Gawain stood by the window for a moment, ensuring that MyLittlePony's presence had fully disappeared before he exhaled a sigh of relief and moved to shut the window. Just as the window was about to close, a dark shadow shot up from below, accompanied by Amber's loud shout, "Hey, old man, I just saw a thief… smack!"
Gawain: "…"
Moments later, a very disheveled and indignant Amber was standing on the ground, pressing an ice pack to her forehead and glaring at Gawain. "This is no way to treat a teammate!"
"How was I supposed to know you'd pop in through the window out of nowhere?" Gawain replied, giving her a quick glance. "What's with everyone tonight? Can't a single person just use the front door?"
"I'm a thief, remember? Making me use the front door is an insult to my profession!"
Amber was practically spitting with indignation. "And I got smacked and thrown around just now! And you're not even going to cover my injury costs? Are all nobles this stingy?"
Gawain eyed Amber, who seemed as spry as ever despite her mishap with the window frame. Shaking his head, he said, "I don't have any money right now, but once I do, I'll cover it."
Before Amber could interject, he added, "I'm your elder—would I lie to you?"
Amber narrowed her eyes. "You better remember you said that. I have a good memory, you know!"
With a dismissive wave, Gawain told her to sit quietly on the side. He turned his attention to the crystals laid out on the desk. There were five crystals in total—one was the item Merita had brought him, stored for him by the Mithril Treasury for seven centuries. Oddly, however, he had no memory of what it was. The other four had come from the mithril safe in the study, but he had no idea of their origins either.
He remembered the mithril box, yet aside from the platinum disk—clearly a key to some ancient, forgotten vault—the remaining crystals had no specific memories tied to them. It was as if all related memories had been erased.
Gawain fiddled with the crystals. They seemed identical in material, but the one from the Treasury was clearly intact, symmetrical, and shaped roughly like a hand-sized spindle, emitting a faint bluish glow at its center. The other four crystals were fragments of another spindle and could only be pieced together to form about two-thirds of the original shape.
"What are those?" Amber, bored after only a few minutes of silence, peered over his shoulder. "Crystals, huh? But they look dull… probably not worth much."
Gawain didn't look up. "Lucky they don't seem valuable, or I'd have to silence you right here to keep you from plotting to steal them."
Amber placed a hand on her heart in exaggerated horror. "Wow, you nobles really are ruthless!"
Gawain raised an eyebrow. "What's with your fixation on nobles? Do you have a grudge?"
"Nope, but isn't it only natural for commoners to curse the nobility?" Amber rolled her eyes. "After all, if there's nothing else to blame, any disaster—be it illness, famine, or war—must be the nobles' fault, right?"
Gawain gave her a bemused look. "Your attitude hardly resembles that of a true commoner. Real paupers wouldn't be this brazen."
Amber beamed with pride. "Of course not. Ordinary paupers can't Shadow Step."
Gawain dismissed her rambling and gestured for her to fetch Rebecca.
"Call the young lord?" Amber blinked, glancing at the crystals again. "Wait… are those crystals actually valuable?"
"Why would you think that?"
Amber explained, "It's the setup—the dark ambiance, the mention of the Mithril Treasury agent. Feels like a scene where you're about to pass down the family legacy. Could it be that the entire Cecil family's legacy is hidden in those crystals?"
Gawain broke out in a cold sweat. "Get going, or I'll pin you to the wall with my sword."
With a flicker, Amber melted into shadow, vanishing from the room.
Finally, Gawain could enjoy some peace, and he turned his thoughts back to the unsettling questions swirling in his mind. The nature of his "resurrection" or "possession" troubled him. He'd initially assumed it was a simple accident: he just happened to be floating in space until he collided with the limit of some device's lifespan, leading to a crash landing in an old tomb. But now…
Perhaps his arrival here was an accident, yet Gawain Cecil's "resurrection" seemed anything but.
No one destined to live a finite life would invest in indefinite storage with the Mithril Treasury—unless he somehow knew he would return one day to retrieve it. Of course, it could have just been a foolish waste of money, but that seemed highly unlikely.
Gawain's fingers traced three Chinese characters on the desk: *Who am I?*
Gawain, a soul from Earth who had died in a plane crash, only to drift across millennia in this world. After what seemed like ages, he was reborn into the body of Gawain Cecil, and it had only been a couple of months since his awakening.
Everything fit together seamlessly—his memories, personality, logic, and reasoning were all intact. His mind was unaltered.
But the same might not hold true for Gawain Cecil's original self. Could his resurrection have been disrupted by Gawain's arrival?
It was worth considering. A corpse that had remained perfectly preserved for seven centuries was an anomaly in itself. Perhaps the legendary founder had planned to revive at a critical time—say, if his descendants were about to ruin the family legacy or if some catastrophic threat reappeared. But perhaps he hadn't accounted for an alien soul conveniently falling from the sky…
The more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.
As he pondered, the sound of footsteps echoed from outside the study, interrupting his thoughts. Amber's chattering voice carried through the door, "I'm telling you, your ancestor's acting all mysterious tonight! Had a late-night meeting with a Mithril Treasury agent, and then out of nowhere, he calls for you. Bet he's about to pass down his legacy…"
The crackle of fireball formation filled the air.
Amber's voice backpedaled. "Of course, no rush on those fees…"
The door opened, revealing Rebecca, with a cautious Amber peeking around her shoulder.
"You called for me, Ancestor?" Rebecca asked, glancing around as if trying to gauge her ancestor's health.
Gawain turned to Amber. "Stand guard outside, make sure no one approaches. If someone sneaks in again, not only will there be no injury compensation, there'll be no wages either."
Amber pursed her lips as she headed to the window, muttering, "Like I've ever gotten a wage…"
Gawain sighed as she exited through the window yet again, her "professionalism" unyielding. With her gone, he turned back to the desk. First, he carefully put away the enigmatic crystals, then took out the platinum disk from his cloak.
"Amber wasn't entirely wrong. There is something I need to give you," Gawain said, then quickly clarified, "But it's not an inheritance."
Rebecca's eyes lit up with curiosity as she examined the platinum disk in his hands. "What's this?"
"A key, used to open—"
He was cut off by a shout from the rooftop. Amber's voice rang out, "Thief! I've caught you this time!"
This was followed by the sound of rapid footsteps across the rooftop, but, surprisingly, there was no cry of Amber being struck. Gawain's eyes widened in shock. Could it be a shadow-stealth-trained goose? (A very odd and unlikely scenario indeed…)
Reaching for the weapon beside him, Gawain prepared to investigate the situation with Rebecca. Before he could make a move, however, shadows began to gather in the study. Amber emerged from the mist, clutching a black-haired young man in black leather armor who appeared to be unconscious.
Gawain looked at the newcomer, unable to suppress a wry smile as he thought to himself, "So many visitors tonight…"