As Latil was climbing the mountain while looking at the map, the knight followed behind, expressing admiration.

“Your Majesty, you’re good at both reading the map and climbing the mountain.”

You read the situation well and flatter nicely. Latil murmured inwardly, taking out a handkerchief to wipe her sweaty forehead.

As she looked up, the clouds seemed much closer. Looking down, the villagers appeared as tiny as ants.

Latil examined the map once more, verified the direction, and moved again.

“Let’s go. We have to get there as soon as possible.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

When they started climbing the mountain, the sky was light blue, but by the time they reached where the treasure map pointed, it had turned lavender.

The mountain was steep and high, and the cave entrance was hidden so cunningly that they wasted a lot of time nearly reaching the location.

Latil was certain they had passed the cave entrance at least half a dozen times.

“We may have to camp.”

Latil muttered, looking up. The sky was quickly becoming dark, not leaving a single point of light.

Night will soon fall. The dark forest is dangerous. They didn’t know where wild animals and monsters might appear from.

“It’s better to go in with a light as we won’t be able to see inside.”

The knight lit a lantern and handed it to Latil, while he held a torch, seemingly as a weapon in case there were any wild animals inside.

Latil carefully folded the map and put it away, holding the lantern in one hand as she took a step into the cave.

Traps that shoot arrows every step, walls that gradually narrow, floors that collapse if stepped on wrong, murder golems that activate at the touch of a gem, a moving labyrinth…

As Latil entered the cave, she thought of all sorts of dangerous dungeons that appeared in heroic stories.

‘The treasure map I have is from an auction, made in a ruined country, and villains tried hard to get it. So it may be as dangerous as those dungeons.’

“There’s a lot of humidity. But otherwise, it’s fine.”

“That’s right.”

However, unlike the difficult search for the entrance, there was not a single danger inside the cave as Latil had expected.

The interior was as difficult to navigate as the exterior, with a high risk of slipping and falling? But there were no golems, no traps, no monsters.

When they finally reached the end of the cave, both Latil and the knight were unscathed.

That’s lucky. Latil thought to herself as she stared at the box placed at the end of the cave.

At the end of the cave, the floor shot up, about 40cm in width and rose up to Latil’s waist.

A beautiful box painted black was placed on that protruding part. It was a valuable looking box, delicately crafted and decorated with gold leaf here and there.

While it was worn due to the passage of time, Latil was rather relieved to see this. If it were a new box without a single flaw, she would have suspected that someone had come in earlier and swapped the box.

“Is that what you came to find?”

As Latil stared at the box, the knight asked, tilting his head to the side.

You snuck out leaving even the state affairs to Prince Lean, and I wondered what you were up to. But you came just to get a small box, he seemed puzzled.

“Well, I don’t know. I hope so.”

Latil muttered, pressing the button attached to the front of the box. Then a ‘tick’ sound was heard, and the box lid raised slightly. When Latil fully lifted the box lid, this time a ‘creak’ sound was heard.

‘What’s this?’

Latil stared at the item inside the box. It was a mask that covered half the face, appearing with an ominous sound.

The peculiar thing was that the box was fancy, but the mask had no pattern, and while the box showed the passage of time, the mask looked brand new as if just made.

“Is it a valuable item?”

The knight asked again, in a tone that seemed to imply it didn’t look valuable at all.

“I hope it is….”

Latil frowned down at the mask. It doesn’t look precious to my eyes. Could the enemies have come first with a different map and taken the ‘real contents’ inside the box and left this here?

Even to the extent that the knight, looking at the mask, wondered ‘why did the Emperor come looking for this?’, Latil too, found the mask unimpressive.

As Latil herself seemed unsure about the mask, the knight, after setting down the torch, asked.

“Would it be alright if I took a look?”

“Would you like that?”

When Latil offered the mask, the knight took it.

Since they had to stay in the cave overnight, while the knight was examining the mask, Latil looked around the cave for a suitable place to camp.

‘Anywhere is as good as anywhere else. Or would it be better to sleep near the entrance? But if we stay near the entrance and some wild animal comes in, that would also be a problem.’

But as she was looking around, she glanced at the knight and saw a surprising sight.

The knight was gone. No, he was there, but that knight did not have the face of the knight Latil knew. His clothes and belongings were the same, but the face was of a person she had never seen before.