Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Dr. Schneider got a good story from Shard, and after he entered the city, he bid Shard farewell, satisfied, despite it being the weekend, he still had patients to attend to.

As for Shard, he took a carriage back to Saint Delan Square alone, and after saying a complete farewell to Detective Sparrow, he still reminisced about the two girls at home.

Until now, he still wasn't sure what exactly had happened last night. But those blush-inducing scenes, those special sensations, the intertwined red and blonde hair, were definitely not his imagination.

He didn't have that kind of imagination.

[Last night...]

"Oh, no need to describe the details to me!"

Shard immediately said in his mind on the carriage, and "she" responded with a light laugh:

[Last night, you had deep contact with them, and thus obtained further information about them. The souls of Dorothy Louisa and Lecia Cavendish have shown signs of fusion. It's not annihilation of one side, but a true fusion together. At the current rate, in about twenty years, they will become a true 'duality'.]

"Why..."

[I can only perceive, I cannot give the reason.]

Shard was silent for a moment:

"Will their present state affect them?"

[The soul exchange will become smoother, and they will be able to increasingly borrow each other's powers. From the current stage, there are only positive impacts, no negative impacts have appeared yet.]

"So, the cost is in the future, right?"

The autumn rain would probably last all day. When Shard jumped out of the carriage at his doorstep, he felt that the rain was much heavier than when he left. Thinking about the 24 hours of contact between Dorothy and Lecia lasting until tonight, he was planning where to invite them to spend time when he unlocked the door.

But after opening the front door, Shard didn't even put the dripping umbrella into the stand before he froze in place.

Because he saw a red umbrella that was still dripping water placed in the umbrella stand, and looking at the shoe cabinet, the biscuit tin where he kept his keys had the purple-eyed girl's key—Luviya's key decorated with a shiny glass ball.

Cold sweat immediately dripped from Shard's forehead.

[You even plan so meticulously when facing an Evil God, you should have a complete plan for situations like this as well, right?]

The voice now was definitely mocking.

"Plan..."

Shard looked up at the stairs leading to the second floor, stairs he had walked countless times, but now they looked like the mouth of an unnameable Evil Object, about to devour him.

But no matter what, Shard still stepped into the house, placing the dripping umbrella in the stand with a metal water storage box at the bottom. He changed into clean shoes at the entrance and then heard the cheerful sound of Mia jumping down the stairs.

Being locked outside the bedroom all night again, this cat was still displeased until Shard made breakfast for the whole family in the morning. But after being separated from Shard for more than an hour, it was in a good mood again.

"Meow~"

After being picked up by Shard, the cat curled its limbs and squirmed in his arms. Shard looked at the stairs again, which were still carpeted, but the petals had disappeared, and except for little Mia, no one else appeared from the stairs to greet him, but the house definitely was not empty.

He held the cat and walked up the stairs, turning the corner and continuing upwards, somehow unable to control his feet, taking a full half-minute to climb stairs that usually took seconds.

But no matter how slow, he finally arrived at the open door. Entering the first room on the second floor as usual, he found the flower clusters in the living room gone, with furniture like the sofa restored to their original positions.

The room had no sign of the Blonde Writer or the Red-Haired Princess, only the brown short-haired Luviya sitting on the sofa, watching Shard's handwritten translation of Feliana's Notes.

Hearing the sound, she turned to the door:

"Back already? Is the rain still heavy outside?"

Her purple eyes looked at him, this normal tone made Shard even more unsettled. He looked towards his bedroom and found the door open.

"If you want to know what happened just now, yes, I met them."

Luviya put down the book in her hand:

"Knight, you really have your ways, two at once..."

She stood up and walked towards the bedroom, Shard immediately followed with the cat. But fortunately, there were no scenes of "two corpses lying on the bed," or "two ladies wielding daggers ambushing at the door."

The bedroom curtains were open, showing the rainy late autumn outside. The room had been tidied up, though the bed was still a bit messy, it was empty.

"Don't look so worried as if I'd stab you in the back."

Luviya patted Shard's shoulder, examining him with her purple eyes like she encountered an enigma:

"They were on the bed talking when I came upstairs. They left after seeing me, and left you a letter. You wouldn't believe Dorothy's blushing, embarrassed look when she saw me… Knowing her for so many years, it's the first time I saw her like that."

Shard still didn't know what to say, knowing he was the one at fault. He glanced at the letter, just a folded piece of paper in Dorothy's handwriting. The girls took the chance to spend time together in the city and left Detective, who had had enough fun, to stay home with the cat.

"I said, you don't need to look like that. Did we not have an agreement that night at Galina Manor?"

The purple-eyed girl walked up to Shard, in the cold sound of the rain, in the dim room lit by no lights, she stroked his cheek with her fingers:

"You despicable, roguish, knight."

