Chapter 29: Guided tour, part 3.

The next room, located on the third floor, near Hilda's office, did not house a classroom but a room full of various archaeological finds.

"I call it the treasure room. It contains artifacts from all over Europe and beyond, some of which are centuries old or even millennia old." Hilda explained.

Her guests observed it carefully: it was a very large room, containing dozens of objects of various kinds, enclosed in glass cases. Among them were a dagger linked to the culture of Unetice (III millennium BC), a Hittite bronze table covered with inscriptions from the 13th century BC, a Japanese vase from the Jomon period (8th century BC), a bronze statue from the reign of Saba (7th century BC), some coins from the Ethiopian kingdom of Axum (1st century AD), a copper artifact linked to the culture of Mississippi (2nd century), an obsidian mask from Teotihuacan, a Nazca statuette (3rd century AD ) and others: Roman swords, Viking helmets, Sumerian tablets, an Egyptian bas-relief etc.

"A well-stocked collection ..." Darjeeling commented.

"Exactly, one of the largest private collections in the world." A female voice intervened.

They all turned to the entrance, noticing a blonde woman with long hair in the company of a man with short blue hair and eyes of the same color.

"Who are they?" Saori asked.

"I introduce you to my parents, Leila Breisgau and Akito Hyuga."

The two new arrivals came forward, and the girls bowed to them.

"We are honored to meet you." Miho said.

"The honor is ours. You are the commanders of the local schools, right?"

"Exact."

"Hilda had warned me of your arrival. How did the welcome feel?"

"Very ... Warm. The people here are really hospitable. "

Leila nodded, smiling.

"You would be Miho Nishizumi, right?"

"Yup."

"My daughter told me about you, you know?"

"Really? And what did she say?"

"She considers you a heroine, you know?"

Miho blushed at those words.

"R-really?"

"Exact. Ever since you led Ooarai to victory in the last sensha-do tournament you have earned her esteem. Miho is an exceptional commander, Miho is a genius, Miho is number two in the sensha-do ... Things like that."

"The number two? And who is one?" Hana asked.

"Me, obviously. Under my command, Schwarze Sonne has won ten European tournaments in a row. "

A modest girl ...

Momo thought.

"By the way, what are you doing here?"

"Simple, daughter ... We admired the last piece of your collection."

Saying this Akito pointed to a large diamond with an unusual color, black rather than transparent.

The girls looked at him curiously, they had never seen a diamond of that color.

"What is that?" Kay asked.

"The black diamond, a jewel that belonged to Kublai Khan, coming from the mines of China." Hilda replied.

Intrigued, Miho took it and turned it over in her hands: it was as big as an orange, and the unusual color gave it a strange appearance. Suddenly she began to feel strange, so much so that she had to drop the precious stone. Looking up she noticed with amazement that she was inside her panzer IV, together with Mako who was sitting in the driving seat, slumped on the controls. She looked around disoriented, wondering how it got there and why battle noises came from outside. Then she approached her friend, saying to her:

"Mako-san! Where were you over? I was worried about you!"

She received no reply. She approached her and shook her, but as soon as she did this she slid to the ground, revealing a bullet hole in the middle of her forehead. She was dead. Distraught, Miho raised a hand to her mouth to hold back a scream and backed away a few steps, until she bumped into something. She turned and saw Hana's body, horribly beheaded, lying on one of the seats. Then she gave a chilling scream.


"Miho! Please, come to your sense!" Said a voice.

Miho, recovering from her daze, looked around: she was back in the finds room, and everyone present looked at her anxiously, even Hana.

"What happened?" She asked.

"We should ask you! You had taken on a strange expression, and you seemed to be in a trance!" Anchovy replied.

"I do not know." Saying this she looked down.

"Could it be because of this?" Maho speculated, picking up the diamond from the ground.

"The black diamond has this peculiarity ... Anyone who touches it will have terrifying hallucinations or nightmares." Hilda said.

"You had to tell her first!" Saori scolded her. For its part, Maho put the object back in its place.

"Don't worry, it will only last a few days. The same happened to me when I picked it up, and for about two or three days I had bad dreams."

"How can a diamond induce someone to have visions or nightmares?"

"I have no idea, Darjeeling. Maybe it's a kind of anti-theft spell, wanted by Kublai to prevent bad guys from taking it away from him. Already in the eyes of today's people it is dangerous, imagine for a thirteenth century thief."

"Then how come it doesn't affect me?"

"I don't really know."

"Well, in any case it's time to continue the tour, we'll move outdoors." Himmler intervened, looking at her clock.