Aiwass never expected that he would learn the true identity of his biological mother so easily...
Anne de Vendôme.
This should be Aiwas's mother's real name before she got married.
If Anne were still alive, she would probably be in her forties now.
Yassen is almost in his forties now... and Angélique is eight years older than Assem, which means she should be at least close to fifty. She should be Anne's sister, that is, Aiwass's
aunt.
Today's Duke Vendôme is an old man. Aiwass doesn't know how old he is... and since Angélique is the second daughter, he should be at least seventy years old.
But the Abigail Aiwass saw now looked only about seventeen or eighteen years old!
"Your Majesty the Duke...how many children does he have?"
Aiwass couldn't help but ask: "Generally speaking, shouldn't the fertility of high-level transcendent beings be weakened?"
"Yes, but the Duke himself is only at the fourth energy level, and the weakening is not too strong. 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 has a total of seventeen children. My wife Angélique is the second...and the Duke's eldest son has died of illness. Because of this, I can become a member of the Vendôme family.
The old Duke wants Angélique to inherit the family."
"Duchess?"
"Well, we, Iris, have quite a few duchesses. This is different from Avalon and Star Antimony."
"What about Abigail? Which number is she?"
"The youngest one. She is only sixteen years old this year and is still in middle school. That's probably why Mia dreams about her."
In other words, Abigail should be the Duke's youngest daughter... considered Aiwass's aunt?
Although she is an aunt in terms of seniority, she is still younger than Aiwass...
And Anne should be between Angélique and Abigail, and I don't know how many of his daughters she is. I didn't expect that the Duke of Vendôme had so many children, which is really rare for a family of extraordinary people.
Thinking of this, Aiwass's expression was a little subtle.
From this perspective... Yassen is actually Aiwass's uncle?
Thinking of this, Aiwass recalled the contents of the letter Sherlock sent him, and suddenly understood:
[During the process of investigating this matter, I also accidentally learned a secret that you would never imagine and is closely related to you. Please forgive me for being a little vague here, because I am so eager to see the respect with my own eyes.
The surprise and curiosity on the God Killer’s face——]
Although Shylock was under house arrest at the Duke of Vendôme's residence, he must have met Yassen's wife Angélique de Vendôme or her other sisters. There were even quite a few of them.
Possibly, I have seen the portraits of "Vendôme" in the past, and Anne de Vendôme may be among them.
In the promotion ceremony that Sherlock experienced with Aiwass and Isabel for the first time, he played the newsboy and had already met Anne Alexander, played by Isabel. In other words, he actually knew Anne de Wang.
Dom's appearance.
——With Shylock's intelligence, he should have already known the origin of Aiwass's mother the moment he met the other members of the Duke of Vendôme's family. This is also why although he wrote in the letter, he did not
Explicit "hint".
Because Shylock couldn't "sell the truth" at all - Aiwass would definitely know about this when he arrived near the Duke of Vendôme's residence. This was a fact that could not be hidden at all. But he did not believe it
Mentioning this in the text actually implies that it is not convenient for him to speak due to his current situation.
If Aiwass hadn't met Yassen and didn't know that Sherlock was imprisoned in the dream world... at least through this method, Aiwass could have realized that Sherlock had arrived at the Duke of Vendôme at the latest.
Being in a state of being unable to communicate and communicate normally.
Fortunately, he didn't use his true appearance to come into contact with Yassen, otherwise he might have been able to see the details of Aiwass in an instant. This platinum-blond hair is too iconic...especially between him and Wando
There are really too many people in the Mu family.
But thinking of this, Aiwass became acutely aware of a problem:
Why are Abigail and Anne so similar?
If the old Duke had multiple wives, the looks of the children would be very different...but if he had only one wife, she would have gone through menopause. She shouldn't 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 were three times before and after, but..."
Yassen was a little surprised at first, and his expression became a little subtle: "They do have some collateral blood relationship - because they all come from the Salzo family, and they are more than ten years apart. The second one is the niece of the first one.
, the third one is the niece of the second one. There is a gap of two generations.
"But for a transcendent on the path of love, this is not too fancy... at least it is not his own daughter. For the Iris noble, this is not considered a taboo. On the contrary, it is a kind of taboo.
Fashion. It’s just that the old man’s preference for women from the Salzo family is puzzling.”
……wrong.
Aiwass narrowed his eyes slightly.
This sounds a little unusual. Compared to special XP, Aiwass always feels that this is some kind of ritual.
Because the relationship between the three wives of the old Duke is so regular. This kind of regular distribution is like a test question. In this world, there is a high probability that it is the composition of some kind of ritual.
Speaking of which, what does the thing he asked Sherlock to investigate mean...
Aiwass suddenly fell silent and fell into deep thought.
"What's the matter, Aiwass?"
Seeing that Aiwass had not responded for a long time, Yassen was a little confused: "Still thinking about Abi?"
"...Sort of."
Aiwass said vaguely.
He asked Yassen the question that concerned him the most: "Does the Duke have a daughter... who has disappeared?"
"How about something more specific?"
"For example, I once went abroad to study, and then stayed in Avalon and never came back... something like that."
Aiwass stared at Yassen and asked.
Yassen did not respond immediately.
He reached out and touched his chin and thought seriously for a while, but did not give an answer. This made Aiwass' heart sink.
"What's her age?"
