The Treasure

The treasure lies farther than I thought. We are mostly just walking and dodging traps. A barrage of arrows flies out with no thought of aiming, so my wind magic just returns them to the holes in the wall from which they came. Under the bright light, the pressure plates become really obvious… to me. Harold has no clue and almost steps on them. Graciously, I pull him away before he can become skewered, splattered, or battered.

Speaking of the old man, he has asked for breaks at multiple points. Begrudgingly, I finally let him rest in an unremarkable corner where I know there are no traps, to avoid dealing with a heart attack or something later. He sits on the mossy floor with no concern about dirtying his outfit.

I can’t afford the same audacity. So, I’m forced to stand, with my hands crossed.

“You’ve never told me your name.” Great, he decides to make conversation.

“Olivia. Now can you-”

He suddenly bows to me with a crack that doesn’t sound good. “Thank you. Olivia. Thank you for saving my life.”

Oh no. He is actually weeping. I pat his head with the hesitation one would have when treading a disgusting swamp. “There. There. I’ve probably only given you a few more years before you die of old age. So don’t make it into a big deal. Okay?”

“I’m only forty-four years old. And… and… it’s more about… why am I so weak?”

“Because you’re-”

“Don’t say it’s because I’m old! You understand what I mean! I don’t know magic. My swordsmanship is just average. How am I going to pay off my debt through treasure hunting?”

I shake my head and sit beside him. “Work another job. Even if you survive this. You will die next time.”

“But I need to provide for my daughter-”

“No daughter would trade his father’s life for money. Though, no daughter would admit this either…” I hear a heavy breath slip through my lips. This old man, how dare he make me so emotional.

“It’s easy for you to say. You’re so strong and… ouch!” He flinches because I’ve stood back up and lightly kicked him. I don’t care if I’m labelled an elder abuser. This old dude is pissing me off.

“Do you hear every commoner complain because they don’t have innate mana like nobles? No, they invent magical artifacts. Complaining doesn’t solve anything.”

“I’m trying to do something, and I’m doing it even if my life is on the line, because I can’t afford to be choosy like you do. Why are you hunting treasures here, anyway? You could have been a bodyguard. Or a knight.”

Because those jobs are boring. The words whirl in my heart and never surface. I stare at the middle-aged man trembling at my feet, while my leg is still poised to strike him. What am I doing? I sit back down next to him.

“I’m sorry for being insensitive. And kicking you, I guess.”

He maintains his pathetic position, lying on his side like a newborn. “Me too. I was a bit too harsh.”

“Whatever we find. We can split it halfway.”

“But you’re doing most of the work.”

“Stop being fake-humble. I know you need it.” I stand back up and offer my hand to Harold. “If you want to help me in some way. Stop slowing us down so damn much. There might be another group already at the treasure.”

Harold gives me a resolute nod and he allows me to help him up. After a little more walking and avoiding traps, we arrive at a space with a giant door before us and a slew of bones and skulls littered around.

The most suspicious part of the place is the two giant statues standing as sentinels. I can literally see the dried blood on the swords that they hold at their sides. It’s so obvious that they will attack us when we get close. I can even sense the mana flowing through them. So obvious…

And Harold waltzes straight at them.

“No. No. No.” I pull him back. “Do you want to die?”

He looks at me with such an innocent expression that I wonder who the younger one is here. “Is there a trap?”

“No shit, there’s a trap. Do you see the statues or do you need me to buy you a pair of reading glasses?”

“Yes, the statues look very well-made.”

“Their swords! Look at their swords!”

Harold glances at the two sculptures again. “Is there something special about those swords?”

“By the gods! Just stand back and let me do my thing.” I advance into the room, unable to avoid the remains, so each step is a grinding crunch that sounds horrible in my ears. “Let’s go gambling.”

Water. Four.

Hmmm. Not the best. But I’m already halfway through the area and the statues’ eyes glow in a menacing green. I hear Harold squeak behind me, “Olivia, look. Those two stone statues have shining eyes.”

They have creepily resonant and synchronized voices too, as it turns out. “Those who are guiltless will be allowed to pass.”

Very ominous. I continue forward though, since I’m sure I’m the most upstanding citizen there is-

One of my hands shoots out a ball of water in time to stop the incoming slice by wrapping around the blade. The statue drops its weapon from the additional weight. The other one continues to swipe at me. Because of the awkward angle it is coming at me from, I have to retreat. As I get back to the hallway, I notice Harold has entered the room at some point, motionless and staring at the pair of attacking sentries.

“Idiot!” I push my hands forward and spray out a beam of water from each gloved hand, the streams blasting onto the rocky figures. The force is enough to knock them backwards, but that is it. No damage to either of them. It does buy me time to drag Harold to the safety of the narrow corridor.

