The turn of events was so unexpected that Gawain did not react for a full half minute.
He stared wide-eyed at the large case Noreta had opened. Inside, nestled among cushioning material made from some unknown substance, lay a shield with an unusual shape, roughly the size of a medium one-handed shield. A flood of memories about it rose to the surface—of course he recognized it. Though he had long given up on ever finding it, this shield had once been part of the equipment worn close to this body's side. The impression it had left in his mind was deep and clear.
He had never expected it to appear before him now, in this form.
Noreta's voice pulled Gawain from his brief distraction. "This is yours, isn't it?"
"Ah, that's right." Gawain blinked and nodded. "The Ansu Shield of the Kingdom Guardian. I thought I would never see it again in my lifetime. It was in the Mithril Treasury's possession?"
"If that were the case, we would have returned it to you long ago." Melita shook her head. "We only recently discovered its whereabouts by chance. The Mithril Treasury has always conducted business in good faith, and you are one of our important clients, so we immediately returned it to its true owner."
Dragons had no reason to lie about such matters, and Gawain knew that well. He quickly accepted Melita's explanation, then frowned and looked curiously at the two agents. "Where did you find it?"
"In the Elemental World, within the domain of a Fire Element," Melita said. "An Element Lord had secretly hidden it away and even incorporated it into its elemental shell. If that Element Lord had not happened to owe the Mithril Treasury a debt, no one might have found it for several more centuries."