Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 1733 - 1732: Love and Desire

"Hmm? How could there be a woman more beautiful than the Grand Witch?"

Sensing a sudden alertness in his heart, the feeling of enchantment vanished instantaneously. Shard stood up abruptly, unable to believe how, despite his high psychic resistance and numerous anti-enchantment blessings, he was bewitched by an oil painting with no elemental reaction.

Even though he knew he absolutely could not look at the painting again, his eyes instinctively swept back over it, and he felt that although the face shape, hair color, and eye color were different, the underwater woman in the painting had an ultimate beauty and a unique charm that became more captivating with each glance, making one long to kill the current owner to possess it.

"Could this be..."

He instinctively took two steps back, eyes widening, feeling that although the painting hadn’t changed in any obvious way, it increasingly exerted an irresistible allure on him. Shard subconsciously swallowed, and just as he expected, the woman in the painting slightly narrowed her eyes, turned to look outside the frame at him, and gave him a wink and a smile.

At that moment, Shard felt as if his heart had stopped beating. This was partly due to the shock of her allure, and partly because he had finally confirmed what the painting was depicting: 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Desire!"

More precisely, this was the artist’s depiction of what he believed desire to be.

Beads of cold sweat formed on Shard’s back, yet Mr. Upton seemed completely unaware of the woman in the painting moving, as he continued to passionately talk about the inspiration he gained from it.

Not until now did Shard realize that he’d been so focused on the painting that he hadn’t heard a word of what Mr. Upton had been saying.

The woman in the painting once again returned to her static pose, but her expression remained as though she was still looking at Shard, yet Mr. Upton hadn’t noticed at all.

He excitedly finished talking about the inspiration he derived from the painting, and remarked to Shard:

"I got incredibly lucky acquiring this painting. I think the artist back then must have seen a mermaid, right? I wish that I could also see..."

"Mr. Upton!"

Shard interrupted him, his mouth twitching slightly before resolutely inquiring:

"Will you sell this painting?"

The scruffy man immediately shook his head:

"Absolutely not, I won’t sell it for any price. This is the love of my life, and I intend to keep it with me until I take it to my grave."

After saying this, he looked warily at Shard:

"I won’t tell you where I’m planning to be buried."

Shard pursed his lips and cautiously glanced at the painting once more. He should have realized what he was dealing with when hearing words like "Book of Pink", "Charm", "Flesh", and "Pleasure".

The portrait as a zero-level relic, even if it was created by an ordinary person, possesses extraordinary powers. He could already feel the suffocating Whisper Element, but he absolutely couldn’t speak the name or details of "Desire".

"Alright, alright, this visit is over, you should leave now."

Mr. Upton seemed to have realized Shard was plotting something improper and forcefully ushered him into the hotel hallway, shutting the door in front of Shard. Shard raised his hand to knock again but ultimately lowered it:

"This is really a problem now."

Though "Desire" has always been reasonably well-disposed towards him, he won’t forget it is a top-tier zero-level relic. Theoretically, besides an Evil God descending, nothing in the Material World poses a greater threat.

If "Desire" indeed manifests in the Green Lake Region because of that painting, Shard can’t imagine what might happen next. This is not baseless worry—the painting had already displayed signs of animation, and water areas like Green Lake are exactly where "Desire" prefers to appear:

"This is really..."

He is nominally a friend of the Furen Brothers, so for the sake of their reputation, he cannot steal or rob. Ultimately, Shard decided it was best to anonymously report to the Church, as the Green Lake Parish already has three Church Thirteen-Ring Sorcerers, making this the safest course of action.

But he ultimately chose not to do so, because after he handed over the Gold Pound obtained from the Arcane Technique to Mrs. Hope and went to Mr. Richard upstairs to request a copy of the manuscript, he received unexpected news.

Shard didn’t deliberately reveal to Mrs. Hope or Mr. Richard that he knew something, but when Mrs. Hope and Shard arrived on the fourth floor and the three of them sat on the sofa, Old Mr. Richard curiously asked:

"Mr. Watson, you don’t look well."

"Mr. Upton’s room gave me a very bad feeling."

Mr. Richard immediately frowned, exchanging a cautious glance with Mrs. Hope, and the latter carefully asked;

"He... didn’t show you that painting, did he?"

