Relic of the Past (2/2)

-27 hours later-

Haalfrin is shown to the family museum at noon by Eli and Palandri. When they meet Mendri, the first thing Haalfrin thinks is, 'This man looks nothing like Palandri and Eli.'

Of course, even though Mendri is a descendant of one of the Duke's brothers, the Vanteri features clearly hasn't been preserved that far down the line.

After exchanging a few mandatory introductions, young master Mendri doesn't bother trying to talk to Haalfrin anymore. Instead, he just waves his hand, and the double doors to the museum open. "Let's go inside. Quick. We need to shut the door fast."

Once Haalfrin and the others scooch in quickly, Mendri closes the door with an apologetic look on his face. "Sorry. The mage taking care of this place says that there's a lot of old paper here, and it's not good for too much fresh air to get in."

Haalfrin looks around and sees a very large hallway with walls nearly a hundred feet high. There's only 1 floor here, so Haalfrin can't help but wonder why they have the walls so high…

'…On second thought,' he realizes, 'with how long the halls are, it would feel stuffy and cramped if there wasn't at least plenty of space upwards.

Other than that, the floors and walls aren't carved with opulent designs like the rest of the mansions. 'I approve,' Haalfrin nods mentally. 'This is a place dedicated to the past. It wouldn't be good to overshadow the displays with distracting decorations.'

"Sir Haalfrin?" Mendri asks, "Are you wanting me to show you around the museum, or do you just want to head to your section?"

"Let's just head over to my section," Haalfrin says, "but feel free to point anything out or talk about whatever you wish on the walk over."

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The halls sprawl out in a huge, triangular grid, and the walk is long.

Once they exit the main lobby, one of the first things that Haalfrin notices is that all of the halls are lined with doorways labelled with signs telling what displays are behind the door. There are signs reading, "Emperor Talinam III", "Duke Venin Hal Vanteri, the previous duke", "Teligri – Duke Vanteri's childhood friend"… etc.

All of the signs and the displays inside seem quite randomly dispersed to Haalfrin, and many of the names seem exotic and strange.

Beside each door is a small shelf full of books. "With so many shelves along the halls, you'd think this was a library, not a museum," Haalfrin comments.

"Oh, those books are all historical accounts about each person's history," Eli explains. "Father thought it would be a good idea if visitors could read a few important things about these people before going into their rooms."

"Another question. Why're none of the museum's contents on display in the halls?" Haalfrin asks.

Palandri answers this one. "There's enchantments on each door isolating the air inside. It's a lot easier to manage if each display has its own separate air pockets. Plus, there's no windows because the historians say that too much sunlight is bad for some of the displays."

After this, Haalfrin remains silent, and he doesn't ask any more questions.

The rest of the trip is mostly silent, save for Mendri's comments about which historical sections they're passing, and his occasional questions of, "did you know this person?"

The only time Haalfrin answers "yes" to these questions is when they pass King Kanus's room.

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Once they finally reach Haalfrin's own room, Haalfrin immediately goes for the bookshelf containing his own history books.

On the bottom shelf are various books with bookmarks on all the pages with references to himself, as well as highlighted sentences.

However, on the top shelf are 2 short books titled, "The biographies of Haalfrin of the Kareen." Apparently, some vague historians had done some personal research and written some books about him.

He takes a few of the reference books first since he figures that there's less content to go through. He then walks towards the center of the hallway, which is lined with small benches so that people can have somewhere to sit as they read.

As Haalfrin gets to reading, he notices that Mendri is stuck in his own books and isn't bothering him at all.

Seeing how the younger mage is keeping his distance, Haalfrin feels a sense of approval for the man.

It seems that young master Mendri understands that Haalfrin came here for the history books and displays – not for him.

(If Mendri had approached him now, he knows very well that he'd only annoy the 5th Gate mage…)

Just like that, several hours pass by as all four mages patiently read.

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'Huh!' Haalfrin thinks. 'Impressive. These historical records seem to line up with reality!' In his hands is a book titled "The biographies of Haalfrin of the Kareen, volume 2 of 2."

So far, the reference books from before mostly only had brief mentions of his name during battles, or during accounts of Kalastros's own battle with Dakka at the tower. Some of the books were even ledgers with a census of mages that Brancotte always collects from its kingdoms.

These biographies, though, go into much greater detail about his life, and so far, it's been pretty accurate.

Most surprising of all, when the biography gets to the part where he gets sent to the Pit, it doesn't add the part that everyone believed for a long time.

After all, when Haalfrin was sent to jail, the public story was that he slaughtered half the Alastan palace in an attempt to not be conscripted into the Threshold

However, the biography states, "It was, indeed assumed for many years that Haalfrin was sent to the Pit for this reason. However, in recent years, it's come to light from the emperor himself that the man had been framed Kanus, who was the king of Alasta at the time. As of now, it's unknown why this happened."

It continues, "I'm left to wonder what Alasta would've been like if Haalfrin had become the next Alastan archmage. I'm also left to wonder... Why was Haalfrin framed for a mass murder?"

'Wait, what's the date of this book?' he wonders in a panic upon reading this.

He turns the book over and flips through the front cover. Once he sees the dates, he thinks, 'Ah. 115 years ago. That's about when the Pit was destroyed. No doubt the emperor knew the truth some time before I escaped, but he decided to publicize it after he found out that I slew a 4-horned dragon.'

