ALL NOVEL chapter 45
45 – Storage of Treasures (1)
In the capital of the Shazar Kingdom, there was a distinctive building that caught one’s eye.
As you enter the streets of Parbatan, the first thing you see is a tall building with a perfect symmetrical structure made of pure white marble. This was the palace where the Shazar royal family resided, called the “Seat Mahal.”
Just like its name, Winter Palace, the distinctive feature of the palace was that it was made up of purely white buildings that reminded one of snow. The kings of Shazar always took pride in this beautiful palace.
Seat Mahal was a massive palace encompassing various pavilions, and these pavilions served as the living quarters for the king’s children. Although they were family, the reason they didn’t live together had many factors, with the most significant being the desire to foster competition among siblings.
As the offspring of the king, siblings were nothing but a static entity. It may seem cruel and cold, but it was the tradition and values of the Shazar royal family.
Unlike the main palace where the king resided, the sub-palaces were referred to by numbers like the second palace or third palace. In other words, the closer a royal family member lived to the main palace, the closer they were to the throne succession.
At the forefront was the second palace of Prince Shabahadur, the current crown prince of the Shazar kingdom.
“…Tin Tara has collapsed?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
He was now hearing quite astonishing news. The shadow organizations of the royal family, including Tin Tara, had collapsed overnight.
These shadow organizations acted on behalf of the royal family to handle all sorts of dirty activities. If these were to be controlled by a king representing a country, it could lead to unnecessary trouble. Therefore, they were managed by the crown prince or the most likely candidate for the throne.
Therefore, for Crown Prince Shabahadur, the sudden collapse of the entire organization was not
Moreover…
“The stolen dragon jade has also disappeared.”
As even the stolen dragon jade has vanished from the kingdom, Bahadur spoke with a slight furrow in his brow.
“Her Majesty explicitly expressed her desire to obtain it.”
“Since it was not a direct order from Your Majesty, I will not consider it a problem.”
That was the case. This whole affair was not directly commanded by the king, but rather, it was Bahadur’s early attempt to gain favor when the king revealed his greed for the dragon jade.
It was fortunate that it wasn’t an order from the king at the moment of failure.
“Where have Barman and Babur gone?”
“Even their whereabouts are mysterious, Your Excellency.”
“…Did they escape with Yongok?”
“It seems unlikely. It appears that both brothers were killed. The last traces of the two brothers were cut off from the escape route, and bloodstains were found.”
Shah Bahadur was slightly surprised. Barman and Babur brothers were known for their considerable skills. If they had no skills to begin with, there would have been no reason for them to be appointed to the shadow of the royal family.
“No organization members survived either.”
Their organization, which was unable to rebel, had suffered. Shah Bahadur narrowed his eyes slightly and spoke.
“The bodies?”
“There were none.”
“Any traces?”
“There were massive amounts of magical residue. Other than that, there were no fingerprints or even a single strand of hair left.”
A very clean operation. This required not only exceptional post-processing skills but also overwhelming power. Yet, the tremendous amount of magical residue intentionally left behind hinted at some kind of warning.
“There was only one group that could boldly leave such a warning, knowing that they were the shadow of the Teen Tara royal family. ‘…Is it the work of the Hero Party?’ It was quite possible for the hero party that delivered the jade stone to the Bastian Kingdom. I heard that it was a party led by the sword saint.” “It seems to be true according to the situation, but we found no trace of their departure from the kingdom or entry into our kingdom.” “There is also a possibility that they secretly entered. Investigate if there have been any suspicious individuals discovered in Mahendra. Gather evidence and bring it to me.” “Yes, Your Majesty.” Bahadur, who dismissed the officer, stood up with a click of his tongue and looked at the palace visible from his room. “…I thought I could get ahead of them.”
Baha-dur narrowed his eyes and muttered, “The monsters blocking my path are just like the cleaners to handle.”
Raising his hand lightly, Baha-dur rubbed his chin.
Aside from magical scarification, it was not his duty to officially rebuke them, and even unofficially trying to do something… their power was not easily handled.
After some thought, Baha-dur muttered to himself again.
“I have no choice but to deal with the party as a party for heroes.”
“…Your honor.”
Above the head of Bahadur, who seemed to be talking to himself, the black shadow moved. It quickly sprang out the window and soon hid its figure, and Baha-dur finally smiled a little satisfactorily.
