CHAPTER 177: THE EMPEROR’S BOX [1]

"...Kalinos Armian, you say?"

At least in the Empire, no, in all continents, there was no one who didn’t know that name.

The last king of the Armian Kingdom, and the founding emperor of the Armian Empire.

The great emperor who defeated King Colomo and the 72 Demons.

The great emperor who unified the divided kingdoms and established the empire.

Why was his name written here?

Why indeed.

"As expected, this place was an arrangement made by the first emperor."

Gerhard carefully picked up the box.

Unlike the precious three metals that filled the entire cavern, the box was an unremarkable black color.

"Black steel."

An ore harder than steel with excellent magical resistance. On that ore, along with the Saint Bird emblem, various engravings were carved.

"Protection magic and explosion magic?"

It was designed so that it couldn’t be easily broken, and if one tried to force it open, the box itself would explode.

He examined it closely to try to disable it, but the magical engravings were twisted in directions that Gerhard couldn’t understand.

Above all, it wasn’t like there was no way to open it at all. There was one more engraving carved on the box.

"Bloodline recognition magic..."

It was magic that recognized the user through blood as a medium. In other words, anyone with Hyde Armian’s blood could open this box.

"Another arrangement for descendants? I’ll have to open it later."

It would be good to have Hyde open it, but there would be no harm in knowing its contents first.

He abandoned the option of forcing it open.

After all, it was something made by the first emperor.

It was so complex that he didn’t dare attempt it, and he didn’t know what might happen if he tried to open it carelessly.

Gerhard, who had safely stored the box in subspace, began mining ore.

"Sigh..."

Even for the first emperor, it seemed impossible to gather the three ores in mountain-like quantities.

If not, there wouldn’t be so little like this.

No matter how much he dug into the cavern walls, no more ore came out except for the outer parts.

Front, back, left, right were all the same.

Orichalcum, Mithril, Adamant were all the same.

He thought that if he scraped together everything that was there, he might somehow be able to make the Bell of Pasa, but honestly, he couldn’t guarantee what would happen after refining.

One thing was certain: Gerhard’s plan to make money using the three metals was completely ruined.

Kuung...

At Gerhard’s angry face, Wooden tactfully kept his mouth shut.

Afterward, they spent several more hours mining ore and searching the entire cavern.

But there wasn’t much more to find. It was all over only after gathering all the damaged ore.

’At least the Orichalcum obtained from above could be considered a gain.’

What could have been a profit of 100 was reduced to about 10, but it was fortunate that it didn’t all disappear.

"Wooden, shrink again."

Kung!

Wooden quickly shrank and returned to Gerhard’s necklace.

The exploration was over.

==

Gerhard didn’t immediately go to find Jayce.

Now that he knew there was a way and had obtained the necessary materials to some extent, he no longer needed to be in a subordinate position.

It was none other than Mithril. It was Orichalcum and Adamant.

No matter how essential the Bell of Pasa was to make, doing it without any compensation at all was not the Goldenheim way.

The next day, Gerhard canceled his classes for the day.

And he returned to his family through the academy’s teleportation magic circle, which he rarely wanted to use.

"I didn’t expect you to visit suddenly during the semester."

"I have something to tell you."

"Is it urgent?"

"It’s about the Bell of Pasa."

"Why are you concerned with the Bell of Pasa?"

Gerhard opened his subspace. Dozens of chests began pouring out.

"There are more than twice as many."

"What are all these... Don’t tell me?"

The Duke opened a chest. His eyes widened at the ores filling it. He hurriedly checked all the other chests too.

"...How on earth did you get this?"

"Does that matter?"

"If it’s not something that will cause trouble, then it doesn’t matter."

"You know there can’t be any trouble."

No force possessed such a quantity of the three metals.

"Is this also from consistently reading the land?"

"Could you get something like this just from reading the land well? I was literally lucky."

The Duke looked at Gerhard without saying anything.

He must be confused. No matter how much all the world’s wealth flowed to Goldenheim, he probably had never seen such a quantity of the three metals in his lifetime.

"Do you want to remake the Bell of Pasa?"

"At the point when demons were summoned, they destroyed the Bell of Pasa. That means it’s effective, so it must be remade."

"How much?"

The Duke immediately saw through Gerhard’s intention.

Mentioning the Bell of Pasa and deliberately showing the ore meant that he wanted Goldenheim to lead the game. While he received a modest compensation.

"Just pay me the market price."

"Even I can’t pay the full value of this much."

It might be possible if he pulled up some foundation roots.

To pay the proper price, not only would he have to pull all the funds from the trading company, but he’d also have to sell some land and buildings, so staggering was a foregone conclusion.

And Gerhard didn’t want that either. After all, the Golden Turtle Company would eventually become his.

"I’ll specially do it for half price."

"What do you want?"

"Please negotiate directly with the Pope."

"I see you’ve heard that the Bell of Pasa was made by the hands of the Order."

It was surprising that the Duke knew, but in a way, it was natural.

The spider web-like network of connections extending throughout the Empire and even the entire continent was another asset of Goldenheim.

Wouldn’t the Order be among them?

"Then what are you planning to do with this?"

"You’ve grown a lot."

"I think I’ve paid that much in value."

Hmm, the Duke leaned back in his chair and looked at Gerhard with deepened eyes.

"People sometimes make mistakes. The mistake of thinking they’re definitely in the superior position because they have what the other party wants."

"I’m trusting the merchant conscience of my father."

"You’re trusting your status as my son."

That was also true. If it had been before someone other than the Duke, Gerhard would never have had such a conversation.