.”
Jasmine held the frame in her hands, her excitement making her bounce on her feet, causing her overly developed softness to sway slightly, prompting Fisher to quietly withdraw his gaze to immerse himself in thought.
He gently turned the frame over, attempting to discover any information apart from the photo, but found nothing.
“Since there’s a photo of your aunt on this shelf, it’s very likely that there would be other materials and information too.”
Fisher placed the frame back on the shelf, scanning the unit adorned with a wave emblem. Besides the frame, there were many scattered objects, most of which appeared meaningless, just like ordinary parts and idle souvenirs.
Fisher also spotted a small fan with a wave mark. Clearly, these should have all been souvenirs previously given by the Healing Room to guests.
However, the most numerous items were stacks of iron boxes, and taking one, Fisher discovered it was identical to the iron box Muxi had sent back to the sea.
This time, it was not empty; it contained vibrant, hard candies.
When Fisher opened it, the candies showed no sign of rolling. Upon closer inspection, they were tightly stuck to the bottom of the box, emanating a strange sour smell.
“This is the candy sent back by my aunt; I’ve eaten it before. Plus, there were more candies in the iron box she sent back compared to this one.”
Beside him, Jasmine’s eyes sparkled as she looked at the candies in the box, her throat occasionally swallowing, clearly tempted by the sweets. If Fisher guessed right, this candy was probably Jasmine’s first time having candy in her life.
But Fisher shook his head, helplessly explaining to Jasmine, “This candy has expired. Although I feel you won’t get sick from it, just don’t eat it. Later, I’ll buy you other candies.”
“Okay!”
Though Jasmine looked a bit disappointed, she clearly recognized that the candy was in bad condition. After dutifully nodding, she watched as Fisher returned the unproductive iron box to its original place.
In fact, following Fisher’s initial line of thought, was it possible that Muxi was in a state of being held or not free? But upon seeing that wedding iris mark, Fisher discarded that notion.
Muxi sending these items had no deeper meaning; she just wanted to express that she was safe and her current living conditions. But since Jasmine sent back this box of Healing Room’s candies, it certainly indicated a close relationship with the Healing Room for quite some time.
Bypassing the first shelf, Fisher and Jasmine continued inside. The sound insulation was excellent. Originally, the Healing Room should have been in chaos, yet Fisher did not hear any expected noises.
Moreover, the soldiers still hadn’t discovered this hidden room. Fisher had reason to suspect that Kachina had destroyed the entrance or mechanism to the hidden room.
Looking further inside, several framed paintings were hung on the left wall of the tunnel space. According to Anna, Kachina hid the location of Blake’s treasury behind one of these paintings.
“Fisher, look! It’s Saint Nali University!”
Fisher was still examining the first painting when he noticed Jasmine had moved in front of him and was excitedly pointing at the last painting in the row, shouting at him.
Following Jasmine’s steps forward, he gazed at the previous paintings. He realized that all these paintings were hand-painted oil paintings, and upon closer inspection, they seemed to originate from the same artist.
When he reached Jasmine’s side, he finally saw what she meant by “Saint Nali University.”
“…This is the scene from three years ago when Saint Nali University was just established.”
In the painting, Saint Nali University still only resembled a planned outline, with only one towering building that was the main teaching building of Saint Nali University.
The motivational quote written by Godlin the Ninth was already moved there, becoming the iconic structure of Saint Nali University.
However, other buildings were still not fully constructed, and nearby was the enclosed wilderness on the outskirts of Saint Nali. Vaguely, he could even see a wooden building in the far corner of the painting, which Fisher recognized as the rickety stable that Trandal provided for his miserable friend!
But the problem was that Saint Nali University was actually quite far from his research lab, which was not visible to the naked eye, yet it appeared in this painting.
Could it mean that the painter’s eyesight exceeded that of a human?
Or was this merely a form of stream-of-consciousness painting?
Fisher could not determine, but upon closer inspection of the somewhat rough brush strokes, he concluded that this painting could not have been made by a professional artist.
“Wait a minute.”
“Huh?”
Fisher suddenly realized something, furrowing his brow as he stepped back through one painting after another. The images depicted various awe-inspiring scenes, symbolizing iconic buildings and scenes that floated like memories in his mind.
The Cathedral of Cardu, the Northern Skies of the Northern Region, the airship manufacturing factory of Shivali, the giant tree at the northernmost tip of the Southern Continent, and the Golden Palace of Nali.
Were these things completely consistent with the process of what Muxi sent back to the sea?
Spring, summer, autumn, winter, time flies.