After suffering, Yong-ok returned safely to the auction house. Robert, who had been eagerly waiting for us, as well as the guests who had come for the auction, praised us incessantly for our efforts. Until Yong-ok climbed onto the auction stand, Erin personally held onto it and did not turn it over to the government’s warehouse, so there was no further theft of it.
“Twenty thousand gold coins! It has been sold!” With the auctioneer’s cheerful voice, Yong-ok’s owner was decided. In the end, the winner was the red matte tower wine, which had a deeper desire for Yong-ok, although they had a fierce battle with Aggresia, a red matte tower wine, and a noble from a certain Eastern country.
“Red matte tower wine Aggresia has become the new owner of Yong-ok!” By the way, the exclamation was loud, maybe because they spent 20,000 gold coins, perhaps due to the fact that they were the owner of the Red Matte Tower.
“Matapju must be extremely wealthy.”
Leticia, who overheard my soliloquy, said.
“I heard that the annual budget for the Matapjus, including six different colored Mataps, is comparable to the budget of most small countries.”
“That’s incredible…”
So I can just close my eyes and buy that much. Anyway, since half of those coins are ours…we’ve become incredibly rich!
“We’ll have 10,000 gold coins in our hands!”
“There were a lot of new items in the recent magic item shop catalog…one must be decent, right?”
“Of course, my dear!”
“Who can say ‘of course’ as they please~?”
There was someone who impatiently interrupted our pleasant conversation, Leticia and me.
“And it’s not 10,000, you fool ♡”
The damn hero named Masaki, Erin.
“You won the bid with 20,000. Why not 10,000?”
“I will cover the commission~? And although the auction was hosted by the Duke, we should share the expenses for the security personnel who entered to prepare for the auction. After deducting all that, we divide it in half~.”
“…Then how much is left?”
Is the auction commission more expensive than I thought? In response to my question, Erin smirked after giving it a quick thought.
“About 8,000 will remain~?”
“…Well, that’s still a lot. We could easily buy enough, so why are you talking as if we can’t?”
“hehehe, your bewildered expression amuses me. Your face looks so foolish ♡”
Two years…
“Eight thousand gold coins… We won’t have to worry about expenses in the future,” Letizia said as if she couldn’t believe it, and I nodded in agreement. It was a sum of money that could let us enjoy ourselves quietly somewhere after we finished the heroic battle.
“But even eight thousand won’t be enough~.”
“What are you talking about?”
Is there another place where our money will be spent?
“We have to pay taxes, right?”
Taxes. I was momentarily taken aback.
Originally, in reality or anywhere else, if you suddenly come into a large sum of money, it’s only natural that you have to pay income tax accordingly.
Since we’ve come into a considerable amount of money, as citizens of the Dern Empire, it’s inevitable that we have to pay taxes.
“……Um, is there any exemption or benefits for warrior parties? Even when we receive funds for our usual activities, we don’t have to pay income tax, right?”
“Well, technically there is…”
What’s the worry then?
I wonder if that woman will stay quiet?
“Who?”
That woman?
In the midst of my curiosity, Letitia seemed to understand and spoke with a somewhat firm expression.
“…Since we obtained this much money, it seems that person won’t stay still.”
“While making all sorts of excuses, trying to find a way to tear it apart, huh?”
“Who is that person?”
Can it be anyone from the tax office?
“As Allen knows, we’re affiliated with the Dern Empire.”
“That’s right.”
“Naturally, there is an upper organization that manages us.”
“Ah.”
If it’s an organization that manages the adventurer party…
“Is it the general of the Deiren Empire’s military?”
As expected, it was the general. Unless it was a department that controls the entire military power of the country, it would certainly be challenging to manage the warrior party.
“But there seem to be some problems with that general…”
“Problems?”
“He keeps trying to pick fights with me for no reason.”
…Picking fights?
“So you’re saying he is restraining you as the general?”
“You catch on fast~! Not bad at all~♡”
“No, why?”
Whether they liked it or not, Erin’s party had to treat the Deiren Empire well, but rather than being accommodating, they were being restrained?
“Isn’t the Empire friendly towards us?”
“Of course, they are friendly.”
“…Something doesn’t add up.”
“I mean, it’s saying that the military is acting unilaterally, you fool~♡”
“But is that okay?”
Is the emperor of the Empire just watching?
