Chapter 875: The Lost Item
Noretta? Another senior agent from the Mithril Vault?
Melita went off on a “debt collection” mission? So this temporary stand-in, Noretta, is also a dragon?
Hearing the voice through the ring, several thoughts flashed through Gawain’s mind. Then he suddenly frowned, realizing something—
This time, he couldn’t joke about My Little Pony!
Suppressing that fleeting, odd thought, Gawain cleared his throat twice, gathered his focus, and said to “Miss Noretta” on the other end of the ring, “Here’s the thing—I need to ask you some questions. It might involve dragons, so I’d prefer to discuss it in person.”
“Dragons… understood,” Noretta’s voice paused for a moment. “Please wait a while. I’ll meet you in about an hour.”
Gawain blinked. Another hour’s wait. These senior agents of the Mithril Vault really had to be commended for their promptness. He wondered where these dragons hid when they weren’t on duty. Thinking it over, there were quite a few suspicious points…
Dark red lava snaked across the parched, scorching earth. Swirling heat vortices carried unquenchable flames, and fiery tornadoes slithered through the crimson sky like blazing serpents, showering down ash and fire rain. This was a world ruled by fire. Everything here—the soil, the stones—was saturated with fire element energy, constantly restless and shifting. Countless fire-elemental creatures thrived in this hellish realm, each with bizarre and unique life forms.
Lava hoppers leapt through molten pools, fire sprites sprouted from rock crevices, living heat waves raced on the wind—these elemental beings burned blindly, fought fiercely, and consumed their lives, some long, some fleeting. Suddenly, a deafening roar shattered the air, a sound that seemed to tear through space itself, followed by a bone-chilling bellow that echoed across the land. The restless elementals scattered in panic.
“Damn you! You cursed vermin!”
With the thunderous roar, the blood-red sky split open with a terrifying crack. A colossal figure, composed of burning boulders and viscous magma, tumbled out of the rift, crashing beside a lava lake and gouging a crater over a hundred meters wide. The giant stones writhed and rumbled, crawling out of the pit, slowly reassembling into a fearsome flaming colossus.
The giant lifted its blazing head and roared skyward once more. Circling above, several massive shapes appeared—seven great dragons.
The giant raised an arm, and a blazing spear of fire coalesced in its grasp. But before it could hurl the weapon, a dragon’s roar thundered from above. The elemental balance shattered instantly; the fiery spear shattered into fragments. Lightning, frost, gale, and arcane energies rained down like a storm, pinning the giant to the cracked earth.
The low-level elementals, driven only by instinct, had fled long before the battle began. Only pure, mindless flames rose from the fissures.
“You dare defy the realm of the elements…”
A blue dragon descended, stepping firmly on the giant’s head. Its voice was deep and commanding. “No one owes the Mithril Vault a debt—not even an Elemental Lord.”
“You mad fools… idiots… vermin!” The giant struggled, but gravity spells sapped its strength. “The cycle is coming, it’s coming! Everything will be reset, the world remade. Debts, contracts—they’ll mean nothing! You…”
“A young Elemental Lord, born from the fire source less than a millennium ago,” a red dragon sneered, interrupting the giant’s curses. Its scales were thick, its back armored with alloy plates, and both eyes replaced by electronic prosthetics. Stepping forward, it looked down into the giant’s eyes. “Did your elders never teach you this? The world may be destroyed, civilizations reshaped, even if a planet plunges into its sun, you still must settle your debts with the Mithril Vault before you die!”
The giant let out a ragged roar beneath the blue dragon’s foot. “You… mad… fools!!”
“Looks like your elders didn’t educate you well,” the red dragon shook its head. “But that’s fine—we’ll settle this business. You’ve been hiding collateral promised to the Vault for over a century. Today, we bring the bill. Upon your confirmation, the Vault will collect the overdue fees and the collateral.”
The blue dragon lowered its head. “Also, don’t forget to leave a good review for this transaction—”
A black dragon standing silently nearby stepped forward. With a barely audible chant, complex draconic runes formed before her, swirling into countless spinning arrowheads. The arrows slowly advanced toward the giant’s body. The giant screamed wildly, “Stop! Stop! You can’t do this! You…”
Sparks flew as the spinning arrows sliced through the stone shell like a hot knife through butter. The giant’s roars weakened, turning into broken curses. “You vermin… you can’t take it… it’s mine… my treasure…”
With a low, muffled sound, the elemental shell was pierced. The giant’s sturdy body began to crack and crumble. Its fading voice drifted through the air: “You… are… nothing but… prisoners…”
The blue dragon glanced down at the rapidly extinguishing stone head and crushed it with a heavy stomp. “Thanks for the feedback. We’ve received your review.”