“Let’s go gambling,” I say, since the last spell ran out.

Darkness. Eight.

Finally, something useful. I rush forth up towards the first sentinel, dodging the sword that has turned into a club with my layer of ice. Then, I punch the leg of the statue. Though I have the protection of the glove fabric, it still hurts. A dark substance spreads from my fist and eats away at the guard’s body.

I can’t wait for it to finish the job, since the other one is already swinging its blade at me. A simple sidestep and the strike misses, and then I sprint to the second statue’s leg to give it the same treatment of my devouring hit.

The first stone figure has dissolved into nothing, and the second has lost balance, dropping onto the floor with an ear-shattering thud and a few crunches that surely signal bones being smashed into powder. Dust disperses into the air from the motion and gradually settles again. Peace returns to the space.

“Hey. What’s wrong with you?” I grab Harold’s shoulder. His head snaps up to look at me as if he has just woken from a coma.

“Oh, Olivia. Hey. I was… thinking about something.”

“Thinking about something? You almost died.”

“They talked about only letting the guiltless pass.”

“What about the guiltless?”

“Nothing.”

I press my lips together into a pout and turn to stomp towards the door. By now, even the second sentinel has been disintegrated into nothingness. So no more obstacles are left in my way unless I count those harrowing human remains.

With a simple touch of the door, it collapses into pieces too.

“You… you’ve just held my shoulder with that hand.” I hear Harold’s trembling voice behind me, but I don’t want to deal with him right now. Instead, I step into the room and become overwhelmed with amazement.

Hills of gold coins and a few pedestals of random objects that look like magical artifacts. I can see a pearl, a helmet, and a dull-looking cube. Natural light seems to be able to reach this place and the sky is visible when I look up, but I struggle to believe that this place can be seen from outside.

I lightly slap my cheeks to get myself to focus. The gamble is over and I win. But the horrible thing is… I don’t think even the items here combined will be enough to pay off my debt. The artifacts look cheaply made, while the gold has recently experienced a dip in value due to alchemy advancements.

Whatever. I can think about that later. The first problem here is…

“How do I transport all of this?” I whisper.

“You don’t have to.” A voice answers.

I turn to see the casino owner and two rows of armed guards gathering at the vault entrance. Harold is with them, his head drooping and his eyes refusing to look at me.

“Oh, hey. We meet again… um… um… casino owner?” I put on a natural smile.

“It’s Takumi Minoda. How do you not know the name of the person you’ve slept with?”

“My brain is built for gambling, okay? But yeah, it’s good to see you, My Soda.”

“It’s Minoda. But that’s fine. Let’s get to the point. All the treasure here. They belong to us.”

“Excuse me?”

The casino owner places a hand on Harold’s shoulder. “Harold here signed a contract that entitled us to ninety percent of the found treasure. He gets to keep ten percent, of course. He will even get free casino chips as compensation. You would have gotten the same deal too, but you ran off before we could ask you to get the paperwork in order.”

“Harold, is that true?” I hear my voice cracking. Why do I feel a strain in my heart? This old dude is nothing but a burden. Plus, I can beat all the people here up if I wanted to.

“I need the money. I need it! I… I screwed up! I gambled away the savings reserved for my dear Trisha. Now, my wife moved out with her. And I deserved it too! I deserved all of it.” Harold finally looks up at me, his eyes brimming with tears.

“Harold…” I can barely speak.

“Why do you gamble, Olivia? Do you need the money? I do. And I’m doing it with my life and destiny on the line! I just want to get out. I just want to be with my family again.”

“Shut up!” I don’t know when it happened, but I’ve started crying too. I just want everything to quiet down again. This complicated stuff is why I quit the Bellamos Academy in the first place. Why do I have to face it here? “Let’s go gambling.”

Nothing happens.

“Let’s go gambling! Let’s go gambling!”

A slow clap reverberates through the space.

“That’s all very heartbreaking. But we have to wrap up soon. I have more paperwork to do. Running a business is harder than you think. Harder here than on Earth.” The casino owner flashes a sarcastic smile. “Oh, and dear Reckless Lady, when you were sleeping soundly on my bed, I asked one of my employees to curse your gloves with our hex wand. Don’t worry. They will become functional again when we auction them off as compensation for your disruption and destruction of our establishment.”

I stare at him with dead eyes. The group with him readies themselves to fight, drawing swords and charging staffs. I pull the gloves off my hands and toss them aside. Fine, if he wants a bloodbath. I’ll give him a bloodbath. In fact, I’ll kill everyone here and go back to break apart his casino. The Bald Bandits were right about killing not mattering here. Whatever I do here, it wouldn’t matter. Nothing matters.

When I’m seriously considering that choice, a figure slips between me and the casino owner’s group. My eyes widen and my muddled mind snaps back into focus.

