Chapter 25: Searching a Legend

Following that incident where Vlad played around with the two young girls, days passed making sure to settle the course of actions for everyone.

He proceeded with his own activities, training himself and also studying the books he brought with the sailors' help, wishing to have at least a decent knowledge about most of the things outside before sailing off into the unknown.

On the other hand, Mary with each day passing, tried her best to make Vlad fall for her, continuing to help him with reading those books he placed a high value on. Yet, slowly she found that she was rarely needed, since Vlad would take his books to the Square of the City sitting on a bench close to a magnificent sculpture of a woman muse.

There he would at times ask kids fooling around to read him his books, chapter by chapter with random people all-together, using some coins to bribe them, making it far more effective than just asking nicely.

However, for the most part, he was with Titania in that square, listening to her, reading the "Legends of Atlas".

Mary still didn't understand why Vlad was so fixated about the book "Legends of Atlas" nor Titania knew, and even though he had both of the beauties read this books from random chapters, or having those kids read him, he showed a confused expression, as if didn't understand the information he received.

'There must be something going on with this book. The information is too spreaded out, and most chapters don't even make sense.'

'Why would the author do this? Write his book without making it that coherent for the reader. It has to be a catch, a hidden meaning to the content.'

The more he was listening to the various people's voices, it made him get even quieter, entering a contemplating state that kept going for months.

This contemplating self, was viewed by the outsiders as a sign that Vlad was sick or had some troubles in his life, and such that people like Arik, Lagos or Nelson, Jervis would bother him, breaking his thought process, annoying him instead of doing him good.

He required the silence of the forest outside of the city to process all the information he received without being disturbed, all alone.

'Tch, can they leave me alone for a moment? It's been two months since finishing the Legend book, and whenever I would get to a good point, someone would "visit" me.'

The winds blew around his ears, while he supported his back on a sturdy Oak Tree starting thinking about all the bits of the legends that he found out of order, until a thought ran into his mind.

'What if the Author tried to hide something in his story? That's how some Legends go about, with a deeper meaning to them. Good start, with a big 'Why?'

'If I was the Author and I had a strong enemy, let's say Mehmed, and I wanted to transmit a message inside his territory without being found out, I would also codify the message. Damn, let's see how right I am about this idea.'

With a plan formed in his mind, he started thinking about the book's content, and how it started from the first chapter, to the last chapter, a process that most would find troublesome trying to remember each small detail of the book, but not for Vlad.

'Such books are always shrouded in mysticism, tales of legends. Nonetheless, most legends held some fragments of truth.'

'The first chapter talked about the Great King's childhood in a sense it didn't have much substance to it, however, if I go around the various chapters, there is a sequence where the Author describes how Atlas had a colorful personality.

'The guy wanted to make for himself a big Mausoleum where all his soldiers and valiant retainers would be rested in peace.'

'The more I think about it, this book is like a codified message. Still vague, but now it makes sense placing in order each sequence from the various chapters.'

Inside his mind, he made out random bits of the story, into a coherent structure that made sense to him, and after a couple of hours of silence, from nowhere he started laughing like crazy.

"HAHAHA, to think there would be such a thing? Author, are you trying to say Atlas left something inside his Mausoleum? Something that could satisfy the desire of any man."

His laughter continued, finding the entire information he placed together to be unbelievable, but then again in these moments, the words of Wormblod and Quinn accompanied his thoughts, solidifying the possibility of such a thing ever existing.

"To get to this Mausoleum I require 4 keys. Four keys, to unseal the Great King Tomb."

Most of the information was split up around various chapters, and that was time-consuming to put together all the puzzle pieces, and yet he managed to form the biggest puzzle piece, the fact that there existed such a Tomb, or at least the idea of existing.

"Let's return home, and begin placing down all the information about the keys. We'll begin with the first mentioned key, and slowly bind together the whole puzzle."

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Walking without using his cane, he arrived back inside Picodras, and while he was passing by, he found that the citizens were rather silent when he walked next to them.

It was a weird feeling, and his senses that he still didn't understand how they worked, sent him an impulse, as if to tell him that something was off and once he got to his home door, this sensation intensified.

'An enemy? Mhmm, this should be interesting.'

