94 – The Diary's Last Page

“The grand duchy, year 119, February 15th.”

This was the date when he started the [Diary of Philip Sunprogeny].

“It is currently the year 151 of Sapphire Grand Duchy. In other words, this diary began 32 years ago?” Liszt used simple subtraction.

The Sapphire Grand Duchy didn't have a definite official calendar, yet it also didn't use the calendar of the Steel Ridge Kingdom. The concept of history was not popular in this world. In general, people had no idea about the events that took place in the past and thus could not learn from it.

As a result, the Sapphire Grand Duchy didn't even have a national day.

The Going-out-to-the-sea Festival and the New Year Festival were the most important festivals. At times, the national day would be celebrated on the Going-out-to-the-sea Festival, at other times, it would be celebrated on the New Year Festival, and at even other times, it would be celebrated at random dates. It all depended on the whim of the Sapphire Grand Duke. Liszt guessed that the concept of “patriotism” had yet to spread.

The ingenuity of the aristocratic system was reflected in the structure of enfeoffment, with the greatest implication being that the subject of my subject was not my subject and the master of my master was not my master.

For instance, Liszt's master was the count of the Coral Island and not the Sapphire Grand Duke.

Therefore, as a subject of the count, he was not required to care about the Sapphire Grand Duke and the Sapphire Family could not order him around. For him, the state was the Coral Island and not the Sapphire Grand Duchy. If he had to care about something than that would be the Coral Island and not the Sapphire Grand Duchy.

All n.o.bles were lords and even kings were just a bit greater lords.

Naturally, there was no extensive patriotic sentiment.

This was also the reason why the Going-out-to-the-sea Festival was only commemorated by the aristocracy, while the commoners basically didn't care about it. In the Flower Town, the celebration of Liszt's birthday was surely more important in the minds of the people than the Going-out-to-the-sea Festival – the sir lord granted me land, he is just like a parent to me, who is the grand duke, could he be eaten, steamed in broth or fried?

Interrupting his train of thought.

Liszt continued to browse the diary.

“It was a clear day, so I climbed trees to pluck fruit, for a total of ten skull fruits. Next, I felled three trees and dug out a foundation in preparations to build a house. Collating what my grandfather taught me, the Sunscript ‘X' stands for ‘I'. I am a progeny of the sun and my ancestors used the Sunscript.”

This ‘X' was a very distorted symbol.

It was very complex and looked like a little drawing of a person with wings joyfully dancing while holding some kind of implements in its hands.

“The symbol is a drawing. Which state would have such exotic symbols? I dare claim that even with one hundred years of learning, one would not be able to learn five hundred of such symbols!” Sighed Liszt. Of course, it was an exaggeration, but it was true nonetheless as the so-called ‘Sunscripts' were really complex.

There were quite a lot of pages of irrelevant day-today events – picking fruit, felling trees, building a house, trading some things, sighting some beats, and so on and so forth.

However, at the back of each page had a recording using Sunscripts.

Philip had specifically explained some of the symbols, which referred to some kind of cereal, a unicorn, a sunflower, and more, that were common for his ancestors. He had not seen them himself, but had heard his grandfather describe them.

“A Unicorn? Does such a legendary animal really exist?” Liszt expressed his doubt.

He even doubted the Sunscripts. The symbols were just a variety of little drawings of people, nothing more. He could not link them to written language. Perhaps Philip's grandfather had come up with them in his boredom, fooling his grandson.

The diary was thick.

And was comprised of boring day-to-day events on the Dodo Island as well as lessons about the Sunscripts nearly in its entirety.

Occasionally, he would recall his time outside the island, such as meeting the daughter of an aristocrat, a very kindhearted young gentlewoman who had taught the commoners how to read and wright. Philip was very proud, claiming that he was the fastest at learning, that the young gentlewoman regarded him highly, and that they were even on the verge of eloping.

But unfortunately, it was recorded on some page in the diary that their relation was discovered by the young gentlewoman's mother, who consequently wanted to kill him.

Thus, with the help of the young gentlewoman, Philip escaped from the island. He didn't mention which island it was, claiming that he didn't want to tarnish the reputation of the young gentlewoman.

Apart from this.

Occasionally, the diary mentioned Philip's ancestors – mainly stories told by his grandfather.

Such as, the ancestors raised two-headed mystical dragons, the ancestors once shot down the sun from the sky, the ancestors drew extraordinary power from wells, the ancestors resided in cities that grew on trees, the ancestors were friendly with wolves, bears, eagles, and tigers, and the ancestors had immersed themselves in music.

His grandfather called their ancestors – Children of the Sun.

“The question that arises is why would the Children of the Sun want to shoot down the sun? Wouldn't that be patricide?”

The story was very fragmentary as well as vague, the main reason being that Philip was very brief in his writing. He was worried about running out of ink and thick bast paper. The later into the diary it was the less he recorded, to the point of skipping a few days between recordings. At this point, he had already used half of the thick bast paper and had probably become aware that he could not record every single minor detail of his boring life in the diary.

“The t.i.tle of the book could be changed to the [Private Teaching Record of Sunscripts]. Liszt was ready to close the diary as he hadn't found anything that could help him open the message in a bottle; thinking about using brute force to smash the metallic bottle open to take a look at what was inside.

But when he was closing the book, as it was being closed from back to front, when the last page was finally being closed he suddenly discovered that the page was not blank from the corner of his eye.

He turned the page open.

The last page looked like an essay.

“My final words.”

“Before leaving, grandfather told me that if one day I were to find a golden bottle in the sea, that it would be the letter the ancestors wrote us. The ancestors grasped a special method of sending letters in the sea where a bottle filled with magic power would follow the guidance of bloodline as it crossed the sea. With a single drop of blood, the bottle could be opened and the letter could be taken out.”

“I'm not convinced. However, my descendants, if one day you find it, then remember to reply.”

This was the ‘testament' that Philip Sunprogeny had left to his descendants, which was why it was left at the end of the diary. When Liszt finished reading it, he became agitated.

The bottle that Philip mentioned was definitely the bottle that the fishermen picked up at the coast and was currently on his desk.

“Does this mean that the story of Philip and his grandfather is actually true, were they really descendants of some n.o.ble family in exile? Are the Sunscripts also true?”

He recalled what was stated in the previous mission – ‘the bottle can't be opened and the symbols can't be understood', that he required the help from a book!

There was no doubt that this was the book.

Picking up the message in a bottle, Liszt immediately exited the study.

“Master, are you going out?”

“I'm going to the leathersmith shop. Mr. Carter, you stay in the castle. Tell Jesse to come with me. Right, is Jesse back yet?” He recalled that he had sent Jesse to deliver the silver coins.

“Not yet, he should have gone to the town to watch the skits. As you know, young people always like to get in on the fun.”

“Forget it, don't look for him. I am going to the leathersmith shop with Philip and Xavier.” After saying that, he rushed out of the castle and, along with the two retainer knights, made a beeline for the leathersmith shop.