It’s Harold. With his arms open. Facing down a dozen trained mercenaries.

“Mr. Harold, what are you doing?” The casino owner’s voice shows a hint of irritation.

“You can take my half of the treasure. But leave the other half here for her.”

“Why?”

“Because I promised her.”

“Are you stupid? But it tracks, since you think that betraying me is a good idea. Stupid doesn’t even begin to describe this.”

“Yes. As much as I want to see Trisha again. I want to be a role model that she can be proud of. No, I’m not going to let you gang up on this young helpless girl.”

I burst out laughing. Wow. My thoughts have really gone to a dark place, but I’ve recovered now. I step forward and drag Harold behind me. “Who are you calling helpless?”

“I know you don’t like it. But did you listen to him? Your gloves are useless now. Oh, you must have zoned out when he spoke.” Harold nods, seemingly satisfied with his conclusion. Seriously? Is this how he thinks of me? He’s right, but still…

The casino owner rubs a hand over his face and gestures with his other hand for the guards to move forward. “Restrain them.”

I ignore their advance, my eyes still focused on Harold. “I’ll stop gambling for you. Just this once.”

Harold blinks. I smile and finally turn to the horde of mercenaries charging at us. The mages stop further back to stand by, and I can tell that the melee fighters are mostly directing their attention at the old man. Wow. They are really just discounting me as only a young helpless beautiful maiden.

Good job, Harold. For making them underestimate me.

I take a deep breath and push my hands forward. A wave of water materializes from thin air and slams onto the approaching men before they can react. They are knocked back and land clumsily.

While they try to steady their stances again, I use the opportunity to snap my fingers at the backline mages. A torrent of wind rips their staffs from their hands and breaks all of them into pieces, which fall back onto the stone ground in clatters.

The mages have different reactions to their sticks breaking. Some wail, while others lunge at me with nothing but their bare hands. One of them even kneels and tries to reassemble his staff, murmuring something that sounds like ‘I love you’.

I extend my hand and close it into a fist. The earth moves up the legs of the advancing swordsmen and unarmed mages, gradually enclosing all of them in a layer of stone.

Then, I give the most beaming smile to the only enemy left standing—the casino owner. His mouth is agape, probably still hasn’t gotten over the fact that I’m able to cast spells without my gloves. I want to punch him, but with the lucky charm he’s wearing around his neck, I doubt that any attacks on him would end well.

Harold isn’t doing much better than the owner. He is so shocked that he has dropped to the floor. Or maybe he just needs a break from standing. Aging is scary.

“Those gloves are magical artifacts. But they aren’t the source of my magic; they are actually limiters to my magic.”

The casino owner trembles. “That means…”

“That means Lady Lisiete Seabride is a noble,” an irritatingly familiar voice finishes his sentence from behind him.

All three of us jump at the intrusion. I’m the first to recover. After all, I know this guy. “Mr. Jon. How did you find me?”

The suited man adjusts his sunglasses as he steps past the casino owner. “Lady Seabride, it’s time to go home. Your father misses you.”

Tch. Figures that the stunt at the casino wasn’t enough to escape him. And he has to play the sentimental card. I glance at Harold and then face Mr. Jon again.

“I’ll go back to the estate and resume my studies at the Bellamos Academy. Under two conditions. First.”

I point at the old man who, at this point, I fear is turning senile. “Pay off this man’s debt for now. And let him pay us back by working for us.”

“What…” Harold’s lips are trembling. I’ve done a good service for the elderly today. I smile in appreciation of my generosity (generous use of my father’s money).

“Second.” I direct my gaze at the casino owner. “I want the Seabride family to destroy My Soda’s business.”

“It’s Minoda, My Lady. And the Seabride family interfering with commoner merchants won’t be a good look.”

An evil smirk arises on my face. “It’s simple. Just tell my father that My Soda has taken my virginity.”

“Wait. No! It’s consensual! And we’re the same age!” The casino owner tries to make his case, but I can tell by Mr. Jon’s twitching face that the deal is done.

I survey the room, enjoying the view of the treasure. “We should really ask someone to take all this stuff back.”

“Understood, My Lady. This will all be moved to the Seabride vault.”

“Actually. Half of all this should go to Harold. Make sure of that.”

Mr. Jon agrees and we shake on our agreement. As I’m about to celebrate my victory, he gives me an ominous smile. “By the way, My Lady, you have to pay back your own debt. Your father and the Seabrides won’t help with that.”

Oh wait. My debt… I scream like a griffon again.

Maybe it isn’t that bad. I also have to go back to the academy. To those boring days. But if people like Harold have to live their every day with their lives on the line, the least I can do is act like a proper noble and find ways to make their lives better.