" The Fountain of Youth? Can drinking from it really make you stay young forever?" Donna asked, her eyes wide with curiosity.
She didn't have any expectations, because she was still young enough.
Elland did not answer immediately. He forked a piece of fried Merfolk rib meat, tore it off in two bites and swallowed it, then sipped a little Sonia Blood Wine.
"The sweet and juicy taste completely washes away the greasiness of the fried food..." He said with his eyes half-closed, adopting the demeanor of a Gourmand.
After pondering for a few seconds, he slowly answered Donna's question:
"I don't know if there is a ' Fountain of Youth,' nor can I confirm whether the ' King of Immortality ' Agarito ever drank from its waters. I only know one thing: I heard the legend of this pirate king when I was very young, just like the ' King of the Five Seas ' Nast seems to live forever."
"Their beards must be very, very long, past their chests!" Denton commented.
"In fact, Nast, the ' King of the Five Seas,' had a beard that only reached below his neck. He sat on the deck, wearing a magnificent black robe with silver trim and a pointed crown twice the height of his head, looking down at everything around him like a god..." Elland's tone gradually lowered, as if he were sinking into a quagmire of memories, unable to break free.
"Uncle Captain, have you seen the ' King of the Five Seas '?" Donna asked excitedly.
This is the most legendary pirate; his name is known throughout the seas, and even the children in the port city know him.
Generations of people grew up listening to his stories!
In a sense, in many people's minds, Nast is the real Pirate King... I remember that one of the conditions for the " Black Emperor " to be promoted was to link his own name with the title of "Emperor" and deeply penetrate the hearts of the people... Is this a rudimentary version of the attempt? I wonder what Sequence the " King of the Five Seas " has reached... Although Klein was focused on tasting Merfolk flesh, he was still distracted by the topic of conversation.
In response to Donna's question, Elland sighed and said:
"I was very young then, serving on William V. On one occasion, our fleet was trying to cross the Calamity Strait in the Raging Sea when we encountered Black Emperor."
"In those few minutes, everyone, including the fleet commander, lost the will to resist. Fortunately, Nast did not order an attack on us."
"That's so cool!" exclaimed Denton, his eyes shining.
Elland stopped the conversation and smiled, saying:
"As for the ' King of Immortality ' Agarito, I've never actually seen him. I only know that the man on the bounty poster is a pale-faced middle-aged man. How pale? To give you an easy way to understand, he looks like a corpse that has been dead for a while and has just begun to decompose."
Upon hearing this analogy, Donna and Denton glanced instinctively at the riddled-with-holes Merfolk corpse and involuntarily swallowed.
"Of course, the focus of the bounty isn't on appearance, it's on the amount. In Loen alone, Agarito is worth 100,000 pounds, and he has the lowest bounty among the Four Kings." Elland changed the subject. "Let's continue the story of the treasures. The third one is 'The Legacy of the Solomon Empire.' In the Fourth Age, when that vast empire was dismantled and destroyed, its royal family, carrying treasures that even the gods Envy, boarded ships and sailed into the depths of the Sonia Sea, waiting for the opportunity to rebuild the dynasty. However, five hundred years passed, a thousand years passed, fifteen hundred years passed, and they never appeared again."
"It is said that Nast, the ' King of the Five Seas,' inherited part of the Solomon Empire's legacy, but no one knows if he is a true descendant of the Black Emperor," Cecil added with interest.
" The Sonia Sea? The western coast of the Northern Continent?" Donna recalled her geographical knowledge.
"Yes," Krivis replied succinctly.
To the west of the Northern Continent lies the Sonia Sea, to the east the Sonia Sea Raging Sea North Sea, and to the Southern Continent's east and west sides are similar to those of the Northern Continent, while its south side is the Polar Sea. Together, these are known as the " Five Seas."
The Kingdom of Loen is backed by the Hornacis Mountain Range and the Sonia Sea, bordered by the Sonia Sea to the east and the Desi Bay to the south, and occupies several excellent sea outlets to the " Raging Sea ", but it does not involve the Sonia Sea.
"I see..." Donna wasn't interested in treasures that were too far away, and instead asked, "What about the fourth treasure?"
"That belonged to the last empire of the Fourth Age, Trunsoest. Legend has it that they built a colossal ship, equivalent to a city, and transferred all their treasures and wealth onto it. Ironically, their escape failed, and none of the scheduled passengers and crew arrived at the port in time; not a single one survived."
"However, that ship disappeared on its own. Even today, people still claim to have seen that huge ship silently sailing by on a foggy night. It is called the ' Ghost Empire,' and its haunts are all over the Sonia Sea. Ah, that's what they've come up with from those stories." Elland looked up at the red moon in the sky, his tone tinged with mockery, yet also revealing an undisguised longing.
