Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 670 - Reuniting with an Old Friend Again
Chapter 670: Chapter 670: Reuniting with an Old Friend Again
Chapter 670: Chapter 670: Reuniting with an Old Friend Again
Trembling hands reached into the pocket searching for the toy in the coat, but even wrapped in three layers of heavy cotton, the bone-chilling cold was still unbearable.
Only then did Shard realize that this cold was a trait of the special location known as the Valley of Dead Silence. Otherwise, with his current physical condition, he wouldn’t have been able to endure such coldness.
[If it weren’t for you drinking the “Ice Crystal Butterfly” Blood Brew at the Gods’ Soirée, which increased your cold resistance, the situation now would probably be even worse.]
“She” also reminded him in his ear.
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Now was not a good time to stand in the snow discussing issues, although the snow layer in front of the valley was nearly completely flat, showing no traces of human activity. But, in the cave ruins of the curved cliff walls directly in front of the valley, one could vaguely see the glimmer of a campfire. At the same time, it seemed to be the entrance to the entire library ruins.
Generally speaking, although the Father of the Infinite Tree liked to drop Shard a distance away from the real site of the incident, he would not be too far from the real site each time. Seeing the light of the fire, Shard understood that his destination was there.
“It’s really cold…”
While lamenting in his mind, he struggled to move forward in the snow. After only walking two steps, he felt his foot caught by something hard beneath the snow.
Hesitating for only a second, he plunged his hand into the snow and pulled the heavy, icy object out onto the surface. What he saw was a completely rigid, frozen corpse. It was a male body, clothed in a robe, with somewhat darkened skin and eyes that stared fixedly upward.
“Oh!”
Shard quickly discarded the corpse and lost all curiosity for what lay beneath the snow layer.
The grand entrance of the library ruins had long since vanished, and the library carved into the cliff walls only had pitch-black openings, standing quietly in the snow like an abandoned beehive.
The depths of the building were dead silent, while the crackling campfire was lit on the smooth stone floor inside the main entrance, surrounded by slanted and abandoned gray stone bookshelves, as well as relics left by adventurers over the generations. Even the huge rectangular entrance frame appeared somewhat skewed, and only through the faded mural on the walls and the remnants of the Aether Lamp on the ceiling could one discern the former splendor of the place.
By the warm campfire, sat three witches who looked young in age.
The Blonde Witch, wearing a brown robe, hugged her legs with both hands, staring blankly at the fire in front of her. Her ears were somewhat pointed, and because of her leg-hugging posture, the robe’s edge, which seemed scorched, was pulled up, revealing her black lace-up women’s tall canvas boots. She sat facing the position directly opposite the door, where heavy snow filled the sky outside.
Behind her sat a Red-Haired Girl with a thick red tail, dressed in a white blouse and a thin plaid long skirt that were out of season, kneeling to the right of the Blonde Witch. Only the fur cape on her shoulders could be considered warm clothing. She leaned forward toward the campfire, as if tending to it, but it also seemed as though she was observing something through the flames.
A third witch, with unkempt golden hair that had not been washed for a long time, sat to the left of the Blonde Witch. She also wore a brown robe and had a pair of round eyeglasses on her face. She sat on a pile of old books, next to a stack of old books as tall as her seated body, blocking the wind and snow from the door.
Because the wind and snow constantly swept in from outside the old door of the huge library, the pile of old books showed unmelted snow marks and wet traces.
The three witches did not speak; only the howling wind from outside kept echoing. They all seemed to be in a bad state, and their numb expressions suggested they had been stuck there for a long while.
Suddenly, the Red-Haired Girl tending to the fire twitched her ears and then abruptly turned to look outside:
“Teacher, I hear footsteps!”
The Blonde Witch with pointed ears facing the door, as well as the Golden-Haired Witch sitting in the midst of the books, also looked towards the door. In the nearly pure white world, behind the curtain of snow that fell like goose feathers, a black figure was struggling to approach step by step.
“Oh?”
The witch wearing round glasses, squinting her eyes with the help of the special glasses, was the first to spot the figure coming through the snow:
“How come he looks, like a man?”
The figure was getting closer, and although occasionally tripped by something under the snow in a somewhat comical manner, he was undoubtedly coming towards them.
“Teacher, I don’t sense a man approaching.”
The red-haired girl with a tail said to the blonde witch, who was lost in thought, staring at the storm outside. Then she stood up, leaning on the ground, her robe covering her black-laced boots.
At that moment, the three of them also saw the man approaching, his arm raised to shield his face from the relentless assault of the cold snowflakes.
“He is…”
The blonde witch walked around the fire pit towards the twisted and deformed doorway.
“Briony, is this an acquaintance of yours?”
The witch with the round glasses asked curiously,
“How can you meet an acquaintance in such a godforsaken place? Fiona, when did your teacher get to know a man?”
The red-haired girl gently shook her head and then both she and the other lady rose to their feet, following the blonde witch with the pointed ears to the doorway.
The giant doorframe, missing its door, seemed like a boundary line. None of the three stepped out, but instead, they watched the man in his bulky clothes come closer step by step.
A look of surprise slowly appeared on the face of the blonde witch and then that expression turned into a tender smile. Shard, who was drawing nearer, also noticed the three ladies standing at the doorway.
Even though the amulet that could detect witches couldn’t be brought to this era, he was still able to identify all three as witches.
“Am I seeing things? That young red-haired girl, why does she have a large tail behind her?”
His gaze shifting from beneath his arm, he looked towards them, his eyes scanning the faces of the three women, and then his steps halted for a moment. He locked eyes with the blonde witch in her mid-twenties who stood at the forefront, through the blur of the heavy snow.
Both were frozen there for a moment, and then Shard sped up his stride toward the front, while the witch with the round glasses and the red-haired girl with the tail watched with astonishment as he finally made it outside the door.
The blonde witch extended her hand, taking hold of Shard’s somewhat cold right hand, and pulled him inside from beyond the defenses and vigilance rituals they had set up.
It was like breaking through a layer of water; though the spaces connected inside and outside the doorframe were seemingly one, the inside was exceptionally dry and warm. Even the crackling sound of the burning campfire was comforting to Shard’s heart.
He stomped his feet vigorously, shaking off the cold snow stuck to the bottoms of his boots, and also patted his hair and shoulders, preventing the melting snowflakes from soaking his clothes.
He then had the chance to look up and greet,
“Good day, ladies.”
Regardless of whether they understood him or not, he greeted the unfamiliar red-haired girl with the tail and the blonde lady with the round glasses. And then, with a hint of nostalgia, he turned toward the blonde witch with the finely pointed ears.
The finely pointed ears were a symbol of Elven lineage, and the vine and leaf-like patterns stitched with fine threads on her robe were the distinctive decorations of an elf, as the Elven Knowledge had informed Shard.
And the witch with Elf bloodline he knew in the past was only one:
“It has been a long time, Miss Briony Orlando.”
“It has been a long time…”
The Moon Witch said as well, seeming to understand the language of Draleon, and her golden eyes revealed indescribable emotions.
This lady with one-eighth Elf lineage looked just as she did 22 years ago. Her lips, flushed and slightly parted, huskily uttered that name:
“… Shard Suren Hamilton.”
