59: TREASURE

TREASURE

Jace took Iris to the mines, where Cane had been waiting for her.

They went further away from the area where she used to dig the ground or any rock there to find the magic stones in this barren site.

This was the first time for Iris to look at the fortification that was built for their protection against the monsters from the Goffa mountain up close. There was a huge hole there, which was now being repaired.

Iris came closer to Cane and from a closer look, she could see how haggard he was and how his complexion didn't seem good, yet his eyes were sharp as ever.

"Alpha," Jace called the alpha to get his attention, because he was talking to someone right now. Cane turned around and looked at Iris, walking behind the beta. He immediately wrapped up whatever conversation that he was having with the man.

"Report to me as soon as possible," Cane said and sent the man away, before he focused on Iris. "Can you find the stones?" He asked without even offering a simple greeting to Iris. His bluntness was really something.

Iris nodded. She knew about the struggles of this pack, since she learned about it here and there and also thanks to Hanna, who always filled her with information. Regardless of it being useful or not, she would always keep her well informed.

"Can you find forty five magic stones?" Cane asked without hesitation.

"Forty five?" Iris widened her eyes.

For now, they only had fifteen magic stones in total, while they needed to gather sixty of them to meet the demand and if they didn't meet it within a week, they would have to get them from Red Claw pack, which had the biggest mining site in this continent.

If the Howling Wolf pack and Blue Moon pack shared a mining site, then the Red Claws had one for themselves, therefore, they were the richest pack in the continent.

In other words, if this merchant didn't get the deal with the Howling Wolf pack, they would lose the buyer, it would take time to get a big merchant like this, while they really needed money now.

"You can't?" Cane looked at her impassively, while Jace was also waiting for her answer.

"I can." Iris sensed more than that in the mining site, but still forty five was a big number.

On the other hand, the beta was visibly relieved to hear that, which made Iris frown slightly with that expression.

"I want you to point out where to find those magic stones. I will ask people to dig that spot." Cane wanted to get it done now and didn't want to waste any time, thus he ordered Jace to gather forty five men and come to him immediately.

However, before Jace left to get the order done, Iris stopped them.

"Are you short of money?" She caught up to it quickly and since she learned that Cane didn't like to beat around the bush when he talked, she didn't want to upset him either, especially when there was no other polite way to ask about this.

A moment of awkward silence stretched before Cane replied to that. "Yes. Trying to get two, almost destroyed, packs back to floating, eventually takes a toll on the savings." He assumed Iris must have caught on to the situation. She was quite witty.

"Why don't you use the Blue Moon pack's treasure?" She didn't think that they would hit rock bottom like this if they had used the treasure, but then probably they didn't know about it.

"What treasure?" Jace asked her, he looked so intrigued about this, so did the alpha, even though he didn't show it on his expression.

"Blue Moon pack's treasure. From what I heard, my father took all the treasure from the Howling Wolf pack and combined it with the Blue Moon pack's. There must be a lot there. I used to hear Mason bragging about how our fortune will not deplete even if they partied every night." She knew all of that because they were so careless to give her sensitive information, while calling her how stupid she was.

To be fair, a runt like her, who was banned from socializing with other people, couldn't do anything with such sensitive information.

"In that case, where is the treasure?" Because Jace was in charge of handling their expenditure, he became greedy to know more about this money.

"I know where it is, but I don't know how to open it," Iris replied in a matter of fact tone. "I think there is some kind of key or something to open the door."

"Lead the way." Cane didn't waste much time. It was way better than digging forty five magic stones, if they had ready money at their disposal to rebuild the village and fortification.

"The place is in the pack house." Iris glanced at Cane. "Actually, it is inside your bedroom."

The bedroom that the alpha occupied right now was the previous alpha's bedroom, therefore, it made sense for the treasure to actually be there.

Cane and the other people had been looking for this and they even asked Mason, but the man was so stubborn, thinking that he had nothing to lose. In his opinion, he would be tortured anyway, thus why he should give them the fortune.

Not even for a moment did Cane think about Iris. Since her involvement with her father and brother was so low, he thought she knew nothing.

Finally, they went back to the pack house and along the way, Iris could feel her stomach hurting a little bit. She was hungry. It was safe to say that the last time she ate food was when she had a hard bread that Hanna gave her this afternoon when she woke up.

However, she didn't dare to complain about that.

