Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 1415: The Flower Seller’s Clue

"What happened?"

Shard asked curiously, then noticed the noise coming from outside the window.

He stuck his head out of the carriage window and discovered that the entrance to Stonemason Street was blocked by two horse-less four-wheeled carriages placed sideways, with sandbags and stones on their sides to fill the gaps.

At this time, Stonemason Street was even busier than usual. Besides onlookers, stonemasons with large and small hammers seemed to have taken to the street. Although the police were desperately maintaining order, they still couldn’t stop the blacksmiths, who had divided into two groups, from hurling insults at each other with the most vicious language.

Even though Shard was only at the street entrance, he could still see, upon jumping off the carriage, that smoke was rising from the best building on the street where the Stonemason Guild was located; someone must have set fire there just now.

"What’s going on here?"

Iluna also got off the carriage, and after Shard paid the curious driver for the ride, he inquired among other onlookers and learned that somehow rumors had spread about the upper echelons of the Stonemason Guild taking money from the Royal Family and intending to negotiate with them.

The anger accumulated over more than ten years against the Anjou Royal Family was thus ignited. Before Shard and Iluna arrived, some stonemasons planned to besiege the Stonemason Guild and drag out the "traitors" for trial. However, fortunately, there were still some rational people who wished to stop them, leading to the current scene of near-armed conflict between the two sides.

"Will Princess Margaret’s plan encounter even more significant setbacks because of this?"

Iluna asked worriedly, and Shard nodded:

"Yesterday, Margaret told me she was almost certain she had resolved the issue, but now an unexpected event occurred... likely related to her brother."

With chaos breaking out on Stonemason Street, a large number of police officers were rushing in from other parts of the city. Therefore, the flower sellers in the area had already left, and Shard and Iluna couldn’t find the "Little Liana" that the countryside girl mentioned earlier.

However, fortunately, Shard gave two small copper coins to a beggar on the side of the street, who was busy watching the commotion and reluctantly provided information:

"Those little girls usually sell flowers near the Peace Chapel two blocks away. It’s a nice place; if it weren’t for ’One-Eyed Jeff’ occupying the spot there, I’d also want to beg there. Oh, move aside, those two over there are fighting, you’re blocking my view!"

He leaped up with his mat and bowl in hand, while Shard and Iluna also turned and saw two stonemasons engaged in a fistfight.

"Has this city always been so crazy?"

Iluna asked curiously, but it was a question Shard couldn’t answer.

Even though the local Peace Chapel was in the old district, it was like other churches, situated by the riverbank. Once they left Stonemason Street, the oppressive sense of impending turmoil disappeared.

The city was still shrouded in heavy fog today, but at least visibility near the chapel was slightly better. Perhaps it was Shard’s imagination, but he felt there were more people heading to the local Peace Chapel than when he and Luviya visited the Dawn Chapel a few days ago.

Later, he realized it was likely due to the city’s sense of insecurity, making people crave the Deity’s protection more than usual.

Since Stonemason Street wasn’t far from the Peace Chapel, and Iluna preferred to walk with Shard, they made their way to the chapel on foot. At the street corner, they happened to see a group of people carrying an unconscious old man onto a carriage, and a priest with a dove-shaped holy emblem hung around his neck instructed the driver to head straight to the Sun Cathedral. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"Petrified Plague."

Shard said quietly to Iluna, and the two stood on the outskirts of the bustling crowd, watching that carriage depart. From the conversations around, they learned that the old gentleman had been with his family coming to the chapel to worship, only to meet with an incident just over a hundred steps away from entering the chapel.

Yet, this incident didn’t deter the flower-selling girls from appearing.

The beggar at Stonemason Street’s entrance wasn’t wrong; there were indeed many flower-selling girls around here. Shard and Iluna casually found one, and after Shard bought a rose, presumably cultivated in a winter greenhouse, for Iluna, who repeatedly insisted it wasn’t necessary, the flower-selling girl led them to find Little Liana, who was nearby eating black bread in an alley.

The girl called "Little Liana" looked to be about thirteen or fourteen years old, but her eyes seemed sharper than any flower-selling girl Shard and Iluna had encountered until now.

After listening to Iluna’s introduction, she didn’t immediately ask Iluna more questions but looked at Shard instead:

"Sir, did you buy the flower Miss Beyas is holding for her?"

Iluna felt slightly embarrassed, and Shard nodded:

"Yes, is there a problem?"

