Without questions asked, Candace began searching for the treasury…It wasn’t easy in the slightest since the Sun Palace was just too vast with thousands of floors and countless rooms.
It was a city on its own.
Still, Candace followed the common sense that the royal treasury should be hidden either at the very bottom of the palace or the top, where it was inaccessible for everyone.
Just because the palace was public, it didn’t mean that everyone could enter any room within it. There were still some boundaries and privacies to be respected.
Candace started from the very top of the palace and worked her way below.
‘Wait, this must be the throne chamber.’ Felix stopped her after arriving at a spacious hall that had a metallic golden chair at very end of it.
If it wasn’t for the throne, it would have been diffuclt to figure it out due to all the forgery equipment and materials laying all over the place.
Thud!!
Before Felix could scan the chamber any further, the giant amber gate was pushed wide open by a furious looking dwarf.
Based on his crown, grayed out thick beard, and contrasting bulking muscles, he was clearly non-other than Emperor Lokhil!
He was carrying a giant silver hammer on his shoulder and wearing leathery boots.
“Leave me the hell alone already. I have been handling business for over four hours straight!” Emperor Lokhil threatened as he patted his hammer, “Don’t make me use this on you!”
Two dwarves entered behind him with irritated looks while having tens of holograms opened in front of them.
“Damn you Lokhil, it’s not like we want to keep pestering you with this.”
“Just sign the damn papers already, so we can get on with our forgery!”
They were treating each other so informally, Felix felt like he was watching a fake royal play.
For subordinates to address the emperor by his first name and even curse him, this really only happen in the Dwarven empire.
It was quite normal since those two subordinates must have been either part of his family or close to his age.
Dwarves might not respect social class status between them, but they did respect seniority.
“Well, I am not reading them!” Emperor Lokhil pulled the holographic papers in his direction and started signing them one by one without even bothering to read the title.
“Here you go, now scram!” The moment he finished, he kicked them out of the throne chamber, and closed the gate behind him, not bothering that they were cursing him out loud.
“Phew, finally some spare time.” Emperor Lokhil’s eyes brightened akin to a kid seeing his favorite toy after glancing at his forgery equipment.
‘Hmm, what is he doing?’ Felix and the rest of the tenants raised an eyebrow in surprise at the sight of him undressing in middle of the throne chamber.
In less than a second, he was already in his underwear alone as he walked towards a turned on furnace that was emitting a crazy level of heat.
“Come to daddy and make me feel the heat!” Emperor Lokhil smiled widely as he stood before the furnace, allowing himself to get hit by the heat.
Then, he blasted a loud native song and started working on a blue piece of metal that was resting on an anvil.
‘I didn’t think that he was like this…’ Felix got a bit ashamed at the notion of spying on a man being himself.
‘Let’s get out of here before he removes another thing.’ Felix rushed Candace, not liking how weird things had gotten.
Of course, they made sure to search the throne chamber for any hidden room before leaving.
Unfortunately, they kept going lower and lower in the palace, yet they hadn’t found anything.
Since this was the royal treasury, no one should know about it besides a handful of trusted individuals.
So, Felix couldn’t resort to anything to help him find it.
Minutes went by then hours…The time limit that Felix had set had been broken. Yet, he still refused to bail before he sees the Nethersteel.
He knew how it looked like, but he had no idea about its quantity or even if it was still there.
‘Isn’t the Queen going to send an investigation squad on you?’
‘She will, but it won’t matter much if I returned online in a few hours and explained it to her.’ Felix answered.
It wasn’t like the investigation squad even knew about his location. So, it would take them a considerable time to even find him.
By then, he would have already handled it with the Queen. In the worst scenario, he could always use a wish to bail him off.
Candace dropped her worries and continued her search. By now, she had already covered more than a hundred thousand rooms on her way down.
It was quite easy when she was more or less like a ghost.
…
Three hours later…Thousands of floors under…
‘I think this is it?’ Candace remarked softly as she hovered above a circular platnuim colored gate that resembled a bank safe.
There were more than hundreds guards of many different strong races in this floor, responsible over the protection of the safe.
‘Step inside.’ Felix requested.
