Chapter 134 The Iron Box

This question from Conard, a deacon of the Mandated Punishers, seemed ordinary, but it was difficult to answer.

Odis realized that while he thought he had considered every possible question, he still overlooked a crucial issue: he had used Bajiquan at the fight club before.

It had been unavoidable. At the time, he had no intention of eradicating the King’s Avenue arena and was only focused on refining his combat skills, so he hadn’t paid mind to such a detail.

And if Conard went to the fight club to investigate, he would quickly discover that the techniques Odis used there bore a striking resemblance to Lelouch’s…

However, Odis had not prepared for this in advance. Lying on the spur of the moment carried the risk of being exposed.

In truth, Conard had no ulterior motive; since he had come all this way, he naturally had to finish asking his prepared list of questions.

Having posed the question, he looked at Odis quietly, waiting for a reply.

At this critical juncture, the latter’s brain, enhanced by his advancement, did him a huge favor. Without the slightest hesitation, he said, “Well… this, um, how should I put it? You have to keep this a secret for me.”

Even babbling nonsense was better than hesitating at such a time. At least it would not immediately arouse suspicion.

Meanwhile, his mind raced at full throttle, trying to find a plausible way to answer the question.

Conard didn’t think much of it. After all, Odis already had a solid alibi, and in his eyes, a noble would not lie on behalf of a mere herbal shop owner.

He asked with a smile, “Is there really a need to keep it a secret?”

“Hahaha…” Odis covered his tension with laughter as he finished fabricating a solid lie. He reiterated, “I will tell you, but you must keep it confidential.”

Having pressed the matter this far, Conard naturally agreed, “No problem.”

“Please wait a moment.” Odis pretended to go upstairs to fetch something, but in reality, he returned to his room and retrieved the Emperor Roselle ‘relic’ he had acquired earlier at the Mysticism Research Society from the Knowledge Moor.

He returned to the ground floor carrying the small metal box, “This is something I obtained by chance earlier. It’s supposedly a relic of Emperor Roselle. It took me quite a long time before I finally managed to open it. Surprisingly, what was inside turned out to be two fighting styles I’ve never heard of before!”

Conard was astonished by that, “Are… are you saying that you learned to fight from Emperor Roselle?”

Although Roselle had been dead for more than a century, his influence still spanned the Berserk Sea and both the Northern and Southern Continents.

Odis smiled and nodded, “You could say that. Yes, I did a divination. What’s recorded inside was indeed written by Emperor Roselle himself. And according to the contents, there are twenty-one more such small boxes out there.”

In essence, what he was saying was that this small box wasn’t rare, nor was it that difficult to obtain, so the similarities between his fighting style and Lelouch’s was only a coincidence.

Of course, if Conard later investigated and found that Lelouch and Odis shared remarkably similar fighting styles, suspicion would inevitably return. Official Beyonders weren’t that easy to fool, after all.

But getting past the immediate crisis took priority.

Conard’s astonishment was quickly replaced by curiosity, “Could I pay my respects and take a look at the Emperor’s handwriting?”

Someone thin-skinned who didn’t know how to refuse others would have opened the box for him to see.

But Odis had thick skin. More importantly, he couldn’t open the box at all, so his only choice was to act.

“Well…” Wearing an awkward, troubled expression, he said, “Gentlemen, if you weren’t official Beyonders, I wouldn’t have told you any of this. I’m very sorry, but these items are extremely precious, and I don’t wish for others to see them.”

Put this way, Conard couldn’t press the matter, but he still glanced at one of his subordinates.

That subordinate carried a Sealed Artifact capable of divination. Seeing his deacon look over, the agent immediately gave a slight nod, confirming that it was indeed a relic of Emperor Roselle.

At this point, the Mandated Punisher dismissed all his suspicions and bid Odis a very polite farewell.

‘Even the most short-tempered and impatient Mandated Punishers are this hard to fool…’ Odis thought as he watched the carriage drive off.

Then he returned to making dinner, racking his brain over how to patch up his earlier blunder: ‘How am I honestly going to back up the lies I spun tonight?’

By the time dinner was ready, he had come up with a solution: he had to open the iron box left by Roselle, and whatever was inside, he would replace it with boxing manuals written in Intisian.

Not only that, but he would also add some Simplified Chinese to muddy the waters even further.

As for how to open the iron box, Odis first thought of cooperating with the Queen Mystic, but such a collaboration was fraught with uncertainty.

What if Roselle’s eldest daughter simply confiscated the iron box? Who could he even complain to? If the Mandated Punishers investigated again later, he could claim the iron box had been stolen, but that would be far too coincidental and still easily invite suspicion.

After mulling it over, he decided to try it himself in the Knowledge Moor first. If that didn’t work, he could consider discussing it with Bernadette.

After finishing dinner, Odis returned to his bedroom, put the metal box back into the Knowledge Moor, and read for a while to let his food digest…

…

Around ten at night, Odis lay down early and entered the Knowledge Moor using a specific method of Cogitation.

