Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 1530: Serious Illness

Shard was ill.

This illness did not come without warning. After sending Dr. Schneider to the Randall Valley Train Station on Wednesday and then returning home, Shard felt something was not quite right with his body. The initial symptoms were a slight sense of weakness and a mild dizziness in his head, but he just thought he had been working too hard recently, and his body was not quite adjusting to suddenly relaxing. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Therefore, after busily completing the report for Miss Danester about "Miss Fiona Drago and the establishment report of the Academy," that evening, he spent a rather pleasant night with Luviya, who hadn’t stayed overnight at No. 6, Saint Delan Square for a long time.

Just as Miss Galina said, the violet-eyed girl had known about their situation in advance. Thus, when the two were snuggled together at midnight, and Shard was expressing his apologies and his plans for the future, Luviya wasn’t angry but pressed her finger against his lips:

"We agreed from the beginning, my gallant Knight, if it’s for our cause, I won’t question your actions."

By this time, Shard could feel the dizziness in his head growing worse, but the gentle girl in his arms prevented him from thinking further.

"You have been reserved in love, never exploiting my trust in you recklessly. Your choice of target is quite good, I must admit, even I must admit, Galina Cavendish is really beautiful. I’ve talked to her, she will fully support us, and eventually, the power of the Witch Council will be in our hands."

She softly kissed Shard’s cheek, showing a reserved yet seductive expression on her face simultaneously:

"On nights like this, let’s not discuss dreary topics. Please tell me, Knight, how does a witch taste...?"

Even though Shard didn’t mention his discomfort, on Thursday morning, when he was woken up by Mia’s meowing, Luviya noticed his voice was slightly hoarse, and he even coughed a few times while getting up.

It is extremely rare for a Circle Sorcerer to fall ill, let alone one with Shard’s impressive physical condition.

Although Shard still believed it might be related to him being too tired these days, Luviya immediately blushed and loudly claimed it had absolutely nothing to do with her.

She was quite worried about this and sent a letter to Galina Manor, hoping a maid could attend to Shard closely in the coming days.

Shard stayed at home all day Thursday due to his discomfort, and that evening, after dinner, with his whole body aching, he even abandoned his original plan of writing a report and went directly to his room to rest. Half an hour later, when three young maids, drawn by Mia’s calls, touched his forehead, they found his temperature had risen to a dangerously high level.

The anxious Luviya, Miss Galina, and Dorothy quickly gathered at No. 6, Saint Delan Square that night. After confirming Shard had an inexplicable high fever, they verified using Circle Sorcerer methods that this was definitely not a normal illness.

Mystical means, including the Plague Doctor’s Ring, could not affect his condition. Only the most primitive physical cooling methods could barely lower his temperature, but the persistent high fever showed no sign of subsiding.

Being tormented by the illness, Shard had not completely lost consciousness. He knew of the ladies’ arrival, he knew Mia was worriedly curled up by his head, but he could only moan in discomfort as he struggled between semi-consciousness.

For a long period, he remained in this peculiar state of semi-consciousness. The high fever caused intense headaches and the troublesome inability to distinguish between dreams and reality, and the rhythm of percussion heard in the Wilder Opera House during his coma continued to play on, making the headaches and nausea even more severe.

There was a time when he even dreamt that he was stabbed to death by Luviya with a sharp knife, causing him to be momentarily paralyzed with fear when Luviya woke him up in reality to drink medicine.

With his eyes closed, there was darkness; with his eyes open, it was the monotonous view of the bedroom. He knew he was at home, knew Mia seldom left his side, knew the maids were always looking after him, knew many people came to visit him, and also knew he was fed many strange potions, but he himself couldn’t think coherently.

Severe headaches, nausea, and his body’s instinctive drowsiness left him from Thursday, the 13th day of the Month of Rising Wind, to Saturday, the 22nd day of the Month of Rising Wind—a period of nearly two weeks—without any sense of time.

He lay in bed every day, with meals brought to him at regular intervals. Occasionally waking up, he could see Mia watching the newly raised flowers by Luviya on the windowsill with a predatory gaze, while the flowers in those pots blossomed with increasingly conspicuous petals each time he opened his eyes.

After all, spring had truly come.

The girls’ clothes seemed to transition from winter to spring in just over a week. The maids who cared for him daily also spoke of the increasingly spring-like scenery outside Tobesk City.