Yassen asked: "Approximately how old is it?"
"She should be...in her forties now."
Aiwass said directly: "Her name is Annie."
"——Anne de Vendôme? Ah, there is indeed such a person."
Yassen directly said her name, and Aiwass's heart moved slightly.
But what Yassen said next made Aiwass feel cold all over: "But she didn't stay in Avalon, she was always at home. Maybe she went abroad before, but she didn't stay."
……What?
"So is she married?" Aiwass asked.
"No, she has never been married. But it is said that she has someone she likes, so my father did not force her."
Yassen smiled: "After all, the Vendôme family is prosperous... and there is no need to marry into other families. It's just an idle person, and it will be no problem to raise him until he dies.
"And Miss Anne is not a pure idler - she is a very good opera singer, but now she is getting older and her voice has declined, so she stays at home... Do you know her? No wonder you care about Abi,
They do look quite similar."
"...Maybe I know him. I'm not sure."
Aiwass said slowly.
After listening to Yassen's narration, Aiwass had roughly guessed the truth——
——It's a swamp man.
This also explains why the Duke's daughter was able to stay in Avalon and even die in Avalon without causing any diplomatic pressure. Originally Aiwass thought that the Duke's family had too many children, but now it seems...
…It’s because “Annie” has gone back!
The Duke of Vendôme had no idea that he had a daughter left in Avalon!
But... is the one who stayed behind a swamp man, or the one who went back?
Judging from her behavior, she obviously knows about the existence of "another Annie". She is not married and has someone she likes... This refers to Aiwass's father, which means that the time when this Swamp Man was made should be around her
After falling in love with Aiwass' father.
For a moment, Aiwass desperately wanted to return to the material world and go to the Duke's Palace 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 more serious:
"——Let's not mention that first, let's enter the dream world first."
Aiwass walked quickly to the front and shared the precious knowledge of the dream world with Yassen without hesitation: "If you want to enter the Kingdom of Shadows, you need to pass through the gap between shadows and shadow folds."
After all, Yassen and he were somewhat related - even though they were not related by blood, they could still be considered real "relatives" of Aiwass.
"This gap must be at least more than thirty degrees, but not more than one hundred and twenty degrees. And every step must be at least one degree off. Generally speaking, this can only be reached when you get lost in a dark forest... But there are also schools.
There is such a place - the spiral staircase."
With that said, Aiwass took Yassen to a bell tower on campus.
He looked for several places...and then discovered that the stairs of the bell tower happened to be spiral.
He led Yasen up the stairs, and at the same time told Yasen: "Don't remember how many stairs there are, and don't count how many steps you have taken. Dreams are illusory and subjective... Use your imagination.
To cover the imagination of the dreamer. We need to walk down this staircase a total of 3,600 degrees, which is ten turns - I know this bell tower does not have a tenth floor, but this does not affect our walking down, you understand
? Don't care too much about 'common sense', but pay attention to imagination...
"If that doesn't work, just cover your eyes."
This is just like "Platform Nine and Three Quarters". From a common sense point of view, there is no such gap - just like this staircase does not have ten floors at all.
In the forest, the condition that needs to be triggered by "getting lost ten times in a row and returning to the same place ten times" can be achieved more conveniently and stably by going down the stairs.
"...I'll try my best."
Yassen said seriously, a little nervous. Apparently Aiwass's request was still a bit difficult for him - to forget or even ignore the "ground on the first floor" and forcefully continue walking down...
"Don't be too nervous, and don't count how many degrees you have walked. Just listen to my footsteps. If I leave, you can leave."
Aiwass comforted.
With that said, they had reached the top of the bell tower and closed all the doors and windows on the way, leaving the place pitch dark.
He looked around, and simply tore a hole in the hat on his head, turned it into an eyeband, and tied it around Yassen's eyes.
As for Aiwass - he doesn't need the aid of that tool.
Yassen held his shoulders, while Aiwass walked in front. They walked down step by step in the dim environment.
As expected.
As long as Aiwass keeps walking down, the spiral staircase will extend indefinitely. It has already exceeded the length when Aiwass went upstairs, but it doesn't seem to stop at all...
The further down he went, the darker the surrounding environment became. He couldn't count how many steps he took, but after at least six hundred steps it was so dark that he couldn't see anything.
Suddenly, Aiwass's feet touched the ground.
He paused and took a step forward. Let Yassen also come down.
Aiwass stopped Yassen, who was still about to go down, and untied his eye belt.
Yasen subconsciously took a step back, only to find that there were no stairs behind him——
Suddenly, a bolt of thunder fell, illuminating the gloomy black-gray sky.
As the lightning gradually dimmed, they scanned everything around them keenly.
There is no sun or moon in the sky, and the dark gray sky is always filled with dark clouds. Only when there is thunder can the outline of the world be vaguely seen.
They are in a vast black and gray wasteland.
There is no place to go before 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 they're going.
"We're here," Aiwass looked around and said uncertainly, "This should be the Kingdom of Shadows."
"……should?"
Yasen was stunned: "You...haven't you been to the dream world?"
"I've never been here, but I should know someone here... I'll call him and ask."
Aiwass said this and released his mirror transformation - if you want to use the prayer technique, the body of the Moon Child cannot do it.
Taking advantage of the moment before the light disappeared, Yassen saw Aiwass's face clearly.