Chapter 1002 Anne de Vendôme
——This can be said to be a pleasant surprise.
Aiwass never thought that he would find out the true identity of his biological mother so easily...
Anne de Vendôme.
This should be the real name of Aiwas's mother before she got married.
If Anne were still alive, she would probably be in her forties now.
Yassen was now in his forties... and Angelique was eight years older than Yassen, which meant she was probably at least fifty. She was probably Anne's sister, and therefore Aiwass's aunt.
The Duke of Vendôme was now an old man. Aiwass had no idea how old he was... and since Angelique was the second daughter, he must be at least seventy years old.
But the Abigail that Aiwas saw now looked only about seventeen or eighteen years old!
"Your Excellency the Duke...how many children do you have?"
Aiwass couldn't help but ask, "Generally speaking, shouldn't the fertility of higher-level transcendents be weakened?"
"Yes, but the Duke himself is only at the fourth level, so the weakening isn't too great. And the blessing of the Path of Love allows him to have many children... He can afford to raise them anyway."
Yassen nodded. "The Duke had seventeen children. My wife, Angelique, was the second... and the Duke's eldest son died of illness. Because of this, I was able to become the son-in-law of the Vendôme family... The old Duke wanted Angelique to inherit the family."
"The Duchess?"
"Well, we have quite a few Duchesses in Iris. This is different from Avalon and Star Antimony."
"What about Abigail? Which one is she?"
"The youngest one. She's only sixteen years old and still in middle school. That's probably why Mia dreamed about her."
In other words, Abigail should be the Duke's youngest daughter... Is she Edwards's aunt?
Although she is my aunt in terms of generation, she is even younger than Aiwass...
Anne was probably somewhere between Angelique and Abigail, and it was unknown how many daughters she was. It was unexpected that the Duke of Vendôme had so many children; it was truly rare for a supernatural family.
Thinking of this, Aiwass's expression became a little subtle.
From this perspective... Arsene is actually Aiwass's uncle?
Thinking of this, Aiwass recalled the contents of the letter that Sherlock sent him, and suddenly understood:
While investigating this matter, I stumbled upon a secret you'd never imagine, one that's deeply relevant to you. Please forgive my suspense, as I desperately want to witness the surprise and curiosity on the face of the respected God Slayer—
Although Shylock was under house arrest in the Duke of Vendôme's mansion, he had undoubtedly met Arsène's wife, Angelique de Vendôme, or her other sisters. There was even a good chance that he had seen portraits of the "Vendômes," perhaps including Anne de Vendôme.
During the promotion ceremony that Sherlock first experienced with Aiwass and Isabelle, he, who played the role of a newsboy, had already seen Anne Alexandre, played by Isabelle. In other words, he actually knew what Anne de Vendôme looked like.
With Sherlock's intelligence, he should have known the origins of Aiwass's mother the moment he met the other members of the Duke of Vendôme's family. This was also a "hint" he wrote in the letter but did not explicitly state.
Because Shylock couldn't keep it a secret—when Aiwass arrived near the Duke of Vendôme's residence, he would undoubtedly know about this. This was a fact that could not be hidden. However, he didn't mention this in the letter, which actually implied that his current situation was not convenient for him to talk about it.
If Aiwass had not met Arsene and did not know that Sherlock was imprisoned in the dream world... at least this method could allow Aiwass to realize that Sherlock was in a state where he could not communicate normally when he arrived at the Duke of Vendôme's Palace at the latest.
Fortunately, he didn't use his true appearance to interact with Yassen, otherwise he would have instantly seen through Aiwass's true identity. This platinum hair was simply too iconic... especially since he had so much contact with the Vendôme family.
But thinking of this, Aiwass keenly realized a problem:
Why are Abigail and Anne so alike?
If the old duke had multiple wives, the children would have looked very different from each other... but if he had only one wife, she would have been in menopause and should not have given birth to Abigail.
Thinking of this, Aiwass asked, "How many wives does the old duke have? Are they related by blood?"
"...How do you know? There have been three, but..."
Yasen was a little surprised at first, and his expression became a little subtle. "They do have some collateral blood relationship - because they are all from the Sarzo family, and they are more than ten years apart. The second one is the niece of the first one, and the third one is the niece of the second one. There are two generations in between.
"However, for a transcendent on the path of love, this isn't considered excessive... at least it's not his own daughter. For the Iris nobility, this isn't a taboo. Rather, it's a fashion. It's just that the old man's preference for women from the Sarzo family is puzzling."
……wrong.
Aiwass narrowed his eyes slightly.
This sounded a bit unusual. Aiwass felt it was more like a ritual than a special XP.
Because the relationships between the old duke's three wives were so regular. This regular distribution, like a test question, was most likely part of some kind of ritual in this world.
Speaking of which, what exactly does the thing he asked Sherlock to investigate mean...
Aiwass suddenly fell silent and fell into deep thought.
"What's the matter, Aiwass?"
Seeing Aiwass didn't respond for a long time, Yasen was a little confused: "Are you still thinking about Abi?"
“…I guess so.”
Aiwass said vaguely.
He asked Yasen the question that concerned him most: "Does the Duke have a daughter...who has disappeared?"
"What are some specifics?"
"For example, he once went abroad to study, and then stayed in Avalon and didn't come back... something like that."
Aiwass stared at Yasen and asked.
Yasin didn't respond immediately.
He touched his chin and thought seriously for a while, but did not give an answer. This made Aiwass feel depressed.
"What's her age?"
Yasen asked, "About how old is it?"
"He should be... in his forties now."
Aiwass simply said, "Her name is Annie."
"—Anne de Vendôme? Ah, there is such a person."
