Chapter 332

Chapter 332

Roan said to Demona, who was digging the ground with a pitiful look.

“I was not asking if you know how to use a shovel, but if you know how to use an excavation shovel.”

“Ah, was that what you meant? I obviously don’t know that~”

“Phew.”

Unable to listen any longer, Sion let out a deep sigh.

“Idiot Demona! Because you keep acting like that, Roan can’t rest easy with us! Don’t you remember the explanation we heard from the merchant earlier?”

“What? Was there such a thing?”

Unable to overcome her frustration, Sion turned the part on the back of the excavation shovel’s handle.

After a few simple manipulations, a faint holy power dwelled on the blade of the excavation shovel.

Sion showed the shovel in that state to Roan and asked.

“He said if you do this, it will detect historical items buried beneath the ground to some extent. The accuracy is about 80%. Right?”

“You know it well.”

“Hehehe.”

When Roan nodded, Sion smiled broadly, feeling happy just from that.

However, as expected, one had to listen to the Imperial language until the end.

“However, everyone else will also know about that function, so it is far from enough to get a perfect score. In other words, you shouldn’t use it as it is.”

“? Yes?”

Sion, whose joy was cut short, tilted her head.

Joy, who was listening from behind, also showed interest as if she found it intriguing.

Roan pointed with his chin toward the mountain where the students had vanished.

“Just wait a bit.”

Before Roan’s words could even finish.

Beep, beep, beep, beep—!!!!

Even though it seemed quite far away, a loud alarm sounded.

—I found it!

—What? Really?

—It’s treasure! I’m a rich man from now on!!!

…It seemed to be a student who was so engrossed in excavation that they forgot it was a pop quiz.

However, not long after.

Beep, beep, beep, beep—!!!

—I found one too!

Beep, beep, beep—!

—Me too!

Beep, beep, beep—!

—Find? …Is mine broken?

Alarms that shook the entire mountain began to sound noisily here and there.

“What is this…”

His friends looked around the mountain in embarrassment.

Clearly, excavation shovels detected items of historical value.

If so, then this entire mountain…?

“It seems everyone forgot where this place is.”

Roan said with a chuckle.

Acherandir, one of the four major holy lands of the Empire.

Although it was not a place frequented by many people, still, with five thousand years of history flowing by, relics would naturally be kicked by their feet enough to make mass-produced excavation shovels sound their alarms.

Clang—!

“Eh?”

Just then, Demona, who was still squatted on the ground digging, hit something with her shovel.

“Black Knight, Banjjak, dig here a bit!”

When Demona ordered the two spiritual beasts, the rabbit and the beetle began to dig the ground diligently using their forepaws and horns.

Unless it was an item like Timothy’s Endodyne excavation shovel, mass-produced excavation shovels sold at the school shop could not dig within a certain range of a relic to preserve it.

Tink—!

Before long, a small, flat metal piece that clearly made a clear sound popped out.

“Well done~ This is a bottle cap?”

Although it was covered in dirt, the characteristic glint of metal could be seen.

“Let’s see, stay still, heretic.”

Hector activated his excavation shovel with a hopeful expression and brought it to the bottle cap.

Beep, beep, beep, beep—

Soon, a loud alarm burst out.

“D-Did an alarm really sound even for a single bottle cap…?”

Rafia wore a fed-up expression.

At this rate, the alarm might even sound for tissues secretly thrown away on the mountain.

…They did not imagine it, but it was true.

Roan nodded.

“Yes, but that doesn’t seem to be an ordinary bottle cap. Can you give it to me?”

“You can have it~ It’s just a bottle cap anyway.”

Roan brushed the dirt off the bottle cap he received from Demona and checked the brand.

Red, and a pattern embossed like a maple leaf.

“El Ricain, vintage 1914 of the Imperial calendar.”

“1… Vintage 1914?”

Although she did not know well what El Ricain was, Sion asked hesitantly at the appearance of an unusual year.

A bottle cap that was well over 3,000 years old.

However, the one who reacted to the bottle cap was rather Joy.

“El Ricain! Did you say El Ricain? And vintage 1914?!”

“Yes.”

It was natural for Joy to be surprised.

El Ricain was a brand of beer made by the Ricain family, which went extinct about a thousand years ago.

Moreover, it was the only beer in the long history of the Empire that went above wine.

The influence El Ricain held was so great that there was a saying that the reason the Ricain family went extinct was that the taste of the beer fell sharply from a few decades prior.

Among them, the list of vintages known to have produced legendary beer tastes was still passed down under the name of the ‘Ricain List’.

‘And the year 1914 is one of the vintages on the Ricain List.’

With eyes full of emotion, Joy took the bottle cap from Roan and examined it closely.

Although it was only a bottle cap without even a bottle, let alone beer, remaining.

Among collectors, El Ricain bottle caps were an immense item that could not be sold because they were out of stock.

So much so that there was even an entry for ‘Collect El Ricain Collection’ in the player’s achievements.

Joy asked Roan in a trembling voice.

“Student Darc, by any chance…”

“Yes.”

“Here it is. Thank you very much.”

Without saying this or that, the two suddenly exchanged a hundred talants and the bottle cap.

“!?!?!?!?!!!”

The friends were startled by the transaction that was completed so naturally.

“R-Roan, what is this?”

“Yeah, why did a hundred talants suddenly come out?”

But this time, instead of Roan, Joy answered with a very serious expression.