The lifeless elemental form turned into scorching stones, scattering across the ground.
A tiny flame, no bigger than a candle’s flicker, leapt from the cracks, screaming in fury as it fled: “I’ll be back! I’ll be back!”
“Next time, check with your elders about the world’s market conditions before you’re reborn!” the red dragon called after the fleeing flame. “We’ll waive the consultation fee this time!”
The blue dragon shook her head and summoned a faint golden projection panel. Activating her work system, she began carefully logging the attendance report: “…In summary, after service completion, the client gave sincere and enthusiastic feedback. Due to time constraints, the client did not select a star rating. With unanimous agreement from present agents, we consider this a default positive review…”
“Melita, stop recording that for now. You can write it up later,” the black dragon who summoned the arrows stepped forward, her voice young and somewhat hesitant. “Let’s clean up this mess first.”
“Ah, good point,” Melita Pernia, the blue dragon, closed the golden panel and looked down at the still-hot stones. “Hidden for a hundred years… this fire elemental lord almost broke the Vault’s record for longest unpaid debt. Now, let’s see what treasure it risked breaking its dragon oath to hide…”
Invisible magic swept over the hot stones, dispelling the last traces of malice lingering on the elemental remnants. The fragile stone shell silently crumbled to dust, revealing the “treasure” tightly wrapped inside.
It was a metal piece, silver-white with black inlaid decorations.
It resembled a shield, but unlike any standard shield known in this world. It had a perfectly symmetrical diamond shape. The convex side still faintly shimmered with a dim glow. Dragon magic caused energy vibrations to hover around it, and a low, pleasant hum emanated from the ancient, sturdy metal, as if resonating with some hidden power.
Several dragons gathered around—these massive beings craned their necks, crowding to examine the small metal plate, which to them seemed almost insignificant, like a group of people squatting around a tiny pebble. After a few seconds of silence, puzzled curiosity appeared on every scaled (or synthetic-skinned) face.
“What is this thing?” a particularly bulky red dragon muttered, carefully picking up the metal with two clawed fingers. “An Elemental Lord risked the Vault’s wrath just to collect this?”
The red dragon with electronic eyes grumbled, “It’s a human shield. Isn’t that obvious?”
“I know human shields, but I don’t understand why an Elemental Lord would value it so highly…”
At that moment, Melita interrupted the others. “Friends, I think I recognize the mark on this shield.”
She raised her forepaw, pointing to the emblem on the diamond-shaped shield. The shield’s material was special enough to remain intact after centuries of elemental erosion, but some metal parts on the surface were clearly added later. The mark was on one of these added metal plates, heavily weathered.
Its rough outline was still discernible: crossed sword and plow.
“I think I remember… Ah! Last time we were running around confirming whether some deceased clients had signs of resurrection, it was because of this mark’s owner,” the bulky red dragon exclaimed, a haunted look on his face. “This must be the human named Gawain Cecil’s item?”
Melita nodded solemnly. “That’s right.”
The dragons fell silent. These powerful, transcendent beings looked at each other, suddenly realizing that this once straightforward debt collection had become unexpectedly complicated.
“…The Mithril Vault operates with integrity. We should contact the rightful owner…”
“But this is a lost item from a century ago. The owner’s failure to claim it means forfeiture of ownership.”
“But the owner has been lying in a coffin for over a hundred years. Shouldn’t the overdue responsibility fall to the executor?”
“But the executor is dead too!”
“…What about summoning the soul?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea—and can you please stop suggesting summoning?”
“Hold on a moment, everyone,” Melita finally couldn’t keep quiet any longer, interrupting the increasingly lively discussion among her colleagues. “Before we dive into the lost-and-found procedures, shouldn’t we take a closer look at this shield? Don’t you think… even if it belonged to some legendary human hero, it’s not worth an elemental lord risking so much over it?”
“Melita, are you saying…”
“There’s something wrong with the shield’s main material—just take a closer look.”
…
An hour’s wait didn’t feel too long. Soon, Betty came running to tell Gawain that a stranger claiming to be a senior agent had arrived outside Cecil Palace.
Not long after, a graceful and beautiful woman entered Gawain’s study. She wore a pristine white gown, her long golden hair falling smoothly over her shoulders, and a single teardrop-shaped beauty mark at the corner of her eye.
“Hello,” the elegant lady said with a slight bow and a professionally warm smile. “I’m the senior agent temporarily standing in for Melita. You may call me ‘Noretta.’”
Gawain controlled his curiosity, and after instructing Betty to leave and close the door behind her, he nodded to the woman before him. “A pleasure to meet you, Miss Noretta.”
(End of chapter)