Though before I head toward the royal treasury, I must first visit the throne room, which Mother and Father currently occupy, as I need the silver crystal, which acts as a key, that Father has if I wish to gain access to the treasury.
'I just hope father and mother won't deny my request, as I'm still being punished.' Thought Elif as he opened the throne room doors and approached Maria and Marcus, both sitting on their throne listening to several reports.
Arriving just below the thrones, I stood there quietly and waited for the man to finish his report before interrupting; I didn't wish to somehow annoy Mother and Father when I was about to ask them for something.
"-That is everything I have to report, your Majesties." Said the well-dressed man as he bowed before backing away and standing next to the others.
"Good, it seems like nothing out of the ordinary has happened. Now Elif, what brings you here?" Said Marcus with a nod before turning his attention to Elif.
"There was something I wished to do and to do so, I needed to visit the Royal Treasury; I was hoping you could lend me the key, Father?" Asked Elif with a smile, trying to look as appealing as possible.
"You do know you're still under punishment, right Elif?" Said Maria as she eyed Elif from her throne.
"Yes, but I'm only forbidden from leaving the Royal grounds; the Royal Treasury is still within the confines of my punishment." Said Elif as he tried reasoning with his parents, which seemed to more or less work.
"That is true; we did enforce the punishment after all. Here's the key, so long as you don't break your punishment, I don't mind if you go to the treasury." Said Marcus as he summoned the silver crystal before tossing it to Elif.
"But I want you to return the key before dusk; otherwise, I don't mind lengthening the punishment." Added Marcus, eyeing Elif.
"I understand, Father. Now, if you'll excuse me, I don't wish to prolong the meeting any more than I already have." Said Elif as he turned around and headed toward the throne room entrance, the silent Illumia following right behind him.
'That was much easier than I anticipated; well, I'm not complaining; it's quite nice for things to be easy every now and then.' Thought Elif with a slight smirk as he exited the throne room, closing the doors behind him.
Now that I'm out of the throne room, I head towards one of the highest points in the castle, as that is where Great-grandmother's room and the only entrance to the royal treasury are located. Well, there might be other entrances, but at least that's the only entrance I know of.
A couple of moments later, I again stand before Great-grandmother's room.
'I doubt Great-grandmother is bored of the view from up here.' Pondered Elif while looking out one of the hallway windows that nearly allowed one to view the entirety of the eastern side of Yggdrasil.
"Great-grandmother, I've come to visit the royal treasury." Announced Elif while knocking on the door to Celeste's room.
Luckily, I didn't have to wait long for the door to open, and while I was entering the room, I was teleported directly to Great-grandmother's arms, though thankfully, because of my size, I wasn't suffocated by her breasts.
"My little Elif, where have you been!? I haven't seen you in quite a while." Asked Celeste with fake sadness as she tightly hugged Elif, who reciprocated the hug.
"I would've visited you much earlier, Great-grandmother, but Mother and Father had forcibly sent me to a loathsome spirit realm, and I've only recently returned home." Stated Elif, mentally sighing that he could no longer teleport within the OverRealm, as space was far too dense for him to be able to rip holes in it. However, it wouldn't make a difference even if he could, as Celeste's proficiency over space was far greater than Elif's meager control.
"Hmph, well, it looks like I'm going to need to have a talk with those two little children; how could they send my little Elif to one of those accursed realms!? Ahh, you've also brought little Miss Illumia as well." Declared Celeste with an angry huff before noticing Illumia's presence.
"Queen Celeste." Responded Illumia with a bow.
"So, Elif, what's your reason for visiting the Royal Treasury this time?" Asked Celeste as she opened the door in the back of her room that led to a long corridor before walking down said corridor, doing all this with Elif still in her arms.
"Ahh, well, there was something that I was curious about in the Noble Eve estate, and I wanted Illumia to sneak in and acquire some information. However, if she wishes to remain undetected, she'll need the assistance of an artifact as the Eve manor apparently has some pretty powerful elders." Said Elif, finishing his explanation just when they arrived before the large vault.
"You must be talking about the three elders of the Eve family; yes, they are quite a bit stronger than Miss Illumia; she would be quickly caught if she tried sneaking in. If she wishes to get past them undetected, she will need to use a God-tier artifact and quite a powerful one at that." Mentioned Celeste as she finally set down Elif and summoned the golden crystal from her dimension ring.
"I presume you have the key, Elif?"
"Yes, I do, Great-grandmother; I wouldn't have come here without it." Replied Elif as he also summoned the silver crystal before walking to the left side of the vault while Celeste walked to the right side.
