Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 570 - The Departing Priest
Chapter 570: Chapter 570: The Departing Priest Chapter 570: Chapter 570: The Departing Priest Because of an issue with his eyes, Shard did not go out at all on Monday. Coincidentally, that afternoon, a client actually came to his door.
Not wanting to send away the client who finally made it to No. 6, Saint Delan Square, he found a pair of flat glasses in Detective Sparrow’s bedroom to cover his eyes.
Detective Sparrow’s vision was normal, so these glasses were probably just a disguise.
The visitor was Mrs. Morse, who lived in Tobesk’s western part. She had recently encountered a stroke of luck and a misfortune.
The good news was that her dear uncle had unfortunately passed away, leaving her several shops in Tobesk which were worth a four-figure sum in Gold Pounds. The bad news was that before she could inform her husband Mr. Morse about this, she discovered that Mr. Morse had a mistress.
To prevent her husband from taking a share of the inheritance and spending it on his mistress after she inherited it, Mrs. Morse wanted to hire Hamilton Detective, who advertised in the “Steam Bird Daily,” to investigate whether the mistress really existed and if so, who she was.
This type of case involving infidelity and mistresses was something former detective Sparrow Hamilton excelled at, and now Shard had finally encountered one.
“Hmm…may I ask, do the shops require a lot of your attention to manage? If you don’t sell them, could you live independently in Tobesk?”
After understanding the basic situation, Shard posed this question to assess how much he should charge for this case.
“The shops don’t need much attention from me, just the occasional check on the accounts. As for income, oh, detective, supporting a lone woman and allowing her to live a dignified life is certainly not a problem.”
The documents Mrs. Morse brought were spread out on the table between them. She spoke with a touch of sorrow, still engulfed in the sadness of her husband’s betrayal.
But after answering the question, the suddenly wealthy middle-aged woman suddenly had an epiphany, her unrefined makeup revealing a look of realization:
“Right, if the inheritance is enough for me to live on, why do I need him?”
“Hmm?”
Shard looked up in surprise at the other party, and his pen, which had been writing in his notebook, came to a stop.
“Yes, detective, you are absolutely right!”
A smile she couldn’t suppress spread across the middle-aged woman’s face as she became cheerful.
“I apologize, what did I say?”
“You’re right, detective, now that I have this inheritance, why should I keep that unfaithful man?”
“Did I say that?”
Shard fell into doubt about his own memory, then looked towards the cat lying beside him.
Follow current novels on ƒreewebηoveℓ.com.
[No, you didn’t say it.]
Although Mia couldn’t speak, fortunately, “she” was there.
“Yes, perhaps I should find a lawyer skilled in inheritance reception and divorce cases instead of a detective.”
The woman gathered the scattered documents on the table and then took out several banknotes from her purse and placed them on the coffee table:
“Detective, thank you so much. I can’t believe I was so foolish not to think of doing this before. I have my inheritance, and he has his mistress; what a happy outcome for us both!”
The banknotes on the coffee table amounted to about three or four pounds, which was more than Shard would usually charge for a mistress investigation.
“You…”
He wanted to say he didn’t want to break up someone’s marriage, but Mrs. Morse looked as though she had figured it out on her own.
In such a situation, Shard truly didn’t know what to say, so he could only hand over the business card of Lawyer Locke Laurel, whom he had met a month ago while dealing with the Lemer inheritance case, to the woman who seemed to be heading towards a new life.
“Although it seems a bit wrong to think this way, if every commission were this simple, that would be just perfect.”
That was Shard’s thought as he bid farewell to the generous client downstairs.
By Tuesday, Shard’s eye problem still had not cleared up, with speckles like stars persisting in his vision without a sign of fading. Therefore, he could only resort to using the eyeshadow sent by Tifa, and because he had no idea how to use this type of makeup, he wasted ten minutes of Miss Maid’s time as she taught him how to apply it.
Tifa was almost cheek to cheek with him as she applied the eyeshadow directly in front of him. Although there was no physical contact between the two, being so close and looking at Tifa’s face still made Shard blush a little.
In the afternoon, when Shard went to Tobesk Train Station to see off Priest Augustus, he went out maintaining the state of his eye makeup. As a result, not only did ordinary people fail to notice anything unusual, even Priest Augustus, who was well-versed in Potion Studies, did not discern any issues with his eyes.
With this, Shard could finally rest easy and participate normally in the Big City Player’s semi-final the following day.
“Priest, how long do you think it will take you to reach Midshire Fort?”
It was still at the platform of Tobesk Train Station that Shard said his final goodbye to the priest. Two local Old Clerics would be departing with Priest Augustus; therefore, the Church had organized a special farewell party, and so the other three members of the group did not come, leaving Shard to represent them.
“The train we are taking has been arranged specially by the Church to go from Tobesk directly to Midshire Fort. En route, we may stop to change the locomotive, add some fuel, and replace the water and food on board… It will probably take about six or seven days to reach Midshire Fort,” replied the priest after some thought.
Aside from the reasons for stopping that the priest mentioned, long-distance steam train travel also had to take into account “train disease.” This was a mental illness that resulted from enduring prolonged jostling and noise, which could torment the passengers and cause pain after long periods of travel by train.
As steam trains and their tracks spread from the core cities of the Old Continent outward, people had already noticed this strange illness. After the Church confirmed that it had nothing to do with Mysticism, the involvement of psychologists helped effectively explain “train disease.”
The straight-line distance between Tobesk and Midshire Fort was approximately 1100 miles (about 1770 kilometers), and the top speed of a contemporary steam train was 70km/h. Taking into account the stopping time, as well as the fact that the tracks couldn’t be laid out in a straight line, so it was normal for a direct steam train journey from Tobesk in the northwest of the Old Continent to Midshire Fort in the Middle East to take about a week.
“Then, I wish you safe travels, and after you arrive, don’t forget to send us a letter.”
Shard waved goodbye to Priest Augustus and then lowered his voice:
“And if you have time, don’t forget about my sword.”
The priest winked and smiled:
“Of course, but don’t forget to help me with the cleaning.”
Priest Augustus probably wouldn’t return for most of the autumn, so his Potion Workshop needed someone to take care of it. Among the four in the group, Shard seemed the least busy, and as a senior believer of the Dawn Church, he also had reasons to frequently be near Dawn Square, so the priest had given him the spare keys.
“No problem, I wish you peace.”
“I will be with other members of the Church, so of course, I will be safe. Also, I have friends over there whom I haven’t seen for many years,” said the priest, and then he resumed talking with his colleagues from Dawn Chapel who had come to see him off.
Shard stood there, together with the nuns and priests of the Dawn Church, watching as the priest carried his luggage onto the train. Then, just like the day they saw off Captain Lades, amidst the surging steam and sound of the train’s whistle, the train carried away Priest Augustus.
“By the time the priest returns from Midshire Fort, it’ll probably be close to snow season.”
Shard thought to himself, hands in his pockets, walking towards the exit of the station with the people from the church.
For some reason, he was reminded of two weeks prior when Professor Vya Mirral of the Astronomy College did a divination for the five people in the group. While the others received fairly normal results, Priest Augustus’s was “death.”
“It should be fine, right…”
He thought to himself, turning to look back at the now-empty platform after the people sending off had left:
“Why did I suddenly think of that?”
He simply could not understand.
