Azimuth: The Elden Throne

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After focusing for a few seconds, going over the words inside his mind a few times over, Dale began to speak:

"... Talmar Efer… /Whispers/… Dar Hulim…"

With the crystal in hand, he whispered the words in a tone almost too weak for Erile to hear, and the little words she did hear, were deep and concise.

/Shine…/

In response to his words, the Crystal began shining, illuminating the room in a brilliant resplendent light.

"Urg… What's going on?" Erile questioned as she raised her hands to block her eyes, the light too strong for her to endure

Dale did something similar, squinting his eyes so much he almost closed them.

Because of the light, however, she forgot to ask about the words Dale just uttered, something that would have to be left for another time.

'Did it work? Last time I tried this I failed to pronounce the dialect correctly and had to redo it. I don't want to embarrass myself in front of her...'

'Despite everything, I still have my self stem and am self-aware of myself and my surroundings... Who would want to embarrass themselves in front of a pretty girl anyway?'

'Unless it was for a joke... Even so...'

/Crack!/

With that final outburst of energy, the crystal perfectly cracked in the middle, parting in two like a nut being opened, revealing a yellow tablet, akin to a thin but long gold tablet.

It was full of strange carvings and gems embedded onto its surface, they seemed to glimmer in weak lights whenever he moved it around.

"Phew… Hm? What's that?..."

Erile approached Dale with great curiosity, tilting her head slightly as she looked at the tablet, fascinated by the polished gems.

"They're beautiful… I've never seen these types of cuts before… Is that a diamond?"

Together with her baggage of Aristocracy rules and customs, identifying expensive jewelry was part of her curriculum, a reflection of the nature of aristocracy, to see one's worth based on the things they wear.

Erile could identify all kinds of cuts, but for a more precise analysis, such as where it was cut, who cut it, and much more, a specialist would have to be called.

She raised her hand, willing to take a closer look at it, but to her surprise, Dale stopped her.

With a light, weak smile, Dale pulled the tablet away from her, shaking his head as he began explaining himself, otherwise Erile would pout at him and get upset.

"It's better if you don't hold onto it. I wouldn't want you to get hurt."

"Why not? Is something wrong with it?"

"Yes… But if you're unconvinced... Here, raise your right hand."

"?"

Erile did as she was told, raising her right palm upward.

Following that, Dale placed the back of his palm atop hers, still clutching onto the tablet, causing her cheeks to get a little hot... A detail Dale ignored for her own sake.

Slowly, he let go of his strength, allowing Erile to support it.

"Okay...!... Wait!!.... Oh no…"

The less strength he put onto it, the heavier his hand became to Erile.

Noticing the root of the problem, she tried to put more and more and more strength onto it, even adjusting her posture to try and lift his arm. But towards the end, her face was completely red and Dale had to pull his hand from hers otherwise she would faint from high blood pressure.

"Huff!... Huff… What's going on?!" She asked as she breathed haggardly on the side

"This is a storage tool, you know what that is right?"

As he said so, he waved the item in front of her, somewhat teasing her and even mocking her, causing her eyes to grow serious as she saw his smirk.

But she reigned her frustration in, smiling as she replied, still recovering her breath.

For some reason, this boy seemed rather good at breaking her character. It could be also because she, from the start, felt rather at ease in this place, causing her poker face to weaken.

"What? A storage… Hum… No wonder… But I don't understand! If it was so heavy, how come the table didn't collapse?"

"That's simple to answer, these kinds of tools were made to support the weight of the items and materials stored within them, offsetting most of it and leaving them safe for transport."

"But that doesn't come for free you know… And after 100 years, whatever it had to support its weight has long since decayed or exhausted its energy source, or to be more precise, it's on its way there."

"The crystal shell was likely used to prevent this because its creator predicted that the things inside would remain unseen for decades if not centuries."

"It has begun to decay and its weight will exponentially increase from here on out… It's already quite heavy honestly." Dale said with a light smile as he threw the item up and down

'The one who made this was none other than Qrubin, several months before the fall of the Wall when they received the report regarding the wave of Devils rushing from the Archipelago by the Naval Division... Just moments before they fled somewhere to avoid extermination.'

'The Naval Division did not participate in the final fight, and that wasn't because they were cowards, it was an order of the Commander, he told them to flee and regroup once the wave ended so they could pincer attack the Devils if any remained... But they never returned.'

'Qrubin said there was no way they defected, the General in charge of them was more of a blockhead than Sarferato was in his prime, he wouldn't leave unless the soldiers rebelled against their superior.'

