Inside the Mana Visualization domain area, Franz Hualimand maintained his position. He crouched with his right palm pressed against the floor's surface, constantly channeling mana to reconstruct the events that had occurred inside the treasury.
Not far from where King Estadian stood, the air suddenly distorted, tearing through the empty space and slowly forming the structure of a gate.
The Victoriaz ruler narrowed his eyes, hoping to finally uncover the face of the bastard who had dared to infiltrate the palace with the intent to destroy his kingdom.
From within the gate, someone stepped out.
However, instead of displaying a person's figure with clear physical details, facial features, or clothing like when they watched Lionias's reconstruction in the library, the figure emerging from the gate appeared in the form of a white silhouette. It had no face, no clothing structure, no hair color, and lacked even the slightest recognizable identity.
Seeing that the figure still possessed no physical form like a normal human, King Estadian, who had already been consumed by frustration and anger over the loss of his entire treasury, now felt utterly furious. His expectations were shattered to pieces. He considered his kingdom's best investigator's performance to be nothing more than utter nonsense and incompetent at carrying out his duty.
"What are you doing, Franz?!" King Estadian barked, his voice echoing loudly, bouncing off the walls of the silent treasury. The bark carried unstoppable disappointment and disgust. "Why did only the white silhouette of that infiltrator appear for the second time inside your domain?!"
Still crouching with his palm against the floor, Franz flinched in surprise upon hearing the loud bark from the King.
"F-Forgive me, Your Majesty." Franz replied with a confused expression. He then looked at the white silhouette from his crouching position. "To be honest, I also don't understand what is actually happening here. It seems this infiltrator is using a high-level mana barrier magic tool or enveloping their entire body with a specific magic that prevents this reconstruction process from displaying their physical form."
The King felt incredibly dissatisfied with the speculative answer coming from the man's mouth. His emotions, already teetering on the edge of sanity, instantly exploded.
"You are truly useless!" King Estadian barked in a much louder and piercing tone. His eyes glared sharply at the investigator. "Can't you make that infiltrator have a physical body like what happened with Lionias?!"
Although the words were extremely hurtful and trampled upon his pride as the kingdom's best investigator, Franz could only remain silent. He was truly powerless to force his domain to reveal the actual face behind the white light silhouette. His magic had reached its maximum limit, yet the figure before him simply could not be displayed.
...
However, completely unbeknownst to both King Estadian and Franz, the failure of the Mana Visualization magic was not due to a flaw in the investigator's ability in the slightest, let alone the use of a specific magic tool. There was a reason far beyond ordinary human logic as to why Arvin's form could not be captured by any mana tracking magic system in this world.
The first reason was capacity. Arvin possessed an extraordinarily massive mana and magical energy capacity, the volume of which far exceeded Franz's. However, the fundamental reason lay in the essence of the figure's existence. Arvin did not stand in that room as a single entity. He was a living vessel carrying multiple souls within him.
Due to the souls of Davin and Kaydan being permanently bound within his soul through the Soul Seal ritual, the dome of the Mana Visualization magic had detected an anomaly. The domain area detected Arvin's figure not as a living human, but as an entity where various souls of the deceased had converged and merged within a single soul.
Because a pure soul fundamentally possessed no physical form, clothing texture, or detailed body shape that could be seen by the naked eyes of ordinary humans, Franz's Mana Visualization magic system experienced a structural malfunction. The magic could not render their appearance, ultimately resulting in its ability to only project the accumulated energy of those souls as a white silhouette, just as it was clearly seen by him and the King at this moment.
...
While King Estadian was still boiling with anger and Franz remained bowing in silence in his crouching position, the white silhouette of the infiltrator inside the magical reconstruction domain began to step forward.
Seeing this movement, the King's attention was instantly drawn back to the infiltrator's projection.
The King's eyes followed every footstep of the white silhouette, which moved with incredible calmness and measure. Instead of using his gate after completely draining the mountain of gold and all precious items from the royal treasury, the white silhouette walked straight toward a door located at the end of the room.
And what happened next instantly made King Estadian's eyes widen. His mind, which had just been filled with anger, now descended into utter chaos, struck by massive panic.
Bloody hell! he screamed in his heart, his pupils shaking violently as he realized the final destination of the infiltrator's steps. Don't tell me that infiltrator also took everything inside there!
Driven by a terrible premonition gnawing at his mind, King Estadian immediately broke into a sprint, running hurriedly across the treasury, chasing the direction where the white silhouette had gone.
Franz, who was still crouching in the middle of the room, lifted his face slightly. He saw the King running hurriedly toward the door at the end of the treasury. Curiosity instantly bloomed in his mind.
What exactly is behind that door? Franz wondered in his heart, his eyes fixed on the retreating back of the King. Is there something whose value is far greater than the entire treasure that has vanished in this room?
Exactly one meter from the door, King Estadian came to a halt, his breathing heavy.
Standing in his current position, his eyes now radiating restlessness, panic, and an anger ready to explode, the King glared sharply at the carvings of the door in front of him.
The door appeared tightly shut, as if it had never been touched. However, this did not calm his heart in the slightest after seeing the white silhouette suddenly vanish right in front of it.
I hope that infiltrator didn't take what is inside there. the King hoped in his mind. If he actually took 'them' from inside there... I swear I will hunt down and find that infiltrator even if I have to chase him to the ends of the world!
Driven by the strong desire to immediately ensure that everything behind the secret door was still safe, the King took a highly unexpected action.
King Estadian pulled his shoulder back and clenched his right fist tightly.
Instantly, wind-element magic gathered, wrapping his fist in a softly roaring vortex of air, concentrating all his physical and magical power into a single point.
The King aimed his fist straight at the center of the door with an incredibly fast and fully powered movement.
The immensely powerful punch from the hand wrapped in wind magic created an ultrasonic shockwave that blasted toward the door.
Crash!
The door shattered into pieces, exploding inward along with a cloud of dust and scattered wooden splinters.
Seeing the barbaric act from the middle of the room, Franz was shocked. His eyes widened slightly. He truly did not expect that the King would choose to destroy palace property with his own hands instead of opening it with a key.
Franz deeply wanted to stand up and follow King Estadian's footsteps as he began to step into the room.
However, his instinct and ethics of obedience as a subordinate took over. Franz immediately scrapped the idea. He decided to remain still where he crouched and deeply suppressed his curiosity, staring straight at the room King Estadian had just entered.
However, the silence that fell after the door's explosion did not last long.
Barely two seconds had passed since the King stepped into the room whose door had been blown to pieces, when a booming scream tore through the silence of the palace once again. The scream sounded so piercingly loud, laden with uncontrollable anger, profound frustration, and despair all mixed into one, echoing out from inside the room.
"BASTARD!!!!! THAT INFILTRATOR IS A COMPLETE BASTARD!"
Hearing the deafening, frustrated scream from inside the room, Franz's rationality could no longer hold his body back.
Spontaneously, the investigator dispelled his Mana Visualization magic. He immediately stood up and broke into a sprint toward the room with hurried steps to approach the King.
He felt bewildered as to what had actually happened that made King Estadian scream so loudly, cursing the infiltrator.
The man had absolutely no idea what had actually gone missing from inside that room. He had never heard any information regarding the matter, for the existence of all the magical weapons and armors stored within that room was known strictly to the members of the royal family.