Wolf fish canned food? I remember hearing from a security guard of a ticketing company back at Port Pritz that it's a kind of food popular along the eastern coast of Feysac and in the Gargas Archipelago. It's made by salting wolf fish but retaining the blood, and the smell is extremely pungent—both stinky and disgusting...
Recalling this, and glancing at Danitz, who had already dry-heaved just from hearing that someone liked the taste, Klein gained a new level of understanding of how "terrifying" that canned food was. At the same time, he felt a trace of curiosity about its flavor.
"How can anyone like that stuff!" Danitz grabbed a wine bottle from the table and took a swig before calming himself down. "That so-called master known as 'the Fool of Nass'—is he really reliable?"
"Wolf fish canned food is a commodity. If it's being produced, then there must be a demand for it..." Roy King replied indifferently, then added, "That master's residence isn't hard to find. Because of his eccentricities, quite a few people in Nass know about him—it's just that they don't realize he's actually a demigod on the Savant pathway."
Klein stored the accessory properly and decided that when he set out in the future to search for the mermaid and passed by the Gargas Archipelago, he would pay that master a visit along the way and inquire about upgrading the "Creeping Hunger."
—He had originally planned to entrust this to Mr. "Tower," but Ebner declined on the grounds that his current level wasn't sufficient to craft a true demigod-tier item.
With the matter of compensation settled, Klein stowed away the trait extracted from the "Walrus" and had Danitz carry the corpse, finally preparing to bid farewell to the master and disciple before him.
However, before leaving, he hesitated for a moment and eventually asked Roy King a question that had troubled him for a long time: "Mr. Roy, what did you see on me back then?"
Roy King's expression stiffened when he heard the question. Only after a long pause did he squeeze out a single sentence: "Indescribable..."
Indescribable? Is it that you can't—or that you don't dare? Klein mulled it over silently but didn't pursue the matter further. He politely took off his top hat and gave a slight bow, then left the room together with Danitz, even closing the door behind them.
After they left, Roy King dazed out for a while, lost in thought. When he snapped back to reality, he nudged his apprentice with his foot and said, "Aren't you going to go gamble while your luck is still good and earn us the travel expenses?
"After all, I'm afraid you're going to be extremely unlucky for the next month... It won't be fatal, but making money from selling herbs will be out of the question!"
"What? That just now was me burning through my luck?!"
...
In Trier, in front of a small villa at the golf club.
Because he had scheduled a morning appointment with the manager of the First Bank, Ebner, after breakfast, took along the lawyers, accountants, and other personnel he had recruited recently, picked up Fors, and headed straight for the headquarters building of the First Bank.
In the carriage, Fors—finally about to open the "treasure"—was a little excited. She couldn't help but fantasize about what that Mr. Tren might have left her:
"Could it be a generational gemstone? Or some extremely valuable piece of art?"
That was the usual trope in her novels.
Ebner, however, shook his head and rained on her parade in advance: "Since Mr. Tren mentioned Benjamin before his death, and only decided to give you the code after hearing your name... the contents of that safe might be important, but their value might not be that high."
According to his speculation, this was very likely an item or information Roselle had left behind for Mr. Fool.
After all, Benjamin Abraham had been one of Roselle's subordinates, and the latter had probably heard the name "Fors" from the "Seal of Calamity," which was why the former had left something behind...
Heh! Yet another scheme that appeared to be orchestrated by Roselle, but was actually being manipulated from behind the scenes by the Seal of Calamity!
As his thoughts churned, Ebner saw Fors bring a small piece of cake to his mouth. Without thinking much, he leaned in to take it.
But at that moment, Fors flipped and twisted her wrist, and the cake in her palm turned into a long, hard Intis-style baguette.
"Surprised?" she asked with a smile, then added, "Did you feel a bit disappointed after the surprise? That's exactly how I feel right now."
"You're digesting 'Trickmaster' quite well..." Ebner's mouth twitched slightly, feeling that he had let his guard down after being fooled by this "slacker"...
After making the bread vanish, Fors said smugly, "Of course. When I was in Tosk, I went out to perform with that 'Lion' whenever I had free time..."
She had completely forgotten the grief she'd felt when she was dragged out of her room by the lion during the cold winter.
As the two chatted and laughed, the carriage arrived in front of the First Bank's headquarters building, where a man in his early twenties was already waiting.
He was a client manager at the First Bank, named Aran. Though young, he had already been with the bank for over five years and was considered a rising professional.
And Mr. Ebner Bryan had recently been acquiring properties in Trier on a grand scale. He not only had ample funds and numerous allies but also had the backing of a true god's church... In Aran's eyes, this made him a truly high-quality and distinguished client—someone not to be slighted.
So, upon learning that Ebner wanted to retrieve something a "senior" friend had left in a safe deposit box, Aran had taken the initiative to handle all the preliminary procedures and had come personally to receive this rising star in Trier's game of power.
Thanks to this internal professional's prior arrangements, Ebner and Fors quickly made their way into the heavily guarded underground vault and arrived in front of Mr. Trun's safe deposit box.
Ebner gave the area a brief scan with the "Pure White Eye" and discovered eight hidden Beyonders nearby. Three of them seemed to be bank security and weren't much of a threat... but as for the other five, he couldn't tell which faction they belonged to!
Looks like my recent high-profile activities have indeed drawn attention from interested parties. But that's fine too—what I'm using is a strategy out in the open. I don't need to hide anything.
At that moment, Fors, under the guidance of bank staff, arrived in front of a very complex-looking locker and recited the incantation Mr. Trun had given her.
Soon, the safe was opened, and its contents were revealed to Fors, Ebner, and the hidden Beyonders.
It was a box—made of crystal, with its lid open, yet completely empty inside.
And other than being made of precious materials and resembling an antique, the box had no extraordinary properties... it was just an empty box!
Realizing this, most of the hidden Beyonders immediately left. Aside from the security, only one person remained completely still, continuing to wait there.
At that moment, Ebner found the box increasingly familiar. After a brief moment of thought, he recalled:
"The box that the 'Goddess of Fortune' opened in the final mural of the 'Trial Temple' corridor looks a lot like this!
"This must be the item the Elf King ordered the 'Queen of Calamity' to deliver to the Western Continent, right? Why is it completely empty now?"
(end of chapter)