To be honest, Rebecca was truly terrible at this sort of thing. Even after Gawain explained it to her, she only understood half of it at best—but there was one thing she did understand: her ancestral lord did not seem particularly fond of the current king, Francis II.
"It wouldn't go so far as hostility, but vigilance is absolutely necessary," Gawain replied casually upon hearing Rebecca's question. He glanced at Amber standing nearby, but still spoke openly. "The Second Dynasty—don't forget that this is now the 'Second Dynasty.' For a royal family that is not especially legitimate to begin with, the Cecil Family can be considered descendants of Founding Heroes, but they can also be considered... people of the previous dynasty. Even if we have no such intentions, Francis II, as king, cannot help but harbor such concerns. And his concerns determine my vigilance."
"So you're going to cause trouble for His Majesty the King?" Rebecca asked, blinking.
"No, I don't actually want to cause him trouble." Gawain shrugged. "I'm just stirring things up."
Rebecca: "Huh?!"
Gawain truly had no way to explain this to Rebecca, so he directly changed the subject. "Forget it, that isn't important. Let's continue with what we were discussing. Amber..."
Without waiting for instructions, Amber raised both hands to show that she understood. "I know, I know, go stand guard outside, right? Ah, such a hard life..."
"No," Gawain said, raising an eyebrow. "I mean, you can stay here—though if you're bored, you can go back to your room and rest first. After all that running around tonight, you should be tired too, right?"
Amber stared at Gawain in disbelief. "What, did your conscience suddenly wake up?"
Then she shook her head and scooted over to the desk. "I'm not going back. I want to see exactly what you two are up to... Say, you aren't really dividing up an inheritance, are you?"
Gawain shook his head, ignoring the Half-elf as he placed the Platinum Disc from earlier on the table again.
"You said earlier that this was a key," Rebecca said, remembering what Gawain had left unfinished. "Could it be our family's secret treasure?"
Amber immediately pricked up her ears, though she deliberately put on a show of looking around in every direction. It could not have looked faker.
Gawain smiled. "It is indeed a treasure. It is a hidden treasure vault on the southern border, but it was originally prepared for the Ansu Kingdom. Of course, to the kingdom as it is now, it probably no longer counts as an enormous fortune—but to the pioneering force that had only just fled to this land back then, it was half the expeditionary army's assets."
Rebecca's eyes widened.
"It was originally an extra layer of insurance for the Ansu Kingdom. After all, in those days, no one knew what might happen the next day." Smiling, Gawain revealed the true purpose of this journey to the royal capital. "The pioneering force fled north from the Gondor Wasteland. As we relocated, we gathered in and incorporated surviving refugees from the wasteland while collecting all kinds of resources. The force grew larger and larger, more bloated, more conspicuous, and as a result, when we crossed the Dark Mountains, an army of monsters wandering out of the wasteland discovered our trail. The army shielded the civilians as they moved through the mountains, but naturally, they could not match the speed of those tireless monsters. A fierce battle followed. We suffered heavy losses in that battle. When Charlie and I took stock afterward, we realized something: those monsters would not give up, and if we continued carrying all the supplies across the mountains and forests, the entire force might die on the road. So the two of us made a decision...
"We left behind part of the baggage that would seriously slow the force down, hiding it deep within an abandoned frontier fortress. At the same time, we placed powerful seals on the treasure vault. Then the force traveled light and continued north.
"And you know what happened afterward—the pioneering force gained a foothold in the north and established a new center of the kingdom between the Holy Spirit Plain and the northern mountain ranges. Charles I built up the city in the Sunil region, but those supplies in the south... remained lying there in silence."
Rebecca asked curiously, "Why didn't you retrieve them?"
"At first, it was because the situation was unstable and the cost was too high," Gawain explained. "The pollution kept spreading at the time, and later, the monsters even extended the corrupted zone to the northern side of the Dark Mountains. The place where we left the supplies became contaminated territory, so sending a team into such a place to retrieve them would have been unwise. More importantly, we found abundant resources in the mountains north of the kingdom, and the Holy Spirit Plain began producing an endless stream of wealth. Before long, that new wealth surpassed the small amount of supplies left in the south. Under those two factors, the treasure vault in the southern mountains was gradually forgotten."
Rebecca looked at the Platinum Disc in Gawain's hand. "But it doesn't seem to have been completely forgotten..."
