Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

"She" made sense, but since Shard had proposed the idea, he naturally had his own considerations:

"As long as I try the Arcane Technique while rolling the dice, theoretically, the probability that luck will affect the Arcane Technique is very high."

He looked at the street scene and said to himself.

[But what if the result of the dice is misfortune?]

"That's exactly what I'm saying, I've been contemplating this for a long time, and in principle, it's feasible."

Shard crossed the street, pretending to chat with passersby, but most of his thoughts were focused inward. He came up with a rather bold idea:

"You once said that you could rebound attacks from fate, thus turning misfortune into good fortune."

[Yes, but no one is attacking you right now.]

"No one... if luck is rolled, there is no issue. But if it's misfortune, that misfortune will affect me, then can you rebound it into good fortune?"

He asked cautiously, then heard her pleasant laughter:

[A very good idea.]

So it was feasible.

[But Outlander, do you remember the sentence written in the script?]

She seemed to be in a good mood at the moment, asking with a hint of pleasure. Shard recalled events from a few weeks prior, the street scene before him dimming in the mist, the city's typical gray ambiance and the strange odor in the air. He stood under the sky:

"It says there—perhaps people think they can control fate, but little do they know, all of this has already been within the bounds of fate..."

The "Heart Collector" who died attempting to manipulate fate was a perfect explanation of this phrase.

The woman in his heart was still chuckling softly:

[You can try to roll the dice; if it's lucky, there's no problem; if it's unlucky, I will turn it into luck, rebounding the misfortune produced by the dice back onto the dice itself rather than you. In this way, you won't have to be concerned about what happened to the "Heart Collector".]

"But."

He thought.

[However, the dice will be damaged as a result, and we can't predict the extent of the damage at the moment. Moreover, manipulating fate will inevitably bring misfortune upon you—this is the price, do you understand? Fate is always fair.]

"I understand, and the lower the number, the more severe the damage to the dice, the worse my subsequent misfortune will be, and it will definitely exceed the fortune gained from manipulating fate... I understand, it's good that I don't ask for much."

He touched the metal box in his pocket that held the dice, and the woman's whisper was very soft:

[Are you sure you want to take the risk for a stranger? This time, it's not for the sake of your friends.]

These words truly touched upon the hesitation in Shard's heart; indeed, he had absolutely nothing to do with this matter. But as he looked at the single mother still anxiously asking around in the store and thought about the "child disappearance" case series he had read in the newspaper, and then remembered MI6's generous reward:

"You said I am an audience member, a bystander. But no one has stipulated that a spectator cannot forcibly change an ending they don't like. I have always been certain about what I want to do. Some things can be ignored, but once some things are encountered, there's no reason to turn away. Do you want to stop me?"

[Of course not, I've said that everything is up to you, Outlander. But you also don't need to worry about attracting the worst misfortune because, under normal circumstances, it's absolutely impossible for you to roll either a 20 or a 1.]

"Why?"

The laughter became increasingly distinct:

"Do you think you're Iluna Beath? That's a privilege reserved for the main character on stage, and you don't even have a role there. In my eyes, it's normal for your numbers to fluctuate around 10."

Determined in his mind, his facial expression no longer showed hesitation. Knowing the worst couldn't happen, he felt an inexplicable relief and convinced himself.

Amid her laughter, Shard resolutely took the metal dice from the box and tossed it into the sky. As the dice spun in the wind, he spread his hand flat, and the twenty-sided dice landed snugly in his palm as if the metal were caught by a magnet.

Shard's ears caught the clear voice of a strange woman; it was a voice from the past, one that carried an air of artificiality:

"Boy, would you like some candy?"

At the same time, there was the sound of candy wrappers being twisted.

The Outlander looked down at the dice, his lips twitched—the number was 9:

"I knew it was impossible to always be lucky."

"From one to twenty, from twenty to one, The Twenty-Sided Die of Destiny is slightly damaged, not affecting any traits. But if a similar action is taken again, within two attempts the dice will surely be completely destroyed."

"I heard a clue."

He looked towards the origin of the voice, where the boy and the strange woman were talking, on the street in front of the candy store. Now, the area was bustling with passersby, but the child who was taken had been lured away right here less than an hour before.

"Then wait for the Misfortune that will surely come."

"It's just nine points, slightly below average, so the Misfortune shouldn't be too severe, right?"

Shard received no reply, only the sound of laughter.

Having made his decision, Shard would not regret it. He maintained the operation of the Arcane Technique and then sought after Mrs. Maria Cook.

He simply explained that he had learned from the mouths of pedestrians that, minutes before, a young boy had followed a young woman away. Mrs. Cook followed Shard eagerly as if clutching at a lifeline, while Shard listened for the direction of the voices and footsteps around him, tracing the sounds step by step.

As cancelling the Arcane Technique would make it difficult to find the lucky moment again, Shard kept using the Technique throughout the search.

For that reason, all the sounds he heard were from more than ten minutes in the past. Even though he pursued through the jumble of surrounding noises, he and the woman who took the child maintained a dislocation of over a dozen minutes.

Shard's hope was that he could lead Mrs. Cook straight to where the stranger stopped to rest.

The actual area of Tobesk certainly did not pale in comparison to the big cities Shard had seen in his homeland. Although the level of production was constrained by the era, Tobesk, as the Northern Pearl, had seen its population double in a mere few decades, compelling the city to expand outward.

The greatest achievement of the Steam Age—the Steam Train—connected every corner of the Old Continent. And Tobesk Station is the most important transportation hub in the northern Old Continent.

Originally, the station was planned on the edge of the city, but as the city expanded, Tobesk Station gradually became engulfed within it. However, according to the Tobesk Evening Newspaper, City Hall was planning to build a new station in the southern part of the city, separating the steam locomotive stops for freight and passenger traffic.

In any case, disregarding the risks of using the Arcane Technique for an extended period, Shard accompanied Mrs. Cook through Tobesk Northern District, stopping now and then, occasionally pretending to gather intelligence by inquiring with passersby. Gradually, they approached Tobesk Station, also located in the northern part of the district.

It had taken over half an hour to get from Queen Mary's Street to here. When they reached the neighborhoods near the station, they found police officers in neat uniform patrolling, and even saw armed soldiers keeping order.

There was a massive flow of people in the area, and Shard could hardly distinguish the voices of the boy and the woman he sought among the complex sounds anymore.

Only then did he remember that today was Wednesday, the day Queen Diana was to cut the ribbon for the newly inaugurated eastern hall of Tobesk Station.