novelraw Chapter 205: Treasury
Chapter 205: Treasury
Fisher tightly gripped Jasmine's hand. The moment the transmission entrance opened, Fisher felt his body instantly lighten, abruptly floating toward midair.
But looking around at this moment, one would discover that the surroundings were no longer the original royal library. Instead, the line of sight was covered by a pitch-black background color harboring faint flowing light.
"Hold tight!"
The massive sensation of pulling made Jasmine somewhat nervous, and a bit of sweat broke out on her small palms. Worried he wouldn't be able to hold onto her, Fisher hastily extended his other hand for her to grab.
But just as Jasmine struggled and extended her other hand, the surrounding pulling force twisted again, instantly turning into a suction force. In the next second, as if teleporting, the two of them appeared out of thin air in another location, and simultaneously gravity returned to normal anew.
"Cough, cough..."
Covering his mouth, Fisher's body came into contact with a somewhat icy floor beneath him. When he raised his head anew, he finally discovered that this was an extremely unfamiliar room.
The entire room was incomparably pitch-black, but when Jasmine also stood up, streams of clear fluorescence began spreading along the surrounding walls.
That fluorescence was very similar to what Fisher and the others had seen under the waterways of Lake Naris. This was broadly the style that Whale-kin preferred; this soft, not-too-bright fluorescence was very friendly to them in pitch-black ocean trenches.
"It hurts... Could it be that Black and the others feel this uncomfortable every time they enter their own treasury?"Clutching her head, Jasmine climbed up from a large pile of gold. Inside were large Naris gold coins as well as vessels made of gold. During her fall, she had accidentally bumped her head on those hard objects, making her words sound rather pathetic.
"No, it's because the nested magic I additionally used disrupted the effect of the original magic, so there was a slight deviation in the transmission location. We need to go find Anna and the others quickly. If Black finds them first, I'm afraid things will go wrong."
"Okay!"
Jasmine gently pushed aside the gold coins on her body. Rising slightly, she abruptly turned her head as if sensing something, and Fisher simultaneously looked in the direction of her gaze.
On the wall of this room full of gold, a massive oil painting hung right in the middle, wrapped by traces of that fluorescence. The picture was illuminated very clearly by the fluorescence; even the surrounding gold seemed somewhat inferior in comparison.
The painting employed full-color oil strokes that were extremely delicate. Following the outline of the brush tip, a lifelike picture seemed reproduced before the eyes of Fisher and Jasmine.
The scene before them was on the deck of a sailing ship. Right in the center of the lens, two people snuggled together, simultaneously looking at the painter's primary viewpoint with smiles.
The two were a man and a woman. The man had extremely handsome features; passably neat blonde hair was hidden beneath that pure black captain's hat. He was quite tall, at least two heads taller than the woman beside him, with a robust and powerful physique, though his skin seemed somewhat tanned by the sun.
He tightly hugged the lady wearing a short white sleeve beside him, carrying a gentle smile. And the lady beside him was likewise smiling, making a perfect V-sign hand gesture toward the drawing painter, while her other hand was similarly placed behind the man's waist.
Below, there was another line of handwriting,
"The 9th Year of Godolin IX, Black Vassili and Muxi, on the Northland Sea."
"To commemorate this precious time."
The Muxi in the picture still possessed a human appearance, which meant she was still under the Blessing of Ramastia and wasn't injured or the like, hence didn't expose her true Whale-kin form.
"Let's go, Jasmine..."
"...Ah, okay."
Jasmine slowly withdrew her gaze and followed Fisher ahead out of this treasure-hoarding room. It was only upon coming out that Fisher discovered the space in this treasury was enormously vast, and its structure was extremely complex.
The corridors of the treasury were completely suspended in midair, and below was entirely a broad, dark, and remote space. The faint sound of flowing water could be heard transmitting over. This place seemed to be a fully formed underground karst cave, and situated very deep. He also didn't know how Black had found this place back then.
Walking a distance further ahead until they entered the building in front, both sides of the corridor were closed off anew. Small cubicles for holding items had been chiseled out on the walls. Fisher examined them one by one along the way, discovering that the items in these small cubicles weren't any priceless treasures.
There was a praying windmill from Kadu. Because too much time had passed, the windmill paper on the windmill had already yellowed, leaning crookedly against the stone wall behind the small cubicle. There was a dragon's roar whistle from Schwari. This kind of whistle was a plaything crafted by Schwari for children to play with; blowing this whistle would emit a sound akin to a dragon's roar.
Even more outrageously, in one small cubicle sat a stack of romance storybooks from the Northern Border praising "female superiority and male inferiority". The cover of the leading book even had Naris text crookedly written on it: "Black loves this kind the most".
And beside that line of words, there was another completely different red handwriting drawing a small cross, with words written above,
"Not!"
Jasmine pursed her lips and walked past these tiny cubicles. These things weren't any praiseworthy treasures at all; they were more like the lifestyle recorded by a certain couple in the past.