Word after word jumped out of her mouth, she wasn't as calm as she looked:

"But you don't need to apologize to me. If it's Dorothy, I think I can accept. But, she practically stole what's mine."

Even though Shard wanted to apologize, Luviya furrowed her brow, suspiciously asking:

"Dorothy isn't someone shameless, what trick did you use to make her agree..."

Face blushing, even though she tried to ask, she couldn't bring herself to mention whatever Shard did last night:

"Who was that red-haired girl, carrying high heels? She couldn't look at me, hiding behind Dorothy as they left. But not long before you returned, several maids came, tidying up the petals and flowers, and said they would come in the afternoon to thoroughly clean. Is she a noble lady?"

Besides Shard, no one else in the group knew Dorothy's secret.

"Yes, nobility, the person is..."

He saw the newspaper on the desk in the dim room, remembered that there were photos in it, and picked it up to flip through:

"This one."

Under the weak light of the rain, Luviya took a look and furrowed her brows in great surprise:

"Queen Diana?! You..."

"What? Oh, no, not that. How could you think that? The Queen isn't a redhead."

On the second page of the newspaper in his hand, there was news of Queen Diana visiting Tobesk Public Sanatorium on behalf of the Royal Family. The photo showed the Queen with her entourage, and the scene looked very lively:

"It's this one."

Shard pointed to the girl behind Queen Diana in the photo. Luviya looked again and found her somewhat familiar. After reading the introduction beneath the photo, she realized it was a member of the Royal Family who occasionally appeared in the newspapers:

"Lecia Cavendish."

She said the name and understood its implication, looking at Shard in shock:

"Last night, you..."

She pointed at Shard.

"With our writer friend..."

She pointed south towards Feather Quill Street.

"And the Princess of Draleon..."

She pointed at Yordle Palace outside the window.

"Together..."

She pointed at the bed in the bedroom.

Shard nodded, and Luviya looked him up and down:

"How did you manage that? If I remember correctly, she is a Princess with power and has the right to contest the throne... Does this have something to do with Galina?"

"Impossible. Lecia even has some animosity towards Miss Galina."

"Then how did you manage this?"

Luviya didn't even continue to express her displeasure with Shard, looking suspiciously towards the bedroom:

"They took your sheets when they left just now, I know what that means. In this small bedroom, such a thing happened. Knight, you really have your ways. I won't judge your character, but I admit that having a relationship with a powerful Princess is indeed beneficial for our cause, it's different from Galina..."

Her purple eyes studied Shard, as if seeing him anew:

"I never imagined that the man I fancied would become the Princess's lover. Princess... so the crown I saw this morning was real, I thought it was just to set the mood..."

"You don't need to put it that way."

Luviya looked at Shard, then suddenly stood on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck in the dim room:

"If it was just Dorothy, I wouldn't hesitate. But now there's a Princess too, which puts a lot of pressure on me. Shard Suren Hamilton, you..."

"I won't let go of anyone, especially not you."

The sound of laughter echoed around them. A smile appeared on Luviya's face:

"Should I scold you for your greed, or feel relieved?"

Seeing that Shard wanted to explain, Luviya covered his mouth:

"I understand, you promised to walk this path with me... Still, I'm curious, how did you manage to have the reserved Dorothy and one of Draleon's most noble ladies in bed with you together..."

"That's a long story, but I can't reveal their secrets without permission."

Shard said, and Luviya shook her head, looking at Shard up close:

"Then I'll assume that Dorothy actually likes both you and the Princess, which resulted in this complicated relationship among the three of you."

She bit her lip, then suddenly asked:

"Knight, what exactly did you do with the Princess and Dorothy?"

The room was unlit, with dim light filtering through the window into the bedroom. The play of light and shadows made Luviya's face appear more three-dimensional, and her purple eyes even brighter.

This phrasing, Shard heard it last night as well. He suspected it was a common metaphor in this civilization, which the Outlander was unaware of:

"I..."

As he spoke, he threw the cat onto the bed and wanted to formally apologize to Luviya. She leaned in smilingly, as if eager to hear his description.

But this time, Mia landed on the bed without a soft sound—

Cre-e-e-ak~ Boom~ Bang~

The young detective quickly held Luviya and stepped back in surprise. A brass rod from the bed rolled to his feet. Mia, with its fur standing on end, emerged from the blankets on the four-poster bed's "ruins," meowing in distress at Shard.

All things meet an ultimate end, and so on the day Shard planned to change bedrooms, this bed met its ultimate end and became part of history.

"Just how intense were you three last night, hmm?"

The purple-eyed girl quietly said, snuggling in Shard's arms with a hesitant and slightly frightened expression, though her face was flushed:

"That was a metal bed, after all."