Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 1720 - 1719: The Ring Acquired

All the staircases leading upstairs have broken down, and most of the side of the first floor near the lake has flooded. The cracks in the bearing walls are as dense as if they were scratched by Mia’s claws, and various snakes, insects, rats, and ants have already made their homes here.

Although Megan had investigated the location of the ring, she hadn’t anticipated the estate’s condition to be this bad. Standing with Shard at the entrance of the manor, looking at the indoor foyer, she hesitated for a moment before saying to Shard:

"Grab my hand, I’ll take you up."

She naturally hooked her hand onto Shard’s:

"Though my power is still recovering, I can manage brief flights."

"Let me do it."

Shard closed his eyes for a moment, used his newly obtained [Enhanced Spatial Awareness] to determine the terrain around the manor, then took out Wind Vane Bluegrass to extract and drop it on his tongue, and held Megan’s hand tightly:

"Brace yourself."

Taking a step forward, the two figures disappeared from the original spot and appeared in the hallway of the third floor. The weight of the two and Mia pressed on the upturned wooden floorboards, making a loud "creak" sound, startling the nearby rats to escape into the shadow formed by the collapsed rotten door board and the sunlight shooting from the window at the end of the corridor.

"Spatial Movement?"

Megan looked around in surprise:

"You’re only at Six Rings, can you already take people for stable Spatial Movement?"

"Have you tried it before?"

"A deceased friend, who was also adept with Spatial Power. However, she was much higher level than you, and she usually relied on Spatial Power for long-distance teleportation only."

She’s probably referring to Miss Sylvia’s teacher.

"You’re really not..."

Her pretty eyes once again looked at Shard, who answered the question again:

"Miss Apothecary, I’m really not The Chosen One, I’m very sure of that."

Stepping on the creaking floor, they arrived at the master bedroom. Shard lifted the moldy bedding, held down the snake-calling Mia, and burned the snake nest under the mattress, then lifted the floor, and indeed found the hidden compartment beneath.

"More smoothly than I thought."

"What did you think would happen?"

The Female Sorcerer asked curiously:

"After all, I did a lot of Investigation beforehand, it would be strange if it didn’t go smoothly."

"Because of something I own, usually requires... it’s not important."

The late Earl Feynman fifty years ago was very cautious, the things in the hidden compartment were all placed in a metal box about the size of two palms, so they were still preserved relatively intact.

The box was rusted and couldn’t be opened, but in the face of power, none of that mattered. Shard opened the box, saw at once the ring adorned with obsidian and white gemstone, and handed the box containing other items to Megan to check, then looked at the black and white gemstones on the gold ring against the light from outside the window, which began to glimmer with an eerie light.

"Poet-Level Relic [Mood Ring], white represents positive emotions, black represents negative emotions."

Shard murmured to himself, rubbing the inside of the ring with the pad of his finger, discovering the words Megan once mentioned:

[The blend of joy and sorrow is the intrinsic interpretation of wisdom.]

Reciting it softly, he placed the ring on his finger and couldn’t help but smile. Despite having many Relics, he particularly liked those with simple designs that could be displayed together. Even if the Relics were not very useful, at this moment he was very pleased.

He tried to guide his own Spirit, storing the current joy in the white gemstone, then realized, more accurately, it should be "recording emotions," as he didn’t lose any emotions out of thin air.

"It’s a pity my mood is so good now, otherwise I could try how exactly it changes emotions."

Shard thought to himself, then was nudged by the cat on his shoulder. Turning his head to the cat’s amber eyes, after a moment of eye contact, Shard took off the ring and waved it at the cat, sure enough, seeing the cat’s eyes follow the moving ring:

"You really do like it."

Saying this, he lifted Mia’s tail. Usually, if he did this, even Shard would be disliked by this cat until mealtime, but this time it was well-behaved. Until Shard slipped the ring onto the cat’s tail, the cat then actively pulled its tail out of Shard’s hand, then turned to look at its swaying tail.

"Putting a Relic ring on your Pet Cat’s tail won’t turn it into a cat lady, that’s just harmful to your pet."

Megan noticed the commotion here and issued a warning, then added:

"The Witch Empresses of the Fifth Era tested it, cat ladies aren’t created that way, and people in their right mind shouldn’t have inappropriate thoughts about their Pet Cat."

"What do you take me for?"

A good-humored Shard asked with a smile, petting Mia’s head a few times, and the cat obediently rubbed against his hand.

Afterwards, Shard went to look at the box Megan had placed on the windowsill.

