The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 75: Even a grave robber needs to heed a plundering moral code

Chapter 75: Even a grave robber needs to heed a plundering moral code

Natha’s private quarter consisted of two levels.

The large bedroom that felt like it could be used for playing ball was on the second level, along with a dressing room that might as well be a clothing store, and the bath chamber with a tub that I could use for swimming.

If Natha’s private floor in the Lair felt like a luxury apartment, this one felt like a penthouse.

Even with how large everything was on the second level, the first level was twice that. There was the big foyer, the reception room, the wide living room that could be used to dine, the study with my own little reading corner, a pantry that felt more like a wine storage, and last but not least; the collection room.

Forgive me—rooms.

I hadn’t gone inside exactly, but I took a peek yesterday, when Natha brought me there to register my mana wave. The entrance was only one, but there were several chambers inside, probably to contain different types of treasures.

The door itself was run with something akin to a biometric system. Unlike the one on Earth, however, it wasn’t done through iris recognition or fingerprints, but through mana wave.

To go there, I had to walk through a corridor that separated the study and the pantry. The door wasn’t actually a door, but a wall at the end of the corridor. All I had to do next was putting my palm against the wall, and inject my mana there, which functioned to unlock the mechanism.

With a hiss akin to a vault opening, the door slid into the adjacent wall, giving a gap enough for a person to come in—well, at least someone in Natha’s size. Once I stepped in, I didn’t automatically arrive at the collection chamber, but a small transit room with a door on every wall.

On my left, the space above the door spelled CURSED in bold, glowing demonic letters. The room was filled with objects containing hexes and curses from around the world. I was really really curious about it, because I felt like there would be a lot of interesting and funny stuff like those featured in ’ten wonders of the world’ or ’things you need to see once before you die’ back on Earth.

Also, in a world where magic was prevalent, things like hexes and curses were no longer a stuff of myth, and instead real dangerous things that might be used as a weapon. Natha said that some used vengeful spirits as the catalyst, and they might roam the room if I came inside.

While I was curious about it, I decided that I might need to recover my full power before stepping inside. After all, this body still had a priest engraving on the mana soul, and it was the enemy of the vengeful spirits and living curses. While priests had the inherent ability to rid of such things, those foul entities were also prone to go frenzy at the whiff of a priest’s presence.

So...not now, I guess.

I wondered why Natha would gather those kinds of things, though. For viewing pleasure? Just an impulse as the Demon Lord of Greed? I might need to ask him someday.

I turned to the right then, and the word engraved there was [KUNNA]. In the common tongue and human realms, it would get translated as ’Artifact’, but the literal meaning of the word was something like ’essence of the old time’.

By the widely accepted definition, it should refer to the things that came from the old age. They could come from an old family heirloom, or looted from a fallen kingdom like Valmeier’s ancestor. However, most of them came from historical ruins and dungeons; the remnant of the old age when the Primordial God was still the one and only God to be worshipped.

Ah, it sounded interesting just by hearing it came from the ancient era. Wouldn’t that mean not everyone would know about it?

Walking inside that chamber, it felt like a museum. I remembered going into one when I was a child, but I didn’t exactly recall what kind of museum it was. Just that for a child like me, the room felt big; with a tall ceiling and wide corridors, flanked by glass showcases with special lighting. I was no longer a child now, but the feelings still the same even here.

But it was a mistake coming here without Natha, because I needed a guide to explain what those artifacts were, where they were coming from, or what function they held during their time. Different from that museums, there were no informative plaques to tell me the name of the artifacts and their functions. I assumed there would be some kind of catalog recording everything, but I couldn’t see them here.

It was still fascinating though. Here, there were also kept inside transparent showcases; some were alone, and some were in groups. I assumed it was being categorized by eras or places. Quite a number of them were clearly broken, or encased in crystal—like fossils. Perhaps they were far too old to have restorative spells used on them.

Some, however, still pulse with mana waves. Either from the protective spell that still worked after centuries, or because they had cores on their own—like the big egg inside that huge tank. I wondered what kind of egg that was and where he found it.

Aside from that, the showcase was filled with various things; ancient tablets with runes that I obviously couldn’t read, weapons of all sorts that might be plundered from some kingdom’s vault, and trinkets ranging from beautiful pieces of artwork to daily tools.

I felt like a lot of historical scholars would be coming here and begging the Lord to let them see these artifacts. The room itself was lined with preservation magic, protection spells, and barrier formations. Basically, a museum and vault fused together.

When Opti asked me what I would do today, I said I’d plunder the collection room. I said that because Natha told me I could take whatever I wanted from here to the Lair.

But even so...could I really take these precious things that most likely might cost an entire mansion to get? That seemed like they contained so much history about this world?

I mean...I wasn’t even an original dweller of this world.

Because of that, I just spent my time remembering the things that caught my interest so I could ask Natha about them later—particularly about that egg.

After satisfying myself by staring at the egg for a good portion of half an hour, I moved to the last chamber, which door was situated across the entrance.

This one had no label, perhaps because it contained the rest of the collection, something like the real showroom. It was the biggest room, with rows and rows of showcases. It even had two levels, with pretty stairs spiraling a big pillar in the center of the room.

The walls were filled with weapons—real weapons that would still work perfectly if taken out. From a beautifully carved bow that seemed to come from an elven kingdom, to a sinister-looking scythe and halberd fitted with jewels. They weren’t there just for the splendors though, for each and every weapon had mana swirled through them.

The most splendid of them all, I guessed, was a pedestal meant to contain seven swords. There were only four there for now, each looked simple, but they vibrated with so much power that reminded me of Alveitya, even though they looked quite plain.

I had no idea what those swords were called, or what their origin was, but I could tell that they were named weapons, just like the Spear of Judgment. Seemed like Natha had the intention to collect all seven of them.

When I got absorbed in watching all of those weapons, I felt a tingling in my arms, and couldn’t help but laugh. "Don’t worry, I won’t take another weapon,"

I gave a mental pat to the insecure Alveitya. In the first place, I had no experience with other weapons, and the only reason I could handle this one was due to this body’s muscle memory. The Spear then buzzed with contentment inside my mana core after I appeased it, and no longer made a fuss after I moved toward other collections.

Compared to the artifact’s room, there was way more stuff here. And while I could find some mundane things in the other room, there was only stuff that either looked strong or luxurious here. Well, after all, there was probably no collection value in the modern daily tools, unlike the ancient ones.

There were two shelves filled with scrolls and books, and various unique-looking tools. A cupboard with a preservation spell was used to store vials in various shapes and colors, although none of them looked as beautiful as the Amrita. About a quarter of the stuff here, however, was of art pieces; paintings, sculptures, intrinsic potteries, even puzzle-like pieces made of rare metals.

Natha said the second level was where he put the ’small things’—and by small things, it meant gems and precious stones and jewelry. It also had a seating area that was usually used for appraising the collections.

While walking toward the direction of the spiraling stairs, I wondered if Natha collected all of these because he really liked them, or simply because he was the Lord of Greed. Was there something like a positional obligation, or was his title bestowed the desire for possession to his person?

And then, just as I circled the pillar to reach the stairs, my vision caught something at the bottom of the pillar, under the staircase; something like a door. It was a small one, only as tall as my waist, and about a meter wide. Felt like some kind of hidden fault, and it was tickling my curious bone.

What could people do when they saw a hidden door, but opened it?

And so, open it, I did.