Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Seeing Shard pull a garter from his pocket, Lecia showed no emotion, but Angelina thought for a moment and said seriously to Shard, "Sir Knight, please accept this as a token of my gratitude for saving me tonight." "No, I don't need any thanks." Shard naturally did not want to accept it, as the item would be of no use to him, but Lecia unexpectedly urged Shard not to be so modest: "Shard, just accept it. You might not be aware, but in earlier times, noblewomen from the upper classes would present a garter as a token of recognition for a knight's bravery; and in this era, noblewomen still use the same method to express their admiration and affection for the bravery of noble men. It is a very romantic and refined gesture." This was no lie; the Outlander had read about similar customs in books when he was learning about this world. Although Shard still did not want to accept it, seeing her say that, he could only slip the white garter into his pocket. Angelina seemed quite pleased and once again invited Shard to her next salon, insisting that he perform his card throwing trick again. Lecia seemed not to care at all. When Mr. Anlos arrived later, the director of MI6 pretended he hadn't noticed Shard sharing a carriage with the two unmarried princesses. He asked Shard to wait outside while he and two maids questioned the princesses inside the carriage. Afterward, Lecia and Angelina didn't even have a chance to greet Shard; they were promptly escorted back to Yordle Palace under the guard of numerous protectors. Shard stood with his superior, Chief Dark Anros, watching as the carriage procession departed. "Shard, you've done very well this time. Otherwise, that gun could have caused us a lot of trouble. I knew there were people trafficking in arms, but I never expected them to dare sell a service weapon." Mr. Anlos praised him, and Shard wanted to humble himself, but then Mr. Anlos lowered his voice, tilted his head, and quietly asked: "But how did you end up mixed up with the two princesses?" "This..." "Don't forget Miss Galina is also watching you. I don't know what your relationship with the two princesses is, but be careful in your actions... and try not to get too involved in politics." Shard looked at him in surprise, but Mr. Anlos had an expression that said he hadn't said anything at all. Mr. Anlos greatly appreciated Shard's character after he helped a woman find her lost child last time. The advice now was something he, as the director of MI6, wasn't supposed to share so casually. "But speaking of which, how did you manage to throw those cards with such force? I only know that some bored old gamblers train for such skills." Mr. Anlos suddenly asked, probably wanting to change the subject. "Well... I think... since my skills as an agent are mainly based on the Roder Card, practicing some interesting techniques probably could be... um, very useful eventually." "Playing Roder Cards, using cards to hurt people, and charm over the girls... it seems you will never become a qualified agent." Mr. Anlos sighed, seeming to lament Shard's future. After telling Mr. Anlos about his experiences, Shard took a carriage back home. When he got home at eleven at night, the empty house greeted him only with his cat running down the stairs. Since Lecia hadn't shown up at Saint Delan Square, the four one-shilling printing plates in the basement could only continue to be hidden there for now. As Shard casually stuffed the garter into his desk drawer, he also felt the newspaper with numbers in his pocket. The newspaper was picked up on Silver Cross Avenue, and Shard suspected it was some kind of code for a rendezvous. However, being literate but not a codebreaker, he had no way to decipher the numbers. He casually placed it on the bookshelf, thus ending all of tonight's matters. Shard placed his hands behind his head and sat in the desk chair, looking up at the ceiling: "Daknis, why haven't you come yet?" (Mia running...) The attack on Princess Angelina Cavendish at the Opera House did not cause much of a stir in Tobesk City, and Shard didn't even see any news about the incident in Sunday's newspaper the next day. Early on Sunday morning, Dorothy came to visit in a hurry, already aware from Lecia of what had happened last night. The blonde girl complained to Shard that all her meticulous preparations had been wasted. After seeing off Dorothy, Shard then went to the Prophet's Society to find Luviya. He would be entering Horror Fortress for the third time tonight to complete Mr. Riddle's Life's Gamble, but Shard was still clueless about the last four segments of the story. Unfortunately, Luviya also failed to gather more information from the Society. It was not that the Society did not have the information Shard sought, but rather information about that early Fifth Era prophet was considered top secret within the Society. Despite Luviya's multiple applications, she was unable to persuade the Society to let her read those archived documents. However, Luviya managed to provide Shard with all the information on the Keeper of Secrets Level Relic "Life's Gamble." If it was impossible to win from the gambit itself, if no breakthrough could be found from that Old God, it would only be left to find a winning opportunity at that very table." "Hmm?" Looking at the dimensions information for "Life's Gamble," Shard furrowed his brows. "What did you find?" The girl with purple eyes asked curiously: "I've also seen the information, and you can't use these traits." "No no, not the traits, the dimensions. Look at this number." Shard placed the document on the table and pointed out the length and width of the twenty slots: "3.4681 inches long (about 8.8 cm), 2.4841 inches wide (about 6.3 cm). Luviya, don't these numbers seem familiar to you?" "Familiar?" Luviya still didn't understand. "These are the dimensions of a Roder Card." Shard was certain as he spoke, "Is that so?" The Female Diviner frowned slightly: "You actually measured the dimensions of the Roder Cards? Let's