Chapter 208: Bad News, and Worse News (2)

The tower that housed the Solver’s office belonged entirely to Keter, and it had three levels underground as well. Reflecting his many hobbies and experiments, the tower could practically be called a curiosity shop. There were five separate laboratories, dozens of different storerooms. There were also countless hallways and rooms rigged with traps for intruders. Now, every time Keter passed through them, he couldn’t help but feel regret.

Keter sighed. “I put so much effort into building and maintaining all this, so why does no one ever come?”

“Well, for one, the outer walls are triple-layered orichalcum, and if anyone did intrude, Popo would attack them. Not to mention, the grandpas of the Black and White guard the tower too.”

“Anyone aiming for my treasures should be able to get through at least that much.”

“But you don’t really have anything worthy of being called a treasure, do you? It’s all just weird trinkets.”

“Memories can’t be measured in value.”

“And yet you would sell them for a thousand gold,” Dork commented casually.

“Well, for a thousand gold, yes.”

After passing through the long corridors of traps, they finally reached the real safe. Dork inserted the key into the wall instead of the keyhole and turned it.

“Seriously, where did you even get the idea that the keyhole itself should be a trap?” he asked.

“Got caught by one myself once. I thought it was brilliant, so I copied it.”

The safe opened, but it was empty... or so it seemed. There were a few boxes neatly stacked in one corner. The number of boxes was pitifully small compared to the massive size of the safe, but Keter grinned as soon as he saw the writing on the boxes.

“Dork, you really are greedy.”

“I learned it all from you, Big Brother. Hahaha!”

In the boxes were small but valuable items. They were treated like trash in Liqueur but could fetch fortunes in the outside world. The gifts Dork prepared for Keter were ornate jewelry and crafts made with expensive gems.

Dork picked up a necklace, shimmering with a blue hue reminiscent of the sea.

“This is Rush of the Sea, crafted by Ludwig, an artisan from the Samael Empire. Outside, it sells for thirty thousand gold.”

“And in Liqueur?”

“I heard someone traded it for a loaf of bread, so maybe eight copper coins, tops.”

“And how much did you pay for it?”

“I have a conscience, so I gave a little more,” Dork said, holding his hand out. “Five gold.”

“You brat. You’re definitely going to heaven when you die.”

“I expect an archangel to come personally to greet me.”

“Oh, what’s this? Was this made by an elf?”

“I knew you would spot it. They said it was made from the guardian tree of an elven village. In the outside world, it carried divine power that neutralized demonic power and toxins. But in Liqueur, it’s just a pretty leaf necklace, nothing more.”

“If the divine power returns, it’ll sell for hundreds of thousands of gold easily.”

“Even without it, I’d still ask at least fifty thousand. It’s made from the elves’ revered guardian tree.”

“How much did you buy it for?”

“More than Rush of the Sea—twelve gold.”

“Reliable as always, Dork!”

Just two of these items alone already exceeded a hundred thousand gold in value. And there were more than fifty such pieces—rings, necklaces, trinkets—piled neatly in the boxes. Not only that, Dork had also stockpiled elixirs, potions, and magic stones.

“But Big Brother, there’s one small yet serious problem.”

“I think I know what it is.”

“Can we actually carry all this?”

“Mm...!”

He was right. Even with the reduced bulk, the load was far too great for people to carry. Even with a large carriage, it wouldn’t be enough. Ferrying all of this back and forth between Liqueur and Sefira would be... humiliating, to say the least.

Keter grimaced at the thought, but Dork began rummaging through one of the boxes.

“Actually, I already had a solution prepared.”

“Well, well. You even know how to build suspense now, huh.”

Dork pulled out a small leather pouch. It was gray, no bigger than a coin purse. Though humble in appearance, Keter could clearly tell it was a magic tool. It was a storage pouch, a type of magic tool that could hold far more than its physical size. It was the pinnacle of convenience, but not without limits: it was extremely small. It had to be at least level-three or higher for it to be able to carry one box.

It might work if it’s a level-five tool, but it doesn’t look like that to me.

A level-five magic tool was practically an artifact, worth more than entire fortunes. While Liqueur had anything and everything, there was no way Dork happened to have stumbled upon a level-five storage pouch exactly when they needed it most.

