In a sense, it was good that Hayate had been the one to point out this possibility of a Rare Skill or some other Belkan spell being responsible for creating a strong enough effect to keep Olivie in a frozen state for almost a century. That sounded a bit more plausible. Yuuno was certain that if it had been Chrono who had pointed that out, then it was certain that the Admiral would definitely never let him live it down.
But in any case, his mood had been a bit soured from hearing that. His research goals would have to be adjusted in order to get to the bottom of this case. He needed to think about this for a bit. Perhaps a nice stroll through the city, away from the office, would help jog his thinking cap.
So he would first have to start with checking into how well Knight Armour holds up against a deep freezing effect. Naturally, they should be strong enough to allow Knights to operate in cold weather conditions. Next, he would have to dig deep into his archives and see if there were any Belkan spells or Rare Skills that could satisfy the conditions of keeping someone in suspended animation for a long period of time. He would also need to look into whether there were any natural phenomena that could contribute to creating that effect. But what else should he be considering?
“Excuse me? Are you Yuuno Scrya?”
His train of thought stopped when he heard an unfamiliar female voice call out to him. After taking a moment to trace the source, he saw a young woman dressed in a luxurious blue dress. She had blonde hair that had been tied up with blue ribbons on the sides and green eyes. On her right was a young man dressed in an evening tail coat matched with formal striped trousers and a black long tie. Considering their overall appearance, the young lady was obviously someone wealthy since she had a butler as her companion.
‘Hm… a possible new patron for archaeological research?’ It’s certainly a possibility. His work often generated considerable attention among the public and it wasn’t the first time he had been approached by interested and rich sponsors. “Yes, that’s me. Is there something I can help you with?”
The young lady did look delighted on getting his identity correct. “Actually, there is. I was wondering if you had a chance to look at the request I submitted to your research department last week.”
“Sorry but you will have to be a bit more specific. My research department receives several requests on a regular basis,” replied the Librarian.
“I had sent in a small journal dating from the Belkan era which belongs to my ancestor, the Thunder Emperor Dahlgrün.”
“Thunder Emperor…?” He couldn’t remember off the top of his head of a Belkan historical figure with that title.
This caused the young lady to get a little flustered. “Well, I understand that he isn’t as well known in the history books like the Kaiser, the Hegemon or the Flame King but I can assure you that he played an important role in the Ancient Belkan political landscape! Once the journal’s authenticity has been verified, the writings can get translated which will undoubtedly cause the history books to be rewritten and…!”
“Please compose yourself, my Lady,” said the butler.
“Right… thank you, Edgar.”
Yuuno took a moment to understand what she had just said. “So let me get this straight, Miss…”
“Victoria Dahlgrün.”
“Basically the artifact you had submitted to us contains writings from your ancestor himself, Miss Victoria. And you wish for us to verify the journal’s age and decipher the contents?”
She nodded once. “Yes. The tale of my ancestor had never been told and I intend to change that with the journal and have the history books rewritten. Now have you been able to perform a complete analysis on it?”
“It’s not that simple, madam,” replied Yuuno. “Verifying the authenticity and the age of an artifact takes quite a bit of time. Normally, the average turnaround time is two weeks since the sample has to be submitted to the lab for thermoluminescence dating and…”
Both Victoria and Edgar shared a glance when the other man just trailed off. “What is it?”
‘… that’s the ticket! Radiocarbon dating tests on her cellular material can verify the passage of time at the molecular level!’ It shouldn’t be too hard to get her to lend a few tissue samples for analysis. Then the trick would be to determine if at any point in time, her cellular structure had experienced a stop in biological activity due to the cryopreservation effect. Of course, that field was far from his level of expertise so he would need to dig into his network and gather more research but as this was a step in a positive direction, he felt a lot better than he did earlier.
He needed to get back to the office and start making some calls…!
“Um, Mr. Scrya? Where are you going?”
Victoria’s concerned tone snapped him back to reality just as he started to move. “Oh, right! What I can do is I can put a higher priority on getting a proper analysis done on the item that you had submitted. It’ll be my way of saying thanks!”
“… you’re welcome?” It was all she could say really as the other man had already started running back to his workplace.
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(Posted Thu, 05 Apr 2012 03:14)
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