Chapter 70 – The Treasure

Felix’s treasure?

Meeting good fortune yet remembering to inform roommates?

My god, we have a saint in our dorm!

Ingritt laughed and said: “Are you afraid Felix has ulterior motives for you, so you decided to share the risk with us, even reminding us to report whereabouts to parents, just to deter Felix through implicating us?”

Sonya shrugged without denying: “There’s also a bit of consideration along that line of thought. But the treasure is real…”

Looking at the chattering Sonya, Felix secretly sighed, suddenly doubting whether his decision this time was too much.

When leaving the meditation building in the morning, Felix called out to Sonya, saying he had a huge good news to share with her.

But what kind of person is Sonya? She is a shrewd girl who made her own living in the extravagant city of Cailleach alone. Having seen all kinds of sinister humanity, how could she believe this empty promise?

Swindlers all know to send small gifts first before scamming people. You should at least send me some expensive gifts first to lower my alertness!

Sugar-coated cannonballs, sugar-coated cannonballs. Your cannonballs don’t even have sugar-coating, looking down on who!

Felix tried hard to persuade Sonya, but under Sonya’s constant threat of “forget it, I won’t participate”, he could only reveal his bottom line and gave up control.

The so-called treasure is actually the legacy left by Felix’s mother. But this legacy was divided by his mother into several parts, each with its own requirements. If the requirements are not met, the legacy can never be obtained.

One part of the legacy requires the person to possess the spirit sword “Murderous Intention” as well as having more than half a wing of arcane energy.

Although Felix has half-wing arcane energy, he lost the “Murderous Intention”, which makes the treasure that should have been easily obtained suddenly become as difficult as ascending to heaven.

At this time, Sonya’s “Murderous Intention” came into his sight.

But Felix also knew Sonya would not give up the precious “Secret Sword Twenty-One”, so he proposed to cooperate with Sonya.

At first he proposed a price that he thought was very reasonable: a fake marriage. Not that he wanted to take advantage of Sonya, but because after investigating Sonya’s history, he believed this was the opportunity Sonya wanted.

According to the Noble Crest Act, any relationship recognized by the Noble Council is legally equivalent to marriage. Felix knew that what Sonya wanted most was the noble status that would allow her to live respectably in Cailleach, but the path to ennoblement was rocky and difficult. In contrast, marrying a noble was a shortcut.

As long as she marries Felix, Sonya will directly get the Vlozrada family crest, not only getting monthly allowance from the family fund, but also enjoying the family’s sorcerer training system. Miracles like ‘Dragon Belly Scales’ and ‘Dragon Dinner Party’ will also open up to her.

Most importantly, she can directly use the Vlozrada family crest to bypass Cailleach’s residency restrictions and enjoy noble privileges without restriction on purchasing property and choosing occupations.

She could even change her mother’s residency registration from agricultural town resident to Cailleach resident.

Felix judged others by himself. He knew Sonya must cherish her mother very much, who was widowed early and raised Sonya alone. If possible, Sonya would definitely want her mother to enjoy blessings early.

However, even with Sonya’s outstanding talents, it would take at least a year and a half for her to unfold the Silver Wings, at least four years to unfold the Golden Wings. If she wants to enter the Three Wings Sanctum in ten years, she would absolutely need great fortune and opportunities.

But more likely, she won’t be able to enter the Three Wings Sanctum in twenty years.

In recent years, the number of nobilitations has become less and less. It’s almost impossible to be nobilitated now without reaching Sanctum. Without the noble crest, no matter how outstanding Sonya is, she can only enjoy this success alone in Cailleach, without the qualifications to relocate her mother’s residency. Her mother will still be restricted to staying in Cailleach for only thirty days a year.

Commoners must abide by the commoners’ code, only nobles have the qualifications to soar.

Felix thought Sonya would readily accept, because accepting is equal to sparing twenty years of struggle.

After all, marriage can be divorced. Although she would lose the Vlozrada crest then, by that time Sonya must have already made a fortune. She would have also relocated her mother’s residency to Cailleach, so divorce wouldn’t affect any of her interests or even reputation – noble divorces and extramarital affairs are common occurrences that everyone is used to and won’t care about.

But even after Felix explained the pros and cons, Sonya still rejected the proposal.

He couldn’t understand why the smart and vulgar Sonya would reject such a mutually beneficial proposal.

Interests, status, fame, weren’t these what she wanted?

Why did she reject?

Could she really be so confident that she can obtain everything by her own ability in just a few years?

Or did she look down on me, Felix, and wasn’t interested in taking so-called shortcuts?

But since Plan A failed, Felix could only propose Plan B: split the treasure evenly.

Although the treasure was left to him by his mother, in principle it shouldn’t be shared with anyone. It was also not entirely impossible for him to regain the “Murderous Sword” in the future. Felix could have kept the treasure for the future.

But Felix also knew everything in the world has an expiration date.

Power also expires.

The reason his mother left the legacy with restrictions was precisely to provide targeted help to Felix.

Any treasure that Felix could just open now would provide huge help to his current self. It wouldn’t give Felix power beyond his control.

For example, Felix at one wing couldn’t obtain a two-wing spirit from the legacy. Because for him, it would only be a pure burden and drag.

And this treasure that requires him to have half-wing arcane energy to open must be very suitable for his current situation.

If Felix advanced to Golden Two Wings and opened this treasure then, he wouldn’t need this bit of help by that time. It wouldn’t even count as icing on the cake. But now, even if he could only get half, it would still be a godsend.

Years of assassination attempts have made Felix realistic and rational.

