Chapter 251: Special Permission

"Who wrote this book?"

"It was my teacher, a researcher driven by interest, though his skill rivals that of a professional herald. Most of this was excerpted by him in his spare time from the library." Ma Erke proudly showed a name on the book's final page that Green had never heard of.

"I added some to his work, and I believe it is hard to find a more complete and reliable book of its kind."

The priest tried hard to recall, but found no impression of the author's name. Such figures were often like this; rarely given a chance to be known, they spent their lives quietly in the library, leaving behind a literary legacy that might be noticed at some unknown time.

"May I ask where your teacher was employed?"

"My teacher returned to the embrace of the Heavenly Father many years ago."

"I apologize." Just as he had thought, Green unethically felt a bit of relief that he hadn't continued to study history and literature or pursue a degree back then.

"There is no need to apologize, priest. He spent his life in peaceful fullness and satisfaction. After exhausting the exploration within books, he went to the Kingdom of Heaven to consult the saints in person. No perfect day could be better than that."

It made sense; Green was momentarily speechless. Some people took money from the Church, pursued their hobbies in the Church's library. He indeed had no standing or qualification to sympathize with them.

"By the way, is there anything else you would like to know?" The successful monk was still eager; summarizing the current state of royal heraldry research was not even a warm-up for him. They hadn't reached the specific details yet, which were where professionalism could be demonstrated.

After the initial fear of the Inquisition's purpose faded, the scholar's professional curiosity was aroused. What was worth such secretive inquiry?

Green turned the book to face himself, flipped through a few pages, and helplessly admitted the existence of a gap measured in years between professionals and ordinary people, one that could not be bridged by a short-term crash course.

After hesitating repeatedly, he still took out the holy scripture he carried with him and opened it amidst the other's puzzled gaze. He peeled back two anti-stick white sheets of paper and took out a single sheet well-protected in the middle.

A blob of ink that looked nonsensical at first glance was smeared on the paper. Had it not been for this solemn attitude, it would likely have been regarded as the product of an overturned inkwell.

"What is this?" Ma Erke frowned at the thing that looked like a tablecloth, observing the paper's age.

After confirming it was new paper, he rubbed his hands, carefully cleared a space on the table, moved it to the center, and smoothed out the edge wrinkles with his fingertips.

Green said nothing, watching him operate in silence.

One could only say that the rubbing skills of a pure amateur were really not good; even the monk couldn't see at first glance that this was a coat of arms.

"This is too poor; even the clumsiest apprentice wouldn't do it this badly." He muttered complaints while sketching the outline of the coat of arms and attempting to interpret it.

With the redefined scope, the large outer ring was directly eliminated; the shield-shaped coat of arms actually occupied less than a quarter of the area.

Excluding the shield face, the rest were accessories; they could not be said to be unimportant, but they were merely accessories to the coat of arms.

"The paired things with manes on both sides are probably lions, the supporters of the coat of arms. It might be a relatively powerful family with its own supporters. The base below is for the supporters to stand on; ignore that."

"These unclear things should be grass patterns or some kind of vines? They don't matter much; they are used for decoration to reflect status, have no actual meaning, are not fixed, and can vary."

"As for the inside, let me see again." After explaining the composition of the outer ring in two sentences, Brother Ma Erke studied the coat of arms itself. "The Shi Zhongjian, indeed correct; there is no other pattern of a second half-sword pointing downward in the center."

"But the rest is hard to recognize. Who gave you this thing? The technique is too rough; the parts that should be highlighted weren't treated with focus. You should send it back to the academy to re-study heraldry."

"I don't know; just make do with looking at it." Green urged guiltily.

"If you insist on asking, fine. These small bumps don't look like stone surfaces or tools; what metal product's rust marks are they?"

"But this part is relatively regular, with lines; not bird feathers, not hair, it looks more like... scales?" The researcher made a sound of surprise, "This is rare."

"Why do you say that? Shouldn't fish be very common in coats of arms?" The moment Green spoke, he exposed that the person who should go back and re-study was himself.

"Usually yes, but royal coats of arms are different; only one family related to a fish-pattern married, and that was a mermaid. Among fish coats of arms, those depicting scales are not many either."

