The Mountain of Jewels
I had heard it countless times while growing up.
In the ancient era, that time was supposedly the world of truly great heroes.
A golden age when humans were so overwhelmingly powerful that even dragons held no fear. The shining moment when humanity stood tall as the true rulers of the continent.
I’d listened to countless tales of that glory, but I had always dismissed them as nothing more than myths.
Stories that had been ridiculously exaggerated. I didn’t believe any of it until I opened this door.
Now I suppose I should reflect on how I’d looked down on it all.
“How did you even think to use spirit magic like this?”
Using none other than Endairon as a fingerprint-recognition door lock. It was a method that went far beyond the one-dimensional applications people normally considered.
All the current research claiming that ancient spirit magic had reached a high level was completely wrong. The truth was that it had operated on an entirely different dimension.
After personally experiencing the legacy of an age when spirit magic had been stronger than conventional magic, I felt both proud and embarrassed.
Why had we become so limited now?
We couldn’t even utilize spirit magic as effectively as the ancients could trim their toenails, which was exactly why those bastards from other professions looked down on us all the time.
If even I didn’t show off my strength, I’d keep getting disrespected!
Crunch.
“Mmm, from now on I really need to beat people up without mercy.”
Rai: Master! You’re going to get indigestion again if you keep eating while lying down!
“It’s fine, it’s fine.”
My body really had been at its limit, but I was also genuinely starving. So while I was still lying down, I chewed the apple thoroughly to ease my hunger.
I also seriously considered how much chaos I needed to cause before people would start whispering that Spirit Masters were terrifying.
It didn’t take long to reach the conclusion that I should just keep doing what I’d always done.
I was already doing an excellent job.
“Hmm? By the way, why are these guys so quiet?”
How long had I been rolling around in sleep mode? Once my condition improved a little, I finally started worrying about the safety of my duckling-like boys.
They had been annoying when they followed me around everywhere, but it felt strangely empty now that they were out of sight.
I tossed the apple core—now nothing but the middle—over my shoulder and sat up in one smooth motion.
Brushing the dirt off my clothes, I stood in the middle of the doorway and stared down the far end of the corridor with narrowed eyes. But the passage was so long and the light at the end so blinding that I couldn’t make anything out.
After trying and failing to spot even a shadow, I finally shouted toward the other side.
“How’s it going? Find anything? Ash! Chad!”
Only my own voice echoed back like a lonely refrain. Maybe they were too far away to hear me.
The sudden silence around me felt eerie, and an ominous premonition crept in.
“……It’s way too quiet, isn’t it?”
Rai: Did they die already?
“No way! If they die, who’s going to cook for me?!”
I’d assumed there wouldn’t be any traps based on the dungeon owner’s personality, but maybe I’d been wrong.
Were there hordes of monsters inside?
Or ancient weapons? Maybe the poisonous fog commonly found in dungeons.
“This is bad. It’s not that I’ve grown attached or anything—it’s just that I can’t cook! Do you know how annoying it is to prepare your own meals?”
Rai: Should we go in?
“Let’s go. I dragged them all the way here and even opened the door for them. If they’re dead, I won’t let it slide!”
Rai: What are you going to do about it?
“Bury them nicely, I guess.”
If my Ash dies, who’s going to braid my hair?!
I have hands and feet, but I don’t want to do it myself!
Grumbling, I walked down the corridor with Rai. Even at a leisurely pace, it still took several minutes to reach the end. I realized all over again just how much I hated places like this.
It felt suffocatingly uncomfortable.
Tunnels always gave me the creeps.
I didn’t want to walk through them, and painful memories kept resurfacing to torment me quietly.
Rai: Master, you always get like this whenever we pass through caves. Do you have some bad memories or something?
Rai could feel and sense all of my emotions, yet there was still one thing he didn’t know.
The fact that I had died in a place like this in my previous life.
Even with a clear mind, walking through tunnels like this put a heavy pressure on me. I always needed to mentally prepare myself.
I had to encourage myself that nothing would happen, that I would be fine.
Still, I couldn’t do anything about this awful feeling.
It would have been better to walk along the bottom of a lake. At least then I could be certain the surroundings were water, which put my mind at ease.
“What the—? They’re perfectly fine?”
The moment I reached the end of the corridor, I sensed the presence of exactly five people.
“Hey! If you’re alive, answer me! You damn bastards! Making me walk all the way over here!”
The space inside was so bright that I had to close my eyes for a moment before opening them again. My eyes, accustomed to darkness, needed time to adjust to the light. Only then did I understand why the men had been so quiet.
The source of the light was a mountain of dazzling jewels.
I’d thought they were glowing pillars at first, but upon closer inspection, every single one of them was a gemstone.
Even the chandelier emitting light from the ceiling was extraordinary, and fist-sized jewels rolled around on the floor like ordinary pebbles.
I kicked a sapphire aside with my foot and stood next to Lox.
“What? There’s nothing special here.”
Rai:Slurp.
Since I had seen an even greater quantity of jewels in Magi’s lair, I wasn’t impressed.
To me, a single spirit stone was far more attractive than this many jewels combined.
“What are you saying…! Can’t you see that?! That enormous mountain of jewels!”
Lox, who had been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of gems, reacted sensitively to my indifferent assessment.
“I’ve seen stuff like this before.”
“Liar! Even the imperial palace doesn’t have… have… hic.”
“Exactly! If it’s not in the imperial palace, then where could it be?”
Lox swallowed his words mid-retort, making it very clear he didn’t want to say it out loud.
