The final photo depicted a group of people in various attires exiting a fortress, surrendering their weapons. Behind them stood a three-story building in the style of ancient Rome. If the deduction was correct, this should be a picture of the last batch of rebels surrendering.
However, unlike the previous photos, this one had a black circle highlighting the position of the rooftop flagpole, accompanied by a short sentence written in black ink.
"We got it—what does this mean?" Staring at the three-word sentence, Liang En furrowed his brows. He then noticed Pierce staring intently at the photo.
"Do you see something?" Liang En turned his head and inquired.
"A flag, an Irish flag is in this box," Pierce quickly blurted out in an excited tone after Liang En's question.
"You mean, a flag?" Liang En realized this upon Pierce's revelation and looked at the faded green silk.
The Irish flag was composed of green, white, and orange, so the faded green silk stacked there was likely the flag that hung on that building back in the day.
"This building seems somewhat familiar." Clearly, if it was just an ordinary flag, there would be no need for someone to mark the photo. Liang En quickly shifted his attention to the photograph.
"It's the General Post Office in Dublin." After staring at the photo for several seconds, Liang En retrieved information related to this image from his memory.
"The headquarters of the rebels were located here, and it was also the place where the first Irish flag of the uprising was raised. Wait, you're saying this flag might be..."
While he said it was just a guess, Liang En was quite certain that the flag before him was indeed the first Irish flag hoisted during the Easter Rising.
In that moment of realization, four cards with different-colored glows materialized in his mind, confirming his speculation.
Among the four cards, two were [Identification (N)], one was [Detection (N)], and there was also a silver SR card. Unfortunately, this time the card was an item card.
[Irish Rebel's Flag (SR): "Oh, as the night falls, the rifles crack and the British soldiers hide everywhere. Rain of bullets fills the sky, and tongues of fire illuminate the bayonets—"
Just like the Irish ballad "Mist-Covered Mountains" sings, countless Irish sons and daughters took up arms to lead the forefront of the uprising, sacrificing their lives to break free from British colonial rule.
This flag represents those rebels and even the indomitable spirit of the entire Irish nation. Therefore, this item card can bestow some of the nation's strength upon its holder.
As long as one possesses this flag, it can generate additional goodwill when negotiating with fellow Irishmen. Furthermore, once a day, the flag can be used to inspire courage within a 100m radius of all Irish people, urging them to battle.]
After grasping the specifics of this flag, the warehouse fell into silence, as this flag was markedly different from the East German tanks or hummingbird pistols they had previously dealt with.
"How should we handle this... thing?" After a minute or two of silence, Pierce was the first to break it. "With that album, we can basically discern the specifics of this flag. But—"
"But, indeed, it's not easy to handle something like this." Liang En continued, "Setting a high price might earn us the reputation of opportunists, while setting a low price would undoubtedly feel like a loss no matter how you think about it."
"Most importantly, whether selling the flag or these gold and silver bars to wealthy individuals, I'd feel somewhat uneasy," Liang En said and suddenly came to a realization.
After all, Liang En had nearly a million pounds at his disposal, and Pierce ran a very successful shop. So, they were not currently short on funds. In this situation, they naturally had the resources to pursue something on a higher level.
"We can take this item to where it belongs," Liang En said to Pierce, "Of course, this might reduce our earnings a bit this time, but in the long run—"
Several days later, in the pitter-patter of rain, the hall of the Irish National Museum in Dublin was packed with people.
Among them were infants held by their mothers and elderly individuals with snowy hair. There were even a few soldiers donning uniforms. Every single one of them wore a green shamrock pin on their chests.
After waiting for a few minutes, two ceremonial guards wearing replicas of the uniforms from the early days of the Irish Republic Army entered from the door.
Behind them, two other guards carried a large glass frame. Within that frame lay the tattered and aged Irish flag.
As the small military band at the door played the Irish national anthem, everyone in the room paid their respects to the flag. With all eyes fixed upon it, the framed flag was securely hung in the museum's hall.
After the soldiers left the hall in formation, Liang En and Pierce, following the crowd, placed a green wreath the size of a lifebuoy beneath the flag, at the foot of a small monument, and then left the museum.
During the transfer ceremony, Liang En realized that the item card related to the flag in his mind had also disappeared. This indicated that the item cards were indeed linked to the items he possessed.
Due to the recent ceremony, the atmosphere in the car felt somewhat solemn. Eventually, Liang En, who was driving, broke the silence within the vehicle. "I suddenly feel that everything we've done was worthwhile."
Liang En held the steering wheel and continued, "And I didn't expect everyone to take this matter so seriously."
"The only downside is that we didn't become as famous as we imagined," Pierce shrugged and remarked, "After all, we acquired this item in London, UK. If we were to publicize this fully, it might not be beneficial for us."
A week earlier, after realizing the historical significance of the flag they had found, Liang En and the others decided to take the flag back to Ireland and donate it to the National Museum.
Because the flag originated from an abandoned British military camp, in order to avoid diplomatic disputes, Liang En and Pierce's full names and the process of how they found the flag couldn't be disclosed.
Even on the small bronze plaque beneath the flag, now serving as a memorial, only their surnames were recorded, not their full names.
This didn't mean that they gained nothing. On one hand, while they did donate the flag along with the accompanying letter and photographs, the gold and silver bars originally kept in the box were sold to the museum at the market price for high-purity gold and silver.
Although this transaction didn't yield as much profit as selling all the items, each of them still received 13,000 euros.
On the other hand, after this donation, they effectively established a connection with the museum. In the future, when the museum and the community jointly organized activities, they naturally became preferred partners.
This kind of connection with the museum might not have many immediate uses, but it invisibly elevated their social status.
For example, if you had a long-term cooperation with the museum, people's perception of you would be as an explorer rather than an antique dealer.
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