Back inside, where all the Boukengers gather, Verne too was surprised to find a grate of such size addressed to him.
"Hey, Verne!" Natsuki greeted, "Where were you?"
Instead of replying, Verne buried his face in his hands, while mumbling something in his own language.
"What did you just say?" Masumi wondered.
Souta, who was holding a piece of paper, said: "What is all this here? This letter is addressed to all of us, but it doesn't make any sense."
"And whatever's in this crate..." Eiji added, "It's not Precious. My Saga-Sniper's not picking anything up."
"Lemme see that." Verne said to Souta, as he took the piece of paper out of his hands.
"What's so difficult about that letter?" Masumi asked.
"I don't know." Souta replied, "It had all these strange figures, like there was something that looked like a 'c', but with a five underneath it. How is that supposed to be pronounced?"
"Even English is an easier language than that." Natsuki added.
They couldn't discuss any of this any further, as Verne shouted something else. Although nobody understood what it was he said exactly, he sounded very happy.
"What is it?" Masumi asked.
Verne did not reply, as he was still reading the letter. When he was finished, he went to pick up a crowbar, with which he opened the crate.
When everyone, each in their own way, asked what was going on, Verne decided to speak: "Everyone, meet..."
He lifted the crate's lid up and tossed it aside the crate itself, revealing an old skeleton inside it.
"... Prince Vlad the third, of Wallache." Verne finished.
"A prince?" Natsuki got curious, upon which Masumi's facial expressions indicated he wasn't very pleased with this.
"Don't expect much from him." Verne assured everyone, "Even if he were still alive, he's the type of guy you'd rather not be hanging out with."
"How so?" Souta asked.
"He may be a local hero in Romania." Mr. Voice suddenly decided to show himself on the screen, "But some of things he did when he was alive make people outside Romania doubt that."
"Mr. Voice, where have you been?" Masumi wondered.
"I do have other things to do!" Mr. Voice replied.
"I'm sure you do." Verne said under his breath.
"Now, don't use your sarcasm on me, Emerald-kun!" Mr. Voice sounded furious.
Verne sighed, but continued what he was trying to say: "Vlad over here, has been known to brutally slaughter his enemies, in ways I don't think you wanna hear me say out loud."
"Not the prince on the white horse you expected, Natsuki." Souta laughed.
Verne ignored that remark: "It's because of those acts, he received many nicknames. The Impaler, or Tepes as they say in Romania. Or because of his father, who was nicknamed the Dragon, he was sometimes nicknamed as Son of the Dragon, which translates into Romanian as... Dracula."
"Dracula?" the sound of that name surprised the whole gang.
Eiji was the first to talk: "Are you saying that this is..."
"NO!!" Verne shouted.
Eiji did not understand: "You don't even..."
"Know what you were gonna say?" Verne completed the sentence for him, "These days everyone associates the real person Vlad with the fictional character Dracula. Trust me, I knew exactly what you were gonna say."
"So this is not Dracula's body?" Souta wondered, "Then why is it here?"
"Emerald-kun knows who this is, now you all know it too, but the vampires in Europe... that's another story." Mr. Voice explained.
"Vampires?" this was something Natsuki didn't understand, "Didn't you just say that vampires aren't real?"
"He said that Dracula is not real." Masumi reminded her, "He never said anything about vampires."
"Exactly." Verne said, "But as was said, the vampires in Europe are dying to get their hands on this, hoping that they would resurrect the 'greatest vampire of all time. To archaeologists, this is a major find, which must be carefully preserved."
"Which is something that the vampires aren't making any easy." Mr. voice added.
"And now it's here because...?" Masumi still wondered.
"Because they wouldn't look for it here." Souta figured.
"Smart thinking." Verne complimented him.
"But what if the vampires come here?" Natuski wondered, "What if they somehow found out that the Prince is here? Wouldn't they come looking for him here?"
"I don't think that would be much of a problem." Masumi assured her, "With some crosses and holy water, that would..."
Verne coughed at Masumi's assurance: "I'm sorry, but I don't think holy marks of any kind would be of any help at all."
"What do you mean?" Masumi couldn't understand, "All the legends always say so."
"Also, we have nothing to fear from them at daytime, since the sunlight kills them." Souta added.
Verne sighed: "You guys know nothing about vampires, do you?"
Everyone looked up at this remark, one person at the time.
Verne, who was surprised to see this at first, explained: "The notion of daylight killing vampires was introduced in an expressionistic movie, it was never mentioned in old folklore. Also, the idea of crosses to help against vampires are based on Christian superstitions, and since by now we know that Christianity is a hoax, I doubt that vampires are sensitive to what the legends say."
"In other words..." Mr. Voice added, "... we have a lot more to fear from them then you'd think."
"All the more reason to hide this skeleton from them." Verne said.
"But it's harmless!?" Masumi reasoned.
"The sentimental value this has to archaeologists makes it a Precious." Verne finally said.
"He has a point there." Souta remarked.
"So Natsuki-tachi get to be a Prince's bodyguards!" Natsuki cheered.
Verne sighed: "Her cheerfulness keeps surprising me every day."
"As does your..." Mr. Voice started.
"I didn't ask you." Verne interrupted, indignant.
This didn't go unnoticed by the others, so Masumi asked: "What is it with you two?"
"Perhaps you still need to get used to the idea of talking to a computer-screen." Eiji reasoned.
Verne looked at Mr. Voice, then back to the rest: "Something like that."