Chapter 279: The Kingdom’s Treasures

As he walked through the treasure vault alongside Emilia, Mark quickly realized it was far bigger than he had imagined.

The corridors seemed to have no end, and the light from the candelabras cast long shadows between the shelves and display cases, making the place feel even more immense.

And, just as Emilia had warned him, the vast majority of it was nothing more than mountains of gold, jewels, gems, and every kind of valuable object whose only merit was its price.

However, none of that managed to spark much interest from Mark. After all, having an entire kingdom, gold was the least of his concerns.

Even so, as they went further in, he started finding other things that did catch his attention, mainly because he hadn’t expected to find them in a place like this.

Mark stopped in front of what appeared to be a stuffed monster, mounted on a wooden pedestal.

It had the shape of a winged beast, with hardened scales and jaws full of fangs.

"Is that... a dragon?" Mark asked, raising an eyebrow.

"A hatchling, yes," Emilia replied, giving it a casual glance. "Or that’s what I was told as a kid... I never asked where it came from."

Mark decided not to think about it too much and kept moving forward.

Until, a little later, he reached a section dedicated to weapons.

There were dozens of them, displayed on stands or hung on the walls, many with a finish so flawless they looked like genuine works of art.

However, his curiosity quickly faded, since almost the entire collection consisted exclusively of swords.

Long, short, sabers, greatswords... one variant after another.

Which, thinking about it, made complete sense.

After all, he had seen the Demon Lord’s memories and still remembered that Emilia’s father had been a swordsman.

But then, among all those swords, Mark spotted something he recognized instantly.

It was the weapon of that reincarnated man they had defeated and killed some time ago.

’Well...’ he thought with a half smile. ’So this is where Ely ended up storing that thing.’

He found it somewhat amusing to find that forgotten greatsword mixed in with the rest of the collection, since it was an excellent weapon, and of all his wives, only Ely had the technique needed to properly wield a greatsword of such power.

However, she had never wanted to adopt it as her primary weapon.

Not because she lacked the skill, since she handled greatswords as well as any other weapon, but simply because she had never felt comfortable using it.

And though she had tried it a couple of times at his request, in the end she always ended up going back to her usual sword.

Mark pulled his gaze from the greatsword and turned toward Emilia, who was walking calmly beside him.

"Hey, does it not bother you that Ely and the others come in here and take or leave things like it’s nothing?" he asked, somewhat curious. "After all... I’d imagine a lot of these things hold some special meaning for you."

Emilia gently shook her head.

"I already told you. All of this is yours now, and if it’s yours, it’s theirs too," she replied calmly. "They can come in whenever they want, take what they need, or leave behind whatever they don’t. I have no problem with that."

She gave a small smile.

"And honestly, I’d rather these things find some use than keep sitting down here, forgotten, gathering dust for another decade."

"I understand."

Mark nodded, though his attention had already drifted back to the vault’s contents.

"What keeps surprising me is the sheer amount of unusual things your parents managed to gather," he commented, stopping in front of what looked like a giant’s skeleton nailed to the wall. "I mean, stuff like this isn’t exactly what you’d expect to find in a treasure room."

He gently knocked on the bones with his knuckles, producing a hollow sound.

"Where did they even get something like this in the first place?"

"From everywhere, honestly," Emilia replied with a shrug. "Though roughly half of what you see here were gifts."

"From who?"

"The noble houses," she explained, looking at the skeleton. "They used to offer tributes and gifts to my parents to earn their favor, and over time it just piled up."

"That makes sense..."

"The other half comes from my parents’ travels, though most of it was found by my father," she explained with a nostalgic smile. "He was always exploring areas nobody else wanted to set foot in, so he ended up collecting all kinds of objects."

The two of them kept walking a while longer, with Emilia occasionally pointing out an object and telling the story she remembered behind it.

But then, at the far end of the vault, something caught Mark’s attention.

A section set apart from the rest.

Unlike everything else, which was on display, that area was completely covered.

A large sheet of thick cloth, darkened by dust and time, hid whatever was underneath.

Mark stopped, looking at it with curiosity.

"And that?" he asked, pointing at it. "What’s under there?"

Emilia frowned slightly as she tried to remember, and after a few seconds of silence, ended up shaking her head.

"...Honestly, I don’t know," she admitted finally.

"Really?"

"Yeah," she replied with a shrug. "After all, I was only ever in this vault a couple of times, when I was very young."

She contemplated the cloth with a distant expression.

"And after my parents died, I never set foot here again until today," she continued, looking at that corner. "I suppose I never worked up the courage to come back here without them... So I have no idea what’s under that cloth."

Mark’s eyes never left the sheet.

After everything Emilia had told him, it was impossible not to feel curious.

"Do you mind if we take a look?" he asked.

Emilia seemed to hesitate, but almost instantly her own curiosity lit up in her eyes.

"No," she replied. "In fact... I want to know what’s there too."

The two of them approached the covered section.

Mark grabbed one end of the heavy cloth with both hands, made sure it was securely gripped, and with a firm pull yanked it off all at once.

The fabric fell to the floor, kicking up a dense cloud of dust that forced both of them to turn away and cough.

And little by little, the dust cleared, fully revealing what had remained hidden beneath the cloth for years.

"Wow... I definitely wasn’t expecting this."