#110
Next, they headed to the top floor of the mansion. It was a place that truly lived up to the word “treasure vault,” with the entire top floor consisting of a single space.
“This place is…”
“A place where our child gathered the items she cherished.”
Inside glass tubes that resembled the artifact storage room of a national museum, there were all kinds of rare items, including artifacts, large magic stones, and bottles of potions.
Jin-ha felt greedy. Master Senistry, the magician who had made the Noon Moon Tower very wealthy, if the artifacts she cherished could help protect Riyekan, they would surely be of great use.
“And the reason I brought you here today is—”
As the squirrel tapped the floor, the glass tubes arranged like Go stones spread wide to the left and right, and a glass tube from far away swooped in. The squirrel opened the lid of the glass tube and took out a potion bottle.
“To make you drink this.”
Inside the transparent glass bottle the squirrel offered was a deep blue liquid. It was a liquid with sparkling particles shining like a star cluster.
“What is… this?”
“A potion that greatly increases magic power.”
“I am not lacking in magic power.”
“For now, that may be true.”
It was as if she was saying that someday he would be lacking. Jin-ha swallowed dryly as he faced the queen, who had a rather resolute expression.
“The reason I could come to see you today is because you regained the fairy. But it’s somewhat insufficient for an important conversation.”
“That means…”
“I could explain the situation in detail, but then the fairy inside you would increase. If you’re lucky, it would only increase a little, but if you’re unlucky, you might turn into a fairy as you are. I wore this cumbersome blindfold because I was worried that if our eyes met, it might harm you.”
The queen pointed to her lace blindfold as she spoke.
The queen made a promise to him. She would not harm his body and soul. Turning into a fairy was a harm to the soul. But if the change was Jin-ha’s own choice, it would be difficult to blame the queen. That’s why she was asking him like this.
“What will you do? Shall I tell you the story in more detail?”
“…No.”
Jin-ha checked the potion with his information panel. As the queen had said, it was a potion that increased magic power. And indeed, it increased it by a lot.
After drinking this potion, he would surely become the person with the most magic power on Earth. Although he couldn’t completely shake off his suspicions about the queen, there wouldn’t be any problem if his magic power increased.
“I’ll just drink it.”
After hesitating for a moment, Jin-ha continued.
“Since fairies are just mischievous and not liars, I think the queen, who calls me her grandchild, won’t do anything bad to me.”
Jin-ha gulped down the potion in one go. The queen, who smiled softly at him, added an explanation.
“Ah, and this treasure vault is yours. If there’s anything else you want, take anything you like.”
Jin-ha stiffened at the absurd words and turned to look at the queen. He almost choked on the potion he had swallowed wrongly. After barely managing to swallow all the potion, the squirrel swiftly took the empty bottle. Jin-ha, paying no attention to that, stammered as he asked the queen.
“What… do you mean?”
“How strange, you’re innocent in odd places? The key is in your hand. Since that day, this place has been yours. In other words, this is no longer Senistry’s treasure vault, but yours, Jin-ha.”
“What… No, it’s okay. Please take it, Your Majesty. I’ll return the key too…”
“I’m rich enough without these things, so it’s okay.”
“I am Master Senistry’s…”
Not only was he not her biological child, but he was also the child of a father who had done terrible things… Jin-ha couldn’t continue his words and just looked at her with wavering eyes. The queen sighed deeply as if she had no choice.
“If you really want to refuse, I can’t help it.”
“Yes, I want to refuse…”
“But.”
Cutting off his words, the queen smiled.
“Don’t you need the artifacts here?”
She must have heard the words Jin-ha had muttered on the stairs. Sensing his hesitation, the queen smiled mischievously and nodded to the squirrel. As if it had been waiting, the squirrel tapped the floor, and several glass tubes flew in from afar and stopped right in front of Jin-ha’s nose.
They were very powerful artifacts that precisely targeted his greed.
* * *
As expected, the sea serpent, which had not eaten for several days, was in a considerably weakened state. However, it still resisted fiercely, as if trying to maintain the pride of a ruler that had once shaken this sea. Riyekan, who had barely avoided the blade-like wind with a blink, dropped a bolt of lightning onto the creature’s head.
Boom!
