552 King Siegfried Braveheart's Message
Along with the secrets of Astoria's birth were her parents' last messages to her. Their love, dreams, and hope could be clearly sensed in them.
Vaan glanced at Astoria.
At that moment, she was already immersed in deciphering the hidden text in her father's diary. He could guess that she would continue deciphering the hidden text even after he passed the complete information to her.
After all, no matter how wise King Siegfried was, a lot of time and thought must have been invested in producing the hidden information.
Considering what he had just learned from King Siegfried's information, he wouldn't be surprised if the person had started recording the hidden information right after Astoria's birth.
Although Astoria wouldn't realize that until later, Vaan was certain she would still want to solve the puzzle her father made for her, even after she knew the answer.
This was something Vaan could understand but couldn't relate to.
After all, in his reasonable opinion, King Siegfried created the puzzle with the intent to pass the hidden information to Astoria; it didn't matter how she unraveled the puzzle as long as she received the hidden information as he intended.
Thus, the act of solving something that had already been solved by someone else was meaningless.
But, of course, only he saw it as meaningless.
To Astoria, the puzzled diary would be like a family heirloom her father left behind for her. Naturally, she would treasure it; the act of unraveling it on her own was to show that. Thus, there would be meaning.
Nevertheless, Vaan was also certain what Astoria wanted the most presently was to learn the information her father left behind for her.
As such, he walked outside the study room and signaled a palace servant to bring him some blank pieces of paper and an ink pen for writing on them.
Afterward, Vaan placed the paper against a flat wall and wrote down the completed version of the hidden text.
"This is...?"
Astoria glanced at the text-filled pieces of paper Vaan placed on the desk in front of her. She picked them up and started reading.
"The information left behind by your father. I deciphered it and wrote everything down for you," Vaan casually answered.
However, Astoria no longer heard him.
She already knew what it was the moment she started reading. As such, the deciphered information caught her full attention. She was even more absorbed in her reading than when she was trying to decipher the text.
The more she read, the more absorbed she was in reading.
Vaan watched Astoria's expression change from calm to serious, shocked, and finally, heart-aching sadness. Tears filled her eyes and dripped onto the paper, blurring the inked words.
Seeing her like that, Vaan knew Astoria had finished reading the third part of the information regarding her birth.
It was recorded that Astoria's father and mother both performed a blood transfusion on her multiple times. They attempted to strengthen Astoria's Golden Dragon Bloodline by giving up their own.
The Braveheart and Elderwatch families figured that if they could accumulate the thinned-out Golden Dragon Bloodline into one person, the person would have a higher chance of awakening the Golden Dragon Bloodline and reviving the glory of the past.
However, the Golden Dragon Bloodline was so thin that no one could tell they still possessed the Golden Dragon Bloodline. As such, no one from the Braveheart and Elderwatch families was willing to invest their blood essences in what could be a futile attempt.
After all, the blood transfusion would harm their vitality and shorten their lifespans.
Furthermore, no one was willing to make the sacrifice for a newborn baby that wasn't even a male heir. Astoria showed no outstanding qualities when she was born; they had no reason to choose her.
As such, only Astoria's father and mother performed the blood transfusion on her alone.
They sacrificed much more of their blood essences to increase Astoria's chances of awakening the bloodline in the future. As a result of their actions, they were more vulnerable to sickness and destined for short lives.
----
"Hello, my little princess."
"By the time you read this message, we will most likely no longer be around. I know you wouldn't have agreed with what we have done, but we both strongly believed it was the best for you and the Blessed Golden Dragon Tribe. Forgive us for being selfish and leaving you early, but know that you are loved and always will be."
"We leave our hopes and dreams with you and will watch over you from the stars, always. Regardless of what others say and think, remember that you are our pride and joy. Be careful of the enemies in the dark around you, and live well, my precious."
- Siegfried Braveheart.
Those were the final words left by King Siegfried Braveheart.
Astoria was affected by the emotional impact of her father's words and couldn't control her tears. They continued flowing down her cheeks and dripped onto the paper she held.
Topaz was also affected by Astoria's mood, and her grumpy heart softened. She left Vaan's head for Astoria's, rubbing it comfortingly.
"Kyu, kyuu..."
Topaz asked Astoria not to cry and said everything was going to be okay despite being clueless as to why she was crying.
Astoria couldn't help but laugh a little at Topaz's innocent act despite her running tears.
Meanwhile, Vaan exited the study room and left the two alone. Since Topaz already acted, he didn't need to join. He figured it was best for Astoria to get over it alone rather than lean on his shoulders.
He didn't want his women to become overly dependent on him.
Vaan closed the door on his way out.
While waiting outside, he thought a lot about King Siegfried's final message. The enemies mentioned most likely referred to the advanced civilization that held the Golden Dragon Pangea captive on the planet.
Although there didn't seem to be anything left of the advanced civilization besides ruins on the moon and in the asteroid field, it had always bugged him.
The battle may have ended, but perhaps the war wasn't over.
If the advanced civilization's home planets and the moon colony were destroyed, where would their survivors flee?
In fact, the answer was quite obvious - planet Pangea.
If the advanced civilization's survivors couldn't flee the star system, they could only retreat to planet Pangea and hide in it.
However, there was an obvious flaw with this assumption.
If the Golden Dragon Pangea's background was the cause of the advanced civilization's destruction, there was no way her people 'would give the advanced civilization's survivors a chance to thrive again.
Furthermore, they wouldn't leave Golden Dragon Pangea's body on such a desolate water planet to rot away without a good reason.
After all, it wasn't a good grave.
In other words, the possibility of the advanced civilization being destroyed by a different force was higher.
Vaan recalled Empyrean Scarletsea's story and couldn't help but wonder if the unknown invaders of her Divine Realm were also responsible for the state of the moon and asteroid field.
But if that was the case, why was planet Pangea spared?
Was it because there was no spirit energy to advance the civilization? Were they spared because Pangea's people could not advance their civilizations beyond a certain level? They were too weak, so the foreign invaders didn't care?
There was too little information for Vaan to draw a definite conclusion.
In fact, he couldn't even fully trust the accuracy of the story regarding the Golden Dragon Pangea and the Blessed Golden Dragon Tribe.
He didn't doubt Astoria told him the truth, but only according to what she learned. He could even trust the person who told her the story. But the further back history went, the less he trusted.
The scariest part of history was that one could never know if what they heard about it was the real events during such times. Whoever ruled the world could rewrite history according to their preferences, painting black to white or white to black.
Only those who lived through such times would actually know what happened.
As far as Vaan could guess, he wouldn't even be surprised if the advanced civilization that held Golden Dragon Pangea captive belonged to humans. After all, humans could have fled to Pangea and saw her blood essence as a valuable resource for rebuilding their civilization.
As such, they could have claimed themselves as Golden Dragon Pangea's descendants and mixed in with the primitive natives of that era or drove them to extinction.
Nevertheless, Vaan didn't care about right and wrong. It had nothing to do with him. Only his survival mattered. No one would care about right or wrong in the face of life or death.
In fact, there was no right or wrong when it concerned one's survival. What mattered was who would die and who could live.
Of the two, Vaan definitely wanted to be part of the latter.
A few hours later, Astoria finished calming down and called Vaan back inside to discuss matters regarding the information they had uncovered.
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