Though commoners typically visit banks to deposit or withdraw money, occasionally applying for loans or repaying them, a bank's operations extend far beyond these activities.
For instance, banks also offer the rental of safety deposit boxes and even storage rooms for various financial assets, naturally, at a cost.
Currently, Mr. Kimura is using one of the underground vaults to store an assortment of items. According to the bank employee accompanying them, this particular storage room is the smallest among them.
The room contains eight differently sized silvery-white shockproof boxes. Clearly, Mr. Kimura has considered how the future recipients should manage to remove these items from the storage.
It's undeniable that this consideration reflects a Japanese custom of not troubling others, which can indeed feel more comfortable to some.
Thus, Liang En and his companions quickly utilized a small trolley from the bank to move these boxes to the surface, and after completing the formalities at the bank, they returned to Dublin by continuously renting and returning cars.
The reason for driving was simple: traveling with this load on a plane might invite unexpected issues, so they opted to drive and take a ferry back to Dublin.
Later that evening, they drove a van to London, and since their previously rented house in London had been vacated, Liang En and the others had to temporarily stay at a hotel.
Considering security concerns, they even set up a night watch schedule to take turns staying in the van to guard the boxes.
Finally, by the next afternoon, they safely returned to Dublin. The three of them went to Liang En's ranch, and in the underground storage, they opened the boxes to inspect the contents.
While the boxes looked similar, during their inspection, they noticed numbers written in Arabic numerals in the corners and decided to open the boxes in descending order.
Initially, the boxes contained European-made porcelain and various silver and gold items, such as Essen porcelain, silver candlesticks, silver plates, and forks, along with some pure silver or gold-plated jewelry.
These items weren't particularly expensive, but their advantage lay in the ease of selling them without spending too much time finding buyers.
It was somewhat disappointing that the sets of precious metal items were few and the individual silver pieces would not fetch a high price.
When they opened the fifth box, the contents finally changed from the usual items to gold jewelry embedded with semi-precious and precious stones.
Most of the jewelry was intended for women, including earrings, rings, and necklaces typical of the mass-produced styles from the Victorian era through the 1940s. However, there were also some men’s items like tie clips and keychains.
Unlike the simpler shock-absorbent packaging, these pieces of jewelry came with boxes, some of which were clearly the original ones, enhancing their value significantly.
Though most of this jewelry was mass-produced for the emerging middle class since the Victorian era, preserving the original boxes added considerable value.
The sixth and seventh boxes contained various artworks and miscellaneous antiques, including several paintings by second-tier European artists, a snowflake stone ink bottle, and an African-style gold-plated ebony figure, totaling over thirty diverse items.
Liang En did not recognize most of these items and might need some time to verify their details. However, a pencil sketch by Picasso caught his attention.
The sketch was only the size of a palm and hastily drawn, but its style and signature clearly indicated it was indeed Picasso's work.
"A Picasso sketch, huh? I've heard these are quite valuable," said Fan Meng and Joan of Arc, drawn to the discovery.
Even though they weren’t art aficionados, the names of famous artists like Picasso and the general value of their works were well-known to them.
"Not all Picasso's works are valuable," Liang En remarked with a smile, shaking his head. "It depends on the size of the painting and its content."
"Given the simplistic nature of this draft and its small size, as well as the obvious lack of effort in the drawing, such a piece wouldn't fetch a high price."
Indeed, they soon found a similar piece that sold for just over 7,000 to under 8,000 euros.
While this was a reasonable sum for a sketch, it felt somewhat undervalued considering it was a Picasso.
"Not all celebrity art is valuable. Pieces like this, casually drawn by Picasso, obviously don't hold much worth. The price it fetched was largely due to Picasso's name."
After examining this sketch and finding no more notable items, they carefully sorted these objects and opened the final box.
The last box contained only two items: a large, flat wooden box and a long, narrow wooden box. Even before opening it, Liang En could smell a faint rust scent.
"Definitely a Japanese sword," he guessed immediately, judging by the shape of the long box. Upon opening it, his suspicion was confirmed.
Inside the box lay a Japanese sword sheathed in white, partly drawn out. Liang En noticed that due to a lack of
maintenance over time, the blade had a somewhat dusty appearance.
Unlike stainless steel, the carbon steel used for Japanese swords is highly susceptible to oxidation. Even with the best storage, short-term neglect leads to rust.
While it was clear Mr. Kimura had tried his best to preserve the sword, it had still oxidized, although this level of oxidation could be remedied with a bit of grinding by a skilled polisher.
However, as the sword was fully drawn, Liang En noticed that it bore the scars of scratches and even battle marks.
This was unusual because although Japanese samurai would have several swords as backups, considering the cost of ancient samurai swords, a competent samurai would take meticulous care of his weapons.
This had nothing to do with the so-called spirit of Bushido propagated by war criminals; rather, it was because traditional Japanese samurai needed these swords for battle, and lack of maintenance could prove disastrous on the battlefield.
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