Candace did as she was told and went through the thick safe’s door.
After her head emerged on the other side, Felix couldn’t help but take a deep breath to settle his rising heartbeats.
“Dear mother of treasures!” Felix ought to feel agitated as the safe stretched for half the floor and was completely packed with an unfathomable amount of remarkable treasures!
All of them were placed neatly on glass containers, which were positioned above giant pillars…The pillars seemed to be stating that no one was worthy to be even on the same level as those treasures.
“For one of the richest races in the universe, they really have a treasury that backs it up.” Lady Sphinx commentated, “Not bad.”
When even Lady Sphinx had praised those treasures, the average man would have a heart attack if he ever was placed here.
“Nethersteel!” Felix remarked after his eyes caught a giant cube of purplish steel at a distance. It wasn’t hard to spot because of its enormous size! It was towering over every other treasure.
“It still in the exact same form when Cyclope gave it to them.” Felix sighed in relief, “Looks like none of them tried to cut too much of it and attempt to forge it.”
It was quite normal as dwarves worshiped such treasured materials. This made them unable to waste them when they knew that their forgery was still not adequate.
“Satisfied now?” Asna smiled in amusement, “Why aren’t you leaving yet.”
“Shsshhs…” Felix shushed her down in annoyance and requested from Candace to get a bit closer.
“Stop being a wuss and just grab it already.” Asna rolled her eyes at him, “I know you want to do it.”
“I wish to do numerous things, but I don’t.” Felix didn’t deny it, but it also didn’t mean that he was comfortable by the thought of stealing other people’s belongings.
Especially, when the dwarves had already suffered plenty at the hands of humans…It would be really a dickish move on a universal level to steal their most precious treasure.
Felix might be an asshole, but he had a clear conscience.
“Who said anything about stealing?” Asna chuckled devilishly, “You are just borrowing it for a short while.”
“I agree, you are just borrowing it since you need it even more.” The other devil Candace supported Asna, “Plus, I doubt the dwarves will be using it any time soon.”
“Try never.” Lady Sphinx said calmly, “The only one capable of using this material is Cyclope. If dwarves wants to forge something with it, they must learn the true divine codex to bring its fullest potential.”
“You already know that dwarves are still stuck at the basics as they can only write the divine codex on futharks.” J?rmungandr added.
“It doesn’t help that Cyclope had given up on passing his legacy to them.” Thor gave his own input.
Upon hearing their opinions, Felix couldn’t help but agree with most of their points.
He had a huge problem with stealing something that wasn’t his, but if he borrowed it and returned it later on when he found another piece, then it was a different thing entirely.
The fact that dwarves had this material sitting here for more than a million years and would stay here for another million or more made him even more convinced that it wasn’t so bad to take it.
‘Wake up! It’s still stealing, no matter how much you sugarcoat it! As long as you didn’t get their permission, it’s stealing!’ Felix’s angelic consciousness appeared on his shoulder, trying to talk some sense to him.
Before Felix could agree with that point, Asna’s devilish enticing voice resurfaced again, “You will be using it to forge a divine weapon…It will be crafted personally by their god and teacher. If you showed it to them and apologized later, I am sure they will weep tears of joy of having their most precious material get used to craft the best weapon in the universe…’
‘I think the same.’
‘Likewise.’
‘It’s a sin not to take it and use it for your divine weapon.’
‘I am certain that the dwarves will beat you up if they knew that you are hesitating about this.’
Eee Eee!
‘You devils!!’ Felix’s angelic consciousness was utterly crashed by Asna and the rest…
For everyone else, they had a sane consciousness and another with the bad thoughts…But in the case of Felix?
He had an army of tenants in his bad side…Even the cute Nimo was the most evil entity in the universe…Who could beat such an influence?
“I guess you guys are right…” Felix mumured as he reached out his hand to the Nethersteel, “As long as I find another piece and return it, they won’t be too mad…”
“Right?”
“Yes, yes, yes…” Asna nodded with a wide grin on her beautiful pink lips.
And so, Felix stole the most precious treasure of the dwarves and placed this tiny note on its place…
-I will bring you another one in the future, thank you for your understanding!(????)-
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