Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

"No, no, of course I'd be willing to go to the opera. I'm just curious, though, even though the curfew will be lifted next Saturday, aren't crowded places like these subject to controlled opening?"

The aftermath of the Evil God descent event obviously wouldn't just vanish so easily, which is why Shard was curious.

"It's a royal request to open it. It seems to involve a conflict between the church and the royal family. I'm not very clear on the details. Anyway, Shard, do you accept the invitation?"

Miss Luisa asked again.

"Of course, I've never seen an opera before."

Shard nodded, then asked with a hint of suspicion:

"You mentioned going to Queen Maria's Opera House to handle something, it wouldn't happen to be about collecting relics, would it?"

"How could there be so many relics for me to collect? Do you think those are something you can come across just like that?"

Miss Luisa laughed and then explained:

"It's to pick up a delivery. I had someone bring back some sensitive items from abroad, there shouldn't be any accidents. Shard, the number of registered relics doesn't exceed five figures, and we are not chosen by fate, so how could we regularly encounter relics?"

"Speaking of which, Miss Luisa, do you know about the Angel-Level (1st Level) relic incident in one of Tobesk's subordinate towns? This proves that danger is actually very close to us."

Shard had already set Mia Cat aside; the cat's body temperature was higher than that of humans, and holding it in summer was like holding a small furnace. He now picked up his water glass again.

"Speaking of relic incidents..."

The blonde writer glanced at Shard, her emerald eyes twinkling with amusement:

"My friend, Princess Lecia, is now in Coldwater Port. She wrote to tell me that a severe relic incident also occurred in Coldwater Port City. It was said to involve a set of cursed Sage-Level (2nd Level) mermaid statues."

"Cough, cough."

Shard, who was drinking water, choked:

"Is there any more news?"

"Lecia said that the first group of people cursed by the statues all died, but the last person did not die from the curse but was killed by a gunshot."

Miss Luisa observed Shard's expression as she spoke. Shard, who was wiping his mouth with a towel, didn't notice she was watching him.

"Are you interested in this matter? There's some other news. The church believes the dock scheduler who died from a gunshot was very valuable, perhaps his strange ritual did indeed summon something, so they did divination on the cause of his death."

Shard nodded; he was carrying The Twenty-Sided Die of Destiny at the time and was not afraid of divination:

"I guess they must have divined something, right?"

"Worried about interference from the relic, they specifically asked the local Prophet's Society's diviners for help, even using a large-scale ritual for assistance, and they used a Scribe-Level relic to help as well."

Miss Luisa spoke in a calm voice.

The Twenty-Sided Die of Destiny can interfere with fate, but it isn't the only way to clear away the fog.

"So, what was the outcome in the end?"

He asked.

Miss Luisa lowered her voice as she spoke:

"The divination was very vague, but they still obtained a few important clues."

She glanced at Shard's expression, placed the fountain pen into the crease of the notebook, then said while flexing her wrist:

"The murderer came to the dock scheduler's home—there's a large link to that seemingly ineffectual pentagram ritual."

Shard had indeed decided to investigate after seeing the bloodstains on the ceiling.

"The murderer comes from the sea."

Shard had indeed crawled out from the sea.

"The murderer comes from afar."

Shard had indeed traveled from distant Tobesk to Coldwater Port City.

"The murderer uses the power of the Evil God."

Shard had indeed used the sorcery "Underwater Breathing" from the God of the Deep Sea Drowned.

"Before the murderer left, their body nearly merged with the fish."

Shard had indeed used a fish to carry out spatial travel.

He was very surprised that the divination was so accurate, although he knew that the Church still couldn't possibly know it was him, he was still somewhat worried. Shard hesitantly probed:

"So, the Church believes that the killer of the last deceased is..."

Miss Luisa smiled and shook her head:

"These details aren't very clear, and divination isn't always 100% correct. The Church only has a guess."

"The guess is?"

"That the murderer is a terrifying merman summoned by a ritual, favored by the Evil God, from the depths of the sea."

Miss Luisa carefully watched Shard's expression, and seeing that Shard was expressionless, felt a bit disappointed.

At that moment, Shard had already slightly turned his head towards the window, where the dim twilight landscape outside involuntarily reminded him of the Sublimation Incantation of the vampires.

"So, these pieces of information can be put together into such an outlandish message."

Shard silently lamented in his heart.

He had already decided that he would not go to Coldwater Port City anytime soon. As a detective from Tobesk, he thought it best not to get tangled up with the troubles of the distant city.

Of course, the most important reason was that the Sage-Level Relic was out of control, offering him no benefit. He would have to be crazy to travel all the way to Coldwater Port only to put himself in danger.

