Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 1780 - 1779: Sheep

The two continued drawing cards, and the Old Gravedigger, in a good mood, didn’t forget to continue the story:

"The villagers’ legend isn’t much different from the rumors you can hear elsewhere. They believe there’s a ghoul hiding in this cemetery, but it’s not interested in corpses or the living. Occasionally, it would come to the village to steal chickens, ducks, geese, and sheep raised by the villagers."

Shard glanced at his hand:

"But is it really a ghoul? Could it be a wolf or fox, some kind of wild animal?"

"The Church thought the same. They sent someone here for a routine check, but as you know, there’s no evidence for these rumors, and there’ve never been any human casualties, so the investigation ended without results."

The old man shrugged, looked at his hand, and revealed a confident smile:

"Two cards stop, I’m having a bit of luck today, Moon 10, Flower 9, that’s 19 points."

Shard, although not stopping, also showed his hand:

"I’m at Sun 5 and Star 13, so I’ll keep drawing, hoping it won’t be a blowout..."

He lifted the corner of the third card, then suddenly tossed it onto the chair. The card hit the wood with a snap, and the two leaned in to check, Flower 2.

"20 points, I win the second round."

Shard exhaled in relief, and the Old Gravedigger didn’t mind:

"Let’s continue, now let’s see the third round. I don’t believe you’ll get 20 points in the third round again."

Both reached out for cards, and the local story continued:

"So, has anyone actually seen the ghoul? Not a shadowy figure, but really seen the creature."

Shard was quite curious about this, but the Old Gravedigger shook his head:

"If you exclude the drunken ramblings, then no. But if you’re interested, you can check out the row of broken houses east of Lower Griol Village. Some say they saw something strange there. The house originally belonged to the Mika family, but they moved to Puhov Village over a decade ago. The house has been empty since, so maybe it was just a vagabond."

After saying this, he fell silent and focused on the final round of the card game.

In the third round of the card game, after both quickly drew their two cards, they pressed them together and slowly fanned them open in front of their eyes, both revealing confident smiles.

They both reached for the third card, then revealed the final results:

"Flower 3, 11, 5, all the same suit... I have 19 points."

This was the Old Gravedigger’s result. Shard placed his three cards one by one on the chair:

"Moon 4, Sun 4, Star 13. Sorry, I have 21 points."

He ran his hand over the cards lined up together, looking at the wood grain of the chair, the solid card stock, and the three numbers, feeling the pressure of the past few weeks melting away in that instant.

The Old Gravedigger stared at the result in surprise, finally nodding after a while:

"Alright, losing to 21 points isn’t bad. Young man, if you have more questions, go ahead and ask."

"I’ll leave the ghoul question aside for now. Actually, I have another question."

He smiled sheepishly and pointed to his "Moon 4":

"Your Moon 4 is [Urban Legend: Nonexistent Street]. I wonder if you’d be willing to part with that card?"

Shard really liked the card with the moonlit picture of an empty street:

"I can buy it at a premium over market price."

He was very sincere, as a true Roder Card enthusiast wouldn’t easily sell their cards:

"Don’t rush to refuse, here’s my offer."

He wrote a number on a notebook and handed it over:

"With this money, you could see more places and meet more card players during your golden years. Maybe you could even participate in the next Big City Player tournament."

The Old Gravedigger hesitated, rubbed his chin, and looked at the tempting number again:

"I wouldn’t easily sell my Roder cards. I even want them to accompany me in my grave. But your proposal... how about... let’s play three more games, no, five games, or better yet, seven games. If you beat me, I’ll sell it to you?"

"That would be great. This way, we can continue talking about the ghoul story."

Sunshine poured through the church doors, illuminating Shard’s face and the scattered cards beside him. An Outlander might occasionally reminisce about such a spring morning in the future, as the weather was really that nice.

An hour later, Shard left the cemetery, satisfied with the "Urban Legend: Nonexistent Street" in hand. In a deserted place, he added it to his real card deck and assimilated it with the "Beloved Item."

