“Time to wrap this up. Bind!”
When Daigo-san cast his spell, purple ropes appeared around the masked men. The ropes tightly bound them, rendering them immobile.
“Wha…!?”
“I’ve restrained you. You should’ve run while you had the chance. Now, the whole world is about to see your faces,” Daigo-san said as he approached the masked men and reached out to remove their masks.
“No! Stop! Please, don’t!”
But Daigo-san showed no mercy, tearing off the masks to reveal their faces to the world.
The unmasked men looked like ordinary young people, none of whom were familiar.
“Damn it! How did it come to this? All I did was apply for a part-time job…”
- “Oh dear, now your faces are broadcast to the world.”
- “Even if you run, you’re getting put on the wanted list.”
- “Might as well surrender quietly.”
Caught red-handed committing robbery and wandering the dungeon off-camera, there was no escaping interrogation by law enforcement.
“Now, let’s leave these guys and get back to treasure hunting…”
As Daigo-san spoke, someone was already digging into the ground.
A masked figure—this time with a noticeably feminine physique—was at work.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Shiba-san confronted the masked woman, who responded by drawing a knife and lunging at Shiba-san.
The swift attack was aimed directly at Shiba-san, who dodged just in time.
“Out of my way!”
The masked woman pursued relentlessly, aiming the knife straight for Shiba-san’s heart.
“She’s fast…”
Clearly, her abilities far surpassed those of the other masked men.
“But she’s still no match for me.”
Shiba-san grabbed the woman’s wrist, twisting it and locking her in a joint hold.
“Arghhhh!”
The woman cried out in pain, her face contorted. She was clearly skilled and had potential, but against Shiba-san, she had no chance.
When Shiba-san removed her mask, a familiar face appeared.
“So, you were the mastermind after all, Misawa-san.”
“Da-damn it…!”
Misawa-san, who had placed the bounty on the treasure, was evidently after the same hidden loot.
“Now then, Misawa-san, care to explain?”
“Ha… I guess I’ve lost. Fine. I’ll tell you everything.”
Having realized her defeat, Misawa-san gave up. There was no point in resisting, especially against Shiba-san and the rest of the group.
“I’m part of a theft ring. We’ve been stealing valuables, hiding them in dungeons, and selling them off whenever we found a buyer.”
“A theft ring? So, there’s stolen loot buried here?”
Shiba-san pressed her for details, and Misawa-san sighed.
“Most likely, yeah. Our boss died inside this dungeon, and several caches he left behind are still unaccounted for.”
So, the music box pointed to one of these treasures?
“Our boss loved using cryptic codes to mark the treasure’s locations. When I heard the melody from that music box, I knew it was one of his final stashes.”
“I see. So, there’s stolen property in there. Either way, we’ll retrieve it and hand it over to the authorities.”
“Heh. Don’t act so high and mighty. If it weren’t for the livestream, you’d have kept it for yourselves. I was just trying to claim it for myself without my team finding out. After all, the treasure’s worth is estimated in the billions. Too bad I failed.”
Misawa-san smirked, revealing her true nature. Ignoring her, Shiba-san began digging.
Soon, his shovel hit something hard. Digging around it revealed a rectangular case.
“This seems openable. Let’s see what’s inside.”
Shiba-san opened the case to find several documents encased in clear folders.
The documents were written in a mysterious language, mostly incomprehensible, except for one part: the creator’s name.
Yumi Kageno—my mother’s name.
“What… is this?”
Shiba-san trembled as he read the documents.
“Wait, what?!”
Yukiya glanced at the papers and froze.
“Why does Eito’s mom’s name appear here?”
I couldn’t make sense of it either. Could this be something my mother left behind?
Misawa-san was equally bewildered.
“Huh? What? Isn’t this supposed to be the treasure…?”
My mother’s research stolen by a theft ring? That made no sense.
No doubt about it.
“This was something Mom left for Dad…”
From the moment I saw the treasure message, something felt off. The name “Mitsuru Kageno” matched my father’s.
It wasn’t intended for Misawa, whose name, though similar, was read differently.
“This message wasn’t left by your boss, was it?”
“Apparently not. If you had stayed quiet, your crimes might have gone unnoticed.”
Shiba-san patted Misawa-san on the shoulder. She slumped, her energy drained, her face visibly aged.
- “Don’t really get it, but serves you right, lol.”
- “Evil has been defeated.”
- “Let’s hand her over to the cops.”
Later, it was confirmed that the documents had indeed been written by my mother.
They were officially deemed my property as her legal heir.
The documents turned out to be an analysis of dungeon monsters, something I had no use for. I decided to donate them to my mother’s alma mater’s veterinary department, hoping they could contribute to research.
My mother had likely anticipated her death and entrusted her findings to my father. Sadly, both passed away before the documents could be retrieved.
Meanwhile, Misawa-san and the theft ring members were arrested, with more members captured through follow-up investigations. Their crimes attracted significant public attention.
Ironically, this sparked a new trend.
“Hey everyone, welcome to today’s dungeon livestream! We’ll be digging up treasure that the theft ring supposedly buried!”
Treasure hunters, motivated by rewards or fame, swarmed the dungeon with shovels in hand.
Though some may have been driven by goodwill, most were after bounty money or attention.
Human greed, I realized, was truly insatiable.