"Here, inside the spare room." Iris entered the spare room first. She had occupied this place for a week when she was whipped by the mistress and a few days before that, thus she could see the bookshelf that Mason talked about. "Mason said there is a room behind this bookshelf."

There was only one bookshelf in this room, thus she couldn't be mistaken.

The alpha then asked Aderan to get more guards to tear down the wall behind the bookshelf along with the bookshelf, as it couldn't be moved. Seemed like the bookshelf itself was the door to the secret chamber of treasure.

Four guards came with sledge hammers, as they started to work on it.

The spare room was not that big, thus aside from the four guards, the alpha and the beta, Iris and Aderan went out of the room.

But then, someone tapped her shoulder and when she turned around she found a young maid servant carrying a bowl of warm porridge, but this time there was meat on top of it.

"The alpha said to bring this to you," the young maid servant said politely, as she handed the bowl to her.

"The alpha?" Iris was surprised, she saw him giving one of the guards instructions on their way here, but she didn't know what he had talked about, since he had his back to her. "Oh, thank you," Iris muttered and then received the bowl. Did the alpha hear how her stomach was growling?

The young servant excused herself and disappeared behind the closed door.

On the other hand, Aderan only gave her a side glance and then focused back on the progress of their findings, while Iris went to sit down at the corner table and ate there silently. The porridge was still bland, but it tasted better with this small portion of meat.

Iris was enjoying her meal when she saw Aderan rushing into the room frantically and because she couldn't hear the commotion there, she didn't know what happened, yet she could make a guess about it.

However, she was eating right now and she didn't want to lose a chance to eat like before, thus she chose to stay there and ate her meal slowly. After all, if they managed to find the treasury, they didn't need her again, right?

Halfway through her meal, Cane suddenly sat down across from her, which made her lift her head and look at him. She stopped eating.

"What else do you know about this pack?" Cane asked. He observed Iris' expression when she answered him.

"I don't know much. I was not allowed to go out of my bedroom and meet people. I happened to know that secret treasury because Mason always bragged about the money inside saying if he became the alpha one day, he would inherit that fortune and throw a party every night. He bragged about the secret place and when I was there, I saw only one bookshelf, so I am sure the treasure is inside."

Based on Mason's character, it was a high possibility that he was the one who would blabber about such an important thing.

"Is it really there?" Iris asked out of curiosity.

"Do you want to see?"

"Can I?"

Cane didn't say anything when he stood up, thus Iris assumed this was his way of telling her to follow him and it was what she did.

She walked two steps behind him toward the spare room and saw a huge hole in the wall, the four guards were trying to clean the debris.

Iris poked her head inside the hidden room and gasped in surprise to see the treasure inside. There was indeed a lot of money. At least, Mason was not just bragging about it. With this money, he really could throw a party every night.

Thankfully, this treasure wouldn't be wasted in such a deranged way.

From the corner of her eyes, Iris could see how pleased Jace was. He didn't need to toughen up in his expenditure and it was rather funny to see how he was smiling from ear to ear.

Meanwhile, the four guards chatted happily with each other about how they had never seen so much money in their whole lives.

However, Cane didn't have much change of expression.

Iris didn't venture further inside and only stood at what was supposed to be the door, but after looking around for a moment, she backed away.

"I think I don't need to find the forty five stones anymore, right?" Iris approached Cane and asked.

"You will go to the mines tomorrow with Ethan and find the forty five stones," Cane replied calmly, before he left, leaving Iris there, stunned.1

The deal with the merchant was also important. At least, Cane learned that it would benefit them in the long run if they were on good terms with the merchant, especially when they could find the magic stones easily now with Iris here.

Iris looked at Cane's retreating back and Jace followed after him, after that, it was only the four guards and Aderan, who were there.

Not sure of what to do and since there was nothing that she could do by staying behind, Iris walked out of the room and went to the front yard. She needed to change the bandages of the five men, it had been three hours since she changed them last.

"What are you doing here?" Grilla asked Iris when she saw the young woman enter the tent. Everyone had returned to their quarters to sleep, only a few people were still there to check on the thirty patients.

"I need to change the bandages," Iris replied, as she entered the tent and went straight to the five men she was in charge of and started to work on their bandages.

People who saw her there were frowning, they would never think that Iris would be so dedicated to this. It was already late and even if she didn't show up, no one would look for her.

But there she was, taking care of those five men diligently, when she was the luna of the pack.

"Are you sure she is Gerald's daughter?" A young woman approached Grilla, as she stared at Iris. "Or is she only pretending to be nice?"

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