CH 41

‘I was reckless. I should have checked the information window as soon as I found Giacomo’s key.’

On the other hand, Ricardo felt that it was all his fault, so he was terrified. What’s more, Ricardo, who was supposed to be from Digitalis, felt his mouth sore.

“I’ve heard of something like this before. But to maintain this kind of magic, it would cost an endless amount of magic stones… Count Juan must have been richer than I thought.”

Blanche’s eyes lit up.

“Strange.”

“What?”

“Count Juan is, after all, a usurer who lends money to the fallen nobles and commoners. How could such a person maintain a treasury while using expensive magic stones? No matter how much I think about it, there is definitely more to it than I thought.”

“Even if so, what more can we do now?”

“That’s fine. Then.”

Ricardo looked carefully at Blanche’s sullen reaction.

“Are you going to give up like this?”

“Who’s going to give up?”

Blanche, who was walking along the wall of the treasury, soon stopped in front of the wall between the pillars.

She lightly placed her fist against the wall and lifted it, as if measuring her distance before breaking the wall.

Surprised by this, Ricardo ran to Blanche at once and hugged Blanche’s waist. He desperately tried to pull her away from the wall.

Blanche, who had already made up her mind, did not even budge. Like a nail that had been hammered to place.

Ricardo exclaimed.

“No, Blanche!”

“Let go, Ricardo. Don’t interrupt me.”

Ricardo was furious.

“Then what if you get hurt?”

“I won’t. I am not that weak.”

Ricardo was startled by the bitter gaze staring at him so he lowered his eyes. But he couldn’t let her go like this.

He was afraid that Blanche would get hurt. So he tried her best to convince her somehow.

“Even if you don’t get hurt! Even if you break through the wall, the ceiling has a chance of collapsing!”

Only then did Blanche agree.

“… Okay. You’re right.”

His expression brightened a little.

Ricardo and Blanche said at the same time.

“Right? So, let’s leave now.”

“Ricardo. If you’re so anxious, I can wait for you to leave.”

“What?”

His eyes opened wide.

Blanche was upset. He shook his head.

“You just said you didn’t want to be swept away and die because of me.”

Ricardo was embarrassed.

“It’s not like that, I don’t want you to get hurt!”

Blanche couldn’t understand him.

“Why don’t you want me to get hurt?”

Even Ricardo could not understand Blanche.

Does Blanche really not know? Although they had only known each other for a little while, Blanche was already indescribably precious to him.

However, Ricardo did not have the courage to confess his feelings.

Because he already knew

That Blanche’s heart did not feel the same way as his did.

His eyelashes trembled pitifully as he lowered them.

“Because. That’s natural…”

“Natural? This?”

Ricardo raised his head, startled by the sharp voice.

Blanche’s face darkened. Then, she grabbed him by the neck.

With his throat strangled, Ricardo was forced to listen to a savage accusation that was nothing more than a monologue.

“Don’t make me laugh. Who told you to care? Listen well. I hate not getting what I want more than dying! If I don’t have it, nobody can have it!”

“…”

“I will never live like that again!”

Sparks flew from her bright green eyes. For Ricardo, the situation wasn’t all that bad.

She was beautiful, most of all because she knew exactly what she wanted. At one point, his heart was pounding.

So Ricardo looked at her carefully, as if studying her face and complicated mind. He thanked the god of fate for allowing him to meet Blanche again.

Blanche misunderstood that he had become quiet because he was afraid of her, who had lost his words in awe.

Blanche loosened her grip on his neck. But her eyes were still angry.

“So choose, Ricardo. Will you die here with me, or will you leave alone right now.”

Ricardo’s shoulders shuddered at the intimidation, but quickly turned the wheel of his thoughts.

‘That thick stone wall cannot be easily broken through. Eventually, Blanche will break her hand.’

If so, he decided what he had to do.

Ricardo vowed to return to Digitalis with Blanche whose hand was broken.

He slowly retreated from Blanche. While answering softly.

“I will be with you.”

“… Good.”

Blanche was surprised that Ricardo didn’t run away, but she didn’t spend any more time with him. The expression on Blanche’s face disappeared.

“Still, I think part of what you said is true. That’s right. I can’t just use my fist to break through that wall.”

She again stood in front of the wall where she had just measured her distance with her fist.

In an instant, something flashed in Blanche’s eyes.

She decided.

“I’m going to use my feet.”