“I know this is hard to believe, but this pouch can hold every box in this room and still have space left over.”

“Huh?”

“Try sticking your hand into it.”

Keter slipped his hand into the pouch before Dork had even finished speaking. Storage-type magic tools carried more than just expansion spells; they were also inscribed with detection magic. After all, what good was a pouch that could only store things if you couldn’t retrieve them? The detection spell allowed the user to sense both the contents inside and the space remaining.

“...!”

His entire arm slipped inside, and instantly he felt the vast interior.

“You’re right! It’s practically half the safe in there!”

The pouch’s capacity was easily at the level of a level-five magic tool. It was probably worth hundreds of millions of gold.

“I’m guessing it’s not some rosy tale about stumbling on a level-five magic tool for cheap?” Keter asked.

“Oh, you know me too well. But it is still a level-four artifact.”

“Then it must come with a penalty.”

“Bingo.”

Indeed, there were certain spells that deliberately gave severe drawbacks to magic tools in order to boost their power. For example, there was a sword that was as durable as glass but could cut through orichalcum. Similarly, this huge storage pouch also came with some kind of penalty.

“For starters, it doesn’t have a weight-reducing spell—or rather, they couldn’t add it.”

“If the weight’s intact, it’s basically useless already, but there’s more?”

No matter how many things fit into the pouch, it was useless if the weight was all transferred directly. The pouch would weigh tons, so carrying it would not be an option to begin with. That was why weight-reduction spells were practically essential, but this pouch didn’t have one. It wasn't because the creator was stupid and forgot, but because it was deliberately omitted as a penalty to boost the bonus of expanded storage.

In other words, the moment one inscribed a weight-reduction spell, the space-expansion effect canceled out.

“It also drains the user’s mana constantly. If your mana runs out, everything stored inside bursts out at once.”

“So basically, you get crushed to death.” Keter summarized.

“Exactly. The seller even said eight people had already died that way.”

“What a goddamn cursed item.”

“Other than that, it’s perfect: it’s a perfect vacuum inside, so it keeps your food preserved indefinitely, and it even separates items for easy organization.”

“A magic pouch that doesn’t reduce the weight at all, drains your mana, and explodes with everything inside if you run out...”

Keter wondered who could possibly use such a thing.

“Who could possibly bear the weight and endless mana drain...”

Keter turned, and his eyes fell on Six. Dork also followed, but he didn’t understand.

“Wait, he’s right here.”

Six had infinite mana and a body tough enough to withstand tons of weight.

“It would weigh down on one side if you put it on your waist, so it’ll be better to put it on your neck.”

Keter hung the pouch around Six’s neck, checked it, and nodded.

“Perfect.”

“Big Brother, I don’t quite get it... Won’t his neck snap?”

“No. Six is the pinnacle of the empire’s arcane engineering. He can handle it.”

“That sounds more like wishful thinking...”

“Just pack everything in. If it looks like his neck’s about to break, we’ll take it off.”

As there was no better solution, they began loading the safe’s contents into the magic pouch.

* * *

“Big Brother, it looks fine to me.”

“Yeah. It’s way more stable than I thought.”

The pouch now held the contents of an entire wagon. Even though all that weight had been compressed into the small pouch, Six looked perfectly comfortable, as if nothing was wrong.

“Six, take a lap around the warehouse.”

At Keter’s command, Six walked a circle around the storage room with his usual light steps. On the surface, he seemed fine, but the deep footprints he left in the ground told just how much weight he was carrying.

“Feels like he’s carrying ogre-level weight at least,” Keter said.

“Wow, Big Brother, try holding the pouch from underneath. The weight’s insane.”

“Hohoho... hey, even I can’t lift this with one hand.”

“You could probably smash someone’s skull with this.”

“If push comes to shove, it doubles as a weapon.”

“Let’s make sure it’s working properly. Let me take something out.”

Dork shoved his hand into the pouch, fiddled a bit, and pulled out Rush of the Sea.

“Confirmed.”

“I’ll try it myself.”

Keter grabbed the pouch with both hands, hefted it up, and slung it around his own neck. It looked deceptively light, but veins bulged on his forearms just from lifting it.

