Princess Aqua and Everose came to pick us up for lunch, I hadn't realized that much time had passed since breakfast, but I guess the whole Sin thing wasn't really short at all either... With rumbling stomachs, we accepted the offer and quickly went to eat lunch, invited by royalty themselves. The King and Queen of Aquarose were present, they had woken up exceptionally later today, I suppose due to being so tired of doing a lot of stuff, I don't know what stuff though.
"We apologize for waking up so late! And being unable to thank you in regards for what you did yesterday, saving all the sick people was such a miracle, so many were being constantly sick, and we were completely unable to save them, we are truly grateful for your help," the King of Aquarose thanked us, his long beard being caressed by his large hands.
"It's honestly incredible what you did, we never imagined you would go so far for our people, you have our eternal gratitude, and of course, we've brought you a bountiful reward too!" the Queen said. "We've gathered a bag with large quantities of Gold, I believe the people of the surface use that as money, right?"
"Additionally, we've secured three hundred Spirit Stones of Water, Fire, and Ice Element from our treasury," the King said.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
"And aside from that, we've brought magical artifacts for everyone!" the Queen clapped.
Dozens of soldiers brought bags after bags of gold, spirit stones, and treasures for us. We were a bit surprised; I was expecting some payment, but they brought so much I felt a bit bad.
"Are you sure this is fine?! Isn't this too much? What about your Kingdom's own economy?" I wondered.
"We will be fine, don't worry!" said the King. "We have a large quantity of Gold anyways; this is but a miniscule percentage of it!"
"Oh, okay then..." I nodded. "Well, thanks for the funds anyways! I think we'll be able to make good use of them for our village."
"That's right! It's a lot of money..." Nia muttered, looking at the money with her green eyes wide open. "A-Ahem, and these artifacts, what are they?"
"It's a lot, please take a look," the Queen said.
The soldiers opened the bag, revealing rings, bracelets, helmets, armor pieces, tridents, staffs, swords, and spears. They were all gold and blue colored, embedded with many magical and spiritual stones.
"No, she's not wrong... I suppose we're just trying not to make them feel forced to it, even if they're so powerful, to ask them such a monumental task, akin to only heroes is... well, I wouldn't know how to put it in words," the King sighed.
"I know everything is quite hard to process, but I wasn't lying when I said I killed two Gods," I smiled. "Don't worry about it and leave it to us. We'll rest and then... We'll get it done; I
assure you."
"Thank you, Maria..." nodded the Queen. "We are counting on you... to finally end this, once and for all."
"Of course!" I nodded. "Ah, right..."
I quickly remembered something I had been collecting with my quests so far, the fragments of a certain crown.
The [Lost Crown of Atlantis Fragment (??? Grade)]!
"Do you know anything about a Lost Crown of Atlantis, by the way? Recently, I've found two fragments out of it," I showed the King and the Queen the pieces.
"T-The lost crown of Atlantis, that's...!" muttered the King, looking at the pieces in disbelief. "I can't believe it! Are they real?! T-These are truly real! Oh... By the Sea Mother!"
"I-I can't believe it, just where have you found this, Maria?!" the Queen asked me. "T-These fragments... Y-You see, this artifact... well..."
"What's wrong? So you know about it!" I said. "Can you tell me what exactly is?"
The two looked at one another, still surprised.
"The thing is... the crown is supposed to have been destroyed long ago, not a single piece left," the king stated.