Copying Father's actions from my memories, I put the silver crystal inside the small hole, and when I did so, it let off a bright light while the vault's handle spun counterclockwise before the door opened.
Curious about the door's weight, I grabbed the handle and attempted to open it, which I surprisingly did after struggling for nearly an entire minute.
'My goodness, that was difficult.' Thought Elif, having just used about all of his strength to open the vault door.
"Very Impressive, Elif; one would usually need the cultivation base of a peak Divine King before they could even budge the vault door, let alone open it." Said Celeste with a smile as she once again carried Elif, much to his annoyance, though he's gotten used to her antics.
With the vault door open, Great-grandmother stepped inside the vault before heading towards the door with a sign displaying the word 'Artifacts' above it. Walking through the door, I am met with large shelves filled with what I presume to be artifacts, all of various sizes, colors, and shapes.
"This room greatly resembles the weapon room; do all of the rooms resemble one another?" Commented Elif while scanning the room with his divine sense.
"Yes, pretty much. The only one with major differences would be the room where we store formations. Now then, let us narrow down the number of artifacts we must search through." Answered Celeste as she snapped her fingers, causing all the shelves to disappear into the ground while numerous pedestals with various artifacts emerged from the ground, every single one of them radiating far more Qi than Elif's ever sensed before.
'I guess this will give me a rough estimate of how powerful Illumia is.' Thought Elif while finding it hard to wrap his mind around the amount of power he could sense radiating off each artifact, even though he was only sensing the smallest amount of energy they could exhibit.
With Great-grandmother finally setting me down, the three of us walked towards the artifacts while Illumia and I closely observed each artifact, both of us trying to comprehend their abilities; however, while Illumia gained some insight into some of their abilities, I was utterly clueless.
"Alright, here we are. The Voids Cloak. One of the most powerful high God-tier artifacts in our arsenal, and its abilities are perfect for what you have in mind, Elif." Announced Celeste as she stopped before a pedestal that contained a cloak with vibrant colors, though the only ones who could see it were Celeste and Illumia.
"Umm, I don't see anything, Great-grandmother?" Said Elif after having thoroughly scanned the pedestal with his divine sense, only for him to find nothing but air.
"Of course, you can't sense it, Elif; if you could, I'd be greatly disappointed in the Voids Cloak ability." Said Celeste with a chuckle before grabbing the cloak and injecting her Qi in it, causing it to glow brightly and become visible to Elif.
"It is quite beautiful, but I suppose that wasn't what I had in mind when you mentioned Voids Cloak." Remarked Elif while closely inspecting it before Celeste handed it over to Illumia.
"Here, try it on, little lady; I'm sure you would like to know how to properly use this before sneaking into an Arch-Dukes estate." Stated Celeste as Illumia took Voids Cloak and wore it before injecting her own Qi into it and disappearing from view.
"I suppose it's working, Great-grandmother?" Asked Elif, since with Illumia's cultivation base, it would be pretty easy for her to hide from Elif's senses even without an artifact.
"Hehe, it indeed is. How about taking a look at its abilities for yourself." Said Celeste, suppressing a laugh while looking at Elif as she summoned a small mirror for him to use.
Finding Great-grandmother's laughter to be quite concerning, I took the small mirror and looked at it; when I did, I was shocked to find that my cheeks looked like they were getting poked, yet I obviously didn't see nor sense any finger. Still, it didn't take a genius to figure out who was responsible for this.
"Care to stop it, Illumia?" Asked Elif dryly as his eye twitched in annoyance.
"My apologies, your highness." Said Illumia after reappearing, standing in her previous spot, though the smirk on her face said otherwise.
"Its concealing abilities don't amount to much when testing it on me, though I'm assuming Illumia won't get detected as long as she wears this?" Asked Elif while doing his best to ignore Illumia.
"You don't need to worry about Miss Illumia getting caught; even Maria and Marcus wouldn't be able to detect her, and they both have a cultivation base of a True God Emperor." Announced Celeste while reassuring Elif, though her words did mildly surprise him.
"Not even Mother and Father would be able to detect Illumia? That is impressive, but you could still sense Illumia, correct, Great-grandmother?" Asked Elif, who was quite interested in learning about her cultivation base.
"Yes, I could still see her as I'm a fourth-degree Tribulation Realm. Only an Immortal-tier artifact could hide from my senses." Said Celeste with some Pride.
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Created a discord server, so if anyone wishes to join, [https://discord.gg/TGc9yymDJP]
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Elven Legacy (Chapter 202: Older Sister Elaine) || Hero of Harmony (Chapter 83: 48-Hour Session!) || One Piece: Chaos Kong (Chapter 140: One Hell Of A Raid) at [patreon.com/Ozonelayer691]