Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Shard slightly frowned, while Mr. Benhart was dumbfounded:

"Wilson, do you know what you're talking about?"

"I saw it all, yes, I saw it all. The Sage will lead to destruction; no one can stop it. This is destined to happen! Oh! Oh!"

He groaned several times, trying to stand up but then fell back into the chair. The breathing sound forced out from his lungs was incredibly strange, and he seemed to have lost all his strength.

Fortunately, Mr. Benhart had thrown down a Silence Charm in advance, otherwise the whole floor would have known that a madman lived here.

"Shard, what do you think?"

Seeing that Mr. Wilson had once again become unable to communicate, Mr. Benhart asked Shard.

Shard remained silent for a long time before saying:

"Why not let this gentleman talk to the church about it."

"No, I don't want to go to the church!"

The middle-aged man with yellow messy hair suddenly shouted, and Mr. Benhart helplessly told Shard:

"He made some small mistakes when he was young and was hunted by the church, so he fled here seeking protection from his clan. Although his criminal record has been wiped clean now, it's impossible for him to find the church."

Seeing Shard's strange expression, Mr. Benhart quickly waved his hand:

"Not drinking human blood. We don't accept such clan members; most of them are in the New World mixing with the Blood Spirit School. He was young and foolish, relying on his ability to divine, and would throw dead chickens and ducks at the Church of Nature in provocation at night, only to be caught on the spot by a Circle Sorcerer team returning from a mission."

"Then go to the Prophet's Society, they would probably be willing to help a diviner whose mental health was severely affected by overly accurate divining."

Mr. Benhart nodded:

"That's a good idea, I'll immediately contact someone to have him sent over. Besides being on friendly terms with Nobel from Peace Chapel, I also know many people from the Prophet's Society from playing Roder Card."

"That's good."

Shard stood up, planning to leave with Mr. Benhart:

"Speaking of which, why not go somewhere else to avoid it? Just head in the direction away from the Great Swamp Area."

Shard asked again, as the middle-aged Vampire Viscount trying to help Mr. Wilson sighingly said:

"Better to stay, after all, this is also my home. Besides, if something big does happen, maybe I can help... The clan trusts me so much, how could I just leave immediately?"

Originally planning to have lunch together at the White King Club, but with this happening, neither Shard nor Mr. Benhart had the appetite.

The Vampire Viscount temporarily took Mr. Wilson to a safe place to live, then thought of ways to contact the Prophet's Society. Shard, on the other hand, went to Serpent Heart Hospital to inform Sister Delphine of the "prophecy" he learned and had lunch with her before returning to Tobesk City to inform Luviya.

By the time Shard left Huntington, snowflakes were already falling from the sky. If Mr. Wilson's divination was not mistaken, this snow would probably last a long time.

The new prophecy didn't surprise Luviya too much; she gave no opinion on the "Purple-eyed Diviner" mentioned in the prophecy:

"Tomorrow the steam hover zeppelin with Plisha's group will land in Huntington, you can check it out when that happens. Before Iluna left, she informed the church of Lakin Prisia's suspicion of being an arsonist and murderer. I'm curious to see if the church can catch him."

Standing by the window looking at the city, Luviya said to Shard in the room on the second floor of the Prophet's Society. The Prophet's Society is quite wealthy, and the winter heating is better than in most parts of the city, even warmer than in Shard's home.

"Tomorrow is Saturday... With the Sunday morning Time Key, it seems necessary to stay for a while."

Shard nodded.

"That's good, at least there's a chance to rest."

Luviya turned and said. She was more anxious and uneasy than Shard, as always:

"I'm very afraid of the scenes from my dreams coming true... The prophecy you mentioned today, I also dreamt of it, but it was very hazy. Heavy snow everywhere, the lighthouse on Heart Lake Island, a man with wings behind him, giant tentacles stretching out from the murky green lake water..."

Shard petted the soft cat, which closed its eyes and allowed him to pet it:

"Why worry about things that haven't happened yet? Moreover, you've said it yourself, the challenge of prophecy and divination isn't in seeing the future and fate, but in successfully interpreting them. The church still believes that the 'God Summoner' in Coldwater Port, who stopped everything, was suspected to be a merman or mermaid descendant emerging from the sea."

Shard laughed and stood up to look at Luviya:

"Would you like to stay over at my place tonight?"

