Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 1022: The Days of Waiting for the Demon

Although the demon has kept a low profile currently, no one can say for sure how many "Victor’s Boxes" he has sold in Tobesk. For the peace of this city, besides eliminating Victor Vanny, Shard and the doctor also need to notify the church to retrieve the sold boxes.

This task can be handled by Iluna; Luvia mentioned in the morning that she would inform Iluna, who is very experienced in reporting various illegal activities.

Of course, there’s no need to worry about the church defeating the demon first. Only those who have personally received the test from the "Keeper of Secrets" can complete the trial. Thus, the church cannot obtain the Radiant Stone by defeating the demon, just as Shard cannot rely on the "Abyss Sin Potion" and "Human Puzzle" to gain the Radiant Stone.

After a series of adventures last week, this week’s life seems to have calmed down. At least, this Wednesday, not much has happened.

Shard has not received any news from Dr. Schneider, nor has he gone to inquire; the doctor is probably more anxious than he is, afraid that the demon may leave Tobesk.

However, it was in the afternoon at four that Shard got news from Dorothy that Princess Margaret had returned to her residence at the Canary Estate after completing diplomatic activities.

Thus, Shard visited the Canary Estate in the Tobesk Southern District before dinner, and as Princess Margaret’s friend, he was granted entry into the estate and got a chance to talk with the princess alone.

The excuse, of course, was the previously agreed arrangement that the enthusiastic Princess Margaret would teach Shard the Casenric Language.

The actual reason for Shard’s visit was partly to inquire if the princess had been harassed by the demon, and partly to deliver the alchemical item crafted by Dr. Schneider to prevent the demon to her.

"This black ribbon, when tied to the arm, can take effect."

Shard briefly introduced the item’s function in the study. The princess with long golden hair was quite surprised, having not expected Shard to come up with a finished product so quickly.

She wanted to talk more with Shard about the demon, about this city, and the City of Steam of the Northern Country, which was quite novel to Margaret Anjou who had lived in Velindale for a long time. Shard also knew that if he left after five minutes in the study, it would be suspicious, so he stayed to chat with the princess about local anecdotes and the secrets of local Circle Sorcerers heard from Dr. Schneider.

Princess Margaret was delighted that someone would willingly discuss this with her. If it weren’t inconvenient to have Shard stay for dinner, she would have wanted him to speak a bit longer. But by half past five in the afternoon, Shard was already thinking about returning home for dinner. Dorothy and Mia were waiting for him.

Thus, he bid farewell to Princess Margaret and, led by a servant, left the study and headed towards the stairway leading downstairs.

As he just descended the stairs, Shard realized his chest badge was heating up. It was at the corner on the second floor under the Terael River landscape painting, that he met Miss Sylvia coming up the stairs.

The witch glanced at Shard askance but did not greet him. Shard gave a slight nod and then followed the servant towards the first floor.

Miss Sylvia continued upwards and found Princess Margaret who had not yet left the study:

"I just saw a man, seems like... Hamilton? I remember he asked for my advice on a mathematical paper."

The witch jokingly said, sitting in the chair Shard had just occupied. Princess Margaret immediately stood from behind the desk:

"Mr. Hamilton came to ask me about the Casenric Language and gave me a book."

She said with some nervousness.

"A book?"

Miss Sylvia raised her eyebrow:

"I didn’t know you were so familiar with that knight."

Actually, she knew.

"Just spoke a few words more at a public gathering..."

The princess cautiously defended, glancing at the book now on the table, its title being "Tracking the History of Tobesk Metropolis."

"Is this book peculiar? You specifically asked him to find it?"

Miss Sylvia inquired again, the princess hesitated with pursed lips, regretting not immediately putting away the item Shard had given her. Now, the black ribbon was clenched in her hand, doubtful she could deceive her mentor:

"Teacher, actually he is..."

"A Circle Sorcerer, a local Correspondence Circle Mage, right? If I couldn’t guess even this, how could I be your tutor?"

The young Grand Witch chuckled in rebuttal, although Shard’s identity was something Shard himself mentioned in Huntington City, not something she surmised.

The princess immediately showed an ashamed expression, and Miss Sylvia shook her head:

"Associating with correspondence students from outside is quite normal. Rest assured, I’ll pretend as if I didn’t know anything today, but what did the knight give you?"

Only then did the princess present the black ribbon, its fabric extremely lightweight, feeling exceptionally cold to the touch. When encountering a demon, binding it to the right arm can temporarily repel the demon.

"Seems like your newly acquainted friend indeed has skills."

Miss Sylvia remarked, and Princess Margaret clutched the ribbon, pondering uncertainly.

This Wednesday, although no news about the demon was received, by Thursday, Dr. Schneider had someone send a letter to Shard.