He obviously knew that I was the Jeanie Crowell who had been kidnapped by a dragon along with a pile of jewels.
Was he pretending not to know simply because I was trying to hide it? Or was it too painful for him to acknowledge?
Maybe he just didn’t want things to get complicated.
The combination of the empire’s prince and the kingdom’s most popular Saint was headache-inducing just to think about.
Though political calculations like that were far removed from my own concerns.
“Hey! Snap out of it, all of you. Enk, Gail, Chad! You too, Ash!”
I walked past the frozen party members one by one, lightly smacking them on the shoulder to bring them back to their senses.
“We’re… rich!”
“Hooray!”
“Oh God, thank you! I’ll live a good life from now on!”
The three commoners, who had finally regained their senses, fell to their knees or clasped their hands together in prayer, overwhelmed with emotion. Meanwhile, the one member of the imperial family was still staring at me with a dazed smile, the shock not yet fully worn off.
I naturally moved to stand beside Ash and whispered teasingly.
“So what now?”
I nudged his arm with my elbow.
“Finding the Cup of the Golden Star in here is like looking for a single grain of sand on a beach, isn’t it?”
“It certainly seems that way. Still… everyone looks so happy.”
“You really are an optimist.”
Well, if Ash was in a good mood, then I was happy too. We exchanged small, knowing smiles, and that was enough to satisfy us both.
“Huk!”
“It’s real!”
“Aaaargh! How the hell are we supposed to find anything in this?!”
Did they really need someone to point out the obvious?
Only now did the three commoners—who had been shouting “hooray” just moments ago—realize that a mountain of jewels wasn’t entirely a good thing. They collapsed in despair.
Even so, they were still frantically stuffing fist-sized jewels into their pockets. It seemed the line between hope and despair was rather enjoyable for them.
Chad had already draped about ten flashy necklaces around his neck, and jewels kept spilling out of Enk’s sleeves.
“Now that I think about it, it doesn’t matter if we don’t find the cup! We’ve got this many jewels!”
“You’re right! All of this belongs to us!”
“Bwahahaha! With this, I could open a skewer shop!”
Now that was exactly the kind of thing Lox would hate to hear… Chad, your dreams are so small. You look like someone who should be aiming to conquer the world.
“No! Stop it! These people have gone blind from the jewels! Put them down and spread out to look for the cup first! The jewels aren’t going anywhere! We can collect them later!”
Lox’s desperate cries continued, but no one listened.
No matter how much he yelled, begged, or threw a fit, they were too busy grabbing jewels to pay him any attention.
The only person who could have stopped them—Ash—was simply smiling kindly, essentially giving them permission to do as they pleased. I could practically see Lox’s insides burning to a crisp.
“Are you not listening to me?! Have you forgotten that our goal is the Cup of the Golden Star?!”
“We know, we know! Let’s take it slow! The Cup of the Golden Star isn’t going anywhere either!”
“With this many jewels, I could give away skewers for free! Wait, or maybe I shouldn’t sell them at all!”
“……The Cup of the Golden Star might be right under our noses, and you’re doing this?! Does that make any sense?! Just stop for a moment and let’s divide the area and search properly! Hey! I said stop!”
Between the three men obsessively collecting jewels and Lox desperately trying to stop them, the place had turned into complete pandemonium.
Still, at least they weren’t pulling knives on each other to claim more. Not many people could stay sane after seeing a mountain of jewels like this.
“Haaam.”
The only ones completely uninterested in the mountain of treasure were Ash and me.
It looked like it would take days for the three commoners to calm down and let go of their greed. Finding the cup would probably take just as long.
If I didn’t help, the search might drag on for months.
‘Ah… wait. Doesn’t that mean if I don’t want to spend months digging through this place, I have to help?’
My sleepy eyes snapped wide open as my laziness radar activated.
I started thinking.
To enter this place, they absolutely needed me. If they couldn’t find the cup before their food supplies ran out, they’d have to leave and come back. And that would obviously become annoying for me again.
I really didn’t want to go through this hassle a second time.
The calculation between ignoring them like usual and helping now—even though it was immediately tiring—to see which would be less annoying in the long run didn’t take long.
I quietly slipped behind a pillar with Rai, pretending to admire the treasures.
“Rai.”
Rai: Yes! Master!
“It’s your time to shine. The Cup of the Golden Star must be somewhere around here. Find it right now!”
I want to eat dinner on land tonight!
Rai: If I find it, can I eat all the rest of the jewels?!
“No!”
Rai: Why not?! There’s so many!
“Stop stuffing your face! You’re not sick of them yet after eating that much?!”
Rai: It’s a familiar taste, so I miss it! You eat meat over and over again too, Master!
“Ugh… you’re getting better at arguing as time goes on… Just find the cup first! Then I’ll let you eat as much as you want without it being too obvious.”
As one of the members of the excavation team that had made a major contribution to discovering this place, I figured I was entitled to a share of these jewels.
There were six of us total, so roughly one-sixth should be mine, right?
Lox would probably disagree, but I didn’t care.
Rai: The Cup of the Golden Star, huh!
Rai perked his ears up high and rolled his golden eyes—round like a full moon—from side to side.
The Cup of the Golden Star was no ordinary metal. It was a legendary artifact said to be imbued with ancient magic—or perhaps even the power of the gods.
It would definitely have different properties from regular metals, so Rai should be able to locate it easily.
Assuming it was actually here, that is…
Rai: Huh?