“Any suspicious items?”
The store manager’s eyes widened at the unexpected remark.
Arendt explained further.
“For example… if there’s something that the owner hasn’t picked up for a long time and hasn’t paid the storage fee for it, or if the item’s use can’t be figured out, things like that.”
“Hmm…”
The store manager thought for a moment. Arendt waited patiently for his answer. and after a while, the store manager nodded.
“There are some items. They are items that the person who left them hasn’t picked up.”
He knew it. The corners of Arendt’s mouth curled up slightly.
Manager Neumann added, “But it’s not like it’s some unidentified object. It has a story.”
“I can tell you the story. The person who entrusted the goods suffered an accident and passed away…”
“He passed away?”
When Arendt asked again, Manager Neumann lowered his eyes somewhat gloomily.
“It was several years ago. I think you probably know… it’s about the death of Baron Porta.”
“No, I don’t know.”
“Is that so? Well, Lord Arendt is still young.”
Manager Neumann was easily convinced and nodded.
“He was originally a businessman in the Imperial Capital, but as he got older, he took his few family members with him and went to a quiet mountain.”
“Did he leave the items in the safe at that time?”
“Yes, that’s right. He said he planned to spend the rest of his life comfortably in the mountains… but he ended up having an accident on his way there.”
The Baron’s entire family died in the accident.
“No one was looking for that item?”
“No, because he didn’t have any children and just lived with his wife and a few maids. The Baroness’s family just asked us to dispose of it on our own.”
Arendt nodded.
The scenario became clear. He had an extremely serious expression on the outside, but Arendt’s mind was spinning on the inside.
‘I think it fits perfectly.’
The thieves’ goal wasn’t just gold and silver treasures.
A strange look appeared in Arendt’s eyes; maybe those items were really here.
“Could you please show me that?”
“It’s not difficult, but… can I ask why?”
“Hey, don’t worry too much, we’re not even in a normal relationship anymore. Besides, they’re probably items that don’t have an owner anyway.”
Arendt playfully arched his eyebrows and poked Manager Neumann in the ribs. Arendt’s white fingers dug deep into the manager’s thick belly.
The store manager looked dumbfounded for a moment at that shameless attitude, but soon nodded his head.
“Well, that’s true. I’ll show you around.”
They quickly looked around with their eyes as if looking to see if anyone heard. No one was paying attention to the two people chatting in the midst of the chaos.
Arendt and Manager Neumann took advantage of the chaos to sneak out.
The store manager took Arendt deep into the safe.
There were numbered iron doors lined up along the brightly lit hallway.
Arendt looked around. Unlike the outside, which was decorated with sculptures, ornaments, and chandeliers, there was only a dark carpet spread on the floor.
“If someone sneaks in, there will be problems. That’s why we don’t place anything here to cover ourselves.”
Manager Neumann recognized Arendt’s doubts and answered. The walls must have been made to be strong so that they could not be easily destroyed, and at some point, no sounds from outside could be heard.
The place where their steps stopped was in the inner room.
The store manager dug into his pocket, took out a key, and put it in the lock.
Crunch.
Immediately after the key was inserted into the hole and a somewhat clunky sound was heard, the edge of the door flashed for a moment, and light emerged.
“Ooh….”
“This is a biometric locking spell. It was specially commissioned by the Magic Tower and can only be used by me or authorized personnel.”
Store Manager Neumann added an explanation.
After a moment, clank, clank! After a few clanging sounds, the thick door opened silently.
When Arendt and Neumann entered, the dark interior automatically became bright. Then, the clean marble floor, the facade, and the display cases that filled the large room, came into view.
It was a sight that felt like he had entered a museum.
Jewelry with unknown names or accessories that would make eyes widen, and even an expensive-looking ceremonial sword, etc.; there was nothing that did not catch the eye.
Even as he followed the store manager inside, Arendt could not take his eyes off the items.
“This is a level 3 vault. This is a place that stores items at a cheaper price than allocating an independent safe. Of course, we have thorough defenses.”
“Are the Baron’s belongings that you mentioned earlier here too?”
“Yes, the bereaved family said we can sort things out on our own, but it’s not easy to do that.”
All kinds of treasures sparkled in the light inside the transparent glass window.
After walking for a while between the display cases, they finally stopped at the innermost one.
“This way.”
The store manager who took the lead opened the glass window of the display stand and stepped aside.
Arendt swallowed dry saliva and approached the display case.
The belongings of a man named Baron Porta were carefully displayed on red velvet.
There was a jewelry box that looked old at first glance and a few accessories such as rings and earrings, and… Arendt’s eyes widened when he discovered the black leather gloves.
“Why are you doing that?”
“Does the store manager know what this is?”
“I thought they were just good quality gloves. Baron Porta also said so. I was also a little curious as to why this was entrusted to me. Well, at that time, the safe had just been opened, so there were people who came to check out items out of curiosity. I thought it was a similar case.”
