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Chapter 329 – The Treasure’s Location

The Treasure’s Location

Cautious as he was, the secretary still kept Hikaru under watch for an additional five days even after Patricia told him to stop the surveillance. But in the end, the adventurer went about his business as usual. Having gained nothing, he ordered the monitoring to stop.

「Welcome back, Hikaru-sama.」

「Hi. Sorry, but can you hold the door for me?」

「Sure!」

Hikaru returned late one night. Three days had passed since the authorities stopped watching him.

Paula opened the door, and Hikaru entered, carrying a metal chest with both hands. It didn’t seem to be that heavy. Its surface was stained with mud, the metal parts rusty. There weren’t any holes, however, as the metal was quite thick.

「Hikaru, is that what I think it is?」Lavia asked as she closed the book she was reading and stood up.

「Yup.」Hikaru replied, carefully carrying the chest to the table where she was at.「I found King Allegro’s real treasure.」

Lavia gulped as she glanced at Paula, whose eyes were fixed on the chest. Dirt fell as Hikaru set the chest down with a thud, but no one cared.

「All right. Let’s open it.」Hikaru said.

「Yeah. Do it quick! I wanna see what’s inside!」

「I don’t see you get excited too often.」

「I’ve only read stories about treasure chests before, and now there’s one right before my very eyes!」

Hikaru pulled out a knife and inserted it in the gap. The chest creaked, but it was too tight. It wouldn’t open easily.

「Sorry you’re doing all the hard work.」Lavia said.

「Yeah, well, it was a bit of a dirty job. I couldn’t let you two come with me.」

「I must say, I was surprised when you said you wanted the parchment instead of the two million.」Paula said as she watched Hikaru try to open the chest.

「I didn’t have time to explain there. I really couldn’t blame the people there for not realizing that the parchment itself was the magic item.」

When he first saw the poem, Hikaru thought it was a cipher to the whereabouts of the treasure. Since he had his Mana Detection on the whole time, he saw the mana flowing from the parchment, and his Instinct also told him that the parchment was necessary to find the real treasure.

All he had to do then was obtain the parchment, which was by no means easy. People would be suspicious if he threw away two million gilans for it.

「I’m glad we kept ourselves neat. Though I’m quite sure we didn’t look like actual adventurers.」

「Thanks to that, they thought we were just doing adventurer stuff as a hobby. They didn’t suspect a thing when you said you wanted the parchment. Am I right?」

「Yup.」

「But Hikaru-sama. I’m surprised Lady Patricia gave up right away.」

「Same. I panicked a bit when I first saw the altar, but that was just an elaborate prank.」

Just like Patricia’s squad, Hikaru also found the altar located within the cave in Zelze Cape.

「But that hole was just a trap. “The treasure’s gone. Give up”. It was a trick set up in case someone finds the cave by accident.」

If someone happened upon a cave in a strange place, they would think there was something to it. But if there were traces of the earth being dug, or the altar ransacked, one would think “there’s no treasure here anymore”.

Those who came with a map would fall for the trap even easier. Hikaru thought that perhaps the king really did leave a small fortune behind. Although based on the research they did, that was not the case.

No one would usually think that there would be a clue to the location of another treasure right where a treasure was hidden.

「But the words “poem collection” caught your attention.」Paula said.

「Yeah. The poem inside the chest was only one piece. It’s strange to call it a “collection”. In other words, there’s a continuation.」

Hikaru paused for a bit, took out the parchment from his pocket, and put it on the table.

「I hadn’t used the parchment once by that point. I thought finding the treasure with just the verses alone would be strange.」

More verses had appeared on the blank space of the parchment. Three of them.

「Remember when I let the sunlight shine on the parchment and more words appeared? It’s hard to tell at a glance, but there’s actually a magic item on that small window too.」

After that, Hikaru and the girls studied the words that emerged—the clue to the location of the next hint. Since they were being watched, they kept visits to the library at minimum and took ordinary commissions from the guild. Every night Hikaru went out to the next location. After repeating the process a few times, he finally made it to the location of the treasure today.

Hikaru resumed the task of opening the chest.

「Anytime now... There!」

Hikaru peered into the chest. The girls leaned in as well.

「A chest.」

「Looks like a chest.」

Inside the chest was a smaller chest covered with a little bit of dirt. It looked just like King Allegro’s Treasure Chest, but much smaller. It didn’t have gems embedded on it either. Hikaru took it out and set in on the table.

「Oh!」Lavia exclaimed in admiration, while Paula clapped her hands.

Its color had faded quite a bit, but it still retained its brilliance. It was covered in dust, however.

「I’m gonna open it.」

The chest opened with no trouble at all. Inside was a piece of parchment and a lot of gems that sparkled under the light of the room.

「Wow...」

Lavia couldn’t hide her amazement. Paula froze on the spot, silent. They probably didn’t think there would be this much. The diamond in the middle was as big as a fist.

The parchment read as follows:

Poem Collection—End – Allegro Sandrow Akaxion

The light that spills from my hand can never be retrieved

Light with form is empty, but without form there can be no light

My life’s light will never run out

I pray that it burns for eternity

「It says “end” so I guess this really is the last one.」

Hikaru took one gem and held it to the light. It was clear, with no mana in it. It was just an ordinary gem.

「I guess it was worth the trouble.」Hikaru said.

「More than worth it.」

「I-I-I-Incredible!」

「You can take a few that you like. It’s not too often you get a chance to get gems this big.」

Lavia and Paula exchanged glances.

「I’ll pass.」Lavia said.

「Me too. It’s too much for me.」Paula added.「Besides, you did almost all the work alone.」

「Really? You don’t have to hold back. We found the treasure because of all the research we did together at the library.」

「In my case, it’s more of, uhh... You found this in King Allegro’s tomb, right? I don’t think I’ll feel good wearing them.」

「Oh... I see.」

It made sense. Hikaru hadn’t told them that he found the chest in a mausoleum underground. It was located deep inside a remote forest and hidden using a magic item. The chest was buried next to a mummified corpse.

As for the meaning of the last piece of the poem collection...

“Light with form is empty, but without form there can be no light.”

I think he means that unlike humans, the light emitted by a gem is empty. But without the gem (aka money) humans can’t live.

He probably also wants the gems to be used. Though “I pray that it burns for eternity” strongly implies “exchange the gems for money and use it meaningfully”.

King Allegro rested in peace alone. He probably led a lonely life. That is why he wanted to entrust his fortune to someone wise. At least, that’s what Hikaru thought.

「But more than anything...」Lavia said.「I’d rather be with you and have fun rather than wear such expensive things. So let’s sell these all and use the money so we can have fun.」

Hikaru didn’t say another word. In fact, he grinned broadly from embarrassment.

「Hikaru-sama’s smile looks awkward! The destructive power of your words is incredible, Lavia-chan.」

「Hush. Lavia’s adorable, so it’s fine.」

Hikaru decided to sell them all for cash.

In the end, Hikaru asked Kelbeck of the Thieves Guild to sell all the gems. All in all, it totaled 250 million gilans.

We’ll be fine with this much for the time being, Hikaru thought.