The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 76: A Treasure Hunter’s wet dream

Chapter 76: A Treasure Hunter’s wet dream

At first, I thought it would be locked by some elaborate system—you know, so I could pretend to be a secret agent or something. But it wasn’t. There was a small handle to slide the door open.

Also, at first, I thought it was a door leading to a secret stairway inside the pillar—you know, so I could feel like an adventurer—as one of the secret passages Natha told me before, which he hadn’t shown me one bit, by the way.

But no. The door was leading into...well, a space inside the pillar; a circular cupboard without lighting. Fortunately, I was more or least a priest, so I could conjure a light ball to use as a torch. Crouching beneath the circular staircase, I put my head inside the space to look around.

The pillar was actually big, around two meters in diameter, and at the far side of the wall, there was a chest. Quite big too, almost like a footlocker. My secret treasure-hunter senses were tingling at the sight of the chest, and I crawl inside, making the ball of light shine brighter so I didn’t have to feel too claustrophobic.

Despite the size of the door, I could easily stand and walked normally once I was inside. Taking a seat on the floor, I opened the chest with a pounding heart full of expectation—even though the whole room outside was basically a treasure hunter’s wet dream.

And when I laid my eyes upon the content of the chest...my heart pounded even harder.

The chest was filled with various trinkets, but the one on the top of the pile was a...gun?

And I wasn’t even talking about flintlock or musket. It was a modern-looking pistol like gl*ck, and when I took it with a rather trembling hand, I spotted a revolver down there too.

It was a moment when I felt like someone walked over my grave—which actually wouldn’t be far-fetched considering I was already dead and buried. My neck felt hot and cold and goosebumps were running wildly over my skin.

Just so you know, there were no such things as personal firearms in this world, as far as I knew. There were cannons, some were operated by using mana, and some were using what they called black powder.

But no compact firearm was used as personal side arms.

So what was this?

It wasn’t until I took a better look at the gun that my heart was calming down. While I didn’t know what material the gun on Earth was made of, I was sure it wasn’t made of Muda’an black steel mixed with mithril. I was also sure it wouldn’t have a rune engraving on the body, with various arrays and enchantment spells carved on the muzzle.

Although it looked almost like a modern gun from afar, especially within the dim light, it was definitely a product of magical technology.

Also, it didn’t work, apparently.

I wasn’t really an expert, but from the knowledge I accumulated from Valmeier’s experience and my own study, this thing was a failure. A junk. The same with the revolver beneath the pile, and the empty bullet casing at the bottom.

I put the guns aside and took a look inside the chest. Once again, I was slapped with a shocking discovery.

There was a thin rectangular object as big as my palm, with a shiny sleek surface on one side, and hard metals as the base. I rolled the tablet-like object in my hands, looking at it from every side. I might think it was just a slab of obsidian or something if I saw it anywhere else. But with the existence of the two guns, there was only one thing that came to my mind.

"Is this supposed to be...a smartphone?"

From the style and the material, I couldn’t think of anything else. The metal base was made of magic conductor material, and the glass-like surface had the same feeling as the material of the communication orb that Natha gave me.

So, wouldn’t it be logical to think of this as a phone? Perhaps not to the point of the smartphone back on Earth, but perhaps an attempt at making the communication device easier to bring around.

Finding these two things really got my mind spurred, and I continued rummaging through the chest to look for more things. My treasure-hunting effort brought me to find what seemed to be an image projection device, image recording tools, and even a video recording artifact, much like a camera.

If I only looked at it briefly, they would appear like proper modern tools on Earth. Only after realizing they were made of materials native to this world, as well as fitted with spells and enchantment circles, I was sure that these things weren’t objects that got transmigrated from modern Earth.

That begged a question, however, about how these things came to be. Was it purely made by someone who had advance ideas, or...

Were there...other people who came from another world like me and made this?

* * *

"Sweetheart, you didn’t ask for another meal?" I heard Natha’s voice from the entrance of the chamber, and peeked out from the railings of the second level to greet him.

"Is it lunch already?" I asked, when he looked at me with a smile, walking to the spiraling staircase.

He didn’t ask, but the fact that he was here told me that I had forgotten about the time and missed my second breakfast. To be fair, I didn’t think a few hours would be enough to take a close look at all of these collections. I mean, the three chambers combine were as big as the penthouse itself.

"It’s past midday already," Natha confirmed my thought. "Pinne was confused because you haven’t come out at all."

Oh, right. Natha probably told the servant already what my day usually was, and when I would take my meal. I did feel hungry earlier, but I was too absorbed in rummaging through the chest where all of those ’fusion’ stuff was stored. And then I took them to the second level so I could examine them while sitting comfortably, but got distracted by the fabulous displays on the second floor’s splendor.

It was like I came into a jewelry store that was even more luxurious than the one we went to at the festival. Here, each of the stones, gems, and jewelry was encased in glass separately. They were not just colorful and pretty, but also filled with dense mana—even the one that was already turned into jewelry.

Just by looking at them and feeling the swirling life force of those precious things, I knew they didn’t come from regular stores. Auctions, family heirlooms, pirate treasure chests...places like those, most likely.

So yeah, I was getting distracted again. There was even a crown that stood proudly there, fitted with iridescent diamonds. Necklaces, earrings, jewels that seemed to have been blessed by some Gods. Stones and crystals with so much richness that I felt like they were containing the heart of nature where they excavated from.

"Do you find anything that you like?" he asked the moment his foot stepped into the second floor.

Hmm...this question was a bit tricky for me. I didn’t feel like I need anything badly, and I was already satisfied just from looking at them. But I also felt like saying no would hurt his pride.

There were indeed some things that I wanted, but...would he grant them?

"Since I seemed to be forgetting the time a lot, can I take the pocket watch on the ninth shelf?" I decided to start with something easy.

I did want that though, since it was pretty. The cover wasn’t made of metal, but reinforced magic glass, so I could still peek inside without the need to open it. The engraving on the metal was so intricately beautiful that it felt more like an art than a tool.

As expected, he chuckled light-heartedly. "Of course," he snapped his fingers, and the particular pocket watch was suddenly in his palm already. "I procured it from the previous grandmaster of the magic tower in the human realm. It can tell you the time of all three different realms at once."

"Including the realm of nature?" I didn’t think it would have that much of a function. So it wasn’t just pretty, I guess.

He threw the watch in the air, and it floated calmly toward my open hands. Natha looked at the rows of displays on the second floor then, before looking back at me. "Anything else? Something from here?" he pointed toward the showcases.

"Mm...I don’t know," I narrowed my eyes at the fabulous display. It wasn’t that I didn’t like them, but...I added with a tilted head. "I prefer the one that is made just for me," I looked at my finger then, where a moonlight-colored diamond ring was. "Like this..."

"I see," when I looked up, the silver eyes were curled and gleamed in the soft light as he walked toward me. "Is that all you want, then? Or do you still need time to look through them?"

I watched him coming closer, and pressed my lips for a bit. For some reason, I felt quite nervous and parched—and not because I hadn’t had water since breakfast.

"Umm..."

Before he reached me, I stood up and pulled the chest I took from the pillar and hauled them above the coffee table. He paused then, raising his brow, and I tried to look him in the eyes.

"About this..."

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