Chapter 406
Episode 406: Treasure Warehouse
The location where the party had gathered the stolen goods from the Black Market.
Following Fenry, Arthur arrived at a certain place and tilted his head as he looked around the surroundings.
First of all, it wasn’t far from the castle. Maybe about ten minutes by carriage?
Arthur stood before a wide-open area covered in a faint mist.
This was a colossal dock located right in front of Aintrier.
With the fishy smell of the Kenline River behind him, Arthur looked at Fenry.
“Do we need to take a boat to reach the destination?”
“Why go through all that trouble? Just wait here.”
Holding a pipe in her mouth, Fenry smiled slightly. At a glance, it looked like a mischievous grin. She then led Arthur to the largest and widest area of the dock.
This was the docking point for the biggest ship in Aintrier, and Arthur was well aware of what ship that was.
“Don’t tell me we’re waiting for the magic ship?”
“That’s right.”
An enormous transport vessel that moved back and forth between the upper and lower stretches of the Kenline River, playing a key role in Aintrier’s distribution.
Magic Ship: Ship Gridment.
When Arthur mentioned the magic ship, Fenry nodded and pointed in a direction.
“Perfect timing.”
Bwoooo—
A deep, ripping sound pierced through the fog and reached them. The light mist began to darken slowly.
Moments later, a massive shadow appeared through the fog.
Ship Gridment had arrived at the dock.
Not just one, but two of them. Both were attempting to dock at some distance around where Arthur stood.
“Why two?”
“Because we need both to check the goods.”
“What?”
His confusion was brief. Arthur paused, then looked up at the massive magic ships with a doubtful expression. Just two of them were enough to fill the area along the river.
But more than their overwhelming presence, Arthur recalled the utility of the Ship Gridment—a giant transport vessel.
“Don’t tell me you moved all the stolen goods onto the Ship Gridment?”
“Correct. Bet you didn’t think of that one, huh?”
“...Impressive. Whose idea was it?”
“Mine.”
Fenry grinned and tapped herself with her pipe.
“I wanted to skim off some cash, but it had to be a big haul. While thinking about where I could pull off the perfect crime, this place popped into my head.”
Arthur let out a dry laugh and shook his head at her brazen response.
When it came to money, she truly was a frightening elf.
A moving, colossal warehouse.
Fenry’s greed for wealth had given birth to a jaw-dropping idea.
Who would’ve thought to use Ship Gridment as a treasure vault?
Even Arthur hadn’t foreseen it, so there was no way the Black Market would’ve noticed.
It was the very definition of a perfect crime.
“Transporting the stolen goods to the Ship Gridment while avoiding the Black Market’s eyes must’ve been the key.”
“Well, Natasha took care of that with ease. The Black Market didn’t even dare approach the area she devastated.”
It seemed they used the territory ravaged by Natasha’s fury as the route to move the goods, loading the immense treasure onto both ships.
“I’ll give you credit for being clever.”
“And here I was expecting ‘genius’, and you call it ‘clever’? You’re getting cheeky lately.”
While the two exchanged light banter, a small boat descended onto the river between the two docked Ship Gridments and began approaching Arthur’s position.
At the front of the boat stood a yawning man. Scratching his head as if tired, he waved brightly when he saw Arthur.
Once the boat reached the dock, he stepped lightly in front of Arthur.
“Yo.”
“Thanks for your work, Karl.”
“Of course it was hard work. None of us got a wink of sleep. You think looting every warehouse across the region in a single day is easy?”
“Was it worth it?”
At Arthur’s question, Karl grinned and gave a thumbs-up.
“Feels like I saw in a day all the gold coins three generations could earn in a lifetime. Wanna see?”
“Of course.”
Arthur and Fenry boarded the small boat. Looking up at the rapidly approaching magic ship, Arthur felt a new kind of emotion.
When he first encountered the Ship Gridment in the city of vagrants, he had boarded it as a guest of Aintrier to attend the Dark Sales.
But now, Arthur was the owner of this place.
“Ch-Chung! Welcome aboard!”
“We greet the Lord!”
As Arthur boarded one of the docked Ship Gridments, two men quickly approached and bowed.
Two middle-aged men dressed in fine clothing. They were the captains of each ship.
Since this was their first meeting after the change of power in the city, the two captains wore stiff expressions of nervous tension.
“No need to stand so rigid. Relax, really.”
As Karl approached and threw an arm over their shoulders, they flinched and glanced nervously at him.
It was clear Karl had done something to them on the way here.
Arthur looked around the ship.
Operating a magic ship required a large number of crew.
But instead of sailors, he saw Leafs.
There were even ghosts—commanding the Leafs as if performing the duties of a crew.
“They’re all from the Allied side.”
“As you know, secrecy was a must for this operation. We filled it entirely with our people.”
Karl smiled faintly and looked at the captains.
“But right now, only these two know how to operate the magic ship. So we had no choice but to bring them.”
At Karl’s signal, the ghosts approached. After greeting Arthur, they took the captains away.
Watching the departing captains, Karl spoke.