Opening the door and stepping inside, he smelled the presence of a decent number of people, and before his mind could process the whole information he was receiving from his nose, the ones inside shouted with smiles on their faces.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

Everyone inside the house gathered around in the living room and the hallway, to celebrate Vlad's 18th birthday inside this world, from Mary to Titania, Elias, and the Herbalists, to Lagos and Arik along with some of the sailors, where an elder was sitting inside the couch of the living room, smoking, without saying a word.

"Hah?"

"What's the meaning of this?" asked Vlad, confused by this "excitement" inside his house, without him even knowing what was happening.

"I've told you guys, he wouldn't get it. He probably doesn't even know how old he is." commented Patrick from where he was, trying to hold his laugh.

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"Brother, because we were busy with our activities in the past, we forgot to prepare for a celebration for your birthday, but this year is different." mentioned Arik who walked past the Herbalists who held a genuine smile on their faces.

After getting to him, Arik compared himself height-wise and could see that he was left behind by a lot, only being 1,81 meters compared to Vlad who continued to grow, reaching 1.90 meters in the couple of months he was biding his time.

"I can't even make fun of your height like I used to do when we were younger. But this doesn't change the fact you are my little brother."

Arik gave Vlad a manly hug patting his back, while Vlad was trying to process quickly what was going on, until a thought ran in his mind.

'Ahhhhhh, I see what is happening. The thing those kids were talking about that they were experiencing. Like the small Banquet thrown by Mehmed when I turned 14 years old. The coming of age.'

'Since the culture is different here, the people here are celebrating each passing year in their life. A waste of time, but if this makes them happier, I'll play along.'

"You shouldn't have stressed yourself to prepare anything for me. I can't enjoy this banquet with my eyes, only with my nose and ears."

"And I told you Arik to do this restrained, and take him to some sweet girls. Ahem, I am kidding." remarked Jervis, who coughed when he felt Titania's angry look get heavy on him, not wanting to mess with Vlad's little lover.

For most of the group, they had a hard time believing that actual Fairies existed, with Vlad not wishing to hide her existence to the rest of his small restrained group, and Jervis in his own unique style, already labeled Titania as Vlad's lover for how protective she was of him.

"You guys shouldn't have bothered with anything extra. Just some wine will do the job. This is just like another year for me, nothing significant."

"That's where you are wrong, little brother. This might be one of the last years we might get to spend with you before you leave. We'll make sure to live all kinds of experiences with you." mentioned Nelson, seating on another couch.

"Little girls, just give him the cake you've made, and that will be his gift."

"Mhm, mister, you also have to give him the gift you brought." said Titania while standing on Mary's shoulder, looking at Patrick who was smoking.

"Hahaha, and how do you know I brought something?" asked Patrick who also rose up, and walked to give Vlad a hug, afterwards ruffling his hair.

"Visit me, later tonight or tomorrow if you get too busy after we leave. I've got something prepared for you that you might like."

"Ohh, what could that be?"

"It is a secret for now. You'll understand what it is once you visit me."

Nodding his head, Vlad moved with the flow, trying not to be the boring person, as he took his time to discuss with each guest, until after a couple of hours he was left with only Mary and Titania, standing on the couch, looking in a quiet manner at Vlad.

"You don't look happy at all. Is something on your mind?" asked Mary, who noticed that Vlad was pondering on something.

"Is not that, in fact, I appreciate your gesture a lot, it tells me who are the ones who cares about me. But it came at a time, where I am busy with something else."

"The book?"

"Exactly, I figured out the first part of the puzzle and now that I have free time, I will start looking for the rest of the details."

"You'll need us to read your book again?"

"No, not at all."

"I also have to check on what gift the old man has for me."

Settling down the girls, without leaving his mind to wonder too much what Patrick prepared for himself, he departed toward his house, appearing so fast that Patrick even asked him.

"What's wrong boy? I thought that maybe you'll take both of those girls to bed and later visit me."

"I am not in the mood. I've got work to do with the book, since I found a way to arrange the whole incoherent contents into something that makes sense."

"I see, then I will not keep you too busy. Follow me."

Vlad walked next to Patrick, and was taken inside his private room, where he had the office and also the bedroom. The old man moved toward his office, where a map and compass were standing without telling much of a story, yet, the map itself was filled with all sorts of locations.

"Use your hands and guess what I've got for you."

Touching the table that only had the map and compass, Vlad felt the old paper texture with the lines drawn by hand, that each of the lines appeared in his mind, while the compass made him chuckle, finding the whole gift amusing.

