The underground space was much larger than the building appeared from outside. It seemed that was because the building was just a facade. The interior had corridors with more doors lined up along them.

As if the doors inside served as a second security measure, Constantine used his Guardian Spirit’s power once more to open one of the many doors.

“This way.”

“Yes!”

Saena entered with sparkling eyes.

The inside wasn’t what one might typically imagine as a treasure vault. It wasn’t filled with gold and silver treasures, nor was it brilliantly lit.

At first glance, it looked like a pile of old junk, or a graveyard of abandoned items. But that didn’t diminish her interest.

If these were items from the Arles-Promesa era, of course they would look like antiques. That’s natural, right? It made perfect sense to her.

“The items in this room are sealed objects.”

“…Sealed objects?”

“Though few Guardian Spirits remain now, when there were many types, there were Guardian Spirits with very diverse tendencies.”

“Yes.”

“Among them, some Guardian Spirits could only seal demonic beasts rather than attack them. Come here and look at this closely.”

The Duke removed a cover cloth from a rectangular object on one side. What was revealed were paintings stacked neatly together.

Saena approached and examined the painting in front. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary landscape painting. There were mountains drawn, and a forest path…

And on one side was something that looked like a beast. It looked somewhat like a cow or a bear, but unable to tell exactly what it was, Saena bent down to look closer.

“Ah!”

But then she made eye contact with the thing in the painting.

Startled, Saena stepped back.

‘……?!’

Wait, made eye contact? Did I just see that correctly? How could one make eye contact with a painting?

Doubting her own impression, she looked at the painting again.

But… no matter how she looked at it, she felt like ‘it’ was glaring at her. When she started to feel like it was even moving, Saena looked up at Constantine with a shrinking heart.

“That’s right.”

“…Pardon?”

“That black thing is a demonic beast. It’s sealed inside the painting. Can you feel it?”

“……”

Goodness. Could such an absurd thing really be true?

“There are many besides paintings. Take a look at this statue too.”

Constantine pointed to what appeared to be an obsidian statue next to it. At first glance, it was roughly carved into some kind of beast form, though the exact shape was unclear.

But looking more closely, something felt strange. The eyes seemed to move and look at her, and some kind of energy appeared to be rippling.

“……”

Just as she was starting to feel her back getting cold, losing her earlier excitement, the Duke led her to another room.

“This is a room of weapons that utilize a Guardian Spirit’s power.”

“…Weapons?”

“Since all current fourth-generation dukes have offensive Guardian Spirits, these items are actually useless now. However.”

“As you mentioned earlier, because Guardian Spirits have different characteristics, those Oathkeepers with non-offensive Guardian Spirits could use these weapons to gain attack power, is that right?”

“Yes. You catch on quickly.”

“…It’s simply amazing.”

Weapons utilizing a Guardian Spirit’s power — by today’s standards, when most people aren’t Oathkeepers, it’s just too fascinating.

“Hmm, shall we try operating one?”

“Wow. Can you show me?”

Saena’s face was filled with joy and expectation. Constantine looked at that face and lowered his head as he spoke.

“If you give me a kiss, I might do even better.”

“…What?”

The Duke pointed to his lips with his index finger and smiled broadly. As if that wasn’t enough, he closed his eyes and waited patiently. Saena’s face turned red, and she didn’t know what to do, just swallowing hard.

This man, he’s surprisingly forward and smooth. But she didn’t dislike it.

Saena fidgeted awkwardly by herself before rising on her tiptoes to quickly press her lips to his mouth and pull away. Chu. Though the contact was brief, the soft sensation remained distinctly.

Constantine slowly opened his eyes, which curved with an expression full of fondness for how cute she was, and gently stroked her forehead once.

Seeming satisfied with that much, Constantine said nothing more and looked around before picking something up. It looked like a crossbow, but it was unusually small with some kind of cylinder attached to the center, making for a rather strange form.

“It’s a one-handed crossbow. A crossbow that doesn’t need arrows. It seems it was carried around as a light self-defense weapon.”

“It doesn’t need arrows?”

