Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 1090: Winter Icewine

The fresh news heard in the teahouse is related to the disaster caused by the heavy snow.

About half an hour ago, a train arrived from the north, delayed by a full 20 hours. The train encountered an avalanche mid-journey, forcing everyone on board to face the dilemma of the tracks being covered and unable to proceed.

And during the forced stop, a series of horrifying incidents occurred in the noble carriage of the train. This included cultists, illegal organizations, and brutal murders, but fortunately, the matters were resolved by an unknown detective in the noble carriage.

Sister Delphine was somewhat concerned about the matter, so she asked her "servant," actually a Witch Follower pre-arranged by the Council to wait locally for receiving two witches, to investigate the cause of the incident.

The young lady in a maid’s dress would soon arrive. She didn’t manage to find out what exactly happened on the train, but she did hear that it was transporting a relic. Because of the train delay, the Church of Creation, responsible for receiving the relic, had to temporarily arrange for an antique store owner and an apprentice to receive it, but the two lost the relic, leading to a thief’s unfortunate demise. Now, the alley where the murder happened has been cordoned off.

"So, this heavy snow will change many people’s fate... two Circle Sorcerers, their relic stolen by an ordinary person, the peripheral staff of the Church are truly careless."

Shard said with a smile, sitting warmly in the teahouse, gazing at the heavy snow outside through the window. He knew what such a huge snowfall meant for this era. For most people, this winter would be quite difficult to endure.

"Hmm?"

While sighing in his heart, Shard suddenly paused, he saw a familiar figure quickly passing by outside the window.

Shard immediately put down his teacup:

"Lakin Prisia?"

"Oh?"

Sister Delphine handed her hand to the maid beside her and stood up with her support:

"Which direction?"

"Not sure if it was a mistake, considering it was through glass, and he was on the other side of the street. The direction is left after exiting, wearing a black bowler hat, wrapped in a brown furry scarf, dressed in a black coat, holding a cane, and wearing white gloves."

This is the standard winter outfit for a Southern Nation Gentleman.

"Sister, let’s split up and search. If we don’t find him, we’ll meet back here in half an hour."

The nun nodded and first left the teahouse with the maid’s "support." Shard sat by the table, waited for two minutes, then casually called a waiter to settle the bill, not forgetting to praise the good tea while tipping.

After he left the teahouse, he quickly ran towards the direction Lakin Prisia had left.

There were no clues for Shard to track the figure he saw just now, he didn’t even manage to see the nun and the maid who left ahead of him. So Shard could only walk forward, turning at alleyways or street corners according to his thoughts. He didn’t stray too far, mainly circling around the vicinity of Huntington City Train Station.

And such a searching method naturally couldn’t find Sir Prisia, unless there truly was the so-called "gravitational pull of fate" between Shard and The Chosen Ones. So after confirming he hadn’t found the target, Shard wasn’t too disappointed. Calculating the time, he planned to return to the teahouse to see if Sister Delphine and Miss Maid had found the target.

But unexpectedly, as he passed by the alley marked "Old Tree Lane," a figure flashed out from it. Although Shard didn’t find Sir Prisia, the latter found him.

"From the window, the figure seemed familiar just now, it turns out it’s you, Mr. Hamilton."

Shard was wearing the witch’s eyeshadow at this time, which only worked on those not familiar with him, so he was recognized by Sir Prisia. Compared to when he left Tobesk City, this Southern Nation gentleman hadn’t changed much. He stood at the alley entrance, stepping on the snow, pointing behind him with a smile:

"Come in and avoid the snow first."

Old Tree Lane No. 1 is a small-scale private library club. Shard didn’t refuse, following the Sir up the steps and headed inside. The warm interior was lined with bookshelves, with a side fireplace burning. A servant wanted to take Shard’s coat to help clean the snowflakes, but Shard declined.

The light inside was very soft, but on this snowy and stormy morning, there weren’t many people here, making the library quiet enough to make one reluctant to speak.

The air was filled with a somewhat rancid smell of ink, but this was the natural scent of ink from this era. To avoid disturbing others reading, Sir Prisia led Shard to the second floor, standing on a small balcony adjacent to the alley, looking at the heavy snow outside while talking to him:

"This is a club I’m very familiar with. Every time I come to Huntington City, I will visit here. The club owner is still my distant relative, he always reserves the newly acquired books for me."

