"K-Klye... what is this...!?"
Eva looked up at me, her composure cracking in a rare display of open distress. I tried to tell her to stay calm, but she was so panicked that the words caught in my throat.
It's fine. It's fine. Liliz once survived being swallowed whole by a dragon, so getting eaten by some treasure chest shouldn't faze her one bit. Tinno was... hang in there!
Wait, what even is that thing?
I studied the man-eating treasure chest, which was emanating an aura of being nothing more than an ordinary chest.
It was true that monsters mimicking treasure chests existed, but I found it hard to believe that Liliz—who had honed her danger-sense through countless life-or-death situations—could be so easily fooled by one.
Calm down, just calm down. Even if I did my best, there was nothing I could do. The odds of Liliz fighting her way out from inside were still higher than anything else.
"I-I'll go call someone! Ark-san, he could probably destroy it!"
"!!"
That was... actually a great idea. How come Eva was calmer than me, the one who should've been used to these desperate situations?
Eva crept toward the entrance, keeping her eyes on the treasure chest the whole time. The instant she bolted, the chest closed the distance from behind in the blink of an eye and devoured her in one gulp. I felt sick.
"...This is going to haunt my dreams. Th-that's one hell of a gluttonous chest. How much can it even hold?"
The treasure chest resumed its disguise. Like it didn't know I was onto it now... I was completely onto it!
If Ark got eaten too, it would be an unwatchable disaster. Besides, the amount it had consumed was clearly way bigger than the chest itself— Just then, Lyle's party walked in through the entrance.
"K-Klye, you were here...? What's this chest... Whoa—!"
Before I could say a word, the chest lunged forward and swallowed Lyle's entire party head-on. They hadn't even tried to run, so why—? Was it trying to eliminate all witnesses?
This was all my fault. I had been so captivated by its damnably cool appearance— "Oh my, Klye, what are you doing here by yourself—"
"What's this? This treasure chest—ah!"
Sven and Marietta arrived in high spirits and were promptly devoured by the chest without so much as a fight. At this point I had no idea what was going on anymore.
Swallowing Level 6 Hunters without any resistance—that was terrifying proficiency. ...Wait, wasn't everyone getting eaten while distracted by me?
If they'd been in their usual treasure-clearing condition, they could've handled this. Maybe... I was the one who should've been eaten first?
Of all the times to not have the Resonance Stone—I had returned it, planning to hole up in my room today. I hadn't even brought enough Treasure Weapons with me.
I rummaged through my pockets. What came out was a single bar of chocolate. But what good was a bar of chocolate at a time like this?
Well, it wasn't like I could've done much even if I'd been told to bring whatever Treasure Weapon I wanted!
"If it's going to eat someone, it might as well eat the chocolate..."
Humans would taste awful anyway.
As I muttered in despair, the treasure chest leaped forward and landed right in front of me.
I flinched and stumbled back a step—but the chest did... nothing.
It had completely surrendered, ceasing all movement. But even after waiting, there was no sign it would move again. It had devoured Liliz and the others so effortlessly, yet was it saying it couldn't eat me? What a foodie.
But wait—the thing was so heavy I couldn't even lift it, yet it moved with that kind of agility, landing almost silently. Terrifying stealth capability... No, hold on.
I took a deep breath and tentatively touched the lid of the treasure chest. I cracked it open just slightly and slipped the bar of chocolate through the gap, then closed it.
For a chest so heavy, the lid was astonishingly light. Light enough that even I could lift it.
"...What a magnificent chest. Large capacity, silent operation, autonomous movement. Perfect security?"
The chest didn't answer. Of course it wouldn't—it was a treasure chest, after all. Just like the carpet never spoke.
Among Treasure Weapons, the most famous one—boasting a capacity far beyond its exterior—was called the Space-Time Bag. I owned one myself, but it could only hold specific items. Despite that, it was a rare, invaluable, and immensely popular Treasure Weapon.
If one could hold anything, it would be worth at least a hundred million. And yet even at that price, the Space-Time Bag almost never appeared on the market. That was the kind of Treasure Weapon it was.
Thinking about it that way, it made sense that Liliz had been so easily outpaced. It wasn't a Monster, and it wasn't a Phantom. Because it was neither, it had deferred to my judgment.
...Did a Space-Time Bag that could hold living beings actually exist?
