Camp

As they gazed at the dazzling gold coins and crystals, Rebecca, Amber, and Knight Byron all fell into a stupor without exception.

Byron had seen so-called treasures hidden deep in the mountains during his mercenary days, but those dim, dust-covered antiques were on an entirely different level from these rune-protected military supplies; as a fallen country noble, Rebecca had never seen as many treasures in her castle throughout her life as were in this storehouse; and Amber went without saying. From the perspective of a dedicated, professional thief, she was realizing for the first time that she might find it difficult to empty this place...

Of course, beneath their shock, curiosity inevitably arose as well. Many of the items before them were standard-issue equipment from the Gondor period. Most relied on the Gondor Empire's advanced Magic Technology, so after Ansu was founded, such equipment brought over by the pioneers became rarer with every piece that broke. Many more simply ran out of energy through use. By now, ancient Gondor weapons had become things even history books recorded poorly in Ansu, so these dazzling pieces of equipment in the storehouse were naturally utterly unfamiliar to them.

But to Miss Amber, how any of these things worked was utterly unimportant—everything just looked incredibly valuable!

"Gondor long gold coins... shield-emblem silver coins... and genuine three-leaf goldflower coins! My god!" Amber darted over to the chest full of coins, nearly burying her head in the pile of gold. "Money! This is all money! We're rich, aaahhh!! Boss, Boss, we're rich!!"

When there was no money, he was an old fogey; when there was money, he was Boss. That dramatic change in attitude truly lived up to her title as the Disgrace of Elves.

Gawain reached out, pulled Amber from the pile of coins, and grabbed her by the back of her collar. "Calm down, calm down—this is my money, not yours!"

Amber wore an expression of righteous conviction. "As your most loyal follower, your money is my money!"

"These gold and silver coins are actually the least valuable things here. The crystals beside them are the real treasures." Gawain curled his lip and introduced these things that were now wholly unfamiliar to modern people. "The ones piled outside the chests are Raw Ore, unprocessed Magic Matrix. Rebecca, you're a mage, so you should recognize them—though they need processing before they can be used, they'll certainly come in handy. The ones in the chests are standard-issue Military Crystal from the Gondor period. They're simple to use and can boost the combat strength of the territory's soldiers for a long time. Those swords, armor, and such are more troublesome... I checked them just now. They're all in poor condition, especially the Magic Mechanisms, which are practically scrapped. It's still unclear how much combat power they can provide now."

Though this treasure vault had been fitted with sealing runes that could slow the oxidation and rusting of metal, there was no way to slow the continual deterioration of the Magic Mechanisms themselves or the dissipation of their energy. They had long "shelf lives," but even shelf lives had limits over a span of seven hundred years. Not only the weapons and armor, but even the Military Crystal in several chests had suffered energy dissipation to varying degrees. The energy within them was likely less than a third of what they had contained when they left the factory, and the failure rate of these antiques was another problem.

But for the Cecil Family, which currently possessed nothing at all, this was still an astonishing fortune.

So even after Gawain emphasized the poor condition of these things, Rebecca and Amber continued staring at them blankly.

"Such an enormous fortune..." Knight Byron felt his mouth go dry. "And it had simply been lying quietly at the kingdom's border all this time... unknown to anyone..."

"In a way, I should thank the Mist Month Rebellion from one hundred years ago." Gawain shook his head. "When the Moen Family still remembered this wealth, the Magic Tide cut off people's attempts to explore this place. By the time the Magic Tide receded, the Moen Family's line had already died out. Ah, fate..."

Though he spoke of fate, what Gawain truly lamented was the closed, backward feudal system. All wealth belonged to kings and lords, and even the lifeblood of a nation was held as private property by a few families. Once a family's line died out, these things could become ownerless objects in some remote mountain wilderness. How absurd was that?

If the Moen Family of that time had clearly recorded these treasure vaults on paper and stored the records in an archive, with Royal Family Members merely responsible for keeping the keys, these treasures might not necessarily have fallen into his hands—the severely weakened royal family after the Mist Month Rebellion would certainly have set its sights on them.

But then again, wasn't a family-inherited treasure vault being lost in the deep mountains for one reason or another exactly the standard medieval development?

Rebecca's gaze swept across the ancient equipment and crystals before finally settling on a chest of gold and silver coins. She let out a long breath. "With these, we can pay off Viscount Andrew's debt and buy food and stone..."

Gawain glanced at her and shook his head. "No, this money can't be spent directly."

