Chapter 520 (1/2)
Chapter 520: The Star of Extinction
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
“Ancestor?” Roland blurted out, “What the hell?” He noticed everyone staring at him astonished. Roland cleared his throat and said, “No, I mean… who knows if it’s true.”
Then he felt his left shoulder being gently pinched.
“Your Majesty, it’s true, and I can prove it,” the Chief lowered his head and said. “But you are the only one who can see it.”
When the rest of the astrologers heard what the Chief said, they got up and left the room on their own. Roland thought for a moment and nodded to the witches and the guards, saying, “I’m fine. You guys go as well.”
He would still have Nightingale with him as a last line of defense in case of any emergency.
The Chief Astrologer, Dispersion Star, entered a chamber next to the hall. After a long time, he returned to the long table with an iron box in his hands. He respectfully placed it in front of Roland.
“What’s this?”
“It is the instruction left by your ancestor. He’d expected that this kind of thing would happen.”
“You mean closing the Astrological Station?” Roland asked surprised.
“Yes, Your Majesty, and such a thing did happen before,” the Chief said with a wry smile. “Although astrology and alchemy are both called the academics of sages, they are different. Alchemists can bring big profit to the kingdom while we have little output. Besides, the Astrology Association consumes many gold royals every year to purchase high-quality crystal and hire craftsmen. In order to prevent frugal future generations from dismissing the Astrology Association, your ancestor engraved the instruction and demanded that nobody interfere with it.”
Roland opened the box. Unexpectedly, what he saw was a stack of gold sheets. It seemed that the Wimbledon Family had been willing to spend heavily on preserving this instruction.
He laid out the gold sheets on the table and counted. There were eight of them. Each one was about 3 millimeters thick and 2 palms wide, heavy in his hands.
What the Chief Astrologer said just now was engraved on the first sheet. “Nobody should interfere with the members of the Astrological Station in looking at the night sky, where lay mysteries which can show the fate of the world.”
The latter part of the words caught Roland’s attention and he became lost in thought.
In fact, this association itself was very strange. If the astrology really worked, King Wimbledon III must not be replaced by the church without any preparation. Instead, he should kill the High Priest first. Just now even the Astrologer of Dispersion Star himself had mentioned the Astrological Station had ‘little output’… that meant he did not regard the divination as a product. Now he seemed helpless, totally different from the first time Roland had met him when he had looked like a church scoundrel.
As for the ancestor who had expended considerable funds and manpower to establish such an association and engraved instruction on the gold sheet at all cost to deter post-generations from closing it (for it had no practical use), Roland did not believe that he was simply an astrophile keen on studying things outside of the planet while his kingdom was so underdeveloped. Obviously, the astrologers must hold a task that had nothing to do with divination, but was very likely related to the latter part of the sentence.
He checked the other gold sheets again and again, only to find records of the basic star observation methods and the history of the Astrology Association. The last sheet even recorded the principle of enlarging crystal lenses and referred to a supreme commander. It seemed that the ancestor of the Wimbledon Family had also been Chief Astrologer of this association at the time. Roland recalled the Wimbledon Family history but could not think of anything related to the description on this sheet.