They then left the tent and saw Estel by the cart full of items. They walked towards her and she quickly notices them.
"Your majesties." Estel greeted.
"So how is your luck, Estel? Did you find something?" Yue asked with a smile.
"Y-yes your majesty. I did find something interesting." Estel reported, seemingly tense at how friendly her majesty acted towards her.
"Come on, don't be so tense! You can talk to me like a friend would." Yue said.
"I'll try your majesty."
"Hm!" Yue nodded in satisfaction.
"Anyway, where is this thing you found." Avery asked.
Estel then moved to the cart to get a wooden box.
"I tried opening it your majesty but it seems like it is sealed by some sort of magic."
"Hmm… let me check."
Avery then took the box and saw that it was coated with a thin layer of magic. Small runes can be seen floating around it.
He inspected it with the system.
A window appeared in his peripheral while staring at the item.
[Name: Sealed Wooden Box
Rarity: Blue
Description: A wooden box enchanted by magic to preserve the item stored inside. Only users bound to the items can access the box.
Note: Item is already Bounded]
Yue looked interestingly at the sealed wooden box.
"The item is bounded. From my guess, it seems that only the goblin leader I killed can open this."
"Is there any other way to open it, big brother?"
"Yes, the seal is quite low leveled so I should be able to crack it open with my current mana."
"Really! You really know a lot, big brother!" Yue said with a smile.
Avery smiled back then looked at the box and prepared to unseal it. "Give me a minute. I'll break this no time."
While waiting for her big brother to unseal the box Yue asked him something. "Hmm… is it normal for an item like that to appear in such a low-level scouting party?"
"Ohh… you noticed it too?" Avery answered her while unsealing the box. He had enough experience to unseal such a low-level seal to allow him to multitask.
"Nn." Yue nodded then explained more of her thoughts. "The goblins we fought didn't use any magic in our fight a while ago so I thought that maybe the place where the goblin party is stationed had someone capable of casting magic."
"Exactly. The mages in the castle mentioned in the journal probably cast a low-level seal to preserve the item inside and lock it from prying hands."
"Though why give such item to a low-level goblin party?"
"I'm not sure, we may have some more clues by looking at what inside thi- there!" Avery was finally able to unlock the seal placed on the wooden box.
Usually, it would only take him an instant to open seals like this, but his current mana capacity doesn't allow him such freedom like he used to. He has to make use of his meager mana to unlock the seal while making sure to not waste any by being more precise. If he had the same total mana as in the past timeline then he would have simply overloaded the seal with mana and destroyed it instantly.
"Oh! What's inside?"
Avery then opened the box as Yue and Estel watched.
Inside is a round crystal token lying flat at the center of the box. It had the number 38 on carved on it.
"A Summoning Token?" Yue and Avery said at the same time.
"Why would the goblin have this… unless!" Yue said as she realized the implication.
"Nn. They probably massacred 38 people. If I am not wrong then they probably massacred a village. A group of less than 20 goblins would not be able to fight against a group of 38 capable people unless their opponents had defenseless civilians among them."
"Your majesty, I also found items stored in the cart that do not show signs of being created or being related to goblins."
"Can you show us, Estel?" Yue quietly asked.
"Yes, your majesty." Estel then took some clothes and farming tools from the cart and showed it to Yue and Avery.
"Hmm… your right, this item does not belong to goblins. Based on the design of the clothes and patterns of the tools, I can say that these belong to a group of Beastkins that worked in a farming village."
Yue clenched her fist while in deep thought.
Noticing something with her, Avery called her out.
"Little Yue?"
Hearing his voice, Yue sighed and unclenched her fist. "Sorry big brother, just the thought of massacring defenseless civilians made me angry."
She then looked at her big brother. "But I already decided to face this new reality that we will be living in from now on. I'll be facing such situations from now and might even commit one in the future so I can't be weak. I don't want to be left behind you, big brother."
Avery smiled then flicked her forehead.
"Hey!" Yue touched her forehead while pouting.
"Silly. I already said that I won't ever leave you behind. I'll wait for you and support you every step of the way." Avery said with a loving smile as he looked at Yue.
Hearing that Yue smiled back and forgot the flick her big brother did.
—--
They then gathered all the things that they could use. Aside from the summoning token, journal, and a few other reports, all they took was the coins they found. They had no use for the other stuff. Although they could fix and reuse some of them, they decided against bringing them. First, they won't be able to carry all of that stuff. Although they could send some soldiers to bring it back when they arrive home, it would still not be cost-effective and would just be a waste of resources for low-level items.
"Oh yeah! We got a bit distracted a while ago but what do you think about a low-level goblin scouting party like that possessing such an item, big brother?"
"It's hard to say. We still lack some more information, but if they are willing to give such an artifact to a low-level party like this then we can only say the kingdom is quite rich or maybe something is happening in the goblin kingdom."
"Hmm…" Yue thought about his words.
After a while, she decided to just gather some more info later on and ask about the seal that she just saw.
"So what was that seal! big brother?" Yue asked excitedly about knowing more about magic.
Avery smiled, seeing her excited outlook.
"It's a preservation seal. It could be used to preserve food and other things as long as there is still mana maintaining the seal. You could even lock it like what we saw. But one other use for it is to preserve Summoning Tokens since those things also deplete if not handled properly."
"W-wait! the Summoning Tokens needs to be preserved?"
"Yup! I kinda forgot about it since it was already a long time before I saw it again."
"Th-then what abou…"
"No need to worry. Summoning Tokens don't deplete when it is in the hands of a race progenitor-like you and me. Though, if Estel or any other people from the village were to hold it then it would start to deplete. The number written on the token would start to count down unless it is preserved like what we saw."
Yue sighed in relief.
Estel then came to them.
"Your majesties, what do we do with the camp?"
"Hmm, we could burn it down again and remove any traces of it" Avery said.
"Wait! I have a better idea!" Yue said.
"Oh? What is it, Little Yue?"
"So, I was thinking that…"