"A well received gift, old Patrick. It will be quite amusing teaching that little girl how to read the maps and the compass, but I doubt it will take her too much since she has the intelligence of a genius."

"At least you got the meaning of my gift. Don't rely on luck while on the sea. That's the biggest mistake a sailor can make, not using his equipments. I've shared with you the same information I've told each sailor, you aren't too different from them, except being blind."

"This doesn't mean you can't sail on the sea while blind, you just have to use your other senses when you've fully adapted to use. When a storm approaches you get the first signs, which are?"

"Strong winds, thunder and heavy rain."

"Don't forget that in that category of signs the temperature around you can also be a sign."

"That would be included with the strong winds and heavy rain, but I understand what you mean."

"I hope you understand and that I didn't make a mistake by throwing you to the sharks by yourself."

"It will be fine." assured Vlad, not feeling much of the stress Patrick was suffering right now from the thought that he might lower his guard.

"If you find it hard to go by yourself, you can always get yourself one of the boys in the city and use them to navigate in whatever location you choose to."

"No thanks. You know I don't like being at the hands of others, especially those who I can't trust."

"Then you better teach that Fairy of yours all the things I've told you with extra meticulousness to the details a person with their sight should look for."

"Indeed. Don't worry, old Patrick, I'll make her the best navigator in the world before I ever challenge the Grand Line."

*Chuckle* "Now that you've mentioned, I kind of take pity on that girl."

"Hmph, a dry joke."

Vlad remained with Patrick for some more minutes, where they talked about the navigation, and other casual things, to the point where he departed holding in his hand the map and compass, returning straight to his studies.

Using a notebook he bought from the market to write down some of his thoughts that he would later return, such as the puzzle pieces of Legends of Atlas.

'First it started with Atlas's childhood and each location the author mentioned marked him.'

In this manner he started writing in the darkness, with a stable handwriting that didn't show signs of mistake, as if he did this for hundreds of years without losing his tact, thinking about various legends of his past life and this one which seemed to be brewing more life into them.

Minutes passed slowly to him in those moments of contemplation.

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Something similar could be said to be happening in a long distance, where seas separated their location.

Inside a Kingdom of the West Blue, similar to Vlad, a young lady with brown eyes, in her early 20s was having an inner discussion with herself with regard to a sensible subject, filling a small notebook with various information that contained different key-words, codifying her writing.

Next to her on the table she used to spread her thoughts on, a small library could be said to watch over her, but closer to her left hand was a closed book with the familiar title.

[Legends of Atlas]

"This book has a codified message, with regard to the Poneglyphs, but the way it is spread throughout the book, is chaotic, as if the author made it on purpose. But how should I clarify this book? I need to research it for far more."

"It talks about the Mausoleum, but the location is nowhere in my sight. A place where ones desire will unravel remains to be found."

"What is inside the Tomb should be a Poneglyph. Most likely. But where? Author, where are you referring that Atlas's Tomb is located?"

Spending a lot of her time she looked at the window where darkness of the night enveloped the city she was staying.

"Hah, I think I should calm myself, and resume looking for answers after I clear my mind a bit. So far, my location is safe, without encountering any suspicious people approaching me."

She rose up, and started clearing out her desk, bringing most of the books she had on the office inside a backpack that she later hid inside the floor of the house she was living in, not allowing any openings in others discovering what she was doing, even though things looked to be safe.

With herself on a walk, she started by moving toward the Grand Square of the city she was living in that used oil lamps to light the place, similar to Picodras, and step by step, she made her way toward a large garden where later on she sat on a bench.

Taking in the beautiful sceneries of the garden in the light, with the fireflies moving around, it made this young woman looking to be in her early twenties, having a tall slender body with a white complexion, while she had a long ink-black hair moving along with the winds of the night.

Watching her surroundings and taking in this serene atmosphere of the night, she couldn't help but smile.

'This city isn't half-bad so far. It has been 1 year since I've settled down, and I saw a lot of progress being done to my research. I have 2 locations I want to visit later inside West Blue before I choose to search in the Grand Line, Fiorenze and Genovase.'

'Those two Republics, I heard, hold a lot of knowledge, having a decent sized Open Library for the public, where they can study various subjects.'

'This might not be like Ohara, but it is also another start where I can spend some years before finishing my preparations for locations I want to see in the Grand Line.'