"Recently, the association is conducting year-end diviner technical training."

Luviya shook her head.

"Alright, I'll come to you again if there are new developments. I need to rest now. Perhaps tomorrow, as soon as the two witches land, we'll set off to the depths of the Great Swamp."

Luviya pursed her lips as she watched Shard turn and push the door to leave, but ultimately did not call out to stop him. Shard left the divination room on the second floor while holding the drowsy cat, leaving Luviya Annette alone by the window, watching his back. It took her a while before she closed her eyes and sighed deeply.

After bidding farewell to Luviya, Shard didn't immediately return home but instead found Vice-President Mark. The latter already understood that most of the time Shard sought him out was due to matters concerning the Roder Card. Thus, he brought Shard to his own office, prepared hot tea for Shard, and after preparing a large glass of gin for himself, he tentatively asked:

"You haven't obtained another [Genesis] series card, have you? Oh, God, you only got [Genesis: Knowledge] a few days ago."

"No, no, this time it's for an old damaged card."

Shard handed over half of the [Natural Disaster: Storm's Fury] card he acquired from the demonologist to Vice-President Mark. The latter carefully examined the card's blurred surface and, after apologizing to Shard, fetched the association's internally published 'Roder Card Collection' for comparison.

The book was twice the thickness of a standard red brick.

Vice-President Mark softly exclaimed:

"So it's the Natural Disaster series' [Natural Disaster: Blizzard]. I only saw a card like this when I was young, in the hands of my old teacher. Honestly, it ended up like this, its original owner really didn't cherish the card."

"Can it be replaced with a new one?"

Shard asked, but hesitantly added:

"But I don't have any proof documents, nor can I provide records of past holders of this card."

"That's alright. You're the champion of Big City Player 1853, recognized by the association as a 'Legendary Player'. We trust your credibility. However, the cost of repair cannot be waived."

Vice-President Mark carefully set down the half card and then removed his gloves:

"The exact amount will need appraisers to estimate, but from similar past experiences, I estimate it'll cost you between 20 to 40 pounds."

Besides the cost of materials, these charges also take into account the card's specific value. Generally, the older the card, the higher the fee, which some players jokingly refer to as the 'Roder Card Tax'.

"No problem."

Shard nodded and smiled.

An old card like this is worth the cost, even if it's in the triple digits in gold pounds. After all, it is one of the few hobbies he had in this world besides raising cats.

The winter battle of the Pantanal Swamp is about to erupt. Shard knew it was inevitable, but he found himself surprisingly calm. That Friday night, as Shard sat alone at home, he followed his schedule by reading in the study, planning to have Dorothy copy an ancient story of the 'Water of Wisdom' the next night, possibly as spellcasting materials for a new arcane technique.

At eleven o'clock that night, as Shard finished washing up and was about to go to bed, he found the cat sitting on the floor staring at the wall in the empty Room 2, as usual.

As Shard, dressed in pajamas, crawled into the warm bed and saw Mia nestle her rear onto the pillow beside him, he suddenly had a thought:

"Speaking of which, since I couldn't find the [Moonlight Orb] during the day, might there be clues at night?"

"Meow?"

Shard lifted the covers, slipped on his slippers, and walked to Room 2 on the second floor. Naturally, Mia had to follow. As it trotted into Room 2, Shard was staring blankly at the wall facing the window:

"Hmm..."

He pulled back the curtains, finding it surprisingly snowing outside:

"There's also some moonlight... The precipitation in Tobesk's winter is more than in the summer."

After confirming the very faint moonlight was shining on the wall, Shard, under Mia's watchful gaze, once again used the Light of the Witch to melt his own home's wall, focusing on where the Prankster Boy had once left ink stains. Yet, he still found nothing.

"Really strange."

Shard murmured to himself, then looked down at his cat. He reached out to Mia, the cat instinctively jumped up to be held:

"You've always liked scratching this wall, haven't you? Can you sense something?"

He softly asked Mia, feeling quite foolish for doing so. But back in autumn, this cat had keenly sensed anomalies on the third floor, so Shard thought maybe, just maybe, this cat could come in handy by luck.

He pinched Mia's waist, and the suddenly elongated cat immediately extended its claws to scratch the front wall where Shard had melted it.

"In mysticism, cats are often associated with the sun and moon. Ancient cat worship and sun and moon reverence were often inseparable. This cat must be sensing something."