Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

The drizzle that began in the afternoon continued unabated, and by evening it showed no signs of stopping. In fact, the rain seemed to be increasing. Shard had hoped that the rain would stop before the night's activities, but even as Dr. Schneider and Miss Luisa arrived, it was still drizzling.

Rainwater formed a curtain at the entrance of the Shard residence, cascading down from the eaves like string of pearls falling. Inside the gate, the warm yellow gaslight shone brightly, blurred by the rainwater. In the strange halo of light, the doctor wearing rain boots arrived first at No. 6, Saint Delan Square, on this damp night, followed by Miss Luisa who came by carriage.

"Good evening, Shard."

The doctor was surprised when she addressed Shard by his first name. But he didn't say anything, as middle-aged men don't concern themselves with the relationships between young people.

Tonight there were two targets, Mr. Ponton, the owner of a steam engine dedicated screw factory in the eastern part of the city, and Mr. Roosevelt, the accountant of the Star Grass Public Tobesk Nursing Home. The three of them gathered in Shard's study and planned their route on the city map.

They ultimately decided to go after Mr. Roosevelt, the accountant, first.

According to Mr. Schneider's investigation during the day, the accountant would stay at the nursing home on workdays and only return home on Sundays, and the Star Grass Nursing Home was a bit closer to Saint Delan Square.

Dr. Schneider paid for the carriage, and the three of them set off for the nursing home. The summer rain made for an unusually cool evening, the city quiet under the sound of rain, gaslights in the upper district, candlelight in the lower district—all part of the era.

Star Grass Nursing Home was a public institution, and of course, one still needed to spend some gold pounds to get in. The three alighted from the carriage at the crossroads, with Shard and Miss Luisa standing guard on either side of the street with umbrellas, while Dr. Schneider entered the nursing home alone.

Such a rainy night would not have any pedestrians, and the surroundings seemed to be enveloped by the moist air and darkness. Standing at the corner, Shard thought that if peeping into the alley at the girl Little Sophie's house on Saturday night was like something out of a horror story, the current scene was more akin to something from a detective or spy novel.

The blue-eyed doctor emerged from the nursing home wrapped in a coat after only fifteen minutes, signaling a smooth operation.

"I entered his dream and saw the things that the Blood of Mercury had him keep. A black cloak and a brightly colored cookie box that absolutely shouldn't be opened. The former cannot be exposed to sunlight, and the latter I remember, it's a Poet-Level Relic called Man-Eating Cookie Box, capable of turning living people into cookies.

None of these are what I'm looking for," he said in a low voice in the rain, waving his hand to the others:

"I've got different information from the dream. Mr. Roosevelt the accountant is a fence for the Blood of Mercury, and he doesn't know much about their dealings, so there's no more clue here. Let's go, next target."

Dr. Schneider's ability to enter dreams was truly too convenient when dealing with ordinary people.

Mr. Ponton, who owned a steam engine dedicated screw factory in the eastern part of Tobesk, was not considered a wealthy man of influence in a place like Tobesk. He had a large house in the Tobesk Eastern District, about twice the size of the Shard residence.

This was a residential area, and those who could afford to live here had at least crossed the so-called "middle-class" threshold.

Shard and Miss Luisa were still on guard outside while Dr. Schneider deftly climbed over the fence around the yard and followed the gravel path in search of the bedroom.

He returned even faster this time, and with Shard's Time Perception ability, he knew precisely that it took only two minutes and eighteen seconds.

Not only was Shard surprised, but even Miss Luisa was astounded by the doctor's swift actions. Under the umbrella listening to the rain, the three met at Mr. Ponton's gate where Miss Luisa complimented:

"Doctor, your Arcane Technique is becoming more formidable. It took ten minutes just half an hour ago, and now you can get information from a dream in three minutes."

"What's becoming more formidable? Disaster has struck…"

Lightning slashed through the sky, the sudden surge of white light illuminating Miss Luisa's slightly wet hair and displaying the disbelief on Dr. Schneider's face.

Afterward, the rolling thunder came from afar, its sound as if it was shaking the whole world.

In the rain, Shard glanced at the dark streets with the corner of his eye, feeling the intensity of raindrops pounding the umbrella. The gas lamps on the street, obscured by the rainy night, shone dimly with light confined to small areas beneath them, and even the fluttering insects around the streetlights were invisible.

Shard disliked this kind of weather, and right now, he envied the cats that could rest on a windowsill inside a warm, dry home, listening to the rain.

Despite the rain, the doctor stretched out his hand, pointing back towards the mansion in the night rain. Shard came back to himself and, along with Miss Luisa, turned to look:

"Everyone inside is dead."

As a rule, Correspondence Circle Mages did not actively get involved in hassles that had no bearing on them. But for the Forged Philosopher's Stone, the group had almost faced an Evil God directly at Lakeside Manor. Now, even if everyone inside was dead, the doctor would not abandon the search.