In his drowsiness, he knew most nights Luviya would stay here, holding him in bed and telling him various stories when he awoke with headaches.

Every morning, Miss Galina would have the maids arranged at home and leave Tifa at No. 6, Saint Delan Square, specifically to look after him. And when the Duchess left, Shard would always receive a wet kiss on his forehead.

Dorothy and Lecia, who brought Angelina, each came to visit him every other day, and the saddened girls often sat by the bed, holding his hand and whispering all sorts of sweet words.

It seemed as though, with Shard’s severe illness, his home became more lively than usual.

Iluna, Sister Delphine, Helen and Grace, Priest Augustus, and Dr. Schneider, who returned to Tobesk a bit later, all came to visit him. His ordinary friends, Baron Lavende, Baron Rwanda, Director Anlos, and the neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Smith, all expressed their respective concerns.

At some point, the various gifts piled up at the foot of the bed and in the kitchen—including but not limited to carnations, chocolates, greeting cards, fruits, and crafts—formed a small mountain. Every day when Shard woke, he could hear in his headache who else had visited him. Even Queen Diana sent a doctor to check on him and gifted him a brand new tea set.

Including Granny Cassandra, four Grand Witches from afar also appeared worriedly in Shard’s home one night he couldn’t recall, through the use of a projection mechanism. The projection ritual they employed was clearly advanced, and after checking his condition in the bedroom, they discussed Shard’s peculiar illness together.

Although the high fever persisted, the good news was that aside from the fever, pain, vomiting, and severe nasal congestion, Shard had no other symptoms, and it wasn’t contagious to anyone. This wasn’t a simple disease, nor a curse, nor were there traces of relics causing it. It seemed like a natural reaction of Shard’s body, and on the second day of Shard’s fever, the witches completely confirmed it had a direct connection with the "Twisted Origin of the Earth" he had swallowed.

The worried Luviya, on one hand, let Iluna consult the "Guardian of the Earth" through Shard’s basement about the situation, and on the other hand, decisively used one of the three "Demon Gold Coins" for divination.

The divination result, combined with advice from the distant Chosen of the Earth, led the ladies worried about Shard’s health to realize that Shard just needed bed rest, and he would naturally recover over time.

Thus, the drowsy outlander received the best care he could never have imagined. During this period, Miss Galina even considered moving Shard to her manor, but was refuted by Luviya and Dorothy together:

"Shard can only recover at his own home, that is the result of divination. Besides, if he’s not at home, he would feel uncomfortable!"

There was no one who could argue against this reason.

He was indeed recovering day by day. In the early days of this illness, Shard’s total waking hours each day were less than six hours, and the meals he ate were very few. But starting from the fourth day, although the fever hadn’t subsided, his drowsiness improved notably, and he could even listen to the maids read the newspaper and have brief conversations with visiting guests in bed.

By the seventh day of his illness, although his throat was hoarse and he couldn’t speak, Shard could attempt to drag his weak body out of bed to wash his face and brush his teeth himself. But just as he left the bedroom, he was gently taken back by the maids and was subsequently lectured in turns by Luviya, Dorothy, Miss Galina, and Lecia:

"Is there any difference between the maids helping you wash and brush your teeth and you doing it yourself? Oh, Shard, in your current state, can’t you just enjoy life a bit?"

Shard knew well what was happening to him; after all, after swallowing the twisted power of the earth, "she" had warned that side effects would appear later. And the persistent fever, as "she" had said, wasn’t a dangerous matter.

Although Shard’s body could naturally recover, the girls still prepared all sorts of strange "supplements" for him, attempting to speed up his recovery. But most of those odd magic potions and supplements with names Shard had never heard of tasted peculiar and had little effect.

Of course, not all methods were ineffective. The only ones having an effect were the magic potions brought by Sister Delphine and the Red Butterfly Twins.

Sister Delphine’s potion was made in the ritual site using the secret technique of the Spiritual Practice Order, after extracting some "Water of Moonlight" from the attic. It was a potion capable of repairing spirits. Helen and Grace brought a strange red potion.

That potion was contained in a thumb-sized vial, the liquid inside was crystal clear. Although its taste carried a "Blood Brew" sensation, it was more reminiscent of the sweet and sour flavor of a crisp apple.

Shard initially thought he wouldn’t recover until the end of the Month of Rising Wind, but with help from the nun and the Red Butterfly Maidens, he felt his recovery wasn’t far off.