🌻 🌻 🌻
EXPOSED to the dazzling sunlight of Lapisasther, I followed the royal messenger to the public office. The building was quaint, painted white with a cute triangular domed roof. It reminded me of a small church. When I stepped inside, a man in his fifties dressed in a long, white coat—an employee of this office—greeted us.
“Welcome, and thank you for coming all this way,” he said. “My name is Jake, and I shall be helping you today.”
After we said our greeting, he guided us deeper inside.
“I’ve already heard what you need,” Jake said. “I’ve gathered records that would match the generation of Baron Stock’s father, and we’ve already parsed through the papers. We’re currently doing one final check in this room to ensure we haven’t missed a thing.”
I peeked into the room from the corridor and saw several employees rifling through the records, carefully checking each and every name.
“Thank you,” I said with a deep bow. I glanced at Kiki to give her my signal. “Jake, may we borrow the kitchen? We’ve brought some light snacks for everyone to enjoy.”
“Are you sure? Thank you very much.”
He smiled and Kiki smiled back. My maid bowed and headed for the kitchen.
“Right this way, please, madam,” Jake said.
He led me and Leik to one of the drawing rooms. Any information that the employees had found was laid out on the wooden table. I took one of the documents bound by string. There was a page of Lucases.
“In our kingdom, a citizen must file for a birth certificate within a month of their birth,” Jake explained. “Only then is a citizen’s record newly created, listing the birthdate, parents, birth location, and sex of the baby. Our duty is to add to these records when the child grows up to become a legal adult, marries someone, or changes professions.”
“These papers summarize a person’s entire life…” I murmured.
“It’s a practice that was born out of our religion. We may be a public office, but we used to be a church. Our uniforms sort of give off that feel, don’t they?” He outstretched his arms, showing off his long garb.
“You’re right. They look quite comfortable and fitting for Lapisasther. You look splendid.”
Jake smiled before he continued, “Foreign nations don’t view us very kindly, so we’ve tried our best to hide our religion, but technically, we’re registered as clergymen. We’re a small island nation, so it’s quite difficult for us to maneuver our way politically.”
He gave a strained smile, but it was clear that Lapisasther had their fair share of troubles. It was then that I realized why His Majesty had personally filed a request with this office to help Lucas find his father. Lucas had the blood of a Lapisasthan and an Eizerian in his veins, and supporting him would imply friendly relations with Eizeria in the future. No doubt, the Lapisasthan royal family was aware that the third prince heavily favored Lucas.
“Pardon me,” Jake said, steering the conversation back on track. “Let’s discuss Baron Stock’s father.”
We sat around the table as he laid out the information he’d gathered.
“Lucas’s father must be one of these men,” I said.
We’d narrowed down our search with the following criteria: a man, alive or dead, who went by Lucas with an unknown last name and birthplace, a bit older than Lucas’s mother, and is or was a sailor.
“While we don’t boast a high population, it’s difficult to narrow it down to one person. However…” Jake said as he gestured to the names with tags next to them, “Fortunately, for lack of a better word, there was a period when our nation forbade fishing in foreign waters. My guess is that the baron’s father departed to sea before this ban, and if we were to calculate the mother’s age, there are only about ten Lucases that fit the bill. Of course, if we’re completely wrong about the age, I can’t say this presumption is completely accurate.”
I scanned the records and asked, “Do people in this kingdom not have last names?”
“Precisely. Unlike Eizeria, where even commoners are required to have a family name, only the royal family has a last name here. When necessary, we may use the name of our birth village and our father’s name or profession instead. For example, my name is Jake Merla Shane. It means ‘son of a priest in Merla Village.’”
“I see…” I muttered pensively.
“No wonder my lord’s mother’s journal didn’t have a last name,” Leik said beside me. “There was no need for the man to use a last name to differentiate him from other Lucases in Eizeria.”
Kiki, who had been preparing tea for us in the corner of the room, brought a tray of herbal tea for us as she looked on inquisitively.
“Is something the matter?” I asked.
“Um,” Kiki said. “What about the last name ‘Stock?’” She was referring to my husband’s last name.
I shook my head. “The last name, ‘Stock,’ was created by his mother as a cover when she entered the convent. It won’t be a clue for our search.”
“Ah, I see.”
Leik added, “When nobles of high rank can’t use their real names, they can provide a hefty donation to the church to create a fake one. A fake name will usually be one that no one uses, but my lord has been using it as his official name. I believe the name ‘Stock’ comes from a flower.”
“Then it’s such a cute family name!” Kiki said. Thanks to her question, the tension in the room eased.
“Now then, we should check each and every person,” I said.
Jake and Leik nodded. Energized by Kiki’s smile and her herbal tea, we silently flipped through every page of the records, hoping to find a clue. The dust that filled the room danced in the air, glittering under the sunlight that trickled inside. The sounds of us flipping through the pages and the occasional sigh were deafening.
“What do you think, madam?” Jake said, breaking the quiet air. “Is this information simply not enough to go off of?”
“Well, there is one thing that bothers me,” I confessed. “I read through the other Lucases aside from the candidates you gave me, just in case.” I’d perused the list of candidates and the other men’s records that had been picked out. “Around the time of that fishing ban, did something happen? It seems like many people of a certain age group died rather young. I feel as though there was a spike in premature deaths during that time.”