The records of them changing exploration ships; the first villa they bought in Naris; the photo taken when Muxi pretended to be a wealthy lady and Black stealthily snuck her into a Godolin cocktail party...
Reaching the end of the corridor, an enormous picture frame was suspended there. However, what was contained inside was no longer an oil painting, but a clearly taken black-and-white photograph. The photo also had the magic of preservation and reinforcement, which Fisher saw at a glance.
A holy church appeared in the picture, yet no priest was seen inside the church. Under that statue of the merciful Mother Goddess, there were only Black and Muxi.
Wearing a pure black ceremonial suit, Black gently held Muxi's hand; and Muxi completely revealed her Whale-kin appearance, with long ears very similar to Jasmine's and a fishtail extending down from that slender white dress.
The gentleman was handsome, his standing posture upright; the lady was beautiful, her physique gentle.
The hands of two people from different races were tightly held together, exchanging a gold ring flashing with faint radiance on their ring fingers.
Indeed, the Whale-kin named Muxi was wearing a Naris wedding dress at this moment. She and Black held a wedding in some church in Saint-Nazareth...
But inside that church, there were no priests, no guests, no flower girls or bridesmaids. There were only the two of them looking at each other with smiles, leaving behind this unique photograph.
Similarly, a line of elegant Naris text was still left beneath this photograph,
"Happy Wedding!"
Black ultimately truly chose to marry a demi-human. This conduct, which could be called taboo, was performed by that esteemed "First Pioneer". A marriage that could not be accepted by worldly customs, not acknowledged by anyone, could only be held silently without witnesses in a certain church in Saint-Nazareth.
He once possessed boundless wealth and had a princess bestowed upon him in marriage by Godolin IX, but he decisively refused and never got close to any woman again, because he had a secret Whale-kin wife...
On this point, Fisher naturally felt inferior. Even he had to admit that Black, who accomplished this matter, possessed courage exceeding ordinary people.
But perhaps it was exactly this courage—not restrained by secular norms and daring to blaze a new trail—that ultimately allowed Black Vassili to become a pioneer leaving a name in history.
"Black, he... and Auntie..."
"They once loved each other deeply."
Gazing at that black-and-white photograph recording the past, Fisher ultimately said this.
And only behind that photograph wall was Black's true treasury. In other words, the segment of road Jasmine and Fisher just walked was merely the path before entering the treasury.
Xi Yate and Anna seemed to have been teleported directly inside the treasury, because the transmission magic previously had been a little unstable...
Fisher and Jasmine had already heard faint commotion occurring inside, so they hurriedly arrived at the entrance gate of Black's treasury.
The entrance gate was a stone door over ten meters tall. Overall, no access control was set up, and it could be pushed open purely using strength. The Naris text on it read,
"This is the entrance to the treasure land holding the lifelong collections of a ruthless pioneer, not the entrance to Black Vassili's treasury."
"You have already glimpsed the full picture of all his treasures before this door."
After those two lines of text full of impact, Fisher remained silent for a second, then gently pushed open this large door with force. A burst of piercingly cold wind blew from behind the door, broadening their field of vision once again.
In sight was a luxuriously decorated golden hall. Even though there was nothing in this hall, the aura of gold, properties, magical fluctuations, and relics in the air had already rushed against their faces.
At the very top of the hall, a Mother Goddess statue carved out of precious gemstones looked mercifully down beneath the hall. The corridors extending from all directions were densely packed entirely with treasures stored in different classifications. From within, one could faintly hear a slight sound of trotting hooves and the rustling sounds of footsteps.
"Fisher! Look quickly, the floor here is inlaid with rubies..."
"Yes, he steered more than a dozen different pioneer ships back and forth across every corner of the world in his lifetime. No matter where, he brought back any valuable items he came across along the way here. Judging from the scale here, the collection is at least over forty times the treasures held in the Royal Museum above... not to mention those items that are priceless."
"Clack clack clack!"
Right after Fisher entered this not-so-quiet hall, a burst of hurried hoofbeats suddenly transmitted from deep within the corridor beside the first floor. Fisher's expression changed slightly, knowing now was not the time for taking a leisurely stroll to educate Jasmine with popular science. They were still in danger right now.
"Let's go find Anna and Xi Yate and bring them back first, go this way."
The two moved their footsteps rapidly, heading toward the depths of the pitch-black corridor.
Directly above the hall, that crystal-carved Mother Goddess statue looked rather mercifully at the hall that had emptied anew. Behind the stained glass at the very back of the hall was an even broader space. Taking a look from this position, one could just happen to see a tall figure draped in a cloak slowly walking out while supporting himself against the wall in that treasure-filled plaza, currently looking over here while panting.
"Ha—"
"Woo—"
There were also terrifying low cries constantly transmitting from many rooms. After Fisher and Jasmine ran toward the corridor over there, he was also moving at a fast pace toward that side too...