I opened the treasure chest's lid again. The interior was filled with dense darkness.
Unfortunately, research into the internal workings of Space-Time Bags hadn't progressed much. After all, living things couldn't normally go inside.
I plunged my arm into the darkness and retrieved the bar of chocolate I had just put in.
Space-Time Bags that couldn't return what you put in them did exist, but this chest apparently wasn't one of them. I wanted to brew my daily-carpet's fingernail clippings into a tea and force-feed it to my girlfriend's carpet.
"Free retrieval... perfection."
I bit into the chocolate bar and snapped it in half. Sweetness spread across my entire palate.
I was just starting to crave some tea when I finally snapped back to reality.
I didn't need a function that swallowed thieves and anyone who tried to destroy it! I hurriedly shoved my arm back into the chest.
"Eva... I want Eva, I want Eva..."
Something soft and warm touched my fingertips. I gripped it tight and pulled with all my strength. Eva emerged from the darkness with a slippery slide.
The extracted Eva seemed dazed, sitting flat on the floor for a while, but eventually she understood the situation and let out a deep, heavy breath. Her glasses were askew, which was extremely rare.
"I... I thought I was going to die... It was pitch black inside... and I couldn't tell which direction..."
Thank goodness... she was alive. It didn't seem to have affected her memories or anything either. The fact that I'd been able to pull a whole person out was probably the chest's function. Too competent.
Her eyes were glistening with tears at the corners—she'd clearly been terrified. I quickly spoke up.
"It's a Space-Time Bag, so you couldn't have died, obviously."
"!? W-This is a Space-Time Bag!? Haa!? T-Then tell me that first! It was absolutely terrifying!"
Eva closed the distance in a shrill voice, pressing me with questions. She seemed to have recovered her usual self. I apologized while inwardly sighing with relief.
I was terrified too! Liliz and the others were Hunters, but Eva was staff. The amount of Mana Material she consumed was completely different, and it was just too scary. The Barrier Ring I'd given her hadn't even been useful!
The reason I hadn't been eaten might have been because the church had given it to me—maybe there was some ownership thing? Or maybe... it was because I praised it?
...This chest was kind of an attention-seeker, wasn't it?
I took a deep breath and plunged my arm in, murmuring the words.
"I want Liliz. I want Liliz..."
§ "So that's what happened... You've gotten yourself into another weird one, haven't you."
After hearing the explanation, Sven groaned with a strained expression. Lyle and the others had similar reactions.
It seemed the shock of being outdone by the treasure chest hit them harder than any anger. Even if it had happened suddenly inside the Clan House, Hunters didn't only fight in Treasure Halls.
Even surrounded by the people it had swallowed, the chest showed no sign of agitation. And Sven and the rest—no matter how hot-blooded they were, none of them were the type to take revenge on an inanimate object.
"But... a Space-Time Bag that can hold living beings... Sell it and you could build another Clan House."
"The capacity is insane too. This many humans fit inside."
Lyle and the others eyed the chest warily. Fair enough... but was I the only one who thought that indiscriminately swallowing people was a fatal flaw? Especially if they couldn't get out on their own.
A carpet that couldn't carry people was one thing, but excessive devotion to duty wasn't always purely a good thing, either.
In contrast to the others, who were losing confidence, Liliz—who looked largely unfazed—spoke up.
"Hey, Klye. I could get out, you know? It's just, when I tried to grab Tinno to pull her out, the exit closed on me—"
I looked at Tinno, but she just trembled, averting her gaze without saying a single word.
Well, Tinno couldn't help it—she'd been eaten from behind out of nowhere. She probably got mistaken for a thief because she'd been picking the lock.
"But it really is spacious in there. There was a whole town inside... I was about to explore it before you pulled me out, Klye."
"A town? There was a town inside!?"
What on earth had this chest been eating? And how much capacity did it actually have?
Space-Time Bags were already traded at enormous prices. With this much capacity, there was no telling what it would go for... Come to think of it, the existence of a Space-Time Bag that could swallow living beings hadn't become public knowledge—probably because everyone who found it got swallowed.
This was the discovery of the century, but it was brutal. As I patted the perfect chest reassuringly, Eva straightened her glasses and spoke.
"Klye, do you intend to sell this to a trading company?"
"No... I'm not selling it. Why?"
"Well... it would completely destabilize the balance of everything."
