42: Chapter 42 Russell's Deal

That evening, after Klein finished checking the last old patrol log in the archives, he did not return to the dormitory immediately.

He walked along the corridor to the door of the Potion Room and knocked twice. Old Neil's voice came from inside: "Come in."

Lu Li was there too.

He was sitting opposite the workbench, with the copy of the briefing brought back from Backlund spread out in front of him.

On the workbench, besides the distiller and a row of copper bottles of holy water, the copper box was also placed there, and the silver snake emblem pendant inside was glowing with a dull luster under the phosphorescent stone.

"Regarding the transaction between Roselle and the Snake of Fate, I found something in the archives." Klein placed a newly retrieved old paper on the workbench.

The title of the paper was "A Preliminary Exploration of the Concept of 'Blood Debt' in Folk Contracts in the Northern Loen Region during the Late fourth epoch," signed by Elliott Hoy, a professor in the Department of History at Tingen University, who is now deceased.

The paper was published twenty years ago.

"Elliott Hoy was a member of the Hoy Family and also Welch's mentor. Welch discovered that Antigonus notebook while sorting through his posthumous manuscripts." Klein flipped to the last page of the paper, where a photo of a rubbing of a fourth epoch contract was attached.

Old Neil picked up the rubbing photo and examined it carefully under the phosphorescent stone lamp.

The contract clearly stated, "Using a finger as a pledge, using blood as a covenant," the signature in the debtor column was a snake-shaped ring, and the signature in the creditor column was a word in ancient Hermes script— "Gustav."

"The font of this contract?"

Old Neil pointed his finger at the debtor's signature column, "It was engraved by the same person as the inscription on the back of the pendant. The curvature of the hook at the end of the strokes is exactly the same. It is the handwriting of the Snake of Fate himself."

He put the rubbing photo on the table, picked up the pendant, turned it over to the back, and placed the two side by side for comparison.

The three people present could see it very clearly—the brushwork was consistent, the pattern of the depth of the engravings was consistent, and the uneven distribution of the letter spacing was also consistent.

"The words on the title page of that notebook forged by Old Eye also have this kind of brushwork. He said that the letter spacing on the original remnant page is completely uniform, but this unevenness only appears on the pendant and the forgery. The unevenness on the forgery was a mistake in his layout, but the unevenness on the pendant was intentional," Lu Li said.

Old Neil put the pendant back into the copper box and took out a notebook and a pencil from the drawer.

"Deliberately hiding information in letter spacing, this encryption method can be traced back to the court documents during the heyday of the Antigonus Family. Their scribes would use this method to embed hidden clauses into the text when transcribing important contracts, and only those who hold the corresponding decryption key can read the content of the hidden clauses."

"Emperor Roselle also used a similar layout encryption method in the diaries he wrote in his later years. When he was researching fourth epoch literature, he likely cracked the rules of this encryption method and then used it to write his private notes," Klein said.

Lu Li flipped through the old paper from beginning to end.

The paper itself discussed the concept of folk contracts in the northern Loen region, but the cited original fourth epoch literature fragments contained at least three paragraphs with uneven letter spacing.

Elliott Hoy clearly noticed this phenomenon—he scribbled a line of small text in pencil in the margin: "Spacing abnormal, suspected encryption, key unknown."

"Elliott knew there was encrypted information in these paragraphs, but he didn't have the key. Old Eye had the key, but he chose silence."

Lu Li closed the paper and placed it next to the copper box, "Old Eye remembered the brushwork of that line of text when he was appraising the original remnant page, and he went home and forged the entire notebook."

"But he didn't forge the encrypted information—the uneven letter spacing on his forgery was just a mistake in manual layout. Elliott, on the other hand, used this encrypted information as a bargaining chip and hid some research materials that could not be made public in the secret room of the Hoi Family."

"Roy King cleared out the secret room, but he didn't destroy the materials—he transferred the materials to Backlund and then entrusted Abraham to purchase potion materials on his behalf. After Roy King died, the client took his place."

"What exactly was the transaction between Roselle and the Snake of Fate?" Klein asked.

Lu Li picked up the pendant from the copper box and let the line of text on the back face the light.

"Roselle exchanged a finger for permission to walk out. The human body part corresponding to the Sequence 2 Angel of the Apprentice Pathway is the right index finger. He pledged his Door Pathway promotion qualification as collateral to the Snake of Fate. What he exchanged for was permission to travel from the fourth epoch to the fifth epoch. After he entered the fifth epoch, he kept collecting power, and in his diary in his later years, he repeatedly mentioned that something was watching him, and he was finally assassinated by the joint efforts of the churches—he had been trying to find a way to return to the fourth epoch to redeem his finger, but he failed. His finger is still in the hands of the Snake of Fate."

Old Neil was silent for a while. The distiller in the corner emitted a constant low hum.

Then he placed the pencil on the notebook and leaned back in his chair. "If this debt has not been cleared to this day, the other half of the token must still be somewhere. Roselle himself is dead, but his bloodline remains—Bernadette Gustav, the Queen Mystic. She inherited Roselle's bloodline and also inherited this debt. If she holds the other half of the token, she should know about the existence of this debt."

"She might not know. The things Roselle wrote after he was corrupted in his later years were all very chaotic; he might not have had time to tell his daughter everything. Moreover, Bernadette has always been active at sea and rarely lands. If she has never set foot in Tingen or Backlund in the past twenty years, then she is unlikely to be the client."

Klein thought for a moment. "That flattened silver brooch—the one on the list of physical evidence after Roy King died. The remarks column says 'Damaged, no spiritual residue.' If it was flattened to the point of being unrecognizable, Old Neil might have classified it as a brooch instead of a pendant when archiving it."

Old Neil immediately put down his enamel cup and rummaged through the drawer for a copy of the physical evidence list from the Hoi Family's secret room.

His finger slid down the list line by line and stopped at the forty-third item— "Silver snake-shaped brooch, damaged, no spiritual residue."

He drew a circle next to this line with a red pen. "When it was archived, it was crushed under a toppled display rack in the southeast corner of the secret room, and several cracks were smashed into its surface. I judged it to be an ordinary ornament at the time and didn't seal it separately. But if you are right, this brooch is likely the other half of the token. It was flattened in the secret room after Roy King died, which means it didn't have time to be transferred to the next holder."

"If that's the case, then where is it now?" Klein asked.

Old Neil put down the list.

"All the physical evidence from the secret room is stored in Area C of the old filing cabinets on the second basement level. I will go and take it out tomorrow for re-appraisal."

He placed the enamel cup on the workbench, picked up the pencil again, and made a mark on the list.

Lu Li stood up. "I will go with you tomorrow."

"If that brooch is really the other half of the token, there should also be encrypted engravings on its back that pair with the pendant. The encrypted information from both halves of the token, when put together, should be able to piece together the complete repayment conditions."