He wasn’t a squirrel who hides away all his food. With his constant sense of crisis, he believed in utilitarianism – maximizing benefits was the only principle he followed, even if it meant sharing his mother’s legacy.

Sonya agreed, but didn’t completely agree.

She proposed a condition that Felix felt was incomprehensible: she wanted to bring friends to participate in this operation, and she would reward her friends from the treasures she obtained.

At first Felix also thought he had met a principled saint who wouldn’t give in to power and wealth. But on second thought he understood Sonya’s concern – she was afraid he would kill her for the treasure!

If not for Professor Trotzam’s support, Sonya was basically a foreign college student without any background. Even with Trotzam as her backing, cooperating with local nobles like Felix was no different from dealing with tigers for their skins. She could only spread the risk by bringing her roommates, with Ingritt being children of minor noble families from out of town, Iris being daughter of local businessmen, and Adel’s father a government official of Cailleach… The key was Iris and Adel. The two of them must have alarm devices that could send location signals to the Security Bureau when encountering danger!

Plus they all reported whereabouts to their families. Felix had to be careful to escort these young ladies back to school, otherwise the Noble Council would come after him first if anything happened.

Felix greatly admired Sonya’s prudence, but of course he didn’t want more people to know his secrets. He tried to persuade her with benefits, even willing to change the profit split from fifty-fifty to forty-six. He could be considered quite humble.

But Sonya insisted, “If you don’t agree, I don’t want the treasure.” She firmly grasped Felix’s bottom line.

The winner of a negotiation is always the one who cares the least.

Felix knew how much the treasure could improve him. In the end, he still conceded.

After Sonya explained the situation, her roommates all looked at Felix warily, huddling behind Sonya like chicks, making Felix want to laugh: “If you’re still worried you can leave now. Just don’t talk about this outside.”

“No, I want to stay and protect Sonya!” Iris righteously stated, though her eyes showed eagerness. Adel also looked like she was here just to watch the spectacle without fear of trouble.

Ingritt was even more direct: “I’m just very curious what kind of treasure needs spirits to open.”

Treasure that even the Vlozrada second young master coveted, how could these apprentice mages not be curious? In the end, they were teenagers. How could they not yearn for this treasure straight out of a novel?

Felix sighed and took out five blank membrane contracts, “Then let’s sign the contracts first.”

Sonya and the others secretly exclaimed at the luxury – membrane contracts were common spirit tool devices. The principle was to temporarily store the miracle ‘Oath of the Virtual World’ onto paper. Signers of the contract would be restricted by the virtual world, sleeping endlessly for light violations, and souls vanishing for heavy violations.

Membrane contracts weren’t cheap, market price equaling a one-wing spirit. Not used for unimportant deals. That Felix could take out five at once not only showed his wealth, but also indicated the treasure’s extraordinary value. Otherwise he wouldn’t have invested so much.

Using membrane contracts was simple. Users peel off the membrane then directly copy the template. Messy handwriting or corrections didn’t matter. As long as the five signed copies of the contract could be stacked together, meaning the contents were the same, the oath takes effect.

The pre-attached membrane, separate copying, and overlap detection were all designed to reduce the chances of mages tampering with the contract. In fact, membrane contracts have proven to be trustworthy. Like how Sonya’s academic loan was a membrane contract.

The template was simple: not leaking anything that happens in this basement, not keeping any records in any form, not exposing anything about the treasure, concealing the source of anything obtained, and not implicating Felix himself.

At the same time, Felix and Sonya will split the harvest from the basement evenly, then Sonya will further distribute the treasure with Ingritt, Iris, and Adel.

Essentially a non-disclosure and profit-sharing contract.

While copying, Adel quietly asked: “Sonya, why did you reject the fake marriage proposal? If it were me, I would definitely choose the fake marriage rather than the treasure… That’s the Vlozrada crest…”

Iris also looked at Sonya curiously.

Sonya’s expression was a bit awkward. She hesitated for a long time before squeezing out: “Humiliating!”

What’s humiliating?

Marrying Felix for pretend humiliating?

Or taking this shortcut into the noble class humiliating?

If it were Ingritt saying this it would make sense, but you’re Sonya Therave!

Iris and Adel both couldn’t understand. After all, Sonya didn’t seem like someone who values face to them. More importantly, they didn’t feel like Sonya cared about dignity! Losing money hurts more than losing face!

They couldn’t understand, Felix couldn’t understand, only Ingritt vaguely guessed something.

Not because she was particularly close with Sonya, but simply because they both came from small towns.

Unlike the open-minded metropolis of Cailleach, small towns have very conservative views. Although to urbanites they only seem backwards and uncultured, to rural folk some things simply cannot be treated lightly.

For example, marriage.

Perhaps because Sonya integrated into the city so quickly, others felt she was a very modern and trendy college student. But Ingritt knew Sonya still harbored the unique innocence and fantasies of rural folk at heart – believing effort will lead to success, believing suffering will bring progress, believing… marriage is sacred, love is pure, and cannot be tainted one bit.

She may see marriage as a pathway for advancement, but she hasn’t discarded her own integrity for it. Otherwise there are plenty of very rich and oily noble heirs around. She just wants to find the most suitable marriage partner within acceptable boundaries, then steadfastly tend the marriage.

Not everything can be used for transaction. People in the city just don’t understand such things.

Of course, in addition to this, Ingritt felt Sonya was also being prideful – taking shortcuts may be easy, but if you can succeed by your own effort, why let your honor be smeared?

Sonya felt uneasy being seen through by Ingritt. “What are you staring at me for, do I have words on my face?”

“Hehe, you’re shy aren’t you?”

“You’re sick.”