Chapter 72
Chapter 72
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 72
Chapter Title: Digestion (1)
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From what the priests said when they returned that evening, the supervisors like them had only watched, but the rest of the expedition members had rummaged around quite diligently.
The deactivated clay golems were so fragile that even a casual kick from their feet would shatter them.
So, if there was a secret passage hidden behind the earthen walls, wouldn't it be easy to discover just by tapping? That's what they argued.
The logic sounded plausible.
Aside from one thing: there was absolutely no guarantee that a secret passage even existed.
They wandered the ruin's passages gripping pickaxes instead of swords, tapping every wall they came across, but the expedition found nothing.
"The passages are so long that it was impossible to cover everything in one day... They said they'll keep at it tomorrow..."
"We just have to endure the boredom. Hang in there."
That was all I could say to the dejected priests.
Still, taking on a boring mission was better than a dangerous one.
They'd been apologizing nonstop for not being helpful during the first survey, so they could consider this their contribution. Fighting!
And so the day faded away.
A new year's morning dawned.
"Happy New Year!"
"May this year be filled with nothing but good fortune."
Unlike on Earth, this world's calendar started in spring, so New Year's Day marked the end of late winter and the arrival of early spring.
If we'd been in a city—or even a village—we'd have enjoyed a festival atmosphere for days.
But in a campsite, there was nothing special; people just exchanged New Year's greetings when they crossed paths.
The food was prepared with a bit more care than usual, but it was still campsite fare.
Even so, it was an extra special day for Galen and Lilia.
"Happy birthday, brother!"
"Yours too, Lilia!"
Galen turned twenty-three, and Lilia turned nineteen.
Both of them had birthdays on the first day of the new year.
"Well, I don't even know if it's my real birthday."
To be honest, Galen didn't know the exact day he was born. He was an orphan, after all. Who pays attention to an orphan's birthday?
He'd been born with memories of his past life, but as a newborn whose senses weren't fully developed, he couldn't grasp his surroundings properly.
Later, piecing it together, it seemed to line up roughly with the new year, so for simplicity, he'd arbitrarily set it as his birthday, and it had stuck ever since.
"Who cares? Same here!"
Coincidentally, Lilia was in a similar boat.
"I was abandoned in front of the church on New Year's Day, and Bishop Myra found me! Or was she a priest back then? Anyway, that's why my birthday's that day!"
"Y-You're saying it so brightly..."
"There's nothing shameful about not having parents, right?"
"I don't exactly feel ashamed..."
He wasn't ashamed, but it wasn't something to proudly broadcast to others either.
Why else would "How are your parents?" sometimes be used as an insult? People often looked at orphans through colored glasses.
Sharing such a secret origin with Lilia felt fine because they were that close.
Anyway, while the two spent the day lounging and enjoying their second day of rest,
The third survey team, which had rotated in to search the ruins yesterday, came back empty-handed again today.
"Come to think of it, the ruins weren't a maze."
Akanksha grumbled as she stopped by briefly before dinner.
It wasn't exhaustion—since there was no heavy labor—just annoyance in her voice.
"The layout was actually simple, right? You'd follow a straight path to a dead end, backtrack, and find a new one."
"Yeah, it was."
"The passages seemed designed as defensive zones to deploy the clay golems. Once you broke through to the cavern, it's questionable if there were any other secret rooms."
"If you think that, why not just skip it?"
"Sachet was a little disappointed. More like the humans were disappointed and pushing for it, so we couldn't just sit idle. Waiting around doing nothing feels off too."
The "waiting" Akanksha mentioned meant awaiting a reply.
They'd already agreed to split the ruins' shares evenly, so normally they'd just take half and call it done.
But Galen's intervention had changed everything, so they needed to renegotiate.
Yesterday morning, separate from the second survey team, messengers had been dispatched in three directions.
"Welcome."
As the sun set that day, people from the church arrived first.
Oclane was just a day's travel away, so a round trip took two days—plenty of time.
"I figured you two would return to Oclane, not that I'd come here myself."
Three had come: Bishop Ziaba and his two attendant priests.
Thanks to the expedition leaders' hard work, there were no seriously injured among the members. Lilia and the priests had already treated them,
but the campsite's conditions weren't ideal, so he'd asked them to properly care for the patients on their way.
After assigning the priests there, Ziaba decided to tour the ruins interior.
With one human and one earth fairy as escorts, the three headed inside.
"We were going along like this when suddenly clay monsters rose from the ground..."
"Ho ho."
"And this path definitely wasn't there at first, but then it appeared..."
Lilia chattered on like a tour guide. Ziaba listened attentively, responding earnestly.
"Heh, and that's all of them?"
