On a late autumn morning, Kalmar Street, with its modern European style, was bustling with traffic and pedestrians.
Armored carriages, like freight cars, carried goods.
Horse-drawn carriages, like taxis, carried passengers.
Private carriages, lavishly decorated and pulled by horses with solid-colored hair, resembled luxury cars.
Men and women hurried along the streets, rushing to work.
Housewives, clutching paper bags of food, returned home from their grocery shopping trips.
Newsboys, carrying cross-body bags, hawked their wares.
…
After breakfast, Felin opened the door to the Felin Appraisal Office and was greeted by this scene.
He had seen this scene for twenty years, yet it still felt unreal, like a dream.
Feilin held a secret: his soul wasn't from this world, but rather from a blue planet.
However, unlike many of his predecessors, he hadn't awakened his golden finger, at least not yet.
Despite lacking a golden finger, thanks to his precocious intelligence, he had successfully acquired a skill.
At the age of twenty, he had established his own jewelry and antiques appraisal shop, earning around four gold pounds a week.
One gold pound equaled twenty shillings, one shilling equaled twelve pence, and one penny was roughly equivalent to four dollars in his previous life.
All told, his monthly income was roughly equivalent to fifteen thousand yuan in his previous life.
In Constant City, not many could earn this much. While not as high as the upper middle class, it was still better than the lower middle class, firmly in the upper middle class.
Today, he wasn't wearing his usual formal attire, but was dressed in black. Black represents solemnity and mourning, and it's the dress code for funerals.
He put down his work to attend a funeral.
He bought a bouquet of white chrysanthemums at the florist and took a rented carriage to the cemetery outside the city.
An hour later, the carriage stopped at the cemetery outside the city.
A number of people dressed in black had gathered at one part of the cemetery, and Felin walked towards that area.
As he approached, Felin saw some familiar faces among the black-clad people, and these acquaintances recognized him.
However, both parties only nodded slightly, not speaking to each other, as the occasion wasn't appropriate.
At one part of the cemetery, a rectangular pit had been dug and a tombstone erected.
On the tombstone, the name and life story of the deceased were engraved.
The tomb's owner was Ray Romano, an archaeologist who dedicated his life to uncovering historical truths and made outstanding contributions to the archaeological community.
He trained many outstanding students and provided numerous outstanding talents for the archaeological community.
"Teacher..."
Felling muttered softly, the image of a skinny old man conjuring up in his mind.
He was one of Ray Romano's many students, and it was Ray Romano who taught him the art of jewelry and antique appraisal.
From his studies in jewelry and antique appraisal to the opening of his appraisal office, he had benefited from Ray Romano's guidance.
It was precisely because of Ray Romano's care that he was able to own his own shop at such a young age.
More and more people arrived, some of whom Felling knew, some of whom he didn't.
At ten o'clock, a plate-armored carriage slowly arrived, carrying a cloth-covered coffin within, within which lay Ray Romano's body.
Behind the carriage followed Ray Romano's family: his son, his daughter-in-law, and his grandchildren.
As for his wife, she had died long before him.
Everyone faced the coffin, where an elderly man of considerable status stood before it, reciting a eulogy.
"Mr. Ray Romano was a great archaeologist. During his lifetime, he dedicated his life to..."
If there were one major difference between this world and modern Europe in the previous life, it would be that in this world, there are no churches or priests, and all religious beliefs are prohibited.
Anyone who believed in any religion would be considered a heretic, wanted and arrested by the kingdom. Therefore, the eulogy was recited by an elder of high status, not a priest.
After the eulogy was read, the coffin was lowered into the grave, and everyone came forward one by one to lay white flowers as a token of their condolences.
The funeral concluded, and the crowd dispersed. Felin did not leave immediately, but stayed behind.
After most of the attendees had left, he approached Ray Romano's son, Josie Romano, and called out.
"Mr. Romano."
"You are my father's student, right? Is there anything wrong?"
Josie Romano's eyes were slightly red as he saw Felin approaching.
"Yes, I am Mr. Romano's student."
Felin hesitated, then asked.
"When I saw you a while ago, you were in good health. How could you suddenly...?"
"He contracted an illness and died during an archaeological excavation not long ago."
Josie Romano muttered in a low voice, feeling down.
"How could this happen... Didn't the teacher stop visiting the tomb? Why is he visiting again?"
Even after learning the cause of his teacher's death, Felin couldn't help but feel even more sad, because his teacher's death could have been avoided.
"It's a tomb from the Imperial period, of great archaeological value. My father didn't want to leave it to anyone else, so he went down there."
Josie Romano sighed.
"An Imperial period tomb?"
Felin was startled, beginning to understand why his teacher, who had stopped visiting the tomb, would go down there again.
In this era, the Kingdom of Heidelberg, the Kingdom of Urcano, and the Kingdom of Porto, where he lived, coexisted in a triumph, known as the Kingdom Period.
Even before that, about six hundred years ago, there were dozens of principalities, large and small, known as the Principality Period.
Even further back, about a thousand years ago, there was only one empire, known as the Imperial Period. It was an incredibly powerful empire, ruling over what are now the three great kingdoms, and its reign spanned thousands of years.
But even such a powerful nation suddenly collapsed one day.
Its fall has become one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in archaeology, a historical event that almost every archaeologist longs to delve into.
As an archaeologist, how could I resist exploring a tomb like this?
"Soon after entering the tomb, one of them began coughing up blood and soon died."
"Father and the others noticed something was wrong and immediately left the tomb."
"But even leaving immediately didn't save them."
"Like the previous person, they also began coughing up blood."
"Although we called in a pharmacist, he was helpless, and soon after, they all died."
Josie Romano said sadly.
"Did the teacher and the others come into contact with something poisonous in the tomb?"
Felin asked, frowning.
The long period of closure and decay in the tomb made it easy for highly toxic substances to grow.
Although live poultry were used during the tomb search, this couldn't be completely avoided.
Some toxic substances aren't gases at all; they could be moss on the walls or some invisible mold.
"I don't know."
Josie Romano shook her head sadly.
"My condolences!"
Felin comforted Josie Romano for a long moment before leaving.
It was late autumn, the sky gray and gloomy, the sun invisible. It was clearly daytime, but it felt like dusk.
"Wow, wow, wow..."
At this time of year, many of the trees in the cemetery had lost all their leaves.
Several black crows, a symbol of ominousness, perched on the bare branches, emitting shrill, even creepy cries.
Their blood-red eyes stared unblinkingly at the cemetery below.
Even though there was no one there, they seemed to see someone.
…
The next morning, after a day off, Felin returned to work.
As the name suggests, an appraiser's job involves appraising jewelry and antiques.
Mostly, they accept commissions and travel to the homes of wealthy merchants or nobles to perform professional appraisals of antique jewelry.
After leaving a wealthy merchant's house, Felin took a rented carriage back to the appraisal office.
"The teacher's residence is just up ahead..."
Passing a street, Felin looked toward a certain spot.
As Ray Romano's student, he had visited Ray Romano's residence before, and Ray Romano's residence was located on this street. "Hmm, what's going on? Why are there police officers outside the teacher's house?"
Several men in police uniforms appeared outside the teacher's house, and the teacher's son, Josie Romano, was talking to them.
His intuition told him that something bad might be happening.
As Ray Romano's student, he couldn't ignore it, and he quickly had the coachman stop the carriage in front of Ray Romano's house.
"Mr. Romano, what happened?"
Looking at Josie Romano, Felin asked.
"This morning, the gravekeeper discovered that my father's grave had been dug up and his body was missing."
Josie Romano said with a grim expression.