“For now, the ghosts will keep an eye on them. We need to be cautious with what gets said.”
“Well done.”
In the original story, Karl was the favored shadow of Kamel Blazer, the Mad Butcher, and a powerful figure in the underworld.
Though usually light-hearted, when it came to handling business, he was more precise and thorough than anyone else.
Karl led Arthur to the cargo hold below the ship. Just before descending the stairs, Fenry smacked her lips and stopped.
“I’ll stay here. Go and take a good look.”
“You’ve already seen it?”
“Just once. But I’m not looking again.”
“Why not?”
“If I see it one more time, I might lose control and do something crazy.”
Fenry waved her hands, and Arthur chuckled quietly as he followed Karl down.
Walking along a passageway after descending the stairs, they soon stopped before a massive door. Before opening it, Karl gave a playful warning.
“Watch your eyes. You might go blind from the golden light.”
“Is it that much?”
“Of course!”
Boasting proudly, Karl slowly opened the warehouse door.
Creeeeeak—
Light poured in through the gap in the door. Karl stood with his back to the door, his bald head glowing in the reflected golden light.
Just as he warned, it was blinding.
Clatterrrrr—
Even a slight bump caused gold coins to tumble down in a cascade.
It was a literal mountain of gold coins. An enormous pile, enough to swim in.
The combined wealth of Azonne and the Black Market’s stolen goods, now gathered into a golden mountain, was a breathtaking sight that one wouldn’t even dare to dream of.
Arthur clicked his tongue and slowly walked among the golden waves.
He imagined the vast ship filled entirely with gold.
“Incredible.”
“Know what’s even more incredible? There’s another one just like this. Why else do you think I brought two ships?”
“You mean the other ship has this much as well?”
“The other one’s not gold—it’s filled with expensive goods. Not all of the Black Market’s storage was packed with coins.”
The other ship’s cargo hold was said to be stacked like a hill with luxury goods, rare magical items, ancient tomes, and priceless artifacts.
After checking the massive gold pile, Arthur moved to the other ship.
Just as Karl had said, this cargo hold was filled with a variety of rare and valuable items. It felt like walking through a museum showcasing all the world’s most expensive things.
Karl glanced around at the goods and spoke cheerfully.
“It’ll take forever to appraise all this stuff in terms of money. But who cares? It’s not our problem, right?”
“True.”
Using Aintrier, handling these goods would be simple. If they opened the Dark Sales and auctioned off these rare items, they could earn astronomical sums.
Unlike the first cargo hold, Arthur stayed in the second for a long while. Karl, curious about this, followed after him.
“What’re you looking for?”
“I was wondering if there might be bombs.”
“...Bombs?”
“Yes. The Black Market deals in more than just money. Since they have close ties to Demtor, it’s likely they have bombs too.”
“You’re spot on.”
“They have them?”
“Of course. We nearly blew up the ship moving them without checking. Follow me.”
Recalling that moment, Karl sighed and guided Arthur to a certain spot.
Soon, Arthur saw several human-sized iron containers.
All of them were made of thick metal and quite large. Around ten in total.
Arthur’s eyes lit up at the sight. It was exactly what he was looking for.
Karl carefully opened one of the tightly sealed boxes.
Clunk—!
Inside were several black orbs, each about the size of a fist.
“Turns out they were bombs made by Demtor.”
“They’re not area-destruction bombs, huh.”
“Area bombs? Don’t even joke about something so awful.”
Terremor—the Arcane wide-area bomb.
Capable of wiping out an entire small city with one, it was a terrifying disaster. At Arthur’s mention of it, Karl grimaced in disgust.
“These weren’t made by Gram. They’re from the Ivory Tower.”
“The Ivory Tower manufactures bombs?”
“They tried to outdo Terremor, but failed. These are duds. Super stable, but weak. And they cost a fortune to make.”
“So they’re terrible in terms of cost-effectiveness.”
“Exactly why they were buried in dust in the Black Market’s warehouse.”
Each box seemed to hold between five to ten bombs, so the total count was likely between fifty and a hundred.
Arthur picked one up and inspected it. It appeared safe enough to carry around.
Nodding, Arthur asked Karl,
“Do you happen to have any subspace pouches?”
“Those are pricey, so I kept them separate. Why? You need one?”
“Yes. I plan to take all of these bombs with me.”
“These?”
Karl looked around at the containers and frowned.
“What for? You trying to blow up a city?”
“Something like that.”
“What?”
At Arthur’s casual answer, Karl looked dumbfounded.
Arthur hesitated briefly, then explained how he planned to use the bombs.
After hearing the explanation, Karl let out a hollow laugh.
To draw attention from Prime Root for a stable festival setup—he was going to use the bombs for that.
Even Karl couldn’t imagine how that plan would unfold.
If anyone else had said it, he’d have called them insane and slapped them.
“Bombs, seriously? Are you out of your mind? If the Sword Demon finds out, you’re done. I fought that bastard once—he’s terrifying.”
“He won’t find out. I’ll handle it myself.”