"Yep!"
Crossing the cavern still bearing the scars of battle, Ziaba expressed amazement nonstop until they reached the storeroom, where his expression turned serious.
Under the hawk-eyed watch of the two escorts lest he pocket any treasure,
After examining the treasures for a long while, Ziaba nodded.
"I've seen it all. Let's head back."
Once out of the ruins, they sat facing each other in the assigned tent.
With Lilia's amplified senses overlapping Galen's Water Flow Manipulation range, they could detect any intruders around the tent.
Even after confirming no one was listening, Ziaba lowered his voice. It was that sensitive a topic.
"I can only roughly gauge the gems' value, but even just the precious metals... at least fifty thousand."
"In gold coins?"
"Of course."
"F-Fifty thousand..."
Lilia's eyes spun like pinwheels.
The total from selling pirate ships in the Dawn Archipelago was fifteen thousand coins.
Most of that was Galen's share, but even so, fifty thousand sounded unrealistically huge to her—she'd asked to split hers later because it was too much.
Galen, by contrast, stayed relatively calm. Unlike Lilia, who hadn't thought about the treasure at all, he'd roughly estimated its value in his head.
"Is that a lot?"
"You're not asking because you can't fathom the scale."
"Compared to the average haul from typical ruins?"
"A lot. Far above the usual expectations."
Ziaba affirmed.
"Ruins exploration can yield big money, but 'big' varies wildly. Not every ruin holds valuables."
Few things withstand the ravages of time.
A famed sword worth hundreds of gold in its day becomes worthless rust after centuries.
The value of excavated items fluctuated wildly by type.
A ruin overflowing with obvious precious metals and gems like this one was a jackpot in every sense.
"Usually, you expect tens of thousands. That's impressive enough."
"Free money, basically. Even if not huge, who wouldn't covet it?"
"Huh? Not huge?"
"From a major family's perspective. They earn tens of thousands yearly. It's just that they spend as much."
Think of national budgets—scales differ, but the principle's the same.
Nations casually collect and spend astronomical sums—hundreds of trillions—that individuals can't comprehend.
The great families here were similar. Ruling cities and running businesses, they earned big and spent bigger.
For a prestigious house like Steelwall, tens of thousands of gold wasn't gasp-worthy in itself.
It was pure profit dropping from the sky that had them salivating.
"So it's fortunate yet worrisome. Depending on how they react..."
The pie was several times larger than anticipated, so they might be content with their slice.
Or, seeing the bigger portions others took, greed might flare.
"Well, I'm planning to yield a bit myself."
Galen shrugged.
"Who knows if they'll see it as yielding."
*
A few more days passed.
Both the Steelwall family and the Red Rock Alliance received replies from their messengers.
There seemed to be internal squabbles, but that wasn't Galen's concern.
The conclusion from both sides: "We'll leave it to on-site judgment—renegotiate as you see fit."
In the gathering of leaders, Galen said casually,
"Why not divide it evenly into thirds?"
"...Thirds."
"Pinpointing contributions from the survey might be tricky, but surely we deserve at least half?"
"......"
No one could refute Galen.
They'd only watched in the passages, but the real battle was in the cavern.
And they knew how many golems Galen had crushed there.
Even excluding the core destruction merit, it was substantial.
"But this isn't a contest to count smashed golems... Crashing in without prior shares and taking more than the originals feels off. So equal thirds seems fair, no?"
"...Fine. Agreed."
Akanksha nodded first after whispering with Sachet.
"......We agree too."
Surprisingly, Aron accepted without fuss. Beron's expression soured, but it rarely improved anyway.
Unlike Ziaba's worries, the negotiation felt almost peaceful.
"We take one third..."
"We'll take one third. We can compensate the church separately for half that value, right?"
"We can't transport it ourselves anyway. As long as payment's precise."
Valuing the total was no issue.
It wasn't fiat currency or something to physically split into thirds.
They'd haggled item by item—how much for this gem, that ornament—between sides.
The estimated total value: around seventy thousand gold coins.
The earth fairies packed their one-third share first and prepared to leave the campsite.
"You accepted easier than expected."
"One third is still way more than we hoped. We're satisfied."
Akanksha replied readily as she came to bid Galen and Lilia farewell.
"Sure, more would be better, but honestly, without you two, the expedition would've been wiped out. How could we reject your proposal? If anything, you're being generous."
"Glad you see it that way."
"The humans probably think the same, so they agreed. They're not the shamefaced type—might be scheming something."
"As long as we get paid properly."
"Hope so. See you next time there's a chance!"
After the earth fairies departed,
Galen and Lilia left the campsite with the church group.
Thus ended this journey, packed with events in such a short time.