Special Chapter: Into the Heartner Castle Treasure Vault!
The house of Heartner had existed as minor royalty prior to the founding of the Olbaum Electorate Kingdom and had flourished as one of the ducal domains in the time since. Their treasure vault was therefore protected by some serious security.
Elite knights kept watch on a rotating shift at the doors, alert at all times. The doors were mithril coated with adamantine; it was said that the castle could collapse, and the vault would still remain standing. The only way to open these special doors was with a key given to registered individuals. The floor, walls, and ceiling inside were protected by barriers, making it completely immune to magic.
“Rise.”
Of course, the designers hadn’t expected the floor with the barrier to start moving on its own, opening up a hole to invite invaders inside.
“And just in case, Silence.” Vandal used death magic to stop any potential sounds leaking to the knights posted outside. “That should do it. Come on in, everyone.”
“This is the treasure vault?” Eleanora said, looking around. “It’s bigger than I expected.”
Zulan and Lefdia, who was floating in midair, came in next. “Even a place like this means nothing before your abilities, Lord Vandal. You could become an incredible thief, if you wished—and give the proceeds to the poor, of course.”
“Just taking a look around, there isn’t much I recognize,” said Princess Lebia, making herself visible. She was holding Lefdia to her chest. The items in the vault included works of art, so she was limiting her strength so as not to set anything on fire.
“It’s been 200 years since the things were taken,” Vandal said. “There must be a lot of non-Talosheim-related stuff in here as well. Let’s search as thoroughly as we can.”
Vandal and his party had entered the vault to take back the treasures of Talosheim that Princess Lebia had brought with her 200 years ago, stolen from her by the duke.
“Lord Vandal, there’s a tome here with an inventory of the vault’s contents,” Eleanora called. “According to this . . . there’s no Item Box.” One of the treasures they had most been hoping to obtain was a magic item that had infinite storage space by placing things into another dimension.
“Such a shame,” Princess Lebia said. “With your ability to fly around, Your Majesty, you would have become even more mobile if all you needed was to take that box with you.”
“Putting it that way, that’s not such a bad thing,” Vandal replied.
“What? Why?”
“What I’ve learned from this trip is that traveling alone is far too lonely.”
If he was going somewhere, he wanted to go with someone. If Vandal really had to go alone, he’d likely end up making undead along the way to talk to. He could handle having to work alone if necessary. But if it wasn’t an absolute must, Vandal would never choose to do so.
“I suppose being able to do everything alone isn’t always a good thing.”
“Exactly. Although I wouldn’t have to use the Item Box all by myself.”
“I see. I’m starting to understand how you think, Your Majesty,” Lebia said. “Eleonora, does that list have anything that was stolen from us?”
“The records include a simple description of the items, but not how they were obtained. Simply the names here won’t be enough to work anything out.”
“What about a date? Is there anything like that?”
“No, nothing,” Eleonora said. “There must be a more detailed record somewhere else, with those kind of details.”
“We’re pressed for time,” Vandal cut in. “We’ll have Princess Lebia and the others take a look around and see if they can pick anything out.”
“Oh, that sounds like fun!” Princess Lebia was practically clapping. “A real treasure hunt!”
She started to woosh around the vault in excitement. The phantoms and Zulan did the same. If the guards were to witness the ongoing whirlwind of monsters, they would likely pass out on the spot.
“I guess we can make a mess,” Eleonora said. “When the castle gets tilted tomorrow all of this will be thrown everywhere anyway.”
“Good point. Oh, look at that big cup. Is that a giantling item?” Vandal spotted a magic item that looked like a massive cup. It had a handle reinforced with mithril and a number of gemstones embedded into it.
“Lord Vandal, that is the Infinity Juglet, an item presented to the duke by an adventurer who became a knight of the house around fifty years ago.” One of the maid phantoms revealed the truth, however. “If you drink alcohol from it, you will be able to continue drinking as much as you like, no matter how strong it may be, without getting drunk.”
“I would’ve guessed from the name that the cup would’ve poured out infinite liquor,” Vandal said. “Simply not getting drunk isn’t so impressive.”
“Ah, also, any poison poured into it will also have no effect.”
“That sounds more useful. Huh? What’s up, Lefdia?” Vandal put down the juglet as Lefdia trotted up at his feet carrying a necklace made from massive gemstones.
“This pendant? But it looks human-sized—”
“That gemstone!” exclaimed Lebia. “That’s one of the rubies from the crown of the king of Talosheim!”
It seemed like Lefdia hit the jackpot.
“So they removed the giantling-sized parts and just used the stone to make a new item,” Eleonora said. “Lord Vandal, what do you want to do?”
“There might be other pieces made from broken-down items like this, and it will be odd if just a few gemstones go missing. Let’s take the entire necklace.” They hadn’t been planning to take anything other than treasures from Talosheim, but this was an unexpected wrinkle. Vandal took the pendant from Lefdia and put it into the bag.
“That means we’ll need to check every single item in here,” Zulan said. “Everyone, look carefully at anything using gemstones!”
The ghosts responded in agreement and started to work through every gem in the place. They were quickly rewarded, as well, with gems from the crown appearing one after the other to collect.
“Lord Vandal, what do you think about this one? It looks like a giantling shield. The inventory states ‘a large and powerful wall.’”
Eleonora was pointing at a massive adamantine shield leaning up against the wall. Adamantine was the hardest metal that humans could work, only losing out to the so-called metal of the gods, orichalcum. That made it heavy, but a shield of this size could stop attacks even from powerful monsters like dragons and giants.