Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 1413: Iluna’s Mission

Miss Sylvia, it seems like she wants to extend an invitation for a date alone.

Shard considered the matters at hand, and he’s currently just waiting for Iluna to arrive so they can discuss the plan with Iluna and Luviya. If there are enough coins, a divination on the Sapphire Earrings and the hexagonal gemstone would also be good:

"It should be fine."

"So, how about accompanying me for a stroll in the city? It’s been a long time since I last came to this city."

The young Grand Witch lightly bit her lip and said, looking at Shard in a way that made it impossible for him to refuse.

So, Shard spent the entire Thursday morning shopping in the city with Miss Sylvia. They returned to Miss Benanis’s manor before lunch, and as the inventor of synthetic fibers, Miss Sylvia took Shard to her room after changing into a black fabric, asking for his opinion.

In the end, as they were getting to the key point, Miss Sylvia was pulling Shard’s hand to evaluate the texture when Miss Benanis, who wasn’t in the habit of knocking, pushed the door open and came in to call them for lunch.

Shard found out later, Miss Sylvia hadn’t spoken to Miss Benanis all day.

In the afternoon, he went with Miss Aphrola to a club in the city to discuss business. It was then that Shard discovered that the construction of the United Kingdom Navy’s second southern shipyard was also related to the Aphrola family.

In fact, one could say that the Aphrola family is somewhat involved in all major shipyards on the Old Continent.

In the evening, the witches and Shard watched an opera together in a private box on the top floor of the Wilder Opera House. After the opera, Shard accepted an invitation to Miss Benanis’s manor, where he joined the ladies in pajamas for a nighttime tea party in Miss Benanis’s third-floor bedroom.

It was indeed interesting, but given the increasing number of victims of the Petrified Plague in the city each day, corrupted Elemental Giants roaming the wilderness outside the city, and the black mud flowing from the twisted sources of the earth on this land, Shard felt something was off.

That night, when he took Luviya back to the Abundant Land Inn, he mentioned his thoughts.

The purple-eyed girl gently hugged him outside the inn as they parted:

"That’s why we say you’re always so tense, isn’t it nice to relax occasionally like you did today?"

"But I already relaxed yesterday."

Shard corrected her, and Luviya pouted slightly, then reached out to tidy Shard’s collar. Although the night temperatures were rising daily, Luviya still considered Shard to be recovering from a severe illness and needed to pay special attention to his health:

"The story in the Randall Valley is nearing its end, and it’s normal to relax a bit before the final showdown. Your high fever really scared me, and thinking about it, you really didn’t get much rest. Once this matter concludes and I return to Tobesk, in the spring of 1854, let’s not do anything or worry about the next Chosen one. I’ll keep you company."

She stood on tiptoe and kissed Shard’s cheek:

"Hurry back home, Dorothy might be waiting for you there. I will not be feeling well for the next few days, so you don’t need to stay in the Randall Valley with me."

She said gently, and as Shard looked into those purple eyes, a feeling of guilt surged in his heart again.

(Mia running...)

"Long time no see, Shard!"

On Friday, the 28th day of the Sparse Star Month, the last day of February, early in the morning when Shard once again came to the Abundant Land Inn, he immediately saw Iluna sitting by the wall reading a newspaper. After all, whenever Iluna appeared in his line of sight, it was as if all light converged on her in Shard’s eyes.

Iluna was wearing a floral-patterned dress with a southern style, the waist adorned with silver fragments, and a leaf-shaped hairpin from somewhere on her head for decoration.

Because Shard had already had breakfast at home, it was a little after eight in the morning. When Shard took a seat across from the seventeen-year-old girl, Iluna happily greeted him:

"Luviya just left, she went to the Prophet’s Society, and she said there’s something at the society at noon, so she won’t be coming back."

"Good morning, Iluna. We’ll meet Luviya again in the evening, alright? Was your trip smooth? I heard you encountered something along the way?"

Shard also greeted her with a smile and noticed that the Randall Morning News Iluna was holding had a headline about the first Randall Flower expected to be spotted next week.

Every year, the first discovered Randall Flower is sent to City Hall and kept in a display case in the hall as evidence of spring’s arrival. The person who brings the flower receives a significant cash prize, and the local residents are very enthusiastic about this city tradition.