“Wait, Blanche!”

Ricardo, shouting “If you do that, you’ll just break your feet instead of your hands!”, could not reach Blanche.

Boom!

With a loud sound, Blanche’s kick hit the solid stone wall. As expected, the wall did not budge.

Ricardo turned white and ran to Blanche.

Fortunately, there was no sign of pain on her beautiful face. But Ricardo didn’t stop worrying.

“Blanche, your foot! Is your foot okay?”

Ricardo got down on his knees in front of the girl and examined her legs.

A foreign noise passed through Ricardo’s ears, who had barely touched her feet and whose hands were still hanging in the air.

‘Why am I hearing the sound of the gravel rolling?’

His gaze then turned to the wall that had just stopped Blanche’s kick.

An amazing thing happened.

Crack.

As if the wall had been waiting for his gaze all this time, as soon as Ricardo’s eyes reached it, a thin crack began to spread like a spider’s web on the wall.

As Ricardo hiccuped in surprise, Blanche said in a low voice.

“I have a long way to go.”

Blanche stood in front of the wall again, ignoring the boy at her feet. She gently stroked the cracked wall with her fingertips.

After she finished looking, Blanche brought her fist back in front of the wall.

Ricardo watched silently, wondering if she would use her fists this time.

His heart was pounding uncontrollably. But Blanche wasn’t trying to punch a solid wall.

Surprisingly, she gave the wall a finger flick.

Ricardo did not hide his bewildered and puzzled look.

“Blanche? Why are you doing that all of a sudden…?”

Instead of answering, Blanche looked back at him with a confident smile.

That was enough.

The strong wall behind her started to crumble.

Clattering.

Blanche murmured while passing through the thick dust caused by the unexpected demolition.

“I need to reflect on myself. I can’t even break through a wall with a 100 Defense at once. Well, the durability was a little high.”

“B-Blanche?”

The expression on Ricardo’s face,  who was still kneeling, was perplexed.

She calmly talked to herself.

“If I had known this was the case, I would have broken the wall before I looked for the key.”

All Ricardo could do was open his eyes in the midst of the dust.

Blanche nodded over the wall.

“Look at that. Ricardo.”

Then his gaze left Blanche.

Ricardo’s mouth widened.

Behind the collapsed wall…

It was a mountain of gold. Even as an estimate, the entire space that looked over 600 square meters was glittering with gold. Besides, there were tons of treasure chests stacked on one side of the treasury.

Ricardo stood up as if he was possessed.

It was as if he was looking at a rare legendary dragon.

“This…!”

With Ricardo’s astonished words behind her, Blanche stepped on the wreckage of a crumbling wall and entered the treasury.

That was then.

[System/ Warning! A magic designed in Don Juan’s treasury brings news of the invader to the co-owners. 40 minutes before the activation of the Imperial Knights’ teleport magic.]

Blanche raised her eyebrows and turned off the warning window in front of her.

Suddenly, Ricardo followed her into the storage, picked up gold coins and put them in his pockets

He looked very sad as he talked to himself.

“The pockets are small because it is a nobleman’s suit.”

Ricardo, who felt Blanche’s gaze, asked cheerfully.

“Blanche, should I find a bag now?”

“Can you carry it? Besides, the treasury owners will come before you find a sack that won’t break once you put gold in it.”

“Huh? What do you mean ‘owners’? This is Count Juan’s treasury.”

“I thought so too, but it turned out that it wasn’t. It seems that this treasury is not owned by one person.”

Ricardo quickly turned pale.

“Then what? Father, no, the boss told me to take back the debt…”

“What do you mean? We’ll just take it.”

“Huh?”

Instead of explaining the plan to Ricardo, who tilted his head, Blanche pointed at the mountain of gold coins and moved her index finger.

In an instant, the gold coins in storage disappeared.

They were now in Blanche’s inventory.

Ricardo looked at Blanche with new eyes, but he was no longer surprised. Instead, his eyes were filled with respect, affection and admiration.

Then, suddenly, Blanche began to take out miscellaneous objects from the air. Combs, soaps, and clothes to change into quickly popped out of the air.

As a question mark appeared on Ricardo’s face, Blanche explained.

“There is no inventory limit for gold coins, but chests full of gems have inventory limits, so I have to make space.”

He didn’t exactly know what [Inventory] was, but he could see her shuffling chests full of jewels. Did he even need an explanation?