Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 1436: Justice and Twist
Shard directly pushed open the door and entered the stables, where the horses, previously restless due to the noise, calmed down immediately because of the scent Shard carried with him.
As soon as Shard walked in and the horses quieted, the two confronting men looked towards the door in surprise.
The faint moonlight only illuminated a small part of the stable’s entrance, and the kerosene lamp hanging on the wall couldn’t cast light on Shard’s shaded face. His boots stepped on the dry hay laid on the ground as Shard casually placed the wine glass on the stone fence of the stable beside him:
"Isn’t it quite rude to commit murder here?" 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖
"You again?"
Ston Osenfort looked at him in astonishment:
"Why do I feel like I run into you wherever I go? Didn’t I send a servant to tell you we’d agreed to meet tomorrow?"
"Yes, see you tomorrow, so what are you doing now?"
Shard glanced at the chubby man on the ground, who was trying to call for his help. Osenfort scornfully kicked the fat man, who clutched his arm and screamed in pain on the ground:
"I was wrong, I know I was wrong!"
"John Watson, since you always pride yourself on justice, stay out of this matter."
Shard didn’t act out of a sense of justice to stop the other’s actions but instead asked:
"I’m quite interested in the grievances between you two. Let me guess... he owes you tens of thousands of Krone and hasn’t repaid it, then you caught him gambling Roder Cards at the casino? Or perhaps he stole something from you?"
"Neither."
Osenfort kicked the man on the ground again, who sobbed and dared not move towards Shard anymore:
"You know, I have a group of very good friends."
"Underlings."
Shard corrected.
"If you want to hear the story, shut your mouth."
Osenfort whispered. Facing away from the only kerosene lamp in the stable, his entire body and face were in the shadows, and he never put down the hayfork in his hand:
"He hurt a friend’s sister, using a Roder Card debt trap to force others into selling themselves to repay the debt. In other words, it’s legal high-interest lending. My friend didn’t ask for my help at first; I only learned about this recently."
"Since when did you become so righteous?"
Shard asked suspiciously.
"Righteousness? According to your logic, if the family of one of my underlings were hurt and I did nothing, how could I continue doing business in the Randall Valley? This bastard has been avoiding me for the past few weeks, but I knew he’d return for this banquet to curry favor with the nobles. Look, didn’t I catch him?"
He then turned to Shard:
"What, do you want to stop me?"
"I generally don’t intervene in matters where it doesn’t concern me and neither party is good. Once I get involved, no matter who I help, I become just like you two."
"But if you don’t save me, wouldn’t that be equivalent to helping Osen... oh!"
The fat man on the ground took another kick, this time a harsh one to the stomach, and he curled up on the ground, trembling, seemingly unable to speak anymore.
"I’m curious, with your morality and sense of justice, how would you judge what I’m about to do?"
Osenfort raised the hayfork. Though an unusual weapon, it was rather dangerous in close combat.
"Judge it?"
Shard thought for a moment:
"If what you just said is true, then he certainly has done wrong. And engaging in legal high-interest lending, since he’s done it once, it’s surely not the first time. So theoretically, he does deserve to die. But..."
Shard looked at the scene before him.
"You’re about to say, let the law punish him?"
Osenfort sneered.
"I wouldn’t say that, since I’ve also done plenty of illegal things myself.
I’m saying, even if you want to kill him, don’t do it on someone else’s estate. Even if you kill him and turn him into stone to bury in your garden, it’s impossible not to leave any trace. Once it’s discovered that someone died here tonight, Prince William and Princess Margaret could be very troubled."
"Buried in the garden... Haila even told you about that?"
Osenfort squinted at Shard, as if trying to discern something from his appearance, but Shard raised an eyebrow:
"That’s not the point."
"The point is, you don’t want me to kill him here?"
Shard thought for a moment:
"You could understand it that way."
"I thought you would duel me at any cost to save him."
Osenfort said, then dropped the hayfork in his hand. Since the ground was covered with hay, the sound of the fork hitting the ground was not loud.
The fat man on the ground thought he had escaped this life-threatening situation, but in the next second, as Osenfort’s boot stepped on his hand, the fat man let out a scream like a pig being slaughtered. His hand began to petrify first, and the petrified area quickly spread along his hand until he became completely stone.
"I remember, your hobby is sculpture? When I went to your house to get the promised statue, I saw the one you were working on in your studio."