“That military is the eldest daughter of the greatest family in the Empire.”
“The great family? The nobility?”
“Oh, Alan doesn’t know.”
Leticia explained to me so that I could understand.
“Achilles House. It’s the only noble family of the Dern Empire. It contributed to the establishment of the empire and played a leading role in the vigorous conquests of the past, accomplishing great deeds. Thanks to that, the power of the family remains immensely strong even now, and they are called a great family.”
As I heard the story of a founding hero family and a war hero family, I began to vaguely understand why the emperor was just watching silently.
“… It seems difficult for even the emperor to intervene in such matters.”
“Yes. As long as the emperor doesn’t cross the line, he cannot say anything against the military leaders. Of course, if he does cross the line, punishment would be possible…”
“She skillfully stays within the boundaries, like a serpent ♡”
… Seemingly skilled in politics. Such people are the most troublesome to deal with.
Now that I’ve heard their military background, I have a feeling of understanding why they are trying to restrain Erin’s party. The existence of a warrior party can undoubtedly influence their position as a war hero family.
“But still, it’s the only warrior party in our country….”
It feels like there’s no patriotism or anything in front of power.
“Wasn’t it because you had little money when you went to the Estelle Kingdom last time?”
“That’s right. It’s that person’s fault.”
“Does that person really bother you?”
Erin laughed and looked at me. And then she smirked.
“Even more than annoying~♡”
“…Why are you suddenly hitting me?”
“Pff♡”
Letizia said, “Even if we earn money by doing this and that this time, I don’t think we’ll let it go.”
“So what do we do? Just let it be taken from us?”
“Well, there’s no way to avoid trouble without a way, is there~?”
That’s too bad.
As I thought a little bit, I brought up the topic subtly.
“…Shouldn’t we hide it?
“Hide it?”
“The fact that we sold the dragon jade in cooperation with the Gongguo is probably already known to the Empire, right?”
“Yeah, probably. But…”
What are we going to do even if they know?
“In the end, the Empire probably won’t know how much we earned. Unless we return to the Empire and are investigated. The Gongguo also doesn’t have an obligation to inform the Empire about how their domestic auction went”
“That’s true.”
“Uh-huh, are you saying that if we don’t have funds when we’re investigated, they can’t impose taxes either?”
“How can they impose taxes when they don’t know how much we earned?”
I said.
“We can keep the money we received this time outside of the empire and use it when conducting external activities.”
“Well, it’s not a bad idea…”
“Who will take care of it? And is there someone we can trust with such a considerable amount of money?”
The doubts of Leticia and Erin were natural.
Since the background of ＜Dungeon in Evil＞ was not modern society, there were no specialized banks. So if they wanted to entrust their money, they had to do it personally or rely on individuals like safekeepers who kept belongings or money for others.
“Safekeeper.”
“…But what if they take the entrusted coins and run away?”
“That’s right~.”
It’s true that the vault keepers work based on credit, as she said, but there was still a risk of them running away despite giving up their credit, because we had entrusted them with so much money.
In fact, such cases are implemented in ＜Dungeon in Evil＞. If you entrust a specific item or amount of money, the vault keeper NPC can just take it and run.
“No.”
But I knew. There are characters who would never run away, and would choose death over losing credit.
“There’s someone who will never run away.”
＜Dungeon in Evil＞ users also didn’t know about this NPC’s existence and couldn’t use it, but users like me who found it always used this vault keeper.
“…Who is it?”
“There is a vault keeper in the neighboring country to the Kingdom, a guy who considers trust as important as death itself.”
“The neighboring country to the Kingdom? The Kingdom of Cha Jar?”
“No, the one next to it.”
Letitia asked with a slight surprise.
“How do you know Allan from there?”
“…I overheard while running errands for supplies.”
Erin asked further.
“It’s not just a rumor, right?”
“No, it’s not. He only takes on big clients. He might be managing more wealth than what we intend to deposit.”
As he already managed a substantial amount of money, there was no risk of him running away even if we entrusted him with a fortune. And there was one more secure measure.
“And that person, their original occupation wasn’t a vault keeper. So, the risk of escape was low.”
“…Yes?”
If they were just an ordinary vault keeper, many users wouldn’t have been able to use them as a vault keeper. They weren’t a hidden NPC either. But there was a reason why people couldn’t use them as a vault keeper.
Originally, they were a merchant.