Tap, tap.
Once again, I felt something tapping my other shoulder, and I whipped my head around.
There was absolutely no way I'd imagined someone touching my shoulder.
I was a Profound expert. How could I possibly mistake something like that?
And yet there was nothing there. I couldn't even sense the slightest presence.
Whether it was a person or an animal, every living creature had some kind of presence…
But I couldn't sense anything at all, so of course my nerves were on edge.
What the hell is this? Is it actually a ghost?
“Kui!”
Just then, Geumryeong crawled out of my sleeve, stared toward my shoulder, and smacked both front paws against the table.
“Kui! Kui!”
“W–What is it, Geumryeong? Is there something here?”
Nothing was visible, but seeing Geumryeong react like that only made it creepier.
Apparently, the guards heard my voice, because the door opened and they rushed inside.
“What happened?”
“Are you all right?”
I answered their questions.
“There's something here, but I can't see it at all. Geumryeong seems to be able to see it, though.”
At my words, everyone turned toward Geumryeong.
Geumryeong still looked as though it were facing off against some unseen creature.
Just where the hell was it?
Then it happened.
“Oh? Is something wrong?”
At the voice from behind me, I spun around. Lady Seohyang was standing at the doorway with some documents in hand, peering into the room.
Damn it! I must've been more tense than I thought.
I hadn't even noticed Lady Seohyang approaching!
More importantly, this place could be dangerous.
“Deputy Gwak! What are you doing here?”
“There was something urgent I needed to ask you about.”
“It's dangerous in here! Whatever this unknown creature is, it might put you in danger too.”
“Unknown creature? Do you mean that white marten?”
“What?”
“A… marten?”
The answer was so unexpected that I could only stare at her in disbelief.
“Yes. A marten. It's incredibly cute.”
“…”
Come to think of it, Lady Seohyang had the Ice Crystal Eyes. They allowed her to see things hidden from ordinary sight.
Which meant she really could see it.
Lady Seohyang lowered herself slightly and held out a hand.
“Come here. That's it.”
At her gentle call, Geumryeong's gaze shifted, and when I followed that gaze to her arms…
Huh?
There was a marten nestled in her embrace.
Why could I suddenly see it now?
I couldn't tell whether Lady Seohyang had somehow forced the marten to reveal itself or the marten had chosen to appear on its own, but either way, I was relieved to finally know what had been scaring us.
“It really is a marten.”
“Huh… It really is.”
“Whoa. Why is there a marten here?”
That's what I'd like to know.
Lady Seohyang's Ice Crystal Eyes didn't merely glimpse the future. They could also instinctively recognize something evil.
If that marten were dangerous, she wouldn't be acting so calmly around it.
I carefully approached the marten and raised a hand in greeting.
“Hello?”
At my greeting, the marten wagged its tail.
I assumed that meant it was happy to meet me.
“Ahem. Were you the one who's been frightening everyone who lived here all this time?”
At my question, the marten's expression visibly fell.
Huh?
Could martens even look dejected?
As though answering my question, its tail drooped limply as well.
“Kui!”
Just then, Geumryeong scrambled up my body and settled onto my shoulder.
“Kui! Kui!”
“Hm? You're saying this one seems to have some circumstances of its own? And you'll ask what happened?”
“Kui!”
Geumryeong spent quite a while chattering back and forth with the marten before turning to me.
“Kui! Kui! Kuiiik! Kui!”
“You're saying this creature guards the vein of this land?”
If so, that marten was a Spirit Beast.
“The people who built this manor hid something here, and you were trying to tell everyone about it, but nobody could see you, so they misunderstood what you were doing?”
At my question, the marten nodded.
Whew. That's a relief.
At least it wasn't the actual ghost I'd been worried about.
But something hidden by the people who built this manor?
The legend of this place being haunted had supposedly begun after the Manor Lord who first built it and his entire household were massacred…
Could it be something that belonged to that Manor Lord?
“Can you show us where it is?”
At my question, the marten nodded and slipped out of Lady Seohyang's arms.
The moment it did, its body vanished again, and I couldn't sense even the faintest trace of its presence.
When I hesitated, Lady Seohyang looked back at me.
“Why aren't you coming?”
“We can't see the marten.”
“Ah! Right. Then follow me.”
Lady Seohyang nodded and took the lead, guiding us forward.
The place she brought us to was one of the many buildings scattered throughout the manor.
“It seems to be telling us to dig beneath the floor here.”
The building had a wooden floor.
In other words, we'd have to tear up the entire floor first.
