Treasure Room

There were three rooms inside the palace treasure room. The outer part was supposed to be the least flashy one, but Abel could already see twelve sparkling pearls on its top.

"That's the outer decoration, I assume," Abel smiled at Burbridge.

"That would be the years of wealth the George family has collected throughout the years," Burbridge sighed for a bit, then continued, "Forgive me for being so infatuated with the past, Master, but when the duchy was at its most powerful state, I…."

Abel stopped Burbridge before he was about to give a bow, "No, no no no, that's fine! Everyone's got their story to tell. Come on. You can think and talk about the past all you want here."

Burbridge continued with a more careful tone, "Thank you, Your Majesty. Here, as you can see, this room is mostly filled with ordinary treasure. They can all be classified as antiques."

When Abel took a closer examination, he saw that the room was filled with various precious items. There were some accessories for both men and women. There were more things with historical value. Since he did receive proper training as a nobleman, he could recognize the origins of some of these things.

After handling an art piece made with sea corals, Abel flipped through some other items he was curious about. He hoped that he would find something interesting, but most of them weren't to his taste.

Abel said, "I hate to say it, Burbridge, but I don't think these are worth much. Some of them do look interesting enough. It's kind of weird that you're putting them here instead of at the palace."

"Yes, your Majesty," Burbrgie nodded in compliance. In his mind, he was baffled about how little care Abel seemed to show to these treasures. Not one item here could be called ordinary, but to his master, they all seemed like toys that happened to look a little peculiar. Still, he had to obey his new master's order. Even if Abel asked him to throw away everything here, he would have no choice but to follow that order through.

As Abel made it to the second room, he saw that there were also twelve pearls in total there. Something was different, though. This room was filled with weapons and other gears.

Abel widened his eyes for a bit, "Blazing sun armor? Three of the same set?"

No, he didn't remember the blazing sun armor because of how powerful it was. He just happened to see a replica at Lord Marshall's place. Instead of being known for its durability, people usually get it because of how pretty it shone under the blazing sun.

Burbridge bowed, "Yes, your Majesty. That is the blazing sun armor."

"Sure," Abel took two sets into his portal bracelet, "I'll send two away as gifts. Remember to write that down."

As okay as the other things here were, they weren't close to Abel's knight's big sword. Yes, even all of them were combined were still not as valuable as Abel's super-practical hand-made weapon.

Abel frowned for a bit, "Don't put them here. I want them all as decorations in the palace."

"Yes, your Majesty," Burbridge bowed. As sad as it was to see how little his new master appreciated the wealth collected over the past few generations, it did make sense that Abel wouldn't show much care to these gears. He was the only human grandmaster blacksmith, after all. If his friends were to visit here, they would probably laugh at him for possessing these useless pieces.

Abel began to make his way into the third room. Again, the twelve sparkling pearls made the room shone very brightly. As far as he could, there weren't a lot of things here. There were ten scrolls of knight's secret techniques, one magic knight's big sword, one magic shield, and one magic armor set. They were all placed on a single rack.

Burbridge introduced to Abel, "That's the magic armor set for the ruler of the duchy of Carmel. That there, your Majesty is the secret knight's technique that the George family has passed down for generations."

Upon flipping through the pages, Abel could see that Georgy's family had a better teaching system than the Harry family. The former just seemed to be more focused on all kinds of areas. There were horse-riding, fighting on foot, attacking, defending, and all sorts of other secret techniques in all sorts of different situations.

Abel said as he pointed towards the magic armor set, "The scrolls can stay here, but that armor set is too mediocre. Have it placed next to the throne as decoration."

"Yes, your Majesty," Burbridge complied as he tried to hide his disappointment.

Next, Abel found a giant piece of meteoric iron in front of him. With a touch of his hand, he could tell that it came from the same period as what he's found in the secret room in the Matthew estate. They probably came from the same source, actually. Otherwise, it'd be hard to explain why they were both found at the duchy of Carmel.

"Keep this," Abel slapped on the meteoric iron piece. He wasn't planning on bringing it away. With his current skill as a grandmaster blacksmith, it'd be more than easy to make materials that could be used as substitutes for making more super explosive balls. If needed, he could even just leave this piece for his future descendants.