Afterwards, Miss Luisa didn't bring up the port city again, merely expressing offhandedly how bored her friend Princess Lecia was in Coldwater Port City and how nice it would be if she had a friend visit her.

Unfortunately, with the insufficient clues in his possession, Shard completely failed to catch the Blonde Writer's hint.

During the rest of his break, he also spoke about his story with two ghosts in the graveyard, which quickly shifted Miss Luisa's attention. She quietly listened to Shard's experience in the graveyard under the rain, and then glanced at the Moon Dance Festival:

"Shard, you know I plan to serialize a collection of detective stories in the newspaper after the exam week. I've decided to use this story as the opening... don't worry, the specific plot won't be exactly the same, and it won't let the old lady figure it out."

With a captivating story in hand, she easily put Princess Lecia out of her mind for the time being.

Because of the evening curfew, Miss Luisa couldn't stay long at Shard's place. After having dinner together, the blonde girl left, not forgetting to remind him to remember the exam next week.

Shard took advantage of the free night to organize his tax documents. With the end of the month approaching, he needed to report his taxes to the Tobesk Tax Bureau. The legitimately operated Detective Agency couldn't afford to be caught evading taxes.

But five minutes after the blonde girl left, someone knocked on the door downstairs again.

It wasn't fully dark yet, and Shard couldn't guess who would visit him at this time.

When he opened the door downstairs, he was surprised to see Priest Augustus standing there, with the dimming sunset behind him outlining the priest with a golden fringe.

Behind him was the bustling Saint Delan Square, with flocks of pigeons perching there, accepting food from the people. Shard always felt that the pigeons living in the square probably led a more comfortable life than Mia, who lived inside the house:

"Priest? How do you find the time to visit me? Please, come in."

With a cat sneaking around behind his legs, Shard warmly invited the priest inside. As they took their seats next to a coffee table covered with ledger books and contracts, the priest looked very upset; he didn't even notice the noticeably low temperature inside Shard's home:

"Shard, do me a favor."

The priest arrived carrying a wine bottle wrapped in a newspaper, the twine tied around the paper and finally extending upward to form a handle. Coincidentally, the newspaper was facing outwards, displaying a photo of Tobesk City's mayor giving a public speech three days prior.

If Shard remembered correctly, that speech concerned this year's summer conscription activities. Luckily, with the all-out war now halted, the kingdom was no longer conducting large-scale drafts, and Shard didn't need to worry about suddenly receiving a draft notice and having to head straight to the front line with a pack on his back.

"No, wait, I'm an agent for MI6, already part of the Royal Army; draft notices are completely useless to me."

Thinking this, his mood immediately improved.

The Old Cleric, with a somber face, tore off the layers of newspaper around the bottle, revealing to Shard the dark glass wine bottle inside, which, to his astonishment, held a pure white cat even smaller than Mia.

But, small as it was, crammed full into that wine bottle, its body was deformed unavoidably. It was impossible to tell whether the cat inside was alive or dead. Eyes closed, it was stuffed into the bottle, completely motionless.

"Meow~"

The ginger cat that had been lying on the couch suddenly sprang up. This cat had always been particularly hostile to its own kind. When Shard first went to pick it up from the pet shop, he had heard about its fierce reputation, and after bringing it to temporarily stay in Saint Delan Square, every time he picked up another cat outside, he was sure to hear the tiny ginger cat's "fierce" meowing upon returning home.

"I'm curious, Priest, how was this cat stuffed inside?"

Shard cautiously stared at the wine bottle stuffed with the cat.

"Stop joking, Shard, you can surely tell this isn't just any cat."

The priest grabbed the bottle, cork and all, and shook it vigorously a few times. Then the "white cat" melted inside the bottle, turning into more than half a bottle of a liquid that looked like milk.

Shard was greatly surprised. Although people jokingly say cats are liquid, what was in front of him seemed a bit too exaggerated. Mia was frightfully standing on the couch looking at the bottle, then at Priest Augustus, before jumping behind Shard to hide.

The cat probably misunderstood something, mistaking Priest Augustus for a cat-killing culprit.

"What is this? A relic?"

Shard comforted the timid cat, then reached out to touch the dark brown glass wine bottle but didn't feel any trace of the Whisper Element.

"Where would we come across relics so easily? This is a magic potion, or rather, a precursor to a magic potion... think of it as a semi-finished product."

The Old Cleric explained, and seeing the liquid about to take the shape of a cat again, he picked it up and shook it again:

"Magic Potion - 'Cat in the Bottle,' when humans drink it, they can temporarily turn into a cat."

"Meow?"

The ginger cat behind Shard peeked out its head at him, its pointed ears perked up, amber eyes fixed on the bottle.