The golden lightning that split the dark sky fell and swept over the sea serpent, scattering. The sea serpent’s subordinates, such as sharks and whales that had not escaped in time, writhed and then collapsed.
“Legas!”
“Yes, Master!”
Legas captured the baby sea serpent trying to escape and pulled it up. His capture magic was soon broken by the sea serpent’s water slice, but Legas had already achieved his goal.
The sea serpent seemed to have intuited that it would not win and was trying to evacuate its baby. However, the baby sea serpent’s struggles to dive into the deep water were repeatedly thwarted by Legas. He had already repeated this dozens of times. His mission was to not let the baby escape while the master fought the mother.
The sea serpent, seemingly distracted by its exhausted baby, could not concentrate on the battle with Riyekan. Perhaps this was the first time the sea serpent had been driven into a corner like this.
Riyekan smiled leisurely.
“A little more effort and it will be done…”
At that moment, Riyekan widened his eyes and turned his head towards the island. An eerie and ominous premonition chilled the back of his neck.
Magicians were beings who understood the rules of the world and used those rules to create miracles. In ancient times, magic was sometimes considered the power of the gods. Perhaps because of this, as a magician’s level increased, they sometimes felt an intuition similar to revelation.
That intuition was now screaming loudly. Something bad was happening there right now.
Anxiety and anger raged inside his chest, and his patience instantly hit rock bottom, revealing a desire to fly away.
I need to check if Jin-ha is okay right now.
“Master!”
At Legas’s call, Riyekan turned his head. The sea serpent was charging at him, wrapped in a ferocious whirlpool.
Riyekan, undisturbed, extended one hand and clenched his fingers as if grasping something, applying force. The sea serpent stopped moving. It was not by its own will. The sea serpent, caught by an intangible force, struggled to move but could not even twitch a single scale and remained frozen.
Riyekan, who had been coldly watching the scene, finally clenched his hand even harder, and at that moment, the sea serpent’s body twisted strangely. It looked as if it had been crushed in the palm of his hand.
“Master, what you just did is…”
Riyekan showed his palm to stop Legas, who was about to rush to him, and took a deep breath. However, his efforts to calm himself were in vain as he coughed violently and spat blood in the next moment.
Just now, Riyekan had poured his magic power recklessly into the space where the sea serpent was and dominated and destroyed it. It was a brutish method that could not be considered magic. The aftermath of this had turned his insides into a swamp.
Indifferently wiping the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, Riyekan commanded Legas in a rough voice.
“I must return. I leave the rest to you.”
Without waiting for an answer, Riyekan turned his body and disappeared towards the island.
“……”
After looking at the island with a worried gaze for a moment, Legas began to move to capture the baby sea serpent, which was too scared to even think of escaping.
His top priority was to carry out Riyekan’s orders.
* * *
In the end, Jin-ha succumbed to his greed. With the fairy queen and the squirrel introducing artifacts and demonstrating how to use them like hosts on a home shopping channel, it was impossible not to be swayed.
With a bleeding heart, he acknowledged that this treasure vault was now Jin-ha’s, not Master Senistry’s. Watching the squirrel jumping around excitedly, Jin-ha felt a slight pang of conscience. Because his true feelings were like this.
‘Never come here again.’
Jin-ha firmly resolved. He felt guilty as if he had received a huge bribe. Even if he thought positively, he was a malicious tax evader who had not properly reported and paid inheritance tax on the inherited property. Thinking about it concretely, stress tightened his stomach.
Since he was receiving items from another world, he wouldn’t pay taxes to Korea, but would he pay them to Abon? What would the inheritance tax rate be in Abon… Lost in thought, Jin-ha absentmindedly rubbed his stuffy chest and was startled by a hand tapping his shoulder.
“What are you thinking about so deeply?”
“It’s nothing.”
Looking at Jin-ha, who seemed a bit downcast, the queen smiled and asked shyly.
“Can I hug you once before we say goodbye?”
“Um… yes, please do.”
As Jin-ha bowed, the queen hugged him tightly. The warm temperature enveloped him, and Jin-ha, who smelled a familiar scent, suddenly recalled a memory. It was the queen holding a very small him, spinning around, and dancing, and Master Senistry running towards them in surprise.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