To Burbridge, he was just happy enough to see that Abel found something worth keeping. He wouldn't want to see the palace treasure room being completely emptied.

Abel went to pick up a box he found on the side. When he opened it, he found a scepter and a crown inside. The scepter was made of green tourmaline, which had a size that was extremely difficult to be found in nature. The crown was made of gold from top to bottom. Upon a closer look, one could see that there were hundreds of mini gemstones laced on it. It was like a gigantic piece of diamond, but only much more valuable than that.

Burbridge gave his introduction, "Your Majesty, these two were the secret treasures of the George family. No one has ever shown these in public before."

"Of course no one has," Abel said with a sneer, "Just look at that diamond piece! Think about what the wizards would do if they saw it."

Burbridge didn't seem too familiar with jewelry, "Is there something special about that diamond piece?"

Abel laughed as he shook his head, "The wizards would've snatched it away as soon as they saw this."

"Wait," Abel then turned to ask, "I did remember that the previous king had a crown and scepter with him. Will I need to do so as well?"

Burbridge replied, "Of course, your Majesty. It wouldn't matter most of the time, but you must follow a stringent dress code when you're attending formal events. A crown and scepter are sometimes mandatory."

Abel took the two items into his portal bracelet, "Sure, then. I'll be using these at the banquet."

Just when Burbridge was about to stop Abel from doing so, he was reminded of something once again. Abel was much stronger than the previous kings. There wasn't a need for him to hide anything from the wizards. He could wear whatever he wanted, and no one was going to want to steal them away from him.

Finally, there was an anonymous magic gold card with about ten million gold coins worth saving. This was probably what the duchy had been saving for the past few years.

Abel wasn't too interested in stuff like this. After picking up five million from it, he dropped the money into a shelf meant to store magic gold cards.

"These will be used for public spending," he said with an unconcerned smile.

721-Sorting Some Affairs

From their time together just then, Burbridge gained a whole new understanding of the man that was his new master. Abel was less than twenty years old, but even a duchy's entire wealth was like nothing to the wealth that he had to himself.

Burbridge tried to make another persuasion, "I beg your pardon, your Majesty, but we can't just keep the treasure room empty like this."

Abel laughed in reply, "Well, I can't say that you don't have a point there, but why don't you think about it this way? We'll take the stuff here and move them to the throne room. Wouldn't that make the duchy look better to the outsiders?"

Abel took out ten knight's big swords, ten magic armor sets, and ten magic shields before continuing. He then lined them up neatly on the floor.

"I want these in the second room."

"Yes, your Majesty."

Burbridge didn't know how much this cost, but if they were made all by the hands of Grandmaster Abel himself, surely nothing could be enough to be of a match.

The two left the treasure room after that. As four knights helped them lock gates, they made their way out of the underground chamber.

Burbridge asked Abel, "So when do we hold our daily meetings, your Majesty?"

Abel shook his head, "I'll be leaving all the state-related matters to Earl Brook. It'll be an official order that's coming straight from me. I can't do everything myself when I'm way too busy with other things."

As Lord Marshall's father and Abel's grandfather in name, there would be no problems with legitimacy if Earl Brook represented Abel in state affairs. That being said, there wouldn't be a lot to worry about when it came to facing opposition.

Burbridge didn't carry the order out immediately, "Your Majesty, orders such as this are called a decree. Also, you'll need your own private stamp if you want to make any sort of official command."

Abel just kind of laughed in response. It was only the first day, and he already had to learn so much about being a king.

"Well," Abel didn't seem too keen about this sort of thing, "I'll leave it all up to you. I need to go back to Harry Castle now. By the way, since you're so familiar with this place, I'll let you decide where to install the new teleportation circle. Remember to treat the wizards kindly when they come here in the future."

And there he went. Abel didn't take much time to get out of Bakong City with Black Wind. On his way out, he did find a lot more knights than usual. There were also a lot of shops and institutes that remained open. The duchy seemed to do very well after it got a new king. Actually, maybe it was the new king that made everything run so smoothly.