Shard was stunned in his heart, then realized that indeed, the painting had been in Mr. Upton’s possession for some time. Since he could show someone he just met like Shard, there was no way he hadn’t shown it to others. The two Believers of the God of Love before him clearly knew something.

"Yes."

Shard nodded and tentatively said:

"That painting is very strange..."

While the other two observed his expression, he was also observing theirs:

"There is a very beautiful woman on it... like a mermaid."

Mr. Richard suddenly clenched the armrest of the sofa, and Mrs. Hope’s eyebrows furrowed even more tightly:

"Did you... see anything else?"

They looked as though they feared Shard might suddenly lash out.

Shard shook his head:

"No."

The Believers of the God of Love breathed a sigh of relief, only to hear Shard’s next words:

"I averted my gaze just in time. Because that thing reminded me of information about a relic I’ve seen before. I couldn’t believe my own judgment was correct, after all, the danger level of that relic is extremely high."

Three pairs of eyes watched each other, everyone was tense and on guard.

"May I ask which relic it is?"

Mr. Richard asked, taking a deep breath and even daring not to exhale.

"Don’t say the name!"

Seeing Shard about to speak, Mrs. Hope suddenly reminded, her voice becoming quite sharp, but she didn’t care about her loss of composure.

Shard nodded, raised his hand, and gestured the shape of a "0".

Mr. Richard covered his eyes with his hand before finally exhaling the breath he’d been holding, while Mrs. Hope shuddered and closed her eyes to pray to the Deity.

"So, you also know about it?"

Shard asked, then found his palms sweating. After a long pause, the other two finally responded:

"Yes, of course we know. That thing was our Order’s greatest enemy before it disappeared."

"What?"

"Before our master left, he instructed us to keep its sealing well... Yes, our master, Old God–[God of Love], also revered as [Lock of the Red Heart], once sealed it in the Fifth Era. But in the late Fifth Era, as the Order gradually collapsed, it still managed to escape. How could we possibly not know whom that painting depicts?"

Shard leaned back against the sofa, his eyes already wide open, and his heartbeat quickened.

But this was definitely not due to nervousness or fear, rather it was excitement. Information about [Desire] had always been hard to come by, even the ancient [Spiritual Practice Order] only recorded fragments.

And now, the opportunity to delve deeper into that ever-present Zero Level relic had finally appeared.

Mr. Richard and Mrs. Hope also encountered someone who knew about that relic for the first time, so when it hit noon, they invited Shard to lunch.

However, they didn’t dare eat at the inn, but instead went to a restaurant two blocks away. Being wary of that painting, they took a carriage after the meal, heading away from the city center, away from the water, for a good long while. Finally, they arrived at the tavern of Little Lidon Village, in the northern suburbs of Mikaela Ironworks City.

Spring is the busiest season for farmers, and at this hour after lunch, the village tavern was almost empty. The three sat in a corner, the Believers of the God of Love sat opposite Shard, and waited until the bartender brought the drinks to the table before they started talking.

"Since you know that thing, Mr. Upton has no reason not to know. Why did he keep that painting and not destroy it immediately?"

This was Shard’s most pressing question. Old Mr. Richard shook his head:

"Of course, Upton knows that thing, but he is enchanted. You should understand what I mean; he is already trapped. It’s not that his will is weak, but that thing... we cannot separate him from that painting, nor can we even tell others about it. The information about that thing itself is a source of corruption. All we can do is keep trying to bring Upton to his senses. Fortunately, the painting is what an unknown artist saw of Desi..."

He almost spoke the word, immediately closing his mouth and nervously looked around.

Mrs. Hope continued for him:

"That painting reflects that thing from another’s inner world, and since Upton has always been devout, there is still hope. You will see he is mostly normal now, just a little eccentric, but a year ago, he would spend all day in his room staring at that painting, on the brink of losing control, even attempting to take the painting and jump into a lake. His condition has improved greatly since then, and we believe in another six months, we might attempt to ’borrow’ that painting from him."

Shard nodded to indicate he understood:

"But it’s still dangerous; the longer it drags on, the more likely something will go wrong. That painting might attract it; this much is almost certain."