“The weight distribution’s actually better than I expected.”

For a moment, he felt as if his neck might snap if he let his guard down, but that dangerous pressure was strangely addicting. Like Dork, he took an item out and put it back in again, then gave a satisfied smile.

“The conditions are strict, but the performance’s undeniable. Good work, Dork.”

“I just trusted you and went for it, Big Brother. Who else but you could use this thing?”

Keter hung the pouch back around Six’s neck, rubbing the back of his own neck.

“Let’s go to Sefira.”

“Huh? Right now?”

“What, should we stay the night first?”

“Big Brother, I think you forgot, but you never told me why I have to go to Sefira too, or what the goal is.”

“Oh, right. You followed me so well without complaining. I just assumed you already knew.”

“Well... I had my guesses. If someone like me joins the Sefira family, it would obviously be a big advantage. And your goal must be to revive the family and make it powerful again. That’s about what I figured.”

“My goal is to kill Queen Lillian.”

“...?”

“Come on, let’s go.”

“Wait, what did you just say? Kill who? I must have heard wrong because of the lack of oxygen underground.”

Dork wanted to believe he had misheard, or that Keter was joking, but when they got back up to the office and Keter checked over the teleportation circle, he repeated himself.

“Everything I’ve done until now, and everything I will do from here on, is for the sake of killing Queen Lillian.”

“...You’re not joking?”

“Look me in the eyes, Dork. Do I look like I’m joking?”

“...No.”

“Then that settles it.”

“Uh...”

Dork couldn’t reason why in the world Keter wanted to kill Lillian. To his knowledge, she hadn’t wronged Keter, and he couldn’t even recall any connection between them. From his point of view, Keter had only left Liqueur less than half a year ago and had also returned once briefly.

Nothing could have happened in that short span that made Keter hold such a grudge. Something that would drive him to declare, “Queen, you dared target me? You’re dead.” Unless Dork knew what Keter had gone through in his previous life and why he had regressed, he couldn’t make sense of it. And yet...

“Big Brother, honestly, I don’t get it. But if you say you have your reasons... then I’ll trust you.”

Keter stayed silent. He still hadn’t decided whether to reveal the truth of his past life and regression. Even he, who made decisions easily, couldn’t make this one lightly. But Dork wasn’t bothered by the silence. He wasn’t hurt that Keter was keeping something from him; he believed there had to be a reason.

Dork chuckled, shaking his head.

“To borrow your own words, screw it. Let’s do it,” he said.

“Your legs are shaking, though.”

“Pretend you didn’t see that, please.”

“If you don’t want to, you don’t have to. Your freedom is guaranteed.”

“Yeah, right, I know you would retaliate. No thanks.”

“Hah, this is why sharp kids like you are troublesome.”

Keter finished tuning the teleportation circle and straightened his back.

“Popo, time to move into our new home.”

“And the grandpas of Black and White?”

“In the contract, it says they will stay here and guard the tower. Well, it’s a win-win for both of us. They get a sturdy home, I get caretakers.”

“Aren’t you worried? What if nothing’s left when you come back?”

“What good would worrying do? If I could have everything, sure, but if I have to choose, better to choose quickly.”

“I feel a little bittersweet... but I’m ready.”

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

“That’s my Dork.”

From the ceiling, Popo descended. Normally, it was large enough to fill the entire tower, but now it compressed itself into the size of a human head.

Rumble...

Keter activated the teleportation circle. It roared, shaking the whole tower. Even just bringing Six along had drained Keter before, but now he was adding immense treasure, Dork, and Popo as well.

Crackle!

The circle quaked as if it would break apart.

Any normal person would have been unnerved, but Keter muttered with a blank expression, “How ironic.”

He understood then. They would make it back to Sefira, but this teleportation circle would be destroyed in the process. They would never again be able to return to Liqueur this way. The roads by land still existed, but the easy path back would be gone. To Keter, it didn’t feel like a mere chance. It felt as if Liqueur itself was warning him to never come back

Still... I had fun while it lasted, Liqueur.

This was where he was born and raised. Countless memories and encounters flashed in his mind.

We’ll meet again.

Crack!! Boom!

The office exploded in a burst of blue light. Nothing was left behind.