The letter mentioned that the doctor had found traces of Victor Vanny but still needed one or two days to locate him, advising Shard to prepare to set out at any time.

"Since the doctor has found the traces, that demon is probably not going to escape."

Shard was rather optimistic about this.

So on the following snowy Thursday, he still chose to stay at home and read books with Dorothy.

In the morning, it was Miss Writer’s own soul, and she looked exceptionally charming standing by the window watching the snowy scene with a book in hand.

After lunch, Shard went to Canary Estate to check on Princess Margaret’s situation. On the way of "learning a foreign language", he unexpectedly met with Miss Sylvia again, yet the young Grand Witch did not speak to Shard. She quietly stopped him after Shard had finished more than half an hour of casual conversation with Princess Margaret to ask him if he had recently learned any new arcane techniques related to space.

The witch wanted to teach Shard some interesting abilities, but her level was too high; Shard at least needed to reach the Inner Ring to study under her.

When he returned home at two o’clock in the afternoon, he was greeted by Lecia’s spirit:

"Anyway, today’s afternoon work is to listen to reports, so it’s okay to have Dorothy substitute for me."

The blonde girl patted off the snow from Shard’s shoulder in the hallway, half-jokingly asked:

"How does it feel to live with a pretty girl?"

It was apparent that she was somewhat envious of Dorothy. Her Highness the Princess wanted everything, and in that regard, she shared many similarities with Shard.

Then at evening when the snow stopped, Shard’s neighbor, Old Sir Fleming from Saint Delan Square No. 23, entrusted Shard with finding his missing pet dog.

Shard had taken on many requests to find cats, but this was the first time for a dog. He thought it would take two or three days, yet unexpectedly, he and Dorothy, who had switched back, found the dog matching the photo almost exactly during their evening stroll for dinner.

"Little Taka!"

Shard called out the name of the black and white spotted dog, and the latter truly turned to look at him. Subsequently, the pet dog and a black and a yellow stray dog barked furiously at Shard together.

Wrapped in a red scarf, Dorothy chuckled softly, holding Mia who originally squinted, hiding her head beneath the scarf enjoying the leisure after dinner. Annoyed by the continuous barking, Mia poked her head out from Dorothy’s scarf and saw the noise was from mere dogs, she then meowed, "Meow~".

The sound had no threatening power to Shard, yet it scared the three dogs into turning their tails and fleeing.

This led to Shard chasing two streets and only then did he manage to catch the pet dog "Little Taka," who ran while leaking urine. The dog ran in such haste that it dove into a snow pile and was forced to stop.

And when Shard gathered the dog and met with Dorothy holding the cat, the pet dog pretended to play dead. It wasn’t until they returned to Saint Delan Square and Shard knocked on Old Sir Fleming’s door, that it dashed into the house, looking as if it wouldn’t dare come out anytime soon.

"I earned this money quite easily."

Shard said to Dorothy while pulling out the key to open his own door, Miss Writer smiled:

"That’s mostly thanks to luck, and also because of how wealthy Old Sir Fleming is."

"What does that Sir do?"

Shard wasn’t very familiar with his neighbors, but Dorothy knew:

"Knights and non-hereditary barons can both be addressed as ’Sir’. Sir Fleming was the Royal Butler of Yordle Palace when my grandfather was alive. Yes, no need to ask, I know royal butlers often have noble titles to begin with, but his son was involved in a political event over twenty years ago, which led to the family losing their noble title. But Sir Fleming is loyal, hence he still holds a lifetime baron designation."

In a short sentence, not only did it involve the Kingdom’s political intrigue but also highlighted the rich life story behind the Old Sir:

"But why does no one call me ’Sir’?"

Shard asked curiously as he pushed the door open and returned home with Dorothy.

"Because you are the only knight in the past century to be ennobled due to military merit, so people prefer to directly use this title."

Dorothy said with a smile, Lecia liked to call Shard "Knight" directly.

The girls who grew up reading knight novels had an unimaginable fondness for this kind of title. The quickly spreading and widespread "scandal" of Shard and Miss Galina is greatly linked to the combination of the titles "Duchess and young Knight".

On Thursday night a minor event happened, it was at eight o’clock in the evening, Shard was in the study helping Dorothy translate Ancient Script she might encounter in her end-of-year exams of the Fifth Era, pondering if he would head to Coldwater Port and Midshire Fort for a walk tomorrow should there still be no news from Dr. Schneider. At that moment, Dorothy was in the kitchen washing the apples and pears sent by Lecia in the afternoon.

Suddenly Mia let out a "meow," only then did Shard notice something was glowing in the drawer. Upon opening it, he discovered a new message conveyed through the poetic paper sheet.

Miss Danester, the librarian of Saint Byrons, wanted to see him in twenty minutes, and Shard needed to prepare for the projection ritual ahead of time.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