"Priest, you're actually able to concoct such a magic potion?"

Shard asked, a look of admiration on his face.

"Of course not. What are you thinking? I'm only Second Ring. This top-tier magic potion, which can alter a Circle Sorcerer's body, even Saint Byrons only has a few people who can make it. I bought this expired magic potion from the black market, wanting to research it for a class report. But after getting it, I discovered that not only had it expired for at least thirty years, but also that something terrible had been mixed into the magic potion."

The priest's face turned serious:

"Look closely, is there something black like silk velvet within the white liquid?"

Shard picked up the bottle, shook the liquid that was about to coalesce into a cat, and peered inside for quite some time before he saw:

"Yes, there definitely is."

"This is a curse compound; with this substance present in the magic potion, I'm afraid the bottle will sooner or later give birth to something even more frightful. Therefore, I've tried some exorcism methods in the church."

Although Priest Augustus wasn't a Church Ring Sorcerer, as a senior clergy member, it was impossible that he didn't know any exorcism methods.

"Did it work?"

"It did work. When I first got this bottle of potion, at least one-fifth of its contents were black. I thought it might be mold at first until I discovered it had a strange reaction when it came into contact with the Holy Emblem, which is when I realized it was cursed. But that's all I could do. I remember Luisa saying that you could perform exorcisms too, so I wanted to ask for your help. If it still doesn't work, we'll have to hand it over to the Academy to deal with it."
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He pointed to the bottle, and both Mia Cat and Shard looked inside with great interest. When the milky, pure white liquid gradually took the shape of a cat, it didn't change like modeling clay; instead, it started forming from the inside out, starting with the organs, which looked disgustingly realistic.

"Exorcism? No problem."

Shard looked around and stood up, picking up his coat from the rack near the doorway. He took the bottle in his right hand, wrapping the coat around it:

"Priest Augustus, please don't look directly at my hand. Silvermoon!"

The dazzling radiance shone through the black fabric, but it wasn't blinding because it was covered.

"If it's not too consuming, try it a few more times."

The priest stroked his chin and suggested, Shard nodded, and then the coat in his hand continued to light up frequently. Not knowing for sure what would be sufficient, he counted to twenty before stopping.

He held the bottle up to his eyes for inspection and saw that there were no longer any black traces in the white liquid. There was, however, some black sediment at the bottom. It looked heavy and needed a strong shake for it to float up, but it did not dissolve.

"Is this good?"

He passed the bottle to the priest, and the Old Cleric looked at it for a long while, finally smiling:

"Very good, this will do. The liquid above is just expired unfinished Magic Potion, and the solid below is the cursed aggregate. Once I separate it out, it can be used as precious Spellcasting Materials... I do have some rather good curses in my Sorcery. Shard, you've worked hard."

"It's just a small matter. Oh, Priest, actually, I have something to ask you too. Next week I want to try preparing some Joy Elixir and Eternal Slumber Water, and I need your guidance. Do you have time?"

"The practical content of the first-year Magic Potion class? Of course, that's quite simple. Come find me at the church on Wednesday morning; Bishop Owen wanted to talk to you as well."

He got up, ready to say goodbye, as curfew was almost upon them, and he could not stay long.

"Wednesday, then? Okay."

Shard stood up, with Mia immediately following.

Descending the stairs with Priest Augustus, the two discussed next week's exams and the matters of Holy Prayer Day.

The Old Cleric was also troubled by the examinations, and it wasn't the exams themselves he complained about:

"Thinking about exams gives me a headache. At my age, I still have to take exams—when I was young, I never thought I'd have to deal with this."

"So what did you think your later years would be like when you were young?"

Shard helped Priest Augustus open the door, as the priest placed his hat on his head:

"To have some savings of my own, and then with the help of the church, take up a government welfare job where I could get paid without working; preferably more than half a pound a week. To have my own house in Tobesk, where I'd drink tea and read the newspaper every day, and maybe keep a cat like you do... Look, Shard, why do I feel like you've already achieved the standards I set for myself when I was young?"

With that, the Old Cleric himself laughed. He patted Shard on the shoulder and then stepped out the door.

The afterglow of the setting sun had reached the rooftops of the houses across the square, and the dazzling golden light made Shard squint instinctively. As Priest Augustus walked into the sunset, Shard stood by the door, watching his figure recede:

"If I can be as carefree as Priest Augustus when I'm old, that would be wonderful."

The young Priest envied Shard's current life, and the young Shard admired the Old Cleric's life experiences, prompting more reflections on his life in a foreign land.

[What reflections?]

Shard gently closed the door, keeping the sunlight and the square outside.

"Even in this world, having one's own house is the most important sign of a successful life."