Clearly, while the author’s painting skill was poor, the scenes presented themselves vividly before the viewer, with the cycling seasons evoking an extraordinary sense of awe, as if one had traversed the world pushed by the vicissitudes of time in an instant.
A relatively strange piece content was a storm as black as a black hole, constantly moving, while bursts of star-like storms erupted from it.
The main perspective of the painting was from a distant position far from the storm, even without nearing the storm’s edge, merely allowing one to catch a distant glimpse. Yet unexpectedly, Fisher’s mind suddenly recalled the relic left behind by Muxi that was sent back to the sea.
The scenery of this location completely surpassed anything humans had discovered so far; the only place it could correspond with was that legendary end of the world filled with treasure: the Sea of Storms!
However, upon taking a closer look, he turned his head to examine the painting next to this one and suddenly noticed that this painting’s brushwork differed from the others, not resembling the hand of a single artist.
But looking at the numerous paintings, an astonishingly simple and shocking guess suddenly arose in Fisher’s mind.
That’s it, he had previously subconsciously overlooked a flaw that seemed easy to discover yet was firmly hidden right under his nose, regarding the Whale Folk.
He remembered the first time he encountered Rena of the Crab People; she not only claimed to be the royalty and ocean emperor of the sea but also said a line that could easily be misunderstood as boasting:
“She possesses an endless lifespan!”
And now, alongside her, two terms had completely appeared that corresponded with the Whale Folk, and she also mentioned the royalty having “companionship sea beasts,” which corresponded to the characteristics of the Whale Folk. So, does that mean the Whale Folk have another characteristic: they possess a very long life!
Fisher could not believe that any life could long endure to not fear time. Yet there was a possibility—this species, including himself, was entirely oblivious to the Whale Folk’s lifespan compared to other beings, making them a race of longevity, those mythical “Eternal Life Klans.”
For a type that possessed long life and persisted in a society entirely isolated from other beings’ civilizations, the likely result was that their method of years would be completely inconsistent with any species in the world!
He turned to the extremely young-looking Jasmine, resembling a young naive girl, and suddenly recalled the hinting word that appeared when he first recorded Jasmine in the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans.
“Infant Whale Folk”
Why would a Whale Folk appearing to be nearly twenty be recorded with a name that sounds very juvenile in the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans?
The reason might lie in that she was considered very, very young in the Whale Folk’s internal timekeeping, so young that other Whale Folk thought she had not yet fully matured and could only be described as “infant.”
With this thought, Fisher’s heart raced slightly as he turned to Jasmine and asked,
“Jasmine, tell me, how old are you this year?”
“Huh? Why are you suddenly asking me this?”
“Just tell me, the specific number.”
Jasmine looked at Fisher’s very serious expression, hesitated for a while, then raised two fingers. The surprisingly young number was “two,” indicating that this girl before him was only two years old, clearly very unrealistic.
“Two years old? That’s impossible! Wait, let’s first review the basic concept of time. First of all, how many days are there in a year for Whale Folk?”
“There are 365 days.”
That means the concept of a year is actually the same; it fundamentally represents the time taken for one revolution around the sun, which isn’t surprising. Although it is unknown how the subhumans in the ocean calculate celestial movements, in the end, the results are consistent.
Yet just now, Jasmine did use “year” from the Nali language to express her age.
Fisher suddenly thought of a possibility. Jasmine’s language was bestowed upon her by Ramastia, somewhat similar to how the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans granted him the Feimabaha Dragon Tongue concept; many words in Nali language either couldn’t be translated or had multiple terms sharing the same word.
He remembers back in the Southern Continent when he erroneously used a word and caused an embarrassing misunderstanding with Mill, which simultaneously demonstrated one issue: the underlying logic within the language was completely different. This rote granting of language knowledge did not impart the same foundational thought process to the possessor.
Although Fisher later improved his use of Feimabaha Dragon Tongue through further study, and he would not be making such mistakes anymore, he certainly did not believe that Jasmine would reflect on any linguistic loopholes.
This little fool rarely refrained from communicating with others; her only circle of interaction was within the dormitory with Milica and Isabel. How could he expect her to notice any inconsistencies in the language knowledge bestowed by Lord Ramastia?
So, could it be that the term used by the Whale Folk to indicate age was different from the term used to denote a year, but translated into Nali language, she used the same word?
Fisher requested her to restate her age and the term for a year in Whale language. Sure enough, he soon heard different pronunciations for the two words, something even Jasmine herself did not realize, until she stupidly recited two differently meaningful words and realized something was off.
