Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Miss Luisa, who was looking through documents with the glimmer in her hand, seemed utterly unaware of the situation behind her, and behind the man with the dagger, the figure of Dr. Schneider, who was supposed to have left the room, appeared:

"Did we come too quickly? You were too easily deceived."

The rumbling of thunder finally exploded at that moment.

In the darkness restored after the lightning in the study, Dr. Schneider grabbed the wrist of the man holding the knife, while Miss Luisa, who had been bowing her head, suddenly turned around with a fist engulfed in flames, striking the abdomen of her attacker from behind just like the night the merman appeared due to the uncontrolled Relic.

In the muffled sound of the flame splattering, the strange man blocked Miss Luisa's right hand with his left. Then, with an incredible motion, he jumped on the spot, broke free from the doctor's grasp, and like a gecko, attached himself to the ceiling.

After quickly assessing the situation, the figure did not intend to fight with the two, quickly moved away from the bright area under the gas lamp above the desk, and then immediately darted out of the study, plunging into the silver fog filling the corridor. This narrow and confined terrain was most suitable for Shard's Illusion Technique.

Shard too stood in that silver mist, watching the figure that had rushed in dart around chaotically at first, then cautiously stop. It was a man of average build with blond hair, wearing an eyepatch over his left eye. Standing in the silver mist with a knife in his right hand, he cautiously awaited the attack of the Illusion Technique user.

But Shard was well aware of his own limitations and had no desire to engage in close combat with a Circle Sorcerer whose Level was certainly higher than his own. Seeing the knife-wielding man stop, he dissolved the silver mist, and Miss Luisa, who was already prepared, rushed at him with a huge Ring of Fate floating behind her.

Ropes glowing with light fell from the sky, looping toward the man's neck. But he merely slashed upwards with his knife and astonishingly cut through the rope. Before Miss Luisa could make her next move, the man flicked his knife tip, causing the eyepatch over his left eye to slide off.

Behind the eyepatch, a terrifying blue eyeball chaotically spun around, the whites of the eye continually appearing in large patches within the socket. Seeing Miss Luisa involuntarily step back with her eyes closed, she shouted loudly:

"Relic! Demon Eye!"

That eye seemed to move uncontrollably within its socket, the whites moving chaotically. Seeing Miss Luisa step back with her eyes closed, the knife-wielding man immediately turned his head toward Shard.

Unprepared, Shard locked eyes with that pair, the deep blue of the eyeball vastly different from Dr. Schneider's blue eyes. The madness emanating from that terrifying eye was like the frenzy of the last survivor before the world's destruction.

Outside, the lightning flashed again at that moment, the white light illuminating the two who were staring at each other while also allowing Shard to clearly see the middle-aged face of the other, an appearance that bore the traces of many stories.

And as for Shard, who was locking eyes with the Demon Eye... he felt nothing.

"What?"

The knife-wielding man hesitated for a moment, an error that allowed Dr. Schneider to press his hands against the man's nape from behind. The doctor's voice sounded exceptionally soft amid the sound of raindrops hitting the window, his palm glowing with a black light:

"Sleep."

Struggling, the knife-wielding man tried to look at Shard, his normal right eye repeatedly opening and shutting, reminding the Outlander of his classmates during mathematics class back home. Eventually, the man fell asleep, but when held by the doctor, his left eye remained open, the blue eyeball chaotically spinning in the socket, the Demon Eye seeming entirely disparate from the body.

The sound of the rain concealed the brief fight in the corridor; the doctor deftly laid the man on the corridor floor, pulling up his clothes to cover his face, mainly to hide the continuously moving Demon Eye.

Looking up at the two:

"Writer, Detective, give me twenty minutes, I'll take a look in his Dream."

When going out, the doctor had instructed not to call everyone by their names.

"Does it need to take that long?"

Shard asked, bending over to pick up the knife from the man's hand. Regrettably, although the knife was well crafted, it was just an ordinary weapon.

"This is a Circle Sorcerer, of course, it takes longer. If I start to smoke, it means his ability to manipulate dreams is stronger than mine; remember to wake me up."

With that, the doctor placed both hands on the covered head, maintaining a bent position, as still as a perfect wax figure.

Regardless of how Miss Luisa viewed this scene, Shard found it extremely strange.

The fact that the murderer hadn't left was determined by Dr. Schneider, who found some parts of the windowsill inexplicably dry, and by Shard, who found fresh blood near the windowsill.

The knife-wielding man might have heard their conversation upstairs and realized one of them could see bloodstains. But he surely hadn't expected that, even if the shoes were thrown out the window and the knife had been rinsed in the rain, the bloodstains from the murder, invisible to the naked eye, could still be seen on his clothes.

After all, Shard could capture bloodstains from a hundred years ago, let alone fresh ones.

Thus followed the subsequent events where Shard rashly left the door, the doctor carelessly followed, leading to Miss Luisa being attacked. This was not a case of the three acting in concert, but rather the doctor writing in the air with glowing fingers as they walked, simply arranging this plan.

