Chapter 307: Bronze Heron Sculpture

Thankfully, the Elf researcher had at least remembered to add a switch. This kept the Hand Crossbow from standing out too awkwardly among the numerous Magic Items and allowed it to retain some use. However, its debut had been so jarring that everyone present found it utterly repulsive, leaving Ron with no choice but to carry it himself.

"Lightning, Strong Acid, Water, Fire, Psychic, and Necrotic... So that means there's still one missing, and we don't know where it went?" Jilannis said, looking at the grooves on the stone slab. "Although I don't have much attachment to this slapdash piece of work, it is, for better or worse, 'my' work. So, Lord, I hope you can gather them all again."

"After all, if all seven Gemstones are brought together..."

"Will it summon a divine dragon?"

"If you parade them through the streets and show them off, Giant Dragons will certainly come," the Moon Elf said, glancing at the wisecracking Ron. "After all, even ignoring their magical value, they're exceptionally rare as Gemstones alone—not to mention they're a complete set. From red dragons to gold dragons, I doubt any of the Dragon Race could resist their splendor."

"Your approach was good. That Young Dragon should know how to protect his own treasure."

As she spoke, Jilannis placed the stone slab back where it belonged. Her gaze swept past the two Personification Monsters, who were just now recovering from their earlier shock, and landed on the Young Dragon's treasure hoard.

The vast majority of it had once belonged to an old Green Dragon named Auson Munielp.

"This is a Gold Coin from the Hailan Empire." Jilannis walked up the small mound of treasure and, with two fingers, plucked out a rather ancient-looking Gold Coin. Ron's gaze followed hers, and he saw that one side of the coin was indeed stamped with the symbol of the Double Lion Crown.

"If Hailan were just an ordinary kingdom that failed the test of time, this coin would probably fetch a good price." Jilannis casually wiped away the Magic Mark Aiksuuri had left on it and slipped it into her pocket. "But now, it can only serve as a common Gold Coin, or an unwelcome souvenir."

"Don't you have any savings of your own?" Quest asked curiously. "The Empire's chief Grand Mage shouldn't be completely broke, right?"

"You know my former identity. I spent a fortune severing the ties between my past and present to avoid being tracked by Spies like you," Jilannis huffed, pulling another Gold Coin with a completely different pattern from the treasure. "Oh, look at this. Doesn't the head on here look a bit like that Queen Farama?"

"Considering the time period, an antique collector interested in the history of the Delusional Land would probably pay six to ten times its face value for one of these."

Jilannis rummaged through the treasure, as excited as a child gathering seashells on the shore. While the objects whose origins she could identify brought her joy, those she couldn't recognize only heightened her excitement. For a researcher, "unknown" was just another way of saying "soon to be known"—at least, until one truly hit an unbreakable barrier.

Jilannis's research in antique appraisal was relatively limited, so she was unlikely to face that kind of despair in this particular field.

"Find anything?" Ron and the others, their interest piqued, had also joined the "treasure hunt." When Silvia suddenly stopped rummaging, everyone's attention was drawn to the Vampire Descendant.

It was an animal statue, about as tall as an adult's forearm. An exquisitely crafted but heavily worn heron stood on one leg atop a pedestal. The entire statue was cast from bronze and looked quite ancient.

"Benefactor, look at this statue!" Silvia said, carrying it over to the Elf. "Would a Giant Dragon really like such a dusty, gray-looking statue?"

"This material probably wasn't this color to begin with," Ron said, taking the statue to examine it. "It looks like a typical bronze artifact, but it was probably handled often by its owner, which would explain the relatively smooth surface. They're usually covered in paint or lacquer, but that has worn away over the long years. The metal underneath was exposed to the air, and eventually, it ended up looking like this."

Ron's gaze met the eyes of the bronze heron. The statue seemed utterly unremarkable; even the spots where its eyes should have been showed no trace of the painted "finishing touch" that would have once brought them to life.

But as Ron met the gaze of this statue that couldn't even be said to have eyes, a piercing pain shot from his own eyes straight to his soul without warning. It forced him to wrench his gaze away from the inanimate object. "That's strange! It felt like it was staring at me with ill intent!"

"It did what?" Jilannis immediately leaned in. However, even after the Grand Mage stared at the statue for a long while, she felt nothing amiss. "I think your nerves are just on edge. It's only a piece of art. Its features are just incomplete, which might be making you feel uneasy."

"Or, we could verify this another way." Seeing Ron's unconvinced expression, Jilannis simply took out a full set of instruments to test it on the spot. "I can run experiments on it from every angle you can think of—Magic Radiance, curses, seals, anything. Let's start with Magic Radiance."

The instruments showed no reaction, and Ron himself couldn't detect any magical traces on the statue.

"Nothing. Next up, curses. I'll test for reactions to three common types. You, the Tiffling, stand back a bit. Even though this isn't your true form, your presence could still skew the results toward a fiendish curse."

So Jilannis said, but the test results were clear: the sculpture was not cursed. It had never been tainted by the claws of any higher-level evil power.

"Alright, next are seals..."

Jilannis didn't lower her guard over a single offhand comment from Ron. She held a profound sense of awe and caution when it came to unknown territories and the legacy of an old Green Dragon. Perhaps it was precisely this prudence and rigor that had allowed her to rise to her station as chief and emerge almost completely unscathed from the empire's collapse.

But even she couldn't find anything wrong with the bronze heron sculpture. Even Ron began to doubt himself. 'Was I really just being too paranoid before?'

Just as Ron was lost in suspicion, the pad of his finger unconsciously brushed against the underside of the statue's slender, pointed beak. In that exact instant, the statue's head snapped down, its sharp beak piercing straight through his finger!