“El Ricain is an item of such high collection value that a hundred years ago, one was sometimes priced at 10,000 gold. It was also common to sell a castle to raise the payment.”

“Whaaaat!??!!!?!?!!”

10,000 gold for a single bottle cap?

‘Well, that was for an intact Ricain Collection with its contents, but considering the inflation rate, this will also go around that much.’

Roan did not bother to tell them this in case it looked suspicious.

…He did not know that such things were no longer the problem.

“However, the Pope of that era, concerned that confusion would arise in the economy, created what is called the ‘Ricain Rule’. It states that items related to El Ricain must only be traded for 1 gold or 100 talants. Of course, it requires the consent of the counterparty, so in reality, only exchanges of good faith became possible.”

This was the reason why Roan and Joy exchanged the hundred talants and the bottle cap as if they had agreed.

It had indeed been an agreement!

But the person who was most shocked by this fact was someone else.

“T-That was mine, Roaaaann!!!!!!”

It was the Fine Archmage Demona, who had handed over a hundred-talant bottle cap to Roan with her eyes wide open.

“You gave it to me.”

Roan said to Demona, clicking his tongue.

An item whose value was not recognized was merely garbage even if one kept it.

“That’s why you should have studied history well usually.”

And the perspective to distinguish gems from stones was solely the exploration of lore, nothing else.

“I’ll study hard, I was wrong…”

Demona said, drawing out her words with a crawling voice.

It seemed she was quite desperate for a hundred talants.

Indeed, converting it simply, it was money earned by cleaning restrooms for a whopping fifty days.

Roan was not in a desperate situation for a hundred talants right now, so he could give it.

However, he did not like Demona enough to give it without any compensation.

“Banjjak.”

Buzz—

When Roan called, Banjjak immediately flew over from Demona.

Roan made Banjjak bite the hundred-talant bill and then patted its wing covers.

“You take it.”

“What?!”

Buzz—!!

Before Demona could even be surprised, Banjjak flew up vigorously.

…It was a speed much faster than Roan had thought.

Originally, he had expected a heartwarming picture like giving pocket money to Locke instead of Yusina.

‘At this rate, it’s completely a chase, isn’t it?’

Leaving Demona behind, Banjjak was charging toward the mountain like a spiritual beast returning to nature.

“Roan, you are really too much.”

Staring at Banjjak, who now looked like a dot, Demona wore a very disappointed expression toward Roan.

Roan, who really did not know it would turn out like this, replied hesitantly.

“No, I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

But since the appearance was indeed what it was, the other friends also looked at Roan with sullen expressions.

‘Isn’t it her own fault for not building affinity normally?’

Although he had such a thought, it did not seem like a situation to say it out loud.

Demona went to Joy instead of Roan and asked.

“Since I found the bottle cap, can’t you grade my pop quiz score with that?”

Joy shook her head firmly.

“Of course, I could give a perfect score for an El Ricain bottle cap, but items found in the empty lot are not recognized. What a pity.”

“Heeing…”

Left with no choice but to climb the mountain after her last hope(?) was cut off, Demona wore a tearful face.

Roan shook his head and changed the subject.

“Banjjak will return anyway, so let me first teach you how to use the excavation shovel properly.”

“What if it doesn’t return?”

“…It will return.”

Roan glared at Demona, who was inciting useless fear.

“…Y-Yes.”

At that, the friends nodded, deciding to listen for now anyway.

‘To think they go this far over a single hundred-talant bill…’

Of course, it was a discrepancy arising from the difference in financial senses between Roan and his friends.

To them, it was a considerable fortune.

Roan activated the excavation shovel like Sion earlier and said.

“Up to this point is a function supported by any excavation shovel. However, in the case of the Zico Merchant Group, they made it so you can unlock a lock here.”

“Unlock a lock?”

“Release seal…!”

“It’s a lock, not a seal, Riel.”

His friends tilted their heads.

An excavation shovel was just an excavation shovel, so where was there anything to unlock further?

To use an Earth example, it felt like the developer mode of a mobile phone.

Roan continued his explanation.

“The method is simple. From this state, if you turn it three times to the left and five times to the right.”

Click— Whir—

Then, a slight reddish tint dwelled on the blade of the excavation shovel.

“The color will change like this.”

“Ooh… fascinating.”

His friends admired the surprising function they had not even thought of.

Was this why he told them to buy shovels while even specifying a particular merchant group?

“From here, you just need to overlay the Devotee’s Accidental Discovery that Sion used earlier. It’s not a very difficult holy spell, so everyone should be able to use it. Shall we try it?”

“Ah, yes!”

After finishing the explanation, Roan naturally gave his shovel to Sion.

Sion, who received the shovel from Roan, used the holy spell without any suspicion.

Thrum—! Thrum—!

Then, the reddish tint on the blade of the shovel began to flash at regular intervals as if blinking.

“Ooh!”

“Release seal!”

“I said it’s a lock, not a seal, Riel.”

His friends observed the shovel with curious eyes.

Rafia asked.

“What changes if you do this?”

“Well, unless it is an item of much higher value, the shovel won’t react.”

“Wow!”

As expected of Roan.

It was a function perfectly suited for a situation like this.

But Sion went a step further.

“Then why do they set a limit and sell it instead of selling it in this state?”

“Good question.”

“Hehehe.”

“Because it is ultimately a mass-produced shovel. If you leave it in this state for a long time, it explodes.”

“““!!!!?!?!?!!!”””