And a crucial part of the plan was that Shard, the weakest of them, would not be killed on the spot. As it turned out, they were quite lucky.

"If I'm not mistaken, this factory owner Mr. Ponton, must have embezzled the Blood of Mercury money entrusted to him, hence the disaster tonight."

As the doctor successfully entered the Dream, a relaxed Miss Luisa stood by Shard and whispered, with her footsteps on the floor barely audible.

The sound of rain outside the window lessened somewhat, the most ferocious part of the storm had already passed.

"I guessed as much, otherwise it's impossible to explain those expensive silverware and jewelry, and moreover, Mr. Ponton was checking the accounts before his death, which is also suspicious. It seems the murderer forced him to take out and review all the account books. It's just unimaginable that ordinary people would dare to embezzle the Circle Sorcerer Organization's Gold Pounds..."

Shard sighed softly, yet thought the affair wasn't so inconceivable:

"Greed always drives people to irrational behaviors."

"That makes a lot of sense, so Circle Sorcerers should be more cautious. Oh, Shard, do you have a water bottle? About this big."

Miss Luisa gestured again.

"Of course."

He passed the bottle over, the blond girl shook it, found it was full, and then handed it back to Shard:

"Take that eye out, put it in the bottle."

"What? Take it out?"

Shard asked as he looked downward and then brought his right hand together, making an unseemly grabbing motion downward:

"Like this?"

"Yes, insert your fingers into the eye socket and pop the eyeball out."

Miss Luisa followed suit, bringing her right hand together and grabbing downward, patiently explaining to Shard:

"That eye is a Demon Eye, a type of special 'Relic'. It seems the Demon Eye hasn't fully integrated with his body, so I deduce it can be easily removed. The effect of the eye seems useless on you, so that's why I'm having you do it."

"Alright then."

Shard crouched down amidst the sounds of rain hitting the glass, lifted the cloth covering the man's head, and again saw the blue eyeball in the man's left eye socket swirling chaotically.

In order to learn Arcane Techniques, he had done numerous unthinkable things in this world; hence, although there was still resistance in his heart, he still reached into the left eye socket and "pulled" the eye out. This act was simpler than turning the gas lamp at home.

The eyeball was extremely slippery, and after taking it out, Shard immediately dropped it into the bottle. The blue Demon Eye continued to rotate rapidly underwater, but stilled after just a few seconds, the pupil of the eye losing its spark, as if "dead."

"An eye can be a Relic?"

He then asked, standing up and capping the bottle before handing it to Miss Luisa. She vigorously shook the bottle, satisfied that the eye really wouldn't move, then handed it back to Shard, asking him to hold onto it for now.

"If fish scales can be a Relic, why can't an eye be one?"

Miss Luisa countered and then smiled:

"Speaking of which, since I promised to be your teacher, I naturally have to take on the responsibility. Now, let me explain the knowledge about Demon Eyes to you. First of all, the safety level of all Demon Eyes is rated at least Keeper of Secrets Level (Level 3), because Demon Eyes need to be implanted in the body, making them very prone to losing control.

Although I don't know the function of this eyeball, it's probably about Keeper of Secrets Level. The doctor might be able to find out more detailed information later."

"This is a Keeper of Secrets Level Relic?"

Shard hadn't forgotten how valuable the last Keeper of Secrets Level Relic, the 'Corpse Relic', he had encountered was.

"Relics of the Demon Eye type are rare in that they can be implanted directly into a Circle Sorcerer and nearly instantly enhance the sorcerer's abilities. Most Demon Eyes have strong side effects, but correspondingly, they are also very powerful. However, the transplantation of a Demon Eye isn't as simple as swapping parts of a Steam Engine; it requires complex and precise surgery."

Shard looked at the man lying down:

"I think, whoever did the surgery on him, definitely wasn't any good doctor."
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Miss Luisa shook her head, although she was talking to Shard, her eyes were always watching both ends of the corridor and the corpse lying in the room, to prevent any unexpected events:

"Not everyone can use a Demon Eye, as there's also a matter of compatibility. One of the Three Great Magic Academies, Xerxes Higher Medical Academy, published a few notable papers a few years ago discussing the compatibility of Demon Eyes and Circle Sorcerers. This man probably had low compatibility with this eye, which is why it acted as though it was out of control when forcibly used."

The blonde girl, in a quite unladylike manner, raised her leg and kicked the lying man. Of course, the force was gentle, to avoid startling the doctor who was in the 'Dream':

"After the doctor extracts enough information later, we'll just kill him right here. This kind of person is utterly deplorable..."

Shard understood her thoughts and fully supported this approach. He sniffed the moist air and looked again out the corridor window. There was no one out on the rainy night:

"Of course, anyone who murders should be prepared to be murdered in turn. The Blood of Mercury and the financial troubles of the Ponton family are not our concern, but the maid who was killed downstairs is ultimately innocent."