In the left corner of the hall, there was an item that was the least eye-catching out of all the items in the hall.
The hall was filled with Numens and precious Treasures like the Ancestral Staff of Darkness, but despite all that, Noel decided to show this item to the students second.
There was a similar concrete stand before the youngsters, which had the insignia of the Academy carved on it. On top of the plain white stand, there laid a small wooden box.
The square wooden box was only thirty centimeters wide and appeared to be made from ordinary wood that looked like it had already started rotting.
"What's inside the box?" Princess Elia inquired. If it was in a place like this, she was sure it couldn't be an ordinary item at all, no matter how mundane it appeared.
Noel let out a sigh, gazing at the old box with the same curiosity as the other students possessed. "Your guess is as good as mine."
"Even you don't know?" Another student asked, surprised. "Is it such a big secret that only the higher-ups know?"
"Heh, if only. The truth is that even they don't know what's in the box. Not even our Dean knows what's in the box," Noel explained. "That's why I called it a bizarre artifact."
"The box has no lock on it. There is no seal either. Despite all that, it's impossible to open it. Many people have tried throughout the years. Even the Heads of various Churches arrived here and attempted to open the box, but they couldn't."
"Can't you break it to see what's inside? Or is it too precious?"
"Break it? Heh, you think no one tried? The box is supposed to be an ordinary box. We have tested it. However, despite all that, it's impossible to break it. The wooden box might look weak, but even the strongest have failed to leave a scratch on the box. All the rotten marks and scratches you see on the box?"
" They have been there ever since the box was first discovered. Even the strongest of attacks couldn't destroy the box."
There was not a single teacher in the academy who wasn't curious to see just what secrets were inside the box. Unfortunately, they had no way. This was a treasure that they were never going to find out about.
"Could it be that the box is a Numen? If it's a normal box, it should've been destroyed." Caen theorized. "Maybe there is nothing inside at all?"
"As I said before, that's not the case." Noel rejected the notion. "We have tested the box through our Numens. It's not a Numen. That makes us believe that what makes the box so resistant is whatever is inside the box. That's what protects this wooden box and also makes it impossible to be opened."
"If there is a Numen, it's not the box, but what's inside the box," he further explained. "Too bad we will never find what's there."
His answer left many unsatisfied, but there was nothing he could do. If there were a way to open the box, he would've been the first in line to do it. Unfortunately, they had exhausted all their options. They had used all the methods they could to open the box, only to fail.
The mysterious box was no more than a showpiece... A showpiece that highlighted just how little everyone knew about this world. It was a showpiece that basked in the curiosity of those around it. It was the biggest mystery that was impossible to be solved.
"Anyway, moving on..." Noel moved over to another stand, walking away from the wooden box in the glass shell.
Lelin and Gabriel were still left behind, gazing at the wooden box.
This was it... Gabriel knew that this was what his ring wanted. It was as if his ring was pleading for him to snatch the box and leave.
Unfortunately, the timing didn't support him. Now he had three things that he wanted to steal, but it wasn't the time yet.
He turned around unwillingly and joined the group. The ring seemed to resist him moving away from the wooden box, but he ignored the resistance. The ring was like a pet that knew what it wanted but didn't consider the circumstances or the surroundings. He couldn't be that ignorant.
Gabriel joined the group again. There was one more thing he needed to locate... The Eye of Osiris.
Lelin also took a long breath, observing the guards around him. His face looked really impatient, but he also controlled himself, joining the group. It appeared as if both the youngsters were after the same thing.
The group moved over to the next artifact, which was another Numen. It was a small piece of paper that was lying on the stand, protected by the glass.
"The Letter of Yoin," Noel explained.
The stand for this piece of paper was much taller than the other stands, making sure that the paper laid flat on the eye level of the youngsters.
"I'm sure you're wondering why the stand is so tall with this. That's because it's said to be a Cursed Numen. We can't afford to let any of you make a mistake with this."
"A Cursed Numen?" This was the first time many had heard that terminology. The youngsters looked at each other in confusion.
"Yeah. It's a cursed artifact. Even though it's just a letter written by a person, the words on the letter contain the anger, rage, and hatred of someone really special. I can't tell you who it is or why he wrote what he did. I can only tell you a little about the letter."
Even as Noel talked, he avoided looking at the piece of paper even though he didn't need to. The glass was already tinted to some extent where only the silhouette of the paper could be seen but not the content.
"Apparently, the letter only contains three lines. However, whoever reads even one line, dies. In other words, it's a letter that can kill you. That's why it's called a cursed Numen; that is too dangerous. The letter already took many lives before it was secured."
"What is in the three lines?" A youngster asked. Even though he was intimidated by what he heard in the letter, he was also curious about what was written in the letter.
"Young one, that curiosity is what killed many people. Even some teachers at the academy died in the past trying to read the letter. And as you may know, the dead don't talk... Still, there are a few words that we know…."