set that aside for now. Roder Cards were replicated on a one-to-one basis from the Impermanence Cards, and the history of the Impermanence Cards should be longer than that of the Keeper of Secrets Level (Level 3) Relic 'Life's Gamble', which is what you refer to as an Unclassified Level (Level 0) Relic 'God of Gambling's Table'... Could the appearance of 'Life's Gamble' be related to the Impermanence Cards? Otherwise, it doesn't make sense for them to be exactly the same size." "No, no, I'm actually not concerned about the relationship between the Impermanence Cards and the table. What I mean is, Luviya, although I can't replace Mr. Riddle in the gambling game, what do you think would happen if I inserted 'Genesis: Silver Moon' and 'Genesis: Balance' into the remaining slots? Does that count as two cards?" Luviya was momentarily stunned, clearly taken aback by the idea: "Yes, the Impermanence Card is the only special item you can currently bring into the past, but doing so...I also don't know what will happen. However, even if it's useful and allows you to gain an advantage in that gambling game, you would still need to find a way to fill the last two slots, otherwise the game can't end." "No, you're wrong again, it's one." Shard pointed at himself, and Luviya withdrew her surprised look, nodding in understanding: "Yes, it's one. Only one left... Shard, what are you planning to do?" "Instead of taking risks, it might be better to play it safe. Next week when Daknis shows up in Tobesk, we'll use his information to exchange for Mr. Riddle's data at the society," Shard said, then he carefully put away the information about 'Life's Gamble'. Thus, that Sunday, Shard did not use the Time Key of the Year 1784 of the Fifth Era. However, during the day, he went to Coldwater Port again to check on the progress of gathering materials for the doctor, but he didn't forget to try and retrieve this week's gift from 'God's Gift Box' after the midnight bell rang on Sunday night. This was the fifth time Shard had taken a gift from the box, but he was still not lucky enough to receive a 'Relic'. Under Mia's curious gaze, Shard actually pulled out a pair of red high heels from the box this time. The color was bright, the style also quite nice, embellished with some small diamonds. However, Shard would have preferred another screwdriver to a pair of high heels. "Why would something like this appear?" Shard stared at the shoes in his hands, puzzled. In the end, he thought that perhaps it would be more appropriate to rename this gift box 'The Prank Box'. The Old God, 'Creator of Innocence', might be better called 'Mr. Prankster'. This week's task was similarly easy. In the coming seven days, Shard needed to ensure that on three of those nights, his sleep time exceeded eight hours. For a detective who worked from home, that was not an issue at all. On Monday morning, Saint Delan Square saw a new client after a long absence. However, this time it was not a major commission. Old Lady Midra, who had read the detective's advertisement in the newspaper, commissioned Shard to find her missing cat. Old Lady Midra was a wealthy widow living alone, and she shared a deep affection with her blue-gray shorthaired cat. Although searching the whole city for a cat was somewhat difficult, considering the commission of 10 pounds, Shard readily accepted the task. For an ordinary detective, 10 pounds was enough to sustain a very long time. Thus, a detective was a profession where, without usual business, one could immediately earn money whenever there was business. And Shard, who advertised in the newspaper, didn't attract too many clients, which itself was due to the really low frequency of cases detectives typically took on. Shard planned to use the methods, like posting a missing cat notice in the newspaper and searching the neighborhood where Old Lady Midra lived to carry out this commission. But he hadn't even left the house in the morning when Miss Galina arrived. The Witch came to see Shard for nothing special, only to inform him that Daknis had appeared again yesterday. This time, the location was a rural town only an hour's drive away from Tobesk. This was yesterday's news, meaning Daknis was likely already within the Tobesk area. "Shard, this time it's not the Council that discovered Ivan Daknis, but a priest from the Peace Church in the town, who sensed demonic signs and discovered the second Chosen One, who is internally wanted by the church. Shard, you can't imagine the current situation," the Red-Haired Duchess sat on the sofa in Shard's house, right hand holding a cup of tea: "The True God Church is almost certain that Daknis' destination is Tobesk. Although deliberate news blockage has kept Daknis' location mostly confidential, Tobesk will certainly see many unrecognized High Ring Sorcerers in the next few days. Even reports say that the betrayed Blood Spirit School has dispatched High Ring Sorcerers to the Old Continent to deal with traitors." "So will the Council send a new Witch here?" Shard asked curiously. "Of course not, first of all, the True God Church doesn't have a friendly attitude towards the Council, and secondly, I'm already here," Miss Galina pointed to herself: "It's my responsibility to deal with Daknis. After assessing the situation, the Council decided to let me try to kill him personally once he becomes a Chosen One. It will not be easy. Right now, Tobesk has two Church Thirteen-Ring Sorcerers, and I have only Eleven Rings." "So the Council plans to make the 'Dark' Chosen One disappear? I can understand that, but why must you personally do the killing?" Shard asked curiously. "I can't tell you that," the Duchess said with a slightly flirtatious smile, swirling her finger around a lock of her red hair by her ear: "Just like Tifa won't tell me more details about the investigation you conducted together last week." Shard looked up at the Maid standing behind the sofa, who showed a slightly shy smile to Shard, apparently she hadn't disclosed their encounter with the Servant of the Hidden.