"That's right. Of course the pioneers remembered where they hid their treasure. Though that fortune would become increasingly insignificant in the foreseeable future, it was still a 'memento' of that epic pioneering endeavor. And even then, we believed that the Magic Tide would eventually recede naturally, and that our descendants would one day be able to retrieve those things safely. So Charlie and I made an agreement: our two families would each safeguard this secret. We would pass down the story of the southern treasure generation after generation. The heirs of both the Cecil Family and the Moen Family would know all of this. If one day the Magic Tide receded and the kingdom needed that wealth, we would take it out. Think about it: an ancient secret passed down for centuries, a treasure vault inherited through generations by the royal family and the founding nobility, an inheritance hidden in the mountains that could only be opened with a token—well, Charlie, that old edgelord, thought it would be cool."
Amber sized Gawain up and down. "You two made that decision after getting drunk again, didn't you?"
Gawain: "...You could say that."
Rebecca stared blankly at her ancestral lord for a long while before finally saying, "But I'm a Cecil Heir, and I've never heard this story..."
"This kind of inheritance is always prone to problems." Gawain sighed. "I died rather suddenly back then and didn't have time to explain things to my descendants..."
Rebecca: "..."
"But it seems Charlie's side did a good job passing the secret down to his descendants." Gawain coughed twice to break the awkwardness, raising the Platinum Disc in his hand. "I came here to confirm whether this key still existed. Since it does, that means the Ansu Royal Family has not touched that fortune over the past seven hundred years. Charlie knew this secret, and so did his descendants who inherited things normally, but—his illegitimate son did not."
From Ansu 635 to 636, a civil war destroyed the royal family's line of succession. The king had no time to leave behind children, while all his brothers and sisters died in the civil war. In the end, only the Grand Duke of the North supported an illegitimate son found among the common folk—whether he was real or fake, no one knew—and placed him upon the throne...
Even if that illegitimate son had been genuine, he could not possibly have known the secret of the southern treasure vault.
"Those things..." Rebecca gazed at the "key" with shining eyes, but then frowned. "But can we really use them as we please? They are..."
Gawain glanced at this N+1-generation great-granddaughter. "Of course we can. You are a descendant of the Cecil Family, so show some confidence. Charlie and I buried those things together. Other than Charlie himself, is there anyone in this world more suited than me to inherit that fortune? I refuse to believe Charlie could jump out of his coffin like I did..."
Rebecca thought for a moment, then suddenly turned and grabbed Amber's arm hard. "You must never dig up the imperial tombs!"
Amber: "...What?"
Then the Half-elf lady suddenly shuddered, staring nervously at Gawain. "Wait! I... I heard something so confidential... You aren't really planning to use this chance to kill me and silence me, are you?"
At that moment, Gawain genuinely wanted to smack her into the wall with a sword. "If I wanted to silence you, would I need to wait until now?"
The tension on Amber's face did not lessen in the slightest. "Then isn't it a problem that an outsider like me heard all the things you two were talking about..."
"First, I trust you reasonably well now. Second, I know you are actually a smart person." Gawain lifted the disc in his hand. "The only bold idea you might come up with is stealing this disc, but it can only be activated by the blood of the Moen Family or the Cecil Family. Whether the Moen bloodline even still exists in this world is hard to say, so obviously, if you want to gain something from this, your only option is..."
Amber stepped forward, puffed out her chest, and declared righteously, "Serving a Founding Hero is the greatest honor. I, Amber, shall devote myself wholeheartedly and fulfill my duties with absolute loyalty—when something is this epic, why talk about money at all?"
"Then I really won't talk to you about money..."
"Of course, if you insist on talking to me about money, there's nothing I can do."
This was the first time Gawain had seen someone capable of being so shameless while still sounding so righteous...
During the latter half of that night, no more visitors came to disturb them.
The row of mousetraps and nails Gawain had placed on the study windowsill never got the chance to prove useful.
Though they probably would not have been much use against those Shadow Stealth Experts who ignored all common sense anyway...
The next day, after resting and recovering their strength, Gawain's group arrived at Silver Castle.
The same palace official from yesterday was still responsible for receiving them, and Francis II even recreated yesterday's grand welcoming ceremony exactly as it had been—the work put into appearances could be said to have been more than sufficient.
This time, Silver Castle had also specifically sent out two teams of mounted messengers. They rode along the two main roads around the Royal District, clearing the way as they went and using Amplification Magic to loudly announce, "The Founding Grand Duke of Ansu, Gawain Cecil, is about to enter Silver Castle."
It seemed Prince Edmund had conveyed Gawain's wishes well to his father. Francis II had certainly put on a sufficient show before outsiders.
It was simply unclear how that shadow guard had reported back after returning—though that should be easy enough to judge once Gawain saw Francis II's expression.
After arranging his appearance and attire, and ensuring that the Pioneer's Sword at his waist was in the most conspicuous position, Gawain strode proudly into Silver Castle.
Before you continue