On the contrary, the death of ordinary people associated with the Blood of Mercury strongly suggested that there might be crucial clues on him.

To avoid being accused by the True God Church of "tampering with a crime scene," before entering that house full of dead people, the doctor prepared shoe covers, gloves, and hats for everyone, while Miss Luisa tied up her long hair with a rope. They could not have anticipated the events of the night, but according to the doctor, it was his habit to carry such items when going out on a mission.

Shard had a hard time imagining what kind of "big affairs" Dr. Schneider might have dealt with in the past.

The house was three stories high. Previously, the doctor had gone in through a window. But now that it was confirmed there were no living people inside, they directly entered through the front door. They didn't use Arcane Techniques or Sorcery to unlock the door; the lady author picked the lock with a hairpin, and it opened.

Entering through the front door, humidity immediately filled the interior. The house was pitch-dark, and suddenly, another bolt of lightning tore through the night sky. In its flash, they immediately saw a maid lying in the foyer, a dark pool of blood beneath her.

"She's been dead at least two hours."

The psychological doctor crouched down to examine the body, while Shard and Miss Luisa hid their umbrellas in the shadows next to the door, both entering the house. Closing the door blocked out the sound of rain and also prevented passersby from detecting anything unusual.

The psychological doctor's autopsy skills were quite good, too; he used the glimmer in his hand to examine the fatal wounds, and the Light Spell turned out to be a very common sorcery:

"A weapon similar to a dagger, plunged straight into the heart, a fatal stab, very skilled handiwork."

"Could it be that the dagger-like relic he was guarding lost control?"

Due to the "Fish Scale" incident last week, Shard considered this possibility, and Miss Luisa seemed to share this opinion.

"We can't rule out that possibility..."

The doctor looked around the darkness, then asked,

"Have your other selves felt the Whisper Element?"

Shard and Miss Luisa both made a gesture of listening attentively:

"No."

They both said.

But this didn't prove anything; even if it were a relic losing control, it wouldn't cause an element to be felt eight hundred miles away. Last time they faced that merman, Shard and Miss Luisa had to actually see the creature to get a hint.

Dr. Schneider stepped aside, and Shard and Miss Luisa came forward to examine the body. But they couldn't find anything either, the tips of Shard's fingers glowing with a faint silver light, looking at the corpse's eyes that died without closing under the glimmer. Experience exclusive tales on empire

Thinking of something, he blinked, and though the dampness of the rainwater seeping in from outside had diluted the smell of blood, he could still see very faint traces of blood in the air, extending into the interior of the house.

If the knife were the murder weapon, it made no sense for it not to have any bloodstains on it.

He then attempted the Arcane Technique "Echo of the Past" but, unfortunately, all he heard were disjointed snippets of life; such a place of human habitation wasn't a good setting for the sorcery to be effective.

"Did you see the bloodstains?"

Seeing Shard stare ahead, the blonde girl who had worked with Shard once asked softly.

Shard nodded, and taking advantage of the moment Miss Luisa was explaining to the doctor, he turned his head toward the door, speaking in a voice just loud enough to cover the sound of the rain outside:

"There's no blood in the direction of the door; the trail leads further inside the house. This suggests that the potential murderer perpetrated the crime here and continued inward, and never came back."

He analyzed in a low voice.

"Just like a detective!"

Dr. Schneider also lowered his voice and patted Shard's shoulder:

"Well done. So let's follow the direction of the bloodstains. We've already disturbed the scene, so if we can't find the 'Forged Philosopher's Stone', we'll jot down any clues we come across and leave them here. That way, the True God Church will know that not all of us Correspondence Circle Mages are troublemakers."

Doing this was actually causing trouble itself.

Shard took the lead, the doctor walked beside him, and Miss Luisa followed at the rear. With the silver moonlight at Shard's fingertips and the gradually intensifying rain sound from outside, they continued deeper into the house.

The second body was found in the dining room, a fifteen-year-old boy face down on the dining table. A closer inspection revealed that this time, his throat had been cleanly cut by a sharp blade.

"The bloodstains near the body aren't disturbed, indicating that once the knife was brought over and instantly killed the victim, it was immediately taken away; hence there's no chaotic trail of the knife's movement in the vicinity."

Shard said, turning to survey the dining room. Apart from the area around the body, no other significant bloodstains from today were present, indicating the murderer hadn't lingered here.

"The homicide technique is very skilled."

Miss Luisa remarked while observing the dimly lit kitchen as the doctor examined the body.

"Look, there are actually two sets of silverware, quite affluent. No, not just ordinary silverware, this is..."

When she pulled open the china cabinet, the blonde girl furrowed her brow.

"Antiques from the Nolohov Dynasty? The factory owner had these?"