The Sir introduced with a smile, as a servant brought two glasses of wine on a tray, both chilled, which was the Sir’s preference:

"Mr. Hamilton, I’m surprised you arrived in Huntington City so quickly."

"I came to give Her Highness a surprise. Her Highness would probably be very happy to see me upon getting off the train."

Shard raised his wine glass slightly and asked Sir Prisia with an unchanged smile:

"Sir, I remember you left with Her Highness, how did you arrive in Huntington City first? Did you encounter any trouble?"

"Yes, some associates needed me to quickly attend their event. After this drink with you, I’m likely heading to meet them in the city."

The Sir gazed at the snow, downing his glass of chilled red wine, a look of pleasure on his face:

"My favorite is watching the snow in the snowy winter while tasting the best red wine of the year."

He let out a hearty laugh, picking up the wine bottle from the tray on the small table, intending to pour himself a drink, but Shard stopped him:

"I have better wine here."

He took out a bottle of red wine from his coat, and Sir raised an eyebrow with a smile:

"That’s wonderful."

He took the wine bottle from Shard, blew on it, and the bottle was immediately covered in frost.

"No need to let it breathe, just drink it as it is."

Shard reminded, also finishing the red wine in his glass, so Sir poured the new red wine into both glasses.

On the small terrace, they clinked glasses. Sir Plisha eagerly sipped the new wine and then let out a blissful sound with half-closed eyes:

"Oh, this wine, this wine is... truly unbelievable... Mr. Hamilton, you actually carry such fine wine with you!"

He exclaimed in surprise. Though Shard had gifted Margaret a batch of red wine at the end of autumn, clearly, Sir Plisha wasn’t of the status to taste them, or at least not very much.

Shard set his glass down, not continuing the topic of red wine:

"Before leaving Tobesk, I went to see Mr. Booker. The poor guy died, and his library was burned down in a fire. According to the investigation, the fire happened on Tuesday night, the same time Her Highness Margaret held her banquet."

Sir Plisha chuckled and took another sip of the wine in his hand:

"What a pity."

Shard didn’t know what this Southern Nation gentleman thought was "a pity," but he continued:

"My Diviner friend did a divination for me, but unfortunately, there was no result. However, the church quickly investigated some things, and perhaps... it has something to do with you."

Shard looked into the eyes of Sir Plisha, who did not evade and looked right back at him. After a brief silence, Sir nodded slightly:

"Yes, that’s right, it was indeed me."

"For those old books Mr. Booker cherished and refused to sell?"

"Of course, what else could it be for?"

"You invited me on Monday to retrieve relics, was it to scout the location?"

"Also for retrieving relics, no rule says you can’t achieve two objectives with one task."

Sir shrugged. In the brief conversation, they kept their eyes fixed on each other.

These answers didn’t surprise Shard; he had known all along and fully understood how Lakin Prisia thought. Shard knew well that the other was definitely not like him:

"In fact, for a while, I thought we could become friends. In Her Highness Lecia’s reading salon, our discussions on wisdom and knowledge were quite harmonious." 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

His voice was light.

"Yes, our discussions were harmonious back then. So you must understand, knowledge is power, wisdom is wealth. I have power, and I crave wealth."

Sir’s right lip corner twitched slightly:

"Wealth should belong to those who deserve it. In other words, leaving those books in the hands of Mr. Booker, who only treated them as collectibles, is a waste. Given to me, I would read them and donate them to universities or public libraries at the appropriate time, that is the rightful place for those books. Sacrificing one person to spread knowledge, I can’t say it’s reasonable, after all, life is priceless, but at least I don’t think it’s wrong."

Joey Barton knew he was wrong, yet still proceeded; then the man in front of him probably truly didn’t feel he was wrong.

"At the wedding banquet at Lakeside Manor, you mentioned wanting to universalize education and liberate labor. Isn’t the first step to freeing these not-so-costly-to-print books from the hands of collectors?"

Sir asked with a smile, and Shard also laughed:

"You can’t say your argument is outrageous; it’s quite outrageous."

Sir Plisha nodded while laughing:

"Yes, indeed, of course, it’s outrageous. So then..."

He looked at Shard, smiling, but his gaze was cold:

"I did this to obtain those books for myself."