When Abel reached the Old Morton Magic Tower outside of Bakong City, he used the teleportation circle to move back to Harry Castle. Once he did, the first thing he did was show off his new sun blazing armor to Lord Marshal.

"Wow," Lord Marshall said in ecstasy, "Did you scam someone to get this, Abel? The whole family has had only one set for years. I kept trying to get more, but nobody has ever said yes."

It was a dream that came true. Lord Marshall was a second son that was separated from his family. The blazing sun armor was like a medal that certified his right to the Harry name, but all he ever got was a replica that he was not quite satisfied with.

"Here," Abel said as he took out another set, "One for my father."

"My spirits!" Lord Marshall screamed in bewilderment, "What is this sorcery? Did the prices go down or something?"

"Wait, wait wait wait wait wait….. Did you steal from the palace treasure room?"

"So what did you steal, Abel?" the Bennett Knight asked. He happened to walk in just on time,

"Bennett! That!" Lord Marshall pointed at the set that was on the table, "It's Abel's gift to you. I don't think a Bennett would appreciate something like this, but hey, I'm just saying."

the Bennett Knight quickly spoke back, "Keep that as well, if you want, but you have to give me your golden bull armor."

"No, you sly, old fool with a face of a twenty-year-old!" Lord Marshall slapped his thigh as he laughed, "The golden bull armor is mine! What kind of offer do you think you're making?"

"Uh-hum," Abel coughed as to stop the two from spouting words at each other, "Alright, I have something serious to talk about."

"Okay. I don't want to scare you two, so what I'm going to do is to start by explaining to all this."

"Okay?"

"Go on."

"I was granted the title of a Lord for my accomplishments in the miracle wall battle."

Lord Marshall was already bragging about himself, "Well, I got my Harry Castle from doing service at miracle city, so why shouldn't you?"

The Bennett Knight asked, "Okay, even with your narcissism, Marshall. So what was your reward, Abel? Did you get a lot of military points? And what kind of title are you rewarded with?"

Abel nodded, "I got a lot this time. It's about thirty thousand points in total. I was also granted the title of a duke."

"Are you sure you got the right sum?"

The Bennett Knight wasn't sure if he heard correctly. Thirty thousand military points. It was the first time that he's ever heard of so many points being given to one person in one time. Both he and Lord Marshall had done their time at Miracle City. They knew how hard it was to earn military points there.

Lord Marshall wasn't sure what to ask, "Did the orcs, uh, did they, uh, offer to give you the military points? Did they, I don't know, form a line together so you can cut them all up one by one?"

Abel replied calmly, "I've lost count of my kills, but the whole sky was filled with the combat qi smoke of the orcs I've killed."

"Ok, just stop," Lord Marshall slapped Abel's head like a child, "You're making us look bad here, Abel. Don't talk like that in front of us again."

"Yes, Uncle Marshall," Abel nodded obediently.

Bennett just came back to his senses, "So you were granted the title of a duke. Does that mean you have more land now?"

If Abel wanted to buy properties with his thirty thousand military points, he wouldn't be able to do so. There wasn't any land on the Holy Continent that was big enough to worth so much.

"About that," Abel tried to speak calmly about this, "Okay, bear with me. So the George family of the duchy of Carmel has been exiled because they sided with the Orc Empire. When it happened, everyone connected to the George family had been removed from the duchy of Carmel…."

They stared at each other and Abel. Both Lord Marshall and the Bennett Knight couldn't believe what they were hearing.

Lord Marshall couldn't even speak properly, "Wait, Abel, so what you're saying is that the…"

The two old men spoke slowly together, "The duchy of Carmel has…"

Unlike Abel, who was indoctrinated with the concept of equality back on planet Earth, Lord Marshall had spent his entire life striving to become the "higher" or "better" man. It was the same for Bennett. He only fought at Miracle City because he wasn't happy with the status that he originally had.

Both of Abel's fathers risked their own lives for reputation. As a result, they only managed to become the lowliest among the nobility rank. They knew how hard it was to move up from the hierarchy they were in, but they just couldn't help but think about it. Lord Marshall was "Lord" Marshall only because of Abel's generosity a while ago. None of this would happen if Abel didn't decide to help them out.