Yasen said her name directly, and Aiwass's heart moved slightly.
But Yasen's next words chilled Aiwass to the bone: "But she didn't stay in Avalon. She's always been at home. Maybe she went abroad before, but she didn't stay."
……What?
"Is she married?"
Aiwass asked.
"No, she has never married. But it is said that she has someone she likes, so father did not force her."
Yassen smiled. "After all, the Vendôme family is so prosperous...there's no need for marriage alliances with other families. We can just support a free man and raise him until he dies.
"And Miss Anne isn't exactly a layabout—she's a very good opera singer, but now she's old and her voice is failing, so she stays at home... Do you know her? No wonder you're so interested in Abby; they do look alike."
"…Maybe. I'm not sure."
Aiwass spoke slowly.
After listening to Yasen's narration, Aiwass had roughly guessed the truth -
—It’s the Swamp Man.
This also explains why the Duke's daughter was able to stay in Avalon and even died in Avalon without causing any diplomatic pressure; originally, Aiwass thought that the Duke's family had too many children, but now it seems... it was because "Anne" had gone back!
The Duke of Vendôme had no idea that he had a daughter left in Avalon!
But...was it the Swamp Man who stayed behind, or the one who went back?
Judging from her behavior, she is obviously aware of the existence of "another Anne". She is not married and has someone she likes... This is referring to Aiwass's father. In other words, the creation time of this swamp man should be after she fell in love with Aiwass's father.
For a moment, Aiwass was eager to return to the material world and go to the Duke's Mansion to meet this "mother's counterpart".
But he still suppressed his chaotic emotions and decided to rescue Sherlock first.
However, he changed his attitude towards sightseeing and became much more serious:
"--Let's not talk about that for now. Let's enter the dream world first."
Aiwass walked quickly to the front and generously shared precious knowledge of the dream world with Yasen: "To enter the Kingdom of Shadows, you need to pass through the gaps between the folds of shadows."
After all, Arsen and himself are more or less related - although not by blood, he is still a real "relative" of Aiwass.
"This gap must be at least thirty degrees, but no more than one hundred and twenty degrees. And each step must deviate at least one degree. Generally speaking, this can only be reached by getting lost in a dim forest... But there is such a place in school—it's a spiral staircase."
As he spoke, Aiwass took Yasen to a clock tower on campus.
He searched several places... and then found that the stairs in the clock tower here happened to be spiral.
He led Yasen up the stairs, advising him, "Don't try to remember how many steps there are, or how many you've taken. Dreams are illusory and subjective... Use your imagination to override the dreamer's imagination. We need to walk down this staircase a total of 3,600 degrees, or ten turns—I know this clock tower doesn't have a tenth floor, but that won't stop us from going down. Do you understand? Don't worry too much about 'common sense', but focus on your imagination..."
"If that doesn't work, just blindfold you."
This is like "Platform 9 3/4", common sense tells us there is no such gap - just like there are no ten floors in this staircase.
In the forest, the condition that can be triggered by "getting lost ten times in a row and returning to the original place ten times" can be achieved more conveniently and stably by going down the stairs.
“…I’ll try my best.”
Yasen spoke seriously, a little nervously. Apparently, Aiwass's request was a bit too much for him—to forget, even ignore, the "ground on the first floor" and force himself to continue down...
"Don't be too nervous, and don't count how many degrees you walk. Just listen to my footsteps, and when I walk, you walk."
Aiwass consoled.
As they spoke, they had already reached the top of the bell tower, closing all the doors and windows on the way, leaving the place in complete darkness.
He searched everywhere and simply tore a hole in his hat, turned it into an eye strap, and tied it on Yasen's eyes.
As for Aiwass—he doesn't need that kind of tool.
Yasen held his shoulder, while Aiwass walked in front. They walked down step by step in the dim environment.
As expected.
As long as Aiwass kept going down, the spiral staircase would extend infinitely. It had already exceeded the length when Aiwass went up, but it showed no sign of stopping...
The further he went down, the darker it became. He couldn't count how many steps he had taken, but after at least six hundred steps it was already too dark to see anything.
Suddenly, Aiwass's feet touched flat ground.
He paused, took a step forward, and asked Yasen to come down as well.
Aiwass stopped Yasen who wanted to go down and untied his blindfold.
Yasen subconsciously took a step back, only to find that there was no staircase behind him.
Suddenly, a bolt of thunder struck, illuminating the gloomy black-gray sky.
As the lightning gradually dimmed, they keenly scanned everything around them.
There was neither sun nor moon in the sky, and dark clouds were always rolling across the dark grey sky. Only during thunder could the outlines of the world be vaguely discerned.
They were in the middle of a vast black and gray wasteland.
There is no village in front and no shop behind.
The good news is that there are no threatening phantoms around.
The bad news is, they don't even know which direction to go.
"We're here," Aiwass said uncertainly, looking around. "This should be the Land of Shadows."
"……should?"
Yasen was stunned: "You... haven't you been to the dream world?"
"I've never been here, but I think I know someone here... I'll call them and ask."
Aiwass said this and cancelled his mirror transformation—he wanted to use the prayer spell, but this body of the Moon Child was not suitable.
In the split second before the light disappeared, Yasen saw Aiwas's face clearly.
At that moment, his eyes suddenly widened.
Update completed! Please give me a monthly ticket!
I'm still taking a break. There are only a few days left this month. Anyway, I'm taking a leave at the end of this month, so I'm almost perfect, so I might as well take a couple more days off! When I'm fully present again next month, I'll resume updating twice a week...
Tomorrow’s update may also be in the early morning, but I kind of want to take a day off for the last day…we’ll talk about it then.
(End of this chapter)
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