Constantine lightly gripped the crossbow in one hand and aimed it at the wall. When he released his energy and infused Guardian Spirit’s power into the crossbow, stripes appeared on the cylinder part.

Shhhik—!

Then an invisible arrow shot at the wall he was aiming at, making a thunk sound as it struck.

“Wow…”

It’s really amazing. Something shot out even though there was no arrow. To think such weapons exist… It feels like a whole new world has opened up.

“During the Arles-Promesa era… were things like this very common?”

“They must have been. There are so many items remaining.”

Saena’s expression remained dazed, but still maintained its sparkling fascination.

Just then, there was a loud crash!

Perhaps due to the lingering effect of the arrow shot earlier, something hanging on the wall fell belatedly, crashing into other items displayed below. Objects piled on one side tumbled to the floor and scattered.

“Oh dear.”

Saena quickly went to pick up the items again.

“Leave it. I’ll do it.”

“No, it’s fine. Since this is a place only you can enter, Duke, wouldn’t it be better to do it together rather than alone?”

“Hmm. But are you going to keep calling me Duke?”

“……”

“……”

“…Con… stantine.”

Only then did the Duke smile broadly and say,

“Those items over there are sharp, so please just handle the ones on this side.”

“Yes.”

Though she didn’t know why calling his name was so embarrassing, Saena avoided his gaze and bent down to pick up the items.

‘……?’

But among the items she picked up, one seemed somehow familiar. Round, with a hollow interior… At first glance she thought it was a shield, but it had no handle and the form seemed familiar.

Saena held it and examined it from various angles.

…A basin! It somehow resembled the basin she saw at the Imperial Palace.

Though the color was subtly different from the flawless white one at the palace, the form was the same and the material, which seemed both metallic and stone-like, gave a similar impression.

“That’s not a weapon, hmm… It seems to have gotten mixed in with items in this room.”

“…Is this perhaps a basin?”

“That’s right. How did you know?”

“…Then is this also… used for discovering something?”

“How did you… It’s a basin used to determine the attributes of an Oathkeeper’s contracted Guardian Spirit.”

“……”

“The method is–”

“It uses blood, right?”

“……”

The challenging issue she had temporarily pushed to the back of her mind suddenly resurfaced.

The Duke seemed taken aback by the cold air that suddenly came between them, but Saena’s consciousness was pulled to the past and wrapped in worry.

“…Saena?”

Constantine removed the basin from Saena’s hands, which had grown pale, roughly set it aside, and helped her up.

“Let’s clean up later.”

“By any chance…”

“Yes?”

It was a question that suddenly burst out.

“If Hebeta is chosen from the central nobility… what do you think will happen?”

Though it was Saena’s problem, she wondered if perhaps… if it was Constantine, he might know the answer.

“The central nobility… you say? There shouldn’t have been such cases, right?”

“Just… if, if such a thing were to happen. If an imperial order comes down… then we’d have to follow it, right? Has there really never been any precedent for such imperial orders in this area before?”

“……”

Words spilled out without her even knowing.

Actually, she didn’t want an answer. It seemed she just wanted to express her frustration somewhere.

‘…Why am I doing this.’

Saena sighed. After several deep breaths, her mind and body seemed to stabilize somewhat.

“Did something happen?”

“…No, it’s nothing. I was just curious…”

“Do you want to know if there were such cases?”

“…Were there?”

“Not that I know of, but I’ve never looked into records from hundreds of years ago, so I don’t know.”

“Ah.”

“I’ll look into it. I’m curious too now.”

“…Thank you.”

Constantine stroked her cheek and temple with his fingertips, then led her outside.

Coming up to the ground and breathing fresh air made her feel a bit better. Though sudden worries had invaded her mind, she felt somewhat okay now.

“If you need my help, please, ask anytime.”

Maybe it was because he shared in her worries.

“I mean it.”

I could really feel his sincerity.

Swoosh, brushing back her hair that had been disheveled by the wind, Saena smiled.

“Thank you.”

“……”

“I mean it.”

Returning his exact words, she could smile sincerely.

He stared at her clear smile for a long while.