Real Treasure?

Homura and his group continued following Haru's footsteps, venturing deep into the mountain forest this time.

Haru, as usual, took turns and circled around until they ended up under a tree.

Everyone: "..."

"Why is it another tree?" Ritsu muttered, tapping the trunk with a bewildered expression.

"It's probably some marker," Mio calmly remarked. "Perhaps someone buried something here."

"Buried something?" Ritsu pondered for a moment and then smirked at Mio. "Could it be someone's remains buried here?"

Mio shuddered instantly, her face turning pale.

"Look at how thick this tree has grown," Ritsu murmured. "Could it be due to absorbing excessive nutrients? Like..."

"Kyaaa!!!" Mio crouched down, covering her ears and screaming, "I'm not listening! I'm not listening!"

Seeing her reaction, Ritsu couldn't help but feel satisfied.

"Oh! Mio is so entertaining like this!" Ritsu said with a satisfied expression.

"What kind of play is this?" Utaha's mouth twitched.

"...It's something related to horror, and Mio-chan isn't very good at dealing with it," Tsumugi briefly explained to the group.

Homura chuckled, "Don't worry. The kind of thing Ritsu mentioned won't happen."

If it weren't for the System, Homura himself wouldn't be entirely certain either. In these deep mountains and old forests, where no one usually came, Ritsu's possibility wasn't entirely impossible!

But how would this treasure-hunting-like feature of System be defined if they dug up a set of bones?

Tsumugi treasured her time capsule, but when it came to a body, it didn't seem like a treasure. It looked more like a scene where a body was being handled. It couldn't be considered someone's treasure, could it?

Unless it was a fossil from ancient times...

"Really?" Mio asked pitifully.

"Really."

"But this tree is so big..."

Do you actually think Ritsu's reasoning makes sense?!

Homura's mouth twitched involuntarily. "Big trees are easy to find! That's why they can serve as markers!"

"Minamiya-senpai, should we dig it open? That way, Mio-san won't be scared anymore," Nayuta suggested.

"Alright, I'll get to work." Homura rolled up his sleeves and wielded two shovels. This time, he wasn't as cautious!

Five minutes later...

"Little one..." Homura felt somewhat helpless. "Is this really the spot? I've dug almost half a meter deep!"

"Meow~ (This is where I felt it earlier, but now it's gone.)"

'Skill time had passed!' Homura rolled his eyes.

As he dug away, the women watched boredly.

"Minamiya-kun, are you planning to keep digging like this?" Muramasa couldn't help but speak up.

"Yeah..." Eriri nodded. "Homura trusts Haru-chan the most. If you see that he asked a question and still continues digging, you should know."

"But he's digging so deep. Is there really something there?" Nanami hesitated.

"Treasure." Mashiro suddenly blurted out.

"Treasure? You mean a real one?" Nanami looked at Mashiro in astonishment.

"Yes." Mashiro nodded. "Because Homura is digging so deep."

"That makes sense!" Elf's eyes lit up. "Something buried this deep must have a great value. Otherwise, there would be no need to bury it so deep."

"Indeed..." Megumi nodded. "Unless there's nothing there, there should be valuable items waiting to be unearthed."

At that moment, a different sound emanated from the pit Homura was digging, as if he had hit wood...

"Finally, we've damn found something! Swinging those two shovels nearly made my arms smoke! If there's nothing inside, I hope the person who buried this thing gets hit on the head six hundred times!" Homura ranted furiously.

"Six hundred times..." The girls' mouths twitched in unison.

"By the way... This thing looks quite old," the girls who had gathered around remarked, looking at the seemingly worn-out box beneath Homura's feet.

"And it seems quite big too..." Homura's face turned grim. He didn't have much time to clean up this thing himself.

After some thought, he turned to Tsumugi and said, "Mugi, how about we let your family handle this? Give Uncle Kotobuki a call and ask him to bring some people. After all, this place belongs to your family."

"Huh? Won't we hand it over to the Minamiya Family? After all, this is something Homura-niisan dug up!" Tsumugi quickly waved her hands.

"How about this... Let both families handle it together?" Homura suggested a compromise.

This time, she didn't say anything and simply replied, "Okay then..."

"Let's call our respective fathers together." Homura immediately pulled out his phone. He was eager to know his father's reaction when he found out that his son had discovered a treasure.

"...Kid, what now? Is there still someone to pick up?"

"No, Dad, you're thinking too much!"

"Then did you cause trouble again? Wait a minute... What kind of trouble can you cause in Kotobuki's private villa?" Kosuke mumbled to himself, leaving Homura speechless.

"Stop guessing! Let me tell you directly, I just dug up a pretty big wooden box here. I discussed it with Mugi, and we decided to let the Kotobuki Family and Minamiya Family handle it together." Homura looked at Eriri and said, "Eriri, take a picture and send it to Shizuka."

"Hold on a moment!" Kosuke quickly interrupted. "What are you up to? What did you dig up that requires me to handle it? Can't you just give it directly to Kotobuki?"

"That's what I said, but Mugi insisted that since I dug it up, both families should handle it together."

"...I'm really speechless! How can you be so misbehaving?! Didn't you say that you only want to have a fun holiday and camping trip? Why you ended up digging something? What were you even digging for?"

Homura felt a bit embarrassed. "It's because Mugi buried a time capsule when she was little. I couldn't remember where she buried it, and this is what I ended up digging out."

Seeing the surprised expressions on the girls' faces, Homura quickly made an 'Shhh' gesture.

Kosuke: "..."

"...Alright, let me take a look at the photo first."

Shizuka's voice came through, "Kosuke-chan, this indeed doesn't look like something Homura can handle on his own."

"Heh..." Kosuke's mocking voice followed, "You brat, you have so much energy. Did you dig half a meter deep just for a mere time capsule?"

"This tree was big, so I dug a bit deeper, that's all." Homura casually replied though he felt a bit bitter inside.

He planned to conceal the fact that the little one had found this thing, so he needed to cover up some loopholes.

"Alright then... I won't ask how you dug it up. I'll send someone over. They should arrive in about an hour. At that time, point out the location for them."

"No problem. Hehe, thanks for your help again, Dad."

"Oh? You become polite all of a sudden." Kosuke chuckled, "But this time, it's not really troublesome. I'm also quite interested after seeing the photo."

Homura silently nodded...