“We'll need to bring some tools.”
I was just about to call for Palgap when Lady Seohyang spoke.
“There are tools in the manor's storage room.”
“What? How do you know that?”
“I saw it.”
“Ah… Of course.”
She must have seen a scene from the future where we went into the manor's storage room and retrieved the tools.
A short while later.
We brought the tools from the storage room and began working.
It was fairly exhausting work, but the thought that something might actually be buried down there kept everyone motivated as we tore everything up and dug into the earth.
After roughly two hours of digging downward.
Clank.
A shovel struck something hard.
“There's something here!”
Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am, who had shouted, carefully brushed away the surrounding dirt, revealing…
“It looks like some kind of underground storage room or tunnel.”
A door built horizontally into the ground.
“Let's clear away more of the surrounding earth first. Better to be safe.”
“Understood.”
We widened the excavation until the entire door was exposed.
The door was much larger than I'd expected, wide enough for two people to enter side by side.
“Let's open it.”
At my words, Escort Guard Seo Wu grabbed the handle and pulled upward.
Creeeeak.
Once the door opened, a flight of stairs appeared beneath it.
A stale, musty odor drifted up, probably because fresh air hadn't entered the chamber for a very long time.
“We probably shouldn't go in immediately. Let's let it air out for a while first.”
“That would be best.”
Once the smell had faded and I judged that enough fresh air had circulated through the passage, I entered with only three others.
The rest of the guards remained outside to watch the surroundings.
I handed out the silk pouches we'd prepared, each containing a Night Pearl, and we hung them around our necks.
There didn't seem to be a single source of light inside.
Step, step, step.
We continued descending the stairs until an enormous underground chamber came into view.
And the instant the light from our Night Pearls illuminated the chamber, every one of us froze where we stood.
“…”
“Kui! Kuiiiiiik!”
There was so much gold and silver piled inside that even Geumryeong started bouncing around in sheer delight.
There were even several objects that appeared to be Artifacts.
It seemed this had once been the secret vault belonging to the Manor Lord who originally built this estate…
I had a pretty good idea what this place was now, but I still couldn't understand why the marten had been so determined to tell people about it.
The marten only guarded this land's vein, so why would it care about revealing a hidden treasure vault to humans?
While looking around with that question in mind, I noticed something that didn't quite add up.
This place sat directly atop an earth vein where the land's pure Qi flowed.
Yet a portion of that pristine Qi was being prevented from rising upward.
Why? Is there something beneath the floor?
I crouched down and swept a hand across the ground.
Are these bricks? No… they're gold!
The entire floor had been paved with bricks of solid gold.
Don't tell me these things were blocking the earth vein.
I carefully pulled out one of the gold bricks embedded in the floor.
Fwoosh!
A wave of pure Qi immediately surged past me.
Pristine Qi was rushing upward from beneath the floor.
You little marten! So this is why you were so desperate to tell someone about this place.
Part of the earth vein had been blocked, preventing it from functioning properly, and a creature that guarded the vein obviously couldn't stand leaving it that way.
That was why it had kept trying to lead people here. It wanted someone to remove every last piece of gold covering the floor.
Once that happened, the earth vein carrying the land's pure Qi would be able to function normally again.
“Let's… start by removing these gold bricks from the floor.”
“Understood.”
We immediately got to work pulling up the gold bricks. But why couldn't the marten have removed them by itself?
It had been capable of leaving even those martial arts experts helpless.
After we finally removed every gold brick covering the floor, I could clearly feel the earth vein begin functioning as it should.
Mm. That's strangely satisfying.
“Hm? My lord, there's something here.”
Escort Guard Lee Pil called out to me.
“This… looks important.”
What Escort Guard Lee Pil was pointing at was a scroll wrapped in layer after layer of oiled paper.
What's this?
I reached for the scroll, but Escort Guard Lee Pil stopped me.
“My lord, allow me to examine it first.”
“Ah, all right.”
Escort Guard Lee Pil took out a pair of deerskin gloves from inside his clothes, picked up the scroll, and inspected it carefully.
Well, there probably wasn't another clan in the world as skilled at handling poisons as the Sichuan Tang Clan.
“There doesn't appear to be anything dangerous.”
“That's a relief.”
Escort Guard Lee Pil removed the oiled paper and handed me the scroll, and I unfurled it.
“Hm? This…”
“Isn't this…?”
“This looks like…”
“Kuiik!”
The moment Geumryeong saw it and let out that cry, I knew for certain.
“This is a map marking the location of the Sword Tomb.”