Shard picked up his wine glass and said, his eyes examining the stone sculpture on the ground.
"Are you talking about that one? I smashed it. I’m never satisfied with my work, so I always break it and start over."
Osenfort said as he bent down to press the statue’s forehead. A ripple appeared on the ground until it completely swallowed the statue into the earth.
"That’s a neat trick. When you get home, you should be able to take it straight out of the dirt, right?"
Shard suddenly asked:
"If I’m not mistaken, the word ’Ston’ sounds similar to ’stone’ in the local dialect of the Randall Valley. I’m curious why you use that name."
"You should ask the ghosts about that, not me... They even complimented my name."
Saying this, he stood up to leave. Shard remained motionless, but just as Osenfort was about to exit the stable, he suddenly asked:
"You’ve done so many things and made so many enemies. Don’t you believe that sooner or later, someone will seek revenge?"
Osenfort twisted his upper body to look at him:
"You must have forgotten, I possess immortality. Although I’m not a Circle Sorcerer, I’m not an ordinary person either."
"But you can still feel pain."
Shard pointed out:
"The last time we attended Mr. and Mrs. Enriques’ wedding, during our duel under the dead tree at the hilltop, I saw clearly that you do indeed feel pain. You can enjoy various pleasures and appreciate the sensation of your heart beating in your chest, yet you live each day as if it were your last. I’m really curious about how you developed this attitude."
Osenfort looked at Shard with a sullen face:
"Don’t forget to come to my manor tomorrow night and take the [Genesis: Earth]."
With that, he left. Shard took another sip of the wine in his hand and then felt that even the wine had the taste of horse manure:
"It seems when the heart is mentioned, he doesn’t want to talk much. Something is definitely wrong with his heart."
[Heart of Stone?]
"It won’t be that simple."
Shard poured the remaining red wine in his glass into the trough of the stable and then intended to leave. But just as he took a step forward, he turned in surprise toward the darkest corner of the stable that he hadn’t noticed earlier.
"You haven’t been standing there the whole time, have you?"
"No, I know your senses are very sharp, trying to eavesdrop on your conversation is impossible."
Mr. Lathis emerged from the shadows, and there was sound as he walked, because his body was actually solid and not a mere ghostly figure.
However, this was not a resurrection, for the sound of his walking was too "heavy," indicating that his body’s density was much higher than a normal person.
"Since you’ve shown yourself, is the disturbance of the earth already calmed?"
Shard hesitated to ask, but Mr. Lathis shook his head slightly:
"No, the situation is more serious. It’s anticipated that at dawn on Saturday, there will be an earthquake in the north of Randall Valley City similar to the one three hundred years ago. At that time, the earth’s twisting will enter the fourth stage."
The Guardian once personally stated that the earth’s twisting has only five stages, with the last stage being an irreversible disaster:
"The sign of the fourth stage: everything happening in the Randall Valley will happen with equal probability anywhere in the Material World. Meanwhile, the Randall Valley Region will experience severe natural disasters—storms, heavy snow, landslides... and some ancient creatures will revive, you can think of it as fossils being given life."
Shard sighed slightly:
"Saturday at dawn, what a coincidence. I’m planning to take care of that demon on Friday night. After dealing with the demon, can you meet me at dawn on Saturday to conduct the ceremony?"
The Guardian neither agreed nor disagreed:
"The one meeting you now is not me, but an avatar of earth. I can no longer leave the Heart of the Earth; I rely on it to maintain my stability, and it needs me for its final maintenance. No one knows that the complete Heart of the Earth shattered when the Ancient God departed; what’s left now is just the most intact part... the deterioration of the earth was predestined long ago.
However, no need to worry, we’ve prepared in advance."
"Don’t talk to me about these things. So you’re saying that after I deal with the demon, I still have to go to the Heart of the Earth to find you and wake you up myself?"
Luviya said that the Chosen One Ceremony is best conducted where it can directly connect to the Heart of the Earth. If directly next to the Heart of the Earth, it seems the best choice.
The Guardian seemed to understand Shard’s intent:
"The Chosen One Ceremony must be conducted on the earth. This is the information I got."
The Chosen Ones, especially the first candidates, always manage to acquire information unknown to others:
"Moreover, the current situation at the Heart of the Earth is extremely complex, and the twisting there is more severe than anywhere else. Even for you, it might not be possible to reach there."
