Chương 115: Chapter 114: The Demon Lord's Expense Log, and the First Trade Agreement

The secret chamber beneath the mineral pool's dry basin glowed with pale purple magical light. The pitch-black metal box sat on a dry marble pedestal. Lucian held his silver dagger and nudged the ancient numeric latch aside. CLICK. The lid popped open. Inside wasn't a hoard of glittering gold bars or piled diamonds. Resting neatly on dark red velvet lining was a thick bundle of dragonhide parchment, its edges bound in gold thread, covered in flowing, handwritten Ancient Demonic script.

Lucian picked up the documents and activated Photographic Recall Lv. 1 alongside Read the Fine Print Lv. 1. His original goal in opening the box had been clear: find any hidden assets, shares, or deposit certificates the Third Demon Lord hadn't managed to liquidate before dying. But the moment he finished reading the first page of the document — titled'Work Diary & Debt Tracking Ledger of the Demon Lord' — Lucian's eyes went wide.

He sank down onto the stone pedestal, his fingers skimming line after line of diary entries written in purple beast-ink.

'Year of the Origin Era, 102: Today the founding Emperor of humanity sent a letter refusing to pay five hundred thousand gold for the second shipment of Tartarus mana-ore, claiming the royal treasury was tied up building a palace. Furious, I've decided to send three legions of shadow cavalry across the border to collect the debt.'

'Year 103: These humans are shameless liars. Not only do they refuse to pay for the ore, they've had their poets write epic verses claiming my debt-collection army is a "Brutal Invasion by the Lord of Darkness." They've even given themselves the title "Alliance of Saving Light" to justify defaulting on the payment. Truly professional con artists.'

'Year 105: This prolonged war is costing too much. This month the Demon Realm's treasury ran a net loss of three hundred thousand gold on bread and horseshoes for the army. Retaliation, border claims, priestly speeches, and every opportunist with a banner have turned a collection dispute into something none of them can admit was small. My finance director got hit by an arrow and died yesterday, and now no one's left to manage the debt ledgers.

I wish I had a good accountant to help me collect that five hundred thousand gold...' Snort! Lucian pressed a hand to his forehead, bursting into laughter so hard he started choking, his shoulders shaking violently.

"The ten-thousand-year war between humanity and the Demon race... the glorious holy-war epic the Church has praised for millennia... had debt collection as its first ridiculous flashpoint?!" Sylvia stood nearby, holding her cross-reference dictionary, staring wide-eyed at each diary entry, verified with the actual soul-seal of the Third Ancient Demon Lord.

She stood frozen in the middle of the chamber, staring at the words "shameless liars" on the dragonhide page, every piece of sacred history she'd studied for three years at the monastery crumbling apart in an instant. Sylvia turned to Lucian, her voice a whisper. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Lucian... the ten-thousand-year holy war that took millions of lives began because no one stepped in to mediate a five-hundred-thousand-gold debt?" Lucian shrugged and flipped to the next page.

"History's written by the victors, but the debt ledger's always kept by the creditor. I'm curious what naïve five-percent annual compound interest would look like after ten thousand years, even though no sane court could collect it." Ting! Ting! A dim black Unified System V2. 0 notification burst into view before him. [SUCCESSFULLY DECODED: A PRIMARY SOURCE ON THE WAR'S OPENING FLASHPOINT!] [NEW SKILL UNLOCKED:] → 'ANCIENT PACT INSIGHT' LV. 1!

Effect: verifies authenticated treaty structure, flags enforceable clauses in documents the Host is reading, and cross-references known ancient legal syntax. [ANALYSIS: SOLARIS ROYAL FAMILY'S ACCUMULATED DEBT:] Naïve uncapped five-percent compounding result: economically meaningless astronomical number. Surviving agreement clause: default penalties are capped and subject to restructuring after state collapse. Modern collectible claim: finite, disputed, and negotiable. Lucian let out a low whistle.

"If I took the uncapped calculation straight to Emperor Alaric, he'd have to sign over his palace, crown jewels, royal mines, and three centuries of tax receipts just to begin negotiating." Sylvia let out a thin sigh.

"If you actually did that, His Majesty Alaric would immediately name you Grand Regent, just to default on the debt again." At the bottom of the metal box, beneath the debt journal, lay a scroll of solid gold, sealed with two stamps: one bearing the Blazing Sun crest of the Solaris Royal Family, the other the Black Moon Skull emblem of the Demon Realm. Lucian picked up the golden scroll and unrolled it.

It was the original copy of the Founding Trade Agreement — the world's very first comprehensive economic cooperation treaty, signed before the World Tower ever fell. The text stated clearly: humanity and the Demon race had once been close strategic partners, working together to harvest the planet's underground energy network.

Article 12 of the agreement contained a special clause:'Whoever successfully authenticates the Floor 50 maintenance route may receive provisional technical and emergency custodial access to the Eternal Energy Vein — the mana source powering the barriers of both realms. Permanent control remains subject to the surviving treaty procedures and participating states.' Lucian rolled up the golden treaty and carefully tucked it deep into his spatial ring.

The ledger did not erase ten thousand years of graves, doctrine, or fear. But it proved the sacred official story was incomplete: the conflict had been constructed from a trade flashpoint, retaliation, propaganda, territory, and generations of people who benefited from never asking what the first invoice had said. Astra, Eleanor, and Sylvia could at least begin reassessing what they had been taught. BOOM BOOM BOOM! TOOT... TOOT... TOOT!

A sharp arcane steam whistle tore through the night sky over Tartarus, followed by the rhythmic clatter of iron wheels on magical rails echoing in from the valley outside the castle. The magical mirror in Lucian's pocket buzzed. Evelyn's excited voice came through the transmission.

"Lucian! The Cross-Border Arcane Railway connecting the capital of Solaris to the Tartarus Territory just completed its first loaded pilot freight run! The pilot-trade survey teams finished repairing the abandoned ancient freight alignment faster than expected. A train carrying three thousand tons of mixed iron and mana-ore — and five hundred thousand newly licensed Tartarus editions of Volume 4, enough to make the black-market translators collectively discover unemployment — is already rolling!"

Lucian climbed up out of the dry basin, brushing off his cloak's sleeve.

"Good. Run it at full capacity." He looked out toward the horizon, glowing with the lights of the newly opened railway.

"The era of ten-thousand-year debt collection... has officially begun."