"I’ve never heard of police officers bringing their boyfriends along while on an investigation."

The girl looked at Shard, who chuckled and nodded:

"Yes, it’s indeed against the rules. So, if I buy you a flower too, can you keep this a secret from Miss Beyas?"

Then the little girl known as "Little Liana" immediately nodded and picked out a beautiful red rose from her basket.

While Iluna was pleased that Shard bought her a rose, she was not happy about him being "coerced" into doing so:

"Don’t waste money on this."

"It’s okay, giving you flowers doesn’t count as a waste, right? Hurry up and ask your questions."

Iluna could only nod with slight displeasure, looking at Little Liana, her face clearly not looking good:

"We’re here to investigate the flower sellers’ serial disappearance case, yes, for your own good. We have already sought out other flower sellers who returned after going missing. Although they didn’t have any other clues, they believe you’re well-informed and can help the police."

Judging from Iluna’s expression, if the little girl in front of her claimed she knew nothing at this moment, Iluna might really give her a lesson.

"I know!"

Fortunately, the girl, like Shard, sensed Iluna’s emotions:

"So far, the total number of missing girls is 11, and 7 have returned. This includes the highly talked-about Baron’s daughter and her maid from a few days ago. Four are still missing! Everyone disappeared when they were alone, even the Baron’s daughter. It was only after she went missing that her maid vanished while seeking help."

Iluna nodded:

"So, what use is this to us?"

"You can find someone to disguise themselves as a flower seller, act alone, and lure that bad guy into a trap!"

The girl looked at Iluna:

"Miss Detective, I think you’re very suitable for this."

"This kind of risk shouldn’t be taken lightly, and besides, this city is so big, it’s impossible to just run into that bad guy while in disguise."

Shard immediately objected, but the flower-selling girl added:

"I know this. The girls all disappeared while passing through deserted alleys. So, the adults are right; children shouldn’t wander into alleyways alone."

Iluna was obviously tempted, but Shard was still uneasy:

"Regarding the disappearance of the girls, you must have your discussions as well. So, what do you think it is? Is it really people trafficking specifically targeting flower sellers?"

"No, no, it’s the flower seller monster!"

The young girl said:

"This is a rumor spreading among the flower-selling girls. According to the rumor, if a flower seller acts alone at night and peddles flowers to single men, she might be abducted and harmed by men turned into monsters."

Despite her mature appearance, she was ultimately too young to understand what she was truly saying:

"But it sounds so strange, why would anyone be out at night selling and buying flowers?"

Iluna stifled her laughter with effort, but she had already made up her mind that maybe they could actually try to lure the enemy out from behind the scenes.

Earlier, while touching the girl’s forehead in the village, Shard indeed perceived a faint trace of whisper elements. Apart from relics, there are no other conditions for the presence of whisper elements, which means this issue is genuinely related to a relic.

Since it involved an unknown relic, he definitely disagreed with Iluna using herself as bait, but Iluna thought the idea was pretty good.

Thus, after bidding farewell to flower seller Little Liana, the two of them chatted all the way to the Wilder Opera House. At this time, the three Grand Witches were not here, only Miss Lathis had just returned from going out. After Shard learned the truth about the Guardian, the pursuit of the truth about Mr. Lathis no longer seemed as important, but she was still pursuing this task.

The three of them had lunch together at the Wilder Opera House, during which Shard informed Miss Lathis about what he and Iluna were doing.

"Actually, have you considered another approach?"

The young golden-haired girl curiously asked:

"Our Order specializes in reading and rewriting memories. Although the True God Church is unable to read those erased memories, maybe I can, why not ask me for help?"

Miss Lathis’s idea made a lot of sense, and most importantly, it was safe.

Conveniently, among the flower sellers who returned after going missing, a few were selling flowers near the Wilder Opera House, so the three of them went out to find the flower sellers and had Miss Lathis attempt to read the forgotten memories, and erased their memories of meeting the three of them and having strange things done to them.

"I also can’t obtain complete memory fragments."

Upon returning to the opera house again, Miss Lathis admitted:

"However, I saw some scattered fragments. In the initial fragments of her lost memories, she encountered another flower seller in the alley. The other party was very young and dressed oddly. You should understand that most flower-selling girls come from impoverished families, but she met that little girl who was dressed like... someone out of a storybook, with layered skirts, lace-adorned hats, shiny black buttoned leather shoes; I’ve never known any flower seller to dress herself that way."