"Thank you and your companions for your hard work." As Liang En heard the confirmation of the results of his investigation, the butler, Lubson, finally relaxed.
For him, this search task had been passed down from his ancestors, so every year he mechanically assigned people to carry out this search task, making it even a part of his life.
Therefore, when he realized that this long road was about to come to an end, even with his decades of experience as a butler, he couldn't control his emotions all at once, revealing a sense of excitement.
"So, is there anything my companions and I need to do now?" After hearing a sniffing sound from the other end of the line, Liang En waited for a moment before inquiring.
"I will gather experts now and contact the Finnish side. Tomorrow morning, we will head to Helsinki. You just need to wait for me to arrive around noon tomorrow," Lubson, the butler, immediately replied.
The next morning, Liang En and Pierce arrived at the airport in Helsinki with the things they had found earlier, and handed them over to Lubson, who had flown over.
"Where should we go next? Back to the UK?" After handing over the items, Pierce asked.
"Of course not. Since we're here, we can take this opportunity to add some Eastern European specialties to the store. After all, people are quite interested in these exotic items."
"You're right. I heard that many senior colleagues found some valuable things here when the Soviet Union collapsed decades ago." With Liang En's words, Pierce suddenly became interested.
Anyway, there was still some time before the information was confirmed by the Count's subordinates, and Liang En and his team also wanted to find out the final outcome of this matter as soon as possible.
So, Liang En and Pierce decided to take advantage of this opportunity and get to work directly, trying to find something interesting in this far-off Eastern European land.
Of course, the main reason they were willing to stay here was that the butler was willing to cover their travel expenses for this period of time.
Thus, the two returned to St. Petersburg to rest for a day. Then, the following morning, Liang En and Pierce each set off in their cars to their respective destinations.
Unlike Pierce, who chose the familiar city markets as his targets, Liang En opted for wilderness exploration. A few hours later, he arrived at the shores of Lake Ladoga in the off-road vehicle he had rented.
This largest freshwater lake in Europe is located more than sixty kilometers northeast of the city center of Leningrad. During the 900-plus days of the Leningrad Siege, the post-siege supply line that passed through this lake was the lifeline of the entire city.
Although this area wasn't occupied by the Axis forces at that time, it was within the range of their artillery and air attacks.
As a result, numerous brave Soviet soldiers drove vehicles and boats back and forth through artillery fire, transporting various supplies and personnel. Naturally, in the process, many things sank to the lake bottom.
However, Liang En didn't come here today to disturb those heroic soldiers. After all, this lake covers more than 10,000 square kilometers, and even if there were valuable items from the retreat of Leningrad, he alone wouldn't be able to retrieve them.
"This should be the place." After driving the car to a valley on the east bank of the river, Liang En looked around and said. It was a somewhat messy forest, with swamps and rivers scattered around.
If he were to climb a tree five or six meters high, he could even see Lake Ladoga with its rippling waves not far away.
The current appearance of this jungle might seem ordinary now, but if we were to rewind time by about a thousand years, a Viking town centered around a trading post stood tall here.
According to Viking tradition, they traveled with furs, amber, honey, and wax through the Baltic Sea to reach Russia. From there, they headed south to the Dnieper River and sailed along it to finally reach their destination, Constantinople.
This journey took a full year to complete, and after conducting their trade in Constantinople, they would follow the same route back to their homeland.
Initially, the activities of these Viking traders and raiders were limited because they needed to return to their homeland before winter arrived, avoiding treacherous sea voyages during dangerous seasons.
However, after the year 850 AD, these Vikings no longer returned home every year. Instead, they began establishing encampments in certain regions as bases for their trading and raiding activities.
The small town in the jungle from that era was one such example. The Viking group settled in this location, constructing a circular fortification from wooden boards and filling the moat with water sourced from a nearby lake.
The reason for building a sturdy outpost here was twofold. Firstly, it provided shelter for passing trade caravans, safeguarding them from attacks by the local indigenous people, the Pechenegs. Secondly, it served as a launching point for raids to capture the local indigenous population as slaves.
In history, some of these types of outposts gradually developed into major cities. For example, Dublin and York were originally Viking settlements.
However, luck wasn't on the side of this particular outpost. Unfortunately, it was destroyed in an attack by the Pechenegs.
Of course, for Liang En, this wasn't bad news. Unlike those abandoned outposts, war-damaged ones often left behind valuable treasures.
Following the mental map in his mind, Liang En quickly found the residence of the town's leader from that era, as well as the location of a sanctuary. He began using a metal detector to search.
At the sanctuary site, nothing was found. However, as he took a few steps at the site of the leader's residence, a buzzing sound emitted from the metal detector.
After crouching down and digging for a while with a small shovel, Liang En felt that the shovel had struck something. However, from the sound of impact, it didn't seem like metal.
"It looks like a stone that's been polished by hand." Liang En thought as he expanded the excavation area. Soon, a circular object appeared in the pit, no larger than 20 cm in diameter.
At that moment, he recognized that what he had dug up was a soapstone-carved stone bowl, adorned with simple patterns.
Clearly, what the metal detector had located earlier wasn't this. Carefully placing the mostly intact stone bowl to the side, he continued clearing the soil beneath.
Soon, a black metal piece, small enough to fit in the palm of his hand, emerged from the pit. The metal piece resembled an uppercase letter "T," and at the bottom of this "T," there was a metal loop.
The moment this object was revealed, Liang En recognized it as an amulet in the shape of Thor's hammer, the Mjölnir. Warriors often carried these amulets as symbols of strength.
The discovery of the amulet left Liang En in a state of excitement, as it indicated that this location hadn't been disturbed much, making it akin to a rich mine.
Unfortunately, his stroke of good luck seemed to fade from this point onward.
It wasn't until he had explored the entirety of the leader's residence that he found an Arab silver coin, a denarius, the size of a thumb. It featured a perforated amber and an axe with a thick layer of rust on top.
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