Debuff Master

Chapter 399

The demon sword was unable to influence him in any way.

[Alert: The Demon Sword: Swarm wishes to enter into a contract with you!]

[Alert: You may enter into a contract with the Demon Sword: Swarm!]

[Alert: It is possible to meet Chaos if you infuse your mana into the Demon Sword: Swarm!]

Chaos’ artifact, the Demon Sword: Swarm, gave Siegfried a very warm welcome, unlike the Demon Lord, Vernas’ artifact, Demon Sword of Vengeance: Avenger.

‘So Avenger keeps trying to possess me because I’m weak while this guy wants to enter into a contract with me because I’m strong?’

That was how he interpreted the demon sword’s warm welcome to him before he shifted his focus back to Oscar.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, I am fine, Your Majesty. I am used to these kinds of wounds—“

Siegfried shook his head and said, “I’m not talking about your body. Your heart... Does it hurt?”

“No, it does not,” Oscar replied with a smile and added, “Everything is alright now, Your Majesty.”

“That’s a relief.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Oscar’s face looked much more at ease now compared to before.

“I will give you a week.”

“Pardon me, sire?”

“Go take a week off.”

“But I have a lot of work—“

“This is an order. You are hereby to rest for a week before reporting for duty,” Siegfried said before he smirked and added, “Since you will be working for free for the next three months.”

“I will gladly accept it even if you ask me to work without pay for the rest of my life, Your Majesty,” Oscar said before she knelt on one knee despite the injuries she sustained.

Siegfried turned around and called out, “Hey, Hamchi.”

“Kyu!”

“Can you take care of Oscar and Carell?”

“Where are you going, owner punk?!”

“Me?”

Siegfried grinned and formed a circle with two fingers before saying, “I’ll go make some of these.”

“Kyu?”

“You heard what he said. If this well is connected to their treasure room, then don’t you think it’s only right for us to empty it?”

“Alright! Hamchi will go back to the airship with them!”

“Okay.”

Siegfried placed Oscar and Carell in Hamchi’s care and took out a large sack from his inventory. Then, he grumbled while placing Salvatore’s severed head and body into the sack. “Geez... Do I have to do things like this...?”

He flung the sack containing Salvatore’s remains over his shoulder and climbed down the half-rotten rope.

***

It was an overstatement to call it a well, as the base was so dry that not even a droplet of water could be found anywhere. It seemed that it had been decades since the well had seen any water, judging by how the ground was littered with rat bones and how there were bats nesting in it.

“Ugh...

It stinks down here...” Siegfried grumbled as he followed the secret passage.

The secret passage was quite long.

‘I probably should’ve asked Carell how long he walked for...’

He walked for around two hours when he finally found a narrow staircase leading up.

‘Is it this one?’

He bent over and squeezed himself into the staircase while dragging the sack containing Salvatore’s remains.

Ten minutes later...

‘This must be it.’

He arrived in front of a boulder sculpted into a revolving door and pushed it with all of his strength.

Creak...!

Surprisingly, the stone door emitted a low mechanical sound as it creaked and spun.

“Argh...!” Siegfried groaned and covered his eyes.

Why?

Sparkle! Sparkle! Sparkle!

Because he was blinded by the glimmering mountain of gold that greeted him behind the door...

“Crazy...” he muttered after taking a peek at the mountain of gold.

The Valencia Family’s treasure room had mountains of gold at least ten meters high, and the cupboard installed on the walls had numerous expensive-looking artifacts encased in protective glass.

“Just how much did this guy embezzle to amass all of this...?”

Siegfried was in awe and disbelief after witnessing the Valencia Family’s treasure room.

The sheer volume of treasures in this room was a testament to Salvatore’s tyranny, as it was impossible for a mere family of marquis to amass such wealth without squeezing the people dry.

And that was exactly what had happened.

Salvatore squeezed the people dry until the very last drop as soon as he became the Head of the Valencia Family to amass as much wealth as possible.

“My lord, the people are suffering and are very unhappy. What do you think of lowering the tax rate temporarily for—“

“Hey.”

“Yes, my lord?”

“Haven’t you heard that dry firewood burns better?”

“P-Pardon me, my lord... but I do not think that is an appropriate—?”

“You’re right.”

“Yes, my lord...?”

“Ah, have you ever chewed on dry jerky?”

“Yes, I have—“

“You can still get some juice if you chew hard enough on jerky, so how is it any different with people?”

“...!”

“The people will serve their purpose as long as they can work for me, even as laborers, so keep the taxes at the same rate.”

“Yes, my lord...”

Salvatore was a tyrant who had reached the pinnacle of tyranny, and he was infamous for wanting to squeeze every single drop from the citizens of his territory. In other words, all of the treasure and gold stored in this room came from the blood, sweat, and tears of the people of Valencia Territory.

But how ironic can life be?

“Bon appétit.”

Salvatore went through all that trouble just to set the table for Siegfried.

“Wow~ This is a lot! Thank you for the meal!”

Siegfried started putting the gold and precious jewels into his inventory.

He had no trouble with inventory capacity as his title upgraded it to near-infinite, which allowed him to sweep up all of the gold and precious jewels in the room.

Then, he moved on to the next ones.

[Alert: You have obtained Dead Man’s Blessing!]