The monk flipped pages forward quickly, jumping to the first few pages to search. "Not fish scales; it's a dragon."

"It looks very much like this? It should originate from the saying of the Shi Zhongjian slaying the dragon." A coat of arms positioned forward and relatively simple, with the head and body of a long-necked evil dragon on either side of the sword shape.

"Interesting. Where is the person who inherited this coat of arms?"

Brother Ma Erke did not flip pages backward to search but scratched his head. "Uh, it's quite close to us."

He pointed out the window, and Green looked accordingly.

The surface of the Tem River, rising with rain, shimmered; several boats docked and moved, circling far around the river island where the small chapel stood.

"This coat of arms belongs to the type with chaotic inheritance; it only appears in records from the early years of the kingdom's establishment and hasn't appeared since. At that time, the various branches of the royal family were not far apart; most were likely there."

Knight Island Chapel, the resting place of the royal family and the site of important ceremonies. Since the inheritance wasn't passed down, weren't all members buried there?

"Alright, thank you for the explanation, Brother Ma Erke." Green felt the information he could obtain ended there.

He gazed at that river island as if seeing it for the first time; the statue of the first king in front of the small chapel, which he had seen countless times from across the shore, rode a horse holding the reins, his empty right hand waving, as if summoning attendants or loosely grasping something.

"If possible, could you give me a drawing of these un-inherited coats of arms? A friend of mine is quite interested. We will remember your help."

"Coincidentally, there is a draft drawing; you can take it." Of course, it would be best not to remember me, Brother Ma Erke hurriedly took out his manuscript and saw off this unexpected visitor from the Inquisition.

Green left the library with his gift and met his deputy, Brother Wading, at the usual place.

In his impression, this person should have nothing to report, after all, their Inquisition's best business group had recently concentrated their energy and manpower in the sewers, and the next move was still waiting for approval.

"What, did those bishops agree so quickly?" This was the only reason he could think of that would drive Wading to seek him out so actively.

"Far from it; in fact, it is even slower than imagined. By the time they make a decision, it would be enough time for pagans to move ten times."

Brother Wading was quite dissatisfied with this reaction speed, and his words lacked respect. With his line of thinking, it was hard to imagine what kind of person would remain unmoved by such evidence.

"There is also some news, I don't know if it's true." He leaned close to Green, glanced sideways at the door, and lowered his voice. "I heard the main reason is that the Archbishop's attitude is different from before, somewhat vague, causing the bishops to be unwilling to take a stance as well."

"Where did you hear that?"

"I have a friend who is very familiar with a bishop's clerk..."

"This is not something we should pry into." Green rebuked. "Do not do this again; there is no difference between knowing sooner or later. What about the Grand Inquisitor?"

"He is more anxious than us; that is why I came to find you."

It was not hard to imagine; this superior who had placed great trust in Green probably now wished he could jump into the sewers himself, burn the pagans and their evil creations to ash, and wash them away with the water.

There was excitement and the smoldering fire of revenge in Wading's lowered voice; this perhaps originated from the comfort work for the families of the Xun Sect brothers he had been responsible for in the past few days. "So the Grand Inquisitor is willing to give us some private support."

"We will soon be able to 'mobilize personnel on a limited basis to prevent pagans from escaping,' including in the sewers."

"This is the best news I have heard." Green moved his limbs, making a slight crackling sound of stretching. Compared to hard-chewing heraldry, he would rather do something more practical.

"There is another matter; it was transmitted by the person stationed at the clinic. They said they noticed some special circumstances."

"Special circumstances? Did that professor do something again?"

"No, they feel someone is wandering near the clinic but not entering."

"As far as I know, half the people in the New District want to get treated there; it's just that they can't squeeze in." Arranging personnel near the clinic was something done before formally meeting Kraft, and it has never been cancelled since.

Given the crowd density over there, being able to distinguish exactly how many people there is truly hard to believe.

"I know, but they said those people were dressed a bit too well, not like the clothes common in the New District." Brother Wading felt the suspicion arising from this was not unfounded.

"Send two more people; if necessary, I permit you to take action."