The relic inside was just that ring. Besides, there were ordinary items including three rolls of rolled-up banknotes—both Carsonrick’s Krone and Draleon’s Gold Pound were present—three gemstones the size of pebbles—of quite good quality, some forged identity documents, an old-fashioned single-shot pistol, and a palm-sized notebook.

Megan was flipping through that notebook:

"It seems that the things here are the escape plan Earl Gaiman prepared for himself, but unfortunately, he died before he could use them."

She flipped a few pages back in the notebook, which had blurred handwriting due to water damage, and then raised an eyebrow in surprise:

"It details his ’unexpected encounter’ experience here. Let me see... Oh, it’s such a cliché story. Alone on a rainy day, he went boating to fish and then caught something strange in the lake, thus gaining a chance to make a wish. What might he have encountered? A relic? A demon? Or something even more troublesome—such as my ancestor?"

The female sorcerer made a small joke, and Shard thought about it:

"Many stories have such plots, but it’s evident he paid the price. I think his death from a horse fall isn’t that simple, and it’s hard to say where his soul finally went. Although he possessed a relic, Earl Gaiman was definitely not a Circle Sorcerer, otherwise, he should have known the common sense—not to make wishes lightly."

"Who knows?"

Megan seemed unconcerned about it, after all, it happened fifty years ago:

"Let me see if it mentions what exactly he encountered... No, it doesn’t, what a shame."

Although she said so, she didn’t feel any regret; instead, she was quite relieved not to get involved in other incidents because of it. Looking at Shard’s smiling face again, she increasingly felt that this morning’s trip was indeed worthwhile.

"Let’s go, since we’ve got the key, didn’t you say you’d invite me for lunch? Oh, sir, I don’t often accept others’ invitations, cherish this opportunity... I see you’re not very familiar with the Green Lake region, where will you take me?"

Saying so, she placed the notebook back into the box and watched as Shard magically turned the box into a toy and put it away. She looked at Shard with a smile, eager to see what he would do.

Shard already had an idea:

"Let’s go back to your boat, I’ll provide the food."

"You’re going to cook yourself?"

Megan was a bit surprised. Shard shook his head, about to explain his expensive yet impractical Arcane Technique of sloth, when he caught sight of two figures through the window.

As he noticed them, the two brothers, each blind in one eye, also noticed the two people standing at the window from afar on the path.

Shard sighed and asked Megan suspiciously:

"Isn’t the Mirror Association only those two? Why do we always run into them wherever we go?"

He was just teasing, but unexpectedly, Megan glanced at the black ring on her finger, with the obsidian surface gleaming at that moment. It was a relic Shard saw Megan wear for the first time, but he hadn’t inquired about it earlier on their way.

"It’s not a coincidence, it’s the pull of fate. The ring on my hand is lent to me by a friend of the Thirteen Rings. Although it’s just Scribe Level, it can detect some traces of fate. The family prophecy says that everyone will reunite, and this is proof."

Megan said, also letting out a light sigh, looking at her nephews standing on the path:

"Will you become a cat or shall I? I want to maintain their misunderstanding of your identity."

Shard glanced at Mia, which he held in his arms; the cat was unaware of what was about to happen:

"I’ll turn my cat into a toy, then I’ll turn into a cat. If you transform using a Magic Potion, it might not be controllable, and if you want to change back and the potion’s effect hasn’t ended, it would be troublesome."

"Alright."

Megan nodded, not mentioning she, as a Master Alchemist, actually had a way to prematurely end the effect of the potion:

"Actually, your cat doesn’t need to be turned into a toy; holding two cats isn’t troublesome for me."

"But it’s troublesome for me."

Shard absolutely wouldn’t turn into a cat in front of Mia again.

So the two turned away from the window, and by the time they descended the stairs, Mia had been turned into a toy, and Shard had once again transformed into the silver cat, with his relics temporarily kept by Megan.

When they reached the doorway of the mansion, which had become deformed, the two brothers, each blind in one eye, had also arrived at the entrance of the estate. Although they had met not long ago during a rainstorm in the territory of Rot-Eye Barry in the city, where the relationship was quite unfriendly, they didn’t immediately start fighting this time.

Megan, holding the silver cat, asked the question Shard had posed earlier:

"Isn’t it just you two and the Mirror Keeper in the Mirror Association? Why do we keep running into you two?"

And the two brothers gave an answer similar to what Megan had just given:

"You’d have to ask our ancestor, Laplace Klein Howard. Aunt, and Uncle, what brings you here today?"

Apparently, they indeed still misunderstood the relationship between Shard and Megan.