He passed through the plains composed of illusory light and arrived at the high tower formed from illusory orbs of light.

He sat in a chair, staring at the metal box on the desk, lost in thought.

‘Brute force is out of the question. Doing so would destroy whatever’s inside and likely ruin the iron box as well…’

Thinking of this, Odis suddenly realized something: ‘What if I don’t have worry about damaging it…?’

Acting on the idea, he promptly used the power of the Knowledge Moor to Replicate the iron box.

After becoming a Warlock, the Knowledge Moor’s power of simulation had undergone an enhancement, allowing it to ‘replicate’ an existing object from reality down to the minutest detail.

Though it appeared somewhat illusory yet corporeal, it felt completely solid to the touch.

Odis had previously considered this ability rather useless, as it required having the physical object on hand to Replicate it in the first place. He always felt that if one already possessed the real thing, making a replica was rather pointless.

Furthermore, anything Replicated could only be used within the Knowledge Moor and could not be brought into the outside world.

Now, however, he changed his mind because at this very moment, the ability proved to be invaluable.

He pried open the illusory yet solid iron box before him by force. The internal mechanism triggered immediately, and before he could even lift the lid fully, a strange liquid burst forth, destroying the somewhat illusory parchment inside.

Unfazed, Odis began to meticulously examine the dismantled box.

There was indeed an exquisite mechanism hidden within, but it could not withstand him scrutinizing it piece by piece. Before long, he uncovered the mechanism to open the iron box properly.

To be precise, it was not that Emperor Roselle’s design lacked ingenuity; on the contrary, it was the most intricate mechanism Odis had ever seen. Anyone other than the box’s designer would likely never know how to open it safely.

Yet no mechanism, no matter how ingenious, could withstand endless trial and error and repeated deduction.

Odis produced another Replica of the box. Picking it up, he directed his gaze toward the bottom-left corner at the back. The spot looked no different from the rest of the surface, showing no hint that a mechanism lay hidden beneath.

He pressed it once, but nothing happened. He tapped it twice, but still received no response.

He didn’t rush into further action, knowing the mechanism was definitely located here. It was only a matter of figuring out the right way to trigger it.

Odis reasoned that having no reaction to pressing or tapping was entirely normal. After all, one could never predict whether the iron box might accidentally be dropped, landing on a pebble or something similar that might inadvertently set off the mechanism.

If pushing didn’t work, pulling outward might. So he use the Central Simulator in the room to conjure a suction-cup tool, attached it firmly to the bottom-left corner, and pulled hard.

*Click~*

Sure enough, the metal box clicked open.

Odis quickly shoved the Replicated box aside and used the exact same method on the genuine article.

He smiled faintly and retrieved the parchment within. Unfolding it revealed a detailed, hand-drawn map.

Though drawn by hand, it was exceptionally exquisite, appearing as if it had been calibrated countless times before being printed out.

The entire map was roughly the size of The World map in Odis’s memory, depicting mountains and dense forests with simple strokes, alongside a line of simplified Chinese characters. By all appearances, it was a map personally drawn by Roselle.

Odis’s gaze swept over it immediately. It read:

<..This is a treasure I found back before I became Consul. The clues to it came from some records aboard the Black King.

It is said that the Blood Emperor was utterly mad, yet he had moments of clarity. During one such moment of lucidity, he buried a vast treasure for the empire, though his reasons for doing so have long been lost to history.

Turns out it wasn’t just the Solomon Empire and the Tudor-Trunsoest United Empire that had treasures… the Tudor Empire had one too.

Following this clue, I pored over countless materials from the Tudor era, and ultimately managed to locate this trove…>

<..Haha, I was a veritable genius back then, uncovering treasures belonging to two separate empires within the span of just a few years.

The trouble was, the hoard was simply far too vast, and my strength at the time was far too weak. I could only make off with a portion of the Sealed Artifacts before burying the site right back up.

Later on, in order to quickly bolster the Beyonder forces loyal to me, I paid another visit to the treasure and took away most of the Sealed Artifacts. I, however, didn’t touch the gold and silver. By then, I was already the ruler of Intis, and power had gradually dulled my interest in mere coin.

Besides, under my brilliant leadership, Intis’s finances remained in fine shape even while waging war against Loen and Feynapotter at the same time…>

<..A few days ago, however, when I suddenly recalled this treasure, my Spirituality yielded a Prophecy: over a century from now, someone who shares an experience similar to mine, and who gets along quite well with my lovely daughter Bernadette, will find use for what lies inside.

So if you can read these words, fellow transmigrator, don’t you dare say your senior transmigrator never looked out for you.

And if you can’t read Chinese, heh, choke on your frustration! Aside from that, it ought to be easy for you to spot my daughter. Under my influence, her manner of dress and her way of thinking are completely unlike anyone else’s in this era.

If you ever meet her… sigh, never mind, I won’t speak of Zaratul’s Prophecy regarding Bernadette.

Go forth, valiant Warrior! Use my treasure to realize your personal worth!>