'In the future, after I learned of the Commander's last words through the Sound Box, I went to share them with him, and in that moment, Qrubin remembered the existence of this item, helping me open it.'

'The words I uttered before were in Elvish, they roughly translate to the verses of an old folk song Qrubin found during his youth while studying a ruin, he used it as the password because those were the words he used to tell his wife before they got in a relationship.'

'In short, these were the words he used to woo her… Yes, the item he gave the commander had such a personal password... A very narcissistic guy.'

'As for why I can say them so easily… Back when I used to play Zenith, I was constantly exposed with the languages of different species, some of them just kind of stuck on me, in a similar way as runes did.'

'I have several dictionaries for their languages on my PC, including ancient dead languages from civilizations past. One of the reasons I can understand Qrubin's words whenever he mentions the Elven Civilization, much of their culture and language remain the same as that's just how they are.'

"..."

Dale continued to inspect the item, leaving Erile alone with her thoughts. Which soon enough caused her to develop a frown as she tugged at his shirt, bothered by the silence.

"So? How do we open it? I mean… For real this time." She asked in a rather abnormal formal tone

"See these gems, each of them represents something this item stores."

"Gray for Documents, Books, Parchments, anything that can be defined within the parameters of ink and paper."

"Red is for dangerous objects or otherwise unstable items at room temperature. From simple materials to those magical in origin, including things that have been cursed and sealed, although don't ask me why they're here, I don't know either."

'In a sense, my bracelet would qualify to be within those items since it's a Cursed object, although it says they failed to seal it, I wonder if Qrubin knows something about it. Either now or in the past, it never passed through my head to ask that of him...'

After a moment of thinking, he continued.

"Green is for beneficial items and potions, from medicinal concoctions to similar objects such as healing gems, plants, or other kinds of drugs. It is to no surprise that this one is… Will likely be in the worst state of preservation as there're many items made of highly degradable matter."

"Blue is for items with direct ties to Magic, Scrolls, Grimoires, anything made through Magitech Engineering, and potions as well, as long as they're potent enough to be put here."

"However, dangerous objects will still be sent to the Red category."

"Black is for large objects, things that can't be held by a person alone, not without causing some damage to the object itself or its surroundings. Things like large cannons, siege weapons, and the like."

'95% of all the weight of this item comes from this alone…'

"Yellow is what you'd expect out of this storage tool, Swords, Shields, Armor, anything the Corps would've used in the past. Do remember that the Corps was understaffed and not entirely underequipped."

"Although it is true they were unable to properly maintain many of their equipment, it doesn't mean their old ones just vanished, they were always there, somewhere, being maintained and replaced whenever needed, dismantled and melted for their needs."

"Of course, this is but a minimal part of their stash, but it's here. For some reason."

'Qrubin told me the Commander gathered these items in case he managed to survive the wave so he could mount a resistance and rally the soldiers to potentially reclaim the Wall at a later date, it has nothing to do with his descendants, not entirely at least.'

'It was also a form of maintaining their legacy and history, these items would all be gathered in one spot, so if their vaults and libraries burned down, at the very least a part of it would be copied within this.'

'Still, he likely knew there would be no such chance given that for him to even consider such a possibility, the wave was likely ridiculous in proportion.'

"Lastly, White is for miscellaneous objects, things that do not conform with any of the other of the categories above."

"That seems… Oddly confusing, why go through such lengths anyway?" Erile asked as she looked at the gems

'How does he even know all of this?... He's hiding something from me.' She thought calmly as she took a peek at him

She carefully raised her finger, touching one of them before pulling it quickly from a scare.

"Gasp!"

The gems were hot, not overwhelmingly so, but enough to frighten her, causing her face to go red when she saw Dale chuckle.

"This is for the sake of preservation I bet, this is a storage tool, not a time-bending artifact, it can store things within but preserving them is another issue."

"Anyhow… Choose one, I'm a bit curious to see what's inside."

"Can I?... Well… The Black one!"

"Cough!... Ahem… I don't think we have enough space here for that… How about something else and more contained? Please…"

"Humph… Boring."

Erile smiled as she crossed her arms, tilting her head as she chose another color.

"The Green one."

"Green?"

"It's my favorite color, I like it."

"What a coincidence, I also like green." He said as he looked into her eyes, unknowingly making her extremely embarrassed as she looked away

[Erile's intimacy has risen considerably]

"?... /Clears throat/… Then Green it is." He said as he looked away as well, somewhat embarrassed with his own words as well

With that statement, Dale touched the Green gem, conducting his Mana across his arm from his heart directly onto it, causing it to ignite as a series of displays manifested before his eyes.

[DING]

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Notes