She had a point. Even a normal Space-Time Bag significantly disrupted the market. With capacity this massive, the problems would be endless. You could think of countless uses.
For example, draining an entire lake...
I had obtained something unbelievable. Next time I'd have the carpet fight it for fun.
Just then, Liliz suddenly let out a shocked cry, as if she'd just noticed something.
"Wait a sec! Does this mean my turn is over!? Why!? What about the curse!? Klye, am I the only one who got the small-scale treatment!?"
"What the—"
What curse!? Why would anyone want that!? Everyone else had gone through hell, and you wanted to go through hell too!? Are you Luke!? ...He was, at least in terms of mental fortitude.
Sven and the others stood up, exasperated by Liliz's commotion.
"Make all the noise you want on your own time. Honestly, what a handful... Marietta, we're heading to the training ground!"
"We ought to do some retraining ourselves. Who'd have thought we'd get eaten by a treasure chest inside the Clan House... If I end up with a trauma, you're going to pay."
Even Lyle, who usually kept a low profile within the Clan, let out a sigh and stood up. I was on the verge of trauma too...
"I'm going to... take a little break as well."
Abandoned even by Eva, only Liliz (who was still making noise), Tinno, me, and the treasure chest remained. That was fine—rest up. I was used to this sort of thing.
Everyone else was on the verge of a breakdown, and yet Liliz was the only one in high spirits.
While climbing onto my back, Liliz started whining.
"Hey, Klye! One more time! Let me do it again! This time I definitely won't mess up! Please!"
It wasn't like I was saying her turn was over because she failed— What even counted as failure?
Besides, I hadn't given her the chest with that intention in the first place!
How should I go about persuading her? Would she be satisfied if I let her cling to me to her heart's content? As I stood there resigned, Liliz—who had been pressing her chest firmly against my back—suddenly froze and looked at Tinno.
That intense stare made Tinno flinch and avert her eyes. Come to think of it, she'd been oddly quiet since coming out of the chest...
"Tinno, are you hiding something?"
"Wha—... um... W-What do you mean, Big Sis?"
Her eyes were darting all over the place. Thieves were usually good liars, but perhaps the deeply ingrained hierarchy was working against her.
Liliz pressed her lips briefly against the back of Tinno's neck, then pulled away. Clenching her fist, she approached Tinno with a cheerful smile. Tinno looked around in a panic, and then—seeming to steel herself—charged toward me.
"Mastaaaa! Mastaa, take this!"
Liliz's eyes went wide as she tripped Tinno's legs. Tinno barely managed to catch herself before her face hit the floor with a splat.
An outstretched arm, an open palm. Tinno raised her head, showed no sign of pain, and opened her hand in front of me.
From it, an old ring tumbled out. A ring with a wood-like texture covered in intricate, bizarre patterns. Its aura unmistakably marked it as a Treasure Weapon.
I picked it up and held it in front of my eyes. Tinno spoke, her gaze flickering.
"It—It was just lying there, so I couldn't help diving for it... and the exit closed..."
"...Haaah!? T-Tinno... did you take over Liliz's role!?"
"I-I didn't know—!"
Our Tinno had completely turned into a Liliz. Or rather, choosing a ring over the exit was wild. She was basically a full-blown thief.
Liliz stood there dumbstruck. The shock was apparently so great that she'd forgotten how to even be angry.
This was... if I didn't intervene, Tinno would face consequences beyond her worst nightmares.
I slipped the ring I'd just received onto my finger and spoke before Liliz could regain her senses.
"E-Everything went exactly as planned. See, Liliz, calm down, calm down."
"...Huh? Everything went as planned? So I don't have to kill Tinno?"
"Yep, that's right."
Tinno's face went pale. The fact that she harbored a rebellious streak despite being thoroughly disciplined by her big sister was honestly impressive.
But now wasn't the time to celebrate her growth. I needed to redirect Liliz's attention.
"There, calm down, Liliz. Oh, right—what about exploring the town? I don't know who built it, but there's a town inside the chest. There's got to be something interesting—"
That was when I looked at the chest.
A town inside the chest... built by someone I didn't know...?
As Liliz blinked, I silently approached the treasure chest in front of the now-limp Tinno, opened the lid, and plunged my arm in.
Of course, the words I spoke were predetermined.
"Person who went missing in the church, come out. Person who went missing in the church, come out..."