I frowned as I examined the region depicted on the map.
“This location… is in Yunnan, isn't it?”
“Yes. It is.”
“To be precise, it's Springview Fortress in Yunnan.”
“But this passage written here… If it's true, then…”
“…”
I slipped the scroll into my sleeve and spoke.
“For now, please keep everything about this a secret.”
“Understood.”
Still, Geumryeong had an almost supernatural ability to sniff out money, yet somehow it had never discovered this vault…
Why?
There had to be a reason.
With that question still lingering in my mind, I climbed back outside, where those waiting for us visibly relaxed at the sight of our return.
“Is everyone unharmed?”
“Yes. We're fine.”
I turned toward the marten resting in Lady Seohyang's arms.
It looked incredibly satisfied.
“Was this what you wanted?”
The creature nodded.
“Either way, you led us to something valuable, so you deserve a reward too.”
I held out one of the gold bricks I'd brought up with me.
“Shrieeeek!”
The instant the marten saw the gold, it recoiled in horror and twisted its entire body away.
“Kui! Kui!”
“You're saying it hates gold? And if I'm just going to throw that gold away, I should give it to you instead?”
That's Geumryeong for you. Never one to let an opportunity slip away.
In any case, that reaction made it pretty obvious why the marten hadn't removed the gold covering the underground vault's floor by itself.
That creature hated gold.
Judging by that reaction, it probably couldn't even stand touching the stuff.
So it had needed another creature's help.
“Gasp! What in the world is that?”
Palgap stared wide-eyed at the gold brick in my hand, and I answered as though it were no big deal.
“There are piles of them down there.”
“Are you serious?”
“Wow!”
“But we can't call any of it ours just yet. We need to handle everything through the proper procedures if we don't want trouble later.”
I immediately went to see the Zhuge Clan's Grand Clan Lord.
.
.
.
“I'll purchase that manor.”
“Oh! You've made your decision?”
“Yes. I think I understand now why your old friend took such a liking to the place.”
“So my instincts were right after all. You can handle the contract through me.”
And so, I paid the agreed price and completed the purchase.
As he placed the signed contract into an envelope, the Grand Clan Lord spoke with a pleased expression.
“That old fool would've been happy to hear the place finally sold.”
“It worked out well for everyone.”
“But what about the ghost there? Is that going to be all right?”
“Yes. It doesn't seem to harbor any malicious intent, so I think it'll be fine. We should be able to keep it happy. Besides, the more I look at the place, the more I like both the location and the manor itself.”
Then I continued.
“And… could you ask everyone to leave us alone for a moment?”
Seeing the seriousness on my face, the Grand Clan Lord nodded and dismissed the people nearby.
“Very well. What's so important that you needed everyone sent away?”
“Well… I discovered a hidden vault on the property.”
“A vault?”
“Yes. Which is why I wanted to ask – where is the heir of the Manor Lord who originally built that estate?”
“I don't know why you're looking for him, but he's already dead.”
“What?”
“He died ten years ago.”
“Do you happen to know the cause…?”
“An illness. A severe stomach ailment.”
“I see. But how do you know so much about him?”
“How could I not? He was one of Luoyang's most notorious wastrels. Perhaps having so much money suddenly fall into his hands went to his head. He started associating with wastrels until he eventually became one himself.”
“…”
“Normally, since this was wealth the person who inherited the land never knew existed, there would be a question of dividing it with the previous owner. But that man is dead, so ownership of the vault follows ownership of the land itself.”
“Then…”
“It means everything inside belongs to you.”
“Understood.”
“You've stumbled into quite the windfall. Congratulations.”
I hadn't told him the exact size of the vault or what else we'd found inside.
It wasn't because I wanted to deceive the Grand Clan Lord.
Secrets were simply safer when fewer people knew them.
That was especially true because the Sword Tomb map I'd obtained pointed toward Springview Fortress, and the scroll had clearly passed through someone else's hands before ending up there.
After all, what had been written on that scroll wasn't merely information about the Sword Tomb. It was an operation plan for excavating it.
[…Once the series of operations described above places Springview Fortress in our hands, we will begin the excavation in earnest.]
In my previous life, I'd never understood why Springview Fortress had been devastated to such an extreme degree, but now I thought I finally knew.
Could the original Manor Lord and his entire family have been massacred because of this map?
It certainly wasn't impossible.
There were still plenty of unanswered questions, but I'd acquired an unexpected fortune and an excellent piece of land along with it.
In that case, shall we finally begin expanding the Luoyang Branch?
–TL Notes–
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