Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 1013: The 4th Chosen One

Shard hesitated for a moment, but decided to be honest:

"Well, I’m not always alone at night... Actually, Princess Lecia invited me to watch an opera together tonight... in her private box."

The girl with the headscarf raised an eyebrow:

"Speaking of that princess, I still don’t understand why Dorothy agreed to let her join you two..."

She couldn’t discuss this topic in a public place:

"Have fun tonight, and I hope that poor princess remembers to bring the Ever-Youth Leaf."

She stopped speaking because Shard suddenly had a serious expression on his face.

The Outlander looked again towards the staircase:

"Someone else has appeared."

"Who?"

Luviya didn’t look over, as too many eyes could alert the perceptive Circle Sorcerers.

"How interesting, it’s someone from the Apna Library. Could they also be here for Miss Pavo? If so, they’ll need a bigger table. Three people in total, the first one I don’t recognize, the second one I met when helping Old John with shipments, and the third is... Guiding Moon?"

"What Guiding Moon? You actually know someone with that nickname?"

Luviya asked with a smile. Once Shard confirmed the three newcomers, who were sitting at a table next to Miss Pavo’s group of four, she slightly turned to look at them.

She observed for about half a minute before turning her head back with a relaxed expression. She gently tugged her headscarf, ensuring that her oddly made-up face wasn’t seen more clearly by Shard:

"I finally found it."

"Found... huh? Found what?"

"Of course, the person I came here to find."

Luviya said, tapping her fingers with strange purple nail polish on the table:

"What else could it be?"

"Has the Chosen One really appeared? Which one is it?"

Shard was immensely surprised, having never expected such a discovery this afternoon.

"The one you mentioned, ’Guiding Moon.’

Luviya picked up the wooden cup of juice. In winter, the price of juice at the Three Cats Inn had become much more expensive:

"Since you know him, tell me who he is. It’s too far for me to see his face clearly, but I don’t think I’ve met him."

"Sir Lakin Prisia, he’s a member of Princess Margaret’s travel group."

Shard frowned:

"But how could it be him? Not only is he a correspondence student at the Xerxes Higher Medical Academy, but he’s also suspected to be an academic spy for the Apna Library."

"So what?"

Luviya’s face carried a hint of amusement, the confirmation of the Chosen One’s identity sweeping away weeks of frustration:

"Compared to Iluna, Ivan Daknis, and Joey Barton, such an identity isn’t particularly strange."

She gazed at that cup, while Shard gazed at her. Anyhow, on this snowy winter afternoon, the identity of the fourth Chosen One was finally determined.

Even though the Chosen One’s identity was revealed, Luviya didn’t hurry to leave. She rarely had the chance to be alone with Shard at a place like the Three Cats Inn, so she specifically ordered two more drinks, asking Shard to join her for a drink.

Unlike the previous two Chosen Ones, "Guiding Moon" Mr. Lakin Prisia’s background was quite complex. He not only held positions in two Circle Sorcerer Organizations but also had an extraordinary ordinary person background.

This meant he wasn’t someone Shard and Luviya could easily win over. Ivan Daknis belonged to the Blood Spirit School and was destined not to align with the Church; Joey Barton, though he had not done any wrong, was a member of the Truth Society and unlikely to immediately collaborate with the Church; as for Sister Delphine, the blind nun was herself a leader of a Circle Sorcerer Organization and also had some personal interest in Shard, allowing collaboration between the two.

But if Sir Prisia truly sought help, choosing the Church would be far more convenient than choosing Shard and Luviya.

Both the Outlander and the Female Diviner knew this, so this time Luviya didn’t mention asking Shard to confirm whether Sir Plisha could cooperate with them:

"You need to confirm if he’s a good person or a bad person."

The girl with the headscarf said, tilting her cup and letting the beer flow onto the plate. This was a divination method known as "Water Divination," which was not very common in this era, as diviners of the time preferred to use divination cards, coins, and crystal balls.

"Good and bad are not so easily defined."

Luviya said softly, her beautiful purple eyes fixed on the liquid flowing in the plate:

"What you need to confirm is, if he indeed becomes The Chosen One, what kind of attitude he holds towards the world, towards civilization. Once all thirteen Chosen Ones appear, the opened door will decide many things. Even if we can’t cooperate with him like with Iluna and Sister Delphine, we need to at least determine what kind of person he truly is."