“Wait, wait, wait! Teacher Fisher, are you saying that the human calculation for age is equivalent to the time of a ‘year’? One ‘year’ equals one ‘age’ for you?”
Jasmine exclaimed in surprise, her worldview seemingly facing a strong shock. For a moment, she could not untangle the relations within, until Fisher nudged her before she realized something was amiss.
In Saint Nali University, she had lived for three months, with her social circle limited to Milica and Isabel, and since both of their birthdays had already passed this year, no one had mentioned to Jasmine that human lifespan increases by one year each year.
And foolishly, Jasmine, completely unaware of humans, thought their lifespan was the same as the Whale Folk, just like Fisher himself had not thought of this aspect at first.
Because, according to common sense, species like the Dragon Race, Sorceresses, and all known subhuman races had similar lifespans to humans. Fisher only considered that the lifespan of the Demon species might be longer because of how obviously it was revealed with Eil.
Fisher’s awareness of the possibility that the Whale Folk’s lifespan might be unusual was inspired by Eil’s theories on demon longevity.
It seemed now that the Whale Folk were very similar to the Demon species, both long-lived races.
So according to Eil’s “Rank of Life,” were they both higher-tier beings?
Fisher faintly sensed something was off because his scholarly intuition told him something wasn’t right, much like an instinct that something didn’t comply with common sense or logic.
For some reason, his thoughts always conjured up the image of that annoying water snake, Ramastia, at this point, but this was just a sense that his reasoning was conveying; he had no awareness that this matter had any relation to Ramastia.
After thinking for quite a while, Fisher couldn’t draw any conclusions and decided to continue the conversation with Jasmine.
“That’s right, for humans, one ‘year’ equals one ‘age’. In Nali language, these two concepts are completely the same word. But because your Nali language was directly bestowed by Ramastia, you completely failed to notice the differences. Plus, your socializing range is too narrow; you definitely haven’t realized anything unusual from conversations with Milica and Isabel.”
“The only time I ever knew someone had a birthday was during the Godlin Festival, which is the king’s birthday. I thought… all humans…”
Looking at her distressed and shocked appearance, Fisher did not dwell on the subject of lifespan but instead asked,
“So, in the Whale Folk’s concept, how many years does one ‘age’ equal?”
“One age equals eighty years… no, wait…”
Jasmine whispered, but as she spoke, she faltered, unsure of what she had in mind.
Yet, in Fisher’s mind, those intertwining thoughts finally felt like they were pierced through, and he began to understand why Muxi was able to accomplish so much in such a short time frame and covered so much ground while getting married.
The reason lay in the fact that Muxi had not merely left the ocean for a year.
She had been away from the ocean for a full eighty years!
Fisher looked at the paintings before him and instantly understood that these paintings had been done by Muxi, not by some other artist.
The paintings documented Muxi’s experiences and observations from the years she had been on land, and the last painting depicted the establishment of Saint Nali University, indicating that Muxi had still been living perfectly fine in Nali three years ago.
And when comparing this painting of the Sea of Storms with the other paintings, the more he looked, the more suspicious the brushstrokes appeared.
He suddenly felt that only this particular painting could not have been painted by Muxi. So, could it indicate that it had been swapped by someone?
Jasmine nearby was still immersed in the emotions and uncertainties brought by the disarray of time concepts while Fisher, unperturbed, directly reached out to lift the painting before him. Behind this painting’s frame, someone had scribbled three lines of small text in Nali language at the corner, presenting an unclear riddle,
“The king once wept here; tears flowed night and day, gathering into a ball, symbolizing his longing.”
“Knowledge carries hidden history, fabricating a fragmented history.”
“Ah, everything of mine, where are you? In the most dangerous yet most secure place!”
Fisher mentally recorded those three lines, and it was evident that this was the location of Blake’s treasury documented by Kachina.
While he felt a sigh of relief for achieving his goal, an inexplicably speechless feeling arose within him.
In this day and age, can’t one just straightforwardly write down the treasure’s location that serves as a backup?
Why craft a riddle that sounds particularly convoluted?
Before Fisher had the chance to voice his frustrations, Jasmine, having just looked up, stealthily glanced at Fisher and seemed to want to say something, but suddenly realized something and shouted at Fisher,
“Fisher, watch out!”
Fisher’s expression shifted slightly, and following her pointing finger, he turned to look at the ventilation duct in the upper corner of the tunnel.
One by one, humanoid eyes, resembling cockroaches, crawled out from the duct, their wings fluttering while producing a buzzing sound, gradually coalescing into a snarling, frenzied female voice:
“I have found you, Child of the Sea!”
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*(End of Chapter)*