That’s exactly why it was difficult to dispose of.
It didn’t seem like it would be worth anything if it was sold, but they didn’t feel like throwing it away either, because it’s the belongings of the deceased.
Arendt let out a brief groan.
‘To that person, it just looks like an ordinary object.’
Arendt shifted his gaze back to the shelves.
A few antique-looking accessories, like a pair of leather gloves that seemed like nothing special except for being a little old.
Visually, it was clear.
But Arendt could not possibly say that these were absolutely ordinary objects, for he was at a loss for what to call what he was feeling at the moment.
But soon one word came to mind.
‘It’s magical power.’
It was faint, but it was definitely magic.
Store Manager Neumann was a man who had never held a sword in his life.
A normal person would never be able to see a wizard more than once in their lifetime, so to his eyes, these objects would only seem like antiques.
On the other hand, Arendt was a promising knight, and his body seemed to sense the magic first.
Well, even if the manager was curious about something, he wouldn’t even try to carelessly touch or appraise the precious items that a customer had entrusted to him.
“Can I touch it?”
“Yes, it’s okay.”
The store manager readily agreed.
Arendt hesitated for a moment, then picked up the gloves with careful hands.
At that moment, Arendt was certain.
The appearance and size were exactly as described in the novel… even the cool sensation at his fingertips.
‘This is it.’
The true purpose of the rebels’ raid on the safe, and after it fell into their hands, it became an object that gave the Knights’ nightmares.
It was after they succeeded in breaking the safe that they began their activities in earnest.
After taking over a city, they called themselves ‘rebels’. Afterwards, attacks against unspecified numbers of people continued, and the empire was driven to the point of civil war.
As battles continued throughout the empire, the rebels took out their secret weapon.
One of them was this.
It was an artifact called ‘Frosty Touch’. It was an item that could kill a dozen skilled knights with a single gesture and freeze an entire village that resisted the rebels.
These were by no means ordinary gloves.
What on earth was Baron Porta doing after collecting these things? No, what was this person doing?
Arendt glanced at the other objects with slightly squinted eyes.
He could vaguely feel magical power in the accessories such as earrings, bracelets, and necklaces. This meant that other than these gloves, most of the items here were artifacts.
It is impossible for these items to have been collected by chance; they were probably collected personally by Baron Porta.
Knowing the ripple effects of an artifact leaking out, he probably told Manager Neumann that it was just an antique and left it in the safe.
Once it was in his personal safe, no one could access it until he took it out again.
“Lord Arendt? Why are you doing that?”
“Ah… No, nothing.”
Because Arendt stood in place for a while, Manager Neumann made a puzzled sound.
Arendt, who suddenly came to his senses, shook his head and put down the gloves.
“Manager, is it possible to take this?”
“Is this a dangerous item?”
Arendt, who was slowly trying to lay the groundwork, stopped after losing the lead.
“Yes?”
“I can sense that much. If it were nothing, there’s no way Arendt would have asked to see it separately, and there’s another reason why I couldn’t dispose of it.”
Manager Neumann smiled at Arendt.
“There were quite a few suspicious parts about Baron Porta’s accident. It wasn’t something I could talk about, so I just kept quiet.”
He really wasn’t someone to be taken lightly.
Arendt looked a little weary.
“That was a pretty good decision. This…”
“I won’t listen. I just think of it as a suitable antique.”
Baron Neumann silenced Arendt.
Arendt shrugged.
“Well, if you say so.”
“And since the bereaved family asked us to take care of it ourselves, I think there will be no problem in transferring it to you.”
“… Be honest. You just don’t want troublesome things like today to happen.”
“Haha, we could say that?”
Manager Neumann let out a good-natured laugh.
It wasn’t something difficult to predict. There was an attack, and Arendt found this item out of nowhere… and the owner of these items had already bought it and died some time ago.
Manager Neumann was not a dull person either, so he vaguely guessed that this was the thieves’ goal. Looking a little further, the carriage accident in which Baron Porta was said to have died may have also been their fault.
It wasn’t a bad thing for Arendt either. After all, his goal was to obtain this.
Arendt lifted the gloves again.
“I’ll do that. For now, I’ll just sneak this back and come back later to get the rest. If their subordinate shows up with a treasure chest from inside the vault, the leaders won’t stay still.”
“Please do it as soon as possible. I don’t want to be attacked again.”
“Our leader is not a fool either, so he will keep security tight around here for the time being. Do not worry too much.”
Arendt shrugged.
First of all, just capturing them all alive today was a huge gain. If he could gently coax the people they captured today to open their mouths, he might be able to find out more important information about his enemies.
In addition, he became acquainted with the manager of the East Vault and succeeded in stealing one of the weapons that would later become a headache for the Knights.
‘But that’s only when things go well.’
Arendt’s eyes turned cold for an instant as he headed to the lobby with Store Manager Neumann.
If his prediction was correct, things probably wouldn’t go so smoothly.