Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

In the bustling crowd attending and watching the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Shard and Madam Cook stood out like sore thumbs. They planted themselves firmly and parted the stream of people, with Shard holding his breath to distinguish the voices around him. This required not only differentiating from the background noise of ten minutes ago but also from the current ambient sounds.

After all, listening to the past voices did not completely block out the present sounds.

"This way."

The timid voice of a boy asking if he could leave was barely audible, followed by the gentle comforting words from a woman. Shard, with a stern expression, gestured to Madam Cook, who instinctively followed over through the numbing shock of middle age.

The two of them squeezed through the crowd, heading east along the tree-lined path to the east side of Tobesk Station.

After crossing the tree-lined path and heading north, they reached the slum area near the station, which provided cheap labor like porters to the station.

With fewer pedestrians around, Shard was glad he hadn't lost track. But as he continued forward, he was surprised to hear someone calling his name. It took him a moment to realize it wasn't a voice from ten minutes ago; it was happening right now.

As he turned his head to look across the street, he saw Captain Lades waving as he approached. After a week without seeing him, the captain seemed much more spirited, dressed appropriately and no longer bearing the untidiness typical of a drunkard.

"That's my friend, explain the situation to him," Shard rapidly instructed Madam Cook before continuing to listen for sounds and moving forward.

In explaining how he could discover clues, Shard had asked passersby multiple questions along the way while keeping Madam Cook at a distance so that she only saw his silhouette, in truth, Shard had talked to nobody.

If he lost the direction of the sound, it would be almost impossible to find it again, so he had no time for pleasantries with an acquaintance.

The military bearing of Captain Lades was especially noticeable now that he had emerged from his dejected state. Madam Cook, already clueless in following Shard, was now seeing Captain Lades approach and followed the detective's lead, briefly explaining how the kind detective was helping her find her lost child.

"The child is lost? This is a serious matter!"

Alarmed, the captain, seeing the detective looking around for clues, decided to follow them:

"Detective, I will help too, I have nothing pressing today. Do you have any clues now?"

"Walk this way!"

Shard pointed ahead, his serious demeanor made the captain, who was unaware of the prior events, believe he had important clues in hand.

Stopping and starting, they wound up making a large circle around Tobesk Station, and the crowd coming to see the spectacle grew. With Queen Diana—a representative of the Royal Family—set to arrive soon, the police were already blocking off parts of the streets, which also heightened Shard's sense of urgency:

"Why haven't they stopped yet? Could they know they're being followed?"

Their current location on West Street of Tobesk Station was a main stop for rented carriages. Similarly, the area's alleyways interconnected with the many streets nearby.

Every time they passed an alley entrance, Madam Cook and Captain Lades following behind would glance inside.

Finally, Shard halted in his steps and looked into an alleyway beside him.

In the alley, a plump woman with her head wrapped in a scarf turned into their alley from another entrance, heading towards them.

The voices from ten minutes ago, of the boy and the woman, had entered this alley. And the approaching woman seemed to match the age range of the voices' owners.

To prevent her from running upon confrontation, Shard didn't speak up. Instead, he planned to wait until she was closer before having her speak, so he could decide if the scarf-wrapped woman was indeed his target.

But as cautious as Shard was, she was even more so.

Upon noticing the three individuals at the entrance of the alley, she instinctively slowed down. Then, either recognizing Madam Cook or intimidated by Captain Lades's presence, a hesitant expression crossed her face before she turned and ran.

"It's her!"

Captain Lades, with his excellent reflexes honed from the military, was the first to bellow out and give chase.

"Madam Cook, call the police for help. I suspect your child is in one of these alleys nearby. Remember, make sure to say this location is the criminal stronghold of the Tobesk child disappearance cases, and beware, they may have accomplices!"

After speaking, Shard also took off in pursuit. With the trail noticed and unsure of which alley or building nearby might be the problem, capturing the woman was the best breakthrough.

In fact, Shard was carrying two guns on him right now. That Ruger Revolver from MI6 was ready to fire at any moment. However, the woman had already been running in the middle of the alley, and directing Madam Cook had delayed him a few seconds; he couldn't guarantee that his marksmanship would hit the target.

So he could only chase forward, but Shard believed that with his Circle Sorcerer's Stamina, he would definitely be able to catch up with the woman.

He thought things were too simple.

There were no forks in this alleyway, and the woman, who had started running first, was the first to gasp for breath and rush out from the other end of the alley, then turned to the left.