"Oh, we ran into a little trouble on the way, but we resolved it. That small town was really clueless to dare provoke us."

Iluna replied nonchalantly.

"Can you leave the church today? I thought the local diocese would immediately assign you a task."

Shard asked again.

"I requested to take a walk around the city to see the situation."

She casually placed the newspaper aside:

"There’s really no point in me staying at the church right now, those meetings, although annoying, are necessary, but I don’t want to attend them... I’ll just look at the meeting notes later. So, since the church is having a big meeting today, I decided to take a walk."

With that, she sighed:

"On the way here, besides coming across that haunted little town, we also encountered the Crazy Earth. Yes, on the way here, a boat full of us couldn’t entirely solve the problem, even as the Chosen of Balance, I could only ensure that stepping into that area wouldn’t affect me, but I couldn’t reverse this twist. Compared to the Earth, my power is still not enough."

"I’ve heard that in the past week, five different cities have reported Crazy Earth news."

Shard added, and Iluna nodded:

"Actually it’s seven cities, two are in the countryside, too remote. If it continues like this, sooner or later the whole Old Continent will be tainted by the Earth’s curse. But fortunately, there’s a solution, we just have to wait for the final ceremony to proceed... In this sense, my business trip this time is simpler than the previous two. The Midshire Fort event was practically a big battle; the Pantanal incident had us marching through those filthy swamps. And now, I just have to stay in the city and wait for news, which is quite nice."

"So, how do you feel about the Randall Valley? Compared to Tobesk."

Shard asked with interest, and Iluna thought for a moment:

"It’s rumored that the weather here is always nice, but it wasn’t until I came here that I realized the weather in the Randall Valley is as lousy as Tobesk! And there’s this thick fog and the smell of rotten eggs and vegetables."

She was quite displeased with that.

"This is the influence brought by the Crazy Earth, there wasn’t any fog when I first came."

"I do wish to see the valley in spring, the scenery is said to be famous here."

Iluna added, sneaking a glance at Shard’s expression:

"The church knew I wanted to wander around, so they showed me their current list of unhandled tasks."

Saying so, she pointed to a small bag placed near the wall:

"If I have the time, I could take care of a few. While learning about Randall Valley’s customs, I could earn some reward money for myself. I figured since I have nothing to do, I might as well check out the city’s issues, so..."

She continued to secretly observe Shard.

"Let’s go together then."

Shard said:

"But I’m planning to head to Huntington tonight to visit the lady in the Lake. So, I can only stay in the Randall Valley until around dusk."

The area with the Lake Goddess, the "Lake Cherub," although usually only open when the sun is still up, Shard believed he might be an exception.

"No problem."

Iluna held back her joy:

"Then we should discuss where to go first. Although there are many Circle Sorcerers from other places supporting locally, those teams of mixed Inner and Low Ring sorcerers are still lacking, so most of the tasks I have require team handling. Difficult, but not to the extent that only a High Ring Sorcerer can solve, maybe I should choose..."

She took out a rolled parchment from her small bag, skipped the tasks that required going to a town far outside the city, and ignored those boring haunted rumors, finally selecting one:

"This one seems quite necessary to investigate, let’s go take a look. The city reports that recently there have been missing flower seller incidents."

"Oh? What exactly is happening?"

Shard also expressed his interest.

"You know, most of the kids selling flowers on the streets are girls from poor families. Such children going missing doesn’t easily catch official attention immediately. This time it was a local Baron’s daughter, let me see the surname, yes, Baron Burnside’s daughter, who wanted to try flower selling. Accompanied by her maid, she went to sell flowers on the street and then disappeared with the young maid. The disappearance of a noble lady prompted the local police department to conduct a thorough investigation, which revealed a series of similar incidents recently."

Iluna said, and Shard slightly frowned:

"It’s not like that child-trafficking case that appeared in Tobesk City last summer, is it?"

Shard remembered it well because he had been shot on the street due to that incident.

"No, no."

Iluna shook her head:

"The missing kids usually come back after about a week. Apart from mild malnutrition and symptoms of blood loss, they haven’t suffered any other harm; they even return in the same clothes they wore when they went missing. However, they all lose the memory of that week, and since the flower sellers are quite young, they’re not suitable for strong memory recovery to avoid brain damage, so there hasn’t been much progress in the investigation yet."