"Ah?" Rebecca froze for a moment, but she was not truly stupid and quickly understood. "Because they're all antiques?"

"That's right. If you take a pile of Gondor gold and silver coins from seven hundred years ago to buy things, even the dumbest person alive will guess that the Cecil Family dug up treasure somewhere in these dark mountains." Gawain nodded. "At the very least, while we haven't established ourselves yet, we can't casually reveal these things."

"Then what do we do?" Rebecca frowned. "We're desperately short on money right now..."

"It's simple. Even with a different shape, gold is still gold and silver is still silver. Thank goodness we live in an age of precious-metal trade." Gawain smiled brilliantly, but his words made Amber's heart twitch. "Melt them down!"

"Mother of—!!" The Half-elf nearly jumped into the air. "Do you know what you're saying?! Melt them down?! These are ancient gold and silver coins from seven hundred years ago! Even taking them to the black market and selling them as antiques would be more sensible than melting them down!"

"Ancient gold and silver coins from seven hundred years ago, preserved as good as new. More importantly, many have been completely lost to time, ancient imperial currencies whose designs can only be seen in books." Gawain looked at Amber with the same gentle expression he usually wore when looking at Rebecca. "Selling one or two would be fine, but try selling all six chests for me. If you come back alive, I'll give you a whole chest!"

Amber gritted her teeth. She wanted to risk it all by hoisting up a chest and running, but after looking at Gawain's arm, which was thicker than her thigh, she forcibly suppressed that bold and punchable thought.

But she still wanted to struggle a little. "You still can't melt them all down... That would be way too wasteful..."

"Of course we'll only melt part of them." Gawain spread his hands. "Even I would feel bad if we melted down so many antiques. We'll recast part of them into coins to solve our urgent needs, then seal away the rest until they can be useful someday."

Only then did Amber's expression relax. Gawain, meanwhile, smiled at Rebecca. "Now do you understand why I specifically declared at Silver Castle that I wanted to retain my title as Duke Cecil?"

Rebecca blinked. "Huh?"

"Idiot! A duke has the Coinage Right!" Amber glared, then instantly turned toward Gawain. "So you were already planning to melt down the antiques here back then, weren't you?!"

"You could say that." Gawain admitted it without the slightest pressure. "I'm now an unprecedented duke without a physical territory. My territory is temporarily zero, and I have to reclaim it myself. But even without land, the various privileges attached to a ducal title come naturally with it under the law. The Coinage Right is merely one of them."

Amber stared wide-eyed at Gawain, then could only sigh. "You ancient high nobles really knew how to play—those bumpkin nobles nowadays, who only know how to dig pits in their territories and extort tolls from passing merchants, can't compare to you at all."

Gawain had only one response to that. "Set your sights farther ahead. Even this entire treasure vault will be insignificant compared to the future."

Afterward, he instructed Byron and Rebecca to each pack some crystals and coins, then prepared to leave this place for the time being.

This treasure vault was now in their hands, but there was no way to put everything inside to use yet. First, they had to establish the camp below. Then trustworthy soldiers could transport the contents of the vault—most importantly, the weapons and equipment—to the camp in batches. Guards also had to be assigned to the vault. Though that magical door protected it, now that they had found the place, they could no longer leave it unattended in the mountains.

And the ancient warrior outside the ruins needed to be buried again—a stone pile could hardly count as a proper grave. Now that people from the Civilized World had returned to this land, the fallen warrior deserved a proper burial.

After sealing the treasure vault once more with the Platinum Disc, Gawain's group left the place.

The camp near the riverbank was still being built amid tense, busy activity, though it was nearing completion.

Knight Byron and Philip had purchased a large number of tents in Tanzan Town—though in truth, they were merely canvas and lumber needed to build tents. Once they reached the site, the materials still had to be worked into temporary shelters. However, the first group of the Vanguard Team were all skilled craftsmen, and they erected tents with great speed. Heti also helped with a few supporting spells, and the camp was already beginning to take shape.

Following the plan Gawain had left behind, all the tents had been built on the south side of the White Water River, roughly in a fan shape. Important supplies such as food and ironware were piled in the center of the camp, while the prefabricated lumber they had brought was stacked by the riverbank. Once emptied, the carts and covered wagons used for transport were arranged around the camp as a temporary barrier before the walls could be built. The Magic Tide had receded, but this was still a desolate wilderness where civilization had vanished—who knew what beasts might come charging out?

Beside the tents in the center of the camp, Gawain found Heti, her face filled with exhaustion.

He believed those ancient crystals could lift the spirits of this weary lady.