[Alert: You have obtained Daily Nooks!]

[Alert: You have obtained Flying Sandal!]

[Alert: You have obtained Curse of Loser!]

[Alert: You have obtained Immortal Fire!]

There was also a mountain of artifacts in the treasure room.

It was already expected it would have a lot of artifacts as this was where Salvatore got the Demon Sword: Swarm from, after all.

“Wow... How will I spend all of this—”

Boom!

While he was enjoying his happy dilemma, a loud noise erupted and shook the entire treasure room.

***

“Get back!”

“Hurry, get back!”

“Be careful!”

The McQueen Territory soldiers were trying their best to enter the Valencia Family treasure room, but they were having a hard time doing so as it was extremely difficult to forcefully open the room. Thus, the soldiers brought a small battering ram, usually used to bring down fort gates, to try and forcefully open the doors.

“One! Two! THREE!”

“Heave-ho!”

The McQueen Territory soldiers used all of their strength to try to open the doors while being completely oblivious to the fact that a rat was nibbling away at the treasures.

***

“One! Two! THREE!”

“Heave! Hoooo!”

The soldiers shouted in unison.

Booom!

The impact shook the treasure room.

“Heok!” Siegfried gasped in horror at the impact he felt through the thick walls. Anyone could tell that the McQueen Territory soldiers were trying to force their way into the treasure room right now.

“I have to hurry!”

Siegfried moved faster and shoved the treasures into his Inventory in hopes of taking even a single gold coin before the soldiers managed to break through the doors.

Bam!

The doors were finally breached after thirty minutes.

“W-What is this?!”

“Heok!”

“Damn it!”

The McQueen Territory soldiers were completely dumbfounded after seeing the empty treasure room. The rumors said that the Valencia Family’s treasure was supposed to be filled with gold and treasure, but...

A knight muttered, “Don’t tell me... Did Salvatore and Oscar manage to transport all of these...?”

Unfortunately, nobody lent an ear to the knight’s muttering as—

“Ack! Salvatore! Salvatore’s body is here!”

—one of the soldiers found Salvatore’s remains, rendering everyone else speechless.

In other words, the entire treasure room was empty except for the lifeless corpses.

***

The soldiers were sent on a wild goose chase afterward. Emerging victorious from the territory war was a great result.

Why?

Because they could annex the Valencia Territory, and the McQueen Territory was now going to be the largest territory in the entirety of the Emporio Kingdom.

Of course, that was only on the outside.

“Damn it! Where the hell did all of the treasure go?! Do I have to bring Salvatore back from the dead and ask him?!”

The Lord of McQueen Territory, Count Seraphim, was raging so early in the morning. It was understandable he would do so as the McQueen Territory had suffered heavy losses despite winning the war.

A territorial war was still a war at the end of the day, and wars were bound to cost a lot of money. How could the McQueen Territory cover the cost of the war if the enemy’s treasure was completely empty?

The winning party usually enjoyed the spoils of war, but such privilege was not given to the McQueen Territory.

What about annexing the Valencia Territory?

It was no different from a wasteland, thanks to Salvatore squeezing the people dry down to the last drop.

The fact that there was nothing for the McQueen Territory to pillage from Valencia Territory was already a huge blow, but they were now going to be forced to pour in an astronomical sum of money to rebuild the territory.

Unfortunately, that was not the end of their troubles as the citizens of Valencia started to run away to other states, which further reduced the number of able-bodied people that could potentially turn into manpower for the territory.

In other words, the McQueen Territory had to obtain the Valencia Family’s treasure no matter what to not suffer losses in this war.

Unfortunately, the worst-case scenario had happened as the treasures had magically disappeared. Seraphim was prepared to dabble in dark arts to bring Salvatore back to life just to ask him where the treasures were.

But that was not the end of it...

“What are you doing?! Go out there and find the Valencia Family’s treasure! Our territory is facing bankruptcy right now! We’re about to go bust!”

The McQueen Territory had spent a lot of money on the war, and the fact that they could not recoup the money spent by looting the Valencia Territory was bad enough news, but they also had to spend an astronomical amount just to reconstruct the impoverished Valencia Territory. Overall, the McQueen Territory’s future looked bleak.

“Can’t you see the other territories will be aiming their swords at us?! Even the royal family is trying to keep us in check! Our territory is going to get gobbled up whole at this rate!”

The Emporio Kingdom employed a feudal system, so everybody was surrounded by enemies from all sides. As for the McQueen Territory, their neighbors and the royal family felt threatened by their sudden growth, so any signs of weakness from the territory could end up triggering another civil war, with the McQueen Territory on the receiving end of the beating.

“Damn it! Does it make sense we won the war but are only suffering losses?! Just what kind of nonsense is this?!”

“My lord! The King of Proatine, Siegfried van Proa, requests an audience with you!”

“What?! The King of Proatine? Isn’t that the kingdom where that wench worked for?!”

The wench Seraphim was referring to was none other than Oscar, who rescued and escaped with Salvatore.

“Yes, my lord! What should we do?”

“Bring that man in at once! I’m going to make him dearly pay for failing to put his subordinate in check!”

“Yes, my lord!”

Five minutes later, Siegfried entered the throne room with a big smile as if he was here on vacation.

“Hello!”