Captain Lades was the second to emerge from the alley, and after chasing for a few steps, he saw to his surprise that Shard had actually overtaken him. The young detective moved agilely, managing to maintain an extremely fast pace even amidst the dense crowd on the street.

"Hamilton Detective, I'll take a detour to block her, you keep chasing forward!"

Seeing the situation, Captain Lades made the decisively rational choice.

Shard shouted an acknowledgment to him, and fastened his pace in pursuit of the woman who was shoving through the crowd.

Since they were too close to the station, the flow of people was becoming heavier, and Shard couldn't fully utilize his speed, thus the gap between them didn't close quickly. He thought about shouting for the people ahead to help catch her, but he didn't expect that his shout would cause the crowd to scatter, allowing the woman to run even faster.

As for the patrolmen at the street corner, the environment was too noisy, and they simply didn't hear Shard's voice.

The two ran one behind the other down the entire street, and directly opposite the street was the main entrance of Tobesk Station. The sound of the steam whistle could be heard from afar, signaling that a train had arrived.

At that moment, at the entrance to the station, various carriages stood parked, uniformed armed officers maintained order, and reporters looked into the distance, awaiting the arrival of the main character of the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The plump woman immediately turned and ran towards the left side of the station entrance, not giving Shard any chance to ask the police for help unless he was willing to take a detour and waste time.

"I must catch you!"

Shard followed and turned left at the street corner, no longer wasting his energy shouting. He continued running forward, slipping through the gaps created by the stream of people along the wall.

After running just a few dozen steps, he accidentally bumped into a nervous middle-aged man pressed against the wall. Shard quickly apologized and darted forward, while the serious middle-aged man, with his hands stuffed in his pockets, watched Shard's retreating figure and then turned his attention back to pushing through the crowd towards the front.

From a distance down the road, even more chaotic sounds emerged as police cleared the way and the Royal Guard escorted a carriage adorned with the Cavendish Royalty crest, slowly approaching.

People along the street showed their respect to the dignified lady inside the carriage. The car window opened, and the face of Queen Diana, often seen in newspapers, appeared. Her makeup was not overdone, and the woman in her thirties wore a silver crown and greeted the citizens with a genial smile as she waved her hand.

It seemed there were others sitting beside her.

The cheering and shouting around further congested and complicated the street. The festive atmosphere peaked, as the crowd pressed from the sidewalk towards the center of the street, forcing the police from Riddlevitch Field and the Royal Guard to assign even more manpower to prevent anyone from getting close to the carriage.

The plump woman running ahead was the first to spot the approaching procession. She glanced back at the relentlessly pursuing detective, whose face was contorted with focus, then clenched her teeth and dashed towards the procession. However, she didn't approach it; instead, she crossed directly in front of it from one side of the street to the other.

By the time Shard also wanted to cross the street in the same way, the policemen clearing the path in their uniforms had already blocked off the street to allow the procession to proceed, forming a human wall that prevented anyone from crossing from the curbside.

At that time, Shard was only twenty steps away from the street corner behind him, visible from the entrance of Tobesk Station.

"I dare to bet even on luck, do you think I would lack such courage?"

He thought to himself, stopping in his tracks, preparing to squeeze through the human wall and dash across the street before the procession arrived and without the police noticing.

Meanwhile, the middle-aged man whom Shard had bumped into a few seconds ago had already pushed his way to the front of the crowd. He frowned as he watched the approaching procession, touched his black gentleman's soft hat with his left hand, while his right hand, stuck inside the pocket of his coat, did not move.

From the Tobesk Station behind him, a group of passengers who had just arrived at the station poured out. The ones freely entering and leaving the ribbon-cutting ceremony site were naturally from the True God Church, with Miss Beyas and her companions escorting a middle-aged man carrying a briefcase.

Dr. Schneider, curious onlooker in the crowd, started chatting with friends he knew, appearing at the street corner behind Shard.

Miss Galina sat beside Queen Diana, looking out the window at the procession with bored interest.

Captain Lades, from the other side of the street behind the crowd, made a lunging gesture forwards.

Mr. Dark Anlos, Detective's nominal superior and head of MI6, blended in among the crowd observing the nearby situation.

The carriage came closer and closer to the street corner in front of Tobesk Station, the noise of wheels and hooves drowned out by the seemingly explosive cheers. The prepared flocks of pigeons were released at the intersection, flying in sheets over the heads of the people, creating moving shadows.

The fog lingered still, but the dim and gloomy sky could not prevent the citizens of Tobesk from all walks of life from shouting and rejoicing.