"Maybe tomorrow night, no, tonight, we'll see it drive by!" Donna imagined with anticipation and excitement.
Klein tidied up the remaining food, took a sip of red tea, and listened with great interest as Elland recounted the rest of the treasure:
"The fifth is ' The Lost City of Newins.' Legend has it that in the Sonia Sea, there exists a civilization of Wisdom beings. Navigator and adventurers in that area often find strange items, all pointing to the ancient Newins. But the members of this civilization have never appeared; it's as if they vanished from this world long ago," Elland said, taking a sip of the remaining Sonia Blood Wine. "It's a legacy left behind by a civilization, its richness unimaginable."
Elland paused for two seconds, put down his glass, and chuckled:
"Actually, what I yearn for most, and what is more real than legendary, is the ' Sunken Laurel '. More than a hundred years ago, it was carrying gold, jewels and various valuables that the kingdom had obtained from East Balam. Because it deviated from its course, it sank somewhere in the Raging Sea and the Sonia Sea, and has not been discovered to this day."
"It is said that the items on top are worth millions of pounds!"
"Several million pounds?" The figure left Donna speechless in astonishment.
As the daughter of a businessman, and having received many years of education, she had a vague understanding of what this number represented.
In Loen, millionaires are the wealthiest people, second only to the most elite nobles and tycoons!
Millions of pounds? Mrs. Mary, who got me a free Cragg Club, was a member of the Kingdom Atmospheric Pollution Investigation Commission and a major shareholder of Coim Company, yet her net worth was only tens of thousands of pounds. Even so, she was wealthy enough in aristocratic and business circles to be a very popular divorced woman, with even noblemen vying for her hand in marriage... Klein quickly found a comparison.
Elland sighed with a smile:
"If I can find the ' Sunken Laurel,' I will no longer be a captain. I will go to Backlund, become a philanthropist, buy land, donate to political parties, and obtain a hereditary title!"
I've heard Talym mention that a lordship, which is equivalent to Baron, costs around 300,000 pounds, and Baron around 800,000 pounds... If you salvage a treasure, Viscount, or even an earlship, is conceivable... millions of pounds! Klein mentally refined the plan for the other party.
"If it were me, I wouldn't do that. I'd buy a huge estate." Cecil began to imagine life after acquiring the treasure. "I'd hire many servants and helpers, grow vast wheat fields, establish vineyards, and make wine specifically for myself... Also, large rooms that bask in the sun, leisurely grazing cattle, sheep, and horses, bread from my own mill, a scene as beautiful as a painting..."
Elland laughed out loud upon hearing this:
"Madam, do you know how much a manor like this is worth?"
"No, I don't know." Cecil shook his head.
"It's only a few thousand pounds. If you salvage the ' Sunken Laurel,' you can buy a thousand similar estates!" Elland used concrete figures to illustrate the value of the treasure.
A thousand manor houses? Cecil couldn't help but pick up his cup and take a sip of red tea.
Before this, she knew that several million pounds was a lot of money, but she never imagined it would be this much!
To calm her trembling emotions, she looked at Krivis:
"Boss, if you find the ' Sunken Laurel,' what do you plan to buy—no, what kind of life will you live?"
Krivis paused for a moment and then said:
"Go home, hug my wife and children, and tell them I no longer need to go out to sea on dangerous adventures."
"Not bad..." Klein nodded slightly.
Donna looked at him curiously:
"Uncle Adventurer, what about you?"
Klein replied expressionlessly:
Tell yourself, don't sleep anymore, wake up quickly.
Pfft... Donna spat out the sweet iced tea she had just drunk. Luckily, the fried fish on the table had already been eaten.
At that moment, Klein sighed inwardly:
Although I know it's highly unlikely I'll find the treasure, otherwise so many powerful figures from the various churches would have accomplished it long ago, I still couldn't help but feel a little excited when we were discussing the topic earlier. That's the allure of treasure! Even just a legend can attract many adventurers!
Donna wiped her mouth, sat up straight like a lady, as if she wasn't the one who had just lost her composure.
The little boy Denton asked, still wanting more:
Are there any other treasure legends?
Elland looked at Krivis, indicating that he would answer the question.
Krivis calmly took a sip of his black tea and said in a low voice:
"The legends of treasures at sea are countless: the Concealment settlements of Elf, pirate ships lost in the depths of the mist, underwater cities sealing away powerful monsters, the last treasure of Emperor Roselle, and so on and so forth."
Ah? The Emperor has reached the level of leaving behind treasure legends for others... If it's true, will there be Card of Blasphemy inside? How many? Right, the legend of the " Death's Key " might help Mr. Azik recover more of his memories. I'll write to him about it later... Klein thought with curiosity and anticipation.