Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Miss Luisa didn't search for a rental carriage at the street corner but walked two blocks with Shard before abruptly turning into a small, inconspicuous alleyway. After traversing some distance in the alley, she surprisingly pulled out a key and opened the door of one of the houses.

"Shard, we can't possibly have just one hiding place, can we?"

As she opened the door, she said to Shard with a smile:

"I bet Annette, Priest Augustus, and the doctor also have a similar second hideout for storing sensitive items that they don't often use."

The house, which served as a sort of "safe house," wasn't rented but was bought by Miss Luisa at a low price through her family connections. Although the price was reasonable, the living conditions were very poor, and Miss Luisa didn't consider it her home, using it merely as a temporary storage facility.

According to her, apart from herself, Shard was the second person to know this location.

"Should I feel honored?"

Upon entering the low house, Shard surveyed the interior, disguised as the dwelling of a common, impoverished family, while asking. Miss Luisa had already climbed through a trapdoor beneath the bed, entering a small basement underneath the house. Besides the trapdoor, the basement had a very small opening that one could crawl through to enter the city's sewage pipes, but she wouldn't use it lightly.

Not because she was worried about the passage being discovered, but because it was simply too foul-smelling to bear.

The voice coming from below sounded somewhat muffled:

"You've not only shared your secret with me but even lent me the precious 'Ever-Youth Leaf'. What is there that I couldn't tell you? As of now, aside from Lecia, Shard, you are the person I trust the most."

While speaking, she crawled out from beneath the trapdoor, handing Shard a very thick black robe and a mask:

"The place we're heading to might be dangerous, it's better to be cautious."

As she spoke, she too changed into a robe. She struggled to tuck her long golden hair into the hood, reaching up to tie it up.

As Miss Luisa was straightening her collar, preparing to put on her hood, Shard noticed that she used a Silver Fragment to clamp the leaf, hanging it around her neck. Shard had his leaf clamped inside the cover of his pocket watch, and although he didn't need the watch now, it still made for a fine decoration.

Leaving Miss Luisa's safe house, they moved on foot eastward by another block before finding an idle rental carriage at the intersection. Their appearance in robes and hoods was quite peculiar, but the coachman only hesitated for a moment, stating he wouldn't leave the urban area or go to remote places, before letting them aboard.

It seemed that those daring to do business at night always had some unique insights.

The carriage traveled through the quiet night for nearly an hour, arriving at the northern edge of the Tobesk Urban Area. Afterwards, Miss Luisa led Shard, following the winding path through patches and patches of dense, low shanties and double-story makeshift houses, stepping through mud and sniffing various odd scents as they continued moving towards an area farther from the urban district.
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There were no gas street lights here, and even candlelight was scarce to see.

This was a village on the northern outskirts of the city, a temporary dwelling place for the massive influx of people drawn to Fog City. In the early stages of the steam industrial revolution in this world, only a few impoverished families temporarily resided here, later growing into settlements of this scale, becoming an unusual form of rural settlement clinging to the outskirts of the city.

However, such a scenario only occurred in North City. Not only because North City was traditionally the Lower District, but also because the vast plains to the north of the city were the best farmland and pastures in the Tobesk Region.

This place always needed hands, and on the open plains to the north of the city and the suburban villages squeezed between the city's crevices, it seemed to exist naturally for the bustling Steam City.

Dodging a drunkard who leaned against the mud wall to vomit, circumventing a boy urinating in front of his own doorstep, and then intimidating a black wolf dog that wanted to growl at strangers, Shard followed Miss Luisa through a suburban village that seemed two centuries behind the city.

The village had no definite edge, only that houses gradually became sparse, signifying they were leaving the human settlement behind.

Further off lay a small woodland, and in less than five minutes they passed through the Woodland path, after which a gravel path appeared before them. Following the path for a few hundred steps, they finally saw their destination, the cemetery located in the northern outskirts of the city.

This place wasn't part of the city's public cemetery, which was under the joint jurisdiction of the Church of Nature and Malice and the City Hall, and Mr. Anlos, Shard's superior, almost obtained this leisurely job.

It belonged to those living in or outside the city but who lacked the standing to be buried in the public cemetery.

Although the grave prices in Tobesk Public Cemetery were low, there would always be people who couldn't afford even that. As a result, cemeteries appeared in the suburbs where even the poor could be buried, though concerns about security and the environment were beyond their consideration.

There was no fog like in the city center, the cemetery next to the woodland was very clear in the Glimmer of March, and could even be described as somewhat mystical.

Miss Luisa slowed her pace a bit, walking shoulder to shoulder with Shard, whispering to him:

"The person we are visiting is usually known as Mr. Copus, the largest provider of corpse-related materials in the Tobesk Region. But this man is a Tomb Guardian with a very peculiar temperament. Whether you're a regular or not, any Circle Sorcerer who enters the cemetery he manages after the sun sets will receive his rather unfriendly treatment, yet he only receives visitors after sunset.

Follow closely behind me later, and don't use Silvermoon's Arcane Technique. I'll handle any danger."

"Is he involved in illegal activities?"

Shard inquired quietly, his shoes crunching on the twigs scattered on the gravel path echoing as if afar.

"Although a bit eccentric, he mostly hides in the cemetery engaged in his research, and none of the True God Church's wanted orders match with him. And his unfriendliness towards nighttime visitors is mostly just a warning."

The blonde girl answered.

"So where do these corpse materials come from? It couldn't be..."

Shard quietly pointed ahead.

"At least they're not dug up from this cemetery. No Tomb Guardian would be foolish enough to steal bodies from their own domain. As for where they come from... Detective, I can't answer that."

The use of "Detective" instead of "Shard" was because they were approaching the cemetery.

Shard closed his mouth and continued to follow Miss Luisa silently.

He understood the source of corpse-related materials could not be legal in an era where such order was established. Whether by theft, purchase, or some other means, he couldn't guess, and couldn't even begin to fathom, so he simply chose not to worry about it.