Isabella quickly began explaining to Amelia in precise detail what to take and what not to take from the treasury. She was being completely honest, telling her which items were genuinely the best and most valuable.
"The Starfall Blade on the third shelfâtake that. The Phoenix Tear Elixirs in the eastern vault, all of them. The Grimoire of Ancient Seals, but not the copy, the original bound in..."
Her voice carried professional efficiency despite her inner turmoil. She knew the spatial ring sheâd given Amelia had only two hundred cubic meters of storage space, so there was only so much one person could realistically transport.
Leon sat listening, occasionally humming to himself thoughtfully, but otherwise letting her finish her complete explanation to the woman named Amelia without interruption.
While he could easily just go and take the treasures himself through force, that would create an enormous commotion throughout the entire Union. He didnât want to kill unnecessarilyâthough "unnecessary" was subjective to him, since these people had provoked him first by kidnapping his companions.
Well, there are seven supreme leaders total. Even if only one directly offended me, that gives me enough justification to punish the entire organization if I wanted.
When Amelia was finally about to depart with her instructions memorized, suddenly Leonâs voice stopped her in her tracks.
"Wait."
Something materialized in the air before him from what appeared to be a glitch in reality itselfâa shimmering distortion that resolved into solid form.
SHIMMER... WHOOSH!
It was another spatial ring, but this one was clearly far more impressive than the one Isabella had provided.
Leon had just purchased it directly from his cosmic system shop moments ago.
It was not cheap compared to the temporary one heâd bought for Seraphine before. This particular ring had cost him 1.2 million Causality points and contained approximately three thousand cubic meters of storage spaceâenough to collect most of the higher-grade treasures from the Unionâs entire treasury, he believed.
Two hundred cubic meters is pathetically small for what I want.
Amelia walked over and arrived directly in front of him. Leon simply handed her the new ring without ceremony and spoke clearly.
"Do exactly as little as Isabella instructed you. But you need to fill this spatial ring to the absolute brim, along with the one she already provided. Understand?"
Amelia took the ring carefully. It was black as midnight with a deep gemstone and intricate runic patterns etched across its surface. She pricked her finger on the sharp edge and established a blood connection.
DRIP...
The moment she sensed the interior space, it felt like an endless void to her limited perceptionâvast beyond anything sheâd encountered before.
She was genuinely shocked, but no words came out of her mouth. She simply nodded with wide eyes and prepared to leave.
"Yes, my lord."
She was absolutely terrified by the mysterious depths of this silver-white-haired man who was casually ordering a supreme leader around like a small child.
I kind of understand why now, though.
As she departed the courtroom, her mind raced with implications.
Isabella, unaware of exactly what had just happened, had only seen Leon hand Amelia some sort of ring. She guessed correctly that it was probably a spatial storage device, but she couldnât bring herself to say anything about it.
But still, Iâm mentally prepared for whatever consequences are coming for me in the future after this catastrophe.
But only time would tell if she really was prepared or not.
Leon sat leisurely in his appropriated chair, waiting patiently for his treasures to arrive. During the initial waiting period, he had already collected the keys for the suppression handcuffs worn by Seraphine, Loriel, and Sylphia from the adventurer party.
I could easily break those cuffs, but why not have the actual keys? They might come in useful later for other purposes.
Not only that, but he was getting genuinely bored after just five minutes of sitting idle.
So he decided to be productive.
One by one, he called every single person from the gallery below up to where he sat. And then he systematically looted each one of them of absolutely everything they possessedâwhatever treasures they had stored in their spatial rings and also whatever valuable items they were currently wearing on their persons, whether armor, weapons, jewelry, or anything else of value.
And he didnât discriminate at all in his collection.
It was safe to say they were completely emptied of all their possessions, down to the smallest earrings and decorative pins.
CLINK! CLINK! WHOOSH!
I have quite a lot of people inside my time dimension. Treasures can never be enough, especially knowing there will be many more companions to equip later on.