This thought alone helps Haalfrin decide his opinion about the Emperor. 'Yup. I don't like him.'

Soon after this, Haalfrin finishes the last book, and he hands it to Palandri, who still hasn't read it yet. Then, he sits back and crosses his arms.

He'd mind as well wait patiently for the others to finish reading before they head inside.

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A few hours after this, everyone is finally satisfied with reading the books on Haalfrin's shelf, and they all stand up and stretch their stiff legs.

Then, they step up single file, with young master Mendri leading the way and Haalfrin behind him, followed by Palandri and Eli walking side by side.

Once Mendri opens the door, Haalfrin immediately smells the pungent stench of old cloth. Other than that, the air feels remarkably dry.

Mendri then turns the mage lights on, and the entire room is illuminated.

Frankly, the room is smaller than Haalfrin thought it was going to be, given the size of the museum.

As Haalfrin is moving his eyes around the room, Mendri leans over and asks, "Do you want to introduce all the displays for us?"

"…Sure."

Haalfrin steps forward and veers to the right.

"Um, Haalfrin? The displays go in chronological order, starting from the left. If you start on the right side, you'll start at the latest displays instead of the earliest."

"Bah. Let's just do it in this order," Haalfrin insists. On the inside, he's thinking, 'Being in a museum about myself is like going backward in a story. It feels better to do it this way.'

'… Besides… I can sense a very powerful Spiritual Aura coming from the left side of the room, and it's making me uncomfortable. I'd rather go the other direction.'

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First thing's first, Haalfrin steps up and points at a flag of the old Alastan kingdom. Because kings are always mages, it's usually hundreds or thousands of years in between rulers. Thus, national flags are always adjusted whenever a ruler changes.

As such, the flag of the Alastan king Haalfrin knew for most of his life is different than King Kanus's. "This was King Gavril Alasta's flag. Can't say much about him; I only met him once."

He moves on to the next display.

"This is a stone model of the Alastan archmage's tower. I spent my mage apprenticeship years here. The tower itself looks fantastic, though they got the garden around it completely wrong. Miss Chuckna refused to plant fruit trees of any kind."

He shifts to the right again.

"This is census for the Barony of Borin covering the years that I lived there. Can't say much about the place. Other than getting my 3rd Name there, nothing special happened. Apparently, I was sent there because it was the quietest part of the kingdom, and the crown prince was trying to get me out of the way."

He moves to the next display.

"This is… who's staff is this again?" He peers down and reads the sign. "Oh. It was Querry's staff. I forgot that guy existed. Yeah. He was a 3rd Gate necromancer that I killed. The kingdom made a really big deal about it. It's been so long, so I can't remember why. It probably isn't important."

He shifts right.

"This… A spear…?" While he looks at it, he can feel a strong spiritual Aura from it. Feeling curious, he reaches forward and touches the shaft.

"Oh!" he exclaims aloud. As soon as he touched it, he felt a long, silver Spirit Thread snake out of his soul and wrap around the shaft. He then watches as Kaalhyme's Will slips into the spear and lets out a long, comfortable sigh.

"Ehem," Haalfrin coughs, "This is General Kaalhyme's spear. I defeated him in my first battle as a 1st gate mage. It's because of this incident that I got wrapped up with the Alastan royal family in the first place. It was a good fight."

Once Haalfrin steps toward the last display, his gaze lands on it, and he feels something inside him freeze.

In front of him is a perfect replica of traditional Kareen armor… but it's not the armor he's looking at; it's the sword resting beside the shield.

"That sword," Haalfrin says while pointing at it. "That sword isn't a replica, correct?"

"… I don't know? Why do you think so?" Mendri asks.

"It's because of the abundant Spirit Threads wrapped around it," Eli answers for him. "The Spiritual Aura is so thick that it's hard not to notice."

If it weren't for the thick silver and gold threads woven around the sword, he'd have thought it was a replica like everything else.

Of course, Haalfrin recognizes this sword.

Long ago, Haalfrin had been gifted a sword from his beloved Kareen chief, and he'd wielded that thing on all his raids for decades. Even when he grew too old to swing the thing around, he always kept it by his bed.

Then, when he opened his first Gate and regained his youth, he traipsed off to Alasta's latest war with his beloved weapon in hand.

…Unfortunately, he got in trouble with the authorities, and when they jailed him, they confiscated all of his equipment – including his prized Clan sword. Even when he was released from jail, they never returned it.

One can't underestimate how devastated he was when this happened – how wronged he felt when they took his sword away.

That blade was the last physical remnant of his Clan brothers, and he lost it…

'Well, I've moved on from my feelings for my clan a long time ago… but it feels unsettling finding this sword all the way over here,' he thinks.

"Aren't you going to take it?" Eli suddenly asks Haalfrin. "That sword is special to you, right?"

Haalfrin opens his mouth, then closes it. He's really not sure how he's supposed to answer this.

Finally, he turns away and tells Palandri, "Can you wrap this up and have it delivered to my room?"

Haalfrin would've taken it himself, but something in his Spirit buzzes strongly the closer he gets to it. Frankly, he has no idea what'll happen once he touches the thing.

Everyone can see how unsettled Haalfrin is right now, so none of them ask about this display. Instead, they all file out of the room and walk to the museum's exit in silence.

Once they're all out, Haalfrin goes back to his room alone with Kaalhyme's spear on his back and Dakka's ax on his hip.