Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Shard approached Captain Lades by the wall, making sure the captain had only fainted.

"Kill him? Of course not, why would I do that?"

Shard questioned in his mind, preparing to rise and collect his Roder Card, and then wake the captain:

"What good does it do me to try and resist another's prophecy?"

The movement of getting up caused the air to flow past his ears, and vaguely, Shard felt a tuft of icy hair brush against his earlobe. It was just hair, but it sent a shiver through him:

"What's going on?"

Looking at the downed Henry Val, the Evil Spirit behind him had indeed vanished, so the current situation should be unrelated to it.

"Wait, the dangling hair by my ear... it's the Relic! [The Unfortunate's Long Hair]!"

[Outlander, a misfortunate fate is approaching you.]

"What?"

Suddenly, a thick fog appeared all around, almost instantly about to engulf Shard and the other two people in the secret room. The familiar sensation made Shard immediately realize what it was:

"Damn! The entrance to the Interstice, it's opened here! Just like the time when the Priest fell into the Interstice, such a misfortune occurring now!"

The white fog surged from an invisible boundary, blurring the line between life and death. Shard keenly felt the anomaly in the space as the temperature quickly dropped, and everything in the secret room started to decay. He even heard the wails of the Evil Spirit and saw countless rotting hands becoming clearer as they reached towards him.

If there were no accidents, with the next breath, Shard would fall into the Interstice like the Priest. And he couldn't even call for help from anyone.

Fortunately, Shard was a bit stronger than Priest Augustus:

"Spatial Stabilization Aura!"

An invisible wave spread out from Shard as the center, and a sound akin to glass shattering rang in his ears. Suddenly, all the surrounding fog vanished, and the doorway that had just opened also disappeared.

The entrance to the Interstice of Life and Death was inherently unstable, so it required rituals to maintain its existence. Dispersing such a spatial phenomenon cost Shard a lot, but it was not impossible.

The sensation of the icy long hair by his ear also disappeared, as the misfortune brought by the misuse of the Relic was successfully avoided by Shard.

"So, unless necessary, one absolutely must not meddle with fate."

The Outlander summarized the lesson he learned in this world.

In addition to not trying to manipulate fate, another important experience Shard gained was not to make deals with demons.

"However, after the Priest left the Gate of Death, although my Maze Lock could seal the gate, Midshire Fort is again showing signs of the Interstice's entrances. The Priest had mentioned that the Interstice swallows the living as a way to balance life and death. It seems the final outbreak of death is drawing closer. I hope this time, the Church does not overlook crucial information like Tobesk did."

Before waking Captain Lades, who seemed to have been drugged into unconsciousness, Shard briefly searched the rather cramped dark room.

There was only one bookcase, so he easily found the diary of the vegetative Henry Val and then discovered a dreadful book on the bottom shelf titled "Human Body Treasure: Life Extension Spell."

The book used hand-drawn anatomical diagrams to illustrate the methods of extending one's life through cannibalism. Naturally, these were deceitful practices having nothing to do with real Mysticism. Thus, this was probably just nonsense written by a madman and published by an amateur enthusiast of Mysticism amongst ordinaries, only to end up in the hands of this folklore student.

"False knowledge of Mysticism is so crazing, it's unimaginable what changes would occur in the world if the Church did not control the knowledge of Circle Sorcerers."

Thus, the Church of the Five Gods truly is an essential force maintaining the stability of civilization.

While flipping through the book, a piece of paper fell out. It had only one line of text:

[Prophecy death, book in advance, no negotiating. Pig Tail Alley, No. 8 Building A, long, short, short, long, long, short, short.]

"It looks like a scammer trying to cheat. That boy, could he possibly have guessed the matter about Henry Val by chance?"

After thinking for a moment, Shard slipped the note back into his pocket and then replaced the book in its original spot.

Besides books, the shelf was home to some small bottles containing suspicious liquids. Besides these, the topmost shelf held five or six grotesque porcelain figurines, which unfortunately weren't even valuable antiques, just crafts appreciated for their unique aesthetic.

Henry Val had no wallet on him. There were wallets in this secret room, but they all seemed to be the belongings of the victims, so Shard did not touch them, instead waiting for the police to return them to the victims' relatives. Of course, it was possible that the money inside could be embezzled, but Shard was definitely not going to take any.

"I knew it, there had to be a secret compartment!"

After tapping the wall for a while, he indeed found a spot where the sound was off. Removing that brick, he found behind it an old single-shot pistol, a few boxes of bullets wrapped in oil paper, a leather bag with victim identification information, and a long-handle makeup mirror wrapped in burlap.

The handle and frame of the mirror were silver, adorned with gemstones of uncertain authenticity. Curiously, around the frame, thick silver filaments intertwined into a style resembling tendrils, and on the handle was a line of ancient script that was hard to notice:

"The safest place is—inside the mirror!"

The moment he opened the burlap and touched the items, a hint whispered in his ear:

"Outlander, you have felt the Whisper."

"A Whisper? This is..."

Shard's eyes widened suddenly.

"Yes, a Relic."

Having been in this world for over three months and experienced so much, this was, in a strict sense, the first Relic that Shard had personally touched.

All other Relics he encountered before, whether bought or touched because of others' interventions like the Scales of the Drowned Fisherman or the Joyful Dream Pen, and even the Demon Hunter Seal should be credited to Sparrow Hamilton.

Yet this mirror had come into his hands purely because of his own actions, through such a coincidence.

"Three months! It's been three months! I knew it! Even if I'm not The Chosen One, how could I possibly not encounter any Relics lost to the outside world!"

His joy at the moment was even greater than when he had discovered the truth. Not because he had obtained something valuable, but because he had confirmed his own luck:

"I knew it, my luck is indeed quite good."

Unfortunately, Henry Val had not recorded the origin of this mirror, but it was probably one of those items he acquired while collecting what he considered to be "mystic items."

"Today has indeed been a perfect day."

After securing the mirror, he refilled the brick back into the wall. First, he returned to the wall from the broom closet from which he had entered, found the press mechanism to open the door to prove that he had entered in a normal manner, and then woke up the groggy Captain Lades.

When he opened his eyes and saw Shard, and then saw the uncertain fate of Henry Val, his face flushed:

"I can't believe I was ambushed by a young man."

It seemed that if there weren't any cracks on the floor, Captain Lades would have wished to crawl into one.

What followed was simple. Shard couldn't afford to draw too much attention in Midshire Fort, so he used the excuse, "A troublesome client doesn't allow me to reveal myself" to let Captain Lades get all the credit for solving the serial killings.

The captain was reluctant, but Shard waved his hand to indicate no need for more words:

"Captain, I'll take ninety percent of the 100 pounds reward. The remaining ten pounds are yours. If you feel bad about it, invite me for a meal sometime."

Apart from Henry Val, now a vegetable, no one else had seen Shard and Captain Lades together investigating in the castle. And the only one who knew the real truth of the matter was now Professor Dunn.

Shard only needed to solve the case; as for the credit, perhaps Captain Lades needed it more.