Luviya’s implicit message was, if Sir Lakin Prisia turned out to be an anti-social, anti-civilization madman, or secretly harbored other intolerable habits, then they’d have to find a way to deal with this Chosen One; if he was genuinely a good person, they could secretly support the Sir in truly becoming The Chosen One.

Miss Pawo’s group of seven did not stay long, leaving in just a matter of minutes without attracting much attention.

Once they confirmed everyone had left, Shard got up and went to where they had been sitting, attempting to use the Echo of the Past to listen to the sounds. But unfortunately, in a place like the Three Cats Inn, where there were guests almost twenty-four hours a day, it was impossible to precisely hear the sounds of a specific time period.

Additionally, it seemed someone among Miss Pawo’s seven had the power of time, which greatly affected the spellcasting of the Echo of the Past. After a few attempts, Shard gave up and returned to Luviya’s side: free𝑤ebnovel.com

"I have no idea what they talked about, but having the Truth Society, Pantanal Voodoo Society, and Apna Library show up together probably wasn’t to discuss the city’s vegetable prices."

Luviya smiled slightly:

"How many coins do you still have?"

"Two coins: the Cat and Dog Coin and the Coin of Wisdom. But I haven’t been to Coldwater Port recently, maybe the black market there could yield something."

"I still have the Diviner’s Silver Coin, and yesterday Iluna sent me an Elephant Coin, which was confiscated by her squad during the seizure of contraband."

The Elephant Coin isn’t the official name of the relic, but rather a Scribe Level Relic called Animal Coin. The number of these coins is uncountable, with each one having a number on the front and an animal image on the back. For example, the coin with an ’elephant’ image is called the Elephant Coin, and the one with a ’elk’ image is called the Elk Coin.

The unique trait of these coins is that when thrown, they sacrifice themselves to summon the animal depicted on them.

The black iron coin Luviya pushed across the table to Shard could summon an elephant at any moment.

The Animal Coin is classified as Scribe Level (Level 4) because using the coin to summon animals carries about a ten percent chance of summoning bizarre creatures that only appear animal-like but are not true animals.

"I’ve heard from the old diviners of the Diviner’s Association that about fifteen years ago, a local Circle Sorcerer in Tobesk summoned a white elephant with an Elephant Coin and kept it in an abandoned manor outside the city."

Luvida whispered the tale:

"Later, that Circle Sorcerer was arrested by the Church for selling magic potions with severe side effects on the black market. When the Church went to deal with the elephant, the Eleven-Ring Sorcerer leading the Dawn Church claimed to have seen a white rabbit instead."

Shard, piqued by the story, asked:

"And then?"

The girl with purple eyes shook her head:

"That manor was directly flattened by three Thirteen-Ring Sorcerers who were temporarily brought in from out of town. The old diviners of the association were very secretive about it, unwilling to give me full details of the incident.

At the time of the incident, Dr. Schneider was the only one in our group who had already become a Circle Sorcerer. I later asked him about it, and after thinking long and hard, he remembered that summer when the Academy suddenly issued warnings to local correspondence students, saying there appeared powerful reality-distorting evil objects in the Tobesk Region, equivalent to an angel-level relic uncontrolled incident. They strongly advised local students to seek refuge in other places."

Shard slightly opened his mouth in surprise, and Luviya seemed prepared for his expression:

"Don’t worry, it’s all in the past. This city experiences a few major incidents every few years, and the Church generally handles them well."

Shard nodded, pondering whether there might be a "Cat Coin." As for the black iron coin in his hand, its density was greater than expected, making it quite heavy. The engravings on both sides were consistent with Luviya’s description, and there were barely discernible patterns on the edge:

"The zoo imprisons them, the world imprisons us."

"Let’s use this one. This relic sounds much more dangerous than the others, so let’s not hold onto it. We have plenty of coins without having consumed any yet, so there’s no need to be stingy."

Shard suggested.

Luviya nodded, closing her eyes, and used her right thumb and index finger to grasp the coin. As her slender, fair fingers manipulated it slightly, fine cracks began to form on the surface of the black iron coin, which quickly spread across it. Simultaneously, rust appeared on the coin, gradually enveloping it. Upon reaching a certain limit, the Elephant Coin turned entirely into dust.

But before it even hit the table, the dust vanished.

The eyes beneath the headscarf opened, and a fleeting purple glow flashed in her eyes, visible only to Shard. It was his first time realizing that when Luviya used her special divination, tossing the coin into the sky wasn’t a necessary action.

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