He wanted to control the smile on his face, but his mood was too good, and he couldn’t help but curl his lips. The terrible emotions of the past few weeks about water ghosts, islands, ancient families, desires, and bloodlines suddenly disappeared. Only then did Shard recall that he hadn’t played cards with others for several weeks. Recently, he was socializing at parties, mingling with young ladies, and hadn’t had time to interact with the card players in the Green Lake Region:

"I’m putting too much pressure on myself."

He even thought that nothing could disrupt his mood this morning.

"Loyal Love."

"She" suddenly said, catching Shard off guard, but he kept walking forward:

"The facts can’t be changed. I can’t let go of anyone around me now. Since that’s the case, why not prove my feelings and intentions for them in other ways and express my guilt for them. Loyalty to love? I won’t lose to desire; I will definitely win. I’m greedy, but I absolutely won’t let go, definitely not."

"She" laughed softly, her intentions unclear.

The Old Gravedigger said that the rumored Ghoul might live in the rundown house east of Lower Griol Village, so Shard headed for the village after leaving the cemetery. The weather outside the city today was exceptionally good. Even though the clouds of conflict between two countries still lingered over the sky above Green Lake, village life wasn’t affected.

Country life in the Steam Age wasn’t much changed by the development of the Steam Industry. Farmers heading out with hoes lived lifestyles much like their ancestors on the same land.

However, the Outlander had already heard from newspapers about news of large steam-mechanized farming tools and that big grain traders in the cities were using semi-automatic shelling machines. It’s uncertain when these changes would reach the countryside.

The sky was blue, with large chunks of clouds floating above like cotton stepped on by little Mia. The farms flanking the country roads had neat, pleasing seedlings, and the wind carried the scent of spring in the countryside... Which was likely a mix of cow dung and soil.

Shard didn’t enter the village but circled to the vicinity of the "rundown house to the east." An apple grove separated this area from the village, and a sheep was looking up, eating from drooping tree branches. Its back was slightly arched, and its limbs were slim and agile. As Shard passed through the grove, the sheep glanced at him before it resumed slowly chewing the leaves. Watching it eat, Shard felt as if time was slowing down.

After passing through the grove, he arrived at the building that indeed showed no signs of life. Four houses were fenced in, and the roof of the smallest one had collapsed. Despite its dilapidation, he couldn’t deny that the scenery was nice, entirely different from the city’s landscapes.

With no one around, Shard didn’t need to greet anyone. He jumped over the fence and checked out the houses individually. Having no owner for a long time, the belongings inside had been cleared out, and even the windows were removed.

In the place open to the elements, the ground didn’t even accumulate much dust. But there were traces of campfires once lit, footprints of children running, animal droppings, and even firewood stored by villagers stacked there.

After roughly scanning the area and finding nothing productive, Shard returned to the grove to search for the sheep he encountered earlier. It was still in the same place, but had moved to another tree to eat its leaves.

Recalling that sheep didn’t belong to species that eat fish, Shard fitted the Fish Training Ring onto its horn.

The dull-eyed, seemingly unintelligent sheep did indeed look up at Shard after the Relic took effect but then promptly resumed eating leaves.

"The Relic is useless?"

Suspicious, Shard contemplated for a moment before asking:

"Can you speak now?"

"Yes."

The sheep responded slowly, dragging out its words, with a slight Delarion accent to its voice.

"I was expecting you would speak immediately once capable."

Relieved, Shard watched as the sheep continued chewing and focused on the leaves, saying:

"Eating is important; speaking is not important. I must survive."

It made a swallowing motion, its grayish-white wool reflecting a warm glimmer in the spring morning’s sunshine:

"Do you have business?"

The sheep asked, gesturing for Shard to follow, then found another spot to lower its head and eat the leaves.

Finding this sheep amusing, Shard grew curious, wondering if Mia would be as interesting if she ever spoke like this calm sheep:

"I want to ask if you have always lived around here?"

"Yes."

"Do you know that house over there?"

"Often go to rest."

"Have you seen anything dangerous there?"

This time, the sheep did not answer immediately and paused. Of course, it might also be due to the effort of swallowing what it was chewing:

"Human, how do you define danger?"