The council members, the few surviving adventurers, and Aria the guild masterânow every single one of them looked like ordinary civilians. They wore plain, normal clothes without anything that could indicate in any shape or form that they were either important officials or even trained adventurers.
All of them sat slumped in their seats, completely depressed and defeated.
Weâve been robbed. Completely. Utterly. He took everything.
Leon had also called Seraphine, Loriel, and Sylphia out of his dimensional space after he finished his collection. He simply opened a portal and, with just a mental command, they were smoothly ejected outward. He didnât even bother entering the dimension himself.
WHUMMM! FWOOSH!
Once the three women emerged into the courtroom, all of them were immediately shocked by the oppressive atmosphere surrounding them.
It was as if multiple people had diedâwell, there actually was Kaelorâs bisected corpse still lying in a pool of bloodâbut even beyond that gruesome sight, everyone present looked like their souls had been thoroughly crushed and depressed.
It was painfully easy to guess what might have happened by observing their current miserable state.
The answer was obvious to anyone with eyes. All of them had been systematically robbed of their treasures and equipment.
The supreme leader, who had been questioning them earlier with absolute authority, now looked like a powerless little girl whoâd lost everything.
Seraphine and Loriel glanced proudly at Leon from time to time, their respect and admiration for him reaching entirely new heights.
Seraphine could feel instinctively that Leon was getting stronger at an absolutely unprecedented speedâfaster than should be naturally possible.
The most shocked out of all of them was Sylphia, who felt like her entire understanding of reality had been violently turned upside down.
This is the heart of the Union territory! Their most secure location! And this man is playing with them like theyâre helpless children. No... Itâs like a full-grown adult casually bullying toddlers, except that comparison doesnât even capture it properly.
She knew perfectly well how incredibly strong each person here was individuallyâand especially the supreme leader, who, despite looking non-threatening, radiated an aura that made Sylphiaâs fur stand on end with instinctive warning.
Yet he dominated them all effortlessly.
Leon removed their suppression handcuffs with the keys heâd collected.
CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!
After freeing them, he used his spatial manipulation to float hundreds of treasures heâd just collected in the air before themâexcluding the technique scrolls, which he would learn himself first, since that was obviously the best use.
The items hovered in an organized display.
"Take whatever you want. Donât hold back."
Leon also selected an armor for himself from the collectionâa light armor set that had been worn by one of the council members. It could turn itself invisible, which was incredibly useful. Besides that invisibility feature, it didnât grant any special abilities like some others, but it had solid overall defensive properties.
Perfect for what I need.
He had also noticed the golden ornate armor the adventure party leader Arthur wore, which granted an ability called Overchargeâboosting physical strength by fifty percent for one minute. But it was far too flashy and attention-grabbing for his preferences.
I donât need to announce my presence everywhere I go.
Seraphine chose items immediately without any hesitation whatsoever, picking whatever caught her eye and met her needs without holding back even slightly. Her weapon was completely changed to a superior blade with better enchantments.
Loriel was salivating slightly but acting a bit shy and hesitant. After all, she hadnât been traveling with them for very long, and she had basically forced herself to join their group initially. Whether they knew about her lies from that first day, she couldnât be certain, so guilt plagued her.
But her mouth was watering at the treasures.
Leon noticed her hesitation and told her directly, "Donât hold back. Take what you need."
As if waiting specifically for him to grant permission, Loriel let herself loose and began selecting items enthusiastically.
As for the wolf woman Sylphia, she was practically frozen and by far the most reserved of the three. She wasnât taking anything at all, even when Leon had explicitly told her she could have items as thanks for helping his companions.
Leon insisted firmly, "Take at least a full set of armor and a proper weapon. Also, select another set for your bunny friend. She was the reason I arrived here quickly enough to save all of you."
Reluctant but unable to resist the temptation when pressed, Sylphia finally selected equipment. The quality was simply too good to refuse.