The humiliation

"What..."

"I knew it!"

"What!..."

"I knew it..."

"WHAT!"

"I KNEW IT!"

"No opinion..."

The room was full with surprises and opinion for that revelation. I was cheap? I could not accept this. The whole massive kingdom fell for my sake. I would not just believe that I was worthless just because a random person said so.

"Are you kidding me! This necklace was literally being worshipped. It's a national treasure. Even if its ingredients are outdated, it can be still counted as the relic of the past. And the longer the artifacts are, the more expensive they will become with time. Is there any law in this empire that I still don't know of when I was absent."

Prothana said while clenching his fist.

"Ah... I might have said it out loud in rush here. You see when I said it was cheap, I am not trying to disvalue the necklace. No no... I was just a bit overwhelmed by seeing how many generic traits of typical old jewellery can be found."

"What do you mean by... generic?"

"You see... you are not the only one who had been to multiple countries and encountered with multiple culture. One of my tasks also involved that I came in contact with many nations' best products they could offer. And I must say, there are at least a hundred ancients artifacts that I can named which have far better quality."

"IMPOSSIBLE!"

This word 'impossible' didn't come out from Prothana's mouth nor the elders nor any of the bystanders. It was my own voice which I shouted loudly in my mind, so much that it can be my own first original voice. He said at least a hundred... How was I supposed to be proud of myself anymore after this. But then I remembered, I was made with extraordinary materials out of this world. Even if he bluffed nonsense, I knew myself that I could be still superior.

"Oh yeah...? Well I'm not gonna wait here letting you list all of the hundred artifacts you know. So to make it quick, tell me and prove it to me about just one piece of ancient treasure that you can confidently say which is better than the one in my hand."

Prothana requested a challenge.

"Then that is right just in time to show what a better necklace would look like. Bring it in!"

Malkos called his men outside. A while later, four men carrying a small chest carefully walked into the scene. 

"Is it that heavy... it's just a small chest."

"The chest is not heavy. What is heavy is the weight that will come down crushing you and all of you people's pride and ego after. Behold and be blind!"

Malkos reached his hand onto the chest's lid slightly a little bit. What came out from it could be mistaken as daylight. Did he butchered the real god and put his head in the chest? The light was too bright. Brighter than that one shiny night when I was created.

"MY EYES!"

"ARE WE ENTERING THE HEAVENS!"

"ITS SO BRIGHT!"

"THE HORRORS! OH... THE HORRORS!"

"INCOMPREHNSIBLE!"

"WHAT ARE WE WITNESSING!!!"

"AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

The light of the artifact was not only blinding but the shrieking and whistling sounds of the brightness could be heard. Malkos, with his two hands, while shutting his eyes tightly. He raised it up in the air, holding its chain from above.

"THIS IS THE TRANSPARENT TITAN! IT WENT BACK TO AT LEAST FIVE THOUSAND YEARS! THE LEGENDS SAID THIS WAS MOLDED FROM THE MELTED DEVINE SHRINES THEMSELVES! I DON'T KNOW HOW WOULD THAT WORK, BUT I WOULD STILL DEFINITELY BELIEVE IT! AT LEAST TEN NATIONS FOUGHT AND DESTROYED TO OBTAIN THE TITAN!"

He was right. This could crush anyone's ego. I lost. I was no match for something such as that. Prothana was also mesmerized by the superior necklace that he forgot he was holding me and dropped me on the ground. The smug face gemologist put the 'Titan' back into the chest and took a deep breath from exhaustion of displaying such significant object.

"Ladies and gentlemen... I want to hear you all's opinion for comparison."

Malkos turned his face back to the crowd and asked.

"MARVELOUS!"

"EXCELLENT!"

"OUTSTANDING!"

"GROUNDBREAKING!"

"UNMATCH!"

"BETTER THAN EVERYTHING!"

"FUCK ALL OPINION AFTER!"

"What about you, greatest envoy, have you changed your view yet?"

When Malkos asked, the stunned Prothana came into sense and picked me up of the ground and stared.

"Wait... I'm not even a rival gemologist. My job isn't to compete with you. I didn't even went back to Aladima just for the necklace. If you're gonna decide which one is better, take it and do it yourself. If you don't like it, throw it away. I'm outta here. I'm having a bad day with you geezers, now this... Fuck that!"

After ranting, Prothana waved at everyone without even looking and dipped. People in building were just standing awkwardly.

"So malkos... you've heard of our ambassador. Are you gonna throw it away because it has now proven to be lesser?"

"Dear wise old elders... just because one thing is inferior, doesn't mean we should abandoned it. I already said it before that this artifact is not worthless. It was still made of valuable materials and it can worth thousands of golds at least. I would keep it."

"Where and till when?"

"Somewhere in secret even you shouldn't know of course. Somewhere private until the better one is destroyed or lost. May I take my leave now?"

"You may..."

Malkos exited the building and descended the stairs. He looked at the sun and it was setting, ready for the nightime. Instead of returning to the city, he turned toward the nearby woods. After venturing deep into the forest, we discovered a cave. With a torch in hand, Malkos entered the cave, which sloped downward, leading further underground with each step he took. The cave was revealed to be a tunnel with many varying paths. 

He chosed the one path which went upward leading us onto the surface again. The tunnels were so long that when we got back up, the sun was already rising. We came out from the hole under a cliff. We saw a small stream near it. There, a lone boat awaits without docks. Using the boat, he rowed along the stream then into the ocean. After rowing far enough from the land till it had disappeared, he put me in the chest and dropped me into the ocean.

Was this the private place he talked about? This was just an abandonment. Would he still come and salvage